Even when it’s not his power, Youngjae has a special talent to sense when something is off.

And when he comes out of the car, he knows something it’s definitely off.

Well, the awkward travel they have just experienced was a signal. But what is also a signal is the lack of friends that have come to welcome them. He finds Taehyung, Jimin and Hoseok welcoming Seokjin meanwhile Yoongi comes to greet Jungkook first. But the younger just says a weak ‘hi’ before taking his belongings and rushing to his house. Yoongi looks surprised and worried at him before glancing at Seokjin, who has seen the scene and just shakes his head. Yoongi understands that he’s not in the mood to talk, so he just lets it be and welcomes Mark and Youngjae.

Youngjae is grateful that they’re here to greet him and Mark. But there’s no Jaebum, no Yugyeom and what worries him the most: there is no Shura either.

“You’re really okay now” Bonnie says after checking Shura. Everything is normal now, the cut is gone and she starts to think that maybe she mistook the issue about her mate. But when she touched the place where the cut was, she felt something weird. She can’t say clearly what it is, but is definitely not normal.

“Thank you” Shura stands up from the stretcher and puts her clothes well.

“If you feel discomfort again come see me, but everything should be fine” Bonnie says, giving Shura a bottle with pills in case she feels bad again. Shura thanks her before going out of the nursery.

She comes where everyone is welcoming the travelers. She looks for Youngjae and Mark, and soon she finds a bunch of blond hair that is clearly Mark’s.

“Shura!” Youngjae exclaims when he sees his friend finally coming to him. He hugs her tightly.

“Jae, you’re suffocating me” she says, and Youngjae quickly frees her muttering apologies. Shura hugs Mark then.

“Where’s Jungkook?” she asks.

Youngjae and Mark look at each other, wondering if they should tell her now.

“He left first because he said he wanted to take a shower before Jin. The journey has been really tiring” Youngjae answers.

Shura mutters a small ‘ah’ before welcoming Seokjin, who tells them he’s going to rest a bit and goes to his house. And even when he was smiling, Shura knew there was something bittersweet on it.

“Where are Jaebum and Yugyeom?” Mark asks.

Shura shrugs. She hasn’t talked with Yugyeom yet and she hasn’t seen Jaebum since yesterday.

“Yugyeom is probably patrolling, and maybe Jaebum had something to do” she answers.

To Mark its fine; but Youngjae can’t hide his disappointment and he looks to the ground sadly.

“But I’m sure they will be coming by later to greet you, so don’t worry” she quickly adds seeing her friend so off.

Youngjae looks at her with eyes full of hope, and Shura prays that she isn’t wrong about what she has just said.

“Okay, let’s get home! We have a lot to tell you!”

Youngjae takes Mark and Shura by his arms and leads them home. They unpack all the things while Shura makes lunch for them. Mark comes to Youngjae’s room to talk about how they’re going to tell her about Jinyoung.

“Let me talk, but don’t worry. I’m sure she’ll understand”.

Mark nods, but still feels insecure.

“Wait, Youngjae. Can we do it tomorrow? We have just come and I’m sure you’ve missed each other a lot and have a lot to tell each other. I don’t want to mess things up this soon. We can leave it to tomorrow”.

“Are you sure?” Mark nods, and Youngjae gives him a smile. “Okay, let’s do it tomorrow!”

Youngjae closes his laptop. He’s been trying to concentrate on the university tasks, but the sensation that something is off is still there. Mark is taking a nap and Shura left for work. During lunch they talked about the things they did when they were separated. Youngjae and Mark hadn’t say anything about Jinyoung or the thing about Jungkook and Seokjin; but Youngjae is sure there is something Shura is not telling them too. She’s usually as cheerful as Youngjae, but today she seemed a bit off. And the fact that he hasn’t seen Jaebum and Yugyeom only worsens it all.

They aren’t as close as Shura and he are; but Youngjae thinks that they are close enough to want to greet each other when they come back after a week away. Especially Jaebum, with who he felt he had a special connection.

Determined to find what is going on, he gets up and comes to Jaebum’s house. He sees Yugyeom at the door, trying to open it. Youngjae calls him and Yugyeom suddenly drops the keys without having opened the door. Yugyeom’s face is full of terror, like if he has been caught doing something he is not supposed to do. Youngjae waves at him and Yugyeom’s face softens.

“Hi, Youngjae! You’re here again” he says while picking the keys from the floor.

“It seems so. How are you?”

“Fine, and you?”

“Well, I was a bit sad, you know. I didn’t see you two this morning and I felt worried”.

“Oh, eh…” Yugyeom fights a bit with the keys to make them enter the door lock, visibly nervous. Youngjae sees it but doesn’t say anything. “There’s nothing to worry about. It’s just I was out and Jaebum was probably asleep”.

Youngjae frowns. Shura said he was ‘probably doing something’, and now Yugyeom says that he was ‘probably asleep’. What version should he believe? And why are they lying to him? Hadn’t been they together these days to know what they were going to do today? And didn’t Jaebum know that he was coming today?

“Oh, I see. Can you see if he’s still asleep? I want to talk with him”.

Yugyeom opens the door, but bits his lip nervously. What should he do? Should he let Youngjae in and talk with Jaebum? But Jaebum is not in the mood and probably doesn’t want to face him now.

“Yes, I’ll be back in a minute”.

He doesn’t want to seem impolite and reject Youngjae directly, and besides the other has just asked if he can see if Jaebum is awake, not if he can come in. Yugyeom comes in and thanks Jaebum for not being in the living room where Youngjae could have seen him from outside. He knocks at Jaebum’s door and the older comes out. He’s still wearing his pajamas and he seems tired.

