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"chan, it's for you," seungcheol handed the phone to the youngest member. dino took it and hurried outside to talk, while the rest of us were left in the living room. seungcheol messed up his hair and sat down next to joshua, heaving a sigh.

"what happened?" wonwoo asked

"chan's father called," seungcheol muttered, "we already told him about what happened before, and he couldn't come back to korea at that time to check on his son. so he'll have chan go to japan instead to live there with him."

before anyone could even react, chan barged into the room with heavy steps. he went straight to soonyoung to hug him, and then he just let himself burst into tears. the older boy held him tightly and ran his hand down chan's back.

"I don't want to leave seventeen! I'm okay now and i'm safe here with all of you, why can't my father understand that?! I want to study here and keep performing with seventeen!"

"it'll only be like a vacation, right?" mingyu was worried

"no, he'll be living there and continue his studies there too," seungcheol answered

the room was quiet, and we could clearly hear the soft whimpering of the youngest boy. everyone had gloomy faces, and didn't really know how to react to the situation. it was all sudden.

a few seconds ago, we were celebrating and now we're here with the apparent total loss in how we have been doing.

seungkwan broke the silence, "is there anything we can do?"

"i believe there isn't anything," seungcheol sighed "he'll be leaving next month. as long as we have time, we need to come up with ideas to make him stay."

"i feel like i have to take responsibility for this," jeonghan uttered "i caused all the trouble anyway, but what if there's really nothing we can do about it?"

"no," joshua spoke, "we have to solve this as a group. we can't let you do this on your own."

"but what i did was unforgivable—"

"we managed to forgive," joshua cut him off, "it wasn't easy for all of us, especially for chan. but he did it because that's how much he values seventeen. if you think about it, chan is the one who is suffering the most. when i had my time with minseul, he was devastated. when soonyoung took her first kiss, he cried a lot. he got bullied for being in seventeen, he got insulted, degraded. he got scared by jiwoo and even got choked by a fellow member. a boy that young shouldn't be getting that much chaos! he has twelve older brothers and nothing is happening! we have to at least take action now."

"he's right," jun agreed "we should all do this for chan. he doesn't deserve everything bad that happened."

"douchebag soonyoung just had to go kiss minseul on the boy's birthday," jihoon laughed "jerk alert."

"hey don't blame me now!! blame jeonghan hyung!" soonyoung replied

"hey i—"

"no fighting!" seungcheol shushed everyone out while hansol raised his hand, "do we really have power against his parents? i mean, they only assigned us to look after their son. we still don't have the right to decide for him. and honestly if i'm the father i think i'd do the same."

"but i'm happier in here," chan mumbled "is that so hard to understand? i don't wanna be in japan if you guys won't be there!"

"why not let everyone move to japan?" i asked, and everyone looked at me weirdly

"minseul what the fuck i can't even buy a face mist and now you want us to live in japan," seungkwan replied, making me instantly regret what i just said, "okay oKAY, BAD IDEA!"

"soonyoung hyung can pay for everything," seokmin joked

"hey hey hey i may pay a lot of your expenses but i'm not gonna let it get too far! i'm broke!" soonyoung replied "i might be a pimp soon just to get some cash."

"hell yeah nightlife," minghao cheered while doing...UHH jiro can't explain but "🤙"

"or you could work for a pimp," junhui chuckled

"no. fuck you," soonyoung stuck his tongue out. then out of nowhere, seokmin started to laugh. all of us shot a weird look at him. "one time, i found a game called prostitute mickey. you wouldn't wanna know what's next."

for real, i found a game called
prostitute mickey when i was young
and thought it was cute bc i was a
huge mickey mouse fan. but then
my big bro caught me so i didn't get
to play

"who would play prosti— you know what? we're really out of fucking topic now, hello?" jihoon waved his hands, "we went from chan to japan to financial issues, then prostitution. what the hell?"

"it adds up," seokmin muttered "chan goes to japan, gets financial issues, then—"

"seokmin, no. please," seungcheol looked so done. he's probably regretting being friends with the boy at the moment. "i honestly thought of moving to japan too but then it'd be too unrealistic and it'll cost a lot."

chan wanted to excuse himself for he was tired, and soonyoung let him sleep in the room. a few minutes after that, the talk went on about how we could make his father let him stay. jihoon suggested, "why not perform a song at a huge event?"

"huh?" the other boys didn't get it

"performing a song at a huge event will surely make any parent proud. don't you think his dad will let him stay a bit more for it? and if he sees chan's passion through it and if we perform really well, it might change his mind. i mean, my idea may sound stupid but we could try it out," he small boy explained

the others seemed to agree at what he said. but the problem is, they still have to search and wait for events, plus make a new song and choreography. and they aren't even sure if there will be events to come before the next month comes. it's already the 15th of june. can they really work everything out before july? which is in two weeks?

"what song are we performing?" hansol questioned

"i don't know yet," jihoon sighed "but i will surely dedicate the lyrics to our youngest member."

"without him knowing?"

"yes. without him knowing. but he will feel it," jihoon answered, "we have two weeks to rush things. that's not a long time to make a whole song and practice a performance, but we can work this out. i guess. you just gotta pour your dedication. and let's do it for chan."

"for chan! on three!" soonyoung cheered, and all of us put our hands in the center. the boys counted up to three, and everyone whispered the chant, because dino is asleep in the room.

"did you know? 4chan made kim jong un as america's choice for time reader's person of the year—"

"seokmin, please."

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i'm dead. updates will get longer soon dw

-jiro