This was a request from Ghad20~ 

Genre: Angst
Members: Minhyuk X the Others 
Summary: When Minhyuk gets depresses and startw hurting himself in the end getting weaker and sick making the other members worried and hurry to help.

Warning: Trigger Content, proceed with caution

The ones who smile the brightest often hide the darkest demons.

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Minhyuk cheerfully introduced himself yet again as the group's jack-of-all-trades; the medicinal herb & mood-maker of the group. He had that infectious air about him. Anyone who crossed paths with him couldn't help but to grin back at this upbeat prince.

"So , the fans have a request for our Minhyuk!" The MC gestured at him, "and the request is...to show some skin!" He smiled nervously at the camera.

"Hey, didn't we do that last time?" He jokes, trying to hide how he tensed up at the word 'skin'.

"What? I don't remember?" The MC joked back at she fluttered her lashes at the camera, elicitating laughter from the PD. 

"Let's check first!" The other members turned him around and proceeded to lifting his shirt, slapping his stomach, and ignoring his yelps of pain. 

"It's ready!" Wonho announced and Jooheon laughed evilly, turning Minhyuk around.

"Ready?...Jajang!" He struck a few poses while flashing his abs. The others laughed and clapped at this antics. Everyone was clearly enjoying themselves. He smiled so brightly, but beneath that, it was hollow and dark.

-----

They sat in the waiting room, as the stylist noonas touched up their makeup for their next schedule.

"Gosh, Minhyuk-sshi...your skin is usually the best! What happened?" Their makeup artist tsked and went to get her concealer kit.

"Are you not sleeping well these days?" Kihyun furrowed his brows, "Don't stay up too late on that iPad of yours." He had noticed how hard it was to wake him up these days. It was usually Hyungwon. Sometimes he caught Minhyuk sneaking back into bed when all the others have gone to bed hours ago. It didn't help that they didn't get alot of sleep already. 

On top of that, Minhyuk had just been released from the hospital for an injury he got from dance practice a month ago. From the time he got back, Kihyun couldn't place a finger on it but he knew something was bothering Minhyuk deeply. 

-----

"I'm hungryyyyyyyyyyy!" Changkyun rolled around the floor of their dorm.

"Why don't we order takeout?" The other half of the maknae-rapper line joined him, rolling up to Hyungwon before attempting to use aegyo. Shownu snickered, and went back to scrolling through whatever he was looking at in his phone.

Hyungwon suddenly sat up, "Let's get pizza!" He looked meaningfully at Kihyun, and the other boy was quick to agree, pulling out the takeout menu for the pizza place. The truth was, Hyungwon had found some dirty blades in the shared washroom. He wasn't sure what to make of them; he was worried, but didn't want to unnecesarily alarm the others. Instead, he asked Kihyun if he'd noticed anything weird. It appeared to him that everyone was thinking the same. Their happy-go-lucky mood maker was feeling in the dumps. They hoped to cheer him up with a little pizza party.

It was quiet without a hyper blonde-silver male jumping off the walls pestering someone or simply being loud. Their pizza arrived and Shownu nudged Hyungwon to go find Minhyuk.

Hyungwon could hear the water rushing from the bathroom, and was about to head back to tell the others that the latter as showering, but something stopped him. He walked over to the door and pressed his ear to the door. The flow of the water was continuous, unbroken. There was no way he was taking a shower. He rapped on the door three times, then harder. "Minhyuk? The pizza is here. We got your favourite." He pressed his ear to the door once again, hoping to hear a reply. Instead, he heard a gasping noise. 

"What's taking you so long?" Shownu walked in to check on them, only to find Hyungwon pressed against the bathroom door. 

"D-do you think you can break open the door?" Hyungwon's voice was a bit wobbly. Without questioning him, Shownu put his hand on the doorknob and twisted it, not stopping until they heard a snap. 

The door knob broke and Shownu froze, unsure what to do. Hyungwon pushed past him, banging the door open. There, on the bathroom floor, was Minhyuk pressing a piece of metal against his own arm. He looked up at them in shock, before letting out a yelp in pain as the metal dug deep into his skin. Wonho was the next to enter, followed by Kihyun.

" ." 

"Wonho, stop swearing and get the first aid kit!" Kihyun quickly grabbed a towel off a hook nearby and pressed it against Minhyuk's arm. Hyungwon was shaking as he came back with a tissue box, gently wiping the tears that sprung from the blonde's eyes, patting his back as he choked back sobs. Wonho ran in with their first aid-kit, fumbling to open it's clasps until Kihyun snatched it from him. Changkyun closed all the taps, and they were left in an odd type of silence. Jooheon was trying to fix the door knob with Shownu, which filled the bathroom with a shuffling type of noise. Wonho wiped at the floors, producing a squeaky noise. Annoying, but no one complained. 

