He slowly made his way back to his room, his medicine slowly forgotten. Later than day, when Hakyeon attended the schedule with the members, he couldn’t bring himself to talk unless necessary. He felt empty inside. The members did not even notice his sudden quietness. Despite his fever raging, he managed to make it through the day of schedules.

At night, when all of them went back to the dorm, Hakyeon slipped into his room and sat on his bed, without sleeping a wink. Just like that he sat through the night, staring into the empty space.

The next morning, the members all had individual schedules and left the dorm, leaving him alone. Shakily, he stood up but he lost his balance. By instinct, he grabbed onto the nearest thing he could find – which was a stationary box made of glass. The stationary glass fell together with him and smashed into pieces. The glass pierced into his palm and blood poured out of his wound.

Blood coated Hakyeon’s fingers. His eyes watched each finger move, entranced by the new colour of the skin. It felt no different from wet mud but it wasn’t. He was supposed to feel pain but he didn’t. He felt void of any pain. He knew he should feel repulsed, but instead, he felt a laughter building up.

He said there on the spot, letting the blood flow freely as he continued to stare into space – with no intention to clean up the blood or his wound.

When nightfall came, the members finally came back from their schedule. None of them however, went to check on their leader. It did not even cross their mind, to ask him to join them for dinner.

It took them one whole day to finally realise the state their leader was in.

“Hyung! Are you awake? Did you forget we have a schedule? We are all waiting for you-” Jaehwan asked as he knocked on their leader’s room door but stopped in shocked. He wasn’t expecting to see the mess in their leader’s room.

“Hakyeon hyung! Are you okay?! What happened?!” Jaehwan hollered as he entered the bedroom. His scream alerted the rest of the members too.

“Why? What happen again this time-” Taekwoon muttered irritated, making his way to the leaders’ room.

He wasn’t expecting to see the sight that was in front of him. It was horrific. Broken shreds of glass were littered everyone on the floor with blood stains. The worse of all, was their leader. Sitting in the middle of the mess, a large gash can be seen across his palm, with dried up blood.

The rest of the members stood outside of the room, trying to absorb the sight that greeted them. Taekwoon quickly regained his composure and ran towards the leader, being careful not to step on the broken glass in the room.

“Hakyeon-ah. Are you okay?” Taekwoon asked gently. He bit his lips, trying to take in how pale and sick their leader looked. As he approached the leader, he could feel the heat radiating from his body, showing that he had a high fever for god knows how long.

Hakyeon on the other hand, looked up at Taekwoon with dazed eyes, seemingly unaware of what was happening in front of him.

Taekwoon stood up and tried to support Hakyeon to stand up, hoping to help him into his bed. However, the moment Hakyeon stood up, he felt that he lost all strength in his limbs and he slowly fell unconscious into Taekwoon arms. The last thing he could remember was the strong arms of Taekwoon supporting the leader.

When Hakyeon collapsed, Taekwoon quickly held him tightly in his arms and laid him back on his bed.

“Hyung, do you think we should send him to the hospital?” Wonsik asked as he helped Taekwoon lay their leader back on the bed.

“I don’t think he would want to visit the hospital. Let’s just take care of him first. We’ll see. If it gets worse, we shall send him to the hospital.” Taekwoon replied as Wonsik replied with a nod.

“Also, can you guys get me a cold basin of water, a towel and the first aid kit? The rest of you please help to clean up the mess?” Taekwoon asked.

With that said, the members quickly scurried out of the room taking the necessary things. An hour later, the mess was all cleaned up and Hakyeon was taken care of. The rest of the members made sure to stay by his side. When the members fell asleep, Taekwoon quietly went out of the room. Finally, he had time to calm down. Tears slowly tricked down his cheeks as he let himself loose. At the moment, he could feel his heart breaking into pieces and the guilt that overcame him.

When Hakyeon woke up again, all he felt was that he was weak. He tried to sit up and a towel fell from his forehead. He noticed that his palm was also bandaged. He looked around the room and he realized that he was in his bedroom. He saw the members all sprawled across the floor, sleeping with the mess all cleaned up. He lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling blankly.

His thoughts were interrupted at Taekwoon entrance.

“You’re awake?” Taekwoon asked as he entered the room with a bowl of porridge. The movement and talking woke the members at the same time.

“Hyung! You’re awake, are you feeling better?” Hongbin asked worriedly as he rushed over to their leader’s side.

Without replying, Hakyeon just smiled.

“Here, eat some food, so you can take your medicine.” Taekwoon urged as he pushed the bowl of porridge to Hakyeon.

Upon see