~*~

Chapter VII

… to the end…

6월 4일

Miles away from where Myungsoo was in the hospital, Infinite was getting ready for their performace in Japan.  Sunggyu was waiting in the green room, playing a game on his phone as the others were getting their make-up done.  Thankfully, he had won rock, paper, scissors earlier and had his make-up done first. 

Across the changing room, he saw Jungryul pick up a call on his phone.  His expression suddenly darkened and he headed over to the other managers.  After a few whispered words, the three managers left the changing room in a hurry. 

Concerned, Sunggyu stood up, throwing his things into a pile beside Dongwoo before following their managers into the hallway.  After taking a few wrong turns, Sunggyu stopped outside of the room where he heard the manager’s voices coming from.

“What’s so urgent?” Youngjun asked.  

“Myungsoo’s brother just called me.”  Sunggyu recognized Jungyeop’s voice from the phone.   “He told me that Myungsoo is in the ICU right now after his surgery.”

Sunggyu clapped his hand over his mouth to stop the gasp from surfacing.  He racketed his head for what Myungsoo had told him about the pneumonectomy.  Myungsoo seemed completely comfident that the surgery would go well, though he was hesitant about whether to go through with the surgery. 

“I thought that he was going to be okay,” Hyoan said, nearly echoing Sunggyu’s thoughts.  “That’s what Myungsoo said when I talked to him earlier.”

“Moonsoo said that the doctors thought that too, but something went wrong, Myungsoo’s kindeys are weak right now and infection set in.”

There was a short pause as the managers tried to figure out what to say.  “Did Moonsoo mention his chances?” Jungryul finally said quietly. 

“It can go either way,” Jungyeop said.  “Dr. Song put Myungsoo under a seditive, so that his body could recover.  He’s okay… for now. ”

“What should we do?” Youngjun asked.  “It’s not going to be good if we tell them that Myungsoo’s nearly dying right now,

“Let’s just keep it quiet until they’re back in Korea,” Jungyeop said.  “And I’ll make sure that the press don’t get the news.”

“I don’t think the boys are going to be very happy with this,” Hyoan said shaking his head a little bit.

“We don’t have a choice,” Youngjun said.  “The boys would freak out if they heard and want to go back home as soon as possible, they need to perform today.  We can tell them tomorrow, but just not today.”

Hyoan dipped his head in reluctant agreement.   “As soon as it’s done then,” he said. 

“Let’s go then, they’re going to be finished with their make-up done soon,” Jungryul said. 

“We’ll tell them after their performace,” Hyoan said.  “We’ll catch up with you later, CEO-nim.”

Sunggyu turned around and sprinted down the hall as the call with the CEO ended, not wanting to be caught by his managers.  Finally, he found his way back to Infinite’s dressing room and stopped, leaning over and gasping for air. 

“Hey, hyung,” Hoya said lightly as he came into the waiting room where the other five were waiting.  “Where have you been?”

Sunggyu stared at him blankly, racketing his mind for any lie.  “I was…  talking to Jiae!” Sunggyu said, pointing down the hall to where Lovelyz were getting ready to get onto stage. 

Even though Sunggyu was pretty sure that Hoya knew that he was lying, Hoya didn’t mention it, instead saying, “Everyone’s finished with their make up, it’s just Sungjong left now.”

Sunggyu put on a small smile.  “Okay, Lovelyz are just going on stage now, we should get back stage in a little bit.” 

Hoya nodded, bending down to stretch.  “Hyung, everything is okay?” he checked. 

Sunggyu couldn’t see his face as he bent down to touch his toes.  “Why do you ask?”

As Hoya replies, he doesn’t straighten up, still looking at the floor while his hands touched the ground, “You just seem… you know…”

He couldn’t help, but laugh as he pulled Hoya back up out of his stretch.  “I’m okay, let’s just go get ready.”

Before Sunggyu could pull away, Hoya grabbed onto his wrist and searched his eyes carefully.  “Hyung, I’m right here for you, you know that, right?”

