august 16th, 2016

hyunjoon watched in utter despair as his eyes followed the motionless body of hajun, his best friend, being rushed into the emergency surgery room. he himself was covered in hajun's blood mixed with his own, too stunned to fully comprehend the situation. eventually minwoo, woojung, gyuyoung, and doyun all rushed to the waiting room, confused and also concerned when they glanced at the now sobbing hyunjoon.

". . . what happened?" gyuyoung asked cautiously, not sure if it was the appropriate time or place, but his anxiety was eating away at his mental state the longer he stared at his blood covered best friend.

"I... we-" hyunjoon tried to speak but the flashbacks to the accident he caused was rendering him unable to speak. minwoo at this point did not care if hyunjoon was covered in blood or not, he pulled the older boy into a hug and let the sobbing boy let it all go.

"it should've been me," hyunjoon cried into minwoo's shoulder. "he wouldn't be in there if I didn't..."

"hajun will be fine, joon. just breathe." woojung placed a hand on hyunjoo's shoulder. hyunjoon shook his head in response and the boys simply remained as they waited for the doctors to come out and for their oldest friend to calm down.

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three hours had passed and gyuyoung had fallen asleep on doyun, minwoo kept his arms around hyunjoon, and woojung was falling in and out of sleep when the surgery light switched off and the surgeon made his way out. having finally calmed down, hyunjoon waited both anxiously and impatiently for the news to be relayed.

the second he saw the figure of the surgeon he bolted upwards, waking up everyone around him. he rushed toward the surgeon and was barely legible as he asked if hajun would be okay.

"his injuries were quite severe and while we were able to help him, he's currently in a coma."

hyunjoon took a deep breath before shakily asking when they'd be able to see him. the surgeon replied that they could visit him whenever they wanted as long as they checked in with the front office. the boys nodded and made their way to check in so they could see hajun.

as they made their way to hajun's room, woojung faltered a bit, with doyun noticing and slowing down to match his pace.

"don't you think it's a bit weird?" woojung whispered to doyun, nodding his head to point at hyunjoon.

"what is?" doyun replied, not clueing in.

"how hajun had such severe injuries yet hyunjoon had barely a scratch on him."

doyun thought about it and what woojung had said made sense. hajun was in a lot worse of a condition than hyunjoon, yet they both were involved in whatever accident happened. doyun doesn't really want to accuse their best friend of trying to kill someone else, nonetheless the person he himself was closest to, but the seed had been planted his in mind and he can't stop thinking about it.

minwoo carefully opened the door to hajun's room and the second hyunjoon saw him laying peacefully in his bed, bandaged and breathing, he nearly fell to his knees. minwoo caught him and held onto him before leading him toward the couch in the room. everyone else gathered around the two, finding a place to sit.

"now that you've calmed down... what happened hyung?" gyuyoung asked again, wanting to know what exactly happened.

hyunjoon looked away and lowered his head into his hands. when he finally looked up he shook his head, "he pushed me out of the way instead of letting me take the hit."

he continued before anyone could cut him off, "the truck... it was driving so fast. we were talking and laughing before-"

"so you're telling me he could've been here still if you got hit instead?" woojung spat, shaking his head in disbelief.

gyuyoung stood up in defense of hyunjoon, "hyung! how could you say that? would you have rather both of them not be here?"

woojung just scoffed and headed toward the door. before he left he mumbled, "if you side with hyunjoon, don't ever contact me again."

gyuyoung and minwoo sat still, knowing that their best friend was not in the wrong like woojung claims him to be. they both were under the assumption that doyun would stick as well but that seed of doubt had been planted and it began to sprout. doyun stood up and left, running after woojung. hyunjoon lowered his head again and began apologizing profusely.

gyuyoung stood up walked in front of hyunjoon, giving him one of his famous "gyu hugs" or so their friend group liked to call them. it was said that whenever the youngest would hug someone, they would be healed of all pain. however, the pain hyunjoon was feeling was something not even gyuyoung could heal.

with hajun resting peacefully, the three boys each fell asleep, each praying that hajun would wake up when they awoke the next morning.

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one year later. . .

september 5th, 2017

hajun had finally woken up. however, the only person who was there to say their hellos besides his family... was minwoo. minwoo had tried his hardest to keep all five of them together, he really did... but it was to no avail as the more time passed, school took over everyone. school plus the instant cut off from both doyun and woojung led everyone to gradually lose contact. it didn't help that that woojung spread rumors about hyunjoon regarding the incident and in defense, he said some pretty horrible things back to both woojung and doyun, eventually leading him to transfer schools. doyun silently did his schooling while also continuing his idol training, and gyuyoung also tried his hardest but his efforts also went down the drain, even if he was the glue that originally kept them all together.

"I'm so sorry, hajun..." minwoo sighed as he lowered his head. "I tried keeping us together, I really did."

hajun, who was sitting up in his hospital bed, briefly shook his head. "even though I feel hurt that this led to us... disbanding... I would do it again."

"if it meant protecting my friend, I would take a bullet for them."

the room went silent. minwoo looked away from hajun before tears began falling from his eyes. the words spoken by his friend hit him harder than he thought they would. minwoo could only think about how selfish woojung and doyun were to blame hyunjoon for something hajun would've done again if history repeated itself.

"woojung... tried to blame hyunjoon for what happened." minwoo spoke up after calming himself down and wiping away his tears.

hajun furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head in confusion, "why...?" he shook his head, "why would he do that? that doesn't make sense... if I didn't save hyunjoon it would've been both of us in this situation. or worse yet, we both may not have even made it out alive."

"I wish I could tell you why... and doyun followed him too."

hajun closed his eyes and sighed, "if you guys ever see each other again... tell them what I told you today. that I would do it again."

minwoo nodded, "that you would take a bullet for them, if it meant saving their life."

"and please... for my sake, do not feel guilty if I cannot reunite with you five in the future."

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PROLOGUE TAPE END.
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━━━━━━ RUNE'S ROOM. ੭

soooooo, I changed my mind. I originally said that the fight between them wasn't going to be anything dark but this just fit. although I definitely think I could've made it more impactful (the reason for the split), the way woojung reacted reflects his overall personality in asteryx as well, so it works out. doyun is a follower™ so that's why he followed woojung like a lost puppy. hajun is technically the sixth member of asteryx but due to the accident, he chose to become a soloist instead of work in a group... they are, however, under the same company. tea 🍵 🫶