The day had finally come.

Lan Yu could read the tension on everyone's faces; even Luke and Kaede, who usually looked effortless, were sweating a little over today. In half an hour their debut single would drop, and the company had booked a massive venue for their showcase; even as they sat backstage waiting, the monitor feeds showed a sea of fans already in their seats.

As rookies, it was impossible to say there wasn't any fear—especially for someone like Lan Yu. Maybe it was the power of suggestion, but he could feel his old injuries ache in a dull throb, the sensation sharpening as the minutes ticked by. He realized he was afraid of the uncertainty this stage might bring.

"Yu, you okay?" Luke had come up beside him without his noticing.

"Is it okay to say not really?" Lan Yu kept a strained smile. "Leader-nim, you're worried too, aren't you?"

"Ah." Caught out, Luke looked a little sheepish. "Didn't think you'd notice, Yu. I didn't think I'd be nervous either; I figured after so many rehearsals there wouldn't be much left to worry about."

"No matter how much you rehearse, it's not the final presentation," Lan Yu said, glancing at Luke. "No one cares how much you put in along the way; they only care about how you perform at the end."

"There you go again, Yu." Luke reined his nerves in and tried to reassure him. "Either way we've practiced enough—if we just do it like we always do, we'll be fine."

"It's fine." Lan Yu tipped his head up to check the time—five minutes to six. "We can start worrying about our digital chart ranking instead."

Sitting in the back with his phone, their manager already looked stormy; at Lan Yu's words he went darker still. Then the realtime ranking flashed up—only in the four hundred-something—and "bad" didn't begin to describe his face.

"Well, now all we have to worry about is whether we'll mess up onstage," Lan Yu joked; seeing the number somehow eased him a little.

"Yu, why do you seem almost happier?" Luke asked, noticing him loosen up.

"Mm—" He knew it was a strange attitude, but couldn't think of a better way to put it. "Guess it's about what I expected."

"So you've had that little faith in our song all along, Yu?" Luke hooked an arm around his shoulders, teasing.

Lan Yu glanced around, then lowered his voice so only Luke could hear. "Leader-nim, you don't think our song is... pretty average?"

Luke hadn't expected that level of brutal honesty here of all places; it stunned him speechless. After a quick, nervous check that no one else had heard, he whispered back, "Yu, how can you say that here?"

Lan Yu couldn't help finding his face funny. "I'm just telling the truth. The lyrics especially—who did we even buy them from? The credit just says 'Honk Shon'. Feels like no one seriously vetted the words, and they just went ahead and arranged and produced."

"Okay, okay." Luke hadn't expected he'd ever have to worry about Yu saying the wrong thing. "At least don't say that here, Yu. If someone hears, we're done. And you're about to perform that 'pretty average' song you just dissed."

"What 'pretty average'?" Kaede had come up without them noticing and dropped the line out of nowhere, making Luke jump.

"niisan," Lan Yu, who'd spotted him coming, asked, "don't you think our lead single isn't very distinctive?"

Luke was shocked enough that Lan Yu would say it so baldly; even more shocking, Kaede answered without hesitation: "Yeah."

"Even you think that, Kaede?" Luke said, palm to forehead.

"Leader-nim, you don't?" Lan Yu looked at him, earnest.

"Well..." Luke stammered. "At least it's a passable pop song?"

"I can't really imagine a song like this doing all that well," Lan Yu shrugged. "Being passable isn't enough."

Knowing that if Lan Yu kept going and the manager heard it would get ugly, Luke hurried to pivot. "By the way, our group reality show updated—have you watched it, Yu?"

"It's up already? I haven't had time yet." Lan Yu knew Luke was switching topics, but he played along.

"Why so little interest in our team schedule, huh?" Luke pinched his cheek like a mock punishment.

"Sorry, sorry," Lan Yu said, a little muffled with Luke pinching his face. "I don't really like watching things I'm in, and our schedule's been so packed—I forgot about it."