Sunggyu lowered his eyes, unable to respond.  “Hoya, let’s just do our best and go home, okay?”

A flash of recognition went over his eyes and he dropped his wrist.  “Okay…” he whispered.  “But, hyung, he is okay?”

He could barely manage a nod.  “Yeah, he is,” Sunggyu lied. 

Luckily, Hoya didn’t say anything more as Woohyun and Sungyeol exited the changing room, getting ready to perform. 

“Infinite, stand by, 20 minutes,” a staff member said as she passed them.  

“Let’s go,” Woohyun said cheerfully, giving Sunggyu another moment to collect himself.  “Lee Sungjong!  Hurry up!”

Even though 20 minutes at the dorms feels like such a long time, when they’re on standby, 20 minutes goes by in a flash.  In what felt like a blink, the lift under their feet started to rise up and they were on stage, under the bright lights and the eyes of the fans, music pounding through the air. 

Sunggyu was so glad that he didn’t need to try to smile, but just give a glare to the cameras instead.  As the intro came to an end, Dongwoo and Sungyeol crossed over Sunggyu just for a moment, hiding him from view.  Sunggyu quickly glanced around the stage, counting the members around him.   

One, two, three, four, five…

He glanced over at the empty spot where Myungsoo should’ve been standing and for a moment, he could’ve sworn that he saw Myungsoo there, ready to dance with them, but the moment was gone as their song started. 

The stage passed in a blur of singing, dancing and lights.  It took Sunggyu a second to get his bearings again as the audience clapped when the song finished and he and the others bowed to the audience. 

Sunggyu took deep breaths of fresh air into his lungs, but it only served to add to the sting in his eyes.  He was here, in Japan, living out all of his dreams, breathing steadily, while Myungsoo was back in Korea, fighting to take his next breath. 

The MCs came onto stage and started the interview.  Sunggyu stood in a row with the others, letting Woohyun take most of the attention for the interview. 

“Lさんは大丈夫ですか?” the interviewer asked, snapping Sunggyu back into the present as he tried to remember the Japanese lessons he had, but luckily the translator whispered the question to him in Korean, “Is L okay?”

Sunggyu nearly flinched at the question, but kept on smiling as Sungjong replied in Japanese, “He’s doing fine.  He’s very sorry that he couldn’t make it today.  L asked us to take a picture with the Inspirits today.”

As the Inspirits and other fans cheered, Hyoan awkwardly ran across the stage and handed the camera to Hoya before running off again.  After a bit of shuffling, Infinite arranged themselves for the picture, so that their backs were to the audience and the MC held up the camera.  Sunggyu naturally put his arm around Sungjong and held up a v, trying to smile for this picture at least. 

“One, two, three,” the MC said, taking the picture. 

“Thank you,” they all chorused at the same time to the MC and the audience for taking the picture.  Dongwoo took back the camera and looked at the picture with a smile. 

“This is a nice picture,” Dongwoo said with a smile.  They all crowded around Dongwoo to look at the picture on the camera. 

“Our Inspirits are very pretty!” Woohyun said, throwing a few hearts as the fans screamed and cheered at Woohyun’s overly greasy statement. 

Sunggyu rolled his eyes at Woohyun, looking at the picture with a small smile.  The picture captured their smiles, but Sunggyu could see as plain as day the empty space beside Sungyeol where Myungsoo should’ve been or the fact that the camera wasn’t completely focused like how Myungsoo’s pictures were always. 

Even more than ever, at this moment, Sunggyu remembered that Myungsoo was back in Seoul, barely alive and that hurt the most. 

Tears burned in his eyes and one made its way down his cheek, shinning brightly in the stage lights. 

The incoherent screams from before soon became one voice as everyone chanted, “Uljima.  Uljima.” 

The other members looked around, trying to figure out which member the fans were cheering for.  Woohyun’s eyes widened in surprise as he saw Sunggyu’s eyes wet with tears.  “Hyung, why are you crying?” Woohyun whispered. 

