Importance

To each of them Sunggyu was something a little different. For Sungjong he was a father figure, someone to lean on and to tease mercilessly. For Myungsoo he was a confidante, someone who he could turn to and spill his heart out without fear of judgement. For Sungyeol he was a regulator,the one person who seemed to know just how far to let him run before it was time to try and reel him back in. For Hoya he was a rock, the one person he could always depend upon. And to Dongwoo he was a friend, a man whose presence could be either soothing or infuriating.

For Woohyun he was a little bit of all these things. A father figure for when Woohyun couldn't figure out what he was doing or why, a confidante for those lonely nights that never seemed to end, a regulator for when he was so wound up he couldn't tell up from down, a rock for when he felt so lost he couldn't recognize his own reflection and most of all a friend for when Woohyun needed it most.

They never had to say it in so many words, it was just known that Sunggyu and Woohyun were best friends. No matter how much they teased and needled and pushed one another the fact never changed.

It seemed funny to Woohyun to even think about Infinite without Sunggyu (he could too easily imagine Sunggyu without Infinite). Sunggyu was the axis that Infinite sat on. That wasn't to say that Sunggyu was flawless or perfect. He was infuriatingly thick-headed at times, too competitive for his own good and more prickly than a cactus. He sometimes pushed his perfectionism too far, running them until they could no longer move let alone dance. But even when he was being maddening he was still Sunggyu.

And as much as Sunggyu pushed the rest of them, he was twenty times harder on himself. He tried so hard to make up for his short-comings. Woohyun knew that he tried to hide how hard he pushed himself. But Woohyun could see it. He knew every time Sunggyu came home too tired to even think but still reminding Woohyun of a schedule they had tomorrow. He knew every time that Sunggyu was left in the practice room, nearly killing himself to try to get just one move right. He saw it every time that Sunggyu pushed his voice a little too hard. He was relentless on himself and sometimes it hurt to watch him just trying that hard. It was almost like he was breaking himself over and over on the very same rock.

Woohyun, as much as he liked to joke that he would be a better leader than Sunggyu, knew instinctively that Infinite needed Sunggyu. Well, in Woohyun's mind Infinite needed every single member. But Sunggyu especially. There was no one better suited to the task of trying to get seven different personalities to click together into one big moving part.

He wished that Sunggyu would realize it himself because the elder seemed oblivious to how much they all needed him. Woohyun wished he could just show Sunggyu to himself the way the others saw him. He wished he had the words to stop Sunggyu from working so hard. He didn't need to do half the things he did for Infinite. But he still did them all.