“Underline” = speaking in English

 

“Normal” = speaking Korean

 

 

Part IV

 

For once in his life, Jongki was glad that the storm had come in and cut the lights. It was as good an excuse as he was going to get in order to get away from the dratted meeting as he knew that if the lights had gone out in the Dorms then Jinseok would be freaking out completely right now. He knew that the others could deal with the boy but he would rather be there with them. The car ride was silent, the leader having no desire what so ever to speak to Iseul Myung Yu, Bright Sides Manager and grumpily he just stared out at the constantly falling rain. He was looking forward to getting some quality time with his boys over the next few days, without their manager hounding their necks constantly from dawn to dust as the man was heading home for the weekend which meant that the boys were pretty much free to do what they wanted, as long as they stayed around the Dorms and didn’t go wandering off.

 

There had been hell on about the shoot the other week, and he had got a firm telling off for not keeping the others happy. They had said that their performance was being affected and it was starting to show in figure ratings, which meant that they were fading from attention which meant a loss of earnings. He had been so tempted to turn around and tell them that the best way to put all of the smiles back on everyone’s face was to bring Bradley Eun back but Iseul had done most of the talking and just let Jongki take the verbal telling off with no support. Not that he generally expected any of course, Iseul had pretty much threatened to use his uality against the band after he had overheard the private conversation between himself and Jin a few months back, so it was clear where his loyalties lay. He was a company salary man who would be placed with one group to make as much money as possible and then once that ship had sailed move onto the next one. Thankfully Jongki had his twitter account and had outed himself on there just to get back at the man and the company. They still weren’t happy with him about that either and he had been told off once again about that too.

 

Jongki wished that he had some form of support from somewhere else right now, he knew that he had been appointed to be the Leader but he just felt like he was letting everyone down. “Kim?” Iseul said as he navigated through a quite rough estate to try and avoid some of the worse roads, he never called him by their first names which only proved how much he attention he actually paid them, “You guys have really got to stop thinking about Eun. It’s been six months now, surely you can all move on?”

 

He wasn’t even going to dignify that with an answer in the slightest, the statement only proved just how much Isuel didn’t pay attention to the needs of the boys who were supposed to be under his care. Instead he cast his brown eyes out onto the road and winced when Iseul drove straight through a very deep puddle and sprayed water over a figure carrying a blue bundle. “You’ve just gone and soaked someone caught out in this you know,” he commented back dryly, “Why are you taking me the long way home? You know what I’ll say in regards to Bradley…we need him back. It’s not the same anymore.”

 

Rudely he turned the radio up so that he didn’t have to listen to the adult’s insane prattle on about the whole situation and just hoped that they would get home soon. He didn’t even care what the song was, just anything to distract him. He didn’t want to have to think about a bunch of horrible things for the weekend. Not that it wouldn’t inevitably happen of course but it was nice to just believe in a very silly dream. Vaguely he made a mental note of that last little phrase, it sounded like a nice song title. Pulling out his mobile, he clicked it on only to discover that the network was down as well so if there were any updates or freak outs going on at the moment then he would have to face them when he got home.

 

Finally the dorms came into view and he sighed, yup the lights were off and that meant only one thing in the grand scheme of things. Trouble. Not even bothering to answer the final question directed towards him by the hideous manager, Jongki flashed his own set of keys towards the man, pulled his hood up over his head and exited the car as quickly as possible. He ignored any additional shouts that were sent his way and hurried quickly indoors to avoid getting soaked. Once the door was firmly closed behind him, he let a growl of frustration and banged his head back against the familiar heavy wood, “Damn it. Damn it all to hell.”

 

Pocketing his keys, the Leader of Bright Side felt his way along to the stairs and began the climb up them. With the lights being off, the lifts wouldn’t be working so he had the old fashioned method of climbing up flights of stairs. Not that he minded too much, it was a pretty normal situation for him to be in as trying to get eight people into a lift which could only hold about five who weren’t carrying anything extra was next to impossible so he usually took the stairs. Plus it generally gave him a chance to chat onto whoever had lost the ‘rock paper scissors’. It was a nice thing for him, but by himself he became aware of just how big, quiet and empty these dorms actually were. The first few floors were mainly used as filming locations, the rest were a mixture of different groups under JustHi management. Most he knew would be staying firmly indoors or else trying to find some form of light source until the power turned back on. A standard shower of rain would cause the power to go off regardless so this monsoon was going to probably leave them in the dark for the entire weekend.

