Important Announcement at the end of the chapter. Please read, thanks.

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Chapter 9

Leeteuk was sitting on his bed as he kept on fumbling on the dials of his phone, debating whether he should call that person or not. For the past hour, he’s been cooped up inside his room and thinking about the argument he’s had with Ryeowook. He knows he’s also wrong but everything’s just been stressing him out lately; and not to mention the sudden letter of enlistment that the manager gave him earlier. He doesn’t know what to do anymore as he slowly doubt his leadership. This happened before too; back when Hangeng left because of exhaustion and health problems, when Kibum decided to go on hiatus to pursue his acting career, when Donghae’s father died, when they almost lost Kyuhyun in the accident, when Zhoumi and Henry are both having a tough time being accepted by the fans and he can’t even do a single thing but watch as the light in s’ eyes dimmed with every criticism and harsh comments that everyone is throwing at them. Maybe he’s really not a good leader when he can’t even protect s. He gripped his phone tighter, his thumb hovering above the call button.

Click.

A few rings after, a voice he’s been missing a lot was heard as Leeteuk tried to stop himself from breaking down.

“Yeoboseyo?”

“Youngwoon-ah…”

“Eetekie-hyung? What’s wrong?” And just with that simple question, Leeteuk knows that the younger knew that something’s bothering him. “Is it the kids again? Are they giving you a hard time?” Leeteuk could feel that Kangin’s only trying to lighten up the mood and he can’t help but smile at that but his smile dropped as he turned serious.

“…I just got my enlistment letter, Youngwoon-ah. I may enlist within the month or by next month, I don’t know…” Leeteuk started and he could feel that the younger is waiting for him to continue. “I’m afraid for the kids, Youngwoon-ah. I won’t be there to guide them. They’d be exposed to the harsh industry without their leader.”

“Hyung, we all know that the time for you to enlist would come sooner or later. It’s something all of us can’t avoid. It’s just two years and I’m sure the ELFs would wait for every one of us to finish our service and by then we’d stand at the same stage again – all of us. It’s time that every one of us step up and face every obstacles. We’ve experienced much more and look where we are now? If not at the top, we’re almost there. We might not be complete when the time comes wherein we’d be there but we’re strong and it’s up to us to continue everything that the others left