章 39: Roomies (15)

Just like a few days ago, as Reggie stood in his dorm bathroom brushing his teeth for a day of more recording, Jung Hyun-Ok ran into the dorm room. Just like a few days ago he ran past Mi Yong and to Reggie with a desperate look.

"Again!" Jung Hyun-Ok cried, "Joon-woo won't wake up again!" He moaned and groaned at Reggie's feet in an over exaggerated panic.

Reggie looked to the clock. It was 7:55 A.M.. Did these guys wait 'til the last five minutes of preparation to nag him? He blew at his lips and nodded.

"Lead the way." Reggie replied, ruffling at his hair.

He recalled the first time he had to wake up Joon-woo from his heavy slumber. How Joon-woo looked the most peaceful then, not overly tense with his fists balled deep into his pockets, as if alert.

Reggie really hated waking the shorter up, as Joon-woo, though known to refute such, didn't sleep as much as he should. Even back before the whole show started, back when they were giving each other tips, (Reggie helping Joon-woo with dance and Joon-woo helping Reggie with singing) Joon-woo never seemed to sleep.

He would often ask clarifying questions on some movements late into the night at times Reggie was already lying in bed to sleep. And based on all the jabs and jokes from when roommates had assigned each other animals and emojis, Joon-woo seemed to be nocturnal. Hell– he was assigned a cat– a kitten, but still a cat.

And as Jung Hyun-Ok led Reggie to the dorm, there lie Joon-woo.

His eyes were fluttered shut with his long eyelashes being highlighted without the brown eyes behind them. His bed head was apparent, that's what longer hair got you, Reggie guessed. But most of all, Joon-woo looked even more peaceful than he had the first time. Like the sleep deprivation had built up over time…

Reggie found the sight amusing.

"Reggie-ssi, can't you wake him?" Bo Jaesang asked, face exasperated as if he was their last hope.

Reggie flashed Jaesang a thumbs up and sent away the shorter man with a pat on the back. He turned back to Joon-woo, who had about two cameras on him with their lights blinking on him. Were they trying to make Joon-woo's poor sleeping habits a bit?

Nevertheless, Reggie crouched to the level of the bottom bunk, and just like before, shook Joon-woo awake. Not too rough or too soft, just enough to shake Joon-woo from whatever deep sleep had him entranced.

"Joon-woo-ssi?" He softly muttered in question, waiting for Joon-woo to show some sort of reply, "[Please wake up…]" He added the English on a spur of hope.

He watched Joon-woo patiently, watching him begin to shift in protest to the realization of camera and dorm lighting. Reggie watched with a certain fondness as Joon-woo's eyes fluttered open.

"[Good morning.]" Reggie said standing from his squat.

He took a step back as Joon-woo rubbed at his eye and sat up. "...ah. Reggie, did I–?" Joon-woo asked in a groggy voice. The maturity in the youth of his voice still shown, though.

Reggie nodded. "You overslept, again." He confirmed.

Joon-woo waved away the cameras and held his head in his hands, "F*ck."

–+–

Joon-woo thought himself as an idiot as he took his seat five minutes late to recording. They were assigned to sit with their vocal performance teams and truthfully, Joon-woo would've much preferred to sit with his roommates, even though he would get teased about sleeping in.

Nevertheless, he didn't want to delay the recording anymore than he had already, so he took an obedient seat next to Baek Du-Ho, Rank 26 and 21 to his right while sulking in exhaustion.

Oh, yeah, and Kite had nagged Joon-woo to follow along. Kite's reasoning being: "I wanna see what drama goes down!" Joon-woo shook his head and wearily agreed, only on the basis that Kite would keep his mouth shut.

He sat silently, unlike the other teams who were chatting their days away. He sat silently with Team Ten next to him and he next to Team Ten. He was grateful that the cameras weren't rolling.

By now, as Joon-woo was basically the last to enter through the doors, Misa was standing by, as if almost ready to do reveals. The tech guys that controlled the backdrop seemed to be more than busy, the screen shifting spoilers for the set up of the revealing ranks.

"Hmm. Joon-woo." A voice called, the voice of Rank 26. Kite squeezed Joon-woo's shoulder that he was resting on as if to warn.

