Jongin was a dancer. He loved to dance. Dancing was life and he would rather die than not being able to dance. So when news came that he had to quiet dancing for a little over a month so that his fractured foot could heal; he lost it.

“It’s the best for now,” Kyungsoo would murmur as he Jongin’s head, quietly snuggling up to him at night as he sobbed. “It’s just for a month,” he whispered patiently.

Jongin didn’t hear him though. He just wanted to dance. He just wanted to live.

“You can fight through it champ,” Joonmyun would say as he feigned a laugh. He would pat Jongin on the back fatherly like as the young lost boy watched TV in a monotonous state. “It’ll only be a matter of time until that leg of yours starts to heal.

Jongin didn’t care for his leader’s cheerful words. He didn’t care at all.

“Jongin~ah, come help me eat all this cake. I can’t eat it all by myself,” Chanyeol would shout with a childish tone. “I know how much you love chocolate cake with strawberries! We can eat it together,” he shouted again as he playfully dragged a sullen Jongin into the beautiful smelling kitchen.

Jongin knew what he was trying to do. He knew and he didn’t appreciate it in his depressed state. Especially since they were supposed to be on a diet.

“La~la~la~la~ooh,” Baekhyun would silently sing as Jongin lay lifelessly sprawled across the living room floor. “That’s the new song I came up with. I’ll sing you another,” he’d say sweetly as he rolled right next to Jongin’s seemingly dead body.

Jongin wanted to slap the older boy. He didn’t want him to be singing sad songs to him. It only made him want to cry even more.

“They don’t understand you,” Sehun said one day. “They don’t understand you because they aren’t dancers.” His hand found its way around Jongin’s shoulders and lay suspiciously near his armpit. Jongin looked at him with a neutral expression as he carefully slid Sehun’s hand off him. Sehun did the same motion again. “They don’t understand you,” he repeated again quieter with his head resting on his hyung’s shoulder. “They don’t understand….but I do. And I swear I would die if I were in your place too hyung. But you can’t just act like a broken toy. You have to be strong. For me. For your loving brothers who see you as nothing but the world. And for yourself.”

Jongin’s expression twisted into a one of pain and a one of anger. “I just hate it!” He burst out. His eyes were filled to the brim with salty tears. “I feel so trapped! It’s been two weeks Sehun! Two weeks of nothingness, and I hate it so much!” He finally cracked and let the ocean run free. His shoulders bobbed up and down causing Sehun’s body to shake uncontrollably as well. They stayed like that for awhile. Jongin crying and Sehun silently patting his cheeks.

“Jongin hyung,” Sehun started, his strong arms turning Jongin’s body so that it was completely facing him. “You know what I’ve been doing these past two weeks?” He waited for Jongin to answer, although he was rewarded with nothing but sobbing. He continued, “I haven’t danced in the past two weeks. I haven’t danced because you can’t dance.”

The crying boy stopped instantly. His sniffles were the only things you could hear within the dead silent room. “I did that because I didn’t want you to go through such torture alone.”

Click!

“Hey Sehunnie, Jongin, me and the guys are about to go get some ice cream wanna-----“

The two train wrecks of emotion looked up to see Joonmyun looking at them curiously. He gave an awkward  cough. “What’s going on here?”

Jongin broke free of Sehun’s grasp.

“It’s a dancer thing.”

Joonmyun nodded as if he understood, although to be quite honest he didn’t understand at all.

“But enough about that. Let’s go get that ice cream.”

Without waiting, Joonmyun smiled and nodded. “Well hurry up. You know how Chanyeol gets when you separate him from sweets for too long. We don’t want the other two dead.” With that he gave them another smile and left.

Sehun looked at Jongin with a confused look on his face.

“Well don’t just stand there. How about that ice cream,” Kai giggled.

Sehun giggled with him. “Yeah. Let’s go get some ice cream.”