None of the members turn their heads when they appear half an hour late for practice, Hwiyoung breathless with a puffy-faced Taeyang on his back, holding on tightly as the other starts loosening his grip for him to gently slide down towards the floor. As the sun properly balances himself on the cold parquet, the younger turns around and starts fiddling with the zipper on the other’s coat, feeling the heat himself, room already stuffy and damp this early in the morning, and he feels it is best to rid his hyung of his heavy winter jacket who have weighed them down on their way here, and caused a delay worth at least a couple of minutes.

The music is cascading from the speakers as the rest of the group is fully submerged in the session, not at all acnowledging the arrival of the two others as they watch themselves through the mirror wall covering one side of the room, focusing on their own moves and their synchronisation, attentively making sure everyone are on point and not lagging behind. Youngbin is yelling pinpoint words to the beat of the music as limbs are moving accordingly, clean and crisp, other than the two open spaces the tardy members were supposed to fill.

The leader suddenly twists on his toe, and heads over to turn the music off, and the group abruptly stops the session to focus on him. With a worried expression and sweat dripping from his face, Youngbin breathlessly addresses what everyone are worrying about at the moment, but does not want to or know how to bring up. «We need to rearrange the choreo, it won’t work like this with just eight people». A collective sound of despair blows through the room and makes it feel like the gravity on earth just doubled, and their worn heels hurt a little bit extra. A few glares are directed towards the corner of the room, where Taeyang is sitting leant passively against the wall, startled looking up from his phone as he hears the deflated grunts of the others. Hwiyoung, who skilfully slid in with the rest of the members during the commotion, annoyed, nudges Jaeyoon’s shoulder when he catches his eyes lingering a bit too long on their skilled dancer, brows furrowed, almost looking disgusted at the sight of his dongsaeng. He then turns at Hwiyoung beside him, who feels a rush of sadness come over him when he realizes that his hyung with wide eyes was looking back, meeting the elder’s stare, but quickly turning when it broke.

Taeyang is tensely clutching his phone, pretending to look at the screen as he feels his face is being prickled with salty stares from the other members in the room. When he heard Youngbin bring up rearranging the choreo, he felt his heart ache for the other members, the reality of the situation sinking even further down into his skin, and his strong lust for wanting to get up and exclaim that everything is fine and that he can do his part hurts him even more, because even just sitting still like this he can feel his knee aching and throbbing. He keeps asking himself «Why didn’t i do things differently? », silently cursing himself for being too persistent. Honestly, he just wanted to do his part well. Being good at dancing is his thing, he needs to shine bright and show a good image for their group. When he was practicing, he thought «It is supposed to be like this, i need to work hard to show a good image for our fantasy and everyone. The other members are working hard on their parts as well, then it makes sense that i work hard on mine». Sweating bullets on the dancefloor till late at night was what made him feel accomplished, dragging himself home to his bed, feeling the ache of his muscles the next morning.

The group spend the next hour trying to puzzle together their formation, with Taeyang shamefully and silently watching from the back.

«Ok, let’s take a break! Good work, everyone! Be back in 30 minutes! » Youngbin claps his hands loudly, and everyone slowly disperses from the dance floor. The leader grabs his bottle and pulls his coat on as he walks out, letting go of the door as he continues down the hallway.

The other members settle down on the benches and the floor along the wall, talking to each other and looking at their phones. The brush of air as the door closes breathes fresh over their faces, who at this point has a slight pink tint. It closes shut with a sharp sound after leaving Youngbin’s grasp.

Jaeyoon looks at Hwiyoung sitting next to him, hunched over his phone reading the fan cafe, fiddling with his water bottle in one hand as he scrolls through the text with the other. He inches a bit closer, gaining the attention of the younger. He turns his head at the sudden proximity of his hyung with a questioning look on his face, eyebrows slightly scrunched together.

“I want to talk to you”. Jaeyoon gestures to the door.

Walking out, they accidentally slam the door shut loudly, gaining everyone’s attention as they exit. The room feels a lot more quiet with the two members out, with all small talk blown out of the air with the sound of the closing door.

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I'm sorry, I'm aware it's been a long time, but i have been busy with work, and i will still be busy in the future as well, so the chapters will be out slow. This is shorter then expected, but i would rather put out what i have then having it sitting on my computer. I like writing these, so thank you for still reading~