Namjoon was the first to notice something was up. It was well-known that Jungkook could be a bit of a perfectionist, often spending extended hours in the studio and practice room, often not making his way back to the dorm until midnight or later. However the past few months, Jungkook had spent less time practicing in the studio, and more time practicing at the dorm. Namjoon hadn’t mentioned anything at first, but as it became a regular thing, he started to get curious.

“Jungkook-ah” He spoke, lying on his bed in their bedroom. He had gotten back from his own work around 10 o’clock, ready to pass out after the past few all-nighters he had pulled trying to finish the song. To his dismay, the lights were on in the room when he arrived, and upon opening the door, saw Jungkook with headphones in running through dance steps with his usual precision. It was now 11:30 and Namjoon was ready to just go to bed, but the boy showed no signs of slowing.

“Yes hyung?” Jungkook replied, pulling an earphone out to hear better, and quickly thumbing his phone to pause the beats. Trickles of sweat were running down his face and neck, and while he was wearing a white t-shirt underneath his sweatshirt, he didn’t feel like taking it off; sometimes they performed in hot venues and he might as well get used to it.

“Why are you practicing here? We have a perfectly good practice studio that’s always open.” Namjoon asked, moving to rest his head on his arm, propping himself up to better gauge the boy’s response.

“The studio is just been busy, and I don’t always like practicing in front of others, but if I’m bothering you hyung I can find a better place to practice. Actually, I think the practice room might be free now that it’s gotten late, I’ll get out of your hair.” Jungkook spoke slowly at first, keeping eye contact as if trying to figure out where Namjoon was going with this; but then he suddenly dropped his eyes and began to pack up to leave. It happened so fast that he was out the door and down the hall before Namjoon registered what had happened, and began chasing after him. When he reached the living room, the front door was already closed and Jungkook was nowhere to be seen.

“What happened?” A voice brought him out of his thoughts, his head whipping to see Yoongi laying on the couch. He had his phone lying on his chest and a hand behind his head.

“I don’t know, one moment I’m asking him a question and the next he’s running out the door,” Namjoon stated, thoroughly confused, which was not a state he was used to.

“What’d you ask him about?” Yoongi asked, raising an eyebrow. He knew how sensitive their maknae could be, and sometimes the rest of them had to be careful not to scare him off. They’d only debuted a little over a year ago, and while they had figured out and solved most of the problems in the dorm, Jungkook remained more of an enigma. He was the youngest and sometimes they forgot he was only 16 and hadn’t really had time to be a teenager, which sometimes caused random bursts of childish behavior.

“He’s been spending more time at the dorms lately than he used to, so I asked him about it,” Namjoon replied, turning to face Yoongi.

“Maybe he’s trying to spend more time with the group and is just too shy to admit it,” Yoongi said, shrugging a little. After all the boy wasn’t great with dealing with feelings, so it wouldn’t be completely out of character.

“I don’t think so, besides when he’s here he spends all the time in our bedroom and doesn’t talk to anyone. I feel like he’s avoiding the practice room for some reason, but I can’t figure out why.” Namjoon spoke, sighing a little.

“There’s probably just been some female trainee in there during free time and he doesn’t want to be around her,” Yoongi told him, picking up his phone to get back to what he was doing.

“You’re right, I’m probably overthinking it. Thanks, hyung.” Namjoon said, leaving to go back to his room. Now that Jungkook wasn’t in there he could probably get some sleep, not that he hadn’t wanted to the boy to leave, but Namjoon was exhausted and he could figure out the situation in the morning after a solid seven hours of sleep.

A soft noise woke Namjoon up, and he rolled over to glance at the clock, 3:00 am. He looked around the room to see what had woken him up, only to notice Jungkook was back. He opened to say something when he noticed the boy’s shoulders were shaking up and down. Namjoon felt his heart stop, was Jungkook crying? The maknae was facing the wall so Namjoon couldn’t see his face, but not that he knew what he was listening for, he heard the soft sniffles that had probably woken him up. Namjoon debated getting up but didn’t want to make the boy uncomfortable. Anytime in the past that Jungkook had been crying he hated to talk about it. So while Namjoon’s heart broke as he listened, he kept to himself.