In the prestigious school TOP Media contains many talented students. Students who attend this boarding school have everyday focal talent training along with having to study casual school work.

In the athletics department there is a student named Ahn Daniel, Niel he likes to be called. He is the most favoured and popular athletic student that attends TOP Media High school. The caramel-haired super star recently met his down fall once he had encountered a growing shining star. High jumping being his most favoured sport when he was a kid, has not been looked at the same since that day. His eyes are fogged by rage and his ears are flooded with that one name echoing over and over again as the crowd cheered that name and not Niels.

Yes, Niel loved high jumping, so much that he felt a strong connection but that strong connection is no longer the same as it has been overshadowed by hatred. He has become too attached to the glory and praises he has gained from his peers and fans to the point it took over his mind and broke him down after witnessing himself lose for the first time in years. Maybe he needed that, to take him back to the young innocent boy he once was, but instead it went the other way. After Lee Minhyuk, the name that haunts him Niel has never been the same as he trains harder every day, missing his classes, pushing away his friends and locking himself up in his room researching ways to improve his agility. Madness could’ve been the word or arrogance but Niel has flip over two negative leaves leaving him in a locked up environment, and his friends needed to think of a way to help him out of it. But what?

“Niel” Spoke up Chunji, watching his younger friend torture himself in the training room, jumping over the pole but resulted in failure once again. The fallen boy just continued to lay on the mat groaning in response

“What?” he managed to grunt through his teeth

“How’s it going? With training…” Chunji asked cautiously asking by the door holding a bottle of water in his hand. The blonde haired boy hated to see his friend like this and finally thought of breaking down the barrier Niel has built up to separate himself with his friends. Niel pushed himself up from the mat and shot a glare at Chunji

“How do YOU think it is going?” he asked rhetorically continuing to glare at him. Chunji knew that the topic was risky but he needed to break through it somehow,

“You need to go out more Niel, take a break” he suggests

“My record keeps decreasing Chunji! I can’t take a break!” He argued recklessly

“Because you’re draining yourself! You have to stop!” Chunji protested, Niel jumps off the mat furiously, his hair messed up and beads of sweat are shown on his skin with madness written on his face

“What if someone you never seen before came up behind your back and snatched away your title of the ‘power voice’? You would feel the exact same as me right now!” He spat, Chunji frowned. He felt he’s been played. Chunji experienced a similar situation not too long ago and Niel comforted him. He told him not to worry and to get his feet back on the ground, so Chunji did and got back his title. Now that he is doing the same thing, Niel does not appreciate his attempts of comfort and rejects any help that comes his way. Niel was a fighter but in the wrong way.

Chunji couldn’t think of a way to respond, he wasn’t good at comforting others. He stood there fiddling on the spot trying to think of a way to respond to him without it turning into the opposite meaning. Niel fed up with the stammering Chunji and just scoffed heading towards the exit of the training room. He grabbed Chunji’s bottle taking it with him as he brutally brushed passed his shoulder leaving him stunned and helpless. Chunji looked lifeless, he leaned on the door frame and finally making some action he closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh.

“Chunji?” a familiar voice came up from behind him, Chunji looked to see his fellow blonde friend

“LJoe?” Chunji spoke excited yet still sad

“What’s up?” Ljoe asked noticing his friends’ attitude. One eyebrow rose with curiosity but he wonders if it should be left alone

“Not much… just spoke to Niel” Chunji said narrowing his eyes to the ground, that moment did it click. Ljoe has been caught up with training his rapping skills along with his older friend CAP that neither he nor CAP has paid enough attention to the situation happening in their group, only did he know a little

“Oh yeah? How did that go?” he asks curiously, Chunji responded negatively by shaking his head. This brought a small frown to Ljoes lips as he can feel the group slowly fall apart

“Don’t worry” he says rustling his friends’ blonde hair trying to cheer him up but, Chunji was not moving. Usually, he would complain about his hair that he had styled early in the morning for it to look good but now he is not reacting meaning the situation has really bothered him not to care about it.

“I can’t help him…” Chunji says drifting off. Unable to do anything Ljoe just groans in response. Chunji was always the positive vibe in their group, so the moment he is not happy everyone can sense it right away which is very rare for them.

