WINNER "센치해 (Sentimental)" EXIT:E, 2016

“Yah! Get back here you little !” Bobby yelled after the small person, sprinting away from the Training Centre in the blink of an eye. Bobby didn’t want to chase after the kid; one because they were simply too quick, the other reason because he didn’t want to drop his food.

Slurping up a good mouthful of ramyun, Bobby looked between his feet to see what exactly the Hobbit had left for them. A large, white envelope with the words ‘SONG NARI’ made from various newspaper cuttings. Bobby gulped down his noodles with a fearful fright. Peering around the back of the building in slight paranoia, Bobby squatted down and gingerly picked the envelope up with his ramyun-free hand. Staring down at the envelope, he tried to make what little sense of the situation that he possibly could.

“What’s that?”

Bobby looked up to see Junhoe and Seulgi, the troublesome duo, armed with small handguns arrive on the scene. An amused curiosity showed across their faces.

He looked at them questioningly, his own questions apparently more important, “What’re you two doing up here? Alone?”

Seulgi made a face, immediately extinguishing Bobby’s suspicions, “We came to see how our long-range aim works with moving targets, so we were gonna’ find a rat or something to shoot at.”

Bobby gave them a disgusted look, wishing he’d never asked in the first place, “What did the rat ever do to you?”

Seulgi waved the gun in the air like a toy, “Re-lax! They’re just rubber bullets! Suppressors and everything!”

“Freaks…”

“But that doesn’t answer our question,” Junhoe approached Bobby cautiously and looked down to the envelope in Bobby’s hand, “What’s that?”

Bobby shrugged, “Some little kid dumped it here than ran off,”

“Yah!” Junhoe exclaimed, slapping the letter out of Bobby’s hand and onto the floor, “That could be a bomb or something!”

Groaning, Bobby picked the letter back up, taking care not to drop his ramyun, “And that’s really something you want to do to a bomb – you freaking pabo!”

Bobby toyed with the letter in his hands, the two kids remaining suspiciously quiet as they examined it from a distance, peering over either of Bobby’s shoulders. Almost like an angel over one shoulder and a devil on the other – or in this case, they were both devils.

“Y’know,” Seulgi started, “I’m starting to think with all these letters, someone has a vendetta against Unnie,”

“Yeah,” Junhoe scoffed, “You don’t say.”

The sound of Seulgi hitting her friend over the head made Bobby jump ever so slightly, “Yah!” he complained, “Will you two cut it out?”

“Sorry,” The two chimed simultaneously. Bobby felt like they were a sadistic ventriloquist act or something with how in-sync they were. It was starting to freak him out. But he was far too concerned with the nature of the envelope to let the two troublemakers bother him.

“The last time Nari got a letter like this, her allies, Infinite, betrayed her, IU was murdered and she survived an ambush with merely a dislocated shoulder-“

“Well, she has survived this long on her own for a reason-“ Seulgi started, pride evident in her voice.

“That’s not the point!” Bobby groaned, throwing his head back out of frustration, “We’ve got to protect each other now, and I’m not prepared to see her lured out into a trap all because someone out there knows how to appeal to her weaknesses.”

“And you would know all about that, wouldn’t you Hyung?” Junhoe asked teasingly as he leaned against the wall. His eyes radiated pure mischievousness as he quirked an eyebrow at Bobby.

His palsm began to sweat, “What?”

Seulgi giggled, “You’d know exactly how to push Unnie’s buttons, wouldn’t you?”

Bobby gulped down bile, “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” his hand suddenly stared to quiver around his bowl of ramyun.

Don’t. Drop. The. Food.

“Oh come on Hyung!” Junhoe groaned, throwing his head back in laughter, “Don’t act as if none of us haven’t noticed!”

“Noticed what?!” Bobby asked, failing to obliterate the sheer nerves in his voice. He didn’t understand why he was being like this, let alone what Junhoe was getting at. He thought everyone knew about Bobby and Nari’s cat-and-dog behaviour, he just didn’t understand why these two were behaving like this instead of putting up with it.

