i did add like a sentence to the last chapter at the begining of Sungjong's last POV, i'm not sure if it would make a great difference, but it adds continuity to the story if you want to go find it.

~*~무한대 (mu-han-dae) n: the state or quality of being infinite~*~

Infinity (symbolically represented by a ∞) is a concept in mathematics and philosophy that refers to a quantity without bound or end. People have developed various ideas thoughout history about the nature of infinity. The word comes from the Latin word ‘infinitas’ or ‘unboundless’

Chapter 8

안녕 (an-nyeong) hi or bye

It was 1:45am as the baby started crying. Yejin was sleeping soundly against Dongwoo’s shoulder as Dongwoo stared up at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep. As Haneul started crying, Dongwoo carefully eased out from under Yejin, tucking the blankets around her as he stood up.   

“Dongwoo...” Yejin mumbled, reaching out toward Dongwoo.   

“It’s okay, I got him,” Dongwoo reassured her, dropping a kiss on her cheek. “Go back to sleep.”

Yejin mumbled something about making sure he picked up groceries as she fell back to sleep. Fondly chuckling, Dongwoo went over to the crib where Haneul was crying.  Cradling him in his arms, Dongwoo cooed and kissed Haneul, asking, “What’s wrong, little guy? Was it a dream? Hungry?”

Haneul was calming down in Dongwoo’s arms, still wiggling in Dongwoo’s arms as he calmed down. There was a quiet knock on the door and Dongwoo headed over to open it, still cooing at Gyeongoo to calm him down. 

“Hey,” Hoya said quietly. “Sorry, I was awake and I heard Haneul crying...”

“It’s okay, why are you still awake?” Dongwoo asked as he gently bounced Haneul as he finally drifted off to sleep. 

“I don’t know,” Hoya said with a shrug. “I just can’t fall to sleep, I have a bad feeling for some reason.”

Dongwoo gave him a knowing smile. As Haneul stopped crying, Dongwoo placed him next to his sister and closed the door behind him. “Let’s go talk for a little bit then,” he said. 

Hoya smiled and followed Dongwoo out to the deck. Earlier that evening, Sunggyu had fell asleep on a chair on the deck. Now, Woohyun was sitting with Sunggyu patiently while Sunggyu slept. He smiled at Hoya and Dongwoo as they passed, but didn’t say anything in case he woke Sunggyu. From their spot on th beach, he could see Myungsoo and Sungyeol talking on the balcony outside of Myungsoo’s bedroom.

“It seems like none of us can sleep tonight,” Dongwoo said lightly. 

Hoya chuckled lightly and sat down in the sand, Dongwoo settling down beside him.  “I miss this, hyung,” Hoya said suddenly. 

“What do you mean?” Dongwoo asked.  “We see each other basically every day.”

“I know,” Hoya said, looking out to the sea.  “But... it’s been different.  You’ve been busy with your kids and Yejin-noona.  Not that I mind.  I like to see that you’re happy, but I miss having you around.”

“You just need to call me and I’m always going to be around,” Dongwoo promised. 

Hoya gave him a small smile.  “What if... I’m not around?”

Dongwoo gave Hoya a good long stare, trying to read his face.  It was easy for him to read Hoya’s face, after all, they had been friends for seventeen years.  “Where are you going?” Dongwoo asked softly. 

“A repersentive of a company asked me if I could be their new CEO...”

“Oh... that’s big,” Dongwoo said, unsure of what else to say. “Hoya. No matter what, I’m going to be behind you every step of the way.”

With a little laugh, Hoya said, “Thanks, hyung, for saying that, Sungyeol laughed at me when I told him.”

This time, Dongwoo laughed.

“Anyways, back to you, do you know what you’re going to do?”

Dongwoo shook his head, picking at the hem of his pants.

“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see,” Hoya said, “and you and Yejin-noona are the kindest people that I know.”

Dongwoo laughed and tried to brush away away some tears. “I thought good things happen to good people.”

“Hyung. Are you saying that Sora is a bad thing?”

“No! Of course not!” Dongwoo protested. “She’s my daughter. I’m going to do everything and anything for her. There’s going to be things that I can do. I’m going to learn sign language for her, get the best hearing aids and help I can get for her. There’s nothing that’s going to stop me to help her.”

Hoya smiled. “Remember that.”

Dongwoo paused for a moment before laughing, realizing what Hoya did. “Thanks,” he said, sitting down again next to Hoya. “I bet you’re going to be faster at learning sign language though.”

“Who says I’m going to learn sign language?” Hoya protested.

