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Banri was extremely stressed these days. The amount of work are too overwhelming for him. That includes academic works, part-time jobs, band pratices and performance.
Those together were enough to break him already, and to make it worse, his younger sister got into an accident and is in great need of money to pay for the treatment. At this point, Banri was surprised that he somehow still able to pull himself together and not having a mental breakdown yet.
To reduce the financial pressure in the family, Banri decided to work longer night shifts and at the same time dealing with essays and practices. He was getting very little amount of sleep to the point it is worrying. And for the worse part, there are times he couldn’t even fall asleep due to the stress and anxiety even though he is both mentally and physically tired.
With all of these, Banri still stuck to his cheerful personality and took well care of the members. He made sure to have a smile on his face so that the others wouldn’t be worried about him.
Despite his efforts, the rest of Argonavis couldn’t help but noticed the tiredness on the smaller’s face. Rio sometimes would even wake up in the middle of the night and saw Banri focusing on schoolworks, or to find the spot next to him empty.
At the end of a practice session, Banri received a phone call. For a second, his face was full of worried. “Banri-kun?” Wataru noticed and got concerned. “I’m sorry. Gotta answer the phone. Be right back!”
Banri went out of the studio and made sure no one is around before answering the phone call. “Mom? How is she right now?… Still in a coma… I see. Remember to tell me immediately when she wake up. I will work extra hard for the medical fees, so don’t worry… Eh?? No need to apologise mom!! Family comes first. Remember to take care of yourself too…. Love you mom.”
After cutting of the call, Banri sighed and wiped the tear that was threatening to come out of his eyes. He mumbled to himself to stay strong before going back inside the studio. To his surprise, everyone was looking at him, with worries and concerns in their eyes.
“Guys, what’s wrong?” Banri asked, confused on why they all had this expression.
“Banri, be honest. Are you hiding something?” Yuuto asked.
“Of course not! Look, I am fine. I— Banri, I apologise for overhearing your phone call. But everything is not going so well for you, right? You are definitely not fine, right?” Ren interrupted and asked, walking closer to Banri.
“Shiroishi, do you know that you looked very tired? In these few weeks, I couldn’t count the number of times you were not sleeping or not even home when I wake up in midnight.” Rio knew Banri would find excuses to make them not worry, and he wasn’t gonna let him do it.
“We are a family, Banri-kun. You always take care of us, but maybe rely on us too? It’s no good that you keep it all to yourself.” Wataru added.
Ren pulled Banri into a hug, and at this point, the smaller couldn’t hold it in anymore and broke down into tears. The stress had been eating him up, and it had went way beyond his limit already.
Seeing Banri crying his heart out, the others also walked over to try and console him. It took the blonde a bit of time before finally opening up the whole story, from his younger sister accident to all the other work load that accumulated the stress.
Not only the members, even Banri was surprised how he was able to hold it in that long and hadn’t passed out yet. Ren was also getting emotional from listening how much he had been through and seeing his emotional breakdown.
After a while, Banri had stopped crying. “I am sorry for making you guys worried… Honestly I don’t even know how long more I can keep it to myself…” he wiped his tears and apologised, which earned himself a friendly smack from Yuuto. “Why are you even apologizing? The only thing that matters now is you getting a good rest.”
“I know you are having a hard time right now, Shiroishi, but things will only get worse if you decide to go on like this. You should talk to the professors in school as well as stopping band practice for now.” Rio suggested.
“Banri-kun, we are not going to stop you from your part-time jobs, since we all know that you won’t take any money from us even if we offer to. However, you should put other stuff aside first and use the remaining time to rest. When things are getting better, you can continue.” Wataru added, patting the shorter’s head.
“Thanks everyone…”
As soon as they got home, Banri was forced to take a shower first while Rio prepared dinner with Yuuto. After the blonde got out of the shower, Wataru helped him to blow dry his hair. He also made sure to give Banri a small massage to ease his tensed muscles.
Banri was working night shifts, so it felt like it has been a long time since they ate dinner together. As usual they were talking about their lives and such, and even though Banri weren’t as energetic as before, the atmosphere is still comfortable and all of them were happy.
After they have finished their meal, Banri sat on the sofa and played with Pon-chan for a bit. Soon, Ren walked over to them and sat beside him. “Banri, do you want to sleep together tonight?” Ren suggested, which made the blonde surprised a bit but still nodded, agreeing to the suggestion.
While the others were doing the chores, Ren took a quick shower and changed to his pajams while Banri was sitting on the bed, waiting for him.
However, after lying down on the bed, Banri felt restless again. He understood that Ren’s suggestion was to make him feel company to fall asleep more easily, but come to think of it, him and Rio shared the same bed, and nothing seemed to change.
Worries and concerns surrounded his mind again, but before Banri could do anything, he felt Ren pulling him into a hug. “Ren-kun?” “If you need, I can sing for you as well.” Ren said as he hugged the smaller tighter.
Hearing Banri’s yes please, Ren started singing Starry Line, but a much slower version. It was like a blessing to their ears, and as if it had some magical powers, Banri soon fell asleep and so did Ren.
“Where is Ren and Banri?” Yuuto asked, realising that both of them were quiet for a long time.
“I think I heard them saying about sleep together?” Rio said as he put down the mop.
Once Wataru was done doing the laundry, they went to open the door of Ren’s bedroom. There, on the bed, they saw Banri and Ren snuggling together, with Ren’s arm around the shorter.
These put a smile on their face, mostly because it was cute and Banri could finally get some rest. Wataru made sure they were tugged inside the blanket before leaving.
“Oyasumin.”