Sing For Me 2/?
Yunjae. PG-13. Word Count: 3317.
Even before Jaejoong opens his eyes he knows something is wrong. Outside he can hear the cars passing in the street below, birds on the rooftop, people milling around and even closer, his band mates bustling through their morning activities in the apartment. The world is full of noise and yet…it feels oddly quiet, as if someone lowered the volume. It doesn’t take long for Jaejoong to realize just why it feels so strange.
He slowly opens his eyes, lets loose an experimental sigh and immediately touches his fingers to his mouth when he doesn’t hear what he expected. Jaejoong’s eyes go wide. He lets out another sigh and then tries to say something-anything.
There is only silence.
^^^^^^^^
Yunho knows there’s something wrong when he looks up from his coffee and sees Jaejoong looking like the world has ended.
“Jaejoong, what’s wrong?” Yunho asks.
Jaejoong opens his mouth, but before he can say anything Changmin shuffles into the room, rubbing at his eyes and yawning, "Hyung, what’s for breakfast? I’m so hungry.”
Jaejoong has such an oddly helpless look on his face that Yunho interrupts even as Jaejoong makes to answer. “Why don’t you just grab some cereal, Changmin. Jaejoong can’t make you a gourmet meal every morning.”
Changmin looks grumpy but he obediently gets out the cereal. As revenge he grabs Jaejoong’s favorite cereal and when he comes around with the bowl he looks smug. Yunho rolls his eyes but doesn’t say anything. As the youngest Changmin is allowed to be a brat sometimes.
Yunho picks up his coffee again but Jaejoong hasn’t moved from his spot. Yunho swallows the coffee in his mouth and says, “Jaejoong, aren’t you hungry? What’s wrong?”
With a pained look the raven-haired singer works his mouth like he doesn’t know what to say.
“What? I can’t hear you, speak louder.”
Jaejoong mouths something again and then shakes his head. Changmin’s spoon drops into his bowl with a clang from his suddenly limp fingers.
Yunho half-turns at the noise. “Changmin, what…? Jaejoong, what’s wrong??”
Jaejoong presses his lips together, looking like he’s about to cry. He shakes his head desolately and touches his fingers to his throat, and Yunho still doesn’t understand what’s wrong. He stands up and steps toward the other singer. He doesn’t understand why Jaejoong won’t just say what’s wrong. Why doesn’t he just say it?
“Oh my god,” Changmin breathes behind him. Jaejoong remains silent.
Yunho is vaguely aware that he’s starting to breathe harder. At the back of his mind, he has already realized why Jaejoong won’t speak but something (instinct?) keeps him from bringing the thought to the surface.
“Jaejoong, say something. Tell me what’s wrong. Say something,” Yunho implores. He clasps Jaejoong’s shoulder but singer just stares at him sadly.
Yunho then realizes that Jaejoong doesn’t say anything because he can’t. He blinks dumbly for a long while, until Changmin finally pinches him in the side to snap him out of it.
Junsu, who was watching cartoons in the living room, is surprisingly much more level-headed than the other two when he finds out Jaejoong has lost his voice. After he overcomes his surprise the first thing Junsu says is, “Does your throat hurt? Can you speak just a little or is it completely gone? Yunho-hyung, close your mouth please.”
Jaejoong shakes his head to both and answers the rest of Junsu’s questions with a nod or a shake of the head, all the while unconsciously touching his throat with the tips of his fingers.
Junsu makes Jaejoong open his mouth and looks down his throat with the mini keychain flashlight he got from Yoochun as a gag gift. Jaejoong watches a plastic Mickey Mouse dangle in front of his eyes and thinks that this is a very surreal situation.
“Well, the good news is I can’t see anything wrong with your throat,” Junsu declares a minute later. “The bad news is…er, I can’t see anything wrong with your throat.” He looks confused and sympathetic as he pulls away, tucking the flashlight into his shirt pocket. “There’s no redness, and it doesn’t look swollen at all. It looks normal.”
Jaejoong gives a silent depressed sigh again.
“So…what does this mean?” asks Yunho. “He just lost his voice in a night for no reason at all?”
“Well, not exactly.” Junsu hesitates.
“Stress,” Changmin says, making them all turn. While Junsu was checking Jaejoong’s throat, Changmin had gone to the ever useful Google. He pushes his glasses up with an index finger, looking very mature and responsible for a teen that had stolen his hyung's favorite cereal as revenge just earlier that morning.
