Dooyoung wasn't the centre of attention, but his attention was always on the centre, or more accurately on the centre of his life, and that curently was NCT. His eyes were everywhere but he pretended not to see, he heard everything and pretended he heard nothing. He knew everything but acted ignorant. It was a cruse he had to live with, but he was thankful for it at the same time. Because it made him closer to the members. Because he always just knew what they wanted.

Dooyoung had always been the lonely kind in school, his feelings trampled over by the simple fact that he was just better than the rest. He was good at everything, even sports and people hated him It got worse when he got into SM entertainent. It was all bad until he ment the members and he, for the first time, had real friends. Yet his fear of losing them only increased, and he paid attention to their needs. They were all equally important. But for him, Lee Taeyong would always hold a special place.

The scammer, the , the arrogant cold dancer.

These weren't names the other boy wasn't aware of. He knew them all, yet he smiled at the very people who had stamped these names on his back. He smiled as if he didn't care but Dooyoung could tell he was secretly drowning.

Then he met Jaehyun. And he was jealous. Not of their closeness, or the fact that it had been Jaehyun who knew what another person wanted, for once but the the pure love that the two men shared, but because he lacked exactly that. The unconditional love they gave each other. No questions asked, none needed. They would be there the moment the other wanted them.

It had remained so for the years to come and Dooyoung quietly admired the duo from afar. They were his favorite couple in NCT. They only two that genuinely loved and weren't in it just for fun or ual release. They would ground each other, save the other from their demons, especially Jaehyun. 

Taeyong was a lot like him. An outcast at school. But unlike Doyoung, Taeyoung was an outcast at home too. His fears and demons were much stronger than Dooyoungs. But he empathized with the leader everytime he saw his face buried into Jaehyun's chest. And the next moment he would turn his head away, because Jaehyun's gentle expressions and calming sound as he cooed to their leader was too much and he felt like he was witnessing something so intimate, so much more than .

But then it all changed. 

Taeyong's eyes lost it's shine and Jaehyun's cheeks started to hollow. Taeyong's smile faltered the second the cameras were off and Jaehyun had stopped even bothering to try. Taeyong never stayed up in the living room waiting and neither did Jaehyun come around asking for his hyung during luch time. They would casully hold hands anymore, their subtle looks and smiles were gone and the dorm felt vacant without their little banter about who gets to make dinner on off days.

Everyone noticed, but Dooyoung noticed it first.

Jaehyun was a fighter. They all knew he'd rise up from the worst because he was just like that.

But Taeyong wasn't.

Taeyong was drowing further. Retreating into a shell that he probably doesn't know he had created around himself. His once comforting touches and hugs were now cold. His smile vacant and his eyes dead.

Everyone could tell something was wrong when Jaehyun didn't gather the male up in his arms after the had won their first music show award. But more so, the days that followed were very telling of the relationship that once was. They all knew that the two had broken up, but it was a unspoken rule not to mention it. Because it would make it realer if they did and the concequences would be devastating.

Johnny knew something.

Dooyoung knew it too.

They always stayed out of others business. 

But Taeyong was special for Dooyoung just like Jaehyun was special for Johnny so they decided to intervene. Besided, no one knew how much longer Taeyong could keep functioning without breaking apart.

So it started with a, "Jaehyun we need to talk." and a "Sure."

A long discussion. One that should've involved Taeyong too, but Dooyoung couldn't get the leader to come out of his room without revealing Jaehyun would be there and then there is no way Taeyong would come. They talked about Jaehyun, and they talked about his relationship with Taeyong. 

"Hyung I love him, but he doesn't love me."

Johnny gaped and Dooyoung wanted to slap some sense into the boy. But thet both noticed Jaehyun's hollow eyes and en cheeks and realised the boy is just as much a victim in all this as Taeyong.

"You know that is not true." Johnny's voice was as gentle as if he were talking to a baby, it didn't betray his irritation, but his feet did. They rythmically tapped on the floor, impateint in their beats.

"I saw him kissing WinWin." Dooyoung frowned, his head tilted right as he tried to remember excatly what had happened. He knew everything, but he pretended he didn't. "And hyung didn't even push him away. He was blushing too!"

"WinWin is dating Yuta though."

Johnny chocked and Jaehyun turned to him in shock. Both asking him the same question and he really didn't want to get into it, because it was simply not his business and neither was it why they were gathered in the company halls they thought no one ventures too. He instead watched Jaehyun's face change through different shaed of emotions, from jealousy to suprise to anger to ugilt.

"What have I done?"

"Exactly."

They wtached Jaehyun get up and slowly walk away, deep in thought. and from what Dooyoung could tell, Jaehyun was hurting again. He shook his head, Love was always depicted as the most beautiful thing, and he really thought the love between his two friends was surely as beautiful as the fables. But the stories always fail to mention that jealousy changes you for the worst. It was Jaehyun's jealousy that hurt them both, and Taeyoung deep rooted need to be loved, and to love, that pushed them apart.

But he loved these two togther, because their loved seemed the realest, and he wanted to believe love was real. They gave him hope that one day, he will find someone how picks up his pieces and joins him. So he fought for them when they stopped fighting for themselves.

But it turns out they were a bit too late. Taeyong had colapsed. That morning, they had been woken up by Jaehyun's desparates cries and to the sight of a limp Taeyong in his arms.

I'll finish this off in one more chapter. I promise...hehe

Thanks for all the encouraging comments. It keeps me motivated to write more ^^ I'm writing a less angsty Jaeyong ff so if you guys have time do go check it out... (Shameless self promotion) lol.

Love ya'll.