Morning dawned, and Daesung snuggled into Seunghyun’s warm body. He was wide awake, and probably hadn’t gotten much sleep, but if so he couldn’t feel the effects of it. He yawned and rubbed his head against the crook of Seunghyun’s neck.

Seunghyun was awake too, and let his hand trail down Daesung’s back, fingers grazing lightly on his back. He was about to say goodmorning when he was interrupted by Youngbae’s yell.

“HALF AN HOUR UNTIL WE LEAVE!!!”

Daesung groaned and rolled off Seunghyun; however he rolled too far, and almost fell off. Luckily he was stopped by Seunghyun, who went to grab him for another hug, but realised he was falling and pulled him up. “C’mon, let’s get changed...”

Daesung smiled. “Okay...”

They got changed  quickly and then ran through to the kitchen, where breakfast was waiting. The four ate together then called a van to take them to practise. The way there was a comfortable silence, and when they got there, they walked out and ran to the practise room, hearing a steady beat of a song seeing Jiyong dancing through the door.

Seungri’s hand faltered on the doorknob, dropping to simply rest on it. Through the glass, he saw tears streaming through Jiyong’s eyes. He didn’t exactly still know why, or maybe he was just dense, but then again, Jiyong could be confusing aswell.

As well as the tears streaming down his face, his face was scrunched in a pained expression, he had light eye bags, and his movements were faulty. Only when he fell over and didn’t get back up did Seungri signal the others to stay where they were and ran over to Jiyong, shutting the door behind him and calling his name.

“Ji?!”

Jiyong looked to the voice of his saviour. S-Seungri? He looked to the door and saw three other concerned expressions. Dressing himself with the most realistic-looking smile he could, he to his back, to make it look like he’d just laid down. “Oh, hi Panda!”

He knew Seungri could see through his expression and ‘happy’ voice.

He looked at the hand Seungri held out for him, and took it, pulling himself up. He’d been here for... He didn’t know exactly but it’d been a while now, and he was damn shattered. So shattered his mask crumbled away and Seungri could closely see and pick out every single sign of fatigue that he’d missed before.

His knees almost quaked again, but luckily Seungri pulled him into a tight hug, holding him up. “I missed you...” He started.

Jiyong leant into the touch, however as soon as it started it stopped; he softly pushed away and sat down on the floor by the wall, reaching over to the stereo to turn the music off. “I was just dancing,” He admitted.

“For how long?”

“As long as I can remember.”

Seungri looked away. “Oh...” He then rubbed his hands together. “Well, I’ll get the others in, okay?”

Jiyong wiped the already drying tears away. “Y-Yeah, sure.” Seungri smiled and walked out, speaking to the others briefly about something Jiyong couldn’t catch but was positive that it was about him, and then they walked in. His expression locked with Youngbae’s, and he then scrambled for his iPod, putting the earphones in and turning on a random song so just in case Youngbae wanted to shout at him, he wouldn’t hear.

What he didn’t expect was for Youngbae to sit next to him and place his arm around him, rubbing his shoulder gently.

Jiyong looked down, finding a sudden interest in his hands. He tensed as Youngbae gently took off his earphones and put them on the floor. “Sorry,” Youngbae mumbled.

Looking at him in confusion, Jiyong then pretended it was funny. He let out a small laugh, and turned his head to face Youngbae. He wasn’t going to let himself look weak, because as the leader, that’d probably be slightly embarrassing. “Sap,” He teased.

Youngbae grinned, content Jiyong was going back to his old ways slightly. “Wimp,” He retaliated. They helped each other back up and the three standing further away from them breathed in relief.

Practise was a lot nicer this day – apart from Jiyong being incredibly exhausted, he wasn’t thinking anything other than the music. Or maybe that was because a sleep-induced mind always tends to drift off and focus on the most important– for Jiyong, the most important thing in his life was music.

“Can you guys get us some food?” Seunghyun whined. He was going to sing Friend with Youngbae but was famished. He puppy-eyed Daesung, who laughed and then looked over at Jiyong and Seungri who sat by his side.

“These two can go,” He grinned. “I want to stay here and watch you!” Truthfully, he didn’t mind what he did, but figured Seungri had something he wanted to talk about with Jiyong, judging by the way Seungri kept staring at him, or subtly hinting things through his words.

Jiyong found himself immediately hauled up by Seungri before he even had a chance to protest, and led out the room. So he voiced his thoughts. “Hey, I didn’t even agree to this!”