Sunggyu shook his head, quickly wiping away the tears.  “It’s nothing, Woohyun-ah…” he mumbled.  “I just… can’t take it that it’s just the six of us and that it might be like this forever.”

Woohyun smiled slightly and gave him a quick hug, ignoring all of the screams from the fangirls behind them.  “We won’t be six for that much longer,” he whispered.  “We’re going to be seven.  I know we are.”

Sunggyu smiled shakily and whispered a promise that he’ll talk about it later.  Turning to the audience again, he waved and smiled, apologizing about crying, and the show moved on.  After what felt like too long of a time, they finally filed off stage. 

Immediately, Jungryul was right there, along with the other members, asking if he was sick and pushing all of them towards the privacy of their changing room. 

“Sunggyu, are you okay?”  Jungryul asked as they reached their destination.  “Should I go get something for you?  Are you feeling sick?”

“Hyung!  Just tell them!” Sunggyu suddenly yelled, unable to take it any longer.  “Just tell them!”

Everyone in the changing room froze and stared at Sunggyu, but Sunggyu didn’t give anyone a second glance, only glaring at their manager and continuing to yell at him, “I don’t care what you thought what’s best for us, just tell us about Myungsoo!”

“Myungsoo?” Sungyeol asked, his voice quiet as if he didn’t want to be noticed.  “What do you mean?”

Sunggyu didn’t answer, only staring down Jungryul as he sighed and ran a hand through his hair.  “How did you know?”

“I’m not stupid,” Sunggyu growled, tears stinging his eyes again.  “I heard you and the other managers talking with Jungyeop earlier.  I heard everything… oh god, just tell me that he’s okay.”

The sobs were completely unexpected, choking his throat as he thought of Myungsoo, their Myungsoo, in the ICU, fighting to keep a hold of life.  Woohyun put his arm around Sunggyu’s shoulders that were shaking with barely contained sobs.  “Hyung, it’s okay.  It’s okay,” he said, trying to comfort him.  

“No, it’s not!” Sunggyu yelled, half heartedly trying to shake off Woohyun’s caring hold, but needing it to keep grounded.  “Myungsoo’s… he’s… hyung, please tell me he’s okay.”

Before Jungryul could say anything, at that moment, Hyoan and Youngjun entered the room and with one glance at Jungryul, the two knew what happened. 

“Boys, sit down,” Hyoan said gently.  “Please don’t freak out just yet.”

Sunggyu later realized that the other members must have been scared to death by the way that he and the managers were acting, but they all sat down, wanting to know what was going on.  When all of them were seated, Youngjun started to speak, “Myungsoo went into surgery yesterday to get the tumor removed.”

“I thought that his whole lung was filled with the tumor…” Hoya said, his voice trailing off as he realized the possibility of…

“He had his whole lung removed,” Jungryul said, resting his hand on Hoya’s shoulder.  “Dr. Song thought that he could handle it, but Myungsoo’s body isn’t reacting very well.”

“Is he okay?” Sungjong asked, slowly and unsurely. 

Once again the managers looked at each other, as if trying to figure out who would tell them the bad new. 

“He’s in the ICU,” Sunggyu whispered, looking down at the floor.  “He’s in the ICU.”

“The ICU?” Dongwoo squeeked. 

Jungryul nodded.  “I’m sorry that we didn’t tell you earlier,” Hyoan said quietly.  “We knew if we told you, you boys would react like this and you needed to do your best up on stage.”

“We know,” Woohyun whispered, raising his eyes to give the managers a shaky and thankful smile.  “Thanks for doing that.”

“We booked a new flight back to Korea, it leaves tomorrow instead of in two days like we planned,” Hyoan said, giving Sungyeol a pat on the head, but got no reaction out of him.  “You’ll be with him again by this time tomorrow.”

