DRAMA CLUB | hyunin ✔

.40

jeongin would've invited hyunjin in, if the latter hadn't just confidently walked into his house like he owned it.

and jeongin was aware it was study night, so he would prefer that hyunjin and chan wouldn't be in the same space for a change.

but that was asking too much, it seemed.

"that is not how you do it." chan warned.

"yes, it is." hyunjin retorted.

"have you ever even done this before?"

"of course! i've done this countless of times!"

chan snorted, eyeing both of them on the bed. "yeah? because that looks like a first time for me."

"maybe if you didn't interrupt every two seconds, i can—"

jeongin pushed hyunjin off of him, the bed squeaking with the movement.

they'd been rehearsing relentlessly since jeongin managed to drag both into his room, interrupting the intense staring contest they were doing in the living room.

his mother wasn't home, probably pulling some late hours at the hospital, so there was no one in the house who could stop the situation from skyrocketing out of control. so jeongin had to man up and get the upper hand.

"okay," he started, kneeling on the mattress, "i'll not tolerate fighting, this is an important matter!"

hyunjin and chan stared at him.

"do you guys want to look like fools at the competition?" he inquired, and when both boys shook their heads, jeongin continued: "i don't want either, but if you keep with this bicker-flirting you have going on, you'll look like fools and make me look like a fool by association!"

hyunjin and chan both made angry offended noises at jeongin's accusation, repeatedly denying his words.

hyunjin tried to explain, "i'm just mad for being wronged, of course! jeongin,' he turned to him, "didn't we do this scene before? it's supposed to be like this!"

he was talking about the censorship. there was one bed scene where they made some innuendos (but subtle enough that it could fly over children's heads, if there were any), quickly followed by comical relief. this was, after all, a family-friendly play. which was exactly what they were doing.

jeongin said as much: "yeah, it's correct."

chan looked at him with disapproval. jeongin frowned.

then, he sighed and reached inside his backpack to fish out the script. from where jeongin was, kneeling on the bed, he could see that it hadn't been modified: there were no red strikes of ink over his lines. that made jeongin's blood boil a bit. chan hadn't even bothered to change his lines? was theater a joke to him?

well, maybe that explained his confusion with the scene.

"i take it that soonyoung didn't give you the edited version, then," chan contemplated as he leafed through the pages.

the edited version? what edited version? if jeongin went through all of that scratching and margin writing and notes for nothing, he would—

"hyunjin and i are swapped," chan stated, mainly at hyunjin, matter-of-factly.

"what?" jeongin and hyunjin said at the same time. it didn't make any sense, they were only supposed to change pronouns! why would they edit this scene... and were there more edited scenes? oh, god. seungkwan, what are you doing?

"soonyoung said that seungkwan wanted it to have more... drama." chan explained.

great. and that made a lot of sense. with the performance — the freaking competition! — knocking on the door, the perpetual dread hovering over their heads, and the blatant lack of professionalism and talent among the cast... it just... didn't make any sense! the lgbt+ factor was already a big change and would provide them a lot of diversity points.

unless chan was...

jeongin widened his eyes at his own train of thought. would chan go to such lengths to... what? what did he want with this? would he change a whole script and lie to them just to...

jeongin felt a shudder go from head to toe, cold sweat on the back of his neck.

hyunjin and chan started to argue over the authenticity of the script. jeongin sneakily leaned over to get his phone on top of the desk, covering it with his own script while he opened the message app and texted felix.

me
lix
felix
felix!!
FELIX!!!!!
answer quick please

he was on the way to curse felix for always being on the phone and not replying on purpose when the other responded:

lixie🐥
???
i was shagging w changbin🥰🥰🥰

me
i did NOT need to know that
but now quick tell me
what is chan a suspect for???

lixie🐥
oh
i don't think i should tell you through text...

me
serious felix
i need to know now
he's at my house

felix's reply came a heartbeat after.

lixie🐥
WHATT?????
jengign
wtf is hhe diong ther???
alone???????

me
uhh no

jeongin looked up from his phone at the two boys still arguing. hyunjin was waving his finger around like a sassy middle aged mom.

me
hyunjin is here too

lixie🐥
alright
at least there's a witness

me
a witness for WHAT??

at that moment, chan threw his clean script on the floor, face twisted in anger.

lixie🐥
innie...
me and seungmin
we think...

chan harshly grabbed hyunjin by the wrist, snatching his script from his hand. he also threw it on jeongin's bedroom floor, both his hands curled in fists. from the bed, jeongin could see hyunjin's wrist becoming white on where chan had his hand on him.

then his phone vibrated with felix's text:

lixie🐥
we think chan killed someone