Shim Jang's POV

I noticed Jaesun come in behind me. I didn't stop dancing, though, didn't stop pushing myself. Jaesun happily pulled Chu into his lap as he watched me. 

Neither of us spoke for almost an hour. Finally, the music came to a stop. The playlist had run out. 

Fine, I thought. I have plenty more. 

"You've learned all the girl group dances, and you're pretty close to knowing all the boy group dances. What's next?" Jaesun asked.

"Michael Jackson," I said.

Jaesun laughed, but I was dead serious. 

But when I started to press "play" on my music player, Jaesun walked over and turned the volume off.

"Hey," I said crossly. "Don't bother me."

"Shim Jang, why are you so obssessed with dance?" Jaesun asked. "I mean, I know you love dance, but why are you doing this? Now?"

"Aren't you scared of burning out?" Jasun asked me, and I coudl tell that he was completely serious. 

"No," I said bluntly, and before I could help myself, I added, "Unlike people, your skills don't run out on you."

Jaesun fell silent. I reached around him and turned the volume back up.

As the music rang out, I could just hear Jaesun say, "Do you really believe that we betrayed you?"

I ignored him and started to dance again- but it just wasn't the same. I couldn't focus as well as before. I cursed when I missed a beat.

"Shim Jang," Jaesun said. 

I suddenly felt a strong grip on my upper arm. I looked up, a little surprised. 

When had he gotten so strong? Always coughing, wheezing, sleeping- when did he get like this?

"You should stop," Jaesun told me firmly. "You're corrupting your amazing dance with bad thoughts and negative feelings."

I felt myself falter a little at his words.  

"Shim Jang, you're angry at us. I get it," Jae Sun. "But that's your old thinking getting to you. It used to be, when you were young, that you had to think for yourself and about yourself all the time, so that you wouldn't get overlooked. You had to force yourself to work harder than anyone, and be better than anyone, because that was the only was to success. Right?"

I didn't respond to him, but I felt surprise stir in me. He knows me so deeply.

"But it's not like that anymore," Jaesun said. "Universe succeeded because you were one of its members, but you also succeeded because of Universe. So you can't just disassociate yourself like that. It's not truthful." 

"I thought Universe was full of people like me- people who actually cared about music," I said bitterly. "But that's not the case." 

"That's unfair," Jaesun said, and for the first time, I heard something like anger stir in his voice. "Eun Suk didn't ask for her parents to abandon her. Soori and I didn't ask for famous siblings. Kyuhyun didn't ask for that fake scandal about him hitting a fan to be released. Just because you weren't caught me in the scandal the same way doesn't mean you're better than us. You just got lucky."

"Luck is a skill," I said shortly, but was unable to really look him in the eye.

For a second, I thought Jaesun was going to let me have it and really yell at me. But he took a deep breath and said, "Shim Jang, you can't hate others for not being as strong as you. If you do that, then your strength just becomes normal, and not your strength anymore. You have to accept your own strength, and that means accepting that not everyone else is like you."

"After all, we don't hate you for not having experienced life yet," Jaesun continued. "When you act arrogant and pretend like life is easy and love is easy, even though you've never experienced it before, we don't hate you.We just know you aren't there yet." 

"Anyways," he said shortly. "Think about it." 

"And," he added. "I'm taking Chu away until this room has a brighter feeling to it. It reeks of bitterness right now, and I don't want Chu catching any of that."

Jaesun promptly slung Chu over his shoulder and left the room.

I watched him go, wiping the sweat from my face. 

Never experienced love...?

Well, that's not really true anymore, Jaesun. 

But you wouldn't know that. 

I can't let you know. Because if I stop being strong, then I can't blame anyone anymore, and I don't know if I can get through this without something to blame. 

How else can I deal with my dream falling apart? 

I gritted my teeth as I held myself together. I could no longer hear the music.

Soo Ri's POV

I was sitting on the bench with my hood low over my face and talking on the phone. 