“Mental stress to be exact,” Changmin clarifies. “According to this,” he gestures to the official looking text that covers the computer screen, “it’s not likely that Jaejoong-hyung could completely lose his voice without there being a few physical symptoms like soreness, dryness, coughing, etcetera, etcetera. Unless, he lost his voice because of some kind of mental trauma, like shock or distress from something that upset him.”
Junsu furrows his eyebrow. “Were you traumatized by anything last night?” he asks Jaejoong seriously.
Jaejoong shakes his head dumbly.
“I thought not.”
“Are you sure there was nothing that upset you earlier? Did someone say something to you?” Yunho asks, and in his voice there’s a promise of pain for anyone who might have purposely harmed Jaejoong.
Jaejoong shakes his head again.
“Maybe something did happen that upset hyung and he just can’t remember,” Changmin suggests.
“Amnesia?” Junsu says with a doubtful look. Mental stress is one thing but amnesia as well….
“You just don’t want your mental trauma idea to be wasted,” Yunho accuses.
Changmin doesn’t even look ashamed. He rolls his eyes to emphasize this. “Well, duh.”
“Brat.”
“You know it,” Changmin retorts.
Despite the situation Jaejoong gives a small smile.
“Ah!” Junsu exclaims as a realization hits him. The others look at him. Junsu looks around. “Where is Yoochun?”
The others blink.
It turns out that Yoochun is still sleeping, the last to rise as always. The rest of the group takes pleasure in kicking him awake (just Changmin actually), and filling him in on Jaejoong’s dilemma.
Yoochun listens with eyes half-closed, and since he doesn’t look very surprised when they tell him about Jaejoong losing his voice it’s hard to tell whether he’s actually awake or not. When Yunho finishes explaining, Yoochun turns to the silent Jaejoong and tells him sincerely, “I’m so sorry. Don’t worry. Everything will be alright.”
Jaejoong nods, blinking hard from Yoochun’s earnest words.
Then, unbelievably, Yoochun drops back to bed and falls asleep faster than they could have imagined.
“Yoochun!”
Changmin delights in kicking Yoochun awake once again.
“Argh!” Yoochun cries in pain, eyes fully awake this time. “What the hell, Changmin! I-oh dammit, I wasn’t dreaming,” Yoochun swears when he takes in the group around his bed. He drops a couple expletives in English when he sees Jaejoong, who smiles sadly at him and waves, ‘Good morning.’
“Jaejoong, are you okay? It doesn’t hurt?”
“No, it doesn’t, as you should know since I told you just a moment ago,” Yunho says.
“Well, sorry, Mr. Grouch, but not everyone has had their five cups of morning caffeine yet,” Yoochun says from over Jaejoong’s shoulder. He’s already hugging Jaejoong, and it will take the rest of the morning for him to take more than a few steps away from his friend.
“So, what’s the verdict? How did Jaejoong suddenly lose his voice?” Yoochun asks the question they had been pondering earlier. He’s got his arm draped over Jaejoong’s shoulders as they sit on the edge of the bed together.
“That’s exactly what we want to know,” Changmin says.
“You mean you haven’t figured out what’s wrong yet?”
“We obviously know what’s wrong,” Junsu says, “We just don’t know why. There’s nothing wrong with Jaejoong-hyung's throat, at least from what I could tell. And it’s not mental stress because nothing happened…unless something did happen last night in the period after Jaejoong-hyung went to bed and before he woke up this morning, and he somehow forgot all of it.”
“Um,” says Yoochun.
Yunho sighs. “Yeah, that’s what we thought.”
“So, then…what do we do?” Yoochun is glancing at Jaejoong as he says this. “We have to get to the studio in a couple hours. Manager-hyung is picking us up.”
The rest of their faces slacken as they realize.
“Practice…the talk show filming…,” Yunho leans against Yoochun’s dresser like his legs are about to fail him.
“Today’s interview day too,” Junsu adds with wide eyes.
“This is bad,” Changmin says unnecessarily.
Yoochun nudges Jaejoong and says quietly, “Jaejoong, what do you think?”
Jaejoong has been listening silently all the while with a pensive expression. When everyone turns to him, he purses his lips and narrows his eyes as if he’s come to a sudden decision.
Smiling grimly and forming the words slowly so the others understand him, he asks, ‘Who wants breakfast?'
^^^^^^^
Thankfully, everyone gets a lot calmer after they get some food in them. Although Jaejoong had some trouble getting breakfast ready. Yunho had followed him into the kitchen and tried to help him cook (which Yunho should never do anywhere near cooking appliances). He ended up causing a small panic in which the others had to rush in to help put out the fire in the kitchen. Yoochun actually gave Yunho a stiff lecture that would have impressed the leader in another situation, before turning to Jaejoong and muttering under his breath, “Can’t leave you alone for a second,” and “Stupid leader,” as he patted Jaejoong down to make sure nothing was harmed.
