Dance practice had ended up lasting an hour longer than it had originally been scheduled to be, and despite everyone being tired to some degree – with some to the point where they would happily lay down on the dirty floor and fall asleep right there – no one had opened their mouth to voice a single complaint. The ones that still were to be drained of the remaining energy they had were perhaps fine with the extra hour as it meant more time they could dedicate to perfecting a move, while the ones that had reached the bottom of their reserves were most likely too tired to state their thoughts.

Their next comeback was approaching with steady – but faster than they would have wanted – steps, and the constant stream of long and tiring workdays frequently resulted in daydreams where they would yearn for the sleep their schedules never seemed to let them get enough of. The daydreams – regardless of how pleasant they were – only deepened their desires for the thing they would not be able to get in the foreseeable future as they wouldn’t be allowed to slack off during the preparations and promotions of the album. Their hours would be spent on vocal lessons – so they would be able to sing the songs to a T when half-awake if asked to – and hours upon hours in the practice room – so the choreographies to their new songs as well as their old songs would be drilled into their brains – not on sleeping even though that was all their bodies were begging them for.

Hoseok and Jimin were the only ones out of the seven of them who were still standing and were in the slow process of going step by step through the choreography to Fire. It had been a long time since they had had to perform it in front of a crowd, and because it was one of the songs that had been put on all three of the setlists for the upcoming tour they wanted to make sure they had everything down and would be able to execute the dance perfectly.

Jungkook who would usually have joined in on the extra practice instead lay on the floor with Taehyung, his head resting on his hyung’s stomach and listening to the other’s heartbeat while said hyung was slowly beginning to drift off, the elder’s fingers were carefully playing with the younger’s delicate strands of hair but would every few seconds still as he would descend further into the sweet embrace of sleep.

Seokjin and Namjoon were sitting side by side leaning against the wall opposite of the floor to ceiling mirrors. The elder of the two was resting his head on the taller male’s shoulder, both of his eyes closed and mouth open in an attempt to get more oxygen down into his deprived lungs, and the leader was gazing around the room with tired eyes and a half empty water bottle clutched weakly in his right hand.

Yoongi – like the rest of the members – was tired, but his level of tiredness had gotten to the point where it felt like the fatigue had taken up permanent residence in his bones. The thought of taking a nap was a regular thing that crossed his mind, but he never let it become reality no matter how inviting it sounded to his brain as he knew that if he were to close his eyes and give in for even just a few minutes there would be no chance that he would have the will nor the strength to get himself up again. His body would despite the signals his brain was sending out refuse all movement and lay still on the cool floor of the practice room so his feverish skin could soak up all the cold from the floor.

If he were to lay down and give in to the thought he would end up staying on the floor until the others announced practice was over. He would let the others carry his exhausted body to the car despite the organ in his head screaming at him that he needed to wake up, and he would let them tug him into bed even though his mind was yelling that there were important things that he needed to finish before he could allow himself the luxury of letting the world around him melt away into nothing.

The deep-set exhaustion he had been enduring these last couple of weeks somehow felt heavier than all the other times in the past where he had experienced it – which was weird seeing as their schedules at the current moment compared to the ones they had had back then were roughly the same – and he hadn’t understood why at first, but the more he thought about it the more it made sense to his sleep deprived brain. Every single day – except for the days where he was dragged back to the dorm by the others because he didn’t have the energy to say no – he would stay back at the company and lock himself in his studio until the early hours of the morning where he would then proceed to drag himself back to the dorm unless he didn’t have the energy to do so in which case he would crash on the old couch in the corner of his studio.

He knew the stress he was putting himself under wasn’t doing him any favors, but he couldn’t just stop doing the things that were causing the pressure he was experiencing. This wasn’t something that he could just push aside and pick back up later when the bumps in the road had been fixed. And because of it the amount of sleep he had been getting a night had been reduced drastically over the last 3 weeks, and it was physically showing as dark circles had formed under his eyes and quickly gotten so dark that he at this point to avoid questions had to apply concealer every single day and cross his fingers that nobody would comment about his sudden decision to start wearing makeup when it wasn’t required. His muscles had begun to hurt as well whenever he would move a lot over longer periods of time, which meant that a lot of their dance practices would begin to feel like torture towards the end. It was honestly a wonder that he hadn’t collapsed yet.

On top of all of those things he wasn’t feeling well and hadn’t been for the last couple of days, he had been able to play his sluggishness off as him just being more tired than usual because of comeback preparations, but during the last couple of days – around the same time his health started to decline – it had become harder to keep the act up of him being fine.

His stomach hadn’t stopped churning for the last hour and a half and the small breakfast he had forced down that morning was threatening to come back up, which was why he was at the current moment crouching down in front of his bag – which he had thrown a plastic bag inside the week prior in case a predicament like the one he was experiencing were to happen – with his back turned to the others and an arm around his complaining stomach.

He felt like he was less than a minute away from puking the contents of his stomach out onto the floor, and was on the verge of silently excusing himself to the bathroom so he would be in front of a toilet when the inevitable eventually happened when a voice a voice abruptly cut through the thin wall of the soundless bubble his mind in his distress had attempted to form around him as a protective layer between his inaudible anguish and the rest of the world.

“Everyone grab your stuff, I think we can all agree that it’s time to stop for today and get home, so get ready and I’ll try to get ahold of one of the manager hyungs,” Namjoon said, voice sounding less tired than his appearance would make you believe he was, and put the now empty water bottle in his hand down on the floor a little off to the side so he could get himself off the floor and help Seokjin – who was waking up from the short slumber he had managed to fall into – get up.

Yoongi breathed a sigh of relief at the news that the others would be going home as it meant they wouldn’t be around to see him throw up, but immediately regretted doing so as the building nausea turned up several notches and he found himself quietly gagging. His hands automatically went to frantically search through his bag only to quickly find out that someone had been in it sometime between last night and this morning as the plastic bag he had been looking for was gone and a medium sized tupperware container that hadn’t previously been there was taking up space in one of the corners.

He could feel as partially digested bits of his small breakfast started to creep up his throat and had to slam his hand over his mouth to avoid spitting out the substance that was beginning to find its way into his mouth. It may have tasted okay when he ate it this morning, but he couldn’t say the same thing about it now when it was making a reappearance in his mouth after hours of having been submerged in his stomach acid.

He wanted to spit it out so badly and rid his mouth of the foul-tasting matter that the things he knew would immediately follow his hastily made decision didn’t seem all that bad in the moment. In the end he reluctantly swallowed the chunky pieces back down and his body gave a shudder when he felt it slide back down his esophagus.

By the time Yoongi raised his head again Namjoon had left the room to find one of their managers so they could have someone drive them back to the dorm, Seokjin had his hands full with the two youngest members because they had been too tired to move on their own and therefore needed someone to carry them – which was why the eldest was now stuck carrying the maknae in his arms and the second youngest on his back as if the two of them were the same sizes they had been back during the group’s debut – and Jimin and Hoseok had finished their run-through of Fire and were snickering at their eldest hyung who – albeit them not putting in any effort to be quiet – weren’t able to hear their laughter because Taehyung was mumbling gibberish into his ears.

“YAH! Are you two going to help at all?! Go pick up our bags or I swear I’ll make sure you won’t eat meat for a week!” Seokjin practically screamed at the two dancers when he – after having struggled to turn around with the added weight of Taehyung and Jungkook on his back – discovered the two giggling idiots.

Yoongi’s hands had automatically raised to cover his ears when Seokjin’s booming voice had shot through his sensitive ear canals with a shrill cry, but he lowered them again not long after when he realized the action wasn’t going to benefit him any more than not covering them would as the eldest was no longer yelling.

The two members of the dance line begrudgingly walked towards the corner of the room where they had all dumped their bags when they had arrived. Unfortunately for Yoongi – whose stomach had quieted down but was still slushing dangerously – that was where he had decided to go when his body had started acting up.

Hoseok and Jimin turned to each other and exchanged matching worried looks when they got closer to the bags and it registered in their brains that the eldest rapper wasn’t looking too good.

Hoseok was considered one of the most caring members in their close-knit group, so when they had gotten in close enough proximity to the elder he had crouched down and placed his right hand onto the rapper’s left shoulder. He had just wanted to make sure the other was alright, but perhaps it would have been best to announce themselves before initiating contact as the elder had been staring off into space and had seemed to be unaware that him and Jimin had approached him.

The small flinch forward Yoongi’s body made at his touch shouldn’t have been as worrying to them as it had been since they knew the elder was just coming back to his senses after having been whisked away by his thoughts, but they couldn’t stop the concern from seeping in and setting root in their minds.

Hoseok’s mouth turned into a frown as the two dancers turned to look at each other.

“Hyung? Are you okay? Is there anything Hoseok hyung or I can help with?” Jimin asked in a low and caring voice from where he was crouched down on Yoongi’s right side. He reluctantly let his left hand touch down on Yoongi’s back, afraid that the rapper would react the same way towards his touch as he had with Hoseok’s, but when the other didn’t move away or show any additional signs of discomfort he began moving his hands in circles on the second eldest’s lower back. He could feel the bumps of Yoongi’s spine beneath his hand despite the layer of fabric between his and the other’s skin but didn’t open his mouth to say anything.

He may not have been the first one of the members to notice that something was wrong, but that didn’t mean that he was any less concerned about the elder’s wellbeing. He could see that the elder had lost weight and with his hand on the other’s back he could feel it as well with the way the vertebrae in his hyung’s back was poking out more than what could be considered healthy. He could see that Yoongi was considerably more tired nowadays despite all the high-end concealer he would cover himself with and the energized front he attempted to put on whenever he was in the presence of the other members, and his worry for the elder only grew greater the more nights he would wake up at 3am to the sound of the front door slamming shut. There had been a lot of times where he had wanted to tell Namjoon or Seokjin about the second eldest always coming home late into the night, but whenever he got the chance to pull either of them aside so he could express his concern for the rapper he would hesitate for a moment too long and the window of opportunity would disappear.

“I’m fine Jimin-ah. Hyung’s just a little tired, but we all are. There’s nothing to worry about,” Yoongi said dismissively, trying to keep his mental and physical discomfort from coating his words. His dongsaengs had more important things to do than hover worryingly around him because he hadn’t taken proper care of himself and had gotten sick, so to keep up the pretense that nothing was wrong he carefully drew back from his bag, keeping his body slightly curled in on itself so he could continue relieving the pressure threatening to make him spill his breakfast onto the floor.

When Yoongi raised his head and looked to the left he was met with Hoseok’s concerned eyes staring back at him. In an attempt to reassure the other rapper he dropped his left arm from where it had been loosely wrapped around his midsection and patted the younger’s thigh. His lips stretched into a small smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

”Are you sure hyung?” Hoseok asked the elder and covered the cold hand on his exposed thigh with his own two warm ones in an attempt at helping restore warmth to it.

During the beginning of dance practice he had been quick to notice the way his hyung was forcing his body to go through the movements of their choreography, every move lacking its usual power, muscle memory seeming to be the only reason the second eldest was still able to keep up with the rest of them. He saw how the other would trip over his own feet only to immediately get back into the routine like nothing had happened and how he would shake his head as if something was obscuring his vision. He hadn’t said anything at the time or even pulled the elder aside during their water breaks to question him about it, he had simply passed it off as the elder’s mind still clinging on to sleep as the rapper had dozed off during the drive to the company, but looking at the other’s unusually pale complexion now he could see that doing so had been a mistake.

“Is everything okay over here? Yoongi-yah?” Yoongi heard Seokjin ask from somewhere behind him, but he didn’t turn around to face the other, uneasy about the possibility that the small action would further aggravate his turning stomach.

Jimin’s hand stopped its ministrations on Yoongi’s lower back when he twisted his body so he would be able to see the eldest member without worsening his neck’s condition by attempting to mimic an owl, but picked it back up again once he had gotten settled in his new position. His eyes locked with Seokjin’s the moment he raised his head, but a second later the eldest broke the connection and both of their gazes drifted back to Yoongi.

“I’m fine hyung,” Yoongi told the elder before either of the dancers next to him got to open their mouths and say something that would increase the amount of concern dripping from his hyung’s words.

When it registered how unusually calm his stomach had become he unfurled his upper body – pulling the hand Hoseok was gripping back and accidentally knocking off the hand Jimin was using to draw circles on his back in the process – and moved to get off the floor as this was his chance to get to his studio. However, before he had gotten to move more than 3 inches off the floor, Hoseok and Jimin had each respectively hooked one of their arms underneath his thin ones and were pulling him up, not letting his shaky legs support any of his weight.

Yoongi, surprised by the two members’ action, let them lift him up without complaint, but drew his arms back to his sides as soon as he felt like he could somewhat support himself again without needing their help.

“I’m going to the studio. I’ll probably be home late so don’t wait up for me,” Yoongi said and cast his eyes to the floor to avoid the three other members gazes before hurriedly making his way out of the room, he heard Seokjin’s yell but ignored it and let the door fall shut behind him. He knew his comment and abrupt exit from the room had been unnecessary as none of the members could force him to go back to the dorm with them if he didn’t want to, but he had had no control over it, his mouth had just started spewing words without his consent and his legs had carried him away from the others as if they had a mind of their own.

“Yoongi-yah! You forgot your!–“ Before Seokjin got to finish his sentence the door slammed shut and he was left staring along with Hoseok and Jimin who had turned to follow the rapper with their eyes the moment he began walking, “bag…” the eldest finished lamely. He had already guessed that the younger would spend the evening in his studio once again, so he had sneaked a tupperware box filled with leftovers from the day prior into the rapper’s bag this morning before they left, but it seemed now that doing so had all been for nothing.

