Main members: Heeseung, Niki

Other members: Enhypen

Request/Idea - Agu2468

~~~

8 hours. Yep, 8 hours. For 8 hours Heeseung had been sitting in the living room since the group's joint schedule ended, waiting for their youngest to come back to the dorm. Enhypen arrived at their respective dorms at around 8:30pm and Heeseung hadn't done much except for waiting for Niki to come home. It was now just past 4:00am and Heeseung was long past annoyed with how late it was taking Niki to get back to the dorm. Now why was the oldest so irritated towards the maknae's behaviour?

Well, it wasn't just this one time that Niki happened to be coming home later than the rest of the group but a common occurrence during the past little while. It also wasn't just Niki coming home late but also him leaving earlier to Belift when they had individual schedules. He'd leave earlier some days, focus a little more on himself other days and come back to the dorm late almost everyday. And explaining the basics of it doesn't seem like that big of a deal but going deeper into it, that's when it became clearer why Heeseung was annoyed. Niki's behaviour and actions have been getting increasingly worse–at least in Heeseung's eyes–and he was fully ready to do something about it.

Niki finally made his appearance when, at 4:06am, the front door opened and he quietly made his way through, bag in hand like every other time this happened. Heeseung stood up from his spot and casually strolled towards Niki with full intentions of not really lecturing him but angrily telling him off about what's been happening. Niki didn't realize Heeseung was right behind him as the lights were off (neither idol turned them on) and for some strange reason, didn't expect him to still be up. The first couple days he came back late at night, the others were up and concerned about where he was. That stopped and hadn't started again so Niki thought they just didn't care that much anymore or simply fell asleep before he came back. So when the lights switched on and his oldest hyung spoke, he understandably got frightened.

"Well, this is the latest you've gotten back. Care to explain why you're coming home at" Heeseung paused to look at the time, "fucking 4:07am?"

Niki turned around, coming face-to-face with both Heeseung and his anger which was not something he wanted to deal with, "Okay, Hyung, listen–"

"Is what you're about to say incredibly closely related to what you told me and the others the first couple times this happened? Because, and let me save you the energy,... it's been pissing me off quite a lot lately" the other interrupted with a harsh tone.

A pang of irritation mixed with discomfort hit Niki's heart. He didn't know that what he was doing was having this kind of effect on the older.

"Wait– so... you mean you're mad at me staying back late at the company?" Niki slightly raised his voice, feeling as if they were on the verge of a bad argument.

"I think I'm making that pretty clear" Heeseung responded, "Am I not?"

"I don't see why you'd be mad at me for something this small. All I'm really doing while staying back so late is following my schedule. I've gotten so much busier and there isn't any room to adjust things."

"Let me state the obvious: You have way more responsibilities and priorities in this group than just staying back at the company" he replied, putting a slight emphasis on the 'way'.

Niki scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Okay, hyung. And what might these be?"

"By staying back at the company without telling the other members, it makes it seem like you're really just slacking off and being selfish" Heeseung brought up his hand to start counting, "You've never been this busy before so your position can't be that important–"

"How the hell does following my schedule and living like any other busy idol count as me being 'selfish' and 'slacking off'?!" Niki raised his voice even more, which led to Heeseung raising his voice to follow.

"Because being in a group means you're not focusing on just yourself but also the other members. And~ we don't have an upcoming break so we're not supposed to be doing whatever we want–which is exactly what you make it seem like you're doing."

"That doesn't mean I can't do that though."

"Yeah, it doesn't but it also doesn't mean you can't be doing it all the time!"

At this point, both Niki and Heeseung were full-on yelling and having woken up Jay and Sunghoon but without realizing. The two 02z members were just watching their argument from the hallway meters away behind Heeseung, staying silent and motionless.

"That's not what I'm doing, hyung! You're just not listening to me!"

"You just don't wanna admit it, that's what you're doing! Yet another example that you're being selfish and slacking off while me and everyone else have to do all the work–" Heeseung started but got interrupted by Niki.

"God dammit, Heeseung! If you just let me explain more–" roles were reversed and it was Heeseung this time who interrupted Niki.

"No. Niki, this has been going on for way too long and it baffles me that it's gone on this long without something being done! You need to focus more on the other members, not yourself. You've been doing that way too much. Actually go and do something for once, do some of the stuff your hyungs always have to do because you don't do anything! You don't do anything for us because you've been so focused on yourself lately by staying back. That's what you have to do, not what you're currently doing! That's your position in this group! Those are your responsibilities! Your life isn't that hard nor is it important so please... just do something for once!" the words came out of Heeseung's mouth faster than they appeared in his mind.

Time stood still for a few seconds after Heeseung finished and everyone was trying to understand what just happened. It resumed when Niki–who switched his gaze to the floor after Heeseung was done–took a couple steps back and stared. Never, at any point during their argument, did it cross Niki's mind that Heeseung was gonna say something like this, something that hurt him so much. This was also when that pang from earlier came back except way stronger and the irritation switched out with heartbreak. Heeseung's words hurt so much, so badly that Niki started wondering if he would still like him after all this.

