Saviors

4

   The members of Seventeen crowded around a flustered intern who was unfortunate to have to be at the front desk at that moment.

   "Did Jihoon come here?" Seungcheol asked urgently. She thought for a moment then her eyes lit up in recognition.

   "Ah yes, he rushed in here without signing in then ran up to your guys' practice room," all of Seventeen sighed in relief, "but barely five minutes had passed before he was down again. He rushed out, hailed a taxi and went that way." She said while pointing out the door and to the left. The members looked at each other worriedly.

   "That's the direction of the hospital." Vernon whispered. Some of the members exchanged scared glances.

   "We don't know anything yet, that is the direction of many places." Seungcheol reasoned. The members still looked skeptical. "There isn't much we can do, we don't know for sure where he went. We'll just have to wait." They all nodded slowly in a sad agreement and filed up the stairs.

They practiced but it was half hearted. Eventually they all sat down and stared between the clock and the door. The clock struck nine and still no Jihoon.

"He might be at home already."

"He wouldn't just go home, he wouldn't let himself. Even after whatever happened he would still force himself to do work. Plus he isn't picking up his phone which makes me think he is still busy." Seungcheol told the group.

"What even happened this morning that made him rush here?" Minghao asked quietly. Jun, Soonyoung, and Mingyu exchanged glances. Soonyoung took a deep breath.

   "It was... kind of my fault," he began, "you see, I was waiting up for him last night. I fell asleep on the couch and he practically sat on me. I asked him why he didn't just go to bed and he said that he couldn't sleep. I pestered him about it and that must've set off some alarms in his brain because he ran off and wouldn't speak in the morning." He took a shaky breath and looked at Mingyu to say his part of the story.

   "Oh, um, Jihoon Hyung wouldn't respond, eat, or even look is in the eyes so I was waving my hand in front of his face to get a reaction, and I did. His eyes finally focused on my hand. He got annoyed and slapped my hand away." The group looked shocked. Jihoon never raised his hand to another person. The boys were quiet, thoughtful. They didn't say anything for a long time. Suddenly, Seungcheol spoke.

   "I think we could all get closer to one another. What do we actually know about Jihoon?"

   "Exactly what I was thinking Hyung." Jun said.

   "But how?" Asked Seungkwan. Once again the group was silent.

   Jihoon pushed open the door to the practice room and rubbed his eyes. He was tired, so extremely tired. He suddenly stopped moving at the sight in front of him. All of his members were there, sitting on the ground, quietly conversing. Soonyoung was the first to notice him.

   "Jihoon!" He yelled. Jihoon avoided looking at him. Almost immediately, he was surrounded by his members. He shrank away from them, away from revealing questions. And yet they still asked. He met Seungcheol's gaze.

   "I had a family emergency." He mumbled. The questions still came, giving him a headache. What happened? Who was it? Are they okay? He backed away from them and bumped into someone. He turned around to say sorry when he saw it was Soonyoung.

   "I was worried about you Jihoon." Soonyoung whispered. Jihoon felt the burning questions at his back but stood still. He wanted to scream. What was Soonyoung doing? He turned and fled. He ran into his studio and locked the door. Silence. Sweet silence. Jihoon slid down the door and rested his head between his knees.

   A couple minutes passed before he heard a quiet knock. He wanted to shout. He wanted to yell for who ever it was who was at the door to leave him alone but his voice wouldn't come.

   "Jihoon? Are you okay?" It was Seungcheol. "Okay, dumb question. Do you want to talk about today?" Jihoon didn't say anything. "Lets go home."

   "I have work."

   "Take the night off. You haven't gotten a good nights rest for quite a long time I've heard." Jihoon's head snapped up. Of course Soonyoung Hyung would tell. Jihoon heard a click and the door fell away from his back. He quickly set a hand out to steady himself. He turned and looked at Seungcheol, standing in the door way with a key in his hand.

   "How long have you had that?" Jihoon asked quietly.

   "Oh this? Forever." Seungcheol tilted his head and smiled. "Lets go home." He repeated. Slowly Jihoon stood, brushing off whatever dust he managed to get on his pants.

   "Fine." He mumbled, sensing Seungcheol wasn't going to give up.

   He walked at the back of the group, with much insistence. He just wanted to go home and sleep, though he knew, tonight would be another long night for him. Not even because his members. He was so tired and yet he didn't think he would be able to fall asleep.

   Soonyoung obviously wanted to talk to him because he kept on falling back. Jihoon kept on falling back with him so Soonyoung never got close enough. Eventually the two of them could hardly see the other members in front of them. Soonyoung suddenly stopped.

   "Jihoon-"

   "Don't. Please." And with that, Jihoon pushed past him and began jogging to catch up to the rest of Seventeen. They noted his presence with silence, not wanting to set him off. They walked the rest of the way in silence, Soonyoung lagging behind.

   When they arrived lights were switched off and everyone got ready for bed.

   "Good night." Soonyoung whispered to Jihoon as he climbed the ladder to his bunk. Jihoon pulled the blankets over his head and heard a sigh from Soonyoung above him.

   All was quiet and everyone was asleep. Almost everyone. Jihoon tossed and turned, trying to get the day's events out of his head. But he couldn't.

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Two published in one day! Just wanted to say, please comment, please like, please let me know you're here.