”I’ll give Yoongi hyung his bag,” Jimin said and turned around to pick the rapper’s forgotten bag off the floor. When he looked back around to face Seokjin, the eldest gave him a small smile and nodded his head towards the door in a `go ahead´ motion.

“Be quick,” Seokjin told the younger, who replied back with an `okay´ just before the door slammed shut for the second time that day.

“Hyung! Wait up!” Jimin called after Yoongi, but the elder continued walking, eventually turning a corner and disappearing out of the younger’s sight. The singer sped up his pace so he could close the distance between them, but the elder only seemed to get further away.

“Hyung!” Jimin yelled but Yoongi still didn’t respond. The hallway was empty and there were no other sounds than their footsteps so the other should be able to hear him clearly. Was his hyung ignoring him?

Yoongi had heard Jimin call after him and he felt bad for ignoring him, but the humiliation he knew he would feel if he stopped walking and let the younger catch up to him was greater than the guilt. Originally he had been heading for the nearest toilet because the nausea swirling around in his stomach had started acting up before he had gotten to even take 2 steps out of the practice room, but then the singer had left the others to follow after him and he’d had to change his course because the bathrooms weren’t soundproof and he didn’t want the other to hear him throw up as that would only further cement it to the younger that he wasn’t fine.

He could see the door to his studio in the distance but could also hear Jimin’s approaching steps behind him, the noise of the other’s feet slapping against the floor sounded deafening to his ears as his heartbeat climbed to match the rhythmic pulsing behind his eyes.

The moment he stood in front of the door he didn’t waste a single second before hastily punching the code in on the touchscreen. The door unlocked with a deep clang as the deadbolt retracted and he pushed the handle down, swinging the door open just enough for him to snake his way inside, and flung it shut again the moment he had gotten both of his feet over the threshold.

His studio was quiet, not even the low humming of his computer was present, instantly making him realize how loud and heavy his breathing was. He tried to take a step forward so he could close the second door, but his legs refused to move. He resigned to not having the strength to do anything and leaned back against the door, eyes closed with his head tilted slightly towards the ceiling and shoulders drooping down low so it would be easier to breathe.

His head was feeling heavier as the seconds went on, but the pain didn’t leave. He could feel his hands shaking by his sides where they hung limply. His mouth watered.

He’d had less than a second to fully comprehend what was about to happen before his legs buckled under him and he fell onto his knees harshly enough that it would have left him with abrasions had he not been wearing track pants. His abdominal muscles contracted, and then the food he had managed to eat that morning – despite the nausea he had been experiencing since the evening before – was forcing its way back up his esophagus and onto the floor of the studio.

He didn’t know how long it had gone on for, but he had stopped throwing up a couple of minutes ago – his body being unable to expel more because there was nothing left in his stomach for it to bring up – and were now just kneeling on all fours, hands planted firmly on the wooden flooring far enough away from the small puddle of sick that there would still be plenty enough space between the extremities and the half-digested food if he spread his fingers. His throat and nose stung because of the stomach acid and there was a bad taste in the back of his mouth.

It took him several attempts at taking deep breaths to come back to most of his senses. His heart was still beating loudly in his ears and his inhales would occasionally get caught in his throat resulting in short lasting coughing fits, but it was process.

He must have been a couple of minutes into his breathing exercises by the time the blaring sound of his heartbeat and the rushing of his blood had calmed enough that his ears could no longer pick it up. The newfound silence only interrupted by his breathing made way for soft ringing.

He raised his head from where it had previously been drooping towards the floor and looked around the room to figure out where the sound that was plaguing his ears was coming from, but disorientation was making it impossible for him to pinpoint the direction from which it was originating. It felt as if the melody was approaching him from all directions.

He went to pick himself up, but the room was spinning too much for him to get his feet under him properly. His right foot slipped, and he was sent falling sideways into the side of his couch, head slamming against the furniture before he could stop his descend. Pain bloomed in his right temple and he gripped his head, mouth dropping open with a sharp intake of breath as he nursed the hurt spot on his forehead.

When the pain decreased to a tolerable level he reached up with his right hand to grasp the leather armrest of his couch and pulled his body up, the muscles in his arms and legs struggling as he finally got up on his feet after several attempts.

He struggled to make his way around the piece of leather furniture as his body would sway and his knees would buckle for a second every now and then before straightening out again because the weight that had been put on them would become too much for them to support.

He managed to avoid the vomit on the floor, and when he finally got around the armrest he let himself collapse onto the cushions, his sore body fitting perfectly into the indents that had progressively begun forming over the years because of the countless amount of nights he had ended up spending in the studio instead of going back to the dorm.

The ringing had died down by the time he had gotten onto the couch, and with the only lead he’d had taken away there was no longer any reason for him to continue looking for the source of the noise, so he let himself melt further into the cushions that were already working wonders on relieving the pain he had been carrying around in his bones for the last couple of days. He would have fallen asleep if the stench emitted by the vomit hadn’t been there.

A groan escaped his lips and his eyes screwed shut when his nose caught a particular bad whiff of the offending smell, and suddenly the nausea that had disappeared shortly after his stomach had been emptied came back, leaving him dry heaving over the side of the couch until his abdominal muscles started cramping and the only thing being let out of his mouth was choked up sobs. The tears that had at some point started falling from his eyes glimmered against his cheeks when they were caught by the overhead light.

He doesn’t know how much time had passed as he had quickly lost track of time, but by the time he was slowly raising himself up to an upright position the cramps had completely stopped and the throbbing pain that had started up on the top of his skull sometime after his abdominal muscles had started seizing had dulled to small pangs that would only happen whenever he sniffled. The nausea wasn’t as bad as it had originally been, but it was still there, swirling around in the bottom of his stomach, waiting for the next opportunity to strike.

The smell wafting through the air wasn’t as bad as it had been before either, and he didn’t know if he should be worrying about it possibly being a sign that his sense of smell was failing him or be glad that he wouldn’t continue to be forced to smell his own vomit.

He was about to attempt to pull himself off the couch when he felt something start to vibrate against his thigh and the ringing from before was once again spilling into the room.

He moved his hand down the front of his track pants until it slipped into a pocket he had forgotten was there and came in contact with a cold flat rectangular object. He frowned, wrinkles showing up for a second before the skin smoothed out again, and pulled the buzzing object out and into his line of sight.

He felt stupid for momentarily forgetting what a phone was, but then the screen lit up and the thought was quickly erased before it could continue to fester. Seokjin was calling him.

But why would Seokjin be calling him when the elder member knew that he didn’t like to be interrupted while he was in the studio because it would always pull him out the productive mindset that he got into and hinder him unable to continue working with the same vigor he had been performing with before the interference.

His eyes moved further up the screen and widened when his vision stopped blurring the numbers together and he could see what the time was.

How the hell had four hours already gone by?

Had he fallen asleep on the couch? He didn’t remember having fallen asleep nor ever having had his eyes closed, but the lack of utter exhaustion that over time had become the norm to him was a testimony that he had indeed fallen asleep or passed out at some point.

His thoughts had ended up completely sidetracking him, so by the time he had shook his head to clear his mind and were lifting his finger to accept the call from his – more than likely – concerned hyung the call had already ended and his eyes were met with the sight of his notification list instead of the six year old picture of his hyung.

His mouth opened the slightest bit, showing a small glint of his teeth, when he saw the large amount of texts he had received from the others. There was a considerable amount of unanswered calls as well with Seokjin being the one with the largest count.

When he scrolled down the list of texts with a twitching finger he was surprised to see that Jimin was the member to have sent the most, his messages ranging from several lines to two words.

Seokjin had contrary to his incredible amount of calls only sent one text, and it was the same copy-pasted message that he had received from the eldest all the other nights the last couple of weeks.

“Remember not to stay out too late. Send me a text when you’re leaving”.

It had been sent nearly two hours ago.

He should call his hyung back or at the very least inform the elder that he would be back at the dorm within the next half hour. He wasn’t going to be able to get any work done in his current condition anyway so there was no reason to stay.

The voice in his head was telling him to stay, but working on the song would have to wait for another night where he felt less like death and would actually be able to comprehend what he had written a couple of nights prior. He didn’t want to end up throwing away the words he had managed to piece together just because he was frustrated again. It had taken him four days to get to the point he was now, and he didn’t want to ruin that progress.

He brought his phone closer to his face – in the hopes that doing so would help his struggling vision focus on the screen better – and moved from page to page until he found his contacts. The harsh lighting from the LCD screen hurt his eyes but he continued to scroll down his contact list until he found Seokjin.

He hadn’t even gotten to write 5 words before the screen went dark and an old picture of Namjoon as well as the words “Bighit Kim Namjoon” popped up.

His finger lifted on its own and swiped the bar at the bottom of the screen, accepting the call.

“Hyung?” It was the first word spoken through the speakers, and even though his mind had gradually begun to fog up again he could tell that the voice hadn’t belonged to the owner of the phone that was calling him but to Jimin.

“Yoongi hyung? Are you there?” That had been Namjoon.

“Hyung if you’re there please answer. The others are worried, and I’m starting to be as well. Hyung-“ Namjoon was cut off by Jimin before he got to finish what he had been about to say.

“I don’t think he’s there hyung, maybe the phone picked up by itself. Hyung’s been saying that his phone has been bugging him lately so it’s possible. We should just end the call..”

He knew he should tell them that he was there and say that he was okay instead of just lurking in the dark, but he didn’t know if his brain was functioning enough that it would be able to construct sentences that would make sense, or if he would even be able to produce any sound from his vocal cords after all the abuse his throat had gone through because his body had suddenly decided that it wanted to see whether it would be possible to eject his stomach through his mouth.

His mouth opened to respond to the singer despite his brain telling him to keep quiet and wait for one of them to hang up.

“I’m-“ Was all he managed to croak out with a barely audible voice before his throat constricted and he was sent into a violent coughing attack that was making him dizzier the longer it went on because he wasn´t able to breathe in new oxygen to replace what was being pushed out of his lungs.

He tried to hold the phone away from himself to minimize the amount of noise that would be picked up by the microphone and get through to the other side, but his arm was too heavy for his tired muscles to hold up so instead it just fell to hang by his side while he coughed into the crook of his left elbow.

He blinked his eyes to get rid of the tears the coughing had brought forward, but it only resulted in more tears as the pain that had settled behind his eyes started pulsing.

“Hyung are–” Was all he got to hear before his ears started ringing, cutting him off from hearing the rest of what the person on the other end of the line was saying.

He doesn’t know when, but at some point he must have stood up without realizing because instead of sitting down like he should be he was stumbling around on his quaking legs as if he was drunk.

He should go back to the couch, but he couldn’t see it anymore, actually, he couldn’t see anything anymore.

He could feel his legs moving but he didn’t know which direction he was walking, if he even was walking or if the sensations were just his brain playing tricks on him.

He felt a sharp pain as his knees made contact with the hardwood floor for the second time within the last six hours.

His phone must have slipped from his grasp at some point, cause when he lifted both of his hands to grab his throbbing head there was nothing in his right one.

He tried to shake his head to clear his vision, but it didn’t work, and instead his headache worsened tremendously and what had previously been white clouds turned into an inky black darkness.

Yoongi’s body fell to the floor with a thud.

When Jimin had volunteered to bring Yoongi’s bag to him, Jin had gone ahead and sent the younger off. He was hesitant about going himself as recently the relationship between the eldest and the second eldest had been strained with Seokjin not knowing why.

The fact that Jimin had said he would go had secretly relieved him in a way that should have ashamed him, this was his dongsaeng he was relieved about avoiding, the member he was closest too apart from Namjoon.

Jimin going was a good idea though he tried reasoning with himself, the rapper had developed a soft spot for the third youngest and would be more likely to let Jimin in than he would be letting any of the others in, Hoseok might be an exception sometimes when the eldest rapper was in a better mood.

That is why he was surprised when the younger had said that Yoongi had completely ignored him as if he didn’t exist and had shut the door to the studio in his face before he could reach the elder.

He was tempted to go to the second oldest and demand an answer for his rude actions against the younger, but decided to just let it go when he remembered that there were no way that he would be able to enter Genius Lab and actually reprimand the rapper when he didn’t know the password which would allow him access to the room. If he wanted to get into that room, he would have to get into contact with Sejin or one of the other managers.

He knew that the other had been feeling stressed recently for reasons unknown to him, but that was no excuse for his actions against Jimin.

He wanted to help his eldest dongsaeng and get him out of his current state of mind, but since he didn’t know what was wrong, he didn’t know how to help. He had tried to do certain things that he knew the rapper liked, but none of them had worked.

“Guys are you ready to go? Sejin-hyung’s pulled the van up outside, and Taehyung and Jungkook are already seated,” Namjoon said. He had come back to the practice room after getting ahold of their main manager to inform the remaining members.

“Where’s Yoongi-hyung?” When Namjoon had walked back to the practice room to tell everyone that the van was ready to take them home, he had found Taehyung and Jungkook in the hallway, cuddled up in each other’s arms and half asleep. He didn’t want to, but in the end shook both of them until they were mostly conscious and then sent the two on their way to the van.

With two of the members accounted for he had expected to find the last four ones where he left them, but to his confusion only three people were in the practice room.

“Hyung went to the studio again,” Hoseok said, his voice a bit strained. He wasn’t looking at Namjoon, but instead trying to find a way to carry as many bags as possible at one time.

Seokjin saw his dongsaeng’s struggle and took a bag off of each of his arms, so that both of them now had a bag on their back, and a bag on each of their arms. Jimin was still holding Yoongi’s bag.

“How many days is he up on now?” Namjoon asked. His eyebrows had furrowed together at Hoseok’s remark. He already knew how many days it had been, but he needed the others to confirm his belief. He didn’t want to believe it without any sort of affirmation from someone other than himself.

