Part IV

Sunggyu smiled as he watched Haru move around her play room. She was a very vocal baby, calling Sunggyu, ‘Gyu’, starting from the time she had learned his name. She had such innocence, almost ignorant to the harsh world around her.

Earlier that night, Ji Yong had gotten the whole story out of Sunggyu and scolded him but praised him. He had reminded Sunggyu that being leader didn’t mean being a robot. He had every right to walk out of the studio but what justice would that do to s. Sunggyu tried to defend himself but Ji Yong gave him no chance as he continued, using SeungRi as an example. “Remember Sunggyu you may be the fierce leader that takes lead of the group but you are also a human. Just remind them of that every once in a while. After all how else do you think we control SeungRi?”

“I wonder what they are doing right now? I hope Woohyun and Sungjong got to their early schedules on time. And Myungsoo, did he get lunch at his drama shooting today?” Sunggyu unlocked his phone and looked at all the missed calls from yesterday from all the members, managers, friends, and CEO. He had called the older man to inform him that he was okay but said nothing more. He left no room for argument when he hung up on him. A whine brought him back to reality as Haru had been tugging on his shirt to get his attention. He chuckled and for the rest of the day he played with the young baby, ignoring the ringing of his phone on the table.

-----****-----****-----****-----

Dongwoo sighed for the nth time that day. He threw his phone into his backpack, he watched as Hoya asked the U-Kiss members if they had heard from Sunggyu. Each and every member he asked shook their head in confusion, leaving Hoya dejected. The dancer dragged his feet over to Dongwoo.

“Hyung, nothing, U-kiss hyungs haven’t seen or heard from him since yesterday and After School noonas haven’t seen him since the track competition,” Hoya slumped into the chair. Dongwoo patted his knee before looking around the room. Myungsoo was found in the corner, sitting there with iPad in his lap staring off into space. Sungyeol was busy going over Sunggyu’s lines that he had to cover for that day’s performance. Sungjong was off with Beak Ji Young, talking to the other woman about his troubles. Woohyun was in the hall talking to his new friend Kai, from EXO-K.

Dongwoo looked back at his phone, before sending a text to the true leader of Infinite, asking the older man to come back. He remembered practice earlier that day, it was disastrous.

----****-----****-----****-----

“Sungjong, what are you doing?” Woohyun snapped at the younger singer. “We’ve never done that move that way!”

“I just forgot the move, hyung! I’ll get it right next time.”

“Well you can’t just forget! We need to who the fans we can still do just as great even if we are missing a member!”

“Hey! You don’t have to say it as if Sunggyu hyung isn’t coming back to us!”

“How do you know he will?! Huh? How do you know he hasn’t already moved on?”

“Guys—“

“What makes you think he won’t?! Sunggyu hyung cares for us!”

“Well, he won’t have walked out like that if he did, he would’ve stayed and taken it all!”

“Sunggyu hyung isn’t a robot, hyung! He has feelings, and we hurt them!”

“GUYS! Stop it okay,” Dongwoo finally snapped at his arguing members. “We need to get this choreograph down for the performance later and arguing isn’t going to get us—“

“STOP TRYING TO BE LIKE SUNGGYU!” Woohyun snapped at Dongwoo. “You know—umph” Hoya delivered a punch to the other’s stomach.

“He may not be Sunggyu, but he is leader. We’ll give him the same respect—“

“What respect do you remember giving Sunggyu hyung?” Woohyun held his stomach as he got back up. “I’m done here,” Woohyun turned and grabbed his things before leaving the practice room.

“Hyung, you have to stop him!” Sungyeol screeched.

“Nothing is going to make him come back now, come on we’re going to keep practice,” Dongwoo instructed. “One more time, then we’ll take a break.” The music started up and everyone was twice as determined to make the dance work, rotating on who could sing Sunggyu’s parts the best.

-----****-----****-----****-----  

Sunggyu the television to Music Bank, as he watched his fellow artists perform. When they finished, they quickly went backstage to Infinite’s door.

“1-2-3 HELLO WE ARE INFINITE!” They all chorused together. Sunggyu looked at each member as closely as he could. Woohyun’s and Sungjong’s eyes were red. Myungsoo wore a blank expression. Dongwoo and Sungyeol were overly cheerful, while Hoya tried to remain as calm as he could.

“We have a missing member don’t we?” The MC counted outloud.

“Ahh, yes, our leader Sunggyu had hurt his back during practice yesterday and is resting at home due to doctor’s orders. We can’t have our old man getting hurt.” Dongwoo looked directly into the camera and smiled. “Leader Sunggyu, you better be watching, this performance is for you!”  Dongwoo threw greasy hearts at the camera that made Sunggyu smile.

