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Three months. Junhui and Minghao were both gone for three months. So why are the members treating Jun like he doesn’t exist? He’s been back for a week and he’s barely seen or heard from any of his members, except for the ‘welcome back’ dinner the 13 of them had the night Junhui and Minghao arrived back from their schedules.
Whenever he tries to hang out with any of the members, he always gets different variations of the same excuses. I’m tired Junhui. I’m busy Junhui. I want to be alone Junhui. He just wants some cuddles from the people he considers his brothers, but it seems like they’re too busy coddling his fellow Chinese member to pay any attention to him. They must have realized while I was gone how little they want me.
He could feel his heart cracking. He loves his members and the thought of them not loving him back, makes him want to break down in sobs. He knows he’s probably overreacting, but what else is he supposed to think? What is he supposed to think when Jeonghan decides to cuddle Minghao over Jun a couple days ago? Or what about when Seungkwan would rather play video games with Minghao yesterday? Or how about ten minutes ago when Vernon and Dokyeom took Minghao out for lunch, and didn’t ask Jun if he wanted to join, even though he was sitting right there? He gets that everyone is tired because of all the practices for the year-end performances, but why is he the only one being left out?
Deciding to try one last time, Jun makes his way to Soonyoung’s room. He finds Soonyoung, Jihoon and Joshua watching a movie. Putting a smile on his face, he makes his way over and cuddles against Soonyoung. “Hey! Whatcha watching?” He asks, only to get silence in return. The smile that he had forced on his face quickly fades away as I looks at Soonyoung and then to the other two in the room.
They’re so focused on the movie that they don’t even look like they realized Jun was in the room. “Hyung?” He asks nervously, poking Joshua in the arm to hopefully get his attention. This seems to do the trick as Joshua seems to startle and then looks at Jun. “Jun? When’d you get here?”
Putting the fake smile back on his face, he pulls away from Soonyoung and slides over to Joshua. “I just got here. I was hoping I could hang out with you guys.”
“Ah, sorry Junnie. We’re watching a movie that I honestly don’t think you’ll enjoy. You might just want to go find one of the others to hang out with.” Joshua says with a small, apologetic smile.
Feeling his heart crack a little more, he nods before pulling away from Joshua. “Okay hyung. I’ll see you later. Enjoy your movie.” He mumbles the last part but he doubts he was heard as Joshua was already entranced by the movie again. No one wants anything to do with me anymore.
Going back to his room, he decides that he’s just going to give the members what they obviously want. He’ll leave them alone. He won’t talk to them, won’t interact with them unless it’s for work. I’m just making it easy for them. This way they won’t have to actually tell me they don’t want me anymore.
Fast forward one week and Junhui has been holding strong. Well, as strong as you can be when the people you love most want nothing to do with you. It’s been one week and the only interactions he’s had with any of the members are during vocal and dance practices. No one has tried contacting him or hanging out with him and it’s weighing him down. The constant wondering of why am I even in the group if they don’t want me? It has started to reflect in practices as well. His vocal practices are hell due to his throat being raw from his late night breakdowns. Dance practices are hell because the members ignore him the entire time. No one notices that he’s struggling (or so he thinks).
It’s during one of these dance practices that everything goes to hell. It was a quiet whisper of why can’t he get this right? It’s not that hard. Jun just sobs harder and pushes Mingyu away. “The fact that you even have to ask makes it worse!” He yells before pushing Mingyu away and running out.
The members stare at the closed door in shock for a few seconds before Jihoon breaks the silence. “What the hell was that?” He questions, looking at the others for answers. “Why would he just start crying like that? Has something been going with Junnie?” When he gets no response, he continues “wait, has anyone really talked to Jun lately?”
Almost simultaneously, everyone’s faces turn to horror. Jihoon groans loudly and runs his fingers through his hair. “Have none of us really had any interactions with Jun? When was the last time anyone has talked to him? Like, really talked to him? Or for that matter, when has anyone asked him to hang out? Because I know I can’t remember the last time I did.” He says, obviously devastated and angry with himself.
Groans are heard across the room as everyone starts to realize how awful they’ve treated Junhui the past few weeks. “We need to fix this.” Wonwoo has never sound so determined. “We can’t let him think we don’t love him.”
Everyone packs their things as fast as they can before rushing out, making their way back to the dorms. No one was prepared for the loud sobs that greet them. “Go wait in the living room” Seungcheol tells everyone. “I’ll meet you out there and hopefully I can get Junnie to talk to us.”
Making his way to Jun’s room, Jun’s sobs getting louder the closer he gets. Knocking on the door as he gingerly cracks the door open. “Hon, can I come in?”
“Go away!” Jun yells from under a pile of blankets, throwing a pillow towards the door, completely missing his hyung. Seungcheol sighs and makes his way to the distraught Chinese boy. Gently, he pulls the blanket down, revealing Jun’s tear covered face. Seungcheol gives Jun a sad smile. “There he is” Seungcheol whispers before pulling Jun to sit up.
“Hey baby. Why don’t you come out to the living room so we can talk? We need to apologize to you for how we’ve acted lately.” Seungcheol runs his fingers through Jun’s hair. “How about it, huh?” He smiles, gently.
Frowning, Jun pulls away from his hyung. “There’s no way out of this is there?” He asks, already moving to stand up. “Let’s just get this over with.”
Trying to ignore the sadness creeping up from Jun’s tone, Seungcheol takes his hand and leads him to the living room where everyone else is waiting for them. Sitting Jun down between Chan and Minghao on the couch, he takes a seat on the table in front of them. He takes Jun’s hands in his and smiles reassuringly, “After you ran out, we realized how awful we’ve been to you. We’ve been ignoring you and treating you awfully.” He gives Jun a sweet smile before moving away so Chan and Hao can cling to him. “You can never understand how sorry all of us are” Jihoon starts, “we’ll spend however long it takes making it up to you. As for me, I don’t know why I did what I did. I wasn’t purposely trying to exclude you from anything.”
“You guys just started ignoring me after I got back. You hung out with each other but completely excluded me. It really hurt when all of you just stopped talking to me. I wish I knew what I did wrong.” Jun lets the hurt show as he soaks up the cuddles from Chan and Hao.
Minghao cups Jun’s face and meets his eyes. “You mean everything to us Junnie. We wouldn’t be Seventeen without you. We love you so so so much. And like Jihoonie-hyung says, we’ll spend as long as it takes making it up to you.”
And make up for it they do. Each member comes to him separately, apologizing in their own ways. It takes a while, but things eventually go back to normal. He learns to trust them and he couldn’t be happier. They love him just much as he loves him.