Bad Report

Chapter 3

Jaebum sat back on the couch, stunned from Yugyeom's outburst. He thought back over the entire encounter and could not find a moment where he could have provoked Yugyeom to such uncharacteristic anger. He shook his head and sighed, interrupted by his phone ringing. He let the moment go and answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey JB this is Mark. Listen, Yugyeom isn't home yet is he?"

"Yeah he is. And you should have seen it he just had a complete meltdown!"

"Oh no. This is not good. He's seen it then. Oh no-"

"What? Seen what?"

"...Are there any newspapers at home?"

"Yeah. How did you know? Yugyeom bought one. He threw a tantrum because I was reading the comics...why what's going on."

Mark sighed. "There's...there's a really bad article about him. Because of the awards show that aired a few days ago. Some bullcrap reporter wrote...some pretty terrible things. It even mentions that he might get kicked out of the group."

Jaebum gasped and tried to say something but Mark cut him off, "I've already called the company and that's not even an option. They are outraged and are doing everything they can to get that article revoked. We were hoping Yugyeom hadn't seen it yet."

Jaebum glanced in the direction of the hallway where Yugyeom had slammed his door about 10 minutes ago. "If he hadn't he definitely has now. He took the newspaper from me a while ago and went to his room with it."

"I'm on my way home with the boys but we won't be back for another half hour. You have to do something."

Jaebum sighed and rubbed his hand over his face, trying to think of anything he could do to make the situation better. "Okay. Did the article say anything else? Just that they didn't like his performance and that he may be out of the group."

There was silence on Mark's end for a moment. "No...there was more. They said something about a..."weight gain". And a whole bit on his singing...."bad" singing...and it suggested that we would lose fans because of it..."

Jaebum cursed under his breath. If he ever got his hands on that godforsaken reporter...
"Jaebum...you still there?"

"Yeah I'm here," Jaebum growled, "I'm gonna go talk to Yugyeom. And then I'm gonna kill whoever wrote that article."

"Jaebum-ah calm down. Yugyeom is already going to be very upset. You said he already had an outburst earlier. I think the best way to approach this is very, very gently. I know it's not your thing but try to be loving. He's just read that he's hurt the group."

Jaebum exhaled heavily, knowing that Mark was right. Sometimes he wondered where the older boy got his objective level-headedness.

 "Ok. You're right. I'll do my best. Don't worry hyung. I am the leader."

"I know you are." Mark responded gently. "We'll be home soon. Fighting."

"Ok. Fighting." Jaebum hung up his phone and put it back in his pocket. He took several deep breaths and focused his mind on Yugyeom instead of his anger. In the past, he had found that, as Mark advised, gentleness was the best way to deal with an upset Yugyeom. The boy got easily embarrassed and anything to forward would push him further into himself.

When Jaebum had calmed enough, he stood and walked to Yugyeom's door. He was about to knock when he heard it. Yugyeom crying. His anger flared up immediately. He wasn't just quietly crying, he was sobbing.

That is MY maknae and NOBODY makes him sound like that!

Jaebum gritted his teeth and fought every instinct within him to slam the door down as Yugyeom's sounds of anguish filtered into the hallway. He forced breaths out of his mouth slowly and waited until his heart rate slowed until he tried the knob.