“You and Nari-“ Seulgi waved a hand in the air, brushing off the problem as she registered Bobby’s blank stare, “Aish, this pabo…”

Bobby released a breath he didn’t realise he’d been holding. Whatever they thought about him and Nari… no, it couldn’t be right!

Could it?

“So,” Bobby cleared his throat in attempt to forget about the touchy topic, “I’m going to go give this straight to Nari – I don’t want anyone else getting stressed out over this. Keep it on the down-low.”

But that never happened. As soon as the words left Bobby’s lips, Junhoe and Seulgi sprinted back into the building screaming “BOBBY’S GOT A BOMB!”

What fragments of the groups in the alliance were there all huddled around the control table in the main office; Nari, Bobby, Yunhyeong, Junhoe, Seulgi, and Taehyun waited expectantly, obviously on edge considering the apparent bomb-threat they’d momentarily faced. Bobby groaned and glared at Junhoe and Seulgi from across the table.

“Where is everyone?” Bobby asked, surprised at how their numbers had apparently dwindled. One minute they were 4 groups and 1 semi-psychotic assassin strong – now they looked like an after school glee club having a team meeting.

Just the impression needed to scare off the Movement.

“Mino’s gone to play with some guns,” Nari sighed, her distaste towards her former target evident in her voice, “The Maknaes are doing what would-be doctors do and Joy – well, she’s being Joy. She won’t be out of that computer room for a while.”

“How joyful,” Bobby scoffed. Nari looked at him as if he were an alien, and Bobby blushed, “Sorry. Totally not funny.”

But he couldn’t help but notice the corner of Nari’s lips quirk into a rueful smile.

“SHINee are at our own command centre, with Wendy and Irene,” Seulgi sighed, “Trying to solidify our arrangements for the Presidential Parade next week,”

“That would also explain where the Hyungs are,” Taehyun chimed in as he brushed a hand through his blond hair. Taehyun, (being the semi-abused Maknae) was non-voluntarily forced to stay behind whilst the rest of WINNER went to the YG building. Bobby forgot all about the Presidential Parade. He cursed his luck – more pressure to worry about.

Seulgi looked over at Taehyun, who was stood beside her, oddly, “Doesn’t that leather jacket ever get heavy, or- hot?”

Taehyun raised an eyebrow at Seulgi, his ‘oh-so-mysterious’ vibe never so strong, “What?”

“Never mind,” Seulgi grumbled as she averted her stare. Bobby smirked at her blush – Nam Taehyun had that effect on people.

Bobby still never deciphered WINNER’s need for constant high fashion; the boys often looked like models walking off the set of a 1980s rock’n’roll shoot, whereas Bobby looked like a scruffy Asian kid trying to blend in on Skid Row.

But that thought made him slightly sad. He missed America. He missed his family.

“And where’s YG’s rain of sunshine?” Nari smirked.

“Lee Hi? I don’t know.” Taehyun shrugged. He and Nari had quickly struck up a good friendship since meeting; he was one of the only members of his group willing to accept her allegiance, let alone her existence.

“Not that we’re missing her, of course,” Bobby scoffed as he devoured the remainder of his ramyun, setting the bowl down on the control table. His stomach grumbled in satisfaction, yet he felt he could devour another bowl.

“Don’t be so mean,” Nari scolded him as she took the envelope from his hand. Bobby shivered when Nari’s fingers brushed against his. Bobby nervously tapped his fingers on the table.

Since when did she start to stick up for Lee Hi?

“What about Hanbin and Jinhwan?” Nari asked Yunhyeong before sending Bobby an irritated look. He stopped tapping his fingers. The feel of her eyes on him made his stomach flutter.

Yunhyeong sighed, scratching the back of his head, “With WINNER, in briefing. Both of them are still sulking though.”

