~Hyunjin POV~
The beats from the speakers flowed through my ear and into my bones. I was in a good condition today. I monitored my dance for over 4 hours and it was flawless. I hadn't made any mistakes so far and i felt satisfied enough to take a 5 minute break from all the dancing. 

Sweat dripped as i laid on the floor, waiting for the other members to arrive for group dance practice. I wondered how he was doing as i stared blankly at my phone's screen showing an old picture of when Sungie and i first reconciled after our big fight. Laying my phone down on my chest, i close my eyes to rest. Or at least that's what i planned to do initially but of course my thoughts started running wild. 

Memories from our big fight all the way till the time i carried Sungie back to the dorm. All sorts of different memories started flowing back in, it had me smiling for a second before tearing up in the next. I wiped off my tears with my hoodie's sleeve and sat up, nearly causing my phone to fly towards the ground before i dramatically scrambled and catched it.

Looked myself in the reflection of the mirror, i was a mess. Putting my phone on the table, i played the practice room music and continued practicing, expression replaced with the largest bittersweet smile i have ever made in my life. Unaware of how many times i've replayed the dance, i stopped the music and started wiping the mirrors down before the others arrive.

*Click* The practice room door unlocked and opened, Seungminnie walked in casually as Jeongin trotted along behind him. Seungminnie and i made eye contact and i slowly but surely admitted my defeat to my thoughts. The only reason i might have even realized that was the fact that Seungminnie quickly dropped his things on the sofa and let me melt in his arms.

~Seungmin POV from 5 mins ago~
"Hyung..." a whine sounded from behind me. I turned around to face Innie who was walking behind me. He looked a little down, which is a lot considering he doesn't show his feelings a lot when he's sad.
"What's wrong?" 
"Jisungie hyung is gonna be alright...right?" he looked into my eyes, his own glittering with tears threatening to fall any second. I stepped closer and caressed his head, my expression melting.
"He'll be alright. He's not alone now. And he never will be as long as we exist." i smiled and hugged him close.
"Mmn, we will stay close to him no matter what." he looked up at me and giggled "Let's get going, i beat Hyunjin hyung is already there." 
I nodded in agreement and we continued heading our way to the practice room. 

Within 5 minutes, we reached outside the door of our practice room. The little window on the door had fogged up so bad that we couldn't see through it.
"Detective Innie, i think we have found our missing suspect." i looked at Innie as i pointed to the fogged up window.
"Indeed we have, Detective Seungminnie hyung. Shall we head in?" i nodded. 

Despite my playful attitude, i knew something was up, for Jinnie to have dance this hard to fog up the window that way.

~Seungmin POV (Current Time)~
I opened the door and entered. My assumption was right. What met my eyes was a clearly broken and confused Jinnie standing in front of one of the mirrors, cloth held in his paused hand. His arm dropped and he released the cloth, but he didn't seem aware of what he just did. A tear ran down the side of his face. I couldn't take it, i quickly dropped my things on the sofa, not once breaking eye contact, and i wrapped my arms around him. He didn't say a word, he just slowly melted in my arms.

I turned to face Innie who was frozen at the doorway, and i gestured for him to come over to our side. Innie slowly and quietly shut the door, put his things down beside mine, then he waddled over and knelt down beside us.

"I'm alright...i just had a lot to think about." Jinnie muttered, turning his head outward to face Innie and play with his hair.
"Really hyung?" Innie's eyes turned sorrowful.
"Really, i'm fine. I'm just not confident" this sentence sparked my interest, and i needed to know more if i was going to help any of them.
"What are you not confident of?" i whispered near his ear, loud enough for Innie to hear.
"Sungie. I'm not confident that i can see all the signs that he's not okay. It takes so much effort for him to admit that he's not okay. I just...i dont know..."

I was about to comment something before Innie just sounded out "But we're here now." Jinnie and i looked at Innie, his eyes b with confidence.

"Wha-"
"We're here now. He's not alone, you're not alone, we're not alone. It may have been harder if we were alone and we didn't know about Jisungie hyung. But now we know a lot more and we're here, together. If one has trouble, we still have the other eight behind our back."

Innie, after having spoken such words filled with confidence just gave the brightest smile, lifting all our spirits in one go. As if we planned ahead, all three of us silently stood up, each holding a cloth in hand, continued wiping the mirrors and the door window. 

We got to clean up the whole room before any of the other members came. Jinnie went to lie on the sofa and zone out, while Innie sat near him played with his phone. I looked at them from where i stood, in front of the computer that controls the practice room speakers. 

'Without a doubt, everything would have been different without any of them. I honestly worry about Sungie but i often worry about Jinnie who would definitely stress himself over every thought of Sungie. I will continue to observe and protect them from the sides. It doesn't matter if anyone realizes, i'm not doing this for the sake of acknowledgement, i'm doing it to keep the team together.'

'To keep our family together'

Author's Note
Author-nim : Even i can't understand my own hiatus length. Was long enough for me to forget the whole storyline. Had to reread all chapters to refresh my memory, gosh. I guess i can't write as fast as i used to, but i'll try harder. Even i wanna know how the story will go, occassionally forgetting that i'm the author. Gosh, i really needa pump more ideas in. Anyways, thank for reading and see you in the next one. *wink*