The incoming message lit up the phone in his hand. A wave of relief relaxed his tensed limbs as he went over the words a second time. He silently locked his phone and stuffed back into the pocket of his black trousers or what the others jokingly referred to as his 'business pants' because he wore them when he meant 'business'.

They hadn't been entirely wrong either. Not today, at least.

It wasn't a lack of confidence but more of a need of comfort that had gravitated his fingers to the pair of pants while getting dressed for the meeting he had just returned from.

People he wished he never would have had to sit across a table, had laid out in front of him all that he had feared and fretted over during long sleepless nights for the past few weeks.

He had maintained a stoic face but underneath the table, his palms nervously rubbed against his knees. His small nods in agreement to whatever was being said were a mere formality because there was no option left but to agree to the terms laid out in front of him.

Things were getting worse and people working inconspicuously in the background would now be forefront and that was the last thing he had hoped for.

He looked at the silhouettes of two of the boys out in the cold night breeze and watched as the older reassuringly patted the younger one's back and ruffled his hair, a habit all of them protested to but also secretly loved because it was Jin's protective instinct that showed up whenever he sensed the distress of any of his younger brothers.

Brothers.

The leader's dimples peaked out thinking about how naturally they had taken on that role for each other. It hadn't been planned nor forced. They hadn't woken up one day and decided to become a family.

They had naturally settled into a bond where calling each other brothers meant more than the use of honorifics that had been programmed into them since they were little kids.

It stopped being an acknowledgement of their age differences, instead became one of comfort.

Namjoon would try not to get lost in the romanticism of fate and destiny but in a cut-throat industry where members of the same group were known to only tolerate each other's presence in the name of friendship, he had somehow stumbled upon on an entire family.

In their case, he had literally stumbled upon them on the first day of their group practice. They had ended up in a huge tangled mess of limbs when Namjoon had missed his cue and they had all come down in one fell swoop.

Their groans of pain had turned into giggles and soon all seven of them were laughing at how ridiculous they looked in the mirror- a mess of sweaty, entangled limbs.

That day the little remaining ice between them had effectively been broken and they all realized that they had found a home away from home.

Home.

It meant something else to them entirely.

Home was never the entirely too small dormitory where the seven of them shared a room- restless nights on bunk beds which were too small for them and their dreams and it isn't the multi-million dollar penthouse he was currently standing in. 

Home was never four walls and the roof above their head.

Home was wherever his boys were -wherever they were together.

And now everything was falling apart and his family was in danger.

Namjoon had watched a bit of the exchange between Jin and Jimin and was worried that something had gone wrong and he had anxiously texted Jin to ask about it but thankfully Jin's reply had put his mind somewhat at ease.

It felt wrong to be relieved because Jimin was still in distress. But it was the reason behind his distress that had brought Namjoon relief.

Namjoon still foolishly wished that things could remain like this. Where the only conflicts they had were over who had left the door to the room open for mosquitoes to come in and bite Taehyung or who had used up the last of Jungkook's favourite fabric softener without restocking it or who had let Yeontan enter Jin's room where the little fur ball had duelled and emerged victorious over one of Jin's Mario plushie; now beyond recognition, and had then gone onto to relieving himself over Yoongi's favourite beanie or in this case, Jimin's feelings towards Sora.

It felt like another lifetime. A simpler one.

The harder he had tried to hold and control the situation, the more quickly it seemed to slip out of his hands. He knew that he could no longer handle this on his own and dreaded being the one to tell the rest of them and most importantly, Jimin.

How was he supposed to walk up to someone he had promised to protect not just as the leader of their group but also as an older brother and tell him that he had failed?

How did things go this bad this quickly?

— 

A/N: major missing Joon hours :(