Dreaming Night

Chapter 1/1

"And one, two, three, four!" Sho called out to the members. The bass rumbled throughout the room, the kind that you could feel in your bones. As the members of JO1 concluded a filmed practice of Wish Us, they cheered, panting and waving to the camera.

"All right, guys. We've got to work on Tiger. Get to your places!" Sho called again. Soon enough, Junki was breathing hard, reveling in the exhilaration of dancing. But as he danced, he began to feel a sharp pain just under the right side of his ribcage. He winced, but he'd worked through stitches before. This was nothing.

Eventually the dance finished, and all the members either half-collapsed onto the ground or ran to guzzle some much-needed water. Junki lay spread-eagle on the hardwood floor, ruffling his t-shirt to help cool down.

"Good job, Junki." Keigo panted, plopping down next to his fellow member.

"You too." Junki winced and brought a hand to his side - the stitches still hadn't gone away. Keigo noticed.

"You okay?" Keigo asked, propping himself up on his elbow to face Junki.

"Just regular old stitches. I'm fine." Junki smiled, doing the same. He watched as a smile crept onto Keigo's face.

"Then I can do this!" Keigo exclaimed, pouncing onto Junki and tickling him.

"Stop! Stop!" Junki laughed, and the pain was forgotten for a while.

A few hours later, dance practice was over for the day. Junki, much to his embarrassment and shame, was struggling with the choreography. Takumi, and Keigo had decided to stay back for a while and help him

After another couple of hours, however, Junki still couldn't seem to get the moves right - no matter what he did, how much he rested, how he moved, how much water he drank or food he ate, the sharp pain in his abdomen was not going away. And as he danced, the uncomfortable, unrelenting pain was coupled with growing nausea. He did his best to hide his discomfort - as lead dancers, Keigo and Takumi took it upon themselves to help Junki, the vocalist, through his dancing struggles. He had to suck it up and get this right so they could go home too.

But nothing seemed to work. The dance was already hard enough, but with his stomach doing flip flops and that painful spot distracting him, getting it right felt next to impossible.

Still, they kept dancing. Junki did his best to hide the winces as any movement involving his torso heightened the pain, and it was getting harder and harder to ignore the uneasy feeling in his stomach. Eventually, Keigo and Takumi shut off the music.

"Junki, I think we should try again tomorrow." Keigo said, hands on his knees as he panted. Junki ran his hands through his hair and hung his head, frustrated with himself. He could feel the disappointment radiating off of his fellow members. His lungs burned, and his muscles ached. Why was it so hard to catch his breath?

"No, I'm sorry. Just one more time, please. I can do it." Junki tried, but Takumi shook his head.

"We're all tired." Takumi said, unable to hide a slight whine in his voice. "You should sleep on this one. It'll help," he added, catching himself, and Junki sighed, face burning with shame. Keigo saw the way the crease between his eyebrows deepened.

"All right." Junki relented. Keigo smiled.

"It's all okay, Junki. Sometimes we struggle - happens to the best of us." Keigo draped an arm across Junki's shoulders, planting a small peck on Junki's head. Junki nodded, and gave a reluctant smile. But Junki wasn't blind - he could see the frustration in both the dancers' gazes.

"Okay. Let's go home." Junki said. He needed to get this dance down, but his members didn't deserve to be stuck here with him. The trio packed up their things and made their way home.