You spot JB the next morning gazing at the concept designs set on the long white table in the middle of the staff room. His actions yesterday suddenly devours your thoughts, causing anger to replace any remaining shock you may have had left. You walk up beside him, pretending to also focus on the designs to avoid any suspicious eyes.

Your arms crossed behind your back as you whisper, “Is it fun to play around with people like that?”

JB his eyes your way, surprised at your sudden presence. “You’re here early”, a sort of sarcasm escaping him.

“I asked you a question”, you were determined to make him apologize for what he did

“I meant it yesterday” he shrugs you off as if nothing had happened, which only caused more anger to build up in your system.

“Anna is my friend, you need to clear the misunderstanding up with her” you demand, trying to keep unnoticed by the surrounding staff members.

Anna soon enters the room not long after you arrived and in no time noticed you and JB together at the end of the long table. She dashes over and without a word pulls you away from his side,

“I told you to keep away from him!” she warns as she gestures for you to sit down on the white sofa. You could see this was affecting her more than you had thought, the distress plastered across her face.

“Anna, I promise it’s not what you think” almost as if begging her to believe you for the thousandth time, “I’ll prove it” you held on tight to her hand, “I promise.” you lastly let out before anymore could be said, not wanting her to come up with anymore ideas. She wanted to believe you, you could tell from how hesitant she was, how protective and guarded she became ever since yesterday. You proceed to remove yourself from the room, realising the more distance you place between you and JB, the better.

You managed to continue the rest of your day without any problems, knowing GOT7 were too busy recording a show all day to be present around the company. You wouldn’t have had any chances of coincidentally running into him anyways, having been stuck at your desk for the last 5 hours re-doing all the concept portfolios the new girl had messed up. You had felt sorry for her as you saw her crying in the corner of one of the recording rooms and, of course, being you, you offered to do her job for her. Somewhere while growing up it had become a bad habit to make other people’s problems yours, to overly exert yourself and at most times at your own cost but it was oddly satisfying to see how much difference you could make to a person’s day so you really had no plans of quitting.

It was by 6 o’clock at night that you thought a well deserved break was needed as you hop up, pushing your chair behind the desk and packing your belongings in your bag. You made your way tiredly down to the elevator, kicking at the ground exhaustingly as you wait for the ding of its arrival. And In no time it came, the doors rushing open only to reveal a sick looking JB coughing up his insides, bent over with only the support of the elevator wall to keep his body up. Without thinking you immediately rush over to his side to straighten him back up before he really collapsed onto the ground and cause more issues for you. You struggle with his large frame as you rush him into one of the bigger rooms inside the building, a glamourous black couch sat waiting as you slowly shifted him onto it. He obediently laid down, one arm covering his face while the other rested on his stomach.

“I’ll get you some water” you suggest, rushing over to the nearby fridge and pulling out the unopened bottle. You assisted him up onto his back, unwrapping the bottle and passing it over to him.

“You should see a doctor, eat something, take medication, have a rest~” you begin nagging while he chugs down the bottle, emptying its content and placing it on the table in front of him.

“Stop talking…..it’s hurting my head” he butts in with an exhausted tone, now resting his two elbows on either side of his knees as he ruffles his hair tiredly.

“You should listen when people give you advice, what’s with the attitude? Being nice to other people won’t kill you” you retaliate in defence, partially offended when you’re trying so hard to be helpful.

“No one asked you for your advice” he ejects, suddenly standing up, almost as if more sick of hearing you speak than of the actual sickness itself.

“I’ll take you home” you give your final offer of niceness, trying your hardest to ignore his crude comments, knowing deep down it was only his mechanism with dealing with his own pain. “You’re sick….” you add to justify the offer you made, not that he wasn’t already well aware.

“I have to practice” he argues, attempting to leave for the door only to be held back by you.

“I’ll stay with you just in case then” you immediately regret saying, this time the offer wasn’t so intentional, the annoying habit you had of making people’s problems yours taking its full force again.

“Do what you want.” JB sighs at your stubbornness, almost to challenge you as he flicks your hands off him and heads out towards the practice rooms downstairs. You follow him without a sound, on arrival choosing to sit in the corner of the room as you watch him go through the choreography time and time again. It was another 4 hours before he finally gave up, sweat showering his body as he limps towards the seat next to you. You could hear his irregular breathing, the hard sound was the only noise filling the empty room.

“It’s probably not good timing..” you suddenly bring up as you tap at edge of the seat, remembering the promise you made to Anna this morning. “But you need to tell Anna the truth.”

“...About what?” JB asks through his exhaustion, using his arm to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

“About us.” you reply

“You think just because you ask I’m going to do it?” he answers back, more stubborn than ever

“If you really want me to leave I’m willing to” you suggest, completely running out of ways to fix this

“.....I want you to stay.” he admits after some hesitation as he lets out another cough.

“Excuse me?” you ask, more confused as ever at how nonchalant he was being, especially considering the things that were coming out of his mouth.

“Stay” he repeats, still unmoved at his own words.

“Has being sick completely eaten away at your brain?!” you get up off your seat, unable to understand him. “What’s your issue with me? One minute you hate me, despise me for replacing your girlfriend and the next minute you suddenly want me to stay, to work with you??” You utter, you weren’t angry….you were pissed. You had given him so many chances to work things out with you, you had tried everything to stay logical with him and now he suddenly wants to change without giving you a reason and without sharing any sort of emotional response with you. You weren’t entirely sure if you were overworked, stressed, hungry, confused or unable to adjust to him that caused your little outburst but it was serious enough to make you walk out that room without waiting for anything else to come out his mouth.

JB lets out a hard, drawn out sigh once you had slammed the door shut, letting his head drop before pulling himself up from the seat and grabbing his backpack. He finally turns all the lights in the room off and exits for the night. He could almost do it all with his eyes closed, his daily life so routined and structured, whatever livelihood left in him had died a long time ago. This job, being the idol he was had drained him more than he thought, sometimes instead of emotions he became numb. Numb to everything, all the hate, all the instructions, all the nagging, all the practice and all pain. He didn’t even know if Haya’s sudden disappearance was really the root of his anger or just a substitute emotion to test if he was still human. He knew you were pissed at what he had said earlier, he would’ve been too. But for some odd reason, somewhere along all the bickering and fighting he had had with you, he felt emotions he hadn’t felt for a long time again.  JB honestly wanted you to stay but he himself didn’t know why. All that he knew was that he didn’t want to admit he liked having you around to remind him he was still human or to admit the fact that he may be less hurt by Haya’s disappearance than what he had thought before you entered his life…..