The sun was finally beginning to get far too low in the sky for the photo shoot to continue and quite frankly Jongki couldn’t be happier for such a thing. He was sweltering in the black turtleneck that he had virtually been forced to wear and was pretty sure that he was giving off a nasty pong which was making his fellow band mates stay away from him. Though secretly he knew that they were just as frustrated with today as he was and he didn’t want to think anymore about it. Gently he sighed, stepping into the shade of a nearby tree and virtually downed a bottle of water in one go that was handed to him by one of the assistants. “,” he cursed under his breath, “Why this place? Seriously why here?”

“You talking to yourself again, King?” the voice that came from behind him was quiet and the currently red haired twenty one year old glanced over his shoulder to the equally sweltering looking Sang, who appeared even more out of sorts with his ‘bad boy’ character when he was unattractively leaving massive sweat patches all over the costume, “Or are you going to pull the bloody leader card and get us the hell out of here?”

Yeah, the lead singer of Bright Side was being completely out of line but Jongki couldn’t blame him. Hell he couldn’t blame any of his boys for misbehaving today, they had all voiced their concerns about coming to this place to do a photo shoot with Iseul, their manager, and even the company representatives several times over but no one would listen to them. They seemed to be under the impression that shooting here was good for them as it would allow them all to exorcise some hidden demons from the past or something equally stupid. Didn’t they realise that it had only been six months since they had watched Eun Bradley walk out of their lives from this very spot? The pain was still extremely real for all of them, it didn’t matter that they felt incomplete and lost without the constant presence of the groups oldest member, the company just presumed that it was all just a learning curve.

God damn it, he was only twenty one, how was he supposed to cope in this situation let alone the others who were all younger than him? He was amazed that Kiyeol had even managed to smile for the camera as the poor boy had been one of the worst affected, the poor maknea had been seriously attached to their Mama Bear and his absence was clearly affecting the kid. What made everything harder though, was that Jongki still didn’t fully know why Bradley had left. All that had been said was that it was a company decision but even the most honestly truthful Mama Bear hadn’t said a word as to why. It wasn’t fair, not in the slightest and now they were back in the one place that none of them really wanted to be in.

Aware that Sang was still behind him, waiting on an answer, Jongki slowly shook his head, “I’ve tried already…even though it’s getting too dark for this stuff they want to continue.”

“Kiyeol is close to-”

“I know Sang,” he didn’t mean to snap but the stress of this situation was starting to get to him, “Believe me, I virtually feel the same. If there was a way to get out of here without having to resort to violence or an accident, then believe me I would have us out of here.” His voice must have broken just a little, or maybe he gave some other indication that he was really hurting in this situation because suddenly he found Sang’s arms wrapping around his body and just holding on tight. It didn’t feel like the hugs that Bradley used to give but it was of some comfort, “I know, it’s just…the kid doesn’t need anything more to cry about. Hell, none of us need anything more to cry about. Surely there’s got to be something that we can do?”

The words weren’t answered, there was nothing and both of them knew it even though they wouldn’t say so. Neither wanted to be the first to turn around and see those five pairs of other eyes staring at them with the same questions lurking deeply in them, ‘Why are we here?’ and ‘Can’t we just get out of here?’

One of the assistants for the day came across to break up the moment, stating that they had to go and get changed for the night shoot. Sang half glared at the man, who looked to be one of the snot nosed interns who had gotten this job purely by the grace of being related to one of the big wigs, “Yeah, yeah, we know, we’re coming,” he stated, more prissy that usual but secretly rather glad that he could literally play the bad guy and get away with it, “Come on King, time to move before we get grounded again.”

Jongki smirked slightly to himself as they made their way towards the waiting costume and make up artists, glad to know that in reality the only time that Sang was anything like his on screen persona was when he was pissed off. He did appreciate the help though and noticed that the other had snatched hold of his hand and kept it the whole walk as if he were trying to give the leader some comfort in this rather horrid situation. Gently he squeezed the hand back, thanking Sang with a nod as he was hauled off to get out of the complicated costume and found himself walking slap bang into Kyung, the third oldest hyung of the group, who blinked at him childishly.

