“When did he leave?” Daehyun asked, curious as to how long Youngjae had actually waited for him.

                “Just… 20 or 30 minutes ago, actually.  He was with a really pretty girl.”

                Daehyun furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.  A girl?

                “Yeah… I don’t normally go for the crazy hair colors, but this one… the purple hair really suited her, you know?”

                This caught Daehyun’s attention.  Purple hair?  He only knew one person by that description.  Hyosung?  What would she have been doing here?

                “He was a bit of a lightweight, though.  Four drinks and that poor girl had to practically carry him out.  He was barely conscious.  A bit embarrassing for a guy, if you ask me.”

                “T-thanks for your help,” Daehyun thanked the bartender and turned to leave, still trying to process all of the nonsensical information he had been given.  What were Hyosung and Youngjae doing together?  And what had been wrong with Youngjae?  Daehyun had seen the younger drink and knew that he could take much more of a hit than that.  Something seemed off, but the manager couldn’t put his finger on it.  He pulled out his phone, found Hyosung’s number in the phonebook and gave it a call.

                “Don’t worry, I’ll take you home,” Hyosung said as she stumbled to support Youngjae’s weight on her high heels, the younger man barely able to hold himself up.

                “Thanks, noona,” he slurred.  His mind was fuzzy and he could barely concentrate, only having coherent thoughts every now and then.  Everything else was a blur or just a spot of black.  Luckily they were soon at a taxi and Hyosung was helping him in.  He leaned his head against the window, appreciating the soothing coolness of the glass.  He closed his eyes and worked hard not to pass out as Hyosung directed the driver where to go.

                Wait… that wasn’t his address… He opened his mouth to say so, but the words wouldn’t form, his tongue wouldn’t move.  Before he could get the sentence out, his mind was blank and he was passed out against the car door.

                Daehyun ran his hands through his hair as he unlocked the B.A.P. building door and headed up to his floor.  He kept trying to call both Hyosung and Youngjae, but neither were answering their phones.  He had gone to Youngjae’s house to see if he had gone home, but nobody answered the door and there was no noise inside.  Now he had come to the office to see if maybe, by some miracle, the pair had ended up here instead.

                He arrived at Youngjae’s dressing room door and knocked.  Even though he had known better, he was still disappointed when there was no answer.  He tried the door, but it was locked.  Luckily he had the keys and opened it, just to check for certain that no one was inside.  The door swung open and Daehyun flipped the light switch.  The room was exactly how it always was and there was no Youngjae in sight.

                Unsure of what to do from here, he gave the room one more desperate glance over, hoping that Youngjae would pop up out of some shadowed corner.  As his eyes scanned over all of the nooks and crannies, something lying on the table caught his attention.  Daehyun walked over and lifted the white piece of paper in his hand, eyes widening when he realized what it was.

                Was Youngjae really still getting these stalker letters?  Why hadn’t he said anything?  Daehyun searched through Youngjae’s desk to try and find more, but there weren’t any.  His eyes then moved to the trash can next to the desk and noticed the ripped pieces of paper inside.  Pushing away coffee cups and candy wrappers (wasn’t Youngjae supposed to be dieting?) he finally managed to pull out all the important pieces, putting them together. 

                You’re not safe with these people

                I’ll protect you

                We’ll be together soon

                Just wait for me

                This was worse than he had thought.  Why hadn’t Youngjae said anything?  Daehyun then realized that it was probably because of Junhong.  The manager hadn’t exactly been accessible while the younger boy had been around and he wanted to punch himself.  He really had been failing all across the board lately. 

                He stood up, digging his phone out of his pocket and opened the phonebook.  His finger hovered over the name, apprehensive to push it since he wasn’t sure what the reaction would be, but he needed help.  He clicked the name and held the phone up to his ear, listening to it ring.  The ringing continued and continued and Daehyun was about to give up when the call finally clicked through and a gruff voice answered on the other end.

                “What do you want?”

                Daehyun momentarily startled at the fact that the man actually answered.  “I…uh… wow.  You picked up.”

                “Yeah, I almost didn’t.  What do you want, Daehyun?” Yongguk asked again, his voice clearly irritated.

                “Right.  It’s about Youngjae.  I can’t find him and I’m a bit concerned about something that I found in his dressing room.  Could you come take a look?”

                Daehyun waited with bated breath as Yongguk gave an irritated sigh on the other end, blatantly debating what to do.