Youngjun sighed.  “Boys, you still have the encore to do with the other artists,” he said quietly.  “If you feel like you can’t do that, we can get the staff to cancel it.”

“No,” Sunggyu said firmly, raising his eyes from the ground to meet their eyes again.  “We need to sing.  We need to sing for Myungsoo.” 

“Are you sure?” Jungryul asked. 

Sunggyu nodded.  “Myungsoo would want to.  He wants to sing.”  He looked around at the other members.  “Wouldn’t he?”

“Of course!” Dongwoo said loudly and the others nodded with him. 

“If that’s what you want, we won’t say anything against it,” Jungryul said with a smile. 

Sunggyu smiled and stood up.  “Guys,” he said firmly.  “Just for a moment, right now, let’s just sing.”

~*~

Even without rock, paper, scissors, Infinite just filed quietly into the hotel rooms and got ready for the night.  Woohyun and Hoya were in a room together, Sunggyu and Sungjong in the room across the hall next to their managers and Dongwoo and Sungyeol next to Wooohyun and Hoya’s room. 

While Hoya was in the shower, Woohyun ordered in some food, not caring that tomorrow morning his face might be swollen or that he might gain some weight.  He just wanted to eat. 

By the time that the food came, Hoya was out of the shower, drops of water from his hair dripping onto his shoulders.  “You know you’re going to gain some weight,” Hoya said, sitting down at the table opposite of Woohyun. 

“I know.”  Woohyun gave a shrug of his shoulders and speared another leaf of lettuce.  “We haven’t eaten for a little while and Myungsoo always worries when we don’t eat…”

A tear rolled down his cheek which he brushed off angrily and shoved another fork of salad into his mouth.  The lettuce nearly choked him, but he shoved another forkful into his mouth and another and another…  

“Woohyun.  Woohyun.  Stop.  Woohyun!  Stop that now!”

Hoya grabbed his arm, but couldn’t quite stop him, resulting in Woohyun stabbing himself with the fork at the corner of his mouth and letting go of the fork with a little cry of pain.

“Woohyun.  Myungsoo is okay,” Hoya said, gently massaging his arm where he gripped it too tightly.  “You don't need to do this to yourself.”

Woohyun shook his head,  unable to speak through the lettuce in his mouth and the sobs choking his throat.  Tears started to roll down his cheeks and Woohyun found it hard to breath properly through the salad in his mouth and the tears, causing him to gasp uncontroably, but for some reason, he started to laugh. 

Hoya stared at him as if he had gone crazy.  “Hyung?  Do you want me to get one of the manager hyungs?  I’ll be back in a se-” 

Again, Woohyun shook his head and leaded back in his chair, trying to catch a breath.  The lettuce poked at his throat painfully as he tried to swallow, still laughing his head off as tears ran down his cheeks. 

“Woohyun?  I mean I’m glad that you’re laughing and all, but I think you’re going crazy now,” Hoya said.  “Woohyun?”

He wipped off his cheeks, still gasping for air as he finally managed to swallow or spit out the rest of the lettuce.  Hoya still watched him with concerned eyes as Woohyun wipped off his mouth with the back of his hand and blew his nose on a napkin. 

“Sorry,” Woohyun whispered.  “It just… it’s just so crazy that Myungsoo’s going to… that he might not… that he-“ Woohyun, unable to continue, burried his face in his hands and sobbed, his shoulders shaking.  The chair beside Woohyun scrapped against the floor as Hoya drew out the chair and wrapped his arms around Woohyun’s shaking shoulders. 

“Hyung… Woohyun-ah, it’s going to be okay,” Hoya whispered, drawing circles on his shaking shoulders.  “I know, it’s hard… I don’t want Myungsoo to- I mean- it’s crazy, I want him to stay here, but he’s already…”

Woohyun reached up and wrapped his arms around Hoya’s waist, hugging him as he continued to cry.  Even through his tears, he heard Hoya crying as well, his fingers digging slightly painfully into Woohyun’s shoulders, but he couldn’t say anything about it.