“What happens?” he asks lazily.

“Youngjae wants to see you”.

At this all the tiredness on Jaebum’s face disappears and is replaced by anxiety. Jaebum peeks behind Yugyeom and can see the other standing outside. He seems so lonely that Jaebum wants to take him and cuddle him forever. And maybe he would do it, but not in this circumstances. He starts to panic, and before Yugyeom can say anything Jaebum mutters a ‘tell him I’m not here’ and slams his door shut.

Yugyeom face palms himself at Jaebum’s stupidity, because he’s sure Youngjae has heard him. He sighs and comes out to see Youngjae looking at him with sad eyes.

“I’m sorry Youngjae, but Jaebum isn’t home”.

Youngjae ducks his head, and to Yugyeom he seems like an appalled puppy. He feels guilty for lying to him; but he isn’t ready to face him so soon like Jaebum.

“Maybe you can come to our house to have dinner later?” Youngjae offers.

Yugyeom already knows that they’re not going. But it feels so wrong to be rejecting Youngjae; more when he’s like that.

“I don’t think we can go. Jaebum and I have to do some errands early tomorrow”.

Youngjae sighs and Yugyeom feels his heart clenching at the sight.

“Okay. See you around. Have a nice day” Youngjae says smiling sadly. When he’s out of Yugyeom’s vision, the younger returns home and plops on the couch. Moments later Jaebum comes out and joins him. They keep looking at the ceiling like if there were the answers to all their problems.

“What are we going to do, Jaebum?”

The older doesn’t respond. He gulps, thinking about it. He nearly had a heart attack when Youngjae came before.

“When I met him I panicked, and I think he saw. And he seemed so sad, Jaebum. I had to reject him and I feel so bad… He only wanted to meet us”.

“I know but… I feel so ashamed. I promised him I was going to take care of Shura. If he finds out he’s going to hate me”.

“I think he’s going to hate both of us if he doesn’t do it already”.

They remain silent again until Jaebum sighs.

“We’re going to avoid him”.

Yugyeom looks at him, confused.

“What?”

“It’s the only solution. If we don’t talk to him we aren’t going to spill everything. And we both know we can’t act normal in front of him. He’s too smart to not know we’re pretending”.

“He’s going to hate us if we do it”.

“He’s going to hate us anyways. If he finds out, he’ll hate us. If we don’t talk to him, he’ll hate us. He’ll hate us no matter what”.

There is a pause before Yugyeom speaks again.

“I’m sorry, Jaebum. You’re going to lose Youngjae because of me”.

“Don’t be sorry. Things like that happen, and we still have each other”.

“I’m really sorry”.

Everything is quiet again until Jaebum finally says:

“I don’t deserve him anyways”.

And before Yugyeom can reply that it isn’t true, Jaebum is gone.

When Youngjae comes home again, Mark is awake eating some snacks while watching tv. Youngjae joins him, and the older offers the snacks to Youngjae who gladly accepts it.

“Where did you go?” Mark asks, eyes glued to the romantic drama on the tv.

“To Jaebum’s house” the reply comes dry, and Mark looks at him, confused.

“Something happened?”

Youngjae crosses his arms before speaking.

“I came to his house. Yugyeom was at the door and when I called his name, he looked at me like I caught him doing something bad. And he seemed nervous. Then I asked why they hadn’t come to meet us, and he said he was out and Jaebum was sleeping. Shura told us he was doing something. Isn’t it weird?”

“Well, maybe they didn’t meet each other yesterday?”

“But why? Shura said they met each other every day. Why didn’t they meet if Shura didn’t go to work?”

“Maybe Jaebum had something to do?”

“It can be” Youngjae thinks it can be true, but at the same time he feels that yesterday something happened that lead them to that situation. “But the thing didn’t stop there. I asked Yugyeom if he could see if Jaebum was awake. He came after and told me he wasn’t there; but I heard Jaebum’s voice and a door closing. And when I asked if they could come for dinner, he said both of them are doing something tomorrow”.

Mark stared at him, thinking about all the things Youngjae said. It starts to smell bad for him too.

“I think he’s avoiding me” Youngjae finally says, dejected. Mark pats his shoulder.

“C’mon Jae, maybe he was tired or and didn’t want you to see it. And we’ve just arrived, you can’t know if they’re avoiding you or they really have things to do”.

Youngjae looks at the floor, blushing a bit. Maybe he is exaggerating things; but the bad feeling is still there.

“Maybe it’s true. I shouldn’t think so much about it. Thank you, Mark”.

“It’s okay. And you’re going to see them at the welcoming party tomorrow anyways”.

Youngjae smiles. He totally forgot there was going to be a welcoming party for them, to celebrate the journey ended really well. At least for most of them.

“They really like parties in here. I like that” Mark finally says, and Youngjae nods at him. They fall in a comfortable silence watching the drama.

“What happened?” Yoongi asks. It’s 1AM and Seokjin, Namjoon and he are still working, revising what the newbies did at the journey and their development. Namjoon raises his head from the papers and stares at Seokjin, who continues reading papers and copying them on the computer.

“Nothing happened” he answers. Yoongi and Namjoon look at each other, knowing that there is something more Seokjin isn’t telling them.

“Then why haven’t we seen Jungkook today? He’s usually anywhere playing or running or bothering me” Namjoon says. He, like Yoongi, knows about Seokjin and Jungkook. They know the others since a long time ago, and they know when something is off with them.

“Maybe he was sleeping. He likes to sleep a lot recently” Seokjin says; but Yoongi and Namjoon aren’t convinced with that. Jungkook has always been an energetic boy. There is no way he could ha