It took Jeongyeon a while for her to react. Despite her already guessing what had happened, she still went around their small apartment, calling out for her mother and sister.

"It's okay, they will be okay." She chanted under her breath, trying to calm herself down as she brushed her hair back in frustration. However, she couldn't control the shaking of her own hands when she picked her mobile phone up from the table.

Her fingers hovered on the screen which had Jaebum's number on it. He was the first person that came to her mind since he was the one who brought her into the team. However, instead of tapping on the call button, she went back to her contact list and searched for Nayeon's name instead. 

Her boss had enough to worry about.

"Hello!" Nayeon's cheery voice came from the other side of the phone, completely unaware of the situation Jeongyeon's in. 

However, when Jeongyeon didn't make a response, Nayeon started to worry a little. Usually whenever she picked up her call, Jeongyeon would start questioning if she's safe and if she tried to escape again.

"Jeongyeon?"

For another brief moment, only Jeongyeon's heavy breathing could be heard.

"Are you okay?"

"Nayeon..." Jeongyeon finally started, a breath hitching slightly as she managed to utter out the next two words. "I'm scared..."

Nayeon sat up and put down the pen she was holding on. Noticing that she had gone quiet, Mark from the other side of the cafe shifted his attention from his cup noodle to her. When their eyes met, Mark got up from his chair and walked up to where Nayeon was.

"Where are you? We can head over—"

"No..." Jeongyeon managed to utter out, cutting off Nayeon's suggestion. "This place might be watched, come pick me up with the truck. I will send you an address."

Nayeon met her eyes with Mark's again after the call, which the latter seemed to sense that something's up.

"What's wrong?" 

"Jeongyeon didn't say much but she's scared." Nayeon stood up from her seat. "Should we call the rest? I will make up some excuse for my family."

"Are you kids going out?" The sudden question from Nayeon's mother behind them made Nayeon let out a yelp of surprise. 

"Don't sneak up like this!" Nayeon exclaimed, placing a hand on her chest as she spoke. "But yes, I think we have to head out for a while. Don't deduct Mark's pay, please?"

"It's not even his working hours." Nayeon's mother spoke in a matter of fact way. "He's just here because you're here. Have you still not accepted him?"

Clearing , Nayeon took a quick glance at Mark who's standing by the side and looking totally unbothered by the assumption made by her mother.

"It's not what you think..." Nayeon started but trailed off. Her mother wouldn't believe her anyway.

"Nayeon." Mark interrupted the conversation and held up his phone which showed an incoming call from Bambam.

Knowing that something might really be happening, Nayeon turned back to face her mother.

"We have to go. I won't be back late, don't worry!" Nayeon grabbed her own jacket that was resting on the table then muttered under her breath. "Hopefully."

"Have fun on your date!" Nayeon's mother waved which Nayeon rolled her eyes as a response.

"I told you it's not like that!"

Once they're out of the cyber cafe, Mark called Bambam back. However, it didn't seemed like Jeongyeon had contacted him. Instead, he mentioned that Park Sangwon was acting suspicious and both Jaebum and himself were guessing that it's related to the former.

"You're not wrong." Mark took a quick glance at Nayeon who was on the phone with Jeongyeon again. "It is kind of targeted at him but not directly."

There was a silent pause from the other side of the phone before Bambam spoke up.

"Jeongyeon?"

"We're on the way to pick her up." Mark continued, "Nayeon said she sounded really scared."

"Jeongyeon had always been cool headed no matter what happened." Bambam added at the end. "Jaebum's with me, give us an address."

The call ended shortly after Mark provided Bambam the address Jeongyeon had provided them earlier. It was an address that led them to the front of a random apartment. They really couldn't afford to have more information of themselves exposed to Im Jongmin's and Park Sangwon's side.

Although it did seem like they'd found out more than what the team had expected.

It didn't take long for all of them to gather in the moving truck. When the truck arrived at the address Jeongyeon provided, she was quiet and Jaebum had an arm around her shoulder, occasionally giving her a few gentle pats whenever he felt her shaking. 

"Her family's missing." Bambam stated as he followed after Jaebum and Jeongyeon up onto the truck. "Or rather, like what we've guessed, captured."

Mark's face darkened at the news and Nayeon walked up to Jeongyeon which Jaebum stepped aside, knowing that Nayeon could provide a better comfort than him. 

"Jinyoung?" Jaebum asked, noticing the absence of the idol singer.

"He didn't pick up—"

"It's okay, don't call him." Jeongyeon interrupted Nayeon. "It's promotion period for him."

Jaebum only nodded as a response before he asked the question.

"What exactly happened?"

Jeongyeon who was sitting on a chair looked up at her boss; Nayeon who was still by her side did too. 

"Someone had to ask, we are here to help." Jaebum added on when Nayeon threw him a look. "Jeongyeon, are you calm now?"

Jeongyeon took in a deep breath and nodded.

"Good." Jaebum gave her a small rare assuring smile. "It will be okay, tell us what happened?"

Jeongyeon looked around and saw the same assuring smile on Nayeon's face, the firm nod from Mark and the thumb up from Bambam. In that instance, she felt a lot better and for the first time that evening, she knew that things would be alright.