“Oh, oh, oh, I know that you’re going to learn with me,” Dongwoo said, waving his finger at him.

Hoya laughed and leaned back in the chair. “It’s true. I’m going to be way faster than you.”

For the first time since Dongwoo heard the news, he finally relaxed, looking up at the stars.

In the middle of the night, suddenly someone screamed, “No!  Sungjong!”

On the level below, one of the twins started crying. The sound tugged at Myungsoo’s heart. He could remember all the times that he would wake up in the middle of the night to comfort Nabi when Sookyung was away.

Myungsoo played with his phone in his hands, looking constantly at the time.  If it was three in the morning here, that would mean that it would mean that it was seven in the evening in Paris... Hesitating, Myungsoo tried to decide if he should call Sookyung and Nabi.

Before he could lose courage, he pressed Sookyung’s number and waited for someone to pick up.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Sookyung,” Myungsoo said in a rush. 

“Oh, hey, Myungsoo. Ummm... Nabi is asleep already if you wanted to talk to her.”

“Oh.” Myungsoo tried not to let the disappointment show in his tone. “I guess... I mean... How was the move?”

“It went smoothly. Nabi is tired because of the flight and such, but she’s excited to be here.”

“So... she’s okay?” Myungsoo said in a rush. 

Sookyung laughed gently. “She’s fine, Myungsoo, don’t worry about her.”

“Oh...” Myungsoo wasn’t sure what he wanted to hear, but somehow, that news made his heart hurt.

“She misses you,” Sookyung added. “A lot in fact.”

“Nabi can call me anytime she wants,” Myungsoo said quickly.

“You know that’s going to mean that she’s going to call you over and over again at all moments of the day.”

“She’s my daughter, there’s nothing that I won’t do for her.”

As soon as Myungsoo said that, he realized what that meant. He didn’t even need Sookyung to add on the end, “Except for giving up Infinite.”

Myungsoo swallowed pass the lump in his throat to say, “I... should be getting to sleep now. If Nabi wants, you can call me in the morning,” he said. 

“Okay, sleep well, Myungsoo,” Sookyung said thought he could hear some bitterness in her voice.

“You too,” Myungsoo said with a sigh before hanging up, collasping on the bed, barely managing to stop his tears. 

“Soo...”

Myungsoo rolled over and looked over at Sungyeol who was leaning against the door frame, playing with a bottle of pils in his hands. “That was Nabi, huh?”

“Yeah,” Myungsoo said sadly, standing up to walk over to the balcony. “It was Sookyung.  Nabi was already asleep.”

Sungyeol nodded and smiled, leaning on the railing of the balcony. “Is Sookyung doing okay?”

“Yeah, she’s settling down... but, Sungyeol, was I right to stay here? Should I have gone with Sookyung and Nabi?”

Sungyeol didn’t reply right away, instead intently picking off some dirt from the banister. “This isn’t a kind of thing that I can tell you what’s right or wrong, becase you know what my answer is going to be.”

Myungsoo sighed and burried his face in his arms. “I know... I... I just need someone to tell me I made the right choice, that I did the r-r-right thing to let go of Sookyung...”

“You’re always going to have to make descions, don’t ask me to make them for you,” Sungyeol said gently. 

“But, what would you have done?”

Sungyeol hesitated, looking out into the ocean. Suddenly, he froze as he spotted something on the dock in the moonlight and he screamed, “No!  Sungjong!”

Sunggyu was dozing off on the couch where he, Woohyun and Hoya were watching a movie when one of the twins started crying in the other bedroom. Mumbling an excuse, Hoya walked out of the room and Sunggyu rolled over, trying to return to the snooze. Woohyun turned off the TV and somewhere else in the house, the baby stopped crying.

In the silence, Sunggyu nearly fell back to sleep, but then something jarred him out of his doze.

Woohyun was singing quietly, the lyrics were jumbled and stuttery, but the melody was there.

It’s been weeks since the accident and Sunggyu realized that he hadn’t sung since then, all of his energy poured into making sure that the others would be okay, but nothing worked.

The only thing that could heal all of them was music.

He opened his eyes and looked over at Woohuun. Immediately Woohyun stopped singing, blushing as he realized Sunggyu had been listening the whole time.

“Why did you stop?” Sunggyu asked softly.

Woohyun avoided his eyes as he replied. “N... not... bea... beauti... voice... I can’t.”

“You can, Woohyun, you can.”

He sighed and looked up at Sunggyu. “Why you?” he asked. “Why stop?”

Sunggyu opened his mouth to give some kind of answer, but the only thing he culd say was, “I don’t want to stop.”