Long story short, breakfast took almost twice as long to make and Yunho now owes Jaejoong a new apron.
As if not being able to speak would reduce his ability to cook, Jaejoong scoffs to himself afterwards. Then he has to hide his grin when Yoochun who’s sitting beside him raises an eyebrow at him.
They’re waiting in the car for Yunho and Junsu to finish grabbing the rest of their stuff. Their manager couldn’t come to pick them up, something Jaejoong feels grateful for since he’s not ready to drop the bomb yet. He’s not suicidal, after all. In the little rearview mirror, Jaejoong waves at their driver, who’s looking back curiously as Yoochun gives him some last minute lectures.
“Alright, remember, don’t say anything to-oh, right. Sorry.” Yoochun laughs nervously at the slight glare Jaejoong shoots at him.
“Here, put this on.”
Jaejoong stares bemusedly at the paper face mask in his hands.
“Junsu’s idea,” Yoochun explains, “It’ll keep most people from going too near you. And it backs up our cover story nicely.”
‘A ‘severely sore throat’ isn’t contagious though,’ Jaejoong thinks, but he puts on the mask anyways.
Changmin pops his head forward from the seat behind. “Looking good, hyung." He smirks.
Jaejoong sniffs and deliberately looks out the window, ignoring him.
“Get back there.” Yoochun slaps at Changmin’s head, making the boy yelp and dodge quickly. “Giant, overgrown man-child.”
“You’re just jealous you’re not as tall as me!” Changmin calls forward.
“Don’t make me come back there, because I will!” Yoochun threatens.
“Woah.” Jaejoong turns to see Junsu at the side of the car, his bag in his hands. “What’s going on, children?”
A stiff “Nothing,” comes from both of them and Junsu looks curiously at Jaejoong, who just grins and shakes his head.
Junsu shrugs “Well, okay then. ‘Scuse me, Jaejoong-hyung,” he says as he squeezes past Jaejoong to drop into the back with Changmin.
Junsu, unfortunately, doesn’t make it any better. In less than five minutes, a tickle war had broken out in the back seat. “That’s it, you’re dead, Changmin! Tag team!” Yoochun battle cries as he slaps Junsu’s hand for help and jumps into the back. As tall as Changmin is even he can’t take on two of his hyungs, and soon he’s yelping for Jaejoong’s help. “Hyung! G-get them off, they-they’re killing me!” Changmin gasps and finally breaks into helpless laughter, because Junsu’s got his hands working under his armpits and Yoochun’s pinching him everywhere.
By the time Yunho trots out of the apartment and spots them, it’s become quite a tangled situation. “What the hell?” Yunho says.
Somehow all four of the members are squashed into the backseat in one large tangled pile…well, three and a half technically. Jaejoong is half on top of his car seat, legs dangling over the edge, and half on top of Yoochun, who’s crouched over Changmin like a spider, hands moving mercilessly over the younger boy’s body. Changmin is collapsed on his back on the seat, leaning heavily on Junsu who is taking advantage of his position to tickle Changmin to tears through his armpits. Changmin, who’s obviously desperate for escape and not thinking correctly, is reaching for his Jaejoong-hyung over Yoochun’s back as if the oldest member can somehow magic him out of the mess with his touch. And the whole lot of them are giggling like maniacs. Even Jaejoong is giggling so hard that the sound of his breath is audible.
Yunho exchanges an amused look with the driver before sighing and moving in to perform his leaderly duties. This isn’t the first time he’s had to intervene to stop a Changmin Torture Session.
^^^^^^^^
“Good luck,” the driver murmurs as the boys troop out of the car. Jaejoong shoots the man a grateful look. DBSK’s driver doesn’t like their manager any more than they do, and he knows how to keep a secret, so more often than not the members tell him what’s going on in their lives. This time they had decided that Jaejoong losing his voice was too big a secret to keep to themselves, especially since they would have to work hard to keep anyone from finding out the truth. He doesn’t know the exact details but they gave him the gist of it. Jaejoong can’t speak and the manager CANNOT find out.
The driver took it pretty well, considering he was just told that for some unknown reason the main vocalist of the popular boy band DBSK lost his voice overnight. Then again he’d seen and heard more shocking things (Jaejoong wasn’t even going to go near the time he and Yunho drank too much that one night, or Yoochun’s various escapades with everyone in the group), and if he was going to sell them out to the press Jaejoong is sure he would have done it much earlier.