~*~

When Sungyeol came out of the shower, rubbing his hair with a towel, he was surprised to see Dongwoo crying.  “Hyung?  Are you okay?” he asked, running over to his side, checking for any injury. 

Dongwoo shook his head and held out his arms for inspection.  “It’s just that… that…” He pointed wordlessly at the computer. 

Sungyeol tilted the computer screen to face him and saw a video file open on the computer.    “Are you just enjoying some and then crying about it?”

Laughing, Dongwoo shook his head and wiped his eyes. “I was downloading Myungsoo’s pictures onto my computer and I found this.”  

Dongwoo pressed play on his computer and a farmiliar voice started speaking, “Hello, everyone.”

Sungyeol jumped as Myungsoo started speaking.  In the video, Myungsoo was smiling at the camera, looking completely healthy as if nothing was wrong.  There wasn’t any IV lines in his arms, nothing assisting his breathing, his face looked heathy and his eyes were bright and happy as he spoke in the video. 

“My name is L… my name is Kim Myungsoo.  Today is December the 2^nd. It has been a bit more than three weeks since I was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Myungsoo sighed and looked down for a moment before looking up again. “I’m… sorry.  I don’t want to go.  I don’t want to leave.  When I’m gone, I have two things that I want you to do.

“I would like all of you to keep on living, keep on smiling, keep on laughing without me.

“There’s a lot of things that I wish that I could do with life, there’s a lot of dreams that I didn’t get to live.”

Myungsoo’s face was blurred by the tears in his eyes.  Sungyeol could see why Dongwoo was crying this hard, he couldn’t help the tears that fell down his cheeks too. 

“Second, I would like Infinite and the Inspirits to sing a song together,” Myungsoo continued.  “I will be singing with you, and watching from the heavens.

“Thank you Inspirits for being there, please support Sunggyu, Dongwoo, Woohyun, Hoya, Sungyeol and Sungjong for me.

“Fighting.”

Dongwoo wipped away the endless stream of tears falling from his eyes as he watched the video. 

“Oh my…” Sungyeol whispered, looking up at the ceiling to chase away his tears.  “I can’t believe…”

“Infinite.  Sunggyu-hyung.  Dongwoo-hyung.  Woohyun-hyung.  Hoya-yah.  Sungyeol-ah.  Sungjong-ah.”

He jerked his head up as Myungsoo mentioned his name.  To his surprise, the video wasn’t over, Myungsoo was still talking and smiling.

“I’m grateful that when I came into the auditions, we got stuck with each other until… I die. 

“Thank you so much.  Infinite… I love you.  Thank you so much for all the opportunities that you gave me.  Thank you so much… I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few months, next few years, but whatever happens… thank you…”

Myungsoo smiled once more before he turned off the camera, the frame pausing on Myungsoo’s smiling face.  Sungyeol couldn’t find words as he sat there on the bed with Dongwoo, not able to do any thing except for sit there. 

“We’ve been through so much together,” Dongwoo whispered.  “It’s like yesterday when Myungsoo was only a trainee, who came to me when he wanted to cry and now he’s in the hospital and he’s dying.  Why has it ended up like this?  It shouldn’t have.  He should be here with us and he should be arguing to get the solo room…” 

“But it’s not…”

~*~

Sungjong luckily managed to snag the shower before Sunggyu could beat him to it.  Sunggyu had ordered in some food while Sungjong was in the shower and left it for him to eat while he was in the shower.  With a full stomace and the sounds of the shower behind the closed door calmed Sungjong down a little bit, but the urge to cry wasn’t leaving. 

Taking his phone, he started to listen to music.  To Infinite, music was the common dream that all of them shared, it’s what brought them together to be Infinite.  

눈물이란 아픔은 사라져 (The pain of tears disappear)
그 무엇도 이보다 좋을 순 없어 (And this is as good as it gets)

Sungjong angrily ripped the earbuds out of his ears and threw his phone onto the bed beside him, trying to control the tears that were threatening to fall down his cheeks. 