"Wow" Niki's voice immediately lowered to just over a whisper, "Heeseung, I–... *Sigh* that really hurt."

"Niki.." Heeseung paused and stepped towards the maknae.

Niki took another step back, "No, hyung. I just... I really wish you would've listened to what I was saying before going off like that. Would've made it easier if you actually knew what I was going through."

"I was trying but it just got off track. That's all" he tried reasoning but it wasn't helping one bit.

"You started arguing and yelling at me, hyung" the younger shook his head, "That's not what trying to understand my situation is."

Heeseung was stuck, he wasn't sure what to do. He wasn't thinking at all about what he was saying then, just speaking whatever words appeared in his mind that made somewhat sense to what he previously said. His mind basically went on autopilot–a switch got turned on in his brain when he saw Niki walk through that door and it hadn't been turned off. But now that that switch was turned off, Heeseung still couldn't do anything. His brain didn't wanna work even under his control.

That's when Niki looked back up at Heeseung with a possible idea to fix what just happened but he wasn't confident in it at all. He proposed the idea to the older who at first gave a look like Niki just spoke in a foreign language; he was so confused that it barely made any sense. When Niki went on to explain it though and how everything would work, Heeseung understood a bit more and soon ended up agreeing. This was something that they needed to tell the others because just doing it would confuse them just like with Heeseung which was when Jay and Sunghoon revealed themselves watching the whole thing. Hearing the choice to tell the members today because of the time they were gonna start, Jay offered to head over to the other dorm to bring over those members.

Jake, Sunoo and Jungwon all walked into the dorm a couple minutes later, clearly having just woken up and unhappy with being up so early. Jay motioned for the trio to join the rest of the group in the living room, where Sunghoon was sitting on one of the couches and Heeki were both standing. The four sat down in the remaining spots on both couches and gestured for the oldest and maknae to start talking.

"So" Heeseung started, "Starting tomorrow and for that whole week, me and Niki are gonna be switching lives with each other."

"Huh?!" yeah, that seemed to have woken up all three of them.

"Yep. For the next 7 days, Heeseung hyung and I are gonna be living as each other; switching everything about our lives" Niki continued.

"So... how's that gonna work though?" Jake asked, "And how will we know you guys aren't pranking us?"

"We're gonna talk with our manager about switching our schedules for the week. And for the pranking, Jay and Sunghoon already heard us decide this so they can back us up" Heeseung replied and looked over at the duo he mentioned, both of them nodding.

Jungwon slowly nodded, "Okay... but are you sure that managernim will be able to switch your schedules?"

"We'll make sure he does" Niki spoke bluntly.

Sunghoon, Sunoo, Jake, Jungwon and Jay all had to ask Heeki some more questions just to be absolutely sure about this. For Heeseung and Niki, they ended up briefly explaining why they decided to switch lives which made everything make a lot more sense. Yeah, it was gonna be hard to actually get their manager to do this and it was probably gonna take the whole day to confirm everything but both Heeseung and Niki were set in stone about this. They weren't gonna budge. The better thing about this though was that Niki hopped Heeseung would be able to take back all he said about him.

"Have fun, hyung~" Niki taunted before leaving and heading towards his room.

~ The next day ~

Heeseung struggled to wake up when the annoying ringing of his alarm filled up the absence of sound in his room. He cracked his eyes open just enough to see his phone's screen lit up, missed several times trying to turn it off but eventually stopped the noise. Getting out of bed was the harder part. Looking at the time, Heeseung was momentarily confused when he saw it read 5:02am and took a bit until remembering the events of yesterday, which led him to have to wake up so early. The idol rolled out of bed, catching himself on his nightstand before he fell onto the floor. His eyes were taking a while to adjust to the light so he turned it right back off and got ready in the dark instead. With the darkness having now returned and his eyes finally adjusting, Heeseung got back to getting ready.

Heeseung left his room, also not being used to the silence he was greeted with. Usually by the time he woke up, Jay and Niki were already up and during these past weeks, Niki would already have left the dorm. But not this time. Nope. This time it was just Heeseung, all alone while still feeling groggy and his brain still a bit fuzzy. While Heeseung was making himself breakfast, his phone lit up again with a similar ringtone accompanying it. The idol immediately recognized the phone number as their manager's and wasted no time in answering it. Whatever their manager was gonna say would hopefully wake Heeseung up enough to function that morning.

"Hmm? Why are you calling so early?"

"Hi, Heeseung. This is about yours and Niki's decision to switch for the week. So, the company Niki had a photoshoot with today had to make a couple arrangements for the rest of the week and upcoming photoshoots with you. Some of them were moved around and you have another photoshoot planned before the one you originally had. Some of the staff are coming over to your dorm right now to come get you for the shoot"

Heeseung fell speechless as the manager's voice called out for Heeseung from the other side. He heard the faint calls after a minute and snapped out of his trance, bringing his phone back up to his ear to respond.