Quietly Jongki shook his head, he had already answered the question more than he was prepared to today and he could feel the beginnings of a migraine creeping up on him something rotten. A sigh was given, by the young man simply turned away, “Mouse,” was all he said as he quickly wandered off to sort something out. Probably the very obvious red mark that was turning up on the back of his neck in the pattern of the over-shirt he had been wearing before. It was very rare to see the boy being so calm and collected and Jongki figured that he had probably switched off from his usual hyper antics upon realising that there was no escape from them. Hopefully the stress of having to look after the younger ones today would have more than tired the boy out because the leader really didn’t feel like trying to tackle the other’s night time terrors.

Though he paused and stopped, realising that they were doing a shoot at night. Thank god there would be some form of light because Jin would otherwise freak out. Since there was no sign of the other, he figured that the [lyrist] of the group was still in the process of getting changed. He didn’t even need to ask where Kiyeol was, he could spot the shadowy figures of Sunny and Jae all hustled around one of the exits to the trailers. They had already changed from the god awful feather things that they had been in but it was a pretty good guess that no one wanted to continue on with this damn shoot. Sunny was the first to hear his approach and quietly he inclined his head towards Jae, “He’s right there, it’s virtually a miracle that we kept him next to the trailer. He very nearly ran off.”

“Didn’t actually think of that,” Jongki said, trying to humour the situation but backing down after a glare from Sunny though he knew the other would understand as to why, “There’s not a lot that we can do about it. If I could…”

“Yeah yeah, I know,” the younger boy shook his head, “Just try not to make him worse. It’s the last thing we need right now. Where’s Sang and Kyung gone?”

Glancing over his shoulder, Jongki shrugged, “Sang’s gone to get out of that damn outfit and I think Kyung’s checking on Jin but I don’t quite know.”

“You need to still get changed,” the comment was dry and filled with maturity for one so young.

“Kiyeol comes first,” was all Jongki said, pushing past the other but placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing tight to show that he did understand that pain in his eyes. He didn’t look back, knowing that Sunny would more than likely go to check on how the others were doing, it didn’t do much good for them to be all together in one sodden heap.

Jae virtually had Kiyeol in a tight bear hug in order to just try and keep the just turned fifteen year old maknea with him but it was clear to see that the poor boy looked just about ready to bolt. Jongki couldn’t really blame him, especially with half of the crap that he had learned over the last couple of months that went on with the boy’s family as Kiyeol no longer had Bradley to turn to. That situation had genuinely hurt the boy and being back here was probably turning his head and heart to mush. There were no need for words to be spoken, the second the youngest member saw his leader, Kiyeol was released from the vice like grip of the other and straight into a hard and demanding hug. “I want to go home,” the voice was small and whispered almost, tear stained and the elder could already feel the youngster’s silent tears dropping onto his shirt, “I don’t want to be here anymore! Please, Jongki, I can’t do this.”

Gently the leader placed a kiss on top of Kiyeol’s head and held him a little tighter, what the hell was he supposed to do in this situation? There were no cards left for him to pull or play and if they screwed up on a scheduled photo shoot then all hell was more than likely to break loose. He couldn’t bring himself to tell the groups youngest that they had to go on, that they had to keep going despite how much it hurt them all, but at that moment in time he would have given anything for some form of distraction from this whole madness.

Suddenly the pressure got too much, despite promising himself that he wouldn’t Jongki felt his spirit and the months of resolve that he had built up break and suddenly he was on his knees on the grass, still holding onto Kiyeol and adding his own tears to the mix. He hadn’t cried once in the six months since Bradley’s abrupt and brutal departure but now, faced with this park on this day; it was all he could do in order to stop himself from going insane. The others were quickly surrounding them, their solidarity and friendship proving beyond a doubt that they were meant to be together regardless of what happened.

None of the seven boys that were the current members of Bright Side saw a figure just on the edge of the lights, who was adding his own silent tears to the misery that they were feeling right now. Silently Bradley pulled out a mobile and stared dumbly at it for a few second, almost as if deciding if he should send the already written message or not. A teardrop hit the screen and a thumb crossed over the button. Hearing the thunk of a set of branches, he knew that it was his time to leave and hurried away into the growing darkness. But it was so much harder to run when bitter tears of regret were running constantly from your eyes.

AN – well there you go, what you think?