                “I’ll be there in 10.”

                Youngjae slowly opened his eyes, wincing at the searing pain raging through his head.  Where was he?  What had he been doing? His eyes started to focus and he took in his surroundings, but they were completely unfamiliar.  Except for… was that him on the wall?

                Youngjae’s eyes darted around the room and he was greeted with his own visage peering down at him from every angle.  Pictures of him coated the walls like wallpaper, some framed on the desk.  There were clippings from magazines and newspapers and screenshots from shows that he had been on, but those weren’t the disturbing ones.  There were also plenty of candids taken while he was out and about, even outside his apartment and inside of the office building.  The pictures spanned from recent to up to three years ago at his debut.  Who could have possibly taken them?

                Now fully alert and more than a little alarmed, Youngjae attempted to get up from the unknown bed that he was lying on.  He felt panic rising, however, when he realized that his limbs wouldn’t move.  He looked down to see his ankles tied and the scratching on his wrists behind his back indicated that they were in a similar state.  He struggled, trying to get the ties free, but to no avail.

                Where was he?  How did he get here?  He ceased his fruitless struggles to try to think, to remember.  He had been waiting for Daehyun outside of the restaurant…Daehyun hadn’t showed…Hyosung had come instead, saying that Daehyun was with Junhong and that she was supposed to have met somebody but that she was likewise stood up… They had gone into the bar together to get a drink and then...

                Everything else was a fuzzy blur that he couldn’t piece together.  It couldn’t be… 

                The bedroom door opened and Youngjae’s heart stopped in his chest.  Hyosung was standing in the doorway, smiling down at him with a gummy smile that he had always found secretly adorable but that he now found downright terrifying.  “I’m glad to see that you’re awake, baby,” she cooed at him, rushing to his side and sitting next to him on the bed.  “I was worried that you weren’t going to wake up.  That roofie seemed to knock you out pretty hard.”  She brought her hand up and swept Youngjae’s bangs out of his face, but he jerked away as her fingertips started to trail down his jaw.

               “What’s going on?! What is this?  Why am I here?  Did you drug me?”  He asked, struggling against his bindings again, but Hyosung grabbed onto him with an unexpected strength and forced him to still.

                “Shhh… calm down, love,” she tried to soothe him.  Youngjae did calm, but merely because he was terrified by the unreadable glint in her eyes.  “Didn’t you read my letters?”

                “T-those were from you?” Youngjae gaped at her.  He had always thought it was some crazy, sasaeng fan obsessing over him from behind some computer screen.  Not somebody that actually had daily access to him.  But now that he thought about it, it actually made more sense. 

                “Of course… I’ve been in love with you ever since you debuted,” she responded with a smile.  She pushed Youngjae onto his back and settled next to him, cuddling into his side, but keeping herself propped up so that she could see his face.  Her hand continued to down his cheek, but this time Youngjae kept still and quiet, unnerved by her new demeanor.  Hyosung had always been mature and responsible in the office, but the one next to him now… she looked a little unhinged and Youngjae was sure that it wouldn’t take much to set her off.

                “I got the job at B.A.P. just to be near you.  It was hard but completely worth it.  I left my family and friends just to travel to Seoul and be with you. I got to see you every day and leave you gifts and letters.  I got to do all the things none of the other fangirls could do.  I was by your side and we were both so happy… until that damn Jung Daehyun came along.”  Her tone dripped with venom at the mention of the brunet’s name and the hairs on the back of Youngjae’s neck stood up.

                “I thought he’d be like all the others, gone in a week.  But no, he stuck around, all to take advantage of you.”  Hyosung whimpered and curled closer into him.  “My poor, poor baby.  I’m so sorry for letting him hurt you.  And then Im Jaebeom came and I realized that someone as precious as you can never be safe with monsters like them out and about, looking for poor victims to take advantage of.  That’s when I knew that it was time to bring you here.  I can keep you safe.  I can love you and protect you.  You’ll stay here forever with me and we’ll be together and happy.”  Hyosung gave another gummy smile as she embraced the actor and pulled him close.

                “What if I don’t want to stay here?” Youngjae broke, unable to bite his tongue any longer.  “What if I don’t want to be with some crazy fan like you?  You know I like guys right?”