"I didn't watch either," Kaede cut in, making both of them look over—Lan Yu more in shock, Luke only so he could reach out and pinch Kaede's cheek too, though Kaede dodged him.

"What's with you two? It's our first group reality show—you could at least show up as viewers." Luke pulled up the link and shoved his phone between them, bracketing their shoulders to make them watch with him.

"Of course they used that bit as a highlight—and slapped on ridiculous effects." The clip ended quickly; Lan Yu hadn't expected them to replay the shot of him handing Luke milk from every angle.

Luke pocketed the phone. "It was the company's plan from the start—they weren't going to pass up a topic like that."

"True." Lan Yu looked at Luke's blank expression. "But doesn't it feel weird to you, Leader-nim?"

Luke tilted his head, puzzled. "Why would it?"

"I don't know either." Lan Yu shrugged. "Maybe I'm just not used to the camera yet. It feels like we're deliberately performing our relationship for camera."

"Are you acting when you're with me, Yu?" Luke asked, curious.

"No. My acting isn't that good," Lan Yu said honestly. He thought, with acting that clumsy, nothing would stay hidden on camera anyway.

Luke seemed satisfied; the arm already slung over Lan Yu's shoulders tightened, pulling him closer until their cheeks touched. "Then it's real when you're with me. That's enough."

"If that's how you want to think about it, Leader-nim, then think that." Truth be told, Lan Yu was used to Luke's unreserved touchiness by now; it felt like exactly the way Luke should be.

Then Luke veered off. "Why do you always call me Leader-nim?"

Lan Yu didn't really get the out-of-left-field question, but Luke being random was like his being handsy—nothing new. He chuckled and lobbed a question back. "Aren't you my leader?"

"But you always call Kaede niisan."

"He is my niisan, after all." Lan Yu understood even less why Luke cared—especially with that pout of his getting higher.

"But when you say niisan, everyone knows you mean Kaede—not anyone else."

"I say it in Japanese on purpose—hard to confuse, right."

"But Yu only calls Kaede niisan," Luke pouted, lips pushed out. Lan Yu snorted a laugh. "Well, 'Leader-nim' is just for you."

"...I guess that's true." Luke's pout eased a little.

"Since when did you start chasing being the special one, Leader-nim?" Lan Yu couldn't help wondering what went on in Luke's head.

"Feels like being the one who's special to you would be happy," Luke answered without thinking, the pout still not fully gone.

Lan Yu couldn't hold back a smile; he smoothed his expression and said, "I think that's because that person deserves happiness on his own, not because I think he's special."

"Why do you sound more like the one delivering lectures than me, Yu?" Luke stared wide-eyed at him, as if Lan Yu were a middle-aged man in a young shell.

"Sorry about that," Knowing exactly what Luke's look meant, Lan Yu rolled his eyes. "I'm just the old-at-heart type."

Luke ignored the eye-roll and, out of nowhere, said, "It's exactly because you're like that that you're special to me, Yu."

"Huh?" Lan Yu wanted to pry open Luke's head and see how it worked. "You say scary things, Leader-nim. Am I supposed to be thanking you?"

"If you're going to thank me, how would you do it?" Luke tilted his head at him.

"Mm—" Lan Yu had forgotten how Luke fixated on the wrong part; but since he'd been asked—and he did owe him—he thought it over. "I promised niisan we'd hit the convenience store behind the building after we get back to the dorm and grab something to eat. Do you want to come, Leader-nim?"

"Really? I'm in!" Luke practically bounced, no trace of his earlier stage anxiety left.

Lan Yu couldn't help laughing. Dinner together was worth that much excitement? And it was just a convenience store.

He tilted his head past Luke to look at Kaede. "niisan, you don't mind, right?"

"Hyeongs, it's time to head onstage now," Cheol-seong called from the side, cutting the conversation short.

Before Lan Yu could hear Kaede's answer, Luke grabbed both their hands and tugged them toward the wings.

"Here we go—time to take the stage."