I was talking to Jinwoon oppa. It was the first time we were talking in ages. Ever since I had found out that Jinwoon oppa was keeping his distance from me because of how successful Universe was, my pride hadn't let me contact him. This was even more true when our scandal broke out. Jinwoon oppa called me several times, but I never picked up. 

Finally, I decided I needed to get over it- I knew I was taking out some of my resentment towards what had happened to Universe on Jinwoon oppa. 

He picked up on the first ring. "Soo Ri!" he said, his voice colored with relief.

"Hi," I said carefully.

"Soo Ri, are you all right? Where are you? Are you safe?" Jinwoon blurted out.

"I'm fine," I reassured him. "Calm down. I'm okay, I promise." 

"What about the other members?" Jinwoon asked me. 

"Soori's holding up all right. Being with Jaesun and Krystal helps her a lot. Chan Hee... well. And Shim Jang and Eun Suk haven't been replying to my text messages," I told him. I let out a breath after I admitted all this. I had been holding it in for so long. "As for the boys, I think they're all right. For the most part, I mean." But even as I said this, I hesitated. Soori had seen Gongchan recently, and she had told me about the bruising across his knuckles. I hadn't heard from Ji Hyun, either. At least I knew Sky was okay- Kyuhyun told me. 

"You haven't been talking to Eun Suk?" Jinwoon asked, and he sounded surprised. 

"Yeah, I hope she's all right," I said worriedly.

"But... But she's been in touch with a lot of people..." Jinwoon said, confused. "She talked to Taecyeon hyung just the other day..."

"She did?" I said, startled.

"Yeah, and Got7 JB right the day after that..."

"What? Then why isn't she answering my calls?" My brow furrowed. Have I done something wrong? Is Eun Suk purposefully ignoring me because she's angry at me? What about Shim Jang? 

"I don't know. But she looked really busy. I don't think she was at JYP for fun," Jinwoon said seriously. 

Eun Suk... What are you up to?

Eun Suk's POV

"Woah." I stopped in my tracks as a big fluffy pink thing was shoved into my face. I looked past the pink fluff to see a rather embarased Sky. 

"Um... here," Sky said.

I took it from him and looked down at it. 

It was a stuffed pig. But like, a really cute stuffed pig. 

The pig looked back up at me with big wondering eyes and a cute little snout.

My heart thumped.

"Um... what's this?" I tried to play it off cool.

"I don't know," Sky said, starting to look slightly worried. "I just thought you'd like it, you know..."

"You bought this? For me?" I said, trying to clarify the situation. 

"Well, Gongchan suggested it and I hoped- I mean, I thought-"

"Oh," I said, then paused. "That still doesn't explain why you bought this for me, though."

Sky sighed. "It's to apologize, Eun Suk. I said something inapproriate to you the other day about... about being with guys, and I'm orry I said that. It wasn't fair to you. You've come a long way since we first met- we both have, and I threw that all back in your face the other day." 

I recalled what Sky had said to me- "first alcohol, now guys?" and how deeply that had hurt me. I was thankful that he was apologizing to me straightforwardly, instead of just letting time cover it up. He had even gotten me this pink pig, which was so cute. So. Cute.

"Don't worry about it," I told him, trying hard not to look at the pig in my hand. I didn't want Sky to see how much I liked it. 

I started to turn away, but Sky called to me. "Eun Suk." 

"Hm?" I looked back. 

"I also... We never talked about the scandal and how Universe... fell. So I wanted to try to cheer you up. I want you to know that Universe is stronger than this, and we're going to get back together and perform again, so don't... don't worry so much," Sky said gently. His eyes were warm, and his voice was strong- as though he were making me a promise.

I swallowed hard. Sky, don't do this to me right now. I can't deal with this right now.

"Eun Suk?" he said, his brief moment of resolution fading as he saw me falling apart.

"I just need time to think... about what you just said," I muttered, and clutching the pig tightly, I hurried to my room and closed the door behind me. 

a/n: thank yo for continuing to comment on the story. we're almost to the end- and it'll be time for the members still reading to participate in one last final decision! :O love you guys so much.