Fifty-Eight

"Ah. I did not like that feeling at all." Hanseol grumbled once we were back in our traveller and on our way to the hotel. He was sitting with his back completely against the seat and his braced ankle up on the seat in front of him.

"It's fortunate that you were even able to stand on stage with us." Mingyu pointed out.

"Sit." Hanseol corrected. "I sat on the stage. Nothing could have been more of a torture than being right there and not being able to even walk over to the other side to greet True, let alone dance."

"He's so grumpy today." Jaehyeon commented to me and held out the open packet of chips that he had been eating from. I was sitting beside him at the seats adjacent to theirs. Mingyu was sitting next to Hanseol and Yeojun was sitting opposite Mingyu in the four-seater facing each other with a table between them.

"He's always so careful about the performances. This is what we do. It must have been hard to just sit there and watch while taking part only when his parts came."

Hanseol had sat out the remaining performances and events at our previous venue. The live we were returning from just then was his first time onstage after the accident. Sitting out one performance had been really difficult for me to handle. I could only imagine how Hanseol must be feeling knowing he'd be this way for the rest of the tour here.

"It was scary though- that day. The way he fell and did not get up." Jaehyeon sighed. "He must have been in a lot of pain."

"You're telling me?" I shuddered on remembering it. "The first thing that he had told me when I had gotten to him was 'I can't move'. I got so scared that I actually cried after getting him off-stage."

"You cried?" Jaehyeon asked in surprise. "Because you were scared?"

"How would you have felt had you been in my place? He was just lying there, gritting his teeth and saying 'I can't move'." I stated in a flat tone.

"Yeah but… none of us realised."

"It wasn't much of crying either. I had just gotten scared and felt helpless. I was fine by the time I had made it back to the stage."

"Speaking of that, I was pretty impressed with how you spoke English. I was ready to take over and translate to the best of my capabilities but you began speaking without hesitating too much."

"I should have just kept quiet." I rolled my eyes. "I don't think I made any mistakes though."

"You didn't. I'm proud of you." He smiled in a way that made me get a little embarrassed.

"Mm. Thank you."

"But, Hyung." Yeojun was talking when we turned our attention back to the others. "How long will you have to do this?"

"At least a couple more weeks." Hanseol looked out the window, "Or till I'm perfectly fine. Whichever is later."

He was clearly hating his situation.

"You're already feeling so much better, Hanseol-ah." I said reassuringly. "You'll be back to normal before you know it and then, we'll celebrate your recovery onstage."

"Ah. I've never felt so grateful for the stage before." He gave me a small smile. "I'll be looking forward to that celebration."

"Speaking of celebration… don't you think we'll have to go back to Korea next to next week?" Mingyu spoke.

"Next to next- Ah. DayBreak's anniversary." Jaehyeon recalled.

"Not just any anniversary. The 10th anniversary." Mingyu emphasised. "And both S.T.A.Y and 04:00 am are away this time. It's probably going to be a back event with all our stakeholders and investors. We might most probably have to go back. 04:00 am too. We're the faces of DayBreak at the moment."

"We'll be doing our Asia leg by then. It won't be too difficult to go back and then continue." Yeojun shrugged. "04:00 am though…"

"America." I said. They'll be in America at that time. "Kim PD-nim is very thorough with matters like these though. If our stakeholders and investors were going to be there, he would want all of us there for personal interactions." I was thinking about it as I spoke and the more that I said, the more I began looking forward to the trip back home.

I could see Changmin again.

"We'll know for sure soon, I guess." Mingyu nodded. "It makes sense for them to want all of us back."

"It's a lot on 04:00 am though. They've been traveling so much off-late. We are also traveling but… the scale is completely different." Yeojun said. "I'm already looking forward to going back. I can't imagine what it may be like for them."

"I'm worried about Baekjae Sunbae the most." I sighed. "From what Changmin Hyung told me, he's already travelled to and from Korea twice."

"Filming?"

"Something related to it." I shrugged. "He's always working so hard."

"His acting career has really taken off. He's as loved as most veterans are." Jaehyeon added. "I was just thinking but… is there a chance that he might choose to focus on his acting?"

That surprised me. "And leave 04:00 am?"

He shrugged. "I was just thinking. He's prioritised his acting over the world tour twice already."

How did Jaehyeon always read so much into things like that?