                “Well, we’ll just have to fix that…” Youngjae’s eyes widened as Hyosung’s lips descended onto his.  The weight of her body crawling onto his pushed him down into the mattress and he tried struggling again, but by now she was straddling him and keeping him well in place.  “We’re finally going to become one, Yoo Youngjae.”

                Daehyun paced the dressing room impatiently, checking his watch with agitation.  Yongguk had said 10 minutes, but it had already been 30.  Where could he be?

                As if to answer his question, Daehyun heard two voices coming from down the hallway and quickly stuck his head out to check.  Sure enough, there were Yongguk and Himchan, apparently bickering as they strode down the hall towards them.  “Finally!” he cried, startling to the two and causing Yongguk to glare.  “Where have you been?”

                “Well, when I told Himchan where I was going, he naturally had to come…. And naturally had to take forever getting ready,” Yongguk replied with an even tone, but his demeanor was icier than usual as he entered the dressing room and Daehyun knew that, before anything else, he needed to set things right between the two of them.

                “Hey, Yongguk, about the other day…” Daehyun rubbed the back of his neck, trying to come up with the right words so that he wouldn’t be slugged in the face.  “I was absolutely, 100% in the wrong and a complete and utter jackass.  You were right with what you were saying and I was an idiot to not listen and a bad friend to say the things I said.  I’m really sorry and I hope that, eventually, you’ll be able to forgive me.”

                Himchan raised his eyebrows at Yongguk, clearly out of the loop and wanting to know what Daehyun was talking about, but Yongguk ignored him.  Instead he eyed the shorter man with a hard gaze, making Daehyun sweat beneath it, before he broke out in a gummy smile.  “Well, you forgave me over the hotel incident.  I guess I can let this one slide.”  He gave Daehyun a rough pat on the back before pulling him into a tight hug and the younger man was relieved that at least this was back to normal. 

                “Ok, ok, break it up, you two,” Himchan huffed, slithering in between them and pushing them apart, blatantly irked to be left out.  “Yongguk said something about Youngjae being missing.  What’s going on?”

                Daehyun quickly related the details of their conversation to meet, about Junhong’s interference, and about his discussion with the bartender.  “I’ve been calling both of them, but they’re not answering.  And no one was at Youngjae’s place the last I checked.” 

                Himchan hummed in understanding before taking out his own phone and calling Youngjae’s number.  It went straight to voice mail and he furrowed his eyebrows.  “Well, he’s not just avoiding you.  I didn’t get an answer either.”

                Daehyun reached over to the desk and grabbed the letters and handed them to the two men. “And then I came here to check for them and found this.  He’s gotten others, but he hasn’t told me about most of them.  I have a bad feeling they’re connected to his being missing, but I’m not sure how.” He quickly explained the contents of the other letters that he had read as Yongguk and Himchan looked down at the ones in their hands.

                It took Himchan a fraction of a second to read over the letters before smacking Daehyun sharply across the head.  The manager winced and glared at the actor, but it didn’t last long before he was withering under the man’s intense, angry gaze.

                “Are you a complete idiot?” Himchan barked.  “Even without the letters, did you not realize how suspicious that bartender’s story was?  Seoul’s not a small city.  How in the hell did Hyosung end up at the exact place and time that Youngjae was waiting for you?  And since when does he need to be carried out after four drinks?  And paired with these?  Did it not occur to you that maybe SHE’S the one sending them?  I mean, how else would she have known about you, you ?”

                Daehyun couldn’t blame Himchan for hitting him because now, as his words sank in, he, once again, desperately wanted to hit himself.  In his panic over Youngjae being mad and avoiding him, his mind hadn’t been coherent enough to put two and two together.

                “Do you know where she lives?” Yongguk asked.

                “Come on.  We can go look it up on the computer in my office.”

                Youngjae jerked his face to the side, forcing Hyosung’s lips off of his.  “If you don’t get off of me, I swear to God I’ll scream so that all your neighbors can hear me and call the cops on your crazy ,” he growled.

                “Do that and I’ll cut your pretty little tongue out,” Hyosung whispered into his ear, accenting her point by running her own tongue down the ridge of his ear, sending terrified chills down Youngjae’s spine.  “I’ve waited for you for so long. And now that I finally have you, I’m never going to let you go.  You’re going to stay here with me until you die, Yoo Youngjae.  One way or another.”

