Chapter 24

                                    

                                          
The performance was already the next week and all of them were working hard trying to prepare themselves for it. They were tired, even exhausted, and Jisung was torturing himself.
He needed everything to be perfect and he was stressed about it. He was overworking himself, not sleeping enough and spending all his time trying to repeat the same song again and again, trying to beat his most cruel fear.
His friends were as busy as him, they just weren't torturing themselves as much as he did. They were all individually worried for him, but none of them knew how to help him.
Stray kids
Linhoe
Has anyone seen Jisung?
Dramalama
Changbin? Chan?
Daddybang
We left the studio a few hours before, I think he's still there
Lixie
That man has to stop overworking himself
Linhoe
I'll try to put some senses into him
Seungmean
Sounds sexy
Linhoe 
shut up
Besties
(Linhoe, Squirrel, Lixie)
Squirrel
I'm not doing any friday's night tonight, I have to work
Sorry guys
Lixie
It's okay
I have to work on the choreo w Hyunjin too
Linhoe
mmh
Minho was skeptical about how Jisung was pressuring himself. It wasn't healthy, and if Jisung continued like that, he will burn out even before the performance. 
Minho went to his studio, knocking at the door. Jisung opened the door, looking completely out of it. He had big dark circles, his hair a complete mess with some headphones placed on it. He was wearing a shirt that he had probably put the all week.
"You look bad" Minho said
"Thanks man" Jisung said, letting the boy enter the studio "What are you doing here?"
"Show me your song" Minho said unbothered, as he sat down on a chair, watching him
"W-What?" Jisung said, taken aback
"I wanna see your song"
"No"
"Why not?" 
"I'm shy"
"You're going to perform it in front of a whole crowd, my presence doesn't change anything" 
Jisung sighed as he went to the other side. He turned the recording on, letting the song go as Chan and Changbin parts were going on. When it was his time to rap, he did it, flawlessly, until the song ended. Minho was looking at him amazed during the whole song, completely absorbed by Jisung's persona. He clapped when the song came to an end, smiling at the boy.