03

      For the past couple weeks, Minwoo's mood was at its peak. The lack of threatening phone calls, letters or packages were ones of the main reasons for the main dancer's great mood; but more importantly, his stalker was gone. He did not know what had happened, but one morning he had the agreable surprise to have no voicemail nor phone call at unlikely hours.

Minwoo would not regret it, and now his stalker was not harassing him anymore he was feeling as good as ever.

He had feared at first such peace would not last and everything would start again at some point; or worse, that his stalker was planning something bad. But now, after three weeks, there was still no sign from his harasser; which slowly made him believe it was all over. Finally.

Therefore, with a light heart, he walked inside the dance studio where the others were waiting for him. He greeted everyone cheerfully, smiling as some sent him an amused grin before resuming whatever they were doing.

"Tell me everything, Minnie…" Grinned Junjin after wrapping an arm around the main dancer's shoulders.

Looking up at the rapper, Minwoo smiled when he noticed this playful glint in his younger's eyes.

"You've just found the love of your life, don't you ? I bet with Hyesung you were madly in love, so…" Junjin started making his best puppy eyes as he joined his hands in a begging motion. "Just tell me you found your soulmate."

Minwoo laughed out loud at this, because it was ridiculous and he could not believe his younger could believe to something like a soulmate; even if the main dancer's romantic side wanted to from time to time.

"Don't be stupid, Jinnie." He answered with a push of the rapper's head. "I'm just in a good mood because we're doing great on the comeback's preparations."

Pouting, Junjin stared at him for a second before sighing. "Jeez. I just lost fifty bucks."

Minwoo laughed and shook his head as Junjin walked away. He noticed the taller man purposely avoided looking at Hyesung who was watching him with a suspicious frown. It was amusing, and feeling as he was Minwoo could not stop smile for the following hours.  

***

      When out all together a good month later, Minwoo and Eric were watching as slowly Dongwan first left, then Andy followed by Hyesung; Junjin staying behind the longest to keep them company and drink some more.

Laughing at some stupid joke from the younger rapper, Eric and Minwoo tried to focus back on their conversation about the concept with a glass of alcohol never far from them.

Junjin was slowly but surely getting drunk, but the tall man needed a lot more to actually get wasted; and the two CEOs knew it. Hence, they let him drink freely.

Listening to his two elders, Junjin could only feel appreciative of them. They were so hard working, passionate and talented. He was jealous of them sometimes, because him too would like to write lyrics as Eric, him too would like to compose music like Minwoo. But it was never a negative jealousy, just one pushing him to do always better and try what his elders were doing on a daily basis.

"YeeHin got hurt. We need to replace her…"

"What about SooAe ? She's good at break dancing." Suggested Eric.

"No, she injured her shoulder last time, she can't do the moves. I thought about Lu Hi, but we'll be short on a girl." Answered Minwoo with a thoughtful frown on his face. "I guess SeungHyun'll have to be alone at the back... Or I'll just rethink the choreography."

"Why don't we do it ourselves ? The fans will like this." Suggested Junjin.

Minwoo's face lightened before a smile cracked his lips. "Great idea. We'll let Lu Hi introduce the break dance and then we'll do it. It'll be really great fan service…" He said with a grin. "Meanwhile, the others will spread around to meet at the front with us and get close to the fans."

"You're always bouncing all around anyway. You won't have much of a problem getting close to the fans." Smirked Junjin to which the main dancer grinned in amusement.

"Are you jealous, Jinnie." He teased back with a stupid sugar voice.

"Shut up !" He snapped back with a slap of his elder's hand that was coming closer to his face.

Laughing, Minwoo and Eric were quick to focus back on their work; and after another hour Junjin decided to let them in peace.

"Be careful on your way back." Greeted Minwoo with a wave of his hand.

"See you tomorrow." Followed Eric.

Smiling and nodding, Junjin greeted his elders and headed out of the restaurant, the soft conversation between the two CEOs accompanying him to the door.

***

      It was an after practice night Minwoo was particularly exhausted from and just wanted one thing : sleep. He had worked for hours on the choreography, then vocal arrangement, then choreography once again, followed by the meeting with some sponsors and then more practice and recording and everything else between.

All in all, he was dead and had only one thought in mind; his comfortable bed.

Hitting the password lazily, the door beeped open and allowed him access inside the apartment. He shook off his shoes and dropped his jacket somewhere near a chair in the bedroom before getting ride of most of his clothes.

Keeping only his boxers on, he walked inside the bathroom and brushed his teeth, washed his face and stared at his reflect in the mirror.

He looked definitely tired, but it was not as bad as expected.

He had no real dark circles after all, and besides his small eyes clouded by exhaustion and his haggard expression, there was not much damages a good night of sleep would not fix.

Massaging his painful neck, he hesitate a second about a well deserved shower; before turning on the water and walking under the jet once warm. He could not help sigh in satisfaction when some of the tension and soreness vanished from his body and relaxed him greatly.

He could have fall asleep in the shower, and before doing so he stepped out of the cabin, dried himself, put a new pair of boxers on before heading to his bed with the towel in hand he used to friction his wet hair.