Usually Yunho would lead the way, with Changmin tailing him and the others following loosely but this time the members walk in bunched up in a group, and as Jaejoong glances at the others he realizes that anyone who is watching them would be able to tell something’s wrong. Jaejoong pulls down the face mask so it cups his chin, and touches Yoochun’s arm, not that he needs to reach that far as Yoochun is practically glued to his side. ‘Too close,’ Jaejoong mouths, ‘Suspicious.’
“Soo sang what?” Yoochun says as Jaejoong repeats the words again, mouthing them slowly.
“Oh, soo sang he? It’s suspicious?” Junsu says, and Jaejoong bobs his head.
The members glance around and then quickly spread out.
Jaejoong realizes the mistake he makes when he suddenly feels much more vulnerable, and then he becomes the one to stick to Yoochun’s side. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do when they explain their cover story to their manager.
He just hopes he doesn’t start crying again.
^^^^^^^
Turns out Jaejoong was right to worry. Their manager doesn’t take the news well.
“You lost your voice,” he repeats again like a broken record, the same tone of shock in his voice. His expression is actually kind of funny. Jaejoong can tell by the way Yoochun is biting his lip that he’s trying hard to hold back a smile. The others still look wary though, waiting for the shock to wear off, and eventually, the manager’s eyes narrow.
“Kim Jaejoong.” Jaejoong stiffens. “You continue to make it difficult for the group.” The rest of the members stiffen. Yoochun’s half-smile melts off his face. “After everything already…” Jaejoong winces at the mention of the mistakes he’d made over the past year; in the group, he’s been the most problematic for their manager. “You realize we have a show today? An interview with KBS news? Practice for this weekend’s mini concert, which I might remind you that you haven’t gotten your parts down for yet?”
Jaejoong sinks lower and lower with each word.
“I don’t understand. I mean,” the manager grabs at his hair, before saying accusingly, “You were singing just fine at practice yesterday. What could you possibly have done to irritate your voice between last night and now? And irritate it to the point that you can’t even speak-” He takes a breath to calm himself while the members hold their breath.
“Alright, alright, here’s what we’re going to do. Practice is cancelled for today. There’s no point in troubling the instructor as well,” the manager says. The others glance at each other. Their manager has always been a bit afraid of their instructor, who reports DBSK’s progress straight to the president. “It’s just a sore throat after all, not laryngitis. With medicine, it should be healed up by tomorrow. You are taking medicine, correct? The medicine I’ve stocked in the apartment?” Jaejoong nods rapidly. “Good, good, that was meant for situations like this. It should work fast, so with luck you’ll be able to talk in time for the interview. God, why today? This interview was scheduled months ago!”
He carries on like that for a while, worrying aloud even when the make-up and wardrobe assistants creep into the room after deeming the area safe enough to enter.
“You know, it’d be a lot more inspiring that he’s worrying so much if he were worrying about hyung and not himself,” Changmin says quietly, and Jaejoong slaps his arm and gives him a scolding look. ‘Don’t say that! What if he hears you?’
“But hyung! I’m just saying the truth!”
‘But nothing!’
As Changmin pouts, Yunho says to the others, “I love how nothing has changed even if Jaejoong can’t talk.”
“I love how Changmin’s getting so much crap today,” Yoochun says.
Everything seems to go smoothly after that, because truthfully the members were mostly worried about how their manager would react. They hadn’t thought as far ahead as the show or the interview. While they get ready for the talk show, the manager is busy trying to pull strings in KBS so that the interview can be pushed to another day. Through the mirror he’s sitting in front of, Jaejoong watches the man argue with someone on the phone from the other side of the room. A hand suddenly swoops in front of him, making him jump in his seat.
“Excuse me, dear,” the make-up noona says as she pulls his mask down so it’s dropped around his neck. Jaejoong shakes his head and sends her a brief smile. ‘It’s fine.’
“I heard you have a sore throat, poor thing. Does it hurt much?”
‘Erm...’ Catching the panicked look on his face, the noona laughs.
“Ooh, I bet your manager told you not to talk much. I’m sorry, I won’t make you talk then. I don’t want to get you in trouble, after all,” she says as she pats Jaejoong’s raised arm. With confusion, Jaejoong looks down. He hadn’t realized that he had raised his hand to his throat. Abashedly, he lowers it and looks away.
‘This is going to be a long day,’ he thinks to himself with another silent sigh. Through the mirror, he sees the other members looking at him from their chairs.
