8-Teez Makes Chaos (spanking fic)

8 Makes 1 Team

But as Hongjoong reached the smiling group, he automatically did a headcount, and his smile faltered. Immediately, his leader instincts kicked in, and he scanned the group sharply.

No Wooyoung or Seonghwa, the two most unlikely to not want to come. Had Wooyoung done something again? But even for that, Seonghwa would not have kept him from coming. Yunho was clearly in a foul temper. Yeosang and San were faking their good moods. Mingi's fingers were red like he had just been chewing them, and Jongho looked very unusually like a real maknae as he hid behind Mingi's tall frame.

Hongjoong didn't call them all out on it, though. He was truly happy to see them and didn't want to ruin the moment just yet.

He dropped his bag to the ground and moved to hug each of his members. This wasn't his usual way of greeting, but through each hug, he gained a bit of of knowledge on the situation. His members felt stiff and awkward, some of them being overly friendly and others avoiding his gaze altogether. When he hugged Yunho, however, he knew he was right in believing something was really wrong. Yunho's arms encircled him, and the tall dongsaeng rested his head against the captain's shoulder.

Hongjoong heard his deep, shaky breaths close to his ear and knew that Yunho was silently begging him to find out the situation and fix it. He patted Yunho's back gently and tightened his hug for a brief moment before stepping back. Their eyes met, and both knew their message had been communicated.

"Come on, hyung. You gotta tell us all about it," San was saying as he collected Hongjoong's bag and placed it into the van.

Hongjoong smiled at him and climbed up into the van behind him. The rest of the members followed suit, and soon they were all seated, and the van was heading back to the dorm.

"Before I talk about myself, where's the others?" Hongjoong asked, his tone and manner still remaining casual.

The silence and tension that dropped were unbelievable. For a moment, the only sound was the members turning to glance at each other.

"They weren't feeling well, hyung," San quickly replied, realising the silence was getting suspiciously long.

"That's not good," Hongjoong commented as he pretended to flick bits of dirt off his jacket. "What was wrong with them?"

"Covid," Yeosang blurted out. He let out a pained yelp as Jongho flicked him on the thigh.

"Covid!?" Hongjoong spun around to look at them.

"It wasn't covid, hyung," Yunho quickly reassured him, trying to remedy the situation before it turned too bad. "They just came down with a cold this morning. Seonghwa had it worse, so Wooyoung stayed with him."

"Not the other way, huh?" Hongjoong mused to himself. Wooyoung was known for having severe cases of "the man flu." His dramatics grew tenfold during these times, and he always let the whole dorm know it was the end of his time.

Hongjoong hadn't fallen for this lie, though. The members got colds all the time. It was common with so many people living in one place and especially when holding fan meets and constantly being in contact with hundreds of different people. But they often still went to concerts while being sick, so why would a cold stop them from leaving the dorm now? Normally, they would just pop a mask on and keep a bit of a distance. And it didn't explain why the members were acting so funny. Unless it had to do with the reason for the colds.

"So, I hope you all acted well for Seonghwa."

And that seemed to do it. If Hongjoong had thought the tension before was unbelievable, he was mistaken. The van became so quiet that Hongjoong was sure he could hear all their hearts pounding.