Hearing footsteps drawing closer, he quickly pushed the tears down and opened his eyes to find Sunggyu standing in front of him, his hair wet from the shower and face free from make-up.  Sungjong could see that Sunggyu had cried again in the shower and he knew that Sunggyu could definitely tell that he had been crying as well, but neither of them mentioned it, just staring at each other for a little while until finally Sunggyu sighed and sat down beside him. 

“Sungjong…” Sunggyu whispered, his voice heavy. 

“No lectures, hyung,” Sungjong cut him off.  “I don’t want to hear it tonight.”

“I’m not in a mood for giving one either,” Sunggyu said with a short chuckle.  “But is everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

“You know you can tell me,” Sunggyu said.  “I’m the leader.  You can tell me anything.”

Sungjong turned his head so that he was looking at Sunggyu.  “Just because you’re our leader doesn’t mean that you need to take all of our worries like this.”

Sunggyu smiled and nodded.  Leaving the rest up to silence, Sunggyu left Sungjong alone for a bit to dry his hair before coming back again. 

“Hyung?” Sungjong asked. 

“Yeah?”

“What… what are we going to do?”

Sunggyu raised his eyebrow.  “Well, go to sleep?”

“Hyung!”

He smiled.  “I know,” he teased.  “Well, we have a flight back to Korea tomorrow morning, then we’ll be able to go to the hospital right away to see Myungsoo.”

“And then after that?” Sungjong asked. 

“I don’t know where you’re going with this.”

“What are we going to do if Myungsoo dies?”

Sunggyu didn’t answer for a few moments before finally replying, “It’s going to hurt for a long time.”

“Do you think that someone is going to cry?”

Sungjong just stared up at the ceiling while he asked these questions and he heard Sunggyu sink down into the other bed.  “Dongwoo will.  He always cries.  And Sungyeollie.  He’s going to be crushed without his best friend.  Woohyun will probably cry too.  Howon will cry too.  He won’t let anyone know, so make sure you stay with him.” 

“And me?”

Sungjong’s next quesiton took Sunggyu a moment to answer. 

“Yes.”  

“Why?”

Again, Sunggyu had to heistate before answering.  “You’ll cry because you like Myungsoo a lot and he likes you a lot too.  No.  You’ll cry because you love Myungsoo a lot and he loves you too.  It’s hard to lose that kind of love.”

Sungjong nodded slowly, feeling the tears rebelliously roll down his cheeks.  “It’s going to be so hard.”

He doesn’t look over, but he could hear the movment of body on sheets as Sunggyu nodded.  “It’s going to be really hard.”

They fell silence for the longest time when Sungjong suddenly blurted out, “What about you?”

“Huh?”

“Are you going to cry if Myungsoo dies?”

Sunggyu let out a quiet sigh.  “I’m the leader, Sungjong,” he said quietly.  “I’ll take the pain for the group.  Leave it up to hyung.”

“Okay...”

“It’s late, let’s go to sleep.”

“Okay…”

Sungjong looked over through the darkness to where Sunggyu was sleeping. 

In the dim light from the lights of Tokyo, Sungjong saw a tear run down Sunggyu’s cheeks.  He knew that Sunggyu would cry if Myungsoo died before he had asked, but knowing that Sunggyu wasn’t ready to admit that he was going to cry too, nearly looking for premission to cry, it scared him a lot. 

Sungjong quietly promised himself that he would never have to see his hyungs cry. 

Myungsoo wasn’t going to die… was he? 

~*~

6월 5일

“Due to weather conditions, all flights heading west over the Sea of Japan have been cancelled.”

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?”

Sungyeol winced as Woohyun yelled right beside his ear.  They were waiting in Narita Airport to go home, but because of a typhon, the flights to Korea were canceled.  “Woohyun, calm down,” he said, his voice slightly muffled by the mask covering the lower half of his face. 