                The words were whispered softly in his ear, but hit straight in his gut as if he had been punched.  This time when Hyosung grabbed his jaw and brought his face to hers, Youngjae didn’t fight.  Like hell was he going to participate, but, tied up as he was, he wasn’t sure exactly what he could do and he wasn’t exactly sure what level of crazy he was dealing with.  But if Hyosung had already gone through all these lengths and measures, he was sure that she’d be willing to go through a bit more.

                Her lips were back on his, this time her tongue coming out and poking through his lips, running across his closed teeth.  His jaw stayed clenched, unyielding, but when she dug her nails into his side he couldn’t help but gasp in pain and she surged forward.  He lay motionless as she explored his mouth, her hands rubbing apologetic, soothing circles in his sides before letting her hands wander elsewhere, exploring his check, shoulders, and chest.  He shivered, trying to squirm away when her hands reached his hips, but this apparently agitated her and she bit into his lip in warning.

                Youngjae reluctantly stilled and stayed motionless as her fingers slowly trailed back up his chest to the top of his dress shirt.  She loosened his tie, then popped the first button through the hole, her deft fingers working downwards until his shirt was loose and she splayed it open.  She smiled, eyes bright, as she looked down at the pale expanse of skin in front of her.  “Mine… all mine…”

                “GO FASTER!” Daehyun growled, fidgeting in his seat in impatient agitation.

                “Do you not see the traffic in front of us?  It’s Seoul on a Friday night.  What are you really expecting me to do, run into the person ahead of me and push them along to crazy ’s house?” Yongguk snapped back, glad that they had decided that Daehyun was too emotional to drive and that he should instead.  Who knows what kind of wreck they would have gotten into by now?

                “Is there no back way?  No other route you can go?  It’s been ages since they left the bar at this point.  Who knows what she’s doing…” Daehyun bit his lip as awful images started running through his head.

                “There’s traffic stopped on all sides of me, I’m not going anywhere.  We’ll get there when we get there.  Just calm down, I’m sure everything’s fine.”

                Youngjae shuddered as Hyosung’s hands ran down his bare torso, drinking in every inch of skin they could touch.  She moved her lips back to his jaw, placing open mouthed kisses on it until she reached his neck.  She the thin skin into , but before she could sink her teeth in, Youngjae jerked away from her.  Like hell was he going to let this crazy woman mark him.  Hyosung growled at the interruption, but pressed on, letting her lips trail lightly down his body as her hands moved to his pants.

                “I’m going to show you what being with a real woman is like, what you’ve been missing,” she breathed out over his abdomen as her fingers slowly popped open his pants’ button and then trailed down to his zipper.  “I’m going to fix you.  And then we’ll be one and you’ll be mine forever.”

                “Hyosung?!  Are you in there?!”  A pounding on the door distracted the both of them and Hyosung shot up, looking to the living room with a look of terror on her face.  “Is anybody in there?!”

                “DAEHYUN!  DAEHYUN!  HELP ME! SAVE ME!  SHE HAS ME TRAPPED IN HERE!” Youngjae’s screams were cut off as sharp slap knocked his face to the side.  He could taste the blood oozing from his lip, but he didn’t care.  Daehyun was finally here.

                “Youngjae?!  Hyosung, open up this door right now!”

                “GO AWAY!  Like hell am I ever going to let you lay another hand on him.  He’s mine.  MINE!”

                The three looked at each other as Hyosung’s shout carried through the door.  “I guess it’s time to kick it down,” Yongguk announced, stepping back and focusing on the door handle.  He put in all his weight as he kicked just below the door knob, shaking the door.  He ignored the vibrations shaking up his shin and, with two more strong kicks, he managed to shatter the wood around the lock and knock it open.

                The trio scrambled into the apartment, but came to a halt at the sight in front of them.  Hyosung, enraged and disheveled, holding a knife as she blocked the way to the closed bedroom door. 

                “Move out of the way, Hyosung,” Daehyun warned, glaring down at the woman, but she just returned the look with amplified hatred.

                “Never. I’m not letting you get your hands on him again, Jung Daehyun.  You’re just a selfish bastard that will use him and then throw him away.  No.  He’s going to stay here with me where I can love him and protect him.  He’ll be safe as long as he’s here with me.”

                “Hyosung, listen to me,” Daehyun did his best to stay calm, he didn’t want to set her off when she was so blatantly on edge, but his voice quivered in anger and fear.  “I know that what I did was wrong, but this isn’t the answer.”  He moved slowly toward her like a wild animal, trying not to spook her, but kept his eye on the knife the whole time.  “I’ll stay away from Youngjae but you need to let him go.”