Bobby groaned ever so slightly. Both his brothers were severely affected by Park Hyerin’s absence; Hanbin became even colder and more shut off from everything and everyone (even his leadership responsibilities), whilst Jinhwan engrossed himself even more in his work, taking on more tasks from both YG and the alliance. Bobby was always happy to go on the odd killing spree, and even assume the leadership roles and order the Maknaes around from time to time – but this was getting too much. Their strange behaviour bothered everyone. Clearly the girl mean a lot to them, and it was strange how absent people so easily came to assume their place in people’s minds, not to mention the impact Hyerin clearly had on the group dynamic.

She was the only one who could calm Nari’s psycho...

“And Donghyuk?”

“He’s taken his girlfriend to a BBQ restaurant.” Junhoe sighed heavily as he leaned against the table, rolling his eyes at that, “Not that she was consenting whatsoever.”

“Of course, priorities.” Nari sighed, a certain sympathy in her tone. Bobby always wondered about the reasons for the odd relationship with Donghyuk and Nari – particularly, her odd interest in Nahyun, but he reminded himself that Song Nari was no short of secrets. He’d just have to keep wondering, “Well let’s get this thing open then,”

Nari moved to open the envelope, but Bobby stopped her, placing his hand on her’s. He shivered at the touch of their skin. But as the rest of the group looked at him expectantly, awaiting a reason for his strange action, Bobby was lost for all sense of rationality, and used the most pathetic of reasons he could conjure.

“It could be a bomb?”

The group stared at Bobby, completely dumbfounded. He gulped before Nari snatched the envelope from his grasps – but all with a slight playful smile on her lips.

“Bobby, if it was a bomb, it would’ve gone off by now!”

Seulgi and Junhoe sent Bobby a look of pure disapproval whilst everyone else watched Nari open the envelope with nervous eyes. A mix of excitement and fear hung in the air as Nari’s hands worked on the opening of the white envelope. Bobby’s brow creased in concern as her slender hands shook around the letter – she never did tell Bobby the contents of the last one she’d received the day IU was killed…

Nari pulled a single sheet of paper out of the envelope, and Bobby peered over her shoulder – but what he saw gave way to a vile dread that arose in his gut, a corruption that embodied Nari’s fear for vulnerability and failure. It was the very taunt that Bobby’s eyes rested on that reminded him exactly why Nari was so cut off.

So, IU was killed in the end…I wonder, is your Unnie next on their hit list? Your answer to everything is in Tokyo, Japan. But be careful, things aren’t exactly the way you’d left them.

It was as Nari choked on her tears and dropped the letter by her feet, that Bobby knew for certain that the Movement had to be stopped, that he had to kill whoever was orchestrating this. Not because they threatened everything he and his family had worked for – but because they also threatened Nari.

This protective instinct over her was unexplainable. She was more than capable of taking care of herself. Yet, as Bobby sprinted after her up the stairs, this insatiable desire was never stronger – he couldn’t let her go through this ordeal alone, he wouldn’t allow her to feel be vulnerable for the entertainment of a person gone mad with power.

But it’s more than just that, isn’t it Bobby?

“Song Nari!” Bobby called after her as she pounded across the parking lot, effortlessly elbowing a car window open and stepping into the vehicle.

“Go back inside!” Nari screamed back at him as he neared the car, her voice rife with grief as she began to hot-wire the car – or at least attempted to.

“You’re not going through this alone!” Bobby stood himself outside the door, his hands pressed against the window-less frame. His eyes bore into Nari as tears streamed down her face, seemingly endless as she sobbed, child-like, her fingers shaking around the wires.

“I have to” She shrieked, “I’ve always been alone!”

“Well not anymore!” Bobby shouted back at her, his patience non-existent by this point. The last thing he wanted to do was upset her even more – but it was the same argument over and over again, “I know you’re gonna’ go to Japan-“

“What do you expect me to do?!” She sobbe