Qiang comforts Juyeon
Qiang was breathing heavily as he exited the stage. This performance seemed to be harder than all the other ones even though there weren't any fancy tricks lingering throughout it. He noticed Juyeon off by himself and furiously rubbing his eyes.
Qiang frowned, making his way towards the blue-haired boy. "Juyeon-ah," he said as he approached him and that's all it took for the first tears to fall from his face. Qiang immediately stepped in front of him, not allowing the cameras to capture more than a half-second of his face. He was upset; he didn't need cameras shoved in his face.
"What's wrong?" Qiang hummed and by now, Sangyeon had made his way over along with Kevin. "I messed up. I didn't do it right." He said in between breaths and Kevin patted his shoulder. "It's alright! You can't even tell. You did really good." Sangyeon agreed with Kevin, assuring Juyeon he had done well and there was nothing to worry about.
Qiang wrapped his arm around the young boys shoulders, pulling him along with him. "They've already said it but you did do great, Juyeon-ssi." Juyeon smiled a little but Qiang knew he was still upset. "Yah," he said, stepping in front of him. He grabbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger, pulling his head up to meet his gaze.
"You're an amazing dancer and you did great. I didn't even know you had made a mistake. So, even if you did, you covered it damn well. No one noticed." Juyeon sighed and nodded, trailing along beside Qiang as they went back to the green room. He had calmed down some by the time they reached it, but Qiang knew in his head he was still beating himself up about it.
Once they had returned to the dorm, the others had wandered off for some much needed sleep or to shower. Qiang had to wake Haknyeon and Changmin and force them to take off their makeup. He ended up taking it off of course, the two boys could barely stand straight let alone keep their eyes open.
Once everyone was safely tucked away, Qiang headed to the kitchen and grabbed two freeze pops from the freezer. He found Juyeon sitting in the living room, staring out the window. He sat down next to him, Juyeon not even bothering to look over at who had joined him. "Here," Qiang held out the freeze pop to Juyeon.
Juyeon took it and opened it, keeping a comfortable silence between the two. "You shouldn't beat yourself up about it." Qiang said quietly after a few minutes. Juyeon sighed and his shoulders slumped a little bit. "How can I not? What if our points went down because I messed up? It's my fault. I went over it hundreds of times. I don't understand how I could mess it up."
Qiang leaned his head on the Juyeon's shoulder, humming. "We all mess up, Juyeon. It's life. We're not perfect. But I am here to tell you that you're pretty damn close to perfect." He teased and Juyeon cracked a smile and let a small chuckle escape his lips. "We're a team," Qiang said, "if we thought it was your fault, we would've told you. But everyone has told you how great you did."
Juyeon didn't say anything because Qiang was right. They were a team and if he had done something to royally screw everything up, he knows someone would have said something. All they had done since the shooting ended was comfort him and compliment him. "I hate that your almost always right."
"Almost?!" Qiang said in mock surprise and Juyeon chuckled, bumping his shoulder. "Yeah. Sometimes we just let you think you're right because you're impossible to deal with when you're sulky." Qiang scoffed as Juyeon smiled widely. "Whatever. Eat your ice cream and go to bed." Juyeon laughed, poking his cheek. "See? Sulky."
Qiang pushed his hand away and Juyeon laughed. "Are we not telling anyone we broke the diet tonight?" He asked and Qiang mentally face palmed. He wanted to comfort Juyeon and totally threw the diet out of his mind. It was his favorite flavor of freeze pop and Qiang knew it would make him at least a little happier.
"I won't tell if you don't," he said and Juyeon thought about it. "Maybe if you stop sulking I won't tell. Goodnight!" He sprinted off to his room as Qiang glared daggers into his back.
"YAH!"