“Three. He’s going to burn himself out if he continues doing this. It’s not healthy,” Seokjin said, the corners of his mouth dragging down into a frown. He turned towards Jimin in his crouched position on the ground and gave the bag on his left arm to the other, adding to the one the younger already had slung over his right shoulder, before turning around to face Namjoon, and motioned for Namjoon to get closer.

“Could you help carry a bag Joon-ah?” He looked at Namjoon as he said this, and nodded his head towards Hoseok, as he saw the other struggling to get up from his crouch. The leader gave a small smile, as he moved to pull a bag off of his same-aged friend’s arm and stuck out his right hand to help pull him up.

Jimin copied Namjoon and helped his eldest hyung up.

In that moment the door to the practice room opened again, and Sejin took a step inside, half of his body inside the room and the other still in the hallway, his hand rested on the door handle.

“Are you ready to go? Taehyung and Jungkook got seated in the van a while ago and dozed off while waiting,” their manager said. He took one look at the young adults standing in the corner of the room and raised an eyebrow. Then he realized there were only four boys, and his face took on a frown.

“Studio?” Sejin asked, giving the four members a knowing look.

They all nodded.

He knew the eldest rapper liked to spend time in his studio, but he could see how the rapper was only wearing himself down more and more each day.

The amount of time he had spent in there during the last two weeks had simply become ridiculous. He wanted nothing more than to ban him from his studio for the next month, but the only one in the company who had the power to do so was Bang PD, and so far, he didn’t know if Bang PD had any knowledge as to what was going on with Yoongi.

It was becoming worrying, not solemnly because of the amount of time he spent in there, but because of the way it affected the rapper. Yoongi would usually go to his studio to relieve stress, but it seemed that going to the studio constantly like he did now, was only stressing the younger man out even more.

The rapper’s eyes had begun to look dull these days, and because he would lock himself in the studio day after day – or rather, night after night – he would forget to eat unless the others would sit him down and watch him, which had led him to lose a surprising amount of weight in a very short amount of time. Whether the weight loss was accidental or not, he didn’t know.

His whole body in general was smaller than ever – which said a lot considering his already smaller than average frame – his cheekbones were getting more prominent, and his jaw sharper.

He constantly seemed to be tired, his movements were slow, and he would miss several steps in the choreography, though nobody ever corrected the rapper, not wanting to put extra weight on the rapper’s already heavily weighed down shoulders.

Sejin sighed to himself, “what am I going to do with that boy,” he mumbled, his nose bridge pinched between his right index finger and thumb. The boy was going to work himself to death if he continued on like this. He had an idea, but he would have to talk to Bang PD first.

“I’m going to talk to Bang PD-nim after I’ve dropped you off. If you’re lucky I’ll be able to clear your schedule for tomorrow,” he told the boys. He hoped he would be able to convince Bang PD about letting the boys off the next day, `cause god knows they need a day off to recuperate, some more than others.

The others shared a look before looking back at their manager, eyes shining with what could only be described as gratefulness and relief.

“But I’ll have to get it through with PD-nim first. I’ll text you later tonight about his answer. I can’t promise you anything, but if it does go through, I want all of you to rest, Yoongi especially, which is why I want you to promise me that if you get tomorrow off, you’ll make sure that Yoongi doesn’t step foot inside his studio. That boy needs to get some food into his body, and some proper sleep. If those bags under his eyes get any bigger, they’ll swallow up his entire face.” He was trying to end on a light note by making a joke that would hopefully help relieve the tension in the room a bit, but the others could read the underlying worry lacing his every word.

“Thank you Sejin-hyung. We’ll do our best to keep him in the dorm,” Namjoon told the elder, his face breaking out into a small smile, which showed off his dimple.

Sejin was of course happy that the boys worked hard, it was what got them so far, but everyone could see that the boys wouldn’t last much longer going on like this, they were all running on empty at this point, and a break – even though it was going to be short – would help them reenergize to a point where Sejin wouldn’t have to worry as much about them collapsing.

“Don’t thank me just yet Namjoon, it’ll have to be approved first,” Sejin said, giving the younger a small smile in return.

Seokjin looked at their manager, and the corners of his mouth went up.

To some people their manager might seem a bit obsessive sometimes or perhaps a bit harsh, but Seokjin along with everyone else knew that Sejin just wanted what was best for them, and they had all realized that over the years. Some of them figured it out sooner than others and would quietly admire their manager when they saw to what lengths he’d go to when it came to helping them.

“Now come on kids, I’ll put in an order for some food to be delivered to your dorm. Just because one of you is a hard-headed workaholic, who likes to ignore human necessities, it doesn’t mean the rest of you should be and do so as well.” Hoseok gave a grateful smile to the manager.

Seokjin put a hand on the leader’s shoulder and gave a small squeeze as a reassurance that everything would turn out okay, though he wasn’t completely sure if it truly was to reassure the rapper or actually meant for himself, but no matter the case Seokjin smiled when he felt his dongsaeng put his own hand of top of his and gently grab it.

Jimin and Hoseok moved towards the door, both boys walking calmly beside each other before a competition about who would reach the van first started out of nowhere, and the two boys started to lightly shove each other with their elbows.

It looked like the two of them were having fun, so the eldest and the leader let them be.

It looked almost comical the way that the two would sway from side to side, as the added weight from the bags would weigh down one side more than the other when one of them were pushed, and they would almost trip over their own feet, making it look like they were drunk off their asses.

None of the two seemed to mind the threat of possible injury though, as both of them had full grown grins plastered onto their faces and were letting out small laughs and giggles every couple of seconds.

Sejin shook his head at the boys’ antics. God, he loved those boys.

Seokjin let out a huff of breath, in an effort to conceal the laugh building up in his stomach.

He was tired, but he would be willing to wait a bit longer if it meant he would get to see his dongsaengs smile more, especially the sunshine duo. If the two self-chosen members of the sunshine duo were happy, it would somehow magically improve the mood of the rest of the members. It was a weird phenomenon but eventually he got used to it, almost expected it, and almost craved it on the days that he or any of the others may have felt low.

Seokjin’s attention was pulled away from the two laughing boys, when he felt the warmth emitting from the leader’s hand leave his shirt clad shoulder and move down his arm in tact with the feeling of Namjoon’s hand snaking down the length of his arm.

The warm hand made direct contact with his skin a bit above his elbow, where his t-shirt’s sleeve ended, making goosebumps rise all over his skin. The hand continued moving down not leaving his skin once, before slipping into his empty awaiting hand, and gently interlocked their fingers.

Seokjin moved his gaze down to their conjoined hands, a small smile adoring his face.

By the time Hoseok and Jimin had left the room, Seokjin’s eyes were still locked on his and Namjoon’s hands, while Namjoon’s eyes had moved to watch his hyung’s face, his eyes filled with an indescribable emotion.

Namjoon moved his free hand up to lightly brush Seokjin’s sweaty hair out of his face, so that he could get a better look at the eyes that were now staring back at him.

Namjoon had been in the act of moving his hand under his hyung’s chin, when a cough sounded through the practice room, and Namjoon and Seokjin were pulled out of their thoughts.

The two quickly stepped back from each other, Namjoon quietly coughed into his hand while covering his reddening face, and Seokjin loosely put the arm which hand had been interlocked with Namjoon’s a second ago around his stomach, while the other hand kept ahold of his bag, and his eyes cast themselves to the ground to avoid eye contact with either of the two males.

“However lovely this is, you’ll have to continue in the dorm. Now come on boys, I’m not going to say it again,” the manager told the flustered boys, and turned around in the doorway before walking calmly down the doorway.

Seokjin was quick to follow while Namjoon stood still until he heard Seokjin’s yell from down the hall, and his motionless form automatically moved to trail after his hyung in a fast pace.

The drive home felt shorter than usual to Seokjin, not that it in reality had been.

He, like the leader seated behind him, had drifted off for minutes at a time several times during the ride, only to jerk to full consciousness when the van would hit a small bump in the road, and then drift off again. All the while the four other boys in the van had sat peacefully passed out in their own seats.

Once arriving at the dorm, Sejin turned around in his seat and looked fondly at the sleeping boys.

Seokjin stirred slightly in his seat, and tiredly blinked his eyes open. With one of his hands he tiredly rubbed at his eyes, removing the sleep from the corners of his eyes.

Seokjin looked to his left when he heard a click.

It would have been pitch black inside the van, if the van’s headlights had been turned off, but since they weren’t they were effectively giving off enough light outside that some of the light could reach inside the van and he was able to see his surroundings, though that still didn’t seem to be enough to stop Seokjin from having to shield his eyes when the lights inside the van suddenly turned on and the offending light temporarily blinded him as his eyes hadn’t been given the time to adjust. Only seconds later several groans were heard from the backseats.

Seems like he wasn’t the only one opposed to the idea of turning on the lights.

A gust of cold wind brushed up Seokjin’s uncovered left arm, and his right one unconsciously went to cover the other.

His eyes – which were still recovering from the temporary bright out – skimmed around for the source of the breeze and stopped on the driver’s side just as the door was shut. He looked outside of the van and was met with the sight of their apartment complex.

The elder was startled when Namjoon spoke up behind him, his voice slightly rough from sleep.

“Taehyung wake up, you can go to sleep later. Come on, I now you’re awake, I’m not going to carry you inside,” Seokjin turned around in his seat to see their leader shaking what people would have thought was a sleeping Taehyung had the corners of the younger’s mouth not been turned up in a small smile, which disrupted the younger’s – surprisingly good – acting.

On the other side of Taehyung Hoseok was slowly waking up, Namjoon’s voice having awoken him from his slumber against the window.

Jimin and Jungkook who were seated in the back hadn’t woken up yet. The maknae, like Hoseok, was resting his head against the window, and Jimin had snuggled up into the warmth of the other, his arms were wrapped loosely around the maknae’s left arm, and his head was resting cutely against the younger’s shoulder, his mouth had seemingly gone into a default pout that the third youngest had been wearing a lot these days.

Seokjin internally cooed at the two boys, but the only visible change to him was the lazy smile that had placed itself onto his face. His dongsaengs didn’t know how much they pulled at his heartstrings just from their small everyday actions, it was kind of scary how much control they had over him without even knowing.

The elder was pulled out of his thoughts, when the door on his side of the car clicked open, his head whipping around to face said door, almost giving himself whiplash in doing so.

His body tensed up and the hairs on his arms raised when the wind laid itself as a cold layer on top of his skin, but slightly relaxed again when he saw that the opener of the door had only been Sejin.

In the middle row Hoseok had returned to full consciousness, his eyes were still half lidded and had sleep in the inner corners, but he was awake nonetheless.

Taehyung had quit his shenanigans some time ago and had pulled on his jacket that he during the ride had draped over himself as a blanket to keep out the cold.

Namjoon who was no longer kept from getting ready himself, was stretching his tall body over the back of his seat and slightly grasping Jungkook’s shoulder, shaking it in his hold to slowly rouse the maknae awake from his brief nap.

By the time the youngest had awoken their manager had moved to Jimin’s side and was shaking the dancer, but Jimin just wafted the manager’s hand away and rubbed his face against his dongsaeng’s bicep, trying to get himself situated comfortably in the younger’s warmth once again.

Jungkook wasn’t having it though and started pushing at Jimin’s head to escape the other, which resulted in Jimin scrounging his face up and mumbling into the maknae’s arm that he wanted ‘five more minutes’.

Sejin, who was exposed to the cold of the outside, didn’t want to wait any longer for the boy to come to, and instead hauled the smaller into his arms. Jimin didn’t move an inch other than curling inwards towards the elder, craving the heat that was radiating off of the bigger body.

In the back seat Jungkook had started to drift off again but jerked awake when he felt himself being pulled in Jimin’s direction as his hyung was pulled away from him. The hands that were once wrapped around the maknae’s arm lost their grip, and the warmth that had been pressed against the younger’s side disappeared as well, leaving Jungkook cold.

Namjoon and Hoseok had after pulling themselves out of the van, followed their manager who had already begun walking towards their front door.

Seokjin had in the meantime moved to help the two youngest out of the van, and with Jungkook and Taehyung each with an arm around his wide shoulders, and with his own arms wrapped firmly around each of the youngers’ waists, he helped the two through their front door which was being held open by a tired Sejin, and dragged them into the living room where he let them slip out of his grip and fall onto the couch, and watched as the two instinctively reached for each other and cuddled, both seeking the warmth radiating off of the other.

He wasn’t expecting the hand that was placed on his shoulder in the following moment, but welcomed it, and unconsciously leaned into the touch of his fellow member, who he had already distinguished as being Namjoon.

The feel of the firm hand had been ingrained into his mind due to the large amount of times it or its twin had been used to make him calm down and feel loved. He relaxed even further when a second hand was placed on his other shoulder, and the taller man began to knead away the tension that had built up over the past couple of days.

“Sejin-hyung just put in the order for food, he says it’s going to be here in half an hour. If we shower in pairs, we should all be able to have washed up and be ready by then. I already sent Jimin and Hoseok off, we’ll go after them, and then Jungkook and Taehyung will go,” Namjoon told the eldest.

Seokjin made a noise signaling that he had heard the younger but otherwise kept quiet, his arms hung loosely by his side and legs were turning into jelly as Namjoon moved his hands down his biceps, giving tiny squeezes to the muscles while he moved down the length of his upper arms.

Namjoon’s hands wrapped themselves around Seokjin’s waist, and the eldest felt as their bodies were pressed closely together, Namjoon’s front fitting perfectly into the natural slope of his back.

He doesn’t know how long they ended up standing there while he was lost in bliss.

He had let his head fall back onto the taller one’s shoulder and closed his eyes, as he was reminded of his own tiredness and abruptly felt sleep pull at him, when all of a sudden, he felt Namjoon’s arms loosen from around his waist.