Joon-woo had forgotten Rank 26 hated his guts, and turned to the lower-ranked with an annoyed expression hidden with a camera-ready blank face. "Oh, good morning Sunbae. Did you sleep well?" He greeted with his hands gripping onto each other as if to stay grounded.

Rank 26 scoffed, "I slept fine but–" He began, his mouth open as if going to continue. But Joon-woo knew what he wanted to say. He knew Rank 26 was trying to ask– to talk about the undiscussed rize on octaves in Joon-woo's part.

When Teacher Nam had questioned what Joon-woo wanted to change, that's what Joon-woo had wanted. He wanted a change to show off his range, and his current parts only allowed an average amount. He wanted to make himself stand out the way Baek Du-Ho was gonna, or Rank 21.

He knew Rank 26 was displeased with such, he had seen on the taller contestants face after they performed.

"Sunbae, is something wrong?" Joon-woo interrupted, raising his soft voice with a tone of worry. He tilted his head knowingly at Rank 26's annoyed expression.

The nearby team, Team Nine, overheard Joon-woo's words and peaked over their way, and for once Joon-woo was grateful for their noesy nature. Rank 26 noticed this quickly and clenched his fist as if to keep himself from getting angry.

Rank 26 ruffled at his hair and whispered, "Don't even start with me… Why did you change your part without consulting the team?" He asked, malice attacking Joon-woo in the form of an angry spit.

Joon-woo's gut stung with fear, but he knew better than to let it show. "Eh? But I did consult…" He reasoned, "You guys were probably late that day, because I talked to Teacher Nam about it– Du-Ho Sunbae was there too." He explained, the voice still louder with its worried tone.

Rank 26's lips twisted at the mention of his chronic lateness. He sighed, "And no one thought to tell us?" He asked, voice raising a little bit as he gestured to Rank 21 and himself.

Joon-woo internally cheered at the visible rize in anger in Rank 26's expression, "Ahh– Did Teacher Nam not tell you? He said he would…" Joon-woo lied, "But aren't you happy with your part Sunbae? You got the lead on many verses." He finished, raising his voice just enough so the other teams to their sides would hear.

The murmurs started, then.

"Hey is he complaining about his part?" Said a member of Team Nine, looking at his team confused.

"To that Joon-woo kid too… didn't he get the least?"

"No wonder they don't seem to get along…"

"Yeah I noticed that too–"

Joon-woo controlled the smile approaching his lips at the other team's murmurs.

Rank 26 turned beet-red, and he looked to Team Nine with a glare. "What the… what the hell is wrong with you?" He asked, voice kept to a whisper.

Joon-woo just placed a finger on his cheek and forced a confused expression, "I'm sorry if I made you angry, I was just– my parts, I was trying to make the best out of what I had…" He replied.

"What's he pressing him for? The kid got the least parts out of the whole group…"

"And he killed those small parts too– that shit gave me goosebumps."

"The 26th guy's probably jealous that someone younger than him can sing better." They laughed playfully at the idea.

Rank 26 sighed, breath ragged as he glared at Joon-woo with a black-aured gaze. The pit in Joon-woo's stomach grew. Rank 26 scared him, quite so, and he knew he could only play it off so well.

Kite plopped itself into Joon-woo's slightly shaky hands. And as if to comfort, patted his wrists with his feathers. Joon-woo nodded thankful at the gesture. He instead turned the other way, as he had gotten his point across to Rank 26 and felt it unnecessary to piss the guy off further.

And he did so, looking more towards the person sitting to his left, Baek Du-Ho. The leader of their group sat idly as if blind to Rank 26's rising voice. Joon-woo sighed, what happened to the sappy shy person from before? What happened to the person who had stopped Joon-woo the day before to compliment him?

Baek Du-Ho made Joon-woo angrier than Rank 26, as at least Rank 26 was consistent with his attitude, predictable enough for Joon-woo to avoid. But Baek Du-Ho? The man was either ridiculing or ignoring him, and now even giving compliments?

He huffed and puffed in his chair, feeling Rank 26's glare pierce through him.

"He really has it out for you." Kite scoffed, breaking Joon-woo's only rule.

Joon-woo ignored the comment, instead letting his eyes trail to Misa, who had entered the stage dressed up with a microphone and ready to begin recording. It was time for the new rankings…