Little Lino

Chapter 1

Comeback seasons are hard.

It's not like that's something new to any of the boys but nevertheless with the last week of promotions slowly approaching the exhaustion and stress of the last weeks is clearly catching up to all of them. Especially Minho has been struggling the last few days with being the only little in the group.

While being the only little sure has its benefits, one of them being that everyone is only waiting for him to slip in order to cuddle and play with little him, sometimes it's also quite difficult for the others to understand completely how Minho's feeling as they can't relate themselves.

During the last few days Minho has been feeling his headspace creeping up on him more with each passing day. So, it's no wonder that when he wakes up the next morning, he nearly slips into his headspace right that second before remembering the packed schedule of their day. Blinking the tears away he slumps back down in his pillow while trying to push down the floaty feeling.

At this point he can probably add that part to his morning routine as he's been waking up feeling little for the majority of the days during the last few weeks. With each passing day feeling more overwhelmed and lost between the rational part of his brain, which knows that they are in the middle of their long-awaited comeback and his little-me, which is screaming at him to finally give in and forget about all the stress and responsibilities.

The last time he slipped was nearly two weeks ago and even then, it wasn't really fully slipping. It was in the evening after a day packed with interviews and dance practice and he probably wasn't in his headspace for more than two hours before he fell asleep in Chan's arms after crying away the stress from the past days for one hour straight. The next morning, Chan had to practically force him out of headspace in order to rush to the company and start their day.

After that everyone had been more mindful of him even going so far and trying to push around their schedule a bit so that they would have one evening free where Minho could fully slip. But to no one's surprise it didn't work with the interview, photoshoot and performance appointments already having been made weeks in advance there was no way for them to change anything on such short notice. And with the comeback being the most important thing on everyone's mind, the issue slowly got buried under complicated choreos, bright stage lights and the general exhaustion of everyone else.

Minho wasn't mad about it, secretly he was a little relieved. To be honest, the whole situation only increased the anxious feeling in his chest with thinking that he was only causing problems and adding unnecessary worries to all of them. Even though his whole body wanted nothing more than to just give into the floaty feeling, he knew that everyone else was just as tired as him and the days after his last breakdown in the evening, he noticed how everyone had been distracted with keeping an eye on him or arguing with a manager about their schedule.

So, here he is, pushing his headspace away in order to not mix up their carefully planed schedule. And at this point it's only five more days until they finally get two days off, which means that he just has to keep himself together a bit longer.

In the corridor he hears Felix yelling that the car will be here in 20 minutes and with that he reluctantly moves his body to the side of his bed before slowly standing up and shuffling to his wardrobe.

The day goes as expected. Minho feels tired, overwhelmed and sometime during the afternoon he feels a headache starting to form. But it wouldn't be Minho if he doesn't do what he does best when he doesn't want the other to worry and that in turn means not telling anyone and not letting his personal struggle get in the way of the other members.