He could feel as one of the leader’s hands moved further down his body and settled on his hip and could feel how the other snaked up his chest and rubbed at his tense muscles through his shirt, before disappearing and reappearing with a light grip around his wrist.

Before he knew it, he was being pulled towards their bathroom, his eyes were barely open, but he trusted the other to not let him walk into anything, although the man was incredibly accident-prone and was more than likely going to somehow injure one of them.

Surprisingly the two of them got to the bathroom without a single accident.

They had on the way there passed by Hoseok, Jimin and Taehyung’s room and saw the two eldest occupants of the room, Hoseok and Jimin, sprawled on top of the rapper’s bed.

Jimin was lying half on top of Hoseo, with one of his legs wrapped around one of the rapper’s, one of his arms were slung over the other’s stomach, and his head lay resting on top of Hoseok’s chest, listening to the calm beat of his hyung’s heart.

The elder of the two where in the meantime running one of his hands through the younger’s wet hair and listening to the small breaths and cute whines escaping from his dongsaeng’s pouting mouth.

Namjoon opened the bathroom door for Seokjin and lead the elder inside.

He steered his hyung over to the toilet and helped him sit down on the closed lid, before proceeded to strip his hyung of all his clothes except for his boxers. The younger suddenly remembered something and walked out of the room in a fast pace, only to return a couple of minutes later – which to Seokjin had felt like seconds – with a fresh pair of t-shirts, shorts, and boxers for them to put on after their shower.

With his hyung already undressed, Namjoon removed his own clothes until he was complete bare, he was fine with not wearing anything himself, but wouldn’t take that choice from his hyung who was barely conscious at the moment.

Sure, he had seen the other *****, as well as the other boys on multiple occasions, whether it was the occasional showering in pairs they did in the past before setting up a partnering system, or other times where he had accidentally caught someone masturbating under or on top of their covers in their room – in hind sight he should probably have knocked on any of those doors before he opened them – so, it wouldn’t be like it would make that much of a difference, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“Hyung you can’t sleep now,” Namjoon said, gently shaking the other’s head.

When the other didn’t stir any more than mumble a few intelligible words, the leader decided to just put one of his hyung’s arms around his shoulder, and proceeded to pull the other up so that he could walk the both of them into the shower, where he then sat the elder down on the small stool they kept in there beside the shower supplies, and began washing Seokjin’s hair, upper body and legs, followed by Namjoon washing himself while his hyung sat slumped against the tiled wall.

When he was done, he helped his half-asleep hyung out of the shower and sat him on the close lidded toilet once again, making sure the older wouldn’t fall before he went to retrieve two big towels from the cabinet under the sink.

He quickly, but gently, dried Jin’s hair and body to the best of his ability, as the water from his hyung’s soiled boxers kept running down his legs and ruining his work.

“Jin-hyung could you wake up for the next couple of seconds, so you can put on a new pair of boxers real quick?” Namjoon asked the other man, from his kneeling position in front of his hyung.

“You do it. It’s not like you’ll see anything you haven’t already seen before,” Jin said before yawning, never once opening his eyes to look at the other.

The leader sighed but reached for the boxers on the countertop anyway.

He grabbed the waistband of the wet boxers covering his hyung’s modesty, and pulled them down the first couple of inches, before having to wait for his hyung to lift himself off the toilet, so that he would be able to get them off the rest of the way.

After getting his hyung to move with a small caress to his thigh, he was quick to remove the old boxers and pat down his crotch to soak up most of the water from his skin, and then put the new ones on him as well as dress him in the t-shirt and pair of shorts he had gotten for the older.

With his hyung taken care of he hurriedly dried himself and put his own clean set of clothes on.

Small puddles of water were littering the bathroom floor and Namjoon almost slipped in one of them on his way towards the door, but luckily managed to right himself and Seokjin before they found themselves on the floor.

With the first – and hopefully only – obstacle out of the way, he began making his way towards the living room with the now complete dead weight of his hyung on him. When arriving in said room, he carefully placed the sleeping man on the couch opposite of the one Jungkook and Taehyung were taking up.

Seokjin made no sound when he was put down on the couch, but unconsciously grabbed onto one of the throw pillows and hugged it close to his chest.

Namjoon picked up his phone from the coffee table, where he had put it before going to shower with Jin and saw that only fifteen minutes had gone past. After pocketing his phone, he went to wake Jungkook and Taehyung up from their slumber on the other couch for their turn to wash up.

“Taehyung-ah Jungkookie wake up, you have to go take a shower, dinner’s going to arrive soon.” He tried to shake both of the maknaes, but Jungkook didn’t respond to the physical touch at all, and Taehyung just started to waft the leader’s hand away and told the elder to go away whilst snuggling further into Jungkook’s chest, his right arm which was placed around the youngest’s waist tightened its hold and the maknae was pulled forwards and closer to Taehyung.

“You can sleep after we’ve eaten,” Namjoon told he two, even though he was almost certain that Taehyung was the only one of the two that was semi awake.

”Okay, up you go.”

Namjoon grabbed Taehyung’s right arm, and without thinking the least about being careful of the tired member, pulled the limb off of the sleeping Jungkook and scooped his arms under the second youngest’s armpits before dragging said boy off the couch and onto the floor, where he then left the other to groan in discomfort as he turned around to wake Jungkook up who was whining low in his throat at the loss of warmth.

”Noooo…. Hyung, wanna sleep,” Jungkook whined when Namjoon took ahold of the maknae’s wrists and pulled him up into a sitting position, only to watch the younger fall back into a heap on the couch when he let go of the other’s wrists.

Behind the two of them, Taehyung had crawled his way over to the other couch where Seokjin had fallen asleep and was clutching the pillow in his arms.

Taehyung tiredly removed the throw pillow from his hyung’s grasp and proceeded to fill in the space left by the pillow with his own body. He gave a happy hum, when Seokjin wrapped his arms around him and pulled him closer to the eldest’s chest as well as slung one of his legs over Taehyung’s and nuzzled his nose into the crook of the second youngest’s neck, effectively enveloping the younger in the elder’s warmth and the calming sent of vanilla from his shampoo and conditioner.

“Jungkook, it’s your and Taehyung’s turn to shower, the rest of us already did.” But Jungkook didn’t move the slightest from his position.

“Hyung help me here-“ Namjoon started, but cut himself off when he turned around to face his eldest hyung and saw the eldest and Taehyung – whom he’d just woken up – spooning on the opposite couch, both sleeping comfortably and not hearing a word of what Namjoon had said.

“Seriously Jin-hyu-”

“Yoongi-hyung?” It came from behind Namjoon. The leader turned around to look at the maknae and felt his heart clench at the sight of the now awakening, but disoriented, and slightly teary-eyed younger boy.

Jungkook and Yoongi had been spending more time together as of lately, or at least they had until it had stopped abruptly about a week ago when Yoongi started the whole thing of continuously going to his studio after every single practice and not let anybody else in, not even Jungkook whom the other members could see the second oldest had grown indescribably fond of during the time they had spent together in the studio.

The revelation of his hyung no longer wanting his company had hit the maknae hard, as he had steadily become accustomed to being able to go to the eldest rapper if he ever needed someone to talk to about something personal, or if he needed help with anything.

“Hyung will be home soon Kookie-ah, you know how he is with his music,” the leader said as he gently ran his fingers through the maknae’s hair, making sure to scratch at his scalp with his nails. He and the others had found out that the younger one found the small action comforting and could see the immediate calming effect it had on Jungkook when he was going through episodes of being worked up.

“Not like this,” Jungkook said, his speech was a bit slurred as he was still in the process of becoming completely cognizant again.

Namjoon’s fingers immediately halted their movement, and the leader withdrew his hand from the younger’s hair thinking that the maknae wanted him to stop, only to receive a whine from Jungkook when he did so.

“No, didn’t mean that,” the maknae moaned halfheartedly, reaching out with grabby hands towards the hand that had been making him feel good and floaty, until Namjoon seemed to understand and started rubbing his scalp again.

“I miss Yoongi-hyung. Something feels wrong, feels bad, I don’t like it. Hyung, is something wrong with Yoongi-hyung?” Jungkook asked the leader. The maknae’s dazed eyes met with Namjoon’s, and the elder suddenly felt like he had to look away when he was faced with the unmasked vulnerability taking up every part of the other male.

The leader knew that something wasn’t right with his hyung but didn’t know what to do about it. The cycle of endless fatigue the other seemed to be trapped in, his shrinking body and his absent mind.

Namjoon didn’t think that he himself had seen the older rapper eat a single time this whole week, and he hadn’t had the chance to speak to the rapper outside of dance practice, if he was lucky he would sometimes catch the other in the door when the second eldest was on his way out or just coming back from his studio, though only a couple of words would be exchanged in those moments before the elder would once again be gone.

He had already asked Seokjin to help keep an eye out for Yoongi, but as that hadn’t changed much – other than the eldest reporting to him more often that he had managed to make the rapper eat something before the other had left again  – he was about ready to go to management and ask – no, demand – for a break if it would come to it. They were all running on fumes now, the others were good at masking it, but they had lived together for years and he knew all their signs now. He could tell when one of them was close to the edge, and right now one of them was considerably closer to it than the rest.

“I don’t know Jungkookie. But I promise you, I’ll find out what’s wrong, and I’ll fix it.”

Namjoon didn’t like lying, but what else was he supposed to tell Jungkook without upsetting the maknae further than he already was. He didn’t want the maknae to be consumed by worry like Seokjin and he himself had become of the last week.

As leader of the group and as the eldest member they were the ones in charge, and were the ones carrying the responsibility on their shoulders, they alone had the obligation of making sure that the health of all the boys – both physical and mental – was at a constant high, and were the ones who had to make sure that everything was working smoothly between all the members, sure, the management would step in if it was something that couldn’t be solved between the members alone, but most of the time the resolved things themselves.

The maknae sniffled and rubbed his stuffy nose. His eyes had turned red around the edges because of the tears, and a small amount of snot was trailing down from one of his nostrils

 Jungkook, feeling the water like substance tickling the beginning of his upper lip, took his shirt into his left hand and dragged it under his nose to catch the snot, and grimaced when the dirtied article of clothing came into his line of view.

Namjoon reached out to stop Jungkook from dirtying his shirt but retracted his hand immediately when he realized that there wasn’t any reason for him to stop the younger, the shirt was going in the laundry afterwards anyway.

He looked at the maknae shortly before shooting quick glances at the space around him, searching for the napkins that he had seen strewn around somewhere in the room when they first came home.

Turning 180 degrees Namjoon found them located on a counter a couple of meters in front of him, he looked back at Jungkook who had curled in on himself on the couch and went to retrieve the napkins, only to fall back on his butt when he tried to stand up.

The leader felt his shirt slightly rise up in the back exposing his lower back as he fell back down. Namjoon looked down and found Jungkook’s hand wrapped tightly around the piece of fabric, he looked up and locked eyes with the wide eyed maknae.

“Please don’t leave. Don’t leave me.” Jungkook’s lower lip was slightly trembling, even though the younger was biting at it as an attempt to stop it.

New tears were forming in his eyes, and Namjoon could no longer stop himself from practically throwing himself at the maknae and embrace the other in a bone crushing hug. Jungkook’s arms instantly wrapped themselves around his leader in response to the elder´s actions and his face found itself buried in Namjoon’s chest.

Sobs wreaked through Jungkook’s frame, but the sounds coming out of his mouth was muffled by Namjoon’s shirt. The leader was running his hands up and down the maknae’s back, hoping that it would help calm the other down, so far it didn’t seem to be working, he could feel his shirt progressively getting soaked in the maknae’s tears, the fabric starting to stick to his chest uncomfortably.

Namjoon was surprised by Jungkook’s sudden breakdown, it was unusual, the youngest normally didn’t put his feelings on display and would usually bottle everything up until it went away, so seeing him act out like this threw Namjoon in for a loop, his throat dried up and his heart clenched uneasily. He had never taken care of a crying Jungkook, he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do to calm the younger.

He didn’t dare to back away from the younger though, because he knew that the maknae would need all the comfort the leader could give him. He wasn’t like Jimin and he certainly wasn’t like Seokjin, he didn’t have that natural talent for taking take of others that those two did, but nonetheless he still did his best.

The two stayed like that for the next couple of minutes, Jungkook’s cries dying down almost as quickly as they had started – most likely having used up what little energy he had had left in his body after practice – but his  head remained firmly tucked into the other’s chest.

On the couch in front of the two, Seokjin was slowly stirring awake. His arms tightening around the second youngest before his eyes blinked themselves open lazily, sleep fogged brain trying to take in the sight of the leader and the maknae embracing each other by the couch opposite of the one he had apparently decided to take a quick nap on.

The elder’s brain couldn’t seem to catch up and didn’t compute what it was it was seeing until Seokjin felt like he had been staring at the strange situation taking place right in front of him for what must have been several minutes.

Seokjin looked down at the warm body pressed against him and smiled when he was met with the sight of the second youngest cradling his right arm – that he had sometime during his slumber slung over the younger’s body – firmly against his chest like a stuffed toy.

The two youngers in front of him didn’t seem to have noticed that he was awake, so with all the time in the world he set to untangle his body from Taehyung’s – preferably without waking up the youngest – before announcing his awakening.

Once he was free from Taehyung’s grip – after having a bit of trouble getting his arm back – he took ahold of the pillow he found lying on the floor in front of the couch, and helped the sleeping boy wrap his arms and legs around said item before turning around to face the other two members that were in the room with him and Taehyung.

If their chest weren’t moving, they could from a long distance away probably have been confused with very lifelike looking statues of his two younger members.

