The days passed on for everyone and with each passing day Maki became livelier with the group, but on the inside she was slowly dying inside. It was always like this for her around this time of year...the anniversary of Eomma's death. Every year gets harder for her to face and this year was truly a test now that Sayuri had returned. With every passing day she continued to receive messages that rubbed salt into her wounds.

Then one day Maki stopped coming to school. Her Appa knew this would happen, it happened every year. For a week Maki would stop attending school, the depression hitting her so hard she couldn't get out of bed. It was hard to see her like this and as strong as he wanted to be for her, it broke his heart soo much to see her so vulnerable, so sad. Nothing he did could help her up during this time. Jae Joong and the group would come visit but he couldn't let them in, not because Maki said so but because he didn't want them to see her at her weakest point. He didn't think they would be able to handle it.

Jae Joong paced in front of the group all night.

"YAH! Would you stay still!?" Hye Su yelled at Jae Joong.

He stopped pacing and turned to look at them, "Sorry...I just hate not knowing what the hell is wrong with her. She hasn't been to school in 3 days and her Appa won't let us know what's wrong with her or even see her...what could be wrong?!" He asked outloud. He plopped down on the couch next to Yunho.

"Hyung give her time...maybe something is going on," he said.

"Yeah...it IS Maki we're talking about..." Yoochun pointed out.

"But it's wrong to keep us out...aren't we her friends?" Changmin asked.

"Maybe we can all barge into her house...her dad can't take us all on can he?" Junsu wondered.

"It's not him I'm worried about, Maki might kill us." Jae Joong pointed out. The group nodded.

"Neh, are you still coming to stay at my place tonight?" Yunho asked.

"Why are you staying at Yunho's?" Junsu asked.

"No reason..." Jae Joong answered.

"No reason? You have a whole house to yourself...why wouldn't you stay there?" Yoochun asked.

"I just miss Yunho."

"So what we're not important enough for you to stay over at?" Changmin asked.

"EHHH?!" Junsu exclaimed. "Is that true hyung?!"

Jae Joong dropped his head, "Are you kidding me? No that's not true," he couldn't hide it from them any longer. He sighed deeply, "I got kicked out of the family...well more like I walked out."

"WHAT!?!" The whole group yelled at him.

Jae Joong explained the dinner to the group, once he was done everyone was left speechless.

"Have you told Maki?" Hyo asked.

Jae Joong shook his head no.

"How can you NOT tell her?" Yuri asked.

"It's hard, she looks like she has so much on her shoulders right now...and I'm afraid if she found out, she'll break up with me. I don't care about my name...and even though that is my family, losing Maki...I can't recover from a loss like that. I feel more at home with her and her dad than I do with my parents." Jae Joong let out a sarcastic laugh, "Family..." he said the word again not sure how he felt about it.

"But still...you have to let her know."

"Like how she's letting me know what's going on with her?"

"Geez you two are such stubborn jerks!" Hye Su commented.

"I wonder if thats why Aya hasn't been to school lately." Song wondered out loud.

"She hasn't been at school? Hmm haven't noticed." Ae-Cha said.

"Back to the days before Maki quit coming to school, did you guys notice anything different about Maki?" Sanny asked.

Jae Joong looked at her, "What do you mean?"

"I don't know she just seemed more...involved with everything but everytime I looked at her..."

"She seemed to have a lot of things on her mind?" Jae Joong asked.

"Yeaah..." Sanny agreed.

Jae Joong buried his face in his hands, "I don't know...I don't know. If only she'd just tell me what is going on with her. I want to help so much, it hurts not knowing what to do to make her feel better, to help."

DBSK looked at their hyung, although they were each other's strength it was normally Jae Joong who would take them into his arms and tell them it was going to be alright. Jae Joong was the comforter, so how do you comfort the one person who has never asked you for a shoulder to cry on?

**
Maki laid in bed, she wished that a hole would open up and swallow her. She hated when she got like this but she couldn't help it, every year it was the same thing. And every year the anniversary of her mother's death took yet another piece of her soul. She had hoped this year would be different, she had friends now, people she could turn to...a boyfriend who would do whatever he could for her. So why couldn't she turn to them? Why did she block them out? Maki heard her front gate ring, sh