After breakfast, the members grabbed their instruments and headed to the practice room to get to work. Seonghwa helped the guitarists set up their amps and played with the volume, trying to get each one to match. Once the other members were set, he moved over to his own guitar and started plugging everything in when a shout from across the room caused him to drop his cords.

"No! No, no, no, no, no! Fuck! Shit! Fuck!"

Everyone had turned to see what was going on as Hongjoong sat at his computer panicking.

"Woah—what's wrong?" Jongho asked, walking over.

"It was here two days ago! I swear I saved it!"

"Hyung, saved what? Did you lose a file?"

"Not just any file! It was really important! Fuck!"

"Hyung, let me help. We'll find it."

"I had it open and now it's missing!"

Seonghwa realized what he was talking about. The song. The one he'd written for Seonghwa. But he hadn't deleted it. Or at least—he hadn't meant to. All he'd done was save a copy of it to his flash drive.

Although...he hadn't safely ejected it.

He wasn't great with technology.

He looked away, feeling guilty. He didn't mean to stress Hongjoong out. He was trying to do the opposite.

"Hyung, do you need us to pause practice? I can clear the room."

"No, no, it's fine. I'll—I'll figure it out. I just—how did I lose it??"

Jongho nodded and stepped back to set up his mic. Seonghwa dared a glance at Hongjoong who was intently searching his computer, nervously biting the nail on his index finger.

He wanted to tell him he had another copy, to tell him not to worry but he knew it would give away his whole plan. But was surprising him worth making him believe he'd lost something so valuable to him?

Suddenly Hongjoong closed the computer and stood, walking over to his guitar. Everyone busied themselves, trying not to let him know they were all waiting for him.

Seonghwa could tell he was really upset about it just from the dark expression on his face. Maybe he could find a way to reupload it in secret. But he worried he'd just mess it up and lose it for good.

He'd need someone else's help.

Someone he trusted with technology.

He'd have to talk to the younger generation.

...

They finished up practice and Hongjoong immediately returned to his laptop, presumably searching for the missing track. Seonghwa set down his guitar and walked over Jongho who was talking with Yeosang.

"—have some new ideas for tonight."

"New ideas? Already? Last night wasn't up to your standards?"

"Sangie, you should know by now I'm a hard man to please. You're going to have to work harder if you want to—"

Yeosang cleared his throat, noticing Seonghwa's approach and Jongho spun around, maintaining a neutral expression.

"Did you need something?" he asked.

Seonghwa motioned for them to come closer.

"It has to do with Hongjoong hyung. So I need you to clear him out of the room."

"Why? Is there tea?" Yeosang asked, leaning closer.

Jongho waited a moment before responding, thinking about what he could be hiding from Hongjoong.

"No, it's not tea—at least, I don't think—that word doesn't really make sense, why do all of you keep using that?" Seonghwa hated feeling old when the other members were barely a year or two younger than him. Just because he didn't know all of their slang.

"You know what happened to that file."

Seonghwa and Yeosang turned to face Jongho, both looking surprised.

"Well, I'm right, aren't I?"

"Yeah..." Seonghwa muttered.

"Wow, hyung. I didn't think you'd sink so low. Stealing Hongjoong's songs?"

"It's not like that! I'll explain everything just—get him out of here."

Jongho raised a distrusting eyebrow before shrugging and heading towards Hongjoong.

Seonghwa sighed, moving to round up his old members who had gathered in another corner.

"What!? You mean—wait—when did he tell you that!?"

Seonghwa turned, surprised to see Jongho had already started his mission. Hongjoong looked like he'd just seen a ghost. What did Jongho say?

"Oh I don't know. Sometime this morning. You're supposed to meet with him at noon."

"At—noon!? Jongho it's 12:30!! Why didn't you tell me sooner!? Aish—"

Hongjoong grabbed his laptop and flew out of the room, the door slamming behind him. Seonghwa looked at Jongho who gave him an innocent smile and a thumbs up.

Seonghwa had no clue what he'd said but he just hoped it would work for long enough.

"Hey, you three, come here. I need to talk to all of you about something. Where's San?"

"I'm here."

Seonghwa turned to see San standing on the other side of the room by himself. He knew he should check on him but he didn't want to bring it up in front of everyone so he just motioned for everyone to gather and they circled up.

"So...there's something I need your help with."

"Seonghwa hyung deleted Hongjoong's file!" Jongho called out and Seonghwa groaned, holding his temples. He saw his members glance at him with a flash of worry before giving Jongho a warning glance. He knew they didn't intend to be mean but he still hated knowing they worried about his temper. Especially over something that felt so trivial to him now.

"You...sabotaged Hongjoong?" San asked. "Is...that why you two are..."

"No. I didn't sabotage anything! Well—not on purpose..."

"Wait—you and Hongjoong hyung are still fighting?" Wooyoung asked, moving a step closer to Seonghwa.