By their expressions, he can tell they’re all thinking the same thing.
Next
Even before Jaejoong opens his eyes he knows something is wrong. Outside he can hear the cars passing in the street below, birds on the rooftop, people milling around and even closer, his band mates bustling through their morning activities in the apartment. The world is full of noise and yet…it feels oddly quiet, as if someone lowered the volume. It doesn’t take long for Jaejoong to realize just why it feels so strange.
He slowly opens his eyes, lets loose an experimental sigh and immediately touches his fingers to his mouth when he doesn’t hear what he expected. Jaejoong’s eyes go wide. He lets out another sigh and then tries to say something-anything.
There is only silence.
^^^^^^^^
Yunho knows there’s something wrong when he looks up from his coffee and sees Jaejoong looking like the world has ended.
“Jaejoong, what’s wrong?” Yunho asks.
Jaejoong opens his mouth, but before he can say anything Changmin shuffles into the room, rubbing at his eyes and yawning, "Hyung, what’s for breakfast? I’m so hungry.”
Jaejoong has such an oddly helpless look on his face that Yunho interrupts even as Jaejoong makes to answer. “Why don’t you just grab some cereal, Changmin. Jaejoong can’t make you a gourmet meal every morning.”
Changmin looks grumpy but he obediently gets out the cereal. As revenge he grabs Jaejoong’s favorite cereal and when he comes around with the bowl he looks smug. Yunho rolls his eyes but doesn’t say anything. As the youngest Changmin is allowed to be a brat sometimes.
Yunho picks up his coffee again but Jaejoong hasn’t moved from his spot. Yunho swallows the coffee in his mouth and says, “Jaejoong, aren’t you hungry? What’s wrong?”
With a pained look the raven-haired singer works his mouth like he doesn’t know what to say.
“What? I can’t hear you, speak louder.”
Jaejoong mouths something again and then shakes his head. Changmin’s spoon drops into his bowl with a clang from his suddenly limp fingers.
Yunho half-turns at the noise. “Changmin, what…? Jaejoong, what’s wrong??”
Jaejoong presses his lips together, looking like he’s about to cry. He shakes his head desolately and touches his fingers to his throat, and Yunho still doesn’t understand what’s wrong. He stands up and steps toward the other singer. He doesn’t understand why Jaejoong won’t just say what’s wrong. Why doesn’t he just say it?
“Oh my god,” Changmin breathes behind him. Jaejoong remains silent.
Yunho is vaguely aware that he’s starting to breathe harder. At the back of his mind, he has already realized why Jaejoong won’t speak but something (instinct?) keeps him from bringing the thought to the surface.
“Jaejoong, say something. Tell me what’s wrong. Say something,” Yunho implores. He clasps Jaejoong’s shoulder but singer just stares at him sadly.
Yunho then realizes that Jaejoong doesn’t say anything because he can’t. He blinks dumbly for a long while, until Changmin finally pinches him in the side to snap him out of it.
Junsu, who was watching cartoons in the living room, is surprisingly much more level-headed than the other two when he finds out Jaejoong has lost his voice. After he overcomes his surprise the first thing Junsu says is, “Does your throat hurt? Can you speak just a little or is it completely gone? Yunho-hyung, close your mouth please.”
Jaejoong shakes his head to both and answers the rest of Junsu’s questions with a nod or a shake of the head, all the while unconsciously touching his throat with the tips of his fingers.
Junsu makes Jaejoong open his mouth and looks down his throat with the mini keychain flashlight he got from Yoochun as a gag gift. Jaejoong watches a plastic Mickey Mouse dangle in front of his eyes and thinks that this is a very surreal situation.
“Well, the good news is I can’t see anything wrong with your throat,” Junsu declares a minute later. “The bad news is…er, I can’t see anything wrong with your throat.” He looks confused and sympathetic as he pulls away, tucking the flashlight into his shirt pocket. “There’s no redness, and it doesn’t look swollen at all. It looks normal.”
Jaejoong gives a silent depressed sigh again.
“So…what does this mean?” asks Yunho. “He just lost his voice in a night for no reason at all?”
“Well, not exactly.” Junsu hesitates.
“Stress,” Changmin says, making them all turn. While Junsu was checking Jaejoong’s throat, Changmin had gone to the ever useful Google. He pushes his glasses up with an index finger, looking very mature and responsible for a teen that had stolen his hyung's favorite cereal as revenge just earlier that morning.
