Jongup stands perfectly still as he watches the world speed past from the rapidly darkening window.

Moving colors and buzzing sounds melt into one perfect blend, forming a scenario he doesn't understand. Footsteps. Yelling that turns into maniacal laughter within a split second. Soft thumps of music from the room next door that reverberates in the wooden floor beneath him.

Everything sounds distorted to his ears. Jongup doesn't like it.

This always happens, the times where he would slip into delirious confusion. The mood gets worse when he's spent days locked in the practice room, repeating the new choreography even when the members haven't even began attempting it. He dances all day and all night, and he loves doing it until his body reminds him to stop. Dancing is his world, his entire universe.

Jongup is calm. He keeps his two feet firmly planted to the ground and the smile on his face.This was expected of him, after all. The boy was on the path that he had gladly chosen. When there's so much hope placed on him he cannot bear to disappoint. He tries his best to shield this burden behind that sweet bright smile. Pretense is a grounding point for himself, more than anyone would think.

The pale boy toes the ground with his feet tiredly before breaking out into the moves yet again, muscles screaming in ache and exhaustion. It isn't perfect yet, so Jongup doesn't want to stop. He has to help the rest with the choreography later, and if he makes mistakes Yongguk will not be happy. Or worse still, he might delay time that they didn't have, spent in the mad chase of grabbing fans' hearts. The precious unconditional love that the fans always offer must be repaid by nothing less than brilliance.

Jongup only lasts half a minute before he trips over his own feet and nearly tumbles to the ground in a show of uncharacteristic inelegance.

Sighing, the boy settles cross-legged on the wooden floor and glares hard at his own reflection in the practice wall mirrors, silently judging himself. The eyebags under his eyes were a sorry excuse, when the other members are going through the same thing, if not worse.

Jongup didn't have to pen lyrics or compose like Yongguk, or go for vocal training every day like the two vocalists. It was only right, then, that he could show the rest the best of what he was good at.

But it seems like he has reached the limit of the day.

The young dancer doesn't hear the door of the practice room open and his best friend padding gently and sitting down next to him, blinking curiously. It was Zelo's arm around his shoulder that jolts Jongup out of his stupor, pulling back up the smiling pokerface that the boy always wears. "Hello, Junhong. Just done with rap practice?" he speaks serenely.

The younger at his bottom lip and nods, giving the boy with sweat-soaked clothes a once-over. "Jongup-hyung," Zelo's voice is soft. "Let's go back to the dorm now. You look so tired, hyung."

Jongup raises a hand to scratch at the back of his head. Part of him wants to complain, to lie to the younger boy that he is perfectly fine and that he will join the rest later during dinner. He doesn't, though. Jongup is good at pretending everything was fine, but he knows Zelo would see right through him. So he just hums in agreement. "Okay," the dancer smiles and follows the tall boy's lead. 

Zelo rubs between his hyung's shoulder blades soothingly before rising to his feet. The boy blinks cutely as he waits for Jongup to follow suit before guiding him out of his second home, palm pressed flat against the small of Jongup's back in a relatively rare show of affection.

Junhong's grown so much, he thinks. Not just in height, but in determination and care. The dancer smiles gratefully at the other before they crawl into the manager's vehicle. 

At the dorm, dinner turns out to be two big buckets of chicken from the fans. In one bucket the chicken was fried to a delicious crisp and in the other, grilled in a flavorful sauce. Himchan hums and haws as he picks at his grilled chicken thigh, jealously complaining about the rest eating the unhealthy fried meat.

Youngjae is scowling as Daehyun empties half a bucket onto his plate, before stealing the juiciest piece from him. Yongguk observes the fighting pair with a look of both amusement and disapproval. Mouth full and chewing, Zelo shyly slides a piece of grilled chicken onto Jongup's plastic plate. Jongup just keeps smiling. Everyone must be tired from today, but no one shows it. 

Instead, the boys always take care of each other as if their lives depend on it. Their livelihood does, true. But brotherhoods like theirs don't die. In the midst of all the lights and smoke and lack of rest, it is the one thing Jongup can be perfectly sure of.