 

As he passed the floor below theirs he heard the distinct sounds of yelling and panic and guessed that ‘Maxigraph’ a group that had yet to debut couldn’t find anything. He wouldn’t be surprised, the one time he had gone down to try and help them get the internet back working after a another power cut he had been appalled to see that the place was in a complete and total mess. Mama Bear would have gone ballistic if they had ever got half as lazy as that. “Don’t think about him now, Jongki,” he scolded himself aloud, coming to a stop on the landing just below the flight of stairs which lead to their floor, “That’s the last thing you need to be doing now.”

 

With a steeling sigh, the twenty one year old finished the rest of the climb and headed to their door. It was still so hard to know that the elder wouldn’t be there, cooking in the kitchen or else berating one of the others and threatening to tell on them when he got back in from whatever meeting or thing he had been dragged off to. Tonight he would have loved for the other to be there, just so he could make an excuse and snuggle into the smaller man for the entire night so he could whine. He knocked on the door as was customary for the group and then unlocked the door, “It’s me, I’m back.”

 

“Hey King,” came a total of two replies, the third coming from Sunwoo of, “Hiya Jongki,” as the youngster never used anything but anyone’s proper name, though he was confused  as there should have been a few more replies than that. The Leader could see a whole lot better here than he could in the stairwell. With Jin’s fear of the dark the amount of candles, torches, battery powered lamps and other fun light sources they had was next to unbelievable and therefore it made life just a little it more easier. He blinked in the strange gloom, noting that Sang was attempting to get an old camping stove – something which they had gotten fairly early on after realising a power outage meant that the kitchen no longer worked – working so that he could presumably cook something.

 

Sunwoo was busy lighting the candles and Kiyeol was sitting on the couch, curled up and not helping much. Sang glanced up and shook his head towards Jongki, mouthing ‘parents’ and making a phone with his hand.

 

Jongki sighed and moved automatically towards the youngster, wondering why his family always had such a horrible way with timing, especially as he still hadn’t quite gotten over the park incident. “Hey there,” he said gently, the maknea’s currently blond hair, “What’s got your goat, hmm?”

 

“Don’t wanna talk about it,” the reply was tiny and virtually devoid of emotion, clearly the youngest had been hit hard by something that had been said and wasn’t in the mood to deal with it. Since he clearly couldn’t go outside, as the weather was still pounding against the window, he had done the next best thing which was to curl up on the sofa and just remain completely quiet and unmoving until Jongki came home. Then he would inevitably start following him around, but the elder didn’t so much mind. It was better than heading out to find out where the youngster had hidden himself this time as he had a very bad habit of running away whenever anything made him really upset.

 

“He’s been like that since before the rain started,” Sunwoo said, raising up from the table and dusting his trousers off, “No idea what’s made him go like this. How was the meeting?”

 

“What he means is,” Sang cut in from behind, “Do I have to try and make extra buttery popcorn or is it going to be the smores? Counting that I can get this blasted stove working of course.”

 

“Definitely the smores,” Jongki said, inclining his head towards the kitchen area to indicate to Sunwoo that he wanted to talk a little way from Kiyeol, “After the time I’ve had.”

 

“Iseul and the CEO being prats again?”

 

“Yeah…” lightly Jongki frowned whilst Sang continued to fiddle on with the stove, “Why don’t you get Kyung to do it? He’s about the only one who can get it working at the moment.”

 

“He’s out,” Sang said in reply, twisting the shove over to see if the little gas bottle was connected right or not, “They went to get some snacks and stuff for the movie marathon.”

 

Jongki blinked in surprise, “Kyung and Jin went out in this to get supplies?”

 

“Jae’s with them, don’t start panicking yet,” Sunwoo cut in quickly with a smirk, “and it wasn’t like this when they went out either...actually now that I think about it...”

 

There came a rattle as Sang somehow managed to upset the top section of the camping stove and send it onto the floor. Quickly the other two grabbed the rest before it could possibly fall apart even more and the face ducked down to grab the runaway part. “Dang it, why is it that only Braa...Kyung can get this contraption working? I think take out is going to be the best option here guys, this is just not going to work.”

 

“Dibs not doing it,” Sunwoo said straight away, shaking his head, “and double ditto for Kiyeol as well. We’ll both end up with colds if we go out in that and it won’t do us any good.”

 

“I was going to suggest that we get the others to bring tea in since they’re running so late,” Sang said, sighing, “Honestly you would have thought that it wouldn’t take this long to go and-”

 

Jongki frowned at Sang, “When did they go out exactly?”

