You’d known Jeremey since you moved to Korea and you two were relatively close. So when he asked you over to watch a movie you didn’t think twice about it.

So you were surprised when he tried to lead you away from the TV and towards his bedroom, pushing you by your shoulders.

“Um excuse me?” you dig your feet into the floor, stopping him.

“What? Don’t you want to play?”

“No I don’t!”

He chuckles, “Of course you do, come on.” He pushes you again, but you stand your ground. So he gives you a hard shove and you tumble forwards towards the door frame, smacking your head on the solid wood with a crack.

He gasps loudly, leaning down. “Oh god are you alright? I’m sorry I thought you were messing around!”

But you scramble away from him, feeling your head. You pull back your hand to see it red with blood.

“Oh .” He groans, holding out his hand to touch it but you scramble up and into his bathroom slamming the door and locking it.

Your breath comes heavy in your throat. You know it wasn’t on purpose but he still hurt you. His shove was hard and cruel, and he had ignored your clear ‘no’. You never thought he’d do something like this.

Too much blood runs down your face and you glance in the mirror, a large dark gash on your brow bone is seeping red. You know it's only this bad because it's a head wound, but you're still in shock.

“Y/N? Come on out, I need to see how bad it is.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“Look, I’m really sorry.”

You don’t answer, running the tap to try and drown him out.

You have the overwhelming sensation of feeling very vulnerable. Trapped in his bathroom you know you have to leave at some point, but then what? He won’t let you leave with a head wound, and you can hardly walk home.

You need someone to pick you up, someone to get you.

And then it hits you. The boys!

You reach for your phone, knowing that despite it being late they’ll more than likely be awake. You find Woozi’s number and go to hit call when you stop yourself.

You and Jihoon are close, the closest you are to anyone, and you’ve developed very strong feelings for him that you’re almost certain are reciprocated. Neither of you have said it but you catch him staring all too often, blushing when he’s caught and quickly turning away. You poke his dimples when he smiles and it makes him laugh all the more. And the skinship shy boy even lets you hold his hand and rest your shoulder on his head, though he’ll never look you in the eye.

But he also has a temper, a temper you’ve seen many times when the boys are too rowdy when he’s tired. Or when one of them gets too friendly with you. You’ve seen how his eyes narrow and he pushes in between you. You’ve even seen him scold poor Minghao after he pushed a strand of your hair out of your eyes when your hands were full.

You couldn’t imagine what he’d do to Jeremy if you told him what happened.

So you find another name and push your phone to your face.

“I need you to come get me.” You whisper quietly, careful to cover your mouth with your hand.

“Where are you?” Seungcheol sounds confused. “Why are you whispering? Are you ok?”

“No. Yeah, I’m fine. I just I need to get home. I need to go, now.”

He must hear something in your voice because he agrees. “Alright, where are you?”

You hesitate, then give him the address. You wait for him to recognise it, having been to Jeremey’s flat before. If he does, he doesn’t say anything. “Fifth floor, flat 28. Please come right up. Seungcheol?”

 “Yeah?”

“Can you bring some of the boys?” You don’t think Jeremey would stop you from leaving with Seungcheol, but you feel safer knowing Scoups won’t be alone. “Jun and Mingyu. And Wonwoo? If you can.” You think of the three tallest, the three most likely to be intimidating, at face value at least.

“I’m on it.”

“And don’t tell Jihoon!”

“Don’t tell-?”

“No, don’t tell him. Please.”

“Ok, sit tight, we’re on our way.” Leader Coups activated. You feel safer with the locked door, but there’s only so long you can stay here.

A light knock makes you jump violently. “Y/N?” His voice is tentative, gentle. You can hear the regret laced into every word. “Are you alright, can I come in?”

You close your eyes, willing Scoups to get there faster. “I’m fine. Just gimme a minute.” You heave yourself up to look in the mirror again. You don’t want to alarm the boys when they turn up, so you wipe away the fresh blood and try once again to stop the bleeding. But the wound is too tender to put too much pressure on it. You feel a jolt of panic as you think you might have to get stitches.