Seungri kept his mouth in a thin line in case he said anything stupid too soon. They got some energy snacks that were hidden in the temporarily abandoned office at the end of the dance hall’s corridor, shoving them into their pockets, and Jiyong smiled, walking towards the door that had been shut due to the draft when Seungri grabbed his wrist, preventing him from going any further.

“Why did you do it?”

Seungri needed to know. He was asking the question too soon, too suddenly, too harshly, but it had slipped from his mouth.

Jiyong at first didn’t understand what Seungri was talking about, and when it finally clicked he shrugged, and turned to place his other hand on the doorknob. Seungri had anticipated he’d do that, and pulled Jiyong’s wrist strongly to stop him– apparently however his grip was too strong, and Jiyong stumbled forwards, toppling onto Seungri. They both fell on the floor, Jiyong almost crushing the younger. Seungri yelled out in pain and then reality hit Jiyong on the head, jolting him out of the tiny fraction of comfort he felt. He pushed himself up into the sit-up position,  lifting up one hand and trying to see if Seungri was okay.

But he didn’t have a chance to say or do anything, as the door opened and he was shoved to the side by Youngbae, who took Seungri in his arms.

He also didn’t have enough time to realise that to someone coming in, like Youngbae, would think Jiyong had hurt Seungri. He only realised as Youngbae went over to him, grabbing him by the collar and shaking him roughly. “WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO?!” He yelled.

Jiyong just stared ahead into Youngbae’s furious eyes. It shocked him so much that he couldn’t speak. Which was inevitably a problem. “ARE YOU TRYING TO ING KILL HIM?!”

Youngbae pushed Jiyong backwards into the wall, where his head crashed and he felt his vision flash piercingly white, and a unhealthy amount of black spots were forming. Youngbae picked up Seungri and picked him up in a bridal style, before giving one of the dirtiest looks he could manage to Jiyong and running back out to find help, slamming the door behind him.

Jiyong’s vision was double, and his head kept dropping down. He had to really press his head against the wall to stop it from falling off completely, but that hurt more, so his head tilted to the side. He was trying to find a focus point because this double vision wasn’t healthy at all. He felt something drip onto his shoulder. Stunned, he lifted a violently shaking hand to it. Raising his hand to his face, he saw it. Blood.

Moving the hand to the back of his head, it grazed against a sensitive spot and he cursed in pain, jerking his hand back. It was covered in slightly more blood, and it made Jiyong feel sick almost. His hand dropped to the floor and he shut his eyes. The pain almost made him shut down completely, but he didn’t give up that easily.

Or do I...? He thought as everything went black and he flopped to the floor, not hearing the door open.

----

Youngbae’s forgiveness of his friend had been burned off in a pit of anger. Firstly, there was that audio message that had been sent to him of a conversation Daesung, Seungri and Seunghyun had had about Seungri being kissed by Jiyong which Seunghyun nor Daesung could find the words to explain, and then he had walked to ask the two to tell him what’d happened when a yell had come from the door next to him, and he yanked it open to see Seungri lying on the floor, and Jiyong, looking as if he was pinning the boy down, and the raised fist didn’t help with the situation whatsoever.

Not giving a , Youngbae grabbed Jiyong by his collar, and shook him so hard his frail body threatened to shatter. “WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO?!” He shouted, trying to get at least the smallest response from the leader. The leader just stared back with an unreadable expression that not even Youngbae, knowing him for more than half his life could figure out. However Youngbae guessed that to be a bad thing.

“ARE YOU TRYING TO ING KILL HIM?!” He hadn’t even tried to figure out the perhaps more simpler reasons as to why Seungri was lying there with his eyes shut, but the anger from a few minutes ago was building up again. Still no response, he pushed Jiyong backwards into a wall as hard as he could. Jiyong’s head crashed onto the wall with a loud thud that could probably be heard from across the room, but Youngbae didn’t care.

Looking at Seungri’s pained expression, he grabbed the maknae in his arms and hauled him up, pressing him close to his body; giving Jiyong the angriest look he’d ever given to someone. Jiyong was being out the line and for what? Not even Youngbae could figure out why.

He walked out and slammed the door with one hand, then returned his attention to Seungri, walking briskly to the dance studio. Seunghyun or Daesung would know what to do. Because the dance studio wasn’t too far away, Youngbae kicked open the door and walked in, setting Seungri on the floor, who hissed as his back de-twisted.

“I think his back is hurting!” Seunghyun panicked, walking over to Seungri.

Youngbae had to really muster all the self control he could to prevent himself from saying something sarcastic. Now was not the situation. “Jiyong was beating him up.” He said, and Seunghyun froze.

“What?” Daesung really couldn’t believe Jiyong would ever do something like that. He grabbed one of Seungri’s hands and held it in his, running his thumbs over Seungri’s palm.

