"Tell me. Now."

The tone in which Jinyoung speaks doesn't leave any room for protest or way to wiggle out of answering his question. Youngjae hates this situation, he feels trapped and finds himself clutching onto Yugyeom for dear life. He doesn't know why he always resorts to this childish habit of his any time he finds himself either panicking or simply wanting to touch the tall maknae. He doesn't recall exactly when the habit formed but it's certaintly not going to be broken any time soon, especially with the way Yugyeom always manages to place his bigger hand on top of his and gives it a light squeeze. Like now.

"Youngjae hyung, you should tell him..." Yugyeom bends over slightly and whispers into his ear making the vocalist shy away slightly and glare at him with the close proximity that their faces are in. His cheeks warm slightly and he looks away, huffing and clenching his eyes shut. 

Jinyoung  however, is more than fed up with Youngjae's stubbornness. He clicks his tongue and folds his arms across his chest waiting for an answer still.

"Youngjae, I'm serious tell me now or-"

"I was on my way to the restroom when I passed the room and at first I heard some weird banging noises, and than I heard him yell something...it was...it was...." Youngjae stares at him fully absorbed when he trails off absently, he grabs the younger by his shoulders. Youngjae's eyes widen in shock and slight fear at the motherly member's aggressivness. 

"What did he yell, Youngjae!?"  

Youngjae feels the panic starting to rise inside of him again and he looks over at Yugyeom who's staring daggers at Jinyoung's hands that currently have his shoulders in a death grip. Yugyeom makes a move to release the vocalist from Jinyoung but Youngjae quickly catches his attention and shakes his head. He's already caught Jinyoung's wrath, the last thing he wants is for Yugyeom to catch it too. He stares at him with a confused look on his face but Youngjae takes a deep breath as suddenly there's an image crossing into his mind. 

It's 2:23 AM. 2:23 AM and Youngjae is still awake, wide awake because today is the day they'll be appearing on Weekly Idol. Their first variety program and Youngjae is so nervous he feels on edge about the whole thing. He's never been too funny and hasn't ever been able to leave an impression on people. He just knows that he'll be edited out most of the show and it makes him feel crappy all over again. He's really trying to not think about it but so far, all of his nerves have just kept him awake since everyone has quickly fallen asleep after a long day of practicing. 

"Pfft that giant must be snoring away right now..." He mumbles to himself quietly, picturing the maknae in a crazy position whilst sleeping with a bit of drool on the corner of his mouth. He smiles to himself and tries not to laugh outloud, he clears his throat, which is pretty dry by the way. 

He finds himself in the almost pitch black kitchen the only thing that's keeping him from stumbling while he paces around is the refrigerator light. He sips apple juice from his cup silently, when suddenly he hears the creaking of a door opening down the hallway. Uh oh. He shuts the fridge door quickly engulfing himself into the darkness. He only hides because he knows that if it's JB or Jr he'll get a smack to the head and a scolding for being up so late. 

"." He curses to himself quietly as the sound of footsteps make their way toward the kitchen. He should've just woken up the giant and dragged him to the kitchen with him. The light flickers on.

"Youngjae hyung?" A slightly higher pitched voiced says a bit surprised and he suddenly feels a wave of relief wash over him.

"Oh my god, you gave me a heart attack BamBam."

"Sorry..." 

The young boy stands in the doorway a bit longer, and Youngjae looks over at him noticing that he's looking at him as if asking for permission to come in. 

"Weren't you going to get something in here?" BamBam nods and quickly shuffles inside of the kitchen, grabbing a cup and moving past youngjae to get some apple juice as well. Youngjae almost smiles at the boy but stops short when he finds himself actually looking at him. He notices how suddenly there's a crack in  his bottom lip that seems to have been bleeding not too long ago. As if he's been chewing at it, known to be a bad nervous habit of his, especially when they first met him. Poor kid was so terrified of everything around him that they had to force him to stop biting his lip or he'd leave a bad scar. 

"Ah..." The younger of the two drops the top of the juice bottle, he bends over to pick it up and that's when Youngjae notices how he winces slightly. His back seems to be bothering him, clearly he's been overworking himself in practice lately. It reminds Youngjae that he's noticed this and meant to talk to JB about it but as always, finds himself distracted by a certain overgrown maknae.

"Are you okay?" He asks suddenly startling the small boy.

