Chapter Text
Jeongin didn’t think much of it when their manager announced a new dance instructor would be joining them. Employees came and went at JYPE, and this was no different.
He seemed nice, and he had great credentials from what he’d seen after looking the man up. His name was Baek Jinho, but he had told them that 'Jinho' was fine. Their first practice went smoothly. He was kind and helpful, and his hyungs sang praises of the man on their way back to the dorms.
“Jinho-hyung is so talented.” Hyunjin sighed from his right, leaning against his shoulder. “Don’t you think, Innie?”
“He seems like he knows what he's doing.” Jeongin hummed, smiling up at his hyung.
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Jeongin didn’t want to go to practice. They had to leave soon, but he stayed firmly curled up in his bed. It had been four weeks and six days since Jinho started working with the group.
He didn’t know what it was, but at some point, he started to hate dancing. It was all just so draining. And it felt like Jinho was always irritated with him about something. He got mad when Jeongin sat out of practice when he had a cold 3 weeks ago. Or that time when he sprained his ankle and couldn’t dance for a few days.
And he understood, really. He should’ve just pushed through. He was wasting his and Jinho’s time. He just needed to be better.
He didn’t think Jinho liked him much after that.
But… there was that time where he finally got a difficult move, and Jinho came over and ruffled his hair, gave him a pat on the back. “Way to go, Jeongin!” His words still rang fresh in his ears. And he wanted more. He wanted to make Jinho proud, make him like Jeongin again.
And he saw how freely his instructor gave out that affection to his other members. He didn’t want to say he was jealous… but well, he was. He wanted that praise too.
His train of jumbled thoughts was interrupted by a knock at the door.
“Innie, you have to get up. We gotta leave in 10.” He recognized Chan's tired voice from outside the door.
Jeongin didn’t move. He knew he had to get up Jinho would be mad if he missed more practice… but he also really didn’t want to face Jinho at all.
“Jeongin.” Chan knocked again firmly, putting on his leader voice. “You need to get up. Don’t make me come in there.”
He groaned, forcing himself out of bed. “I'm up hyung.”
He heard Chan sigh from the other side of the door. “Hurry up, please, you still need to eat.”
Jeongin haphazardly threw on clean sweats and a t-shirt and grabbed his bag. He walked out into the hall, trying to mentally prepare himself for the day.
He was greeted by Hyunjin, throwing himself on him and hanging off his shoulder. “Innieeee. I thought you were gonna be sleeping forever.”
Jeongin chuckled tiredly. “Yah, I'm fine. We gotta go before Chan-hyung gets mad.”
“Channie won’t be mad.” Hyunjin brushed off, but he still detached himself from Jeongin and began walking to the living room with him.
The pair walked into the living room to find the rest of the members rushing about. It was a miracle that 5 minutes later, they found themselves piled into the company van. Everyone seemed tired and cranky. Jeongin hoped they would all cool down by the time they got to the building.
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The drive was too fast; it felt like he had blinked, and he was suddenly being herded out of the vehicle and towards the back entrance of JYPE. He took a deep breath and forced his feet to keep moving. Why did he feel so anxious? Hyunjin was no longer by his side and looked like he was comforting Felix, who seemed extra down today. Minho had replaced him by his side, but looked tired and lost in thought. The rest of his hyungs seemed to be in their own heads, too. It was fine. He didn’t know what was bothering him anyway.
The feeling just got worse as they approached the practice room. It was only 3 hours. Then they just had some voice lessons and recordings to do after. It was fine. Jeongin was fine.
The group was greeted by Jinho as they entered. He gave them the rundown of their practice schedule for the day while they set down their things and did their warm-ups. Jeongin looked around the room again as they got into their respective positions, and everyone else appeared to be relaxing and starting to cheer up from the morning funk. He wished he could do the same.
The practice seemed to drag on, and Jeongin kept messing up. It was clear Jinho was getting annoyed with him.
“Jeongin. For the fifth time, you need to move left or you'll end up running into Jisung.”
Jeongin felt a familiar heat crawling up the back of his neck. “I’m sorry.” He mumbled sheepishly.
Jinho just rolled his eyes and started the music again. Jisung gave him a sympathetic look, but Jeongin could tell he was getting a little frustrated with him too.
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It was no surprise that Jinho pulled him to the side after practice.
“You need to get it together for next rehearsal, Jeongin. I really don’t know what to do with you. Everyone else was having a bad day as well, but they kept it together.”
Jeongin blushed and looked at his shoes. “I’m sorry, I'll do better.”
“Make sure that you do.” Jinho said, turning away.
Jeongin went to pack up his bag, but he didn’t miss how Jinho had walked over to praise the rest of the group, offering head pats to Felix and Hyunjin.