#nabiws

Sad crying, though? He was not a fan of sad crying. The last time he had cried was during their last monthly evaluation as YS Boys, when the instructors had asked him if he really thought he could debut like this. He remembered crying into Kiha’s shoulder, sniffling as the older boy comforted him. Kiha always made him feel better, like a nice older brother who didn’t forget to invite Minho to his wedding! Theoretically. Kiha hasn’t ever had a wedding. 

But here he is, all by himself hiding behind the ice skating rink, crying into his red knit mittens. He wished he could stop, that the tears would stop falling and he could go back to before he had his heart ripped out and stomped on. But all he could think about, all he could see, was Moonsik’s face as he told him the truth: he had been lying to him all this time. All these weeks! These months! While Minho was falling head over heels, he was being lied to. 

He cried even harder, tucking himself into a tinier ball, when he heard footsteps approach him. Wiping his eyes, he glanced up with a sniffle. “I’m sorry, am I in the—hyung?” 

it seemed that no matter how hard moonsik tried, he never seemed to be able to escape from na subin. the pair of boys had grown up together, causing them to spend a considerable amount of time with one another. they made a strange pair, especially considering the personality differences between the two boys. but, their mothers were friends and they had found themselves drifting together over the years. a friendship that grew from a mutual hatred of bearing witness to their mothers’ bad habits from too young of an age. 

subin had been around to witness moonsik at his worst. a time in his life that moonsik so desperately wanted to forget. and here he was, being chased by ghosts of his past. like subin, who had shown up at yuseong instead of being left behind in their trash childhood neighbourhood where moonsik would rather him be. it was easier to pretend that the past never happened when traces of it weren’t appearing around every corner. 

a slow scowl crossed over moonsik’s face as he observed the boy inside the practice room that he had expected to be empty. “ya. this room is supposed to be empty right now. what are you doing in here?” he crossed his arms as he leaned in the doorway, sizing up his old friend. “what are you doing here in general? I thought that i had seen the last of you.”

it was early afternoon when eunbyul made her way out of the wishbone building. the trainees had been given the afternoon off, and she fully intended to use the time for her own enjoyment rather than squeezing in a few more hours of practices like many of her fellow trainees. 

she stopped to lean against the wall as she checked her phone. her father had a habit of spamming her with text messages while she was busy. he liked to make sure one thing was for certain, eunbyul would always be told how much she was loved. her parents always made sure to tell her exactly that, and perhaps it had gone to her head. eunbyul lived for love. and praise. pretty much any sort of compliments. one of the many reasons she found herself on the path to fame. eunbyul knew she was destined to be a star, and she loved to hear people agree.

she let out a quiet laugh at the spam of love from her parents, swiping the notifications aside and finally looking up from the screen. her good mood immediately came to a halt when she locked eyes with the boy standing opposite her. he wasn’t there for her, right? at least she really hoped that he wasn’t. she didn’t feel in the mood to spend her free evening entertaining him.

“na subin. fancy seeing you here.” 

He had tried texting Subin earlier, but no dice. He’d call, but Minho didn’t like phone calls. He kept forgetting the other person can’t see him nodding or shaking his head or giving them finger hearts. He should really work on that, but not right now. Right now, he was on a hunt for his hyung. He was so tall, how could he be so hard to find? It was a little bit ridiculous. Minho lifted up a trash can. No Subin to be found here. Sad.

He wandered into a practice room, searching around and about until he opened a window and spotted Subin in the alleyway between Yuseong and the building next door. Excited, he bolted down the stairs, happy he wore his fastest runner shoes ( with a hand drawn picture of a fast cat! ) as he skid into the alleyway. “Hyung! Hi!” He waved happily, bouncing towards Subin. “Hyung it kind of smells here, there’s so much smoke, is someone having Korean barbeque?” 

with the change of scenery, came along with the change of people occupying the space. despite the appeal of yuseong’s gym, he found it a little too familiar and the thought is shared with subin, who accompanies him to a gym further away from their known vicinity. a zephyr of fresh air, a sense of adventure and a tinge of excitement that was meant to be concocted from this short excursion. but it was anything but, the expectation for subin to be well behaved as he hears another gym goer grumble about something behind their backs. 

he tries hard to hide the smirk that smothers at his features, taking a glance over at subin, “you hear that?” he turns back a little further, side eyeing the other gym goer only to receive a hiss in their direction. “i think he called us retarded.” his gaze settles back on subin, a sigh leaving him. “we can’t have a moment of peace, even at some run down gym.” shaking his head, and he contemplates for a moment whether or not he should try to buy out this gym just for the sake of it. his mother’s words echoing a sharp no.

na subin was the exact opposite of the kind of person that park usually would’ve found himself hanging around with. he was strange and immature. but there was one reason that park found himself going back to the boy again and again. though few and far between, subin was the unlikely person that was able to get him updates on jaehwa.

as much as his father painted him as a villain and tried to keep him away, park cared about his sister. upon learning that jaehwa was classmates with subin’s brother, he took it upon himself to task the boy with giving him updates on his sister. mainly in exchange for food.

he found himself pacing outside his favourite little restaurant, hands shoved in his pockets as he waited for subin to arrive. he had started telling the boy to meet him earlier than he wanted, anticipating his lateness. over the course of their few meeting park liked to think that he was beginning to understand how subin worked, so he started adapting.

maybe kiha is a little noisy, he can sort of admit that. well, it's hard not to when he feels like it's part of his duty in phoenix to make sure that everyone is back at the dorm at a reasonable time — of course, taking into consideration that they're idols and their schedules, even during their breaks, don't work exactly the same as someone else's would — or at least they're taking proper breaks and not skipping meals. the same way that he can't ignore some trainees that he catches practicing their singing during the late hours and most of the time he does end up checking on them to maybe give them a hint or two — like he did with seoyul even if when he first got into the practice room he could swear he was about to help yet another trainee.

maybe kiha is a little nosy, but he has yet to find a person that complains about his type of nosiness.

(and maybe he has just found it.)

that's why when he hears singing, the phoenix member goes into mentoring mode almost right way, especially when it's a song that he has sung before for one of his evaluations and it isn't like the person who is singing it is doing a bad job, but they're definitely doing the same mistake that kiha did during his own evaluation and it's only his duty as a senior to help his juniors to not make the same mistake that he did, to avoid that the other ends up with a negative feedback that doesn't have to be necessary.

and here he is now, shyly knocking on the door before opening up one of the vocal practice rooms where he heard the familiar song from. "hey, i heard you from—" but then kiha cuts himself off when he recognizes who is in the practice room. "subinnie, hi." an then his tone turns a little less shy and a lot more friendly, a smile appearing on his lips. even if kiha hasn't interacted that much with the other, he still holds a special place on his heart just for being in the boy group junior to phoenix. "i heard the song you're practicing and i was wondering if you'd like some company? i also sang it for one of my own evaluations and i do need some vocal warm up anyway."