“Don’t let it bother you” Ljoe says calmly resting his hand on Chunji’s head. He tries to see the pain from Chunji’s perspective, the situation bothered him as well but, he cannot understand the rejection and hardship his friends have been absorbing when he has been busy with training to pay enough attention

“It’ll all work out” he finishes as he pats Chunji’s head trying to comfort him. But, Chunji filled up with anger and distressed swiped his hand away, he turned to his stunned friend and shouts at him

“You haven’t been here to understand it! The others and I have been watching him torture himself, suffocate himself in his thoughts and let alone throwing a fit by every little thing he does! We can’t hold conversations without it ending in screams! Niel is fading! He is killing himself!” His voice was on the edge of cracking, the obviously stressed Chunji didn’t want to show any signs of weakness so he tried to hold in his tears. He couldn’t help but compare his pain to Niels as Niel is suffering much more than himself.

Chunji was trying to be strong, trying to hold up his strong expression, trying to show that he was a strong fighter but Ljoe could see that quivering lip and his tears flooding up in the corners in his eyes. Ljoe felt his throat clog up with guilt while he tried to swallow it but, instead he uncomfortably coughed it out as Chunji’s remaining strong appearance starred at him with hurtful eyes. If this is how Chunji felt, then what about the others? How about Niel? How much are they suffering exactly? He wanted to know.

Ljoe skipped his work out session in the training room to go find CAP. He ran out the room, passed classrooms and fitness arenas to find his older friend. When there was no hope in finding him in places he thought he could, he guessed his last destination would be in the music room. Ljoe storms into the recording booth after finding him through the glass, holding a strong grip on the door as it swung open
“CAP!” he calls, he finds his friend sitting on a sound box plugging in his electric guitar at the far back in the booth, he looks up at Ljoe then back down at his guitar unaware of the situation he and his friends are in

“Sup?” he asks with the cord successfully plugged into his guitar and trails his hand over the neck of the instrument starting to tune it

“We don’t start till an hour, what’s up?” he asking slowly losing focus on tunning his instrument then pausing for a moment, realising that his friend did just charge into the room hours before their practice session and appears worried

“There’s trouble” Ljoe says breathing heavily, CAP looks up “… it’s Niel” CAP captivated by the topic slowly leans over his guitar with both his arms over the instrument having his elbows resting on his knees

“What about Niel?” he asks now getting up and putting away his item, leaning it against the wall

“We’ve been too busy to notice but, Niel has been neglecting us and it’s taken a serious effect on the others” CAP holding onto the topic nods his head

“I spoke to Chunji, he doesn’t want to show it but, he’s hurt” CAP turns away, walking at a slow pace in circles thinking with one hand at his chin in thought. Ljoe patiently waits for his friend to speak, hopefully with a solution to try and fix this problem. CAP is the oldest friend in their group, he likes to keep to himself at times and not engage in many conversations but everyone knows he agrees with many things even if he doesn’t say anything. CAP is a talented rapper along with Ljoe, they are soon going to try collaborating with some strong vocalist singers like Chunji and might upload a video but, they first need the money so training and finding strong vocalist were the first step.

CAP remains silent, he continues to think to himself while Ljoe waits anxiously on the spot

“What are we going to do about? Chunji said he hasn’t been able to talk with him without it ending in arguments and that he’s completely isolated himself from the rest of us.” Ljoe narrows his eyes

“We haven’t even noticed… that they’re suffering, all of them” CAP soon breaks out of his thoughts at the moment of realisation. Thinking back to the start of this problem, he was there, he witnessed Niel losing to the new comer.

Ljoe was competing at the 100 metre dash while Niel was competing in the high jump. Ljoe wished him good luck and told him to beat Minho. CAP did not participate in the competitions but instead hung around with Chunji watching his friends compete then he remembered that he would rather watch Niel jump than watch Ljoe run. Chunji argued that they always watched him jump and he would rather watch Ljoe run this time, CAP just headed off to the marshalling area under a shaded tent. He went over to Niel to give him support, the boy smiled saying that he would win this year for the group and CAP gave him a pat on the back in ways of saying thanks. Moving back under the tent he found Chunji in the distance sitting on the grass, Chunji still had a good view of the competition happening in the distance but he wanted to focus more on his friend who would soon be racing.

The signalling gun would shoot and competitors would flash by reaching the end under a couple of seconds. Chunji sat chatting with Ljoe, at times they would look over at where Niel was and would wonder where the other two of their mates were because they disappeared once Ljoe and Niels sport were announced. In the far distance they saw Niel successfully gliding over the pole, his smile was visible and his little playful quarrel he had with Minho could be seen. But they too along with CAP also saw the mysterious competitor flying just as well as Niel, they all looked at Niel who was oblivious to the person and continued to speak to Minho.