“Mental stress to be exact,” Changmin clarifies. “According to this,” he gestures to the official looking text that covers the computer screen, “it’s not likely that Jaejoong-hyung could completely lose his voice without there being a few physical symptoms like soreness, dryness, coughing, etcetera, etcetera. Unless, he lost his voice because of some kind of mental trauma, like shock or distress from something that upset him.”
Junsu furrows his eyebrow. “Were you traumatized by anything last night?” he asks Jaejoong seriously.
Jaejoong shakes his head dumbly.
“I thought not.”
“Are you sure there was nothing that upset you earlier? Did someone say something to you?” Yunho asks, and in his voice there’s a promise of pain for anyone who might have purposely harmed Jaejoong.
Jaejoong shakes his head again.
“Maybe something did happen that upset hyung and he just can’t remember,” Changmin suggests.
“Amnesia?” Junsu says with a doubtful look. Mental stress is one thing but amnesia as well….
“You just don’t want your mental trauma idea to be wasted,” Yunho accuses.
Changmin doesn’t even look ashamed. He rolls his eyes to emphasize this. “Well, duh.”
“Brat.”
“You know it,” Changmin retorts.
Despite the situation Jaejoong gives a small smile.
“Ah!” Junsu exclaims as a realization hits him. The others look at him. Junsu looks around. “Where is Yoochun?”
The others blink.
It turns out that Yoochun is still sleeping, the last to rise as always. The rest of the group takes pleasure in kicking him awake (just Changmin actually), and filling him in on Jaejoong’s dilemma.
Yoochun listens with eyes half-closed, and since he doesn’t look very surprised when they tell him about Jaejoong losing his voice it’s hard to tell whether he’s actually awake or not. When Yunho finishes explaining, Yoochun turns to the silent Jaejoong and tells him sincerely, “I’m so sorry. Don’t worry. Everything will be alright.”
Jaejoong nods, blinking hard from Yoochun’s earnest words.
Then, unbelievably, Yoochun drops back to bed and falls asleep faster than they could have imagined.
“Yoochun!”
Changmin delights in kicking Yoochun awake once again.
“Argh!” Yoochun cries in pain, eyes fully awake this time. “What the hell, Changmin! I-oh dammit, I wasn’t dreaming,” Yoochun swears when he takes in the group around his bed. He drops a couple expletives in English when he sees Jaejoong, who smiles sadly at him and waves, ‘Good morning.’
“Jaejoong, are you okay? It doesn’t hurt?”
“No, it doesn’t, as you should know since I told you just a moment ago,” Yunho says.
“Well, sorry, Mr. Grouch, but not everyone has had their five cups of morning caffeine yet,” Yoochun says from over Jaejoong’s shoulder. He’s already hugging Jaejoong, and it will take the rest of the morning for him to take more than a few steps away from his friend.
“So, what’s the verdict? How did Jaejoong suddenly lose his voice?” Yoochun asks the question they had been pondering earlier. He’s got his arm draped over Jaejoong’s shoulders as they sit on the edge of the bed together.
“That’s exactly what we want to know,” Changmin says.
“You mean you haven’t figured out what’s wrong yet?”
“We obviously know what’s wrong,” Junsu says, “We just don’t know why. There’s nothing wrong with Jaejoong-hyung's throat, at least from what I could tell. And it’s not mental stress because nothing happened…unless something did happen last night in the period after Jaejoong-hyung went to bed and before he woke up this morning, and he somehow forgot all of it.”
“Um,” says Yoochun.
Yunho sighs. “Yeah, that’s what we thought.”
“So, then…what do we do?” Yoochun is glancing at Jaejoong as he says this. “We have to get to the studio in a couple hours. Manager-hyung is picking us up.”
The rest of their faces slacken as they realize.
“Practice…the talk show filming…,” Yunho leans against Yoochun’s dresser like his legs are about to fail him.
“Today’s interview day too,” Junsu adds with wide eyes.
“This is bad,” Changmin says unnecessarily.
Yoochun nudges Jaejoong and says quietly, “Jaejoong, what do you think?”
Jaejoong has been listening silently all the while with a pensive expression. When everyone turns to him, he purses his lips and narrows his eyes as if he’s come to a sudden decision.
Smiling grimly and forming the words slowly so the others understand him, he asks, ‘Who wants breakfast?'
^^^^^^^
Thankfully, everyone gets a lot calmer after they get some food in them. Although Jaejoong had some trouble getting breakfast ready. Yunho had followed him into the kitchen and tried to help him cook (which Yunho should never do anywhere near cooking appliances). He ended up causing a small panic in which the others had to rush in to help put out the fire in the kitchen. Yoochun actually gave Yunho a stiff lecture that would have impressed the leader in another situation, before turning to Jaejoong and muttering under his breath, “Can’t leave you alone for a second,” and “Stupid leader,” as he patted Jaejoong down to make sure nothing was harmed.