                “LIAR!” Hyosung screamed, lunging towards him.  “You’ll just use him again!  You’ll ruin him!”  Daehyun jumped back out of the way, but hissed when he was too slow and the blade cut into his arm.  Hyosung raised her arm to attack him again, but in a flash Yongguk and Himchan were there, restraining her arms and wrestling her to the ground.

               “Get Youngjae!” Himchan commanded as he held Hyosung down while Yongguk struggled to get the knife from her.

                Daehyun darted around them, now completely oblivious to the pain in his arm as he threw open the bedroom door and saw Youngjae lying on the bed, tied up and half , inside.

                “Daehyun!” Youngjae cried, his heart pounding as the brunet ran to his side.  “You came.”

                “Youngjae… I’m so sorry.  I’m so, so sorry.”  Daehyun grabbed Youngjae and pulled him up and into his embrace.  He held him tight against his chest as his face fell into the other’s soft locks, breathing in his scent as relief flooded him.  “I’m such an idiot. I let this happen to you.  I’m so sorry.”

                Youngjae was shocked as he felt tears falling into his hair and Daehyun’s body shaking as he held him close.  “Daehyun…why’d you come?  I thought you picked Junhong.”

                Daehyun pulled back to look at Youngjae in front of him, desperate tears still rolling down his cheeks.  “It wasn’t like that.  I was running late because of him, but I never picked him.  And I never will.  I just want you.  I love you, Youngjae.”

                “Daehyun…” Youngjae just barely managed to breathe out before plump lips were pressed against his, warm and more than welcome.  Daehyun’s arms tightened around him, holding him almost suffocatingly close and he wanted nothing more than to return the gesture, but the ties on his hands made it impossible.

                He pulled back, Daehyun following forward in an adorable attempt to reunite their lips, but Youngjae dodged him.  “Can you, uh, untie me first?  This is getting a bit uncomfortable.”

                “Need this?” Himchan stepped into the room, holding Hyosung’s knife.  Daehyun peeked around him to see Yongguk gagging the woman who was securely fastened to a chair.  He took the knife and quickly cut the ropes off of Youngjae’s arms and legs, who rolled and massaged his now aching muscles.  “You owe me, you know,” Himchan turned his attention to Youngjae and gave the younger a glare.  “ came this close to cutting my face.  My whole career was almost ruined thanks to saving your .”

                “Thanks, Himchan,” Youngjae replied with a cheeky smile.

                “Alright, I believe that’s all the questions.  You guys can head home and we’ll take care of her from here.  I’ll call you with any news, Yongguk.”  It turned out that Yongguk’s twin brother, Yongnam, was a police officer.  Yongguk had called him immediately after tying up Hyosung and Yongnam and his partner had sped right over to take her into custody and take their statements. 

                “Thanks, Nammie.  And can we keep this on the DL?  Don’t need a media circus bothering us,” Yongguk asked as he hugged his brother.

                “You got it.”  Yongnam quickly shook all of their hands before following his partner out the front door.

                “Come on, Youngjae.  Let’s go home,” Daehyun smiled, keeping his arms tight around the actor next to him.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Author’s note:

Waaaah!  This chapter is short too! I’m so sorry.  But it would have been much too long and out a few days later if I had tried to include the next one with it.  And I figured that you guys would probably want to know what the hell was going on as soon as possible.  So here it is!

But basically, the next chapter is going to be the wrap up.  Then there will be an epilogue.  And then I have a plan for an extra chapter insert that I can’t reveal yet since it’ll be based off something about the next chapter that I don’t want to let loose just yet.

But I can promise that it’s only going to be happy from here.  All the drama and heartbreak is finished and there will be y, fluffy DaeJae raining from your ceilings with the next three installments.  So please don’t hate me too much for always having people attack poor JaeJae in my stories (>_<)

(and then Daehyun has to kick down doors to save him and always getting stabbed.  I need to be a bit more creative).

Anyway, as always, thank you for your previous (awesome!) comments.  I was pleasantly surprised by the hailstorm that I got from that teaser chapter.  Let me know what you thought of this one below!

Until next time!

Dani

(p.s. To all SecretTimes/ Hyosung fans out there, I'm sorry for making her so crazy!  I actually absolutely love her, just like JB, just like Zelo.  But somebody had to be the villian, nahimsayin?)