One More || BTS 8th Member

~11~

Kris became even more quieter, if that was even possible. Internalizing all his thoughts, pain and doubts and stress. Even thought they all lived together, somehow the others rarely saw him outside of their schedules, which wasn't really hard considering everyone had busy schedules. He spoke only when spoken to and used as less words as he could. 

Kris had started to spend more time in the gym than necessary, working out to take away all the fat and also as a way to relieve stress (relieving stress by singing 'Fireworks' by Katy Perry on the top of his lungs while he ran on the treadmill).

He used more energy during dancing and was actually practicing more than ever. He was also churning out song covers every other week or once a month (whenever he was allowed to use the recording studio), mostly English and Korean, and also some Hindi and Marathi so that he didn't forget the language. He sang more Korean songs so that he could get the emotions right, since it was hard for him to do that as it is not his birth language.

And that's where you would mostly find Kris outside of his daily schedule, either in the recording studio or in their studio quietly working on his laptop. But when he vanished no one knew he went. The boys noticed that he came to the dorm late at night, sometimes as late as four in the morning. And then woke up early, sometimes waking them up, at seven in the morning. 

But the weird thing was he didn't look stressed when ever he came back, he actually looked relaxed. He looked like he was living in his own world, doing what was expected of him and more. But not socializing with anyone. And then vanishing for a few hours. 

Naturally it made the boys suspicious as to what Kris was up to during these ours. And they came up with their own theories. 

Namjoon brought this up to Yoongi.

"Hyung," Namjoon spoke quietly. "What do you think he does?"

"Hmmm." Yoongi hummed as he scribbled down a few lines in his notebook. "Who knows. Does it matter? He's working harder and better."

"I know, but," Namjoon sighed, leaning back on the couch.

Namjoon was having his own problems. He didn't know what to do with the news of them possibly debuting as Idols. How many times did he hear the same thing only to be disappointed again and again? He didn't want to raise his hopes again only to have another member leave again resulting in his debut being delayed again. That's why he stayed mostly in the studio producing songs. 

He still didn't know how to go as to being a leader. There are times where he wants to say something but doesn't know if he should say it as a friend or as a leader. In the end he just ends up saying nothing at all. There are all these communication problems among them and he just doesn't know what to do. 

Seokjin, he just knows Jin-hyung still feels like an outsider, even all these weeks and months. Namjoon has noticed Jin's confidence decreasing day by day as he practices singing and dancing without showing any improvement. The fact was that Jin was improving. At a pretty fast rate if he was being honest. But since he kept comparing himself to others who had been practicing for years he always ended up discouraging himself instead.

Jungkook, the youngest of them, was all the way across the ocean in LA learning to dance. Namjoon couldn't stop worrying about that kid. He was so young and also so far way from home. Bang PD-hyung had said that he was doing fine when ever he asked, but couldn't stop thinking that what if something happened to Jungkook there and he wasn't there to help. 

Hoseok was also in a dark place. He smiled even less than before and danced until he couldn't move, and when he couldn't move he practiced his rapping. Hoseok always showed up in the studio asking for tips and lessons in rapping. The thing with Hoseok was, even after knowing Namjoon and Yoongi for now more than a year, he rarely talked about his feelings or if something was bothering him. And that left Namjoon feeling even more burdened.