Long story short, breakfast took almost twice as long to make and Yunho now owes Jaejoong a new apron.
As if not being able to speak would reduce his ability to cook, Jaejoong scoffs to himself afterwards. Then he has to hide his grin when Yoochun who’s sitting beside him raises an eyebrow at him.
They’re waiting in the car for Yunho and Junsu to finish grabbing the rest of their stuff. Their manager couldn’t come to pick them up, something Jaejoong feels grateful for since he’s not ready to drop the bomb yet. He’s not suicidal, after all. In the little rearview mirror, Jaejoong waves at their driver, who’s looking back curiously as Yoochun gives him some last minute lectures.
“Alright, remember, don’t say anything to-oh, right. Sorry.” Yoochun laughs nervously at the slight glare Jaejoong shoots at him.
“Here, put this on.”
Jaejoong stares bemusedly at the paper face mask in his hands.
“Junsu’s idea,” Yoochun explains, “It’ll keep most people from going too near you. And it backs up our cover story nicely.”
‘A ‘severely sore throat’ isn’t contagious though,’ Jaejoong thinks, but he puts on the mask anyways.
Changmin pops his head forward from the seat behind. “Looking good, hyung." He smirks.
Jaejoong sniffs and deliberately looks out the window, ignoring him.
“Get back there.” Yoochun slaps at Changmin’s head, making the boy yelp and dodge quickly. “Giant, overgrown man-child.”
“You’re just jealous you’re not as tall as me!” Changmin calls forward.
“Don’t make me come back there, because I will!” Yoochun threatens.
“Woah.” Jaejoong turns to see Junsu at the side of the car, his bag in his hands. “What’s going on, children?”
A stiff “Nothing,” comes from both of them and Junsu looks curiously at Jaejoong, who just grins and shakes his head.
Junsu shrugs “Well, okay then. ‘Scuse me, Jaejoong-hyung,” he says as he squeezes past Jaejoong to drop into the back with Changmin.
Junsu, unfortunately, doesn’t make it any better. In less than five minutes, a tickle war had broken out in the back seat. “That’s it, you’re dead, Changmin! Tag team!” Yoochun battle cries as he slaps Junsu’s hand for help and jumps into the back. As tall as Changmin is even he can’t take on two of his hyungs, and soon he’s yelping for Jaejoong’s help. “Hyung! G-get them off, they-they’re killing me!” Changmin gasps and finally breaks into helpless laughter, because Junsu’s got his hands working under his armpits and Yoochun’s pinching him everywhere.
By the time Yunho trots out of the apartment and spots them, it’s become quite a tangled situation. “What the hell?” Yunho says.
Somehow all four of the members are squashed into the backseat in one large tangled pile…well, three and a half technically. Jaejoong is half on top of his car seat, legs dangling over the edge, and half on top of Yoochun, who’s crouched over Changmin like a spider, hands moving mercilessly over the younger boy’s body. Changmin is collapsed on his back on the seat, leaning heavily on Junsu who is taking advantage of his position to tickle Changmin to tears through his armpits. Changmin, who’s obviously desperate for escape and not thinking correctly, is reaching for his Jaejoong-hyung over Yoochun’s back as if the oldest member can somehow magic him out of the mess with his touch. And the whole lot of them are giggling like maniacs. Even Jaejoong is giggling so hard that the sound of his breath is audible.
Yunho exchanges an amused look with the driver before sighing and moving in to perform his leaderly duties. This isn’t the first time he’s had to intervene to stop a Changmin Torture Session.
^^^^^^^^
“Good luck,” the driver murmurs as the boys troop out of the car. Jaejoong shoots the man a grateful look. DBSK’s driver doesn’t like their manager any more than they do, and he knows how to keep a secret, so more often than not the members tell him what’s going on in their lives. This time they had decided that Jaejoong losing his voice was too big a secret to keep to themselves, especially since they would have to work hard to keep anyone from finding out the truth. He doesn’t know the exact details but they gave him the gist of it. Jaejoong can’t speak and the manager CANNOT find out.
The driver took it pretty well, considering he was just told that for some unknown reason the main vocalist of the popular boy band DBSK lost his voice overnight. Then again he’d seen and heard more shocking things (Jaejoong wasn’t even going to go near the time he and Yunho drank too much that one night, or Yoochun’s various escapades with everyone in the group), and if he was going to sell them out to the press Jaejoong is sure he would have done it much earlier.