Ljoes turn for his age group came around, he was anxious. Chunji cheered from the sidelines as he lined up, he’d jump on the spot and scream his name. It only made Ljoe embarrassed by the way he did it, it was loud enough for everyone to hear and you could hear the laughter of the other competitors. But, he knew Chunji did that on purpose, the reason being the happy vibe he was. The gun was shot and Ljoe ran, it suddenly became quiet and as if everything had slowed down for Chunji to see. His friend Niel, in the sky slowly falling down in the distance, Ljoes head rushes past Chunji’s view having Niel flashed on to the mat at his moment of failure. Chunji’s mouth was gapped open, shocked by the results, he stood there silently watching his friend cover his face in his palms, elbows up as the chants of the winners name was being called. The boy was propped up on his teammate’s shoulders and carried around the field cheering.

“Hey, I got second, if that gun didn’t scare me I would’ve gotten first place” Ljoe said as he ran up to Chunji

“Ah, really?” Chunji asked uninterested his expression was dull and his eyes were glued into the distance

“Yeah, but there’s always next year” Ljoe said rubbing the back of his neck with a cheesy smile

“Yeah, next year” Chunji finished off

Ljoe was unaware of the scenario that had happened that day and CAP knew that after seeing those two in the distance Ljoe had smiled greatly as Chunji was seen watching that event. Their two missing friends came out after that event with knowledge of what happened, those two also witnessed it. This only made Ljoe feel horrible having to find out days after the competition, after witnessing a screaming Niel throwing his tray of food and tossing it at his friends only after a small talk about his day.

CAP started to crack his knuckles gaining back Ljoes attention

“What are we going to do?” Ljoe asks again

CAP looks at Ljoe, his younger friend standing in between the door CAP pushes past him to head out of the recording studio. Ljoe curious starts to follow him through the hallway

“Do you have an idea?” Ljoe asks almost filled with hope

“It might be risky, but we need to get him back to earth and well, live” He responds picking up his pace, he starts to jog and move faster, CAP is soon running through the hallway with Ljoe running behind him

“Where are you going!?” Ljoe called out, starting to fall back

“I need to do something! Bring Chunji and the others to my dorm! I’ll meet you guys there!” CAP has now run at his fastest speed leaving Ljoe fall back to a stop, a smile has grown on his face as hope has filled him.

Ljoe runs back to the training room from where he last saw Chunji, happy as he was he wanted to get to him as soon as possible to put a smile back on his face.

“Chunji!” He screams, the room echoed, but, there was no one there. He moved into the locker room, it was also empty, or so he thought. Passed all the lockers at the back of the room in a small corner was Chunji sitting on the floor. Hiding himself from anyone who would walk in although, small whimpers and sniffles were heard. Ljoe paused before leaving the locker room after hearing those small signs of weakness and followed them to a dark corner that has never been touched not even by the cleaners. Dark dust was visible on the white tiled floor and the dust mites were formed into balls, Chunji was found sitting on that dark floor with his legs tucked in and his hands clasped together like he was begging for some help. His eyes were shut tight and his mouth was opened with his teeth gritting together letting his cries come through.

“Chunji…” Ljoe said softly he didn’t want to startle him, Chunji looks up at Ljoe then slowly drops eye contact. Ljoe has never seen him like this before. Chunji crying was never a sight for anyone no one has ever seen him like this.

“Sup…” he said

“Sup” Ljoe replied back

“There’s nothing we can do is there?” Chunji says staring at the little dust mite balls sitting in front of him. Crouching down to Chunji’s level Ljoe pushes back Chunji’s hair like his mother would do every time he was upset, Ljoe would often feel better after that. It seems to calm Chunji down seeing his shoulder relax a bit and he thought it was time to surprise him

“CAPs got a plan” he said with a smile, and just like that Chunji flicks his head to Ljoes direction, his doe eyes was quickly filled with hope.

“Really!?” he asks, trying to hide his excitement,

“Yeah, he wants you, me and the others to meet at his dorm in a moment” Ljoe said happy to see his older friend happy again

“Well let’s go! We need to find the others now!” Chunji said jumping up from his spot and starting to pull Ljoe from the arm, Ljoe just laughed at the sight, his mood really changed quickly, anything for a friend he thought. He was able to put that smile back on his face, now just for the other two.