Discarding the material on the floor, he soon disappeared under the covers and started drifting away in seconds.

      He was dreaming peacefully and recharging from his hard day of work when something tore him out of his sleep. He was not sure what it was, and did not have much time to even wake up for real that something was pushing against his head.

His first reflex was to yelp out in fear, but what he recognized as a hand clamped over his mouth and shut him up before he could make any sound.

The darkness felt suffocating around him; the terror of the moment so strong that he could not think about anything esle than scream for help. No noise loud enough reached his ears, the presence close to him one he felt the need to get away from; but he could not move.

Or at least, not enough to get free from the grip on him.

His attacker did not let him much time to defend himself anyway, and the strong panic at the pit of his stomach made him feel sick. He could feel how violently his body tensed up, his muscles contracting so much in an attempt to fight back. But he did not have time to even try that something jabbed in his neck; making him drowsy the next second.

He tried to fight it and stay awake, but his heavy eyelids were not listening to him; and before he could even try to understand what was happening, he was gone in a dreamless world.

      Jolting awake in bed, Minwoo sharply looked around in fear. Panting in still overwhelming panic, the cold sweat covering his skin made him shiver against his will. Focusing on the sunlight inviting itself in the room and offering the needed light to appease his hammering heart, he managed to slowly relax after such scaring and violent event.

He needed a moment to come back to his senses and realize all this was just a dream.

Just a dream.

He instinctively rubbed his neck at the memory of the pain he had felt there, the certitude there was someone in the room earlier a strong feeling he could not get ride off. He was haunted by it the whole morning, the only moment he was able to forget being when immersed in music.

      Minwoo was apprehensive when he went home later on that day. He did not want to be paranoid, but the dream had felt so real and left behind feelings making him anxious and scared.

He did not enter inside the apartment immediately, the little hesitation making him feel stupid and angry with himself.

It was just a dream, and he should not worry so much. As if someone could get inside his apartment in the middle of the night anyway. He was certainly too stressed and had this weird dream to release it; nothing much.

He had a hard time relax completely, and he hated to feel so anxious in his own house.

He was supposed to feel safe, not so scared of an hypothetical monster in the closet.

Sometimes Minwoo really hated his over-working imagination. He was not a coward, but this dream did not want to leave his mind at peace. It was tormenting him and refusing to go away.

Therefore, he was still awake three hours later after coming home at almost one in the morning. He was tired though, but he could not sleep; thanks to this anxiousness stuck on him.

He decided to go to bed when nothing interesting was on TV anymore, and that his eyes were burning so much that he could barely blink. He was used to sleepless nights; but he was too exhausted to have one, not when he had so much work waiting for him the next day.

He stepped inside the bedroom like one would inside a cell, and glancing all around as if he would find something or someone; he had to admit there was absolutely nothing in his room and he should just go to sleep.

Sighing, he obliged to his own mind and laid under the covers with a shirt and sweat pant on.

He was too tired to take it off, and was feeling a bit less anxious having some clothes on. As if he would have to run away in the middle of the night or something.

      He barely managed to sleep, and when he felt this presence near him his eyes shot open in fear. He was sure he was not dreaming, and sitting up in bed sharply, he looked around him and found nothing.

He felt crazy for a second, because he was sure something was here just a second ago. But he could not see anything except the darkness in his room.

He tried to reason himself and persuade himself to just go to sleep and forget about his irrational thoughts; but it was stronger than him and he the bedside lamp on his left. He did not see anything more than before, but he was reassured in a way he was just being paranoid.

Sighing over his own stupidity, he got out of bed and headed towards the bathroom. He was feeling tired but needed to cool down a bit. He was too tensed to find any kind of sleep and he deeply needed to get some rest before going back to work.

Once the bathroom's door opened, he the light and slowly looked up.

What he found in front of him made him jump out of his skin in pure terror. Because there, standing inside the bathroom was a tall, dark figure he identified as human.

Wanting to scream, he could not even do so, too shocked by the apparition in his bathroom. Never he would have imagine find something like that and the fear made his body react on its own.

He realized he was running away only when he found himself at his bedroom's door with heavy footsteps coming fast behind him.

He was thinking he would reach the front door before whoever the person in his bedroom was could catch up to him; but a hand gripped his shirt and pulled on it so hard that it almost ripped.

Yelping in fear, Minwoo felt his feet leave the floor as his body rocked backward. He was expecting the impact with the floor, his arms flying around in an attempt to grab anything that would break his fall; but there was nothing excepted emptiness.

The painful impact with the floor never came though, and when he realized he was still on his feet there was a strong body in his back keeping him up and an arm around his chest. He barely had time to struggle that the same jabbing pain erupted in his neck and drowsiness attacked him exactly like last night.

He felt sick in his stomach at the thought his nightmare was happening again, but it did not last long that he was out.

Hope you enjoyed ^^

Things are slowly taking a new turn, and I hope you liked it.

Thank you for commenting and reading and subscribing; I'm so glad for your support and even more if you're enjoying the story =)

To next time !