By the time you hear the knock at the front door, you look a lot better. You take off the wad of toilet paper you’ve been sticking to your head and unlock the bathroom door as Jeremy opens the front door. “Y/N?” Scoups pushes past a confused Jeremey and halts as he sees your face. It takes him a moment to recover. “Come on.” He growls, gripping your wrist tightly and tugging you towards Jun and Mingyu who are hovering in the doorway. He pushes you gently into Jun who rearranges his confused face quickly to wrap an arm around your shoulder.

“Y/N, come on don’t be like this.” Jeremey starts forwards but Seungcheol squares up to him.

“Coups don’t,” you say softly, turning in Jun’s arms. Wonwoo and Mingyu start forward and you squeak, “guys.” But they just grip Scoups by his shoulders and drag him out of the apartment.

You file into Seungcheol’s car silently and you’re led into the front seat. Scoups sets off, turning up the radio so you don’t have to sit in silence.

 “Where are we going?” You glance out the window, the streets unfamiliar in the darkness.

 “Home.”

“This isn’t the way home.”

“It’s the way to our home.” You glance at Seungcheol next to you in the driver’s seat. He glares back at you as long as he can before clamping his eyes back on the road. “I don’t think you should be on your own. And he knows where you live.”

“I don’t think he’d come to my house.” But as you say it you realise that’s exactly what he’ll do. Not to scare you, but because he is genuinely concerned about you, and your friendship.

“Don’t argue.” Jun leans around your seat, sticking his face in your line of vision.

“Thanks for coming to get me.” You mumble, your head throbbing. Seongcheol’s hand squeezes your arm lightly. “You didn’t tell Woozi did you?”

“No. But you’ll have to tell him when they get back from the studio.”

You glance at Scoups again, taking him in for the first time, he’s wearing a tank top and sweatpants, and his hair is slightly damp with sweat. You turn to look in the back and see those three are the same. You close your eyes. “You were at practice.”

“Yeah.” Wonwoo’s deep voice reaches your ears.

“It doesn’t matter.” Scoups assures you. “We weren’t getting anywhere with the choreography anyways.”

 You still feel guilty, dragging them away from their hard work for your drama. You feel Jun’s hand grip your shoulder from the other side and his hand holds onto you for the rest of the journey, and you feel endlessly grateful to have these boys in your life.

Ten minutes later and you’re sat in their dorm with a mug of chrysanthemum tea freshly brewed and pushed into your hand by Jun.

Scoups sits next to you while the others disappear into other rooms, presumably on his order. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

You shake your head, taking a sip. “It’s not what you think. It was an accident.”

“Don’t lie for him.”

“No, Scoups, really, he didn’t mean to hurt me he was just trying to push me towards the bedroom.”

 That didn’t seem to make things better. “The bedroom?”

 “Yeah. He…er…got the wrong idea. He thought I came over to…”

Scoups sighs loudly, hanging his head back. “Good call not telling Wooz.” You nod. “You know then?” He asks after a while. “That he’s… you know…” He waves in your general direction.

“What?” You like seeing him squirm, it takes your mind off your sore head.

He shuffles in his seat. “You know. He’s got a little…” He drops your gaze, turning a little pink, “…thing for you. Well it’s not really that little, it’s pretty big, he doesn’t shut up about you.” You grin to yourself feeling your face warm. “That’s better. It’s good to see you smile again.”

You hear the front door swing open and the sound of nine excited voices and footsteps spilling into the quiet house. Jun, Mingyu and Wonwoo re-emerge at the noise. You glance nervously at Scoups who returns the look.

“Hey, hyung, where did you get to?” Vernon makes it all the way into the dorm before he clocks your presence. “Y/N! What are you doing here?”

