The Last Time

Joshua and Jihoon looked at each other, not saying anything as their eyes did the talking. Joshua held his guitar close to him as he and Jihoon and the rest of the group gathered in the vocal unit's practice room while the staff prepared the equipments needed for their V-Live later that night.

This was it. They couldn't go back down anymore. They had practiced so much in the past few weeks with Jihoon doing a bit more work in order to get his pronunciations of English words correctly. They had done an unnecessary amount of pleading to their managers and the company to let them have a V-Live where the two of them would sing a cover of the song they had been practicing for a while. They reasoned that this would be a good way to keep their fans excited for their upcoming world tour. This V-LIve would be a little teaser to hype up the fans and keep them guessing as to what kind of performances they would show at their concert. When in reality, Joshua and Jihoon had an ulterior motive.

As the staff adjusted the lighting in the room and organised the phone that would be used for the livestream, Jihoon and Joshua sat on the chairs that were provided for them. The other members all sat down on the floor behind the camera as they would not be in the V-Live; they decided to come into the room anyway to watch the gentleman and the vocal unit leader.

The room was lively and the members were talking in their own little cliques as they waited for everything to be ready, not having a clue what this performance would entail for the relationship dynamics within the group. As the rest of the boys chatted away, Jihoon and Joshua remained silent. Jihoon scooted his chair closer to Joshua and leaned his head on the older's shoulder. As he did that, his eyes couldn't ignore the pair in front of him who was happily chatting with each other as if they were the only two people in the room.

How did they end up here? Jihoon thought. So much has changed in the last few years. Some of them for the better. Some of them... Well some of them, he wished had remained the same.

Like his relationship with Seungcheol for example. The two were extremely close during their pre-debut years. Jihoon realised how simple things were back then. Seungcheol would always hang out with him or Doyoon, a former trainee under the group, who sadly had chosen not to debut with them. When Doyoon left the company, Jihoon was the one Seungcheol leaned on as the older was saddened by the departure of one of his closest friends. Jihoon was the one who was there for him when he needed a shoulder to cry on. Jihoon was the one who listened to all of his problems. Jihoon was the one who was there to give him encouraging words and always lifted his mood up. Jihoon was the one who did all of that. Until things had started to change slowly. Until he realised someone else had replaced his position in Seungcheol's life.

"Are you okay, Jihoonie?" Joshua asked the younger while looking at the same pair Jihoon was staring at.

It took a while before Jihoon answered but when he did, he just hummed and said, "I will be soon." Joshua sadly smiled at that reply.

Joshua was a bit more determined to push through with this plan of theirs. It was his idea after all. He was the one who showed Jihoon the song and translated the English words to Korean so Jihoon would understand fully the deep and beautiful meaning of the song. When Jihoon was listening to the song while reading the lyrics in Korean, he couldn't stop a tear from rolling down his cheeks. Because the song was just perfect for what he had been wanting to convey to Seungcheol.

It was then that the duo realised that Joshua was tired of feeling like the third-wheel. Jihoon was tired of feeling like the second choice. They were tired of having to watch the person they loved love someone else. And so they decided to let go. Not give up. Just... let go. To move on. But before they did, they'd say a silent goodbye to the two people who kept breaking their hearts. Over and over.