"I don't think he'll leave." Hanseol said. "I mean, look at us. After spending so much time together and doing so much together, you get really close to each other. You can't just leave like that. For now, he's going good, right? As long as he doesn't feel cornered by everything, I don't think he'll pick either one over the other."

"You're also indirectly telling us that we needn't worry about you leaving us, right?" Mingyu said, acting moved.

"Why would I leave?" Hanseol frowned.

"If any one of us was to leave, I feel like it would be you." Mingyu said. He was just pulling Hanseol's leg as always.

Hanseol looked away. "Fine. I'll let you know once I've packed."

We laughed.

"Oh, but I think that the one most likely to leave would be our Jeongwoo-ya." Jaehyeon squeezed my shoulder.

"What? Why me?" Hah?

He shrugged. "If Changmin Sunbae asks you to join him."

Jae- You did not just- No. "Are you crazy?"

"Ah. That's possible too." Yeojun nodded. "Now this just became sad…"

"Okay. Firstly, Changmin Hyung would never do that. Secondly, I would never do that." I clarified, cursing Jaehyeon in my head. "Let's not talk about all this."

"Right.... Ah. Hyung, I had read something online…" Yeojun began speaking, addressing Mingyu. I had intended to listen to him but Jaehyeon spoke to me in between that.

"Would you really not leave?"

I looked at him in disbelief. "What sort of question is that?"

"He's your boyfriend."

"You're my people."

"What? You'll wait for the day that 04:00 am and S.T.A.Y decide to stop what we're doing?"

I hadn't really thought about that. This kind of a relationship was plenty hard as it was but for how long were we planning on sneaking around like this? Although both of us were serious about this relationship, there was no telling what the future was going to be like. How long would 04:00 am and S.T.A.Y last? Even after that, would the both of us just quit the entertainment industry to settle down? What was "settling down" for us anyway?

I shook my head and frowned at Jaehyeon. "Don't put weird thoughts in my head. You're worrying me unnecessarily."

He shrugged. "If you're in love, you would want to be with him, wouldn't you?"

"We have plenty of time." I was just going to turn Twenty-two and Changmin was Twenty-three going on twenty-four. We practically still had our entire careers ahead of us. We were far from being done as idols. "We will just have to go on like this for a few more years." Maybe even a decade. Who knows? But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

"Don't get me wrong, okay? I'm just concerned." He nudged my side with an elbow, offering me an apologetic smile. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"I know." I nodded and sank into my seat, checking my phone but finding nothing from Changmin.

Jaehyeon too slid down in his seat to get to my level and mimicked how I had laced my fingers at my stomach. "Good."

Seeing how he was imitating me, I laughed and hit his arm. "What are you doing?"

"I'm becoming Choi Jeongwoo." He chuckled. "You can be me."

"What? Why?" that cracked me up further- so much so that I actually sat up. "You want me to be you? Fine." I threw myself onto him and hugged him tightly, throwing a leg over his. "Jeongwoo-ya~"

"Oof!" The hug had squeezed the wind out of him. "I don't try to kill you."

"You do. I sleep like this." I snickered. "Now you know."

"Mm. But it would all have been a lot easier-" He struggled to free his arms but I continued to hug him because he would have done this too. He turned in and hugged me back though, pulling me closer. "-if you'd just react like this." Squeeze.

"Un. Now you're being you." I managed to say. "Hyung… Tight… I yield."

"There they go again." Mingyu commented and shook his head in exasperation on seeing us.

"Jaehyeon Hyung's hugs always look so comfortable." Yeojun sighed.

"He's squeezing me to death!" I croaked, squirming to get free. "Save me…"

Of course, the other three just laughed it off and returned to their conversation.

Useless.

I stopped struggling. "At least allow me space to breathe." He loosened his hold and settled in, closing his eyes. "I'm sleepy."

"Okay." I sighed. We probably still had some time before we reached the hotel anyway.

"Thank you." He rubbed his cheek against my head. "My Jeongwoo-ya."

I checked my phone again. Nothing. "Then… I'll also try to sleep."

"Good. You need it too. I feel like all this travel and work is making you go back to your old sleepless self. What time did you sleep last night?"

"Don't know… 01:30 am?" I shrugged. I had been talking to Changmin.

"And you woke up at 03:00 am to pack. Are you really crazy? You keep this up and I'll tell our leadernim about your schedule."

"I'm okay." I chuckled at his concern. "Good night."

He decided not to press on. "Good night…"