 

Sang glanced as best as he could towards the clock, “I dunno, maybe half an hour ago or so?”

 

“Liar, they went out at five,” Sunwoo clearly missed Sang’s ‘shut up’ signal, “They said they would be back at around seven with...” he hissed as a foot collided with his shin, “What was that for?”

 

“Nothing, I just felt like it,” Sang replied, mentally kicking himself for nearly letting slip what the others had been undoubtedly going to do.

 

Sunwoo frowned, “What the hell? You can’t just kick someone for no reason!”

 

A smirk crossed the slightly older boy’s face, thank goodness he knew how to press the others buttons and cause a distraction which would take Jongki’s mind off the time laps that was currently going on.

 

Jongki however wasn’t paying attention, he was staring at the clock on his mobile. It was getting on for quarter to eight, where in hell were they and more to the point, what were they doing going out for two hours to get sweets and snacks? If they had set out at five, they should have been easily back by at least six at the latest and here with the others. Flicking through the contacts list, he debated calling Kyung but guessed that he would be driving and opted for Jae. In this dark and horrible weather Jin would be close to freaking out if he wasn’t already bundled up in the back of the car draining someone’s battery to just keep a little bit of light still visible.

 

He pressed the call button and cursed when the ‘network not available’ tone came through. It had been a one in a million chance shot regardless but he got the impression that something wasn’t quite right in the slightest. Realising that the other two were arguing away, Jongki sighed and was about to tell them to stop it, when he felt someone bump against him gently. Looked like Kiyeol wanted some of his attention too now and the leader sighed, pulling the maknae into a hug and holding him for a few seconds. Though he pushed the boy away a little as he realised that the youngster was holding something soft in his hands so he couldn’t quite hug back.

 

“What on Earth is that?” he asked, barely able to see it in the gloom that was surrounding them at this moment in time.

 

Kiyeol shifted slightly, “It’s Bear...leastways that’s what I think he’s called.” The object turned out to be a rather worn out, stuffed toy that vaguely resembled a bear but there were bald patches and a fair few threads coming out of it. It looked like it had never been washed and was in desperate need of one but throwing it into the washing machine would probably mean the demise of the poor creature.

 

“Where did you get him?” Jongki didn’t know if he should love clearly well loved teddy or if he should be trying to find a way to throw it in the bin, “I don’t ever recall you having a Teddy before.”

 

It was one of the few things that the maknae didn’t actually have. Sure he had a few plushi’s and things which had been gifts from various sources but an actual teddy bear? If Kiyeol did have one then Jongki had never seen it so where this one had turned up from he didn’t know. He made a mental note for the kids next birthday to get him one because he really did need one. Or Christmas, whichever one came first as his brain wasn’t functioning correctly at this point in time.

 

Looking down at the ground, Kiyeol shifted a little once again, “He belonged...to...to...” there were tears in his eyes and Jongki blinked again. That thing was Mama Bears’? He must have shifted in response but Kiyeol took it the wrong way, “I found him in the laundry basket, one of the others must have hidden him there. I didn’t steal him, honest. I just wanted to keep him safe until...”

 

“Shush, Kiyeol, shush,” Jongki sighed realising his mistake and gently placed his hands either side of the boy’s face, adding a gentle kiss to his forehead, “It’s okay. You keep him. Though I think it could do with a wash...” his heart clenched a little when the blond smiled a little and hugged the bear closer to himself. In a way it felt good to know that there was still that lingering presence of the eldest but it also brought up the raw emotions which were still in his heart. If he ever saw Bradley ever again...he paused for a second, trying to work out what he would do before a crashing of plates broke his concentration and alerted him to the fact that Sang and Sunwoo were still arguing.

 

Groaning, the leader turned, “Honestly you two! Please don’t tell me that’s the plates gone as well now, we were already down to our last few.”

 

“It was Sang’s fault,” Sunwoo said quickly, pointing his finger, “He started it all by kicking me.”

 

“Only cause I wanted to shut you up about the whole thing,” Sang shot back straight away, bending down to start picking up the pieces of the broken plates.

 

Sunwoo frowned, not helping as it had been Sang who had knocked the bench which had knocked the plates onto the floor in turn and he wasn’t going to clean up someone else’s mess, “Why? I only told Jongki what he wanted to know which was that they had gone out to get sweets and stuff and said they would be back by seven. What’s the big deal?”