"Hmm? Oh yeah I'm good hyung." He looks over at the vocalists slightly, Youngjae isn't convinced.

"Well, I mean. I've been noticing that lately you're looking a bit...miserable." Youngjae watches as the younger looks as if his breath is caught in his throat and he's said something shocking. It's true though, Youngjae thinks to himself. He would have to say it started almost two weeks ago, after one of their showcases he believes. Since then, the maknae is either practicing or running off to practice, either way it seems as if he's been avoiding something.

"Hey...couldn't sleep either?" A voice deeper than both of the two boys voices combined, suddenly asks. BamBam goes as stiff as a board and a small noise akin to a whimper breaks through his bruised mouth. 

This catches the rappers attention and he seems to stare at the small boy longer than he needs to.

Jackson steps into the kitchen and just like that BamBam quickly sets the juice bottle down and avoids eye contact with the powerful gaze set on him as he pratically runs out of the small space; bumping into the older boys' solid shoulder. He mutters a "sorry" somewhere in there. 

"Hmm." scratch that. He's avoiding someone. Youngjae stares silently as Jackson looks in the direction that the small boy ran off to. He continues to stare as Jackson slowly and lightly touches the part of his arm that made contact with BamBam's. Youngjae's sharp eyes actually widen considerably when suddenly it seems that Jackson is smiling to himself. Bitterly. Even though he was smiling, he wasn't really. How could someone try to look so happy but in fact...broken at the same time?

Youngjae didn't get any sleep that night. He was too occupied with the thoughts running through his head, about BamBam and Jackson. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something was going on between them.

Then there was Mark, there couldn't be anything going on between the two of them because, well, Mark. Weren't Mark and Jackson kind of a "thing" already? Or at least that's how it seemed.

He couldn't help but think about the way the redhead would look at Jackson, so much fondness and adoration. Jackson was always the playful type but Mark...was serious. Jackson had to know that those feelings were sincere.

Jackson and BamBam those two...really bothered him most of all, they both looked so...sad. 

He meant to talk to someone about what happened that night but instead he found himself occupied with other things. He actually always found a way to occupy himself with other things. He should've said something. How could he let this happen? His friend continued to break and tear himself apart after that night clearly, now here he was. Locked inside of his room while Jr is losing his mind with worry, he must've noticed this as well. That something was up with BamBam. Why hadn't he stepped in? Why would Youngjae be the only one to notice these things, he couldn't have been the only one. Right? How BamBam seemed to have been withering away over the past month. How Jackson would be with Mark but not really with him and BamBam looked as if he wanted fling himself off of a building at the sight of the two. 

He couldn't have been the only one that heard BamBam yell and cry out with that broken voice of his. His poweful sobs that were ripping through that small room. Youngjae feels his eyes welling up with tears with the thought of him in that room. Alone with all of that pain racking through his body, he feels the lump in his throat rising up and he's struggling not to cry. 

Jinyoung watches Youngjae as the emotions in face change, he quickly becomes concerned and his grip softens though he's still desperate to know what happened.

"Youngjae-ah...are you okay?" He wants to hold the vocalist, he feels bad because he knows he might've scared him. Youngjae shakes his head and grips onto Jinyoung suddenly, almost desperately. 

"Hyung, you have to help him. The name...the name..." He feels himself wanting to cry out but he surpresses it. 

"Youngjae hyung..." Yugyeom reaches for the shorter male but Youngjae shakes his head. He can't rely on Yugyeom right now, he'll break down and he wont say it, he wont be able to help his friends.

"The name he was calling out..." Mark's face flashes through his mind and he grips Jinyoung's shirt tighter.

"...Jackson..."

He manages to say and Jinyoung wraps his arms around Youngjae all at once. Holding onto him tightly, because he knows...he knows how hard that was. He understands now, everything is clear and he has to do something about it. Jinyoung whips out his phone as Yugyeom grabs onto Youngjae and whispers words of comfort into his neck, who simply buries his face into his chest.

"Im so sorry...ngh I'm...sorry.." The smaller male is crying into his embrace now and Yugyeom doesn't understand why he's "sorry". He just helped Jinyoung figure out what was wrong with their fellow band member. Right?

"I'm s-so...sorry.." 

Hi there~! Sorry about the wait, I appreciate all of you sticking with me and liking my story enough to subscribe to it. Nothing brings me greater joy than to know this little story reaches you all out there somehow ^_^