From a shorter distance to the two Seokjin could see the movement of Namjoon’s hands on Jungkook’s back and saw as the leader drew invisible shapes on the younger, he could also see the slow rise and fall of the maknae’s shoulders as the younger breathed in and out.

When he moved closer, he saw Namjoon’s head twitch to the side he was approaching from, likely to have heard his socked feet shuffling against the floorboards.

The moment he dropped into a crouch beside Namjoon and Jungkook the leader’s head snapped towards him, and being the person he was Seokjin would have jokingly voiced his concern that the younger would get whiplash had his words not died on his tongue the moment when his eyes were drawn towards his dongsaeng’s red eyes.

“Namjoon-ah is everything alright?” Of course, he knew that, no, everything wasn’t alright, and if he had to guess, Jungkook was involved in the answer one way or another.

The leader didn’t reply with anything but looked down at the figure wrapped up tightly in his arms. The maknae’s breathing had slowed down to a steady pace by that point, the tears had stopped falling from his eyes like rivers a couple of minutes ago, but they would no doubt be bloodshot if open.

The younger’s grip on him had gone slack and he was barely holding on to the elder, there was no doubt that if Namjoon were to let go now Jungkook would slump to the ground.

With his left hand Namjoon caressed Jungkook’s cheek while his right hand continuing its calming motion on the maknae’s back. He tilted the younger’s head towards the eldest so his breathing wouldn’t be hindered by him having his face shoved into the rapper’s chest.

Seokjin at first cooed at the view of the sleeping maknae but the sound caught in his throat when he caught sight of the visible tear tracks.

Only a couple of seconds went by as his brain processed what it was he was seeing before the eldest reached out his arms, motioning for Namjoon to hand the maknae over to him almost demandingly, he couldn’t help it, caring and comforting the members had become second nature for him at this point, and seeing the dried tears was enough to awaken that part of him.

The rapper was a little reluctant in letting the younger go, wanting to be the one to hold Jungkook, but at the same time, he’d in the past seen how drastically his hyung’s whole demeanor would change the times he was denied taking care of one of the boys he called family, be it by another member or someone entirely else – it was almost scary how cold the eldest would suddenly look – and so he gave the boy to his hyung.

Namjoon carefully untangled Jungkook’s hands from his shirt – which was easily done as the younger no longer had a death grip on him – and manhandled his limp body into a position that would make it easier for Seokjin to move him onto his own lap.

Once moved, the elder held the maknae securely against his chest like an overgrown baby, whilst rocking the sleeping boy back and forth in a motherly fashion, positioning Jungkook so that one of his ears were placed over Seokjin’s heart, while one of the elder’ hands were nuzzling the maknae’s hair.

Namjoon looked at his hyung with awe, he wished that he could at the very least be half as amazing as the elder. Seokjin seemed to know exactly what to do in every bad situation since the beginning, which had been a surprise for almost all of the members as the eldest had come from a family where he had been the youngest, and therefor hadn’t had to care for anyone before becoming a trainee.

“What happened? Why was Jungkook crying,” Seokjin asked Namjoon, easily shifting his focus from the sleeping maknae and onto Namjoon.

“He misses Yoongi-hyung, he used to talk with hyung about stuff which he didn’t feel like he could talk with us about, but now hyung’s locking him out and Jungkook doesn’t have anyone to regulate with. I think the stress just, build up too much, and it broke the dam,” the leader answered honestly, and moved a bit closer to the two so he too could be in contact with the youngest.

“We should get him to bed, the poor kid’s worn himself completely out.” Jin looked back at the couch behind him where he had left Taehyung a few minutes prior.

“Could you take Taehyung? I would feel bad leaving out here by himself.” Namjoon didn’t reply other than giving a small smile to the elder, before he walked over to the second youngest who continued to snore away unaware of what was happening around him.

Namjoon carefully unwrapped the younger’s limbs from around the pillow and dragged the sleeping boy closer to the edge of the couch before sitting him up to make it easier for him to pick Taehyung up.

What he hadn’t anticipated though was that the younger would wrap himself around Namjoon’s legs, press his head into his hip, and nuzzle his nose a little too close to certain genitalia of his.

“Okay, this isn’t going to work.”

The leader went onto his knees, unwrapped Taehyung’s arms from around his hips and rewrapped them around his neck and let the younger drop his head onto his shoulder rather dramatically, and then proceeded to put his hands underneath Taehyungs thighs, and lifted the both of them up.

He wasn’t prepared for the full onslaught of Taehyung’s weight being put on him, and his legs almost buckled as his muscles struggled with the added weight.

“Sorry to say this bud, but you weigh more than you look,” he said seemingly struggling to get the words out between his clenched teeth, the younger boy continued on sleeping unaware of his hyung’s struggle.

Namjoon turned around to face Seokijn in time with the eldest gently hefting the youngest into his arms. The boy in Seokjin’s arms kept still while the one in Namjoon’s own arms was squirming around. Taehyung’s thighs were clenching and unclenching around his hips, and his cold nose was rubbing against the expanse of Namjoon’s neck, making goosebumps rise all over the elder’s body.

Jungkook was teetering between conscious- and unconsciousness after the lift into his hyung’s arms had partially awoken him. The maknae’s eyes blearily opened when his head connected with Seokjin’s warm chest, and his right arm moved up to grip the elder’s shirt weakly.

“Hyung?” Jungkook tilted his head up towards the head connected to the chest he was currently resting against. His eyes blinked several times, trying to relieve the uncomfortableness and pain the lighting mixed with the salty residue from his previously shed tears was causing his eyes after the sudden awakening from his short unannounced nap.

“Shhh… go back to sleep Kookie,” the elder said in a calm voice, whilst looking lovingly down at the boy in his arms. Said boy was too tired to oppose and buried his head in the elder’s chest again and promptly fell back asleep in the safe embrace of his hyung.

“Let’s get going Namjoon-ah.”

Seokjin looked up at the leader and had to stop himself from accidentally dropping Jungkook as his chest spasmed with caged laughter. “How is it you’re holding him?”

Namjoon turned around to face his hyung, and the boy clinging to his front groaned in disproval of the sudden movement.

When the leader saw the maknae being carried bridal style by his hyung, a blush spread across his cheeks as he compared the sweet and innocent image of the eldest and the youngest, with the weird and possibly inappropriate picture of himself and Taehyung.

“How else am I supposed to carry him? I can’t get him onto my back alone and I don’t work out every single day like you apparently do. If I can’t carry him like this what am I supposed to do? Drag him?” The flustered rapper rushed out. He himself didn’t have a problem having to move the other like this, the cause of the sudden doubt and embarrassment was Seokjin’s comment.

“No, no, it’s fine, just looks a little, you know… suggestive.” Seokjin raised his eyebrows at the other several times in quick succession and let the corners of his mouth draw up into a smile.

“Hyung! Stop sexualizing everything I do,” Namjoon whined at the older, who just shrugged his shoulders.

“Remember I didn’t say anything about how, that was all you Kim Namjoon,” Seokjin said and turned around on his heels to walk down the long hallway leading to Hoseok, Jimin and Taehyung’s shared room, leaving Namjoon to himself.

“Hyung!” Namjoon yelled, seemingly having forgotten the fact that Taehyung’s ear was right next to his mouth and was in the proceeding moment shushed when one of the younger’s fingers found its way to Namjoon’s mouth.

“Shush, no yellin’, ‘m tryin’ to sleep,” Taehyung murmured into the juncture of his neck.

The younger slipped a couple of centimeters out of his grip, when Namjoon’s body shuddered because of the vibrations radiating out from the spot on his neck which was flush with Taehyung’s lips. The rapper ended up having to bounce the second youngest further up on his hips to get a grip on him again, but eventually had Taehyung secured again.

He then moved to follow his eldest hyung down the hall, being careful of his movements in order to not rouse Tae who had once again succumbed to sleep.

When he stepped into the shared room of the three, Jin had already put Jungkook on Taehyung’s bed, the maknae taking up the space of half the furniture, which left the other half open for Taehyung to use.

After having slight difficulty with detaching the younger from himself – as Taehyung made sure to verbally complain every time Namjoon tried removing one of his arms or legs – the leader had finally been freed from the group’s personal human octopus, and Taehyung had found a willing participant to cuddle with, in the form of an equally as warmth seeking Jungkook.

With the situation handled the leader and the eldest let themselves fall on the third and only available bed in the room. Namjoon fell onto his back and grunted when Seokjin fell, body facing him, onto his chest.

It hadn’t even been two minutes before chaos started up again. Taehyung was fidgeting and unhappily whining because of the uncomfortable wetness pressing against his cheek, and was because of that lightly pushing the maknae away with his exhausted limbs in an attempt to get distance between himself and the uncomfortableness that was Jungkook’s wet shirt, but since Jungkook’s arms were wrapped around the elder, the attempt proved futile.

Seokjin gave an irritated huff but still moved away from his position on top of Namjoon’s chest and went to investigate, almost tripping over a discarded towel on the way to the other.

He had already partially guessed Taehyung’s reason for distress and was relieved when it was confirmed as it meant he wouldn’t have to guess his way to the answer if his assumptions had been wrong.

“Namjoon-ah, can you get a new shirt for Jungkook from his closet,” the elder called out to the other male.

Namjoon had only just dragged himself to the edge of the bed when he had a t-shirt thrown at his face from the direction of Hoseok and Jimin. The slight smile he received from Hoseok was enough to answer the question that was forming on the tip of his tongue.

He passed the shirt to Seokjin, who proceeded to remove the maknae’s arms from around Taehyung and strip the youngest of his soiled shirt and dress him in the one they had gotten from Hoseok. All the while the boy in question stayed dead to the world, not reacting in the slightest to how his body was being jostled around by the elder.

The shirt now adoring the maknae’s upper body was a bit on the smaller side, which confused Seokjin as he knew of Jungkook’s love for wearing big and oversized shirts when he was relaxing at home. Hoseok was quick to catch onto his hyung’s growing confusion.

“It’s Yoongi-hyung’s, well was, Jungkook’s been sleeping in it for over a week now and has been refusing to wash it. You should have seen how he flipped out, when he couldn’t find it. I thought the kid was going to cry,” Hoseok said, continuing his earlier ministrations of running his hands through Jimin’s hair, when the younger began rubbing his head against Hoseok’s chest in protest to the slowing movement of the fingers tangled in his hair, “-not that there’s anything wrong with crying.”

Hoseok took a slow breath, making sure to fill every crevasse – the muscles in his chest contracting – as his ribcage and lungs expanded. Seokjin and Namjoon looked at the main dancer in worry, it wasn’t often they saw the sunshine looking so gloomy and out of his usual headspace.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Jungkook’s been acting different lately, the whole shirt thing is just one of the things he’s started doing. I’ve been finding him in the kitchen or the living room in the middle of the night, when I would come home late from my studio. If it weren’t for the fact that the kid seems fine whenever we have dance practice, I would think he wasn’t sleeping, or at least hasn’t been sleeping well,” Hoseok stopped and seemed to be contemplating whether he should say his next words or not, but after gazing at the two pairs of eyes focused on him, he resumed.

“He hasn’t really been communicating with us when we’re in the dorm either. Taehyung’s approached me several times, Jimin as well, both saying that Jungkook doesn’t want to play with them, it’s very unlike Kookie. He’s almost always in his room whenever we’re all in the dorm, he only leaves for dance practice, the occasional time or two he goes to the gym, and when we’re eating dinner. If he even eats breakfast it’s not much, definitely not enough to be able to power him through dance practice, he doesn’t eat lunch, I’ve wanted to ask him about it, but he always manages to sneak out of the room before I can get to him, and he barely eats half of what he usually does at dinner. You know what this is hinting at. We’ve already gone through this before, except with Jiminie, you know how quickly it had escalated with him back then. We can’t let it get that bad with Jungkook-ah, not when we know how to help.”

There were tears in the corners of Hoseok’s eyes by the time he had finished, the rapper sniffled quietly, trying to keep his anguish down to a level where it wouldn’t be picked up by the boy laying on his chest, however fortunately or unfortunately for him, the younger seemed to have picked up the emotions pouring from the elder, and proceeded to wrap himself tighter around the other, in an attempt to comfort his close friend, all the while staying in his sleeping state.

“I’ve noticed it too, but not to the same extent as you. I knew something was wrong and that it was only going to get worse the more I ignored it, but still, I didn’t do anything, I should have talked to him at least. I’m a terrible hyung.” Seokjin stroked the maknae’s cheeks ignoring the tears that were forming in his eyes.

“You’re not hyung, if anything I as the leader should have done something to solve the situation, it never should have gotten this bad. You’re my responsibility,” Namjoon said and rose from the bed.

“We’re all at fault so stop trying to take all the blame yourselves, Jin-hyung you may be the eldest but that’s doesn’t mean anything else than the fact that you’re the oldest in the group, and Namjoon, the title of leader doesn’t mean that whenever something goes wrong it’s on you, you’re just human, Jin-hyung is human too, I’m human too, we all make mistakes sometimes and problems arise but we solve them together.” Hoseok took a breath. “This is something we need to solve together.”

The words worked how they were meant to, but they couldn’t reverse what Seokjin was already feeling, and so when the tears finally came forward, he didn’t try to suppress them.

Namjoon was quick to get to his hyung and help him out of the room, all the while keeping the elder in a secure hold with one arm around his upper body and the other holding Seokjin’s head against his neck, in an attempt at muffling the sobs coming from the elder, while also running his fingers through Seokjin’s hair like Hoseok had been doing with Jimin.

The elder didn’t stay hidden in the leader’s neck for long, as the calming humming, which Namjoon had begun doing once they were out of the room – hoping that it would help calm the elder – and the continued caressing of his hair, was quick to sooth Seokjin.

