J-Hope watched the scene before him.

It was a couple hours later and all of the band members were alseep. The harsh afternoon sun had been blocked off with thick curtains that had been pulled to cover the large windows. The kind nurse had come in just 10 minutes after Suga had fallen asleep and closed the blinds out of consideration. Now here they were, all alseep, or in J-Hope's case resting on a wall (he had been sleeping in a series of small powernaps). Jin and Rap Mon had pulled chairs from the bedsides of the vacant beds to the right of them and had sat at the foot of Jungkook's bed. They had both fallen asleep and were resting on one another. Jin's head rested peacefully against Namjoon's shoulder and Rap Monster's head was carefully resting atop his hyung's head. It slightly reminded J-Hope of the concept photos that they had taken a few weeks prior.

Suga had fallen asleep on Jungkook's bed with his face in the matress and arms folded beside his head. The rest of his body was sitting in a chair that was placed by Jungkook's bedside. (sorry if this sounds vague) V, who had woken up from a nightmare himself a few hours ago, had climbed into Jungkook's bed and was currently snuggling with him, arms wrapped around the maknae's frame to tell himself that his only dongsang was still there and well. Even in his sleep, V's grip was strong. At first, when Hoseok first saw Taehyung awaking from his nightmare, he had tried to coax his younger to ask the nurse if he could use the vacant beds to the right of them, but V shook his head.

"If I wake up and he's not there, I think that I'll be even more scared." V said, voice shaking and hollow, hand never letting go of Jungkook's smaller one.

Thus, when V woke up from his second nightmare, he shot up, eyes wide. Soon he realized that his younger brother was still there. Exhaling a shakey breath, he climbed into the covers with trembling hands and hugged the maknae close.

Jimin, who realized that there was absolutely no room for him on the twin sized bed had-begrudgingly-taken the window sill.

J-Hope had just decided on 'standing guard', leaning tiredly against the wall. He was exhausted and it was certainly visable in his posture. Being the 'Hope' of the group was most of the time wonderful. He could play around goofily and make all s smile. He loved when they did that: smile, especially if they were upset to begin with. He loved making people happy and cheerful, it is his talent and his joy. However, at times like these, where the tension and stress is all too much, he wanted some time to be upset like the others were. He wanted moments of silence where he could fully digest what just happened, like now. Being the happy virus of the team was never a burden on him, but sometimes he needed time to himself to let down his intense curtain of sunshine and just feel. J-Hope wasn't sad or angry or depressed God no. He was just worried. Worried for the youngest dongsang who he doted on so much (he was the youngest after all). How could he have let this happen? How could he have let this go so far? 

He just needed a little time, without worrying about his team members. While the other members of the hyung-line were known for their comanding, respectful natures, everyone knew that the maknae-line looked up to J-Hope just as much, if not more. His playful attitude and willingness to fool around with this dongsangs made him more approachable. He was like a emmotional rock, an anchor. Even in times of trouble, J-Hope was the one to remain optimistic and cheerful, no matter how bleek it seemed. He clearly remembered comforting a sullen Jimin a few months after debut because he was upset that their popularity hadn't taken track yet.

"But what if we never gain tracktion? What if we never get popular enough and we'll have to disband? We still haven't made our break even point-God we're not even close- what do we do?" Jimin had said shakily, sitting in his room with his knees curled to his chest and hands in his hair, distressed.

"Dont worry," he had said while rubbing comforting circles into his back. "We'll become popular. We'll win awards. It just takes time. Trust your hyung, alright?"

"Okay, I trust you." Jimin smiled.

J-Hope was that protector, that barrier, that emotional wall of support. If he were to stumble and break down, what would the others do? He remembered when that happened during their filming for the Boy in Luv MV. He had fainted during the production and the mood from then til the end of the shoot was sour. 

"Let's put him here." Rap Monster said as the others were carrying a limp J-Hope from the set to their dressing rooms.

They set him down on the couch gently. 

"Alright, I know that you won't like this, but we have to keep filming." the leader said. 

"WHAT?!" the members chorused in protest, clearly upset.

"We need to finish as soon as possible. We can still do the individual scenes while J-Hope rests." He reasoned with s "The sooner we finish, the sooner we can go home and rest."

One by one, the others started out of the resting rooms and back to the shooting sets except one, Jungkook.

"Jungkookie," Rap Mon sighed. "you have to come with us."

"No, leader-hyung, please? I'll be really good! You know that I don't need as many takes as the others when we're filming!" It was true, though, going by their track reccord. The number of takes needed for Jungkook was far less than Jimin or V, since they always found looking straight at the camera very funny and would burst out laughing on many occasions.