“No!  We need to get home now!” Woohyun said nearly desperately.  “I don’t want to be stuck here in Japan because of rain instead of beside Myungsoo!” 

“Woohyun, there’s fans,” Hoya warned, his arms crossed over his chest.  “They can hear you.”

“He might be dying right now!” Woohyun yelled, ignoring Hoya’s warning.  “And all we’re going to be able to say is that we were stuck in Japan when Myungsoo passed away.  I want to be there beside him!”

“Nam Woohyun!” Sunggyu yelled.  “Shut the up right now!”

Woohyun snapped his mouth shut right away and looked down at the ground, the tips of his ears bright red.  “I just want to be there beside him,” he whispered.

Dongwoo reached over and hugged him tightly.  “We do too, but we need to stay calm.”

Suddenly, Sungyeol picked up the whispers from the fans behind them, only understanding about half of the Japanese and the Korean fans.  

“What are they saying?”

“Did Myungsoo-oppa?”

“What happened to him?”

Sungyeol squatted down on the ground and rubbed his hair in frustration.  “We’re ruined,” he mumbled sarcastically, but truthfully.   

Sunggyu cuffed the back of Woohyun’s head.  “See what you did?” he hissed. 

Hoya sighed.  “This is not good,” he muttered. 

Sungjong reached down and played with Sungyeol’s hair.  “You’re going to be in big trouble,” he told Woohyun. 

“You have to remind me?” Woohyun said. 

Jungryul and Youngjun just came back from checking flights to find the disaster waiting for them.  “Boys.  Really?” Youngjin said, rolling his eyes.  “I’ll go call Jungryul.”

Woohyun didn’t raise his eyes from the floor as Jungyrul stood in front of him.  “Woohyun,” Jungryul said.  “I know you’re stressed and worried, but you should’ve not acted so rashly.”

“I understand,” Woohyun whispered. 

“You violated Myungsoo’s privacy as well,” Jungryul said sternly.  “Jungyeop-ssi is going to have a hard time to clean up this mess.”

“I understand.”

“There’s going to be a lot of blow out on this.”

“I understand.”

“Woohyun, look at me.”

Woohyun barely managed to pull his eyes away from the floor, not wanting to hear the next line of lecture that Jungryul had. 

“Coffee anyone?” Sungyeol asked, not wanting to be around when Jungryul yelled at Woohyun.  Even though they had been yelled at plently of times, and usually more harshly than this, hearing Jungryul’s disappointed tone, soft and dangerous, was more scary than hearing Jungyeop yelling at them at the top of his lungs. 

Before any of them could agree with Sungyeol’s suggestion of coffee, Jungryul started scolding Woohyun again.  “Nam Woohyun,” Jungryul said.  “You’re worried about Myungsoo, I understand that and Myungsoo’s very lucky to have you.  But don’t do this again.”

Woohyun’s eyes were on the edge of tears as he nodded slowly to Jungryul’s words.  “I understand.”

Jungryul gave him a small smile and turned to everyone else.  “Because we’re not the first flight back to Korea, we’re on the waiting list for the second flight back, but there’s no gaurentee that we all get on that flight,” he said.  “The flights are going to resume until the typhon is over, so we have free time in Japan for now.”

“We just want to be back with Myungsoo,” Sunggyu said quietly.  “That’s all.”

Jungryul squeezed his shoulder.  “I know, I want to be there too,” he said quietly.  “For now, let’s just hang out with each other and hope for the best.  We’re going to be back with Myungsoo soon, don’t worry.”  

"It's hard not to worry," Sungyeol mumbled, just barely audible.  "How can we not worry?  I mean... it's Myungsoo." 

His words hovered over the small group, the underlying meaning weighing heavily on thier shoulders.  

It's Myungsoo who's dying.  

Hi.  

I hope that you liked this chapter, it's an awful lot of talking compared to others.  Please give me comments~  

Biebie!