“Sorry,” the elder said, the word coming out with the strength of a whisper. A tear fell from one of Seokjin’s eyes and started running down his cheek but was swiftly brushed away by Namjoon before it could go far.

“Don’t apologize for your feelings hyung, we all worry, you just tend to be more emotional when it comes to matters like this, which is perfectly fine. If we didn’t worry and didn’t express our emotions, we wouldn’t be who we are today. Emotions are what makes us human. You’re an amazing example of that, and it’s why I love you so much.” Namjoon locked his gaze with Seokjin’s, his eyes holding nothing but pure love and adoration.

The leader’s hands had found Seokjin’s face and began caressing the elder’s face on their own. Seokjin closed his eyes at the action, a tremor moved through his body and he proceeded to press his head further into Namjoon’s hold, seeking more of the attention the younger was so willing to give him.

Namjoon’s eyes dropped from Seokjin’s eyes to his lips for a moment but quickly moved back to his eyes.

The elder mirrored the movement, followed by his hands moving from their former position by his sides to the front of Namjoon’s shirt where they grasped the soft fabric. As a result, the two had been pulled closer, the two almost flush with each other, the only thing separating them being Seokjin’s hands and the warmth of their mixing breaths.

Their eyes were hooded as they looked at each other, the tension between them growing as the heat of their bodies rose, this was their opportunity for a small moment alone, just the two of them without interference from any of the others.

Sure, they loved the others very much as well, but sometimes it was nice to be just the two of them all alone with no interruptions.

Namjoon pulled the other closer – if that was even possible – his eyes locked on the other’s lips. Seokjin let his eyes flutter shut on their own accord, waiting for the eventual brush of soft lips against his own plumb ones, soft lips which he had come to love so much more than he had thought he would ever be capable of loving anything, over the last couple of years.

They were so close now, that Seokjin could feel the other’s breath against his lips. It was in that moment that someone knocked on the door. Namjoon stopped his approach and instead let out a sigh, letting his head drop onto the elder’s shoulder.

The moment had been ruined, like it had so many other times before.

For the last couple of weeks, it felt like their relationship had been reduced to these small intimate moments, these small winks of time that used to make their hearts sing, though now never getting the time to bloom as one of their other members would always somehow insert themselves in the equation.

In the beginning it was okay, they would even laugh when the other members would walk in on them kissing and proceed to scream about PDA, about how there were kids in the apartment and that they would be going to the store to buy bleach, even though they themselves were frequently getting caught making out and whatnot in the apartment.

And don’t get them wrong, they do love the other members and they couldn’t imagine ever not being part of their lives, but sometimes it was just too much, it would feel like their relationship was being disrupted, in the beginning they had been scared that it would cause them to drift apart, but luckily fear had been proven ridiculous as their relationship only grew as their friendship with the others got stronger over the years, of course there still was times where they wanted to be alone just the two of them, and the other members would always be understanding in those times and leave them alone.

Whoever was outside their apartment knocked again, successfully pulling Namjoon out of his thoughts.

The leader turned his head to look down the hall from where the sound originated before turning back to Seokjin. By then the elder had broken out of his daze and instead a frown had taken up residence on the elder’s handsome face.

To correct this Namjoon didn’t hesitate to slide a hand behind the other’s neck, gently grab his nape, and bring their lips together in a tender kiss, it wasn’t deep nor did it last long, but it was enough to erase his partner’s earlier somberness which had been his goal from the beginning.

“Now, no more crying love, everything will be okay, we’ll-“ Namjoon was interrupted by another harsh knock on the door.

“-We can try to talk to Jungkook tonight or tomorrow, depending on whether we get tomorrow off. And we’ll have to get Yoongi-hyung from his studio, so we can talk with him too about his recent behavior-“ knock.

Namjoon looked down the hallway “–Sorry, I’ll have to go before they leave with the food.” Namjoon gave the other a peck on the forehead, before removing himself from Seokjin and turning around to walk towards the door only to stop when he suddenly remembered something.

He turned around again, only just managing to catch the other on threshold of the door to the room the others were still occupying.

“Hyung! Wait, could you wake the others and get them to the kitchen? I’ll make sure to set the table once I’ve gotten the food,” Namjoon asked the elder.

“Sure, just go get the food now, or we won’t have anything to put on the table,” Seokjin said jokingly, letting one of the corners of his mouth tuck up into a small smile, and then added a wink for good measure because he liked the way it would cause the rapper’s cheeks to adopt a nice dusting of red.

And then he was gone, slipping past the threshold and into the bedroom where the others were resting.

“He’s going to be the death of me,” Namjoon murmured as he willed the heat in his cheeks to calm down, he couldn’t stand face to face with a stranger looking like a fire hydrant.

When he opened the front door, he was met with the sight of the wall on the opposite side of the hall. The leader stuck his head into the hallway and turned his head to look confusedly down both sides of the hall.

The twenty-something year old took a step outside, only to hear a crunching sound when his foot met the floor outside the apartment.

Namjoon looked down at his foot expecting to see the mess that should have been their dinner decorating the floor but was pleasantly surprised when he saw he had only caught the corner of one of the plastic bag wrapped boxes he guessed to be containing their ordered food.

“Huh, guess I didn’t have to worry at all,” The leader said to himself as he lowered himself to grab the food delivery before turning around and proceeding to close the door again and locking it behind him. With the food in his arms he moved into the kitchen to continue with his next task.

He had been about to grab plates for all of them when Jimin bounded into the room.

“Let me do that hyung,” the younger said, as he tried to take a plate out of the leader’s hand.

“It’s okay, it can do it, I told Jin-hyung I would,” Namjoon told the shorter male, as he moved the hand holding the lone plate up and out of Jimin’s reach to which the younger frowned.

“Well, Jin-hyung told me to stop you from breaking another plate, you’ve already ruined one of our sets and I don’t think hyung would appreciate it if you broke another one, so maybe you should just let me do this and then we won’t possibly have an upset Jin-hyung on our tails,” Jimin said with a smug grin, and while the other man was too flustered by the accusation and distracted trying to come up with a comeback the younger managed to get the plate out of Namjoon’s hands.

“That time was an accident, I didn’t know that Yeontan was in the dorm, if anything it was Yeontan’s fault for surprising me and making me drop the plates,” Namjoon said, and instead of moving for the plates the leader went to the cabinets and started to take out plastic cups, he didn’t want to be reprimanded again.

“Don’t try to give Yeontan the blame, that puff of fluffy hair is innocent,” Jimin argued back whilst setting the plates in their rightful places around the table.

“Why are you talking about Yeontan,” Taehyung asked sleepily as he entered the kitchen from the hallway. The second youngest was cutely rubbing his eyes, trying to wake himself up, the tips of his bangs were wet as he had tried to wake himself up by splashing water in his face before going to the kitchen.

“Namjoon-hyung’s accusing Yeontan of shattering those plates a couple of weeks back,” Jimin hastily replied to his same aged friend before the elder got the chance to open his mouth.

“Yah! Park Jimin! That’s not what I-“ Namjoon was interrupted before he got to finish his sentence.

“How dare you! Stooping so low as to blame my Tannie, I never expected this of you hyung, I’m hurt, Yeontan would be too if he was here to witness your wild accusation,” Taehyung said, faking a hurt pout to the degree that Jimin believed it until Taehyung hid his face from Namjoon and winked at Jimin, to which the older of the two promptly broke out into laughter.

“Taehyung, Yeontan’s a dog-“ Once again he was interrupted.

“That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have feelings, it’s actually been proven that dogs experience basic human emotions,” Taehyung said. At this point Namjoon had lost the thread as to where their conversation had taken a turn to.

“That’s not–, what are we even tal-“

“Yah! Quit it. The food’s getting cold”. The confusing situation was disrupted by Seokjin when he, Hoseok, and Jungkook came into the room, Hoseok was awake enough to walk on his own, but Jungkook was clinging onto the eldest member as if he’d fall without any support.

Namjoon and Taehyung broke apart with Taehyung walking away and towards the set table.

Seokjin helped the maknae into a chair at the table and stayed beside the other to make sure he wouldn’t face plant into the plate in front of him until Jimin got to the table and relieved the eldest of Jungkook watching duty.

Once replaced Seokjin walked over to the kitchen counter which Namjoon had been leaning against the whole time, grabbed one of the leader’s fumbling hands and pulled the younger in for a quick kiss which the other was fast to reciprocate and deepen.

“Hyungs! PDA! Not it the kitchen! Think about Jungkook! Cover your eyes Kook! I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you from this tooth rotting show of affection.” Jimin quickly covered both of the maknae’s eyes, before promptly letting his head fall onto the youngest’s left shoulder.

The moment Jimin’s hands made contact with Jungkook’s, the younger was slowly brought out of his slumber, but when the elder’s head made contact with his shoulder only some of the fog had retreated into the back of his mind, and so he was confused when he weakly removed Jimin’s hands from his face to see the sight of one of his smallest hyungs seemingly crying on his shoulder.

Jungkook stared down at the mess in front of him, and looked confused around to the others, a silent question in his eyes, as he hadn’t been conscious enough at the time for his brain to remember any of the things that had transpired in the last couple of minutes.

Taehyung took a seat next to the confused Jungkook and just shook his head as he ran his fingers through the youngest’s hair in a soothing motion, and Hoseok went to collect Jimin from the maknae with a grin on his face. When the rapper had his arms wrapped tightly around the 95’er he started shaking his whole body and continued to do so until the both of them were laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of what they were doing.

“You’re just jealous,” Seokjin told the laughing boy in a joking manner after he separated from Namjoon to watch the others.

“I can give you a smooch if it’ll help Jiminie,” Hoseok told Jimin, to which the younger began squirming in the other´s hold in an attempt to get away, but the dancer didn´t let go and began his quest to cover the younger’s face in pecks. Jimin managed to deflect a few but the majority where successfully planted, causing the younger of the two to giggle.

Taehyung observed the entire exchange and directed his gaze to the maknae only to find the younger already looking at him. He poked his pointer finger into his left cheek, hoping the younger would understand his action, and even went as far as turning his head sideways for easier access, but the maknae just continued staring at Taehyung, his thoughts running rampant in his mind.

When Taehyung didn’t feel anything, he turned back to Jungkook.

The younger had turned to look wide eyed at the spectacle starting up again by the kitchen counter with his tongue poking the inside of his cheek. Taehyung pouted at the lost opportunity but followed his eyes to the kitchen, where he saw the leader and the eldest in quite the position.

Namjoon had Seokjin pressed up against the counters and was caging in the eldest by having his hands placed on the counter on either side of the eldest. Their mouths were locked together in a lazy make out session, and despite being so intimately pressed together the two were smiling and breathlessly laughing.

Jin took the chance offered and tried to hoist himself up onto the counter behind him, Namjoon caught onto what his partner was trying to do and grabbed him under his thighs to help lift.

With the new position the leader moved himself closer to the elder, his hands left the other’s thighs in favor of grabbing the sculpted *** belonging to his boyfriend and dragged the other close enough to leave them flush from crotch to chest. The two were so caught up in each other that they had completely forgotten that they were currently in the same room as four other members of their group.

Hoseok wolf whistled from the dinner table, which quickly brought them out of their bubble. Namjoon’s forehead fell against Seokjin’s chest, and the elder let his head fall back and rest against the cabinets behind him. Both of their lips were slightly swollen and reddened, and their eyes unfocused.

“Now I’M getting jealous,” Hoseok informed the room, the body incased in his arms lightly hit his chest at his comment, but the rapper just laughed and tickled the younger’s side and watched happily as Jimin squirmed in his lap.

“What? I mean, who wouldn’t be jealous of that? Jiminie we should try that!” Hoseok exclaimed, giving the younger a full smile, his dimples showing proudly. Jimin couldn’t resist and poked one of them.

Hoseok released one of his arms from around Jimin and slightly tapped his bottom lip, the younger dancer’s eyes moved with the finger and his eyes glinted, his tongue darted out between his lips but quickly disappeared again as the shorter shook his head, bit his lip, and hid his head in the Hoseok’s chest.

Hoseok – who after having lived with his Jimin’s playfulness for years had become accustomed to it – lifted Jimin’s head with a hand under his chin, and gave the younger a sweet smile that reached his eyes and quite literally made them sparkle, before diving in for several quick pecks before fitting their lips together.

Their lips moved together in a well-practiced dance.

Jimin’s hands came to rest around Hoseok’s neck, and Hoseok’s on autopilot moved to Jimin’s hips, the actions brought the two of them closer and into a sweet embrace. The younger smirked into the kiss right before he pulled the other further in, and began probing at the elder dancer’s bottom lip, to which the older parted his lips, letting the younger enter.

The kiss had managed to turn steamy not even 1 minute after being engaged, showing just how deprived the two had been of each other. With concert preparations already starting they had all had to push personal matters into the back of their brains for the time being so that they could focus on their jobs – that meant no avoiding practice or vocal lessons in favor of lazing around with their significant other – and having to work their bodies like they were at the time being meant that they were always too tired when they got home to do anything other than take a shower, eat dinner, and go to bed.

The pout on Taehyung’s face only deepened at the sight of his platonic soulmate getting steamy with his partner.

Sometimes it felt like he and Jungkook were an old couple and weren’t as affectionate as they used to – which was weird to say since the two of them were the youngest ones in the group, and one of them particularly loved skin ship – they had been the first to get together with the others doing so as well the following years, and because of that they had had more time than the others to settle down their feelings and get things out of their system, and so they didn’t openly do romantic gestures like the others would.

Jungkook turned the pouting boy’s head and planted a quick peck on the other’s forehead, nose, and lips, knowing that something as simple as that would easily help take Taehyung out of the darkened corner of his mind that he had wandered into, and make the older happy again.

