“Hey, Coups,” Wonwoo called curiously when Seuncheol was having breakfast the following morning, “did you see what NU’EST’s Minhyun posted on the fancafe?”

Seungcheol raised an eyebrow, “why would I care what Minhyun posts on his sorry group’s fancafe?”

Wonwoo handed him his tablet, and Seungcheol read the post. At first, Seungcheol was surprised to see that Minhyun's post was in post in Pann, and was more surprised to see that it was actually the number one story. Seungcheol anxiously proceeded to read the post:

We were once at the top, but how low we’ve stooped,
From rookie trinity, to the forgotten group.
And now the dongsengs have raised the bars,
They’ve slayed the charts and collabed with stars.
It’s not fair to us; it’s oppression, you see.
We’re denied what we have the potential to be.
This is injustice, and so we decide,
A course of action by which we’ll abide.
The lightest of which would surely appall…
That Seventeen group: we’ll destroy them all.

Seungcheol could not help but feel quite unnerved by the post. He had insulted NU’EST yesterday on the phone with JR, and JR did indeed seem quite angry. It was uncharacteristic of JR to be angry, and Seungcheol did not know what JR would do if pushed to the limit.

“Uh, don’t worry about it,” Seungcheol told Wonwoo. “It’s probably just a lame joke.”

Wonwoo nodded. He had concluded that much. NU'EST could not possibly be serious about "destroying" Seventeen.

He stayed on the page as he scrolled through to read the netizens’ comments about the mysterious post. Netizens were definitely angry at NU’EST. They called for Pledis to guard Seventeen extra carefully, and for NU’EST to be charged with online harassment. Netizens started insulting NU’EST, calling them flops, and saying that Pledis should disband them at once etc. There was literally no positive comment at all. It was pretty rough for NU’EST.

“Why would they post that? Are they idiots?” Wonwoo asked. He kind of felt sorry for them actually, but he didn’t really care much for them.

“They’ve always been idiots,” Seungcheol scoffed.

Wonwoo seemed surprised at Seungcheol’s upfront dissing of the sunbaes. Wonwoo had actually thought Seungcheol was close to NU’EST for some reason. Maybe they had a fight recently, he thought.

Seungkwan then entered the room after overhearing the conversation: “they won’t really do anything, right hyung?”

“Of course not,” Seungcheol responded to the younger member. To be honest though, he was only half sure about that.

-

Pledis released a statement about Minhyun’s fancafe post a few hours later. It read: Minhyun posted the poem as a joke, as Seventeen and NU’EST are on close terms. When he saw the negative reaction, Minhyun felt very apologetic. He apologized profusely to the Seventeen members, and asks us to relay his apologies to any fans that were scared by the post.

Seungcheol was starting to feel worried. Usually, when a Pledis artist s up, the company makes the actual artist post the apology. It happened with Raina and Aron and Uee, as far as he could remember. Never would Pledis apologize on the artist’s behalf...

The Pledis statement was a lie.

Minhyun had definitely not apologized to Seventeen. Seungcheol had sent Minhyun a message asking what was up with that post, and Minhyun had seen and ignored it.

Seventeen’s manager also came up to Seungcheol and asked him a few questions: "Were you in contact with any NU’EST members in the past 24 hours?”

Seungcheol nodded. He told them about his conversation with JR.

“What happened?” Seungcheol later asked when the staff seemed to be taking this a little too seriously.

“They disappeared. All five members disappeared,” one staff member told him.

Seungcheol felt a chill to his spine all of the sudden. This setup too much resembled that of a horror movie: a person is mad, said person posts creepy cryptic messages on social media against someone else, person disappears. Seungcheol was scared less all of the sudden.

They wouldn’t do anything, would they? Seungcheol thought. He shook away the thought; they had a performance in a bit, and getting worked up over this stupidity would not do them well. He will not let some stupid post by some stupid member make him incompetent.

-

Word had gotten out that NU’EST had disappeared, and the Pledis had launched an investigation to find them. Everyone went crazy with fear for Seventeen; a lot seemed to think that NU’EST was plotting murder.

The Seventeen members seemed scared as well, especially the younger ones.

“Hyung, you know NU’EST. They’re not mean, right?” Dino had asked. Dino had only met NU’EST a couple of times, and he had thought they were nice enough. When the poem was published, however, Dino started to worry.

“No, they’re not,” Seungcheol responded. They weren’t “mean” really. Ren was a little saucy at times, and Aron’s jokes sometimes went a little too far. They were idiots, but they weren’t mean. At least not when Seungcheol knew them.

Seungcheol had requested that Seventeen halt their promotions, but Pledisboss would not let that happen. The revenue that Seventeen was bringing in daily was too precious to be stopped, even at the expense of this minor security threat.

Seungcheol was scared. He wouldn’t deny it. He didn’t think they would physically hurt the members of Seventeen, but he did think they were capable of other things. The NU’EST members knew stuff about him that Seungcheol hoped they were considerate enough to keep quiet about.

-

The next cryptic message from Minhyun came about one day after. It read:

Dear Korean netizens: you wrong NU’EST,
You think we’re jealous, bloodthirsty beasts.
The desire for justice is what fuels us you see,
And so we decided to target Seventeen.

But alas we have gone too far last time,
“Destroy them all,” we wrote in our rhyme.
We’ve thought together, and reflected well.
And think not all the members deserve our hell.
Just a select few, most notably, S.Coups.
But it will affect the entire group.
With what we will do, Seventeen will fall.
And we’ll achieve justice once and for all.

We give you a riddle, and if the leader is right,
We’ll turn ourselves in and surrender the fight.
The riddle is as follows– and it’s for S.Coups:
A last chance for you to save your group.

Our Armor was composed not by (Blank Space).
The Armor that would have lived up to our face.
(Blank Space) is popular, fans’ precious gem.
The songs that are “his,” he didn’t write them.
It’s all made-up; it’s all media play.
Something NU’EST was denied in their day.

Be careful as we’d allow only one chance.
Get it wrong, and we’ll go on with our plans.

(Blank Space), the arguably most popular one,
(Blank Space), do you well to consider a pun.
So think about (Blank Space), think hard and long.
(Blank Space), literally, it’s not your song.
Nor does it have any potential to be.
Unless lawsuits are in your agenda you see.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it once more,
Mistakes will cost you, and so you must be sure.
This is a game you decided to play,
Think of our face, and answer away.
Think of (Blank Space), have that image in your head.
Who does that image represent?

Answer not in a word, or we’ll count it wrong,
We want a full explanation to do with the song.
You must answer in detail how the riddle was cracked,
Else we’ll give Korea the greatest flashback.
One that you’d rather us not reveal,
But reveal it we will if the riddle's not sealed.
In 48 hours, we’ll check SNS,
If no answer is given, we’ll proceed with that mess.

Seungcheol, you deserve this, and you know it too.
We’ll laugh at all that’s coming to you.
There is no way out, you’re at the palm of our hand.
It’s downhill from here for you and your band.

A/N: Dun. Dun. Dunnnnn.
I'm going to try to update this once a day because I want to finish it by the Writing Contest deadline, which is January. Hopefully I finish it in time ;;