"Alright then." Rap Mon said. "As long as you do really well on your sceens later, okay?"

The Maknae nodded eagerly and the two were left alone. 

A few minutes later, J-Hope woke up to a pounding headache and moaned, clutching his head. 

"Hyung! You're awake!" Jungkook exclaimed, rushing over to his side. 

"Yeah," he said, trying to assess what had transpired. "about that, what happened?"

Jungkook's face imediately fell. "You fainted during shooting, Hyung." he said with a slight pout, cheeks puffing out and a frown on his features. "We were worried about you. You looked really bad, Hyung."

"Don't worry about me, Kookie-ah." J-Hope said comfortingly, gently patting the maknae's head. "You know I had a busy schedule yesterday, I just didn't sleep that much that's all." He tried to calm down the frightened teen.

However, this seemed to make it worse.

"But you need to rest, Hope-hyung! What's going to happen when we get even more schedules? Will you collapse everyday?" the Maknae said frantically.

"Don't worry, Jungkookie-ah. Bangtang PD-nims are nice. They won't let that happen." He tried to console the younger.

"But they let you film when you were tired enough to faint!" his dongsang said hysterically, paniced and anxious. He was near shaking in his spot on the floor and was looking at J-Hope with distressed eyes.

"Big Hit isn't like that, Kookie. They asked if I was feeling up for it, and I said I was. I overworked myself. Not Namjoon, not manager-hyung, not Boss-nim." J-Hope said solemly.

"Do you think that they'll ever do that though?" Jungkook asked his hyung.

J-Hope looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean, Kookie-ah?"

"We're getting more popular now, Hyung. What if we get more schedules than we can handle? What if this happens again later, but the company doesn't care?" He asked frightened, clutching onto J-hope's dress shirt sleeve. 

"What brought this on?" J-hope asked, concerned. Jungkook wasn't one to just get these dark thoughts all of the sudden. 

"Remember our MAMA preformance?" the maknae asked and the elder hummed in comprehension. "I overheard some sunbaenims talk about one of their bandmates who was really sick. He had collapsed during the dress rehersal, but the company was still making him preform. I didn't know who they were, since the sides were too dark, but they were talking about Kim Young-min-nim. [AN. Kim Young-min is SM Ent. CEO. Also, I'm not bashing on these companies nor their artists. I'm just using an example to propell the plot. Sorry if this offends anyone. 😓] Another member was talking about something similar that happened with his friend who was in JYP. I don't want that to happen, Hyung. That's the whole reason I joined a small company like this."

J-hope just continued to pet the maknae's hair. "Don't worry, Kookie-ah. Your hyungs won't let anything like that happen. I promise."

They stayed like that for the next few hours. Jungkook kneeling on the floor, head on J-Hope's chest while the elder rest his eyes while petting the younger's head.

...............................................................................................

'Kookie is scared of being overworked by the company. That's why he's always worried about us and overworks himself. He's going above and beyond what is expected, so there is nothing that the company can overwork him for.' J-Hope discerned with a sick sence of realization. It was indeed a revolting way of logic, but effective. Bangtang-PD had never once asked Jungkook to do an extra schedule or practice, mostly because they were still aware that he was young and had school to attend as well. But then again, Big Hit was very caring to its staff and as a result had a small, but tightknit family that could always rely on each other. Even Bang Sihyuk-nim himself was in good relations with all of the staff, he had treated the group to a nice dinner on the evening of their very first big win.

 Under normal circumstances, J-hope would have complete faith that the company would insist that their poor Maknae take a few days off and rest, but with their special album fansign in less than 24 hours, a preformance for their single 'FIRE' in a few days and Save ME filming in little less than a week away, there just wasn't all that much that Jungkook could aford to miss.

J-Hope was determined, though. He needed to be there for the maknae. He needed to prove Jungkook's fears false, and to do that, he needed to prove that the company didn't just care about his revenue, but also about his well being. 

"I promise, Kookie." Hoseok whispered to himself. "I promise."

Okay. That's a little peak into J-Hope's thoughts. Sorry if this is becoming too depressing or anything like that. Also with the SM, JYP thing, I didn't mean to offend anyone. It's just that the big three (including YG) are notorious for overworking their artists. So if you thought that I was bashing on your favorite artist or company or anything like that, I apologize again, it wasn't my intension. Please tell me if there is anything that I can improve upon. (If it's believable or if their personalities are accurate) I'm sorry that these chapters are shorter and a bit melodramatic. I hope that this chapter was understandable. If you have questions about the plot, feel free to ask me. Sorry for the vagueness.

Other than that, please let me know what you think! Thank you!