 

“Will you two please stop!” Jongki said, trying to into the argument and stop it escalating beyond all proportions, “This is not the time or the place...”

 

“Cause they ain’t going out to get just sweets are they, you nitwit” Sang said before he could stop himself and felt himself hit a brick wall of realisation half a second later, “Oh god.”

 

“What?” Jongki’s voice held a very sharp edge to it, he didn’t want to be screwed around right now and if those three were up to something that they shouldn’t be then he was going to seriously loose it at them. Though mentally he checked himself, what sort of trouble could the flirt, the terrified of the dark and nightmares get themselves into?. He decided that whilst he would inevitably have to find out, he really probably didn’t want to know in the slightest.

 

Sang rallied himself quickly, “They’re not doing anything stupid or stuff that will get them into trouble..Leastways I don’t think that they are.”

 

“Yun Sang Rhee, you better damn well tell me where they are this instant,” normally he wouldn’t dare use Sang’s full name on him but the last thing he needed right now was for yet another incident to tarnish their name. If anything even slightly off kilter happened whilst their manager was gone then they would all be in trouble again and this time it was probably going to be highly serious. He knew that he was being harsh but even though things weren’t to their liking at the moment he wanted to at least keep the group together for as long as possible. Plus he was getting a headache which wasn’t helping him in the slightest.

 

“I don’t know,” Sang sounded half-distort, “I’m only presuming based on a half-overheard conversation between Jin and Kyung the other day.”

 

“Where are they Sang?”

 

Sang grimaced, “Somewhere over eastern district.”

 

The Leader’s eyes narrowed even more, “What?”

 

“I don’t know where but they mentioned it a few times,” oh Sang knew that he was going to be in trouble for letting slip but at least he had managed to at least keep one thing under wraps that he was pretty sure they were doing at this moment at time, “Like I said, I honestly only half heard the conversation.”

 

“How could you only half hear the conversation?” Sunwoo cut in, obviously annoyed because the other had information that he hadn’t previously gotten a hold of, “If you even heard the smallest suggestion of something interesting your all over it.”

 

Sang looked hurt, “Not all of the time. Plus I was busy at that point.”

 

“Doing what?” 

 

“Rehearsals,” the face said, rolling his eyes skyward, “What else have we been doing for the last week and a half?”

 

Jongki sighed, “What the hell is in eastern district? It’s a run down area…” the eastern district was known to be the one just above the breadline. If you lived there it was either for the cheaper rents, you were a student or you were seriously down on your luck and just clawing your way out of the inevitable pit of despair that was the plight of poverty. There were a few notorious clubs and hang out spots but any idol that was worth his metal knew to stay well away from it all. He groaned, “I’m going to bloody well kill them.”

 

“They may just be caught out in the rain,” Sang tried to placate the other, “Kyung’s the only one who can drive and he won’t want to run the risk of damaging the car. I’m sure they’re not doing anything stupid.”

 

Jongki tried his phone uselessly again and closed his eyes. This night couldn’t get any worse, if they weren’t back in soon they would miss curfew and have to be let in by the porters which would obviously get reported back. The headache was booming now and he shook his head, “They know the rules and if they break them…oh god damn it!”

 

Sunwoo and Sang exchanged a look, taking a very educated guess at what was getting their leader about this whole situation. It wasn’t the fact that the three had gone out and not come back, it was the potential for this situation to become more than what it realistically should be. “Jongki, are we seriously in that much trouble?” Sunwoo broke the silence first, stepping up to his leader who was almost shaking with emotion, “Because we screwed up at that bloody photo shoot?”

 

Jongki sighed, deciding that it would be best to go with the whole scenario, “Not just because of that. Management are saying that we’re not performing to standard and it’s reflecting in everything we do…”

 

“They want us to forget Mama Bear and move on right?” Sang finished off, shaking his head after dropping the now broken plates into the bin, “It’d be easier if we had a damn explanation as to what the hell happened to him. But I guess that’ll never come.”

 

Sunwoo sighed, “Don’t suppose you managed to get in contact with his elder brothers then?”

 

Sang shook his head, glancing towards Jongki, “Nah, they’ve completely shut down communication. I couldn’t even try to log into Bradley’s facebook or e-mail and that used to be the easiest thing to do. It’s like they’ve erased him…sorry Jongki.”

 

Jongki shook his head, “You don’t need to be…it would make letting go easier if we knew what had happened but if we want to keep our jobs...”