"That's not why I—we're not on great terms, no. But that's not why I wanted to talk to you guys."

"So why did you want to talk to us?" Mingi asked and Yunho elbowed him.

"If you guys just let him speak, we would know."

"Thank you, Yunho."

Seonghwa sighed, not sure he was ready to face their mockery.

"I did delete the file. But it wasn't intentional! Last night I was going to write on my computer but I accidentally grabbed his computer in the dark and found a project on it. It was a whole song that he hadn't mentioned to me. And it turned out...it was...a song he wrote for me."

Everyone gasped, talking amongst themselves.

"Hongjoong hyung wrote you a song? That's so romantic," Wooyoung sighed.

"It's like he wanted to pay you back," Yeosang smiled.

"But wait—then why did you delete it??" Jongho asked and everyone turned for his answer.

"I didn't mean to—I was transferring it to my flash drive—"

"You took it off his computer!?" Yunho asked, his eyes wide.

"I'm sorry—backtrack—did you just say flash drive?? Hyung that's ancient technology," Wooyoung laughed.

"Boomer," Yeosang smiled and the rest of the members laughed with him. Seonghwa hadn't anticipated being bullied before he even admitted his technological error.

"Hyung, did you press the safely eject button?" Jongho asked and Seonghwa shook his head in embarrassment.

Everyone sighed, shaking their heads.

"So, why did you try to take his song?" Mingi asked, grabbing everyone's attention.

"I actually...have a plan. I...I wanted to surprise him and...perform his song for him. He wrote it to say thank you for everything I've done but I just don't think I deserve it. He's done so much more for me than I have for him and I couldn't accept it so—"

Seonghwa was interrupted as the group swallowed him in a group hug.

"Of course we'll help you hyung!"

"Hongjoong hyung is going to love it!"

"You guys are so cute, I hate you."

"Do you have the sheet music? We'll start learning it right now!"

"Wait—when are we going to perform it?"

"Are we going to do it on a stage? Or in the practice room?"

Seonghwa pulled away, not sure he was ready to answer the bombardment of questions.

"One thing at a time, guys. First...I think I might need your help putting the song back on his computer. I hate the thought of him worrying about it. Do you...think you could do that for me?"

All the members nodded eagerly.

"We'll come up with a master plan. Tonight, why don't you distract him and we'll take his laptop and fix it up?" Yunho suggested and everyone nodded.

Except Seonghwa. Hongjoong might not want to spend time with him. He'd seemed a little better at breakfast but he didn't want to force Hongjoong to spend time with him if he wanted his space.

"Don't worry, hyung. I think you two need to talk," San smiled.

Hypocrite, Seonghwa thought to himself. He still hadn't talked to Wooyoung.

But maybe that was it.

Hongjoong would spend time with him if it meant helping those two. Then he could help three people at once.

It was perfect.

"Okay. But San, you should come with us, too."

San looked at him, cocking his head and pointing to himself in confusion.

"Me?"

"Yeah, you. What, you don't want to hang out with us?" Seonghwa teased and San smiled shaking his head.

"Okay. As long as I'm not a third wheel," he smiled, and Seonghwa shook his head a smile catching his lips. He turned to the right for a moment and caught Wooyoung looking at San while he was distracted.

Seonghwa was about to talk again when the door flew open and Hongjoong came in, breathing heavy. He let the door slam behind him as he made his way back to his desk.

"Jongho. Why did you tell me JYP wanted to work on my music with me?"

Everyone looked at Jongho. That was a pretty bold thing to say. Especially since he knew he'd figure out pretty quickly.

But Jongho had anticipated this and just smiled sweetly.

"Oh, was it tomorrow? I thought he'd said today! Sorry, hyung..." he looked at the ground, his sad expression dissolving Hongjoong's anger.

"It's okay—just, tell me a little earlier next time. He still—wants to meet with me?? You really mean it?" Hongjoong's eyes danced with excitement. Seonghwa couldn't help but smile at how cute he looked when he got excited about something.

"Yeah. You don't think I'd lie to you, do you?" Jongho flashed the most innocent eyes and Hongjoong shook his head quickly.

"No! Of course not! It just—I didn't think he liked me very much," Hongjoong admitted shyly. Seonghwa flinched.

He remembered the words he'd spat at Hongjoong in the stairwell. About how he was a worse leader than him. About how he was the better performer. Why did he ever say something like that to Hongjoong when he already knew how humble he was? How much he struggled to believe in himself?

"Hey, hyung?"

Seonghwa turned to see Wooyoung who leaned in close to his ear.

"Can...can I join you and Hongjoong, too?"

Seonghwa's heart rose in his chest.

"Of course," he smiled and Wooyoung's face lit up a little, as he looked away.

"Thank you."

"Yeah," Seonghwa said, putting a light hand on his shoulder.

With that, Wooyoung walked away and Hongjoong started getting everyone ready to finish up practice. Seonghwa just hoped their plan would work.