Taehyung’s pout immediately disappeared, and a small smile appeared, the younger always knew what he needed, and so he returned the favor by leaning his forehead against the younger’s and nudging it from side to side in a show of the casual affection they often used day to day.

Seokjin looked on fondly as the two pairs engaged in each of their own love declarations, while he calmly raked his hands through Namjoon’s hair. The only thing that could have made this moment better was if Yoongi had been there to share it with the rest of them.

His mood instantly dropped.

He started regretted not having made sure the rapper would come home with them, sure, it was a regular that Yoongi would go straight to his studio after practice, but that didn’t stop the unease from stirring in his stomach every single time it happened. He started chewing on the inside of his left cheek, a bad habit he had picked up during his trainee days.

“Hey, stop that,” Namjoon’s voice broke through the clouds.

“It’s okay.” The younger caressed Seokjin’s cheek before gently grabbing his hands that had beforehand been playing with a couple of loose threads that had been sticking out of the seams in his pants, and guiding him off of the countertop and towards the dining table where the others had already taken their designated seats.

“Okay everyone, grab a seat it’s time to eat,” Namjoon told the others as he dragged a chair out from under the table and sat Seokjin down, and then took the seat to the left of the eldest himself.

The leader had begun to unpack the food when it dawned on him that he had forgotten one thing after looking around on the table. Jimin, having thought ahead and remembered for Namjoon, was already handing the other male a clean plate, to which Namjoon thanked the younger.

Taking food aside for Yoongi had almost become a custom now, and was something which they would unconsciously do without prompt, they knew what the second oldest liked and would make sure that his plate would always consist mostly of that, hoping that doing so would make the eldest rapper eat everything they had put together for him, though more than not that would not be what would happen.

Early on in the meal, a conversation had quickly picked up between the three youngest and Hoseok with Namjoon throwing in his own small quips at times where he felt the need to contribute. As far as Seokjin understood it was about the upcoming tour and personal projects, though he had stood off a long time ago and wasn’t even trying to follow the talk anymore.

His food was virtually untouched, only a couple of bites missing from when he had managed to eat a bit before the thoughts had become too much and he could barely make himself swallow whatever he had been chewing on for the last 20 seconds. Now disinterested in eating any more, he just moved the food around on his plate with his chopsticks, keeping his head down to avoid the others’ gazes.

A warm hand came to rest on Seokjin’s right thigh and another began rubbing the lower part of his back in small circles before the owner of said hand reached their arm comfortingly across his back so that their hand could grip warmly at his waist on the same side as the hand on his thigh.

“Hyung, you need to eat something, I know today has been tiring, you’re exhausted and you´re worried, but you need the energy from the food so tomorrow won’t be an even less bearable day,” the leader told the elder in a calming voice. The chatter had died down he noticed, and the three youngest were all looking at him worryingly.

Hoseok gently squeezed Seokjin’s thigh before letting go and quietly moved his chair closer so that he was almost glued to the elder’s side.

“I know… I just don’t feel well at the moment,” the elder replied. Seokjin pushed his plate further in on the table until there was enough space for him to rest his head comfortably on his arms without having to worry about getting food in his newly washed hair.

A small hand, Jimin’s, grabbed at his left hand and gently pried it open until he could fit their palms together. Seokjin lifted his head up just enough from where he had it pillowed in his arms, to see the smile tugging at the corners of the younger’s mouth.

“It’s because you try to bear everything on your shoulders all alone hyung, you need to let up on your selflessness and let us help with this, or else it could end up making you actually physically sick. If it’ll help ease you, we’ll call him, though not until you’ve eaten a bit more and everything’s been cleaned up, you need to take care of yourself too,” the younger said, rubbing the pad of his thumb over the back of Seokjin’s hand in a soothing motion.

“Who knows, maybe he’ll even agree to come home if we ask him,” Jimin added.

Hoseok then helped the elder into an upright position, keeping his arm firmly around the other should Seokjin’s body decide that it was too tired to keep itself upright, and proceeded to lift the plate back into its original spot in front of the eldest.

When Seokjin then looked at Hoseok with this almost pleading look the rapper couldn’t say no and picked up his chopsticks to help feed the other. Finishing the plate ended up taking some time as Seokjin was chewing slowly and had to take short breaks when he would get emotional, and so the other 4 members had already started the cleaning process.

When Hoseok put the disposable chopsticks down on Seokjin’s now empty plate, that was snatched away as well, the chopsticks were thrown out and the plate was put into the sink.

“Hobi can you take hyung to the living room? The rest of us will be there in a minute or two,” Namjoon told his same aged friend. The man was in the midst of disposing of the empty boxes left over from the meal. Jimin was washing the worst off of the dirty plates, Jungkook was putting the plates and glasses into the dishwasher, and Taehyung was covering Yoongi’s plate with film so he could put the food in the fridge for the rapper to eat later.

“Sure. Come hyung let’s get cozy,” the younger man said, gently taking the eldest’s hand and leading him through the corridor and into the living room where he made the eldest sit down in the middle of the four-seater couch he had led him to.

The younger the proceeded to leave the room, later on coming back with several pillows and blankets which he then dumped on the carpet in front of Seokjin before beginning to arrange them on their three couches as he saw fit.

By the time the four other members joined Seokjin and Hoseok in the living room – after only a couple of minutes, like Namjoon had said – Seokjin and Hoseok had already made themselves comfortable on the couch of their choosing with a couple of pillows and a blanket. The worries stressing the eldest out looked to have been forgotten for the moment and it helped the others relax as well.

“I think we can all agree that some relaxation is in place. What do you all say about we watch movie? Jin-hyung you choose.” Namjoon said warmly and looked around at the other five people in the room.

Hoseok, Jimin, and Taehyung were quick to agree on the matter, Jungkook though, was a little more reluctant to say yes and didn’t say anything at first, and Seokjin, who was the man in question, didn’t seem like he was quite sure what he should say at the immediate time, and therefor gave himself a moment to think before he decided to open his mouth and say anything.

The leader plopped himself down in the free space next to the eldest and directed Seokjin into laying down on his side with his head positioned in the rapper’s lap.

Taehyung and Jungkook took the three-seater couch on the left of them, and Hoseok – after having been separated from Seokjin – moved to the other three-seater couch on the right side of them with Jimin.

Once everyone was seated Seokjin decided to speak his mind to the leader.

“Joon… I know that what you’re trying to do and I’m sorry, but it’s not working, and if you’ve forgotten we have to be at the company tomorrow morning for practice, and it’s already midnight” Seokjin said morosely, and twisted his neck to look up at the face looking down at him from above.

“Hyung, you need this. Plus Sejin-hyung hasn’t confirmed yet whether or not we still have to go tomorrow, he could message me any moment now and tell me that we have the day off,” the younger said as he began stroking the eldest’s hair.

The four others watched the interaction between the two, all deciding not to bud in on the conversation.

“He could also message you and tell you that we still have practice tomorrow, and then all of us will have to function on only 4 hours of sleep,” Seokjin said with a down toned sharpness before turning his head back to look across the room and at the TV and let the next sentence fall with a soft sigh: “the only thing that could make me relax in the slightest at this point would be talking with Yoongi. But, also, maybe watching a movie wouldn’t be so bad…”.

“I’m glad you agree. And… if talking to Yoongi-hyung will help ease your mind then go on ahead, none of us are holding you back from doing anything,” Namjoon said and leaned down – even though it was a bit uncomfortable – and pecked the elder’s forehead.

Seokjin smiled and his gaze went from person to person, searching for the approval he hoped to find reflected in all of their eyes. He was happy when he found what he had looked for.

He was a very insecure person at heart, and nothing seemed to be able to change that, not praise from people he didn’t know because of his talents and looks, and not from the people he held closest to his heart, sure, he could put on a mask and perform with a confidence that allowed him to do things in those moments that he normally would be too shy to do, things that would behind camera always leave him feeling flustered and a bit uncomfortable and visibly make his ears turn a violent red – proven by the multitude of pictures ARMY’s had taken – why his mind continued to work like this he didn’t know, he thought that the years he’d spent getting praised as Jin of BTS would end up helping him build his confidence, but as he looked at how things were now nothing as such had happened.

The eldest was quick to fish his phone out of his back pocket, the slick piece of technology felt familiar yet different in his grasp at the same time.

After he had accidentally forgotten his phone in a pair of jeans he put in the washing machine last week – something he had thought only Namjoon to be capable of doing – he’d had to get a new one, and now that a new model out on the marked he just decided to go with the newest. It had only been a little over a week since he bought it and with preparations going on, he hadn’t had the time to figure out the new functions on the newer model.

Seokjin scrolled down his short list of contacts until he found Yoongi’s, he proceeded to click on the message icon and typed out his usual text to the younger: “Remember not to stay out too late, text me when you’re leaving”, before pressing send.

He hesitated for a moment and stared down at his phone, he knew that the message had actual emotions and unspoken words between the sentences, but today it just didn’t seem like enough, it didn’t directly express what he felt and the words didn’t feel right on his tongue. But no matter his unresolved internal conflict he pushed the thoughts aside and told himself that it would have to make do at the moment, he would return to it some other time. And so, he closed the app and let the phone go dark in his hand.

The moment he put the phone away again he had several DVD cases ****** into his face, temporarily blurring his vision before he was able to focus it again.

He raised his hand out to push the cases away, but they were almost immediately pushed back into his face again, he hadn’t noticed before as he had been too lost in his thoughts, but he had three voices talking to him at once which ended up making everything said to him unintelligible, and someone was laughing, most likely at his misfortune.

“Hey! I thought I was supposed to pick the movie!” The eldest cut in. Since his earlier actions didn’t work in stopping the younger boys, he snatched the DVD cases away from the hands holding them, and was met with Jungkook’s, Taehyung’s, and Hoseok’s faces. He looked down to inspect the movies in his grasp.

“But hyung it’s been so long since I’ve last seen it!” Jungkook said sticking his bottom lip out, trying to compel the eldest into letting him get his way through the use of aegyo. A very unusual occurrence in public, but at home the maknae didn’t seem to be ashamed of doing anything anymore.

“Jungkook-ah we shouldn´t be watching these kinds of movies when we’re supposed to sleep, rather than an action movie we should watch something soft, actually, Hoseok-ah’s movie pick is perfect. Besides didn’t you watch Ironman last week?” Seokjin didn’t let Jungkook’s pout sway his judgement and continued like he would in every other situation.

“Correction, it’s been so long since we’ve last seen this together, and it’s a classic you can’t get tired of it,” Jungkook continued to argue in a pout, even though Seokjin had clearly already made his decision.

“My point still stands Jungkook. Though maybe we could see it some other time when all of us are here.” Seokjin added the last part when he saw how Jungkook’s face fell, he didn’t want to make the maknae to be sad, that would go against what he stood for, if spending 2 hours watching a movie – that he swore he had watched over 100 times by now, and was sure he could almost recite all the lines to – with Jungkook would make the younger happy then he would happily do it, though he would most definitely be roping the others into doing it with him.

“But what about my movie hyung?” Taehyung pouted at the eldest. A moment later the second youngest was tackled onto the floor by Jungkook and Hoseok – who had been persuaded by the maknae – and had his arms secured against the floor over his head by the rapper as the youngest sat on his torso and tickled his sides until he was laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe.

Seokjin looked down at the three bodies fooling around on the carpet and silently decided not to interfere, he then directed his gaze to Jimin who was also viewing the other boys.

When Jimin eventually looked away from the three members on the floor and instead looked at the two cozying it up on the four-seater couch, his eyes immediately caught the eldest’s and he realized that his hyung was holding out the movie he had chosen in his direction.

The younger boy pushed off the couch he was sitting on and proceeded to reach out and grab the case that was being held out to him before moving over the three bodies – that were now sprawled on the ground in varying positions – and walking over to the DVD player and inserting the CD after getting it out of its case.

The two youngest and Hoseok continued playing in the midst of everything, and Namjoon did nothing more than shake his head and smile fondly at the boys, while Seokjin did his best to ignore them and focus on just relaxing in the leader’s lap, though he couldn’t stop his eyes from wandering every once in a while.

Jimin turned on the TV and switched to HDMI, and then waited patiently in a crouch before the TV screen until the movie’s opening screen came up. The opening screen’s background music was apparently enough for the three boys on the floor to halt their playing, and their eyes shot up to the TV and to Jimin who was in possession on the remote before they broke apart and scrambled off to the couches they had been seated on previously.

About 30 minutes into the movie Jimin – who was laying on his back between Hoseok’s legs – took his phone out of his pocket. He turned the brightness all the way down as to not disturb the others who surprisingly enough all seemed to enjoy the movie, even Jungkook who had been complaining about the movie choice earlier.

He brought up his texts with Yoongi and sent a quick message to the other, asking the older man to take the rest of the night off and come home. Afterwards he just kept his phone in his hand in case Yoongi would answer, so that he would be able to feel it vibrate.

Hoseok had been keeping his eye on Jimin ever since the younger took out his phone, although Jimin had been quick to turn down the brightness it hadn’t been quick enough as the sudden light had immediately caught Hoseok’s attention since the rapper’s chest was being used as the younger’s pillow. He saw when the smaller male texted Yoongi and continued to gaze at him when the younger would frequently check his screen for a message from the elder.

Deciding enough was enough, Hoseok grabbed Jimin’s left hand, the one that the younger had been keeping his phone in, and gently pried the phone out of the younger’s grasp when Jimin grabbed harder onto the piece of technology. When he eventually successfully had gotten the phone out of Jimin’s hand the younger turned around so they were chest to chest and tried to make a grab for his phone, but Hoseok just extended his arm behind his head so much as he could and Jimin was left clawing for the air.