“Hurry Ljoe!” Chunji encourages as he ran out of the training room. He turns back frowning as he sees Ljoe slowly making his way out purposely just to

“Hurry up you turtle! No wonder you came second” he says offending Ljoe slightly but that race didn’t matter to him

“Hey” Chunji stopped for a moment

“Where ARE the others?” Ljoe finally making his way out of the training room looks at him and shrugs

“I don’t know, I thought you’d know” Chunji looks away for a moment to think, then it clicks

“Ah! I know! They are at the dance studio. They’ve been practicing all week there!”

The two headed towards the dance studio which wasn’t far from the training room at all. The room had wooden polished floors and large mirrors that took up an entire wall. Music bounced off the graffiti walls and the two were synchronised in a new dance routine they had come up with themselves. It was like they were dancing on air, so many steps consist of jumping off the ground and the music was like an electronic buzz that went up and down repeating the words “it’s not a joke”. No kidding they were killing those moves! Ljoe was fascinated and tried to copy them while Chunji was confused about the lyrics.

Soon after their practice, the two dancers stopped the music before it replayed again and grabbed a bottle of water and a towel. They both dabbed the sweat off their faces and turned to the door to exit the studio but are shocked as they saw their two older friends watching them

“Yah! What are you doing here?” Shouted Changjo, the youngest in the group

“Our dance was supposed to be a surprise for you guys!” whined Ricky, he is mistaken to be the youngest in the group but that is a misunderstanding he appreciates because he feels too old already

Both Ljoe and Chunji reacted in shock, they both held up their hands in surrender and claimed they had just walked in the moment Changjo had turned off the stereo. Letting out sighs of relief the two dancers relax. Changjo and Ricky are two dancing Majors and are currently not busy with any assignments or competitions. So, they decided to provide the group with a present. Everyone is curious about it, the purpose and the choreography but sadly, Chunji and Ljoe sort of spoiled it for themselves. They feel a bit guilty but they’re still excited for the rest of it.

“What are you guys doing here anyway? Were you looking for us?” Changjo asked patting his neck dry with his towel still a little bit paranoid about the secret present.

“Oh? Yeah,” Chunji says starting off

“Ljoe said that CAP has a plan about Niel. We have to meet up at his place!” Chunji explained with his brightest smile filled with hope and excitement

“Eh? CAP knows about this? Didn’t think he noticed. Sorry Ljoe but, you and CAP have been busy to notice anything” Changjo spoke darting his eyes at Ljoe almost like its intentions were not at all soft. Ricky standing beside him nodded along agreeing with his younger friend slightly unaware by the intentions of that comment.

“Yeah, well, we know now” Ljoe spoke, feeling slightly guilty but also challenged having a small fire build up in his eyes. But, in the thought of the others he pushed it down for the time being.

Chunji ignored the small tension lingering around and called everyone out of the room heading towards their meeting destination. A brightly designed building with loud colours of yellow, red, orange along with some blue covered every corner of the buildings. Ljoe lived in the same dorm in the same building since this one was for rapping Majors and composers. Vocalists were in a different building, the same with dancing. Ljoe lead everyone up the cement stairs to the third floor and stopped after passing four dark green doors in front of one of his own. On the wall next to it had their name tags saying who lived in what room, this one said ‘Byunghun and Minsoo’ Ljoe and CAP to be short. Ljoe dug into his pocket and pulled out his key attached to a key chain, on the key chain was a photo of him with his family and his girlfriend who live in America. Ljoe often thinks of them, misses them each day and emails his girlfriend each week. Ljoe unlocks the door and holds it open for his friends to enter in first, after they have all entered and taken off their shoes they found a comfortable spot in the room, sitting on the bed, office seat, on the floor resting their back on the wall, or sitting on his favourite cushion seat.

They waited patiently for CAP, Ljoe took out a deck of cards from his desk drawer and they started to play snap getting everyone hyped up as they continued to wait for CAP.

CAP came in with plastic bags in his hand filled with food

“CAP!” Cheered Ricky

“What took you so long!? You said to be here in ten minutes!” Argued Ljoe, CAP stares at him confused for a moment then corrects him

“I never said that” Ljoe taken back shuts his mouth earning a small laughter from the others

“Anyway, Ljoe said you have a plan for Niel” Changjo said interested, staring at the plastic bags his lips as he can smell the soup

“Yeah, can you tell us what you have in mind?” Chunji asks hoping this can be the solution for Niel. CAP grabs a spot on the floor and prepares the food on the ground

“Yeah, I have an idea” he says, everyone in the room forms into a circle, the amount of food in the centre shows this will take a while.