“Gyu Gyu,” Haru crawled over into his lap, as the two watched Infinite perform without them.

“Aish, that Lee Sungjong, what is he doing?” Sunggyu mumbled under his breath. Sunggyu and Haru watched as Infinite brought as much confidence they could to the stage without their leader. He smiled when Sungyeol stepped in and took over his parts with Myungsoo. After the performance, his phone was beeping from the mentions he received from his twitter followers. He laughed as other idols mentioned him and wished him good health and that he would get better soon.

“Gyu Gyu! Sleep time,” Haru pouted and wrapped her arms around his neck, signaling that she was ready to be picked up and carried to the bathroom. Sunggyu smiled and did as she wanted and carried the young girl to the bathroom.

“We need to brush first don’t we?” Sunggyu helped Haru brush her teeth before he brushed his own. Washing both their faces, he dried patted them down and carried her off to her room.  “Do you want me to read you a story?”

“YES, Haru wants Gyu Gyu to read this one,” she picked up one of her princess books and allowed Sunggyu to tuck her in before he settled next to her pillow and began to read.

“Once a upon a time—“

-----****-----****-----****-----

Infinite came off of stage tired, performances were done for the day, but they still needed to go to practice. Dongwoo made sure everyone had made it back to the dressing room so that the managers could tell them what would happen.

“Okay, Dongwoo is done as leader today. Tomorrow will be Woohyun’s turn,” Jungryul informed.

“What!? I can’t… I can’t be leader! I can barely handle Sungyeol—“

“Woohyun, this is your punishment, each member will go through what Sunggyu goes through every day. Do try before you go and declare that you can’t.” Woohyun groaned before nodding.

“Fine, then the first we do is practice, everyone is to be makeup free and in the van in the next thirty minutes,” Woohyun instructed before he went to go remove his own makeup, ignoring the groans and moans from his fellow members. When he finished he made the move to go to the van first but remembered that Sunggyu usually brought up the rear of the group and slumped back into his chair. Slowly the members left the room, leaving Dongwoo and Woohyun.

“Woohyun-ah,” Dongwoo called the sleeping temporary leader, “Time to go.” Woohyun stretched a bit before getting up. He grabbed his backpack before trailing after Dongwoo to the van. Arriving, he did a quick head count, confirmed with the managers and drifted off to sleep.

The ride was quiet; everyone was asleep but the youngest. He had taken to bring a little teddy bear with him and he named it Sunggyu. He would mumble into the bear’s ears, knowing that his bear like Sunggyu would never tell anyone his problems or secrets.

Woohyun was shaken awake by Myungsoo before the younger man got off the van. Woohyun groaned, rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes. He looked around, they were at the dorm.

“I said we were going to practice,” Woohyun declared, turning to the managers.

“The members can barely stand, let alone go to practice. Take tonight’s practice off, you have an interview tomorrow morning, then it’s practice for three hours and another music show,” Youngjun informed before silently dismissing Woohyun.

“You saw those mistakes, we can’t afford any more mistakes,” Woohyun growled. “As leader—“

“As leader, you need to know when you should step up and when to step out,” Youngjun countered.

A/N: Enjoy guys! I didn't beta this.. and I should say now that English is my third language so if you do see mistakes, please ignore them or even better point them out to me and I'll get it fixed!

Comments:

@Little_arale: Heartbreaking :) That is what I'm going for! :D RIGHT! Any person can take so much before they break down. I'm actually going to keep continuing this so that each member will get a good taste at what Sunggyu does. Of course I don't know what he does...  so I made everything up >_< No idol/celebrity experience here XD Thank you for reading and the long comment :D

@Valerija: I like replying long comments with long comments... sometimes XD there are just times where I can't answer the comment because they're asking for what will happen next and I haven't the bloodest clue XD Eh, I always think about what the readers want so if you guys want all mebers to rotate with or without Sunggyu there, then you shall recieve just that :D Laughing out loud, my story won't hit 50 chapters, hopefully it'll be in the 10-15 chapter range :D Greasy is good! heehee but Woohyun's greasy is just over the top @__@

@paatchz: At least you dicovered it? :D Ahhh, I hate how people treat your Sunggyu too D: Although he did say he was weak because that's the image he has now and whatnot. Sunggyu is my ultimate bias too, so don't worry. Thank you for reading

@fashionchik91: I hope you'll re-read this chapter while I write and plan part V because I have no idea what Woohyun should do. heehee