Make Myself A Legacy (Another Stray Kids Member)

We Love Despite Being Broken (Big Fight Part 3)

"We aren't working on this project until you're okay. And I am giving you the no option, Leon! Imagine, we had to change directors because of your silence about the hurt brought about by the director. We only changed because of Ash, but who knew how far has she hurt you along? Now, you're going through all this and your habits are really causing destruction to yourself? So no, we're going to visit a therapist, and only once does she say that you're cleared, then we begin."

Woozi had come as quick as he could to the NCT dorm once Leon was discharged. His manager had tried to convince him otherwise of his actions but he couldn't be there. Plus he was supposed to be brought to the Labyrinth Hub then why not change course yet meet the same people?

The idol producer was really upset to see the scars, he heard them spoken about and in the past context but to see its gruesome effects now had him struggling. Why did he not ask further before? Why had he not helped in correcting this habit much earlier?

The man who was currently the focus of his words was lying against Ash's bed. Luckily Taeyong had requested Mark, and Haechan to be at the Dreamies dorm because he knew that the older boy didn't want those younger to see his state. But he couldn't detach Ash from him, who was hugging Leon tightly by the waist, his eyes darting to the scars unless he was distracted by the talking. His eyes did not hold disgust but just a wave of hesitancies the same.

"Yes, hyung, I promise we'll do your plan. You can even choose a therapist. And I am sorry I worried you this much. Today wasn't supposed to be this experience, nor seeing this side." The younger boy couldn't hold it anymore. He against his hyungs had always left him vulnerable and easily exposed to them but usually, he would hold more, but maybe his scars were open and left him tired of surviving his mind and keeping things unlocked both at the same time. And it was so obvious, as he had not pried away from the hands that worried, nor the eyes that held many questions. And he apologizes for that because they shouldn't see him this broken.

"Don't apologize. You never have to."

The older boy had his worries going over the depth of his soul and higher even than his capacity that he was exhausted from standing. So he went beside Leon, and Ash moved a bit to have space for the three of them. While Taeyong was just leaning by the door listening in. Woozi knew his words would resonate already and be kept in mind, so he did not have to ramble more about that. Maybe that's why his hands had locked against Leon's weaker ones, as his fingers that held many records and talent had gone down scars light and unfamiliar to him once. But never to leave his mind.

"I was planning to not go back tonight since it's also early in the morning. But I want to see my boys at least by the afternoon. Who knows how they're holding up?"

Ash disagreed, and held tighter to the older boy's waist. Clinging like a lifeline to the older, and leading his forehead to Leon's shoulder, and hiding in Leon's back. "Hyung, you should stay here a bit longer. Rest here," his voice was muffled into words that slurred but still understood.

"Ash, aren't their times wherein you and Jaehyun would just collide? Wherein your thoughts don't align and sometimes that brings the worst out of one another because you want to be in sync?"

The younger didn't reply and move for a few seconds, but his gentle squeeze and whisper of yes to Leon's ear had made his point across. "But then you realize it can't always be like that, so you learn to go beyond that and learn from that moment?" He didn't wait for his answer because from the phone calls of advice he sought out before to Leon, the older boy knew he was familiar with this. "And that is what's happening to me and my boys, and I can't leave it unresolved. I want to resolve it, so I'll approach. Okay? Don't you trust them?"

"I do, but you're my brother and I don't want to see you like this. For your love for them to break you."

The older boy couldn't reply further to that because he knew this was the lifeline he only had to family. This was it, nothing else because the family was so fragile, and Leon and Blake were the ones left in that main corner to value and hold on to. So he just nodded and asked Woozi to move a bit so that he could move and hug the younger boy back.