"I'm not telling you where June is," Jay sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose.

"Why not?" Akira exclaimed, his eyes puffy from last night's crying session. In fact, all of the members' eyes were puffy even those who took pride in not crying.

"You told us to sleep it off," Jisung sniffed. "We already did! Now, tell us where he is."

Jay pursed his lips. "I never told you that I would disclose his whereabouts."

"Why the heck not?" Zeth asked. "Don't we have the right to know where he is as his members?"

"Because I know you'll cause a ruckus," Jay said. "You're going to look for him when, in fact, we have a meeting with Sir Lei today. Tonight, you also have the jacket shoot for your new album."

"You expect us to go through with that?" Sehun asked. "After all of this has happened?" Jay's head started hurting once more. No amount of painkillers worked for what he was feeling. He needed to drink! However, he wanted to be strong for the boys.

"Yes," Jay said. "It's what June wants."

"Why would he want that?" Ren exclaimed.

"I know, right," Jay muttered. He was also against it at first. However, he couldn't forget what June had said to him yesterday night.

"Life needs to continue," Jay said, quoting June's words. "It cannot stop because something like this happened. I know it sounds ridiculous, but this is one way to protect yourselves. You need to continue working. Otherwise, the company will target you too. Now, I wouldn't stop you from sharing your thoughts about the situation with Sir Lei; however-"

"How about June?" Jisung said, tears falling from his eyes.

The sight of their youngest member crying made their hearts ache. They looked away and tried their best not to cry along with him.

"Who's going to protect June?" he asked.

Jay pursed his lips. "Through this, we are protecting June, too," he softly said.

"How?" Jisung asked, his voice raising from anger. "Is it going to bring him back to the group?"

That was the limit of Jay's knowledge.

"I don't know," he whispered, looking down at the floor. No matter how strong he wanted to be for the boys, in reality, he also had a lot of uncertainties.

And the biggest one was whether June would be able to come back to the group or not.

Jaeyong raked his fingers through his hair and brought out his phone. He was desperate to look for something, anything, when he saw a notification pop up on his phone.

June is live!

He lifted his head. "Did the company seize June's account?" he asked.

"Yes," Jay responded. "Not only him but all of you had been logged out. The company said this would control the damage. However, I think they're just silencing your support for him."

"Then, why is he live right now?" he asked, causing the members to turn to him with wide eyes.

"What?" Jay exclaimed, not believing it. However, it was real. Jaeyong showed them the notification.

"Crap," Jay muttered. "Play it on the television right now."

They scrambled to get to the living room. Jaeyong quickly cast his screen on the television- and there, they saw June.

Somehow, they couldn't help but smile once they saw him.

"He looks...okay," Jisung muttered.

"He looks more than okay," Akira chimed. "He looks better than us-that bastard. Even though he appears tired, he's still good-looking as fuck."

June waited for a few seconds as the people spilled in.

Not even a minute in, yet there were already a million people in his livestream. It felt like not only fans were interested in the case.

- June?

- What the heck? I thought he was out of EVE. Why is he still using the official account?

- Shame on you.

- I hate seeing his face.

- Then, fucking leave.

- Please, June. Tell us what's really going on.

- This is so interesting! I don't even like K-pop, but I'm tuned in.

- We hate people like you.

-You made the rest of EVE suffer, June!

- We support you, oppa.

- I just want to get the facts, please.

June let out a deep breath before starting.

"Hi," he started off. "It's June."

Then, he paused as he collected his thoughts.

"I don't really know how to start this. Yesterday, everything changed so fast. One moment, I'm practicing with my members like we always do... and the next, I'm being accused of something I can't even wrap my head around."

"I've always given everything I have to this. Every practice, every stage, every moment with you all—I've never taken any of it for granted. I know what this life means. I know what you mean to us. To me."

He looked down and took a deep breath before looking back at the camera.

"It hurts me to know that some of you are suffering right now. I'm so, so sorry for the pain it's caused you, for the confusion, the disappointment. I never wanted to be the reason any of you

felt hurt."

"Why is he apologizing?" Jaeyong asked with a frown.

"He shouldn't be apologizing when he didn't even do anything wrong!" Jisung exclaimed.

"The company should be the one apologizing."

"I knew it was too good to be true," Zeth muttered, leaning against the couch and looking up

at the ceiling. "Everything was going too well."

"Shh," Akira said just as June said his next words.

"I don't know what happens from here. I don't know what's next. But please, if you can't believe in me right now... believe in the other members of EVE. They don't deserve this. They've worked so hard, and they're like my brothers. They've always been there for me, and I need you to be there for them now. Please show them love and support. They need you."

"Fuck you, June," Akira spat. "Why are you still concerned about us?"

Jay pursed his lips. June really cherished the group so much.

Then, June let out a deep breath before going closer to the camera. It seemed like the sadness had left his eyes, and replacing it was something that looked-murderous.

The members felt chills running down their spines.

"Before I end, I need to say this," he continued, looking straight into the camera with those

intense eyes.

"Loud and clear."

"I did-

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