Usually Yunho would lead the way, with Changmin tailing him and the others following loosely but this time the members walk in bunched up in a group, and as Jaejoong glances at the others he realizes that anyone who is watching them would be able to tell something’s wrong. Jaejoong pulls down the face mask so it cups his chin, and touches Yoochun’s arm, not that he needs to reach that far as Yoochun is practically glued to his side. ‘Too close,’ Jaejoong mouths, ‘Suspicious.’
“Soo sang what?” Yoochun says as Jaejoong repeats the words again, mouthing them slowly.
“Oh, soo sang he? It’s suspicious?” Junsu says, and Jaejoong bobs his head.
The members glance around and then quickly spread out.
Jaejoong realizes the mistake he makes when he suddenly feels much more vulnerable, and then he becomes the one to stick to Yoochun’s side. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do when they explain their cover story to their manager.
He just hopes he doesn’t start crying again.
^^^^^^^
Turns out Jaejoong was right to worry. Their manager doesn’t take the news well.
“You lost your voice,” he repeats again like a broken record, the same tone of shock in his voice. His expression is actually kind of funny. Jaejoong can tell by the way Yoochun is biting his lip that he’s trying hard to hold back a smile. The others still look wary though, waiting for the shock to wear off, and eventually, the manager’s eyes narrow.
“Kim Jaejoong.” Jaejoong stiffens. “You continue to make it difficult for the group.” The rest of the members stiffen. Yoochun’s half-smile melts off his face. “After everything already…” Jaejoong winces at the mention of the mistakes he’d made over the past year; in the group, he’s been the most problematic for their manager. “You realize we have a show today? An interview with KBS news? Practice for this weekend’s mini concert, which I might remind you that you haven’t gotten your parts down for yet?”
Jaejoong sinks lower and lower with each word.
“I don’t understand. I mean,” the manager grabs at his hair, before saying accusingly, “You were singing just fine at practice yesterday. What could you possibly have done to irritate your voice between last night and now? And irritate it to the point that you can’t even speak-” He takes a breath to calm himself while the members hold their breath.
“Alright, alright, here’s what we’re going to do. Practice is cancelled for today. There’s no point in troubling the instructor as well,” the manager says. The others glance at each other. Their manager has always been a bit afraid of their instructor, who reports DBSK’s progress straight to the president. “It’s just a sore throat after all, not laryngitis. With medicine, it should be healed up by tomorrow. You are taking medicine, correct? The medicine I’ve stocked in the apartment?” Jaejoong nods rapidly. “Good, good, that was meant for situations like this. It should work fast, so with luck you’ll be able to talk in time for the interview. God, why today? This interview was scheduled months ago!”
He carries on like that for a while, worrying aloud even when the make-up and wardrobe assistants creep into the room after deeming the area safe enough to enter.
“You know, it’d be a lot more inspiring that he’s worrying so much if he were worrying about hyung and not himself,” Changmin says quietly, and Jaejoong slaps his arm and gives him a scolding look. ‘Don’t say that! What if he hears you?’
“But hyung! I’m just saying the truth!”
‘But nothing!’
As Changmin pouts, Yunho says to the others, “I love how nothing has changed even if Jaejoong can’t talk.”
“I love how Changmin’s getting so much crap today,” Yoochun says.
Everything seems to go smoothly after that, because truthfully the members were mostly worried about how their manager would react. They hadn’t thought as far ahead as the show or the interview. While they get ready for the talk show, the manager is busy trying to pull strings in KBS so that the interview can be pushed to another day. Through the mirror he’s sitting in front of, Jaejoong watches the man argue with someone on the phone from the other side of the room. A hand suddenly swoops in front of him, making him jump in his seat.
“Excuse me, dear,” the make-up noona says as she pulls his mask down so it’s dropped around his neck. Jaejoong shakes his head and sends her a brief smile. ‘It’s fine.’
“I heard you have a sore throat, poor thing. Does it hurt much?”
‘Erm...’ Catching the panicked look on his face, the noona laughs.
“Ooh, I bet your manager told you not to talk much. I’m sorry, I won’t make you talk then. I don’t want to get you in trouble, after all,” she says as she pats Jaejoong’s raised arm. With confusion, Jaejoong looks down. He hadn’t realized that he had raised his hand to his throat. Abashedly, he lowers it and looks away.
‘This is going to be a long day,’ he thinks to himself with another silent sigh. Through the mirror, he sees the other members looking at him from their chairs.
By their expressions, he can tell they’re all thinking the same thing.
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