A candle flickered dully against a cold stone wall, placed in the corner of a dusty floor. The room was dark, illuminated by only that single candle, but the light was enough to show him the gruesome situation, the picture that he’d never be able to erase from his mind.

A small boy lay in the centre of the room, covered in dust and grim, the ruby life force slowly seeping from several wounds, the biggest on the boy’s head. A rat scuttled ahead, its long nose taking a few sniffs at the boy before beginning to chew on his delicate pale skin, so fragile it appeared to tear as simply as a piece of paper. More blood fell, collecting at the pool that had already collected below the body.

The body, the body that hadn’t moved in several minutes, not even a reassuring rise and fall of the child’s chest, this boy, this poor fragile boy had been murdered and left to rot in a basement, his only company to the afterlife being the rats that decided his body would make a tremendous snack.

Here, in the cold dark basement, lit only by a single, melting candle, lay the body of Choi Minki.

“Ren...”

Where was the voice coming from? Who was Ren? The name sounded familiar, but the only one there was Choi Minki. The Choi Minki that was still, unmoving, dead to the world.

“Ren, Ren you need to wake up, it’s just a nightmare, come on, wake up...”

There the voice was again, what was a nightmare? It wasn’t making any sense!

“Minki! Choi Minki you wake up this instant!”

No, Choi Minki wasn’t waking up, he’d never wake up again. Don’t you see? He’s gone, dead, never to be seen again. All that remained was the still, cold body.

“MINKI!!”

Ren quickly sat up in his bed, panting harshly and shivering at the cold sweat that slid down his . His arms trembled as they held his weight, his long bangs falling into his eyes, damp with tears and sweat. He couldn’t calm his racing heart, he couldn’t catch his breath. All he could do was see himself, lying, limp, dead, bloody.

“Minki? Minki are you alright?” Ren turned a little, focusing his dark gaze on Jonghyun, better known to their fans as JR, who leant over him worriedly, hair unstyled and wild. Slowly but surely, he gave JR a small, curt nod, replying to his leader’s question.

“Are you sure? You were mumbling a lot in your sleep and you were crying... at one point you screamed for help. The others are waiting outside, we’re all worried.”

“I’m fine, it was just... it was just a nightmare. I’m okay, really. You shouldn’t all be up at this time.” Ren looked over at the clock by his bedside to prove his point, the LED numbers reading it was just after 4am.

“Seriously, we have dance practice in the morning, not to mention preparations for going to China, you all need to go back to sleep.”

JR stared at him thoughtfully for a few moments, before gripping Ren’s upper arm and hauling him out of the bed. “No.” He said simply, before dragging the maknae out into the main hall. The other three stood waiting, arms crossed and leaning tiredly against the wall, but each of the three had their faces etched in worry.

“Minki-ah!” Baekho exclaimed while pushing himself off the wall and bounding over, not paying attention to the fact that Ren was wearing nothing but his boxers. “How are you? Are you okay? Were you attacked?!” Baekho all but yelled at him while holding him in a tight hug.

“No, no I’m fine...”

JR quickly piped in before Aron and Minhyun could begin questioning their poor maknae. “He’s just a little shaken up from a nightmare, he says he’s fine and that we should go back to bed.”

“No way are we going back to bed with you in this state!” Minhyun almost seemed offended, topless in his sky blue sleeping bottoms, complete with bright yellow duckies.

Aron quickly joined in, his face tired but determined. “Yeah,” he muttered. “we’re staying with you.”

“But, schedules and practice...”

JR quickly cut the youngest off. “Will be fine with us losing out on a few hours of sleep, we need to look after you first.”

“I can look after myself.” Ren retorted stubbornly, crossing his arms in front of his chest and glaring at his older members.

“B-but you’re our cute little maknae!” Baekho whined, pulling Ren back into his grip while Aron stifled a chuckle.

“I’m not inept!” Ren said angrily, pulling out of Baekho’s hug.

“We’re not saying you are,” JR attempted to soothe, placing his hands on Ren’s thin shoulders. “We just wanna make sure you’re alright. How about a horror movie marathon?” He offered with a small smile.

Ren stayed silent for several minutes before looking up slightly. “With popcorn and soda?”

“With popcorn and soda.” Aron piped in, agreeing with Ren. Anything to make him go back with them and calm, the way the boy was trembling didn’t escape any of the older members, the look of terror in his eyes as his dream replayed over and over obvious to them.

“...Fine, I’m in.”

“I knew you would be, Minki-ah! Let’s go!” Baekho giggled before practically skipping off into the seating area while Aron hurried with Minhyun to the kitchen to collect the junk food for their horror movie.

Ren looked up at his leader, obviously worried about something.

“What is it, Ren-ah?” JR asked while leading him to the couch, wrapping the younger in a thick blanket, hoping to quell his terrible trembles.

“Won’t we get in trouble with manager-sshi for this? For the junk food and sleepless night?”

“You just let me deal with that, just relax and calm down.” JR smiled, ruffling the long blonde hair below his hand. “We’re all here for you, you know that right? We’re not going to force you to talk about the dream that has you so shaken, but if you want to, all of us will listen.”

“Yeah, Minki-ah!” Baekho butted in while throwing himself beside Ren, jostling the couch with his weight. “Just leave all your heebie jeebie secrets with us! I promise I won’t tell!”

Ren turned to JR, completely serious. “I’m doomed if I tell Baekho, aren’t I?”

“Pretty much.”

“Hey!” Baekho pouted and a smile broke onto Ren’s face. Aron and Minhyun returned with a bowl of sweetened popcorn and cans of soda, sitting beside the other three members.

The grin that spread over Ren’s feminine face when all four of his bandmates wrapped at least one arm around him and began to get engrossed in the movie let them all know that Choi Minki would be alright, he had a support family around him, and that’s all that really mattered.

Nu’est was a family, they would stick together, through nightmares, illnesses and hardships.

Ren was quickly learning that.

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Thank you for the amazing comments and subscribers! I couldn't have asked for a better welcome to the site! Here's the next oneshot in the series, I hope you enjoy it! I'm open for ideas for oneshots, it can be anything! :)

Thank you again!