Soon, their small bathroom was cramped up with six full grown boys sitting around their sobbing friend.

"I think we need to talk," one of them spoke softly, breaking the odd silence.

Seven full grown boys, clutching each other with tears in their eyes. They weren't sure how long they sat there, but they knew that they somehow all ended up falling asleep in this cramped space. 

-----

"Hey Chankyunnie, bring this to Minhyuk for me," Kihyun was cutting fruits and throwing them into bowls. Changkyun took two, throwing an apple slice into his mouth before proceding to Minhyuk's room. It was empty, so he popped his head into all the other rooms before heading into the room Wonho was in. 

"Where's Minhyuk hyung?" Changkyun had looked for him in every room but couldn't find him, he was growing more antsy by the second.

"He's in the washroom, why?" Hyungwon was the one to answer, groggily- then his eyes suddenly shot open, checking the clock that hung above him."It's been 2 hours. Minhyuk doesn't take 2 hour showers."

Wonho swore, then went to knock on the bathroom door they had just fixed. Only silence answered him. ". I thought we talked it out last night. Minhyuk. MINHYUK?"

At this moment, everyone was gathered in front of the washroom, ready to break the door down, when it opened to reveal a screen of steam. Minhyuk emerged from the bathroom, rubbing his hair with a towel and trying to shake the water out of this ears. He stopped when he saw his 6 friends staring at him. 

"Why-" He started before his group members interupted, 

"We thought something happened-"

"Why didn't you answer-" 

"We were ready to break the door down!"

He starred at them, at a lost for words. Kihyun reached out and took the towel from his head, wanting to dry his hair for him, but a gasp was heard from the group. His hair. He was no longer the blonde one of Monsta X. His hair was a wet mass of dark strands. There was a static charge in the air as they stared at each other in silence. No one said anything, but they were all relieved. Finally, Jooheon moved forward and threw his arms around him. As if suddenly woken up, they crowded around him, squishing him with a group hug.

"Y-you guys...the dye might stain your shirts!" 

"Our shirts are replaceable, but you aren't," Jooheon reached out his hand and ruffled Minhyuk's still wet hair. He bit his lip, not wanting to cry again.

Later that night, when Minhyuk was finally able to break away from his sappy friends, he was once again alone in the bathroom; this time blowdrying his hair. Once done, he set the hairdryer down and looked at the mirror. He didn't expect this warm brown color. He had been going for a darker shade. Well, he wasn't too sure what he was going for anymore, having numbly picked out the dye from their local supermarket earlier in the day.

Hyungwon walked past the washroom before noticing Minhyuk and doubling back. He stopped by the doorway, casting a soft smile upon his best friend,"The new colour is really beautiful." 

"Yeah." And for the first time in forever, he didn't have to force the corners of his mouth up. For the first time in forever, his insides didn't feel hollow and numb.

;w; I'm such a slowpoke at updating, so I thank you all for being so lovely and patient. I realize that this is a oneshot, or drabble so I didn't want to drag it out for too long. However, I still wanted to build a bit of background to it and leave the story on a good note...hope it wasn't too bad of an attempt!

So...toffee13! Why you gone off the face of the earth?!

Well, shocking news to me, but 3 people passed away last month and this month. One was a teacher, the other was my classmate and the last was the wife of someone I considered a mentor and father figure. I know this has nothing to do with y'all but I thought I'd just share this in case you ever wonder why I'm inactive. yeah, I'm probably being a gloom-ball  in a corner somewhere. OK. THINK HAPPY THOUGHTS/// 

BTW MONSTA X COMEBACK BE KILLIN ME. WHO THE HELL LET WONHO STEP OUT IN THAT GETUP. CHANGKYUN'S BIKE LOOKS LIKE MY BARBIE BIKE FROM WHEN I WAS 6 YEARS OLD. THOSE TEDDY BEARS AND THAT GUMMY BEAR MACHINE. WTF. DID KIHYUN KILL SOMEONE TO MAKE GUMMY BEARS? I couldn't stop giggling when wonho popped out in that apron of his. srrynotsrry. QwQ

I promise the next update with be fluff!

Apology for slow updates and my gloomy personal story:
Someone protect this precious bby

Bless this boy for dropping his selfies like bombs. I want to post so many gifs and pictures of him, but I then I'd never stop!

Much Love,

toffee13