Chapter Text
Dino didn’t expect to be visiting Seventeen Street with Joshua. He didn’t even think that Joshua would be making an appearance near fans. His Hyung would never say anything but he could tell that he was nervous after that incident. The one where protest trucks drove around Seoul and at the Hybe building demanding that Joshua be moved from the group.
Seventeen was a rather drama-free group. Typically the rumour mill stayed clear of them because honestly there’s nothing to say. Each member was committed to the idol life, and spent all their time recording, practicing or performing. Most people within the industry had nothing but good words when they spoke about Seventeen, a testament to their good character. The last time there was a scandal this big was back when Mingyu was accused of bullying. Sure there were small dating rumours here and there but it was nothing like this. It was as if the rumour had a life of its own and grew to an impossible size.
Dino saw how even Weverse got spammed with posts demanding that Joshua come out and speak on the matter. Shortly after the rumours hit the trending searches on social media, the manager sent out a message on their work group chat. The message read:
“The company decided the best course of action is to leave it to be. It’s just a regular rumour mill and baseless speculation from netizens. There’s nothing to clarify as the other part didn’t make an official claim.”
Less than 5 minutes later came Joshua's reply.
“Alright, thank you for the update.”
It was uncanny how fast the reply came from Joshua. Dino can't help but feel like there was something out of the ordinary about this whole situation.
Back to the present, Dino sneaked his hyung a peek from the corner of his eyes. He was laughing and being playful as always as if nothing had happened. He watched as Joshua became fascinated with the astronaut hat, joked around with Vernon and took mirror selfies with DK. Dino didn’t know if he was just imagining it but he thought that Joshua had been sneaking peeks at the behind-the-scenes camera. The signature nyrong smile felt like a hyper-realistic mask but Dino could feel the cracks behind it. But he trusted that his hyung would let them know if he really needed help and so he chose to say nothing.
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Minghao watched everything happen. It started on the chinese social media channel. When the hot search started trending, one of this chinese friend dropped him a text with a screenshot. The text read, “Hey! Isn’t this the guy in your group?” And sure enough, in the screenshot, there was Joshua’s name, a jarring sight amidst all the chinese celebrity news of the day. Minghao remembered been not too concerned.
Seventeen blew up in recent years, gaining more popularity in many regions and one of them was in China. It was a major source of pride for Minghao to be able to go back to China and have celebrities in China know Seventeen. However the increase in popularity would also mean that more pairs of eyes are looking at them, waiting for any little thing that they can blow up and make a huge deal out of. Minghao had seen how other celebrity gain fame and fans but also ultimately fell from their status due to just the smallest misstep.
But Seventeen was not at that level of popularity and so Minghao thought that maybe this was probably a random shot in the dark, trying to stir up some issues for Seventeen. Besides, his hyung caught dating? That is out of the question. Their members were dedicated to their career and the inhibitions that came with it. Being mature idols of 8 years, they would know better than to jeopardise their whole career with a dating rumour. Even if anyone is dating, they would have the sense to be discrete about it. Baseless rumours like these would fade away with time. Minghao thought that there was nothing to be worried about.
Just days after, protest trucks parked outside of trucks parked outside of Hybe were making headlines in the entertainment news. The trucks with red letters demanding for Joshua to be removed from Seventeen. The rumour was spreading around like wildfire and he remembered thinking, 'I should have warned Hyung about this...' Minghao knew that logically none of this is his fault. But a sense of guilt followed him, when he caught Joshua lingering near the windows looking out towards the streets.
Later in the week when the social media ban for Joshua had already kicked in, Minghao managed to catch some alone time with him and voiced his concern.
It was after an intense practice that left them gasping for breath. Joshua and Minghao happened to be leaning on the same stretch of mirror. He subtly scooted over to Joshua.
“Shua-hyung, I want to apologise.” Minghao started.
Joshua just stared back, eyes wide. He looked as if his brain was working overdrive trying to figure out what Minghao was referring to.
“About the rumour? I saw it on Weibo… I should have warned you before…” Minghao voice faded away as he contemplated how he should phrase it. Before they started sending protest trucks? Before they started flooding Weverse with hate messages?