In silence, they contemplated the truth between them, but before either of them could say anything, someone screamed, “No! Sungjong1”

“No! Sungjong!”

Hoya was unaware of a scream from help leaving his mouth as he took off running down the beach, Dongwoo hot on his heels.  Running down the beach earlier that evening didn’t feel as long.  This time, it felt he was running backwards, the dock getting further and further away.  Hoya barely noticed the neat stack of Sungjong’s posessions lying near the end of the dock as he dove into the water without hesitating. 

The water was dark and Hoya could barely see anything he struck out wildly trying to find Sungjong. They couldn’t lose their maknae now...

Unable to stay down, Hoya kicked up to the surface, gasping for air. 

“Hoya!  Do you--“

The rest of Sunggyu’s sentence was cut off as Hoya dove back down, kicking through the water to find Sungjong. He could feel Dongwoo beside him, looking through the water too. Just as Hoya was about to surface for another breath, he saw a shadow in the water.  With a quick trip up to the surface to gasp another breath, Hoya kicked his way down, fighting against the water that tried to pull him towards the surface. 

His hand encountered the cloth of Sungjong’s shirt and immediately Hoya latched on, kicking up to the surface as fast as he could with Sungjong in his arms. 

Underwater was quiet, deathly silent, but out of the water, it was loud.  Waves crashed over Hoya’s ears as he heard Sunggyu, Sungyeol, Myungsoo and Woohyun on the docks, yelling at Hoya. 

“Is he alive?”

“Is he okay?”

“Come here!  Get Sungjong out of the water!”

With Dongwoo’s help, Hoya pulled Sungjong towards the beach, gasping and coughing as water splashed up around them, but that didn’t matter as Sungjong wasn’t moving, absolutely still and limp in Dongwoo and Hoya’s arms. The other four rushed to join them on the beach, Myungsoo and Sungyeol came splashing out into the water to help them carry Sungjong onto dry land.  Everyone was talking over each other, but everyone was listening as Sunggyu barked out orders to put Sungjong on the beach, pushing everyone away so that he could check Sungjong.  Woohyun, who was on the other side of Sungjong, said with a relief in his voice, “Pulse,” to the others as Sunggyu was already sitting up on his knees, pushing the heels of his hands against Sungjong’s chest. 

“Come on, Sungjong, breathe... You can’t just give up like this.”

It might have been after a moment, but to Hoya, every moment felt like a year, Sungjong suddenly started coughing, water coming out of his mouth and nose as Woohyun pulled him onto his side, rubbing his back gently and mumbling calming phrases. 

“Jjong, got you... okay... breath... in... out... it okay...”

It took a few moments for Sungjong to stop gasping for breath and regain his surroundings, though Hoya couldn’t be happier that Sungjong was still there. Suddenly, Sungjong as pushing everyone aside and running back towards the ocean, but Myungsoo was there, catching Sungjong around the waist and pulling him back from the ocean.  “No! Sungjong, don’t!”

“Let me go!” Sungjong’s voice was raw from the salt water and from the tears that were rushing down his cheeks.  “Please, let me go!”

“I won’t ever let you go,” Myungsoo said fiercly.  “We will never let you go.”

Sungjong’s legs gave out from underneath him and Myungsoo eased him down carefully, repeating over and over again, “We’ll never let you go.  Stay here with us.  We’re never going to let you go.”

Water rushed in around their ankles before rushing back out in the quiet night until the peace was broken by the guttural scream from Sungjong. Sungjong’s screams shattered all of their hearts as he sobbed for his lost family.

Kneeling down, Sunggyu placed his hands on Sungjong’s cheeks. “Sungjong-ah...” he whispered. 

Before Sunggyu could continue, Sungjong lifted his gaze to meet Sunggyu’s beseechingly. “Hyung, please... let me go. I don’t want to do this without Daeun.  Please... I want to be with Daeun. I miss her so much.”

Sunggyu gave a short nod to Myungsoo and hesitantly, he let go of Sungjong, but instead of running into the ocean again, Sungjong just collasped into Sunggyu’s arms, crying and sobbing.

Sunggyu rubbed his back gently, holding him close as he said firmly, “Sungjong-ah... what you said about... the score never being in your favour... even if you feel like it’s Life: 3 and Sungjong: 0, no matter what, whatever happens, to us the score is always going to be Hyungs: 0 and Maknae: infinity. That’s never going to change.”

안녕 (an-nyeong) First time I said hello was seventeen years ago. All the times I said it in between, it meant see you again.  Now it means goodbye.