When the singer then tried to climb further up his body Hoseok wrapped his legs around the younger man’s waist and tugged him back down. The pout that had already been on Jimin’s lips only deepened when he realized that we wouldn’t be getting his phone back from the elder, and instead of continuing to try the younger drew back and let himself fall onto Hoseok’s chest with a soft huff.

Now that Jimin had lost his fight Hoseok retracted his arm and slightly raised his body enough so that he could slide the phone under his back, and then he leaned forward and placed a soft peck at the top of Jimin’s head, it wasn’t much but it seemed like it was enough to cheer up the younger, as he in the light coming from the TV saw as Jimin’s lips stretched into a smile.

The younger then turned back around to once again focus on the movie. Hoseok kept his gaze on the younger for a little longer before lifting his head and looking around at the rest of the people in the room, who luckily didn’t seem to have noticed anything as far as he could tell, though that was probably because most of them looked seconds away from falling asleep.

Hoseok grabbed his own phone then and briefly checked if Jimin was looking at him as he didn’t want the younger to call him out for being a hypocrite, before going to his messages and finding Yoongi. His text turned out a little longer than Jimin’s even though he just kept to telling the second oldest about how worried Seokjin, Jimin, and the rest of them were about him, and asked him about coming back from the studio early so that Seokjin and Jimin, specifically, would be reassured that he was okay.

Unlike Jimin he let go of his phone and left it by his side pressed between his body and the back of the sofa, he did look at it a couple of times throughout the movie, but nothing ever changed, there were never any new notifications about a text from a certain hyung.

When the movie eventually ended and the music for the end credits came on – which ended up waking Seokjin, Taehyung, and Jungkook up from the slumber they had been lulled into – there still hadn’t come a reply from Yoongi, and that was when the worry he had been feeling ever since dance practice ended, went up a notch.

Even though the second eldest would always quickly become encased in his cocoon of music production, he never forgot to check his phone and reply to messages from the other members, something as small as an “okay”, “yes”, or even a thumbs up would be enough of an answer for them and Yoongi knew that.

Right now, Hoseok sincerely hoped that Seokjin in his currently half-awake mind had forgotten all about his worries about Yoongi that had been weighing him down, but one look over at his hyung crushed that hope as Seokjin was already sitting up and had his phone pressed against his right ear.

The rapper could from his spot on the other couch see as the elder was anxiously tapping his right foot on the carpet, and wanted nothing more than to lay a comforting hand on the older male’s thigh, but he was currently trapped under Jimin’s sleeping body and he didn’t have it in himself to move the younger – who had been so tired the whole day – off of him.

Hoseok’s conflict has luckily solved when he saw Namjoon get up into a sitting position to the left of Seokjin and calm the eldest down with a single touch to his nape which the other in turn leaned in to.

The rapper was taken out of his thoughts when the boy on his chest began moving and turned around so he could lay on his stomach and semi incase the older member in a hug, or so it had seemed to Hoseok, but then he could feel the younger’s fingers try to make their way into the space between his back and the sofa and he knew what Jimin was actually after.

Before another thought could form in his mind Hoseok took the younger’s arms and pressed them behind Jimin’s back so that the other was rendered partially immobile. Jimin continued to squirm around and try to free himself even though the use of his arms had been taken from him, but eventually admitted defeat and let himself go boneless on the elder after he had tired his body out completely.

All the while Jimin had been fighting, Hoseok had been quietly snickering at the boy, but when the smaller male gave up, Hoseok had stopped laughing and had instead begun cooing cutely at the boy, apparently though, Jimin was very happy with the turn of events and began hitting his head against the elder’s chest, but instead of it making the elder stop, the noises only increased.

On the couch opposite of Jimin and Hoseok, Taehyung and Jungkook looked to almost be falling asleep again, the commotion seemingly not bothersome to the two youngest who were wrapped up together in one of the blankets Hoseok had dragged into the living room.

When the end credits stopped and the movie returned to the menu, Namjoon began searched around the living room for the remote with his eyes as he didn’t want to leave Seokjin’s side at that moment, and luckily not long after the leader found it stuck between two of the couch’s cushions.

With the remote in his hand Namjoon proceeded to turn off the TV before putting the remote away again.

A ping suddenly sounded throughout the quiet room and every movement came to a standstill, and then as one, Seokjin, Jimin, and Hoseok turned their heads towards Namjoon quick enough that it should have given them whiplash, Jungkook and Taehyung blinked their eyes open and sat up before simultaneously looking towards their leader like the others had.

It was so quiet that you would probably have been able to hear a pin drop if the floor had been made of wood and not carpet, nobody except Namjoon seemed to be breathing right then and there, instead choosing to stay completely quiet in case another ping would be heard and they could all confirm that they hadn’t started hearing things.

When suddenly he had all the attention on him, Namjoon grew nervous and he started fumbling with his phone as he tried to unlock it to get to his messages as the notification that should have come with the ping hadn’t shown up on his lock screen.

After having deemed Namjoon too slow, Seokjin snatched the phone out of the younger’s hands and quickly unlocked it and went to the leader’s texts. Once there he let out a frustrated sigh and handed the phone back to Namjoon, who instead of turning his gaze to the phone looked questioningly at the eldest before redirecting his eyes to the phone screen when Seokjin motioned for him to do so.

“Is it Yoongi-hyung?” Jimin asked hopefully from Namjoon’s right side. The singer had been let go by Hoseok at some point and had been quick to join Namjoon and Seokjin on their couch after everyone had gone back into motion.

“No, just Sejin. He talked to management. He says they rejected our request but agreed to let Yoongi-hyung come in later than the rest of us tomorrow because of his contribution to the album,” Namjoon said as he quickly skimmed through the text, before eventually turning the phone off.

Seokjin huffed out a gloomy sigh and stood up from the couch before leaving the room, it wasn’t long after that they heard a door being shut at the end of the hallway which they could only guess had been the door to Seokjin and Yoongi’s room.

The eldest leaving set an arrange of motion in gear.

Hoseok slipped away from the couch that he was now filling up on his own after Jimin had joined Namjoon and Seokjin on their couch and walked out of the living room to follow after the eldest and make sure he was alright.

Taehyung and Jungkook both took out their phones but didn’t specify why.

Jimin already had his phone out – which he had been given again by Hoseok when he left the older alone on their couch – and looked to be typing something, he had raised his head when he saw Hoseok leaving the living room and opened his mouth to say something, but the rapper was already out of the room before he could say anything, and so he went back to his phone.

With everyone else on their phone Namjoon decided to do so as well. At first, he had just been staring at his home screen and the picture of the whole group from 2013 that he had as background, thinking back to the time where they never thought that they would go as far as they currently had, but then he went to his contacts and pressed on Yoongi’s, and after debating with himself whether he should give himself the false hope he pressed call and raised the phone to his ear.

The phone continued to ring, but eventually after a bit over a minute had gone by his phone went to voicemail and he pressed end call.

After a couple of minutes spent just waiting, he rang the other up again, but only to be sent to voicemail again, a bit frustrated he texted the other instead, explaining how the eldest rapper had the morning off the next day, and followed it up with telling the rapper to come home before putting his phone away.

And that’s how the following 15 minutes or so went on. Namjoon just staring blankly into the air, head resting in his left hand, phone forgotten by his side. Seokjin and Hoseok hadn’t returned from Seokjin and Yoongi’s room yet. Taehyung and Jungkook had eventually let go of their phones, instead opting to lay down again and comfort each other to the best of their abilities, with all the tension that was currently in the air.

Jimin had been typing when he all of a sudden stopped. The younger threw his head back against the couch and let out a frustrated sigh as he stood up from beside Namjoon and chucked his phone at the end of the couch and watched with an upset frown as it bounced off of the cushion and onto the carpet, before he walked over to the empty couch that Hoseok had left and threw himself onto the couch dramatically, face down, so his face would end up being buried in one of the pillows Hoseok had taken from one of their rooms.

“Everything okay Jimin?” Namjoon asked the younger when he was brought out of his daydreaming by the sound of Jimin’s phone crashing against the floor.

“No, my phone’s dead. How am I supposed to get hyung home when I have no means to contact him,” Jimin mumbled unhappily into the cushion. The boy sounded miserable. Namjoon could easily handle a hyper and overly affectionate Jimin, but a sad Jimin was something nobody wanted.

“Here, take my phone, it still has some battery left,” the leader told the younger. Jimin happily took the phone when Namjoon went out of his way to leave his spot on his couch just to walk over to the younger boy and hand him the phone. When the phone was handed over, Namjoon lightly ruffled the singer’s hair.

“Thanks hyung,” Jimin told Namjoon, he still wasn’t completely back to normal, but this would do for now. Now that he was content, the leader went back to the biggest couch and let his body melt into the cushions when he laid down.

Namjoon looked over at Jungkook and Taehyung and was about to say something to the two boys when his tired brain registered muffled voices coming from the hallway, and instead of talking to the boys immediately he reluctantly sat up again and leaned back against the couch to try and see if that would help him see who it was, though in the end it didn’t change how far down the hallway he could see.

He knew it was probably just Seokjin and Hoseok coming back from the former’s room, but there was this little voice nagging him in the back of his head that it could be someone else, and therefor he just wanted to be sure.

When the owners of the voices came around the corner and revealed themselves to be Seokjin and Hoseok, Namjoon sagged against the couch and was about to lay down again, but when he saw the eldest´s tearstained face he was immediately up from the couch and was cradling Seokjin against his chest in mere seconds.

He had expected Seokjin’s floodgates to open again once he would be in his embrace, but the eldest surprisingly didn’t, instead he basked in the quiet comfort of the taller male and the calming sound of the younger’s beating heart.

That quiet comfort was quickly gone.

“Hyung?” Jimin’s timid voice sounded shocked, at what they didn’t know.

Seokjin, Namjoon, Hoseok, Taehyung, and Jungkook all moved their head in a synchronized motion, and all froze once what they were seeing seeped in.

Yoongi had picked up.

The five others all moved as they tried to get to Jimin as quick as possible, Taehyung almost fell face first onto the floor when he tried to get out of Jungkook’s arms and accidentally rolled off of the couch, but luckily the maknae was able to throw an arm around the other’s chest before it could happen.

“Yoongi-hyung? Are you there?” Namjoon spoke into the phone after having taken it out of Jimin’s hand.

He wanted to say more but he also wanted to hear the older rapper’s voice. In hindsight, taking his phone from Jimin probably wasn’t the best course of action as the younger was now actively trying to stare the leader down from where he was seated on the couch.

There was only silence, from both their end and Yoongi’s end.

“Hyung if you’re there could you please answer? The kids are worried, and we’re starting to be as well. Hyung-“ Namjoon started, but halted when Jimin began talking.

“I don’t think he’s there hyung, maybe the phone picked up by itself, hyung’s been saying that his phone has been bugging him lately so it’s possible. We should just end the call.” The younger sounded disappointed, and the others couldn’t help but mirror those feelings as well.

Namjoon was about to end the call when a voice cut through the silence.

“I’m-“ was all Namjoon heard before he had to hold the phone away from his ear as what sounded like coughing suddenly pierced his ear, it was like the volume had been turned up by 100, and it was loud enough that the others were able to hear it clearly without the phone having to be on speaker.

When the noise had gone down and Namjoon no longer feared that his eardrum would be in risk of bursting, he put the phone up to his ear again.

“Hyung are you okay?” But it had gone quiet on the other side again and the leader couldn’t help but worry deeply for his older friend.

Seokjin saw the turmoil in the younger’s eyes and made the decision to take the younger’s phone and put it up to his own ear so he could hear what was going on on the other side of the line that was visibly upsetting the other male as much as it was, but when he had the phone up to his ear there was complete silence on the line, there wasn’t even the telltale sound of a computer keyboard being typed on, just completely silence.

The eldest’s eyebrows furrowed together and he held the phone in front of his to see whether the call was still connected, which it disconcertingly enough was.

“Yoongi-“

Seokjin had barely managed to say the younger’s name before he heard what sounded like something crashing against a hard surface and then the call disconnected. The eldest removed the phone from his ear with wide eyes and looked down at the screen, all kinds of thoughts were beginning to run rampant in his mind.

He pressed call again, but he was instantly directed to voicemail.

His brain started telling him that something was very wrong. His body suddenly felt like it was shaking, but one look at his hands told him that he wasn’t.

Seokjin gave the phone back to Namjoon who looked questioningly at him, the eldest avoided the leader’s gaze at swept his eyes over the others in the room before they settled on Jungkook – who was standing with an arm around Taehyung’s waist just a little to his left – and he moved forward in a quick motion and grabbed the maknae’s wrist in a firm grip before he began walking in the direction of their front door, dragging the shocked youngest with him.

In any other situation Seokjin would happily have gone on his own, but right now he felt too out of it to be able to drive on his own, and there was a chance that he would need some extra muscle if he were to completely follow his plan, and Jungkook had both of the things he was looking for.

“Woa- hyung! What’s going on?” The maknae asked wide-eyed as he was pulled along by the eldest. The others didn’t know if they should intervene, but they followed behind the two as they moved through their apartment.

“I’m going to need your help with something,” Seokjin told Jungkook when they eventually reached the front door, and he motioned for the youngest to put on his shoes, like he himself was. The maknae frowned at the eldest but still complied.

Seokjin turned the lock on the door and directed Jungkook outside. He was halfway out the door himself when he stopped and cast a look over his shoulder aimed at Namjoon.

“I need you to call Sejin and tell him to get to Bighit now,” was all the eldest said before he turned back around and stepped completely out of the apartment.

The door closed behind the eldest, leaving the remaining four members looking worriedly at the entrance to their home, before they all simultaneously looked at each other with frowns on their faces.