"Heeseung? Heeseung, are you still there? This won't be any sort of problem for you, will it?"

"Yeah! Uhh... yeah, I am. But, no... umm... yeah, no. I'm almost done getting ready anyways" Heeseung ended off with a nervous chuckle.

"Great. Well then, they should be there soon."

And with that, their manager ended the call which brought on the panic that Heeseung was trying to hide behind the device. At the mention of another photoshoot being added before the first one and the staff were already coming to get the idol revealed a whole lot of concerns and worries. Heeseung was still making breakfast for himself and planned to eat it there but wasn't gonna finish on time so now he was rushing to clean everything and just find something edible from their fridge. Besides breakfast, he wasn't done getting ready yet with some other things and had yet to do those other things. To top it all off, none of the members were awake yet so Heeseung was still trying to keep as quiet as possible.

During both photoshoots, Heeseung was slightly struggling to keep his eyes open as the effects of less sleep had already started to hit. The bright lights, constant moving around, directions from the staff were all doing well in keeping the idol awake but not stopping him from feeling tired. Heeseung internally cheered when the staff let him take a 15 minute break before they started with the second shoot. He rushed into his dressing room, laid face-first onto the couch and slept for the whole 15 minutes. And when he was woken up for the second photoshoot, he was even more tired than when he fell asleep. It was almost like Heeseung hadn't gotten any sleep at all and just laid on the couch, waiting for time to pass.

After the two photoshoots, it was just past 8:00am and Heeseung had dance practice & making choreo next on the schedule. He was a little skeptical about stuff like this as Niki was the better one at coming up with choreo but their rule was to switch everything–and that included making choreo. This was probably the thing Heeseung was gonna struggle with the most and it showed quite prominently as he could barely come up with anything. Everything Heeseung came up with was either bad (in his opinion) or he forgot it right after he came up with it. That ended at around 10:00am, when the rest of Enhypen entered the practice room. Niki and Heeseung locked eyes and Niki could see the look of regret in his hyung's eyes.

"How's it going so far living as Niki, hyung?" Jake asked Heeseung when they got a short water break.

"Not good, Jake. Not good" Heeseung shook his head, "It's only been 5 hours but I'm already so tired. I have no idea how Niki manages to do this."

Jake shrugged, taking a sip of water, "Well, umm... not sure what to say but good luck, at least."

"Thanks, Jakey" Heeseung put up a fake smile.

~ Timeskip to 4:00am ~

Heeseung was finally let off of his schedule at 4:00am and he was beyond happy to just head back to the dorm and go to bed. He was so regretful about what he told Niki about his responsibilities, about his position and role in the group. Now that he'd experienced what Niki's been doing all this time, he understood the maknae's side so much better during their argument. He had to apologize to Niki right when he saw him. That's why as soon as their dorm building came into view, Heeseung rushed into the building and up the stairs to his dorm. He unlocked the door and found the maknae sitting on the couch, seemingly waiting for the oldest. It was like déjà vu (we love txt, ateez and nct dream), the exact scene that brought on their choice to switch.

"Well, now look who's coming back at 4:00am" Niki got up and made his way towards Heeseung.

Instead of giving a proper response to the younger, Heeseung just started spouting out apology after apology.

"God, Niki. I'm so, so sorry. Today was absolutely exhausting, I have no idea how you do this every. single. day. I take back everything I said about you. I don't mean any of that anymore. I hated today– I hated today so damn much. It was so tiring having to wake up so early, barely have any break, come back home so late..." Heeseung droned on and on about how sorry he was for everything he said, starting to pace back and forth.

"Heeseung... Heeseung. Heeseung!" Niki grabbed the older's arm, making him immediately stop moving.

"I'm really sorry, Niki. I should've never said any of that stuff to you" he repeated.

"I know, hyung" Niki chuckled, "You've been apologizing and venting to me for the past 5 minutes. I'm just glad you agreed to do this."

"I promise I'll never say or do anything like that again– wait" Heeseung interrupted himself, "Does that mean that you'll at some point forgive me."

"Ehh, I'm not sure. It feels good to know that you regret what you said and that you now know what it's been like for me for the past month but I don't know how long it'll take for me to forgive you" Niki shrugged, letting go of Heeseung's wrist and taking a step back.

The oldest agreed, "Yeah, that's fair. What about us switching lives, then?"

"I think we should keep doing it. You do kinda deserve it."

"That– That is also fair."

Since both idols were exhausted, they both went to bed but not before Niki helped take care of Heeseung for a bit. Although Heeseung did deserve to feel that way, the older still had the rest of the week where he'd be living like Niki and if today was any indication, the next 6 days would be hell for the oldest. It was an indication because for the rest of the week, Heeseung wasn't having the best of times but he was having fun annoying Niki by living and acting like him. And damn was Niki having fun acting like Heeseung. They'd constantly banter with each other, joke around with each other in their free time but by the end of the week, Heeki were more than happy to switch back.

~~~

WC: 3174

I got my exam results yesterday... so glad I didn't manage to fail my history exam. It also means that starting Monday, I'll be done with history for the rest of highschool. Thank fucking god bc lemme just say something, I do not like history at all.

🎂 Happy Birthday to Beomhan! 🎂

Song recommendation: 'Pacemaker' by Stray Kids