“No, that’s not it... You got it wrong...” Seungri managed to groan through his pain. Youngbae looked confused. “He didn’t... I pulled him too far forward and we fell on each other, that’s all... didn’t you see I was grabbing his wrist?”

Youngbae’s surprised expression increased more. “S-So...?” He didn’t finish his sentence, cursing his breath as he ran towards the door, Seunghyun taking the initiative and following swiftly after him, concerned as to why Youngbae had acted like he’d done something wrong.

Youngbae almost kicked the door open, Seunghyun grabbing onto his elbow to stop him from doing anything. They both looked at Jiyong’s passed out figure, the small bit of blood dripping down the wall... It was like something from a horror scene. “D-Did... You do this?” Seunghyun whispered.

Youngbae slowly nodded. “I-... I thought he... Oh, god...” He walked over to Jiyong, luckily finding a normal pulse in his neck, and then staring at what he’d done.

Seunghyun shook Jiyong’s shoulder gingerly. Jiyong’s eyebrows creased together and then reverted back to how they were before, and he let out a groan.

“J-Ji??” Seunghyun was getting majorly concerned now. He didn’t call an ambulance just in case it wasn’t actually major, because now Jiyong was opening his eyes.

He was opening his eyes, but it didn’t make anything clearer or less painful. So it wasn’t really an achievement. Youngbae came into focus, and if Jiyong had the strength he’d start yelling at Youngbae, but now wasn’t the time to do so. He turned his head and saw Seunghyun crouching over him, eyes widened in shock.

“I’m fine,” Jiyong lied, trying to stand up – caught by Seunghyun when he stumbled. He shot a look at Youngbae who was staring back in shock, not knowing what to really do. “I’m fine. Let’s just finish practise early today.” Jiyong took out the snacks and placed them into Seunghyun’s hands, before walking out tipsily.

Seunghyun glanced at the food, before shoving it into his own pockets. “Let’s just go back, we’re coming here tomorrow again, so we’ll either sort this once and for all then, or something else will happen.” He grabbed Youngbae’s elbow and lead him out, pausing when he saw Jiyong stumbling along, hand on the wall for support.

Youngbae tore his grip, and looked at Seunghyun briefly, before running over to Jiyong, and standing in front of him, causing the other to stop and stare at him. “Don’t go,” he whispered. “I’m sorry! And you’re not oka-”

Jiyong smiled weakly, looking to the side. “It’s fine, Bae. I just need to rest for a few hours.” He walked past Youngbae and slowly to the door.

Youngbae sighed. “When did I become so...” He made a gesture with his hands. Not that he knew what it represented. Apparently, Seunghyun understood Youngbae’s hand movements, and smiled sympathetically.

“It happens.” Seunghyun consoled, rubbing Youngbae’s shoulder. “Let’s go back to Ri.”

They walked back in, seeing Seungri spinning around in circles and Daesung clapping; although it looked like it was more out of disbelief than anything else. “Hey, Seungri's fine!” He voiced to the two by the door.

“Practise is over guys, let’s go.” Was all Youngbae said.

----

Seungri looked into the cup he was holding. The contents had been drunken, and all that was left inside were ghostly traces of coffee clinging onto the white china. He set it down and sighed. “It’s not your fault, Bae. It’s mine. He’ll be fine by tomorrow, I promise.”

“Okay...” Youngbae was at a loss of words. He looked over to Daesung, who smiled emotionlessly and patted his hand.

A ringing sound came from Seunghyun’s pocket, and he pulled his phone out, raising an eyebrow at the caller ID.

“Ji?”

“The front door’s unlocked... Right?”

Seunghyun smiled. “Yeah, come in.”

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO - END

A/N: This will be a long one hehe.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack *gives hugs* who missed me? no one? ok haha :p

but yes, I'm back~ if you saw me on aff before and were like ? it's because I only had my iPod and the story's on my laptop! Thank you to @Kiki-SSH for motivating me to upload this one (I forgot I had a few on hidden chapter lmao.) so if it wasn't for her I probably would've pulled this off until at least 3 weeks lo. so thank youuuuu *hands out cake*

finally completely unrelated to anything EXO COMEBACK WAHOOOOO! all my friends are spazzing because finally *after 426 days* sm is finally giving them their comeback! one thing i hate about sm is the way that they treat everyone. stop overworking them!! geez sm. but kris, tao, xiumin, chanyeol and baekhyun are BACK! and it's a school concept do you know how cool this will be? haha I think this was longer than the related a/note OTL. 

Bye agaain!^^