He is exhausted. So completely drained and just this close to giving up.

One late night in September, Jongin paces the street after a long day at training. With upcoming fame came pressure and torture. Thoughts of backing out and symptoms of depression were beginning to ooze through the cracks in his life. He’d even thought of giving up on this dream.The path he treaded on seemed like one strewn with glass shards and ominous danger, as if the grounds had once witnessed war and blood. Each step forth took a prodigious amount of valour, and down the road, things became harder and harder to take.

“Your feet will walk a million miles if you allow them to,” Lee Soo Man had once told him. He had devoured the older man’s words, believing his mentor wholeheartedly without a doubt. But what nonsense was that when his dancing feet hurt way too much to even move? He thinks back and wonders if he has made a huge mistake by penning his name down on the paper, which restrains and bounds his every movement. 13 years of his life. He had to be in the wrong mind when he made that choice. In mere months, he’ll never ever be able to walk on the streets openly or have late night supper with Sehun again. There’ll be flashes and he’ll always see white specks of bright lights no matter where he goes, because he has sacrificed his freedom for fame.

“Yah Jongin!” a familiar voice rang out from behind him.

Jongin who was in deep thoughts was evidently startled and smacked the younger boy’s back as he approached him.

“Tsk, where are your manners, maknae? And boy, you sure have your way of scaring the crap out of people! How’d you even find me?!”

“It’s not hard to notice a handsome man loitering on the streets in the middle of the night, you know,” Sehun smirks.

“You and your saccharine coated words,” Jongin reprimands jokingly.

“What?” Sehun laughs, “You up for some extra spicy rice cakes and loads of soft drinks?”

Jongin lets out a laugh and for a moment everything seemed all right.

“You’re my best friend for a reason, you know,” Jongin laughs, and just like that, the both of them are grinning and heading towards a late night hawker.

Jongin knows that Sehun’s the one who’s keeping him afloat and alive in this frenzy moving world.