K-Pop Boygroup Oneshots

🖤💖(&TEAM) Jo- Change

DISCLAIMER: I Know Autism effects everyone differently and not everyone on the spectrum has these behaviors. this is just a dramatized example for the sake of the story :)

TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of Autism, Minor self-harm

Jo likes routine. No-it's more like, Jo needs it.

Jo was a normal guy, he just had a few quirks.

He was quiet, mostly kept to himself. He felt uncomfortable around people, the process of making small talk made his skin crawl.

Jo woke up at 7 AM on the dot every morning. Even on his days off. Sleeping in gave him anxiety, it threw his whole day off.

He ate plain rice out of his ceramic bowl with cats printed on it. He always used a specific pair of chopsticks, his chopsticks.

The members knew of jos preferences, his little antics and habits, they found quite cute.

Though for a long time, nobody knew why Jo liked things so specific. Why he got so easily frustrated over little things.

But it was because "little things " felt enormous to Jo.

Autism.

A word he heard for the first time when he was 10.

While it seemed to explain a lot, it scared him.

What did this mean for him? Did this mean he was different? Broken?

His whole life he'd gotten weird looks, subtle whispers in the school hallway, comments under peer's breath that cut him deep.

"Why is he so weird?"

"Why doesn't he ever speak?"

"Why doesn't he eat anything else?"

He had trouble making friends, regular social interaction made him itchy, being surrounded by a group of people made him feel trapped, like he couldn't breathe.

Something that helped him through the tough times was music.

Jo loved music, he always had. He had dreams of performing on a big stage, while people scared him, when he was on stage he felt at ease.

His members weren't aware of jos autism. He never told them, he never told anyone really. He was embarrassed, ashamed to admit it especially being an idol.

If anyone found out, if netizens got ahold of that information, his life would be over.

So he masked a lot of his feelings, feeling uncomfortable 90% of the time, though his members made him feel okay, they were the 10% for him.

Nobody ever teased him for his quirks, K always made Jo plain rice in his bowl without question.

When they first met Jo on &audition, they saw that he was quiet, more reserved and introverted, but he worked so hard during their missions. He did his absolute best for every performance, he practiced and practiced until the early hours of the morning.

He pushed himself out of his comfort zone for the sake of the group.

That is one of the reasons they all fell in love with Jo. K quickly became protective of him, like Maki and Taki, Jo was his baby.

Jo seemed to get overwhelmed sometimes. When it was too loud, Fuma guided him to a quieter place, when there were alot of people in the airport, Maki interlocked their fingers and spoke softly to him, helping him get through the crowd.