The rest of the boys had filtered in grinning at you and waving, before catching the bloody wound on your forehead, their faces falling. Woozi is last in but his head snaps up at your name. His eyes sweep the room violently until they rest on you. He scuttles forwards but halts in his tracks when he fully takes you in.

“Y/N? What happened? What are you doing here?”

You half stand, cautious of his face slowly crinkling in worry. You clutch your cooling mug tightly, out of the corner of your eye you see the other boys trying to listen but escape at the same time.

“I err… needed help with something.”

He steps forwards, his eyes never leaving your eyebrow. “Why didn’t you call me?”

You wring your hands nervously. “I didn’t want you to get upset.”

His brows knit in confusion. “Why would I get upset?” Then it seems comprehension dawns on his face. “D-did someone do this to you?”

You hear some of the younger boys ushered out of the room by Joshua and Jeonghan. “Look I was at Jeremey’s and it was an accident, Jihoon, he didn’t mean it.” His eyes fly wide open and he stammers a little, before turning around and heading out the door. “Wooz!” You follow him out and down the corridor where he’s striding down. You catch up to him and duck around him so you block his path. “Wait. Don’t, please.” You put your hands on his chest to stop him, under your palms he’s shaking.

“He hurt you.” His voice come out strained through his gritted teeth.

“I know, I know, but you can’t just storm over there.”

“I want to protect you, keep you safe!” He grips your wrist tightly.

“I know. But you can’t do that if you get arrested for beating the crap out of someone.”

 His brows furrow again, his breathing heavy. It seems to take a great deal of energy for him to keep from storming away from you. “He can’t get away with this. He hurt you,” his burning eyes meet yours, “and no one hurts you.”

“Look, it’s ok. It looks worse than it is I promise.”

Woozi closes his eyes. “Did he hit you?”

“No. He pushed me and I hit the door.”

His eyes fly open. “He pushed you?”

You feel the pressure of his chest under your hands and he starts to move forwards again.

“No!” you warn, stopping him. “Please, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

He is silent, but he stops pushing against you, looking at your eyebrow. His hand reaches out slowly to cup your face, his palm soft and cool against your cheek. “I can’t bear it.” He whispers, his face getting closer to yours, careful not to touch his forehead against yours. “I can’t see you like this.”

“I’m fine.” You whisper back, feeling more and more like that’s true the closer Woozi pushes himself to you.

“Please let me kill him, just a little bit?”

“No,” you sigh, trying not to grin.

“Your breath tickles.” His hand moves from your check to your neck.

“Sorry.” You lean back slightly so you can see his clearly. His dark eyes are very close to you and his breathing is hitched. You see his face growing pink as he realises what he’s doing and his hand slips from your skin. “Are you going to come back into the dorm now?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

You lead him back into the dorm to be met with expectant eyes who all flicker away at a glare from Woozi.

“Y/N, you’re staying here tonight.” Scoups announces. You open your mouth to protest but he cuts across you, “I don’t want you on your own tonight. None of us do. You can sleep in Woozi’s studio he falls asleep there all the time, don’t you?”

“Yeah. I’ll show you how to get comfy.”

“I’m sure you will.” You hear Hoshi mutter with a wink. If Woozi hears he chooses to ignore it.

Once you’re tucked under blankets and given a carefully selected cuddly toy to hold onto Woozi squeezes next to you. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah. I’m sure. I’ve got my little brother’s looking after me, right?”

“Right.” He pulls you closer, his hand your hair. “Just don’t scare me like that again, alright?”

“Alright, as long as you don’t get mad like that again.”

He doesn’t reply, running his fingers over your scalp again and again until you feel sleepy. “Of course I got mad,” He says eventually, when you’re on the edge of sleep, “your mine.”

You move your head upwards. “I’m yours? Does that make you mine?”

He blushes in the low light, and you think that maybe he believed you were asleep. But he sounds confident enough when he says, “Yes, it does.” He leans down, pulling your chin up and pushes his lips gently into yours. “I like the sound of that.”

You grin. “Me too.”