 

“This ,” strangely it was Sunwoo who expressed the sentiment rather than Sang, “I feel like we’re just being told what to do, what to say and are nothing more than bloody puppets.”

 

“That was a bit profound, even for you Sunwoo,” Sang said, grinning towards the other with a slight chuckle to which the younger only rolled his eyes at Sang, making a very rude jester towards his fellow band mate but in a way that suggested that there was no hard feelings between them. He would probably get him back for the fight later but that was just the way that they dealt with everything in the grand scheme of things. One minute fighting, the next second best friends.

 

Still for a moment, Jongki pondered just what on earth could be over in the eastern district. Why had those three gone behind his back about it, why hadn’t they told him that they had some plans or were going to do something. He would have undoubtedly tried to stop them, naturally, but just not knowing was making him feel really uneasy.

 

“Hey,” Kiyeol’s voice came from the window, “There’s a car pulling up. I think it’s Kyung’s!”

 

Practically vaulting over the small table, without so much as disturbing the candles except causing them to flicker, Jongki raced to the window which Kiyeol was looking out of and tried to squint through the horrible weather that was pouring down from the sky on this very strange September 4th. It had slacked off enough that he could see the vague outlines but even he recognised Kyung’s little Fiat with the oddly coloured front head lamp. It had been that way since his last service and whilst he had taken it back a couple of times, it remained at it’s funny off colour. He didn’t even pause to confirm the details, heading straight for the door. “Jongki!” Sang yelled, quickly making a grab for his keys and shaking his head in frustration and annoyance, “They’ll be up in a moment…aw for Pete’s sake!”

 

“Hey, Jongki wait up!” Sunwoo yelled, following after his leader and fellow band mate as they took off down the stairs. They really didn’t need a semi-public argument going on in the dorms staircase, it just wouldn’t do.

 

Kiyeol blinked, suddenly find himself alone in the large living space that Bright Side called home and slowly the blond haired boy looked down at the rather ragged looking bear, “I wish you were here, Mama, I really do.” Quietly he followed his hyung’s downstairs, taking them far more carefully than they had done and remembering to place the sneb on the door so that they wouldn’t get locked out.

 

Jongki was at the bottom of the stairs before he came a cropper, managing to stumble on the last turn after one of his shoe laces snagged on the bottom of the railing and sent him into an uncontrolled tumble straight into a figure that he couldn’t quite identify in the dark. Both Jongki and the figure ended up slamming half onto the wall and half onto the floor, with similar cries of surprise and an additional yelp which at that moment in time the twenty one year old didn’t catch.

 

But mainly because Jin had just let out a half-terrified yelp as the corridor was pitch black and someone had quite literally just jumped out at him. “What the hell?” came a yell from behind as the door was slammed shut on the howling weather outside and several phone torches flashed onto the scene of the crime. “Jongki, what the frigging hell do you think you’re doing leaping out like that!” Jae was doing the yelling now, clearly trying to calm his own racing heart and reacting rather than keeping his cool, “You couldn’t have waited until we were upstairs before coming to yell at us!”

 

Jongki pulled himself upright, caught between seething rage and uttermost panic because he had just accidentally scared his good friend, something which had honestly hadn’t meant to do in the slightest. “What do you expect,” he shot back, “you disappear off in the middle of the night into this flaming mess and say that you’re going to be back at seven. Where the hell did you go?”

 

“Jongki,” Kyung said, trying to desperately indicate a very panicky Jin whom he was in the process of trying to calm down, “Stop yelling, it’s not helping the situation.”

 

“I’m sorry Jin,” he said quickly, trying to calm down but just feeling completely at his uttermost pressure point, “Just tell me what the hell you were doing going over to Eastern District?”

 

“They were fetching me, Jongki,” a voice he hadn’t heard in what felt like forever cut into the conversation smoothly and slowly he turned in bewilderment towards the sound.

 

Jongki blinked, completely lost for a few seconds and then the next thing he knew, he had slammed his whole body against the familiar warmth of Bradley’s and was clinging on just as tightly as he could ever remember doing. He didn’t notice that they had tumbled to the floor yet again, nor that fact that there was a little girl staring at him in complete surprise and confusion, he just reacted on instinct and clung to the other as though his life depended on it.

~~~

A.N - don't ask me why Jongki is being such a klutz here, it just fitted in with everything

I'll hopefully get the next bit uploaded soon Soundy, and there will be new bits to add once I've gotten them written too ^^