Taking in a deep breath, Jeongyeon proceeded to telling everyone how she was the one who went out to get the groceries and when she was back, both her sick mother and younger sister were gone. The house was in a mess too.

She also added that her sister mentioned that she felt that someone was stalking her lately.

"I should have believed my sister." Jeongyeon started getting agitated again. "I was careless. She told me that she felt that she was followed by a stalker. I never expect them to find my family."

"It's not your fault." Jaebum cut her off with his firm voice. "We were careless. I was careless. I thought Im Jongmin would be after me alone."

"Do you think the phone call Park Sangwon received earlier had something to do with this?" Bambam asked.

"Phone call?" Mark who was in his thoughts, looked up at the younger boy. "What phone call?"

"We bumped into Park Sangwon and his daughter at Jaebum's office." Bambam explained. "I went to look for him after feeding Nora and while Jaebum talked to his princess—"

Bambam paused for a while, giving Jaebum a nervous smile when the latter threw him a glare.

"Anyway, I noticed Park Sangwon took a few glances at Jaebum when he was on the phone. It was suspicious."

"And from what Jeongyeon told us, the timing matched." Jaebum concluded. 

"Taecyeon was right then." Mark spoke up. "He was guessing that capturing Nayeon wasn't their priority anymore. Those old men want us to reveal ourselves. I was revealed when I saved Nayeon."

"How did they find out about Jeongyeon then?" Nayeon asked this time.

"Jeongmi's high school wifi system." Jeongyeon spoke quietly. "Ever since that DdoS attack, almost every school switched to KC Telecom. She'd been complaining that our wifi connection was bad but I've been so busy with my mother, I completely forgot about it. She'd been staying in school a lot more because of her upcoming deadlines. I think that's where those people started from."

"But why Jeongyeon?" Nayeon questioned again.

"Because she's the longest assistant I ever had." Jaebum crossed his arms and leant against a table. "I don't keep assistant by my side for more than three months. She's been with me for years, that enough would have brought suspicions. I should have thought better."

"It's not your fault, boss." Jeongyeon cut him off before he could continue. "I'm grateful towards you. However, I've got another question. Why now?"

"They want Jaebum to reveal himself and maybe the rest of us too." Mark brought their attention back to the original topic. "Which means they've been digging into our information."

"It's not easy to go into our system." Bambam voiced out. "We are always changing our IP addresses and the way we do things."

"When I first came across you people, you told me you've been watched, right?" Nayeon brought the attention to herself this time. "Mark saved me, his face is known to them now. Udon... he's been hacked."

"We always upgrade his program—"

"Which means," Jeongyeon interrupted Bambam's statement. "Someone else who's a lot stronger than us is behind their computer screen. That would explain the DdoS attack the other time. Someone as good as Taecyeon."

Silence took over the truck again.

"Stay low for now. Jeongyeon, you take a break from everything until we get more information. Don't come to the truck." Jaebum commanded but that only brought protests from the girl.

"Let me help."

"This is an order from your boss." Jaebum stayed firm on his decision. "Bambam, you're my assistant until this is over."

"What?" Bambam turned to face the older boy abruptly, his eyes widening. "I didn't not agree to this!"

"You helped fed Nora earlier, didn't you?" Jaebum confirmed. "That's a start."

"But—" Bambam looked around, hopefully to get some help from the others. But Mark only kept his usual straight face. Nayeon gave him a shrug and Jeongyeon, she had chuckled a little.

"Fine."

—

Days passed and there was still no information on the whereabouts of Jeongyeon's family. There were no calls; Udon wasn't able to get much from the CCTV near Jeongyeon's place. The fact that her place was at a more secluded area made the search harder even for Udon.

Jinyoung had also found out what happened from Nayeon. He had initially wanted to ask Jeongyeon for a quick meet up so he could check up on her. However, Nayeon had also forbidden him to do that, saying that Jeongyeon didn't want to talk to any of them right now.

Even for the meetings, no one wanted Jeongyeon involved.

She might not have mention it but everyone knew that the situation was stressing her out.

"She needs to let it out." Nayeon voiced out during one of their meetings. Everyone was there except Jeongyeon and Jinyoung. "She's keeping everything to herself. I wish she would cry all her stress out."

"Jeongyeon doesn't cry." Bambam was the first to have a response to Nayeon's words.

"Everybody cries." Nayeon retorted before Bambam could continue. "If you're a human, you will cry. I'm pretty sure every single one of you here cry too."

She paused for a while to look at everyone's reaction however, only silence greeted her as the males in the room looked away awkwardly. 

"Now, I'm just worried she's somewhere out there crying alone." Nayeon continued with a soft sigh after.

"You say this but you didn't let us talk to her." Jaebum muttered under his breath in an accusing tone.

"I've tried talking to her." Nayeon explained. "But she shut me out with a 'I'm fine' and hung up on me. That was her way of telling us to leave her alone."

---

this is a relatively short chapter as compared to the previous ones. but it's an important chapter, the next two chapters are all important bc 1) it's jeongyeon's arc. 2) character developments. 3) relationships development. especially the next one. 

i have nothing much to say so just, leave your thoughts down and some votes maybe? <3