𝑨 𝑳𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝑭𝒆𝒂𝒓

셋

If I could, I would've slept, trust me, but I simply couldn't. Even if I was held within the safety of Jeonghan's arms, I stayed there until the morning came. Everyone else slept peacefully, while I stood up early, sneaking out to my studio with a cup of coffee.

Peacefully making my way to the studio in the early morning, I sipped my coffee when I finally walked into the studio, taking a deep breath before sitting down and continuing my work.

I loved my work; however, I tended to overwork myself. Was it worth it? Not really, but did I still do it? Yes. I didn't regret it most of the time, but sometimes I did. A lot of times, I ended up missing dance practice occasionally. My mind wandered to questions like "would it be better to be a solo artist?" but then again, I would regret it, as I adored my members.

As suddenly as I drowned in my thoughts, I surfaced again and leaned back in my work chair, rubbing my eyes when I relaxed, until there was a sudden noise. I froze as I realized it was a thunderstorm. I was terrified of thunderstorms. It was called astraphobia, or something like that.

I put on my headphones again, trying to tune out the noise of the storm going on outside, but sadly, the headphones weren't able to do that. Still trying to work yet failing miserably, yet here I was, frozen in fear of the storm in the corner of the room, having a panic attack. I tried to call Shua, but I failed as my hands shook too badly, my vision was blurred with tears, and my breath was fast and shallow.

I didn't know how long I had stayed in the corner of the studio, but it must've been long enough for the members to start worrying. The 8 walked into the room without my noticing him until his arms wrapped around me. I burst into tears and told him my biggest secret. I ended up crying more into his chest, clasping onto him, not wanting him to leave me alone there in the dark studio. A while ago, the light fell out, and I was terrified of the dark, especially in small spaces.

"Shh, it's okay Jihoonie, it's okay, I've got you," he softly verbalized as he held me close, sitting on the floor with his arms around me, feeling my eyes close gradually as sleep hit me hard, leaning into THE8's chest, feeling the slow movements of him standing up while he closed up my studio.

The feeling of falling upon falling was scary until I ended up landing on the floor. However, I now stood in the middle of a white room, looking around to be confronted with a huge stuffed animal. As I ran toward it, I was greeted with the ice-cold white floor rather than the soft-looking fur.

I sat up, rubbing my face, to see that the animal had disappeared. I couldn't help but feel my eyes gloss, not about the fact I fell face-first into the floor, but because the stuffed animal had vanished all of a sudden. Searching for the stuffed animal yet utterly failing to find it. After a while, I closed my eyes and lay down on the white room's ground.

Once I opened my eyes upon feeling the sunlight touch my face, I discovered I had spent an entire night in THE8's arms. I was confused since I believed I was alone. I smiled as I contemplated the young guy's future.

The 8 was indeed good-looking if you looked close by. He didn't only have a good personality; he was handsome too.

I waited in the bedroom, waiting for THE8 to wake up so I could greet him. I realized how much he's been there for me while waiting for him to awaken from his nap.

He always seemed to be there when I needed someone the most, and he never appeared to be disturbed by my problems.

"Why are you awake, Jihoon?" I heard a groggy voice speak. I stared at the one to whom the voice belonged.

"You were in your studio from 5 AM until 1 AM in the night," THE8 said. I was highly surprised, as I came to know I had been there for 8 hours. I thought I hadn't noticed I had been there for so long. As I glanced at my side, I noticed it was 5 a.m. I nevertheless wondered if I often woke up at that same time in the morning. I let out a sudden sight that caught THE8's attention again.

"Woozi, what's wrong?" I heard him ask. I could speak up and tell what was bothering me, but I began to question myself if it wasn't too early for this at 5 AM, shaking my head to signal him I was fine. However, I wasn't sure if I was fine.

THE8 looked at me in a judging way, knowing I was lying, and shook his head, rolling around facing away from me, feeling like I had disappointed him deeply. The worst thing was that I wasn't in the safety of his arms.

"Xu?" I whispered, feeling a prop in my throat as I felt like crying, as I thought I had disappointed him deeply. However, I thought wrong, as he had just fallen asleep. Yet the thought kept snooping around in my mind, strangely pinning me. I closed my eyes, trying to fall asleep once again, yet I fell deeply, but this time I wasn't in a white space but a black space instead.

Looking around, the only thing I saw was a mirror. I was walking towards it to see myself or something that had to resemble me. A figure that looked pale, exhausted, and weak. All the words that I thought of more often, if not all the time, appeared on the glass, written with red ink. I kept on staring until I fell backward, as my reflection all of a sudden had a grin. "What kind of nightmare is this?" I thought.

I sat in the black space alone, even though I hoped one of the members would come and help. Even though this was a twisted reality my mind was playing with me, I wasn't scared, as it wasn't the first time my mind was playing tricks on me.