1 %

Prelude

It's been years.

Too many to be counted exactly, yet, never enough to be too much.

It's been years now that we have known each other and almost the same time that we are living under the same roof. From a tinny dorm where we used to sleep more than one in a bed –if not directly on the floor-, to private rooms, big enough to welcome our families in each of them.

Our way to reach this point was unpredictable.

We didn't steal it.

We faced it all.

Puberty with its high and down sides. Estrangement. From our family, our friends. We all left something behind. Some with regret, other with boldness or childish dream. We all crashed into the same unknown and frightening world. Business. Music. Uniqueness. Talent. Visual. Standards. Worth.

We were all forced-fed with it; the good as much as the bad. The bad. Above all.

Hate. Self-bullying. Sickness. Depression. Doubts. Silence. Pressure.

It wasn't easy every day. But we are still standing.

In our fight, through our disagreement, we found a way to keep it together. Show must go on.

From the depth of the ocean in which we were endlessly dragged down, drowning, this invisible and warming push lifted us up.

Army.

We weren't alone. We never were.

Then, our journey brightens. The bitter and acidic taste of the darkness slowly faded away, replaced by a mild and sugary coating.

Hope. Accomplishments. Recognition. Acceptance. Self-esteemed. Confidence. Trust.

We were strangers. Acquittances. Colleagues overcoming the formal bounding of their profession. We became members of the same group. Teacher of our past experience. Confident sparingly sharing our insecurities.

We are friends, soulmates for the luckiest of us. Lovers for some others. Before we even realised it, we became brothers.

We are a family.

We might not be blood related but our hearts decided long ago that we belong together.

Since then, this is our truth. Our Faith.

For someone who shouldn't have support such credence like Destiny or Providence, I end up changing my mind. For them, I did it. Not because of some will to force my opinion; our favorite saying always been to embrace our difference and learn from it.

I start to believe because they show me what was inhabiting the blurred outlines of that belief we made ours.

One same being made of different identities. Us. As a whole.

One unit glued by time. Reinforced by hardships. In constant evolution. Aspiring to a stronger relationship. To more and bigger dreams.

We are an inspiration for my too rare bragging.

We know each other too good now. We don't have secret anymore because we trust and respect each and every one of us. We never been that close.

At least that's what I thought.

Until one of those lonely night, I randomly pick a dusty paper sheet out of a drawer I haven't open for quite a long time. The wrinkles pleated on the thin material mirrored around my eyes as I frown to distinguish what the familiar handwriting had inked on it.

Hoseok's young and uneven print. Barely erased. As some kind of timeless artefact, I shouldn't forget about.

It was a form. One of those we used to fulfill as the years passed by, either to deliver some heartfelt message to one of the members or to play along the rules of some improvised game by our managers.

This one could have been both and neither of the two in the same time. It was coming from our 2016 Festa, when we asked for a presentation of ourselves made by another member.

I couldn't properly remember the whole event since it was too far but the facts where there, shocking, carved on this paper as an obvious statement between my hands.

"How close are you to him: 99 out of 100. 1% of weirdness though..."

It shouldn't have affected me. After all, it had happened a long time ago, when we were young and still stranger to our own selves. At that moment, how someone could have expected to feel completely comfortable with the other members? Wasn't it simply normal?

The answer should have been a yes.

Instead of this, excerpts of that same old memory swarmed my brain for a quick instant.

The sound of their laugh, after Hobi poorly tried to explain the reason behind his answer.

The way they all too quickly agreed with it.

How it intensified my surprise to hear this for the first time.

And now, how it seems to get stock in my head and pollute my thoughts as the echo of their voices wouldn't fade away.

"I neither can explain it but I understand what J-Hope mean.

-Yeah, it's the same for me.

-It's always a little weird.

-We all feel it."

It was too much.

From now on, I decided it was time to figure it out... what this 1% was all about.