His thoughts were cut short when he felt familiar fingers threading through his hair, petting his head gently. In front of him, Joshua was smiling as usual when he said, “Why should Minghao apologise?” Then his smile widened a little more into a teasing grin, “Unless Minghao was the one that was trending those rumours…” He let his voice fade away with an overly dramatic expression on his face. Joshua dissolved into giggles and watched as Minghao spluttered, flabbergasted, “Hyung! Don’t joke around with these kinds of things!”
“It’s not your fault so don’t apologise. I’m sure it will blow over soon,” Joshua said as his laugh petered out. “Thank you for worrying about Hyung.”
Joshua stood up, holding his hand out to Minghao. “Besides, I’m not going anywhere. Everything is going to turn out alright in the end.”
Minghao took his hand and studied Joshua’s face. It seems like he was a lot slimmer than Minghao remembered. His cheekbones very pronounced and jaw was sharper than before. The team ring shifting in his grasp, almost as if it was ill fitted for Joshua’s pinky. Was it the stress? Minghao had no way of knowing. So he said the only thing that he thought would be of comfort.
“We’re not letting you go anyway. You are stuck with us.”
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Seungcheol thought that this was absolutely ridiculous! There was no way that this was going to fly with him. He was staring at the reply that the company gave him through text. The company was letting Joshua take the fall. Their reasoning was that he can take it and so they should leave the rumour as is. The rumour is baseless anyway. The public will find another rumour to fuss over soon. For them, any publicity is good publicity. Seungcheol disagrees completely.
Being idols that are very involved in their own creative process, Seungcheol is very proud of the fact that Seventeen holds the title of being self-produced. As the leader of a group, he was the bridge between the group and the company. But every once in a while, there are situations that are completely out of their control. One was the situation with their new lightstick, and another was the stadiums that they wanted to tour. Now that Seungcheol thought about it carefully, it seemed like recently there had been more out-of-control situations than he would have liked.
His gaze fell past his phone onto his casted-up leg. Another out-of-control event. Maybe it has something to do with their age but he didn’t like how easily the members are getting hurt. Woozi might say that gyming is the best way to ensure that their bodies are in tip-top conditions but some injuries are unavoidable and pure coincidence. Just like the one that he had right at this moment. The one that is currently hindering him from getting up and making his way to the company to have some choice words with someone.
Before he realised, his fingers had navigated to the Seventeen group chat which has been popping up on his notifications every so often. It’s not the most active group chat but right now the activeness of the chat felt really unnatural. Everyone seemed to try very hard to avoid talking about the rumour. Some members (namely Jun and Vernon) had resorted to sending memes (Jun is spamming cat memes mostly) into the chat to try and keep the atmosphere light.
On the other hand, Joshua was nowhere to be found. Not in the chats and Seungcheol can’t even go and find him physically. He stared blankly at the one-on-one chat window he has with Joshua and weighed his options. He knows that Joshua doesn’t look at his phone much but he was worried. Joshua has a tendency of closing up when he got hurt, physically or emotionally. He would hide away and heal his wounds until he could talk about them with a smile on his face before he reappears to the world again. Even when they are practically family, Joshua has a side of him that he hides. Seungcheol was not even sure if he told his mum about this situation at all.
Seungcheol knew all these but he was also worried. He saw the commotion on social media and weverse. Joshua might not appear to post or interact much but Sengcheol knew that he reads the posts. Just like any other idol would. He had already typed out a text to Joshua, his finger hovering over the send button. Maybe the fans would always put them on a pedestal but Joshua is only human. He is more sensitive than he let on. Seungcheol wants to be there for him but he was not sure if texting him now is the best way to do that. Knowing Joshua, he probably doesn’t want to be found. Not yet.
Seungcheol sighed. He’ll just have to be patient. Instead, he reopened the chat with the company staff. While Joshua heals, the least that Seungcheol could do was make sure that those people don’t get off scot-free. He had a lot of time in between his rehab and resting to hound those corporate people to take some action.