Chapter Text
By the time it happened, Chenle had already been unraveling for weeks.
None of them noticed properly at first because Zhong Chenle had always been loud, dramatic, sarcastic, and annoyingly good at hiding when something hurt him. He complained about schedules while still showing up early. He whined during practice while still dancing properly. He argued with the members every single day and laughed five minutes later like nothing happened.
So when exhaustion started settling into his bones, nobody realized how deep it had gotten. Not even Chenle himself.
It started with smaller things. Like how he began sleeping in cars more often.
At first the members teased him endlessly about it. Jeno would poke his cheek every time his head dropped against the window while Haechan took blurry photos to send into their group chat.
“Look at him,” Haechan laughed one night, holding up his phone while Chenle slept awkwardly against the seatbelt. “Bro acts like he pays taxes and raises three children.”
Mark snorted from the front seat. “He’s twenty-something going on fifty.”
Normally Chenle would’ve immediately cursed them out. This time he only groaned weakly without opening his eyes. “Shut up…”
The members laughed again. Nobody noticed how tired his voice sounded.
Then came the practice room incidents.
“Again from the chorus,” their choreographer called out. The music restarted immediately.
Jisung moved automatically into position before frowning slightly halfway through the routine because Chenle missed the timing.
It wasn't a mistake so bad but enough to raise attention. Which was strange because the Zhong Chenle never missed timing.
“Yah,” Haechan called jokingly after the music stopped. “Were you dancing in another dimension?”
Chenle blinked toward the mirror like he’d only just realized practice ended. “…Huh?”
The room laughed. Even Chenle laughed a little too after that, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
But Jisung kept staring, because a few seconds earlier, Chenle had looked completely blank.
Not even like a distracted expression but pure blankness.
The teasing continued anyway because that was how Dream worked. That was how they loved each other.
“Chenle-ah, are you dying?” Jaemin asked dramatically one afternoon after Chenle walked straight past them without reacting to the noise in the dorm.
“Already dead,” Chenle mumbled tiredly.
“Good,” Renjun replied flatly from the couch. “Be quiet then.”
Chenle weakly flipped him off without even looking. Everyone burst out laughing. Nobody noticed he hadn’t eaten yet. Again.
Some nights became worse.Schedules stretched longer. Practices ended later. Their dorm grew quieter from exhaustion instead of comfort.
One evening, Mark walked into the kitchen around 2AM and found Chenle standing motionless in front of the refrigerator.
“…What are you doing?”
Chenle stared at the open fridge silently for a few seconds before answering. “I forgot.”
Mark laughed automatically. “You forgot why you opened the fridge?”
Chenle smiled too. But it looked tired. Really tired. “Maybe.”
Mark only ruffled his hair before walking away again. Later, he would remember that moment and feel sick over it.
Another day, Chenle accidentally dropped one of the microphones during rehearsal because his hands cramped unexpectedly. The sound echoed sharply across the room.
“Aigoo,” Haechan groaned dramatically. “You trying to bankrupt the company?”
“Maybe he’s trying to get out of schedules,” Jaemin added while laughing.
Chenle forced out a grin. “Good idea actually.” But when he bent to pick up the microphone, his hands shook slightly.
Jeno noticed. “Your wrist okay?”
Chenle immediately shoved both hands into his hoodie pocket. “Fine.”
He wasn’t.
It became almost routine after that.
Chenle forgetting meals. Chenle falling asleep sitting upright. Chenle staring too long at nothing. Chenle becoming quieter. Enough that the dorm sometimes felt wrong.
One night, Renjun found him asleep on the living room couch with his phone still unlocked in his hand and one shoe half removed. His neck bent awkwardly against the armrest looked painful enough that Renjun clicked his tongue immediately.
“How did you even fall asleep like this?”
Chenle didn’t wake up. Not even when Renjun carefully took the phone from his loose grip. That was unusual. Chenle normally woke at everything.
The worst part was that the members accidentally kept feeding the pressure without realizing it. Not cruelly. Never cruelly as belittlement. But along the edges, sometimes just carelessly. Because they were exhausted too.
“Chenle-ah, stop drifting during interviews.”
“You forgot the schedule again?”
“Yah, focus.”
“You’re seriously getting old.”
“Can you answer properly for once?”
Little comments. Little laughs. Little frustrations thrown carelessly between people who loved each other too much to realize when one of them was quietly drowning.
And Chenle—Chenle laughed through all of it. That was the problem.
The real warning sign happened three nights before everything collapsed.
Practice had ended past midnight and the dorm felt dead quiet except for the washing machine humming somewhere down the hall. Jaemin wandered toward Chenle’s room looking for his charger before stopping at the doorway.
Chenle sat on the floor surrounded by unfolded laundry. Not doing anything. Just sitting there. His hoodie sleeves covered his hands completely while clothes lay scattered around him untouched.
Jaemin frowned slightly. “Yah. Why are you sitting in darkness like a ghost?”
Chenle looked up slowly. For a second, his expression looked so exhausted it startled him. Then Chenle smiled again immediately. “I was folding laundry.”
Jaemin glanced around the room. “…None of these are folded.”
“Yeah,” Chenle said quietly. “I got tired.” Something about the way he admitted it felt strangely small.
Jaemin walked over automatically and dropped onto the floor beside him. “Then sleep.”
Chenle laughed softly without humor. “I think my body forgot how.” That should’ve been the moment someone realized how bad things had become.
Instead Jaemin only nudged his shoulder teasingly. “Drama queen.”
Chenle smiled again.
Always smiling. Even while breaking apart quietly underneath it all.