Final Puzzle Piece || SKZ 9th Member

Minho's Elimination

"I cannot not eliminate him. I hope you can understand that."

No one told Kala this could happen when she joined Stray Kids. Nobody told her to anticipate this moment. Not Chan, not Sora, not JYP himself. So how did they expect her to be prepared when they were going to eliminate one of her members? The very people she saw every day for the past months, the eight boys she built such a connection she didn't know she was capable of with, the family she grew so attached to that the idea of letting one of them go was impossible.

"The person who's eliminated is..."

Kala didn't like this. She didn't want to hear the next word. She wanted to cover her ears and scream at the top of her lungs so she wouldn't hear a thing besides her deafening voice. Because she wasn't ready to lose a member, she wasn't ready to lose a treasured person in her life.

She wasn't ready. She would never be ready.

"Minho."

And with the name being said, Kala's whole world came crashing down.

Her eyes burned and they slowly started to become bloodshot. A slump formed in her throat as she held back whimpers. The lips began to tremble slightly. She let out a short intake of breath, giving her best effort not to cry, not now when JYP was still in the room. Yet, a single stubborn tear managed to escape from her left eye.

All the words that came out from JYP after that were muffled. Kala was too focused to keep her wobbly feet standing on the ground when she knew she could crumble any minute, just like her dream to debut with all her members.

"... so work hard to prepare again."

Those were the last words before JYP left the studio, leaving the nine of them in the sorrow of saying goodbye to the eliminated member.

Once JYP was out of sight, Kala took off her bag from her performance with Jisung and Jeongin in 'School Life' and dropped it to the floor while moving forward to Minho, being the first person to hug him.

Minho who was still processing his elimination was a bit surprised by the younger girl's embrace. When he heard a sniffle from Kala, he immediately wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Don't cry. I'll be fine."

"But I won't," Kala cracked. Her sniffle quickly turned into a painful sobbing in the next second. "Don't go, please. I can't do this. Not without you."

That was the last string for Minho to let his tears run down his cheeks, and the same goes for some of the members. Felix was already a crying mess and so was Seungmin.

"You'll be fine, Kala. I'm sure you will." Minho gently stroked Kala's hair, assuring her.

That didn't work.

Kala bawled her eyes out even harder, hugging him so tight as if he would disappear. Well in this case, maybe he would. "No, please. You asked me to stay with you always so you should do the same," she bewailed, choking on her own tears. "Stay. Stay, oppa, please. I need you. We need you."

Minho didn't know what to say anymore. He just patted Kala's shoulder as she wasn't showing any sign of letting him go. Oh, how he wished he could do what she asked him, he would do that in a heartbeat so she'd stop crying. Only that, it wasn't possible. JYP had made his decision and there was nothing he could do.

Minutes later, Kala was still wailing so violently like she wanted to break her vocal cords on purpose. The agony was so real that the people in there could also feel it. This state was so similar back when she lost her parents to a plane crash. She couldn't prevent herself from going down to a depressive spiral.

The staffs in the studio and the other members started to feel worried about the girl, she could pass out if she continued crying like that. Until the leader eventually had to take over the situation.

Chan softly grabbed Kala's arm that circling Minho's neck while ruffling her hair so she wouldn't be shocked at the sudden detachment. "Kalie, hey," he called her as light as a feather, slowly separating her from Minho. "Minho's right, he'll be okay, you'll be okay. I'll make sure of that, just trust me, alright? You should let him go for now, can you do that, uri gongjunim¹?" (¹our princess)

No word came out of Kala's mouth, but she reluctantly pulled out from Minho's arms, still swimming with tears. But Minho wiped them off in a quick swipe before turning to Chan.

Jeongin was on Kala's side right away and brought her to his hold. He cried with her for the remaining moment while the other members finally had a chance to give their farewell to Minho.