The dorm wasn't the same after the accident.
Joshua had left them on a rainy Tuesday night. A drunk driver, a shattered windshield, and twelve hearts torn apart in one moment.
They didn't talk for days. Weeks.
The living room once filled with warm laughter, lazy cuddles, and shared meals was now a battlefield of silence.
The others moved like ghosts themselves. Mingyu stopped cooking. Woozi didn't touch his guitar. Soonyoung didn't dance. Seungcheol couldn't lead.
And Joshua... he watched it all.
He was still here.
Invisible. Untouchable. Unheard.
The night he died, he was walking home late. He remembers turning the corner, humming softly, thinking about how he'd sneak into bed and curl up between Jeonghan and Seungcheol like always.
Then there was screeching. Metal. A sharp jolt. Pain. And then silence.
Then cold.
Then darkness.
When he woke up, he was in the dorm. But no one could see him. No one could hear him.
He tried everything screaming, crying, reaching out. But his hand passed through Jeonghan's shoulder. His sobs echoed into nothing.
The boys shattered slowly.
Jeonghan locked himself in their shared room and didn't come out for three days. On the fourth day, Seungcheol broke the door open and found him on the floor, surrounded by Joshua's old clothes, whispering, "I didn't protect him. I was supposed to protect him."
Minghao cried once. It was in the shower. Joshua sat outside the door, listening to the sound of choked sobs and water running. He wanted to hug him, hold him, anything but he was just a whisper now.
Woozi broke down in the studio. He threw his headphones against the wall and screamed, "I can't write without him. His voice... I can't hear his voice."
Joshua sat beside him, humming the melody Woozi had once taught him. The one he never got to record.
The dorm became hollow.
Birthdays were missed. Anniversaries ignored. The bed Joshua once shared with them was left untouched sheets still rumpled, his jacket still draped over the headboard.
They all slept in separate rooms now. No one wanted to be reminded of the space Joshua used to fill.
And Joshua...
He started to fade.
Not from the dorm from himself.
He couldn't remember the last time someone laughed. The last time they touched each other without flinching.
He screamed at them to stop fighting. He begged them to eat, to sleep, to breathe. But he was only a breeze in the curtains. A flicker in the hallway light.
"I'm still here," he whispered. Every night. To every one of them. "I'm still here."
Then one day...
Seokmin walked into the living room, sat on the couch, and whispered, "Shua, I miss you."
Joshua paused.
The air shifted.
Seokmin didn't look around, but tears slipped down his cheeks. "I know you're still here. I feel you when I sing. When I close my eyes. I still hear your laugh."
One by one, they started saying it.
Wonwoo left a letter under Joshua's pillow. "If you're still watching... I'm sorry I didn't say I loved you more. I thought we had more time."
Hoshi lit a candle by the window. "Come visit in my dreams, okay?"
Jeonghan started sleeping in Joshua's bed again, whispering goodnight to the empty space beside him.
Minghao placed a white flower on the corner of Joshua's old desk every morning. "You were the only one who reminded me to breathe," he murmured. "Now I'm trying to do it on my own."
Jun spoke to the mirror. Quietly. "Remember that time we got lost on purpose in Japan so we wouldn't have to share a room with the loud ones?" He smiled, then swallowed back the sob. "I keep wishing I got lost with you for just a little longer."
Vernon sat on the rooftop alone one night, head tilted back to the stars. "I hated how quiet you were sometimes... but now, it's too quiet without you." He chuckled bitterly. "The silence feels heavier now."
Chan left his headphones hanging on Joshua's favorite chair. "I saved all the songs you liked. They're still here. Like you."
Woozi stopped locking the studio door. He left it open, just a crack. Just in case Joshua wanted to come listen.
And Seungcheol strong, steady Seungcheol knelt in the middle of the living room, eyes shut tight, hands trembling, and said, "Tell me what to do, Shua. I'll do anything. Just... give me a sign."
And in that moment the window creaked open. A breeze rolled through. The candle flickered.
Twelve heads turned.
For the first time, they felt him.
Like a soft hum in their bones.
Like warmth in the middle of a cold room.
Like Joshua saying, "Don't forget to live."
They still cried. Often.
Some nights were unbearable.
Some wounds stayed open.
But slowly, they started to live again.
Mingyu cooked. Woozi played. Soonyoung danced.
And when they laughed, it felt like Joshua was laughing with them.
When they cried, it felt like he was holding them.
When they loved each other again gently, honestly it was because of him.
Because love doesn't leave.
Even when the body does.
Joshua was still there.
Not as a ghost
But as the heartbeat in every step they took forward.
"You never really left us, did you?" Jeonghan whispered one night to the wind.
And somewhere in the silence... it smiled.
They didn't see him, not really.
But they felt him.
In the warmth of a sunbeam falling across the floor at just the right angle.
In the soft creak of the floorboards as if he was walking past.
In the guitar chords that sometimes played when no one was near the player.
For weeks, Joshua lingered.
Not because he was stuck...
But because they weren't ready to let go.
And neither was he.
They started to heal slowly, tenderly.
Mingyu cooked again, this time with a second set of chopsticks beside him, just like he used to do when Joshua sat across the counter.
Woozi wrote a song. He called it "Thirteen."
Hoshi and Seungkwan started dragging everyone out on walks, like Joshua used to.
"Touch grass," Seungkwan would say, echoing Joshua's voice with a small smile. "He'd be proud if we did."
Seungcheol laughed again. Not often. But when he did, it no longer sounded like it was made from broken pieces.
And Jeonghan....Jeonghan who had refused to throw away Joshua's toothbrush, who still wore his hoodie to bed one day stood in front of his closet, exhaled shakily, and whispered,
"Do you think... it's okay to keep going?"
Joshua stood behind him, smiling gently.
"That's all I ever wanted," he said softly.
--------------<THE END>---------------
