A soft melody tumbled over your lips as you walking through the house, a glass of red wine in your left hand. You were waiting for your boyfriend to return to your shared apartment after today’s schedule and after the rough day you’d had, you had decided to treat yourself. You’d taken a long and warm bath, enjoying the way the foam had rinsed every single inch of your skin. The endearing smell of lavender had reached deep into your nose, and you had felt every single muscle inside of your body relax. You’d been in that tub for at least thirty minutes, until the water had gone cold and your fingertips had become wrinkled. Knowing you couldn’t stay there all day and that you wanted to be in the living room around the time Jongdae would return you had raised yourself from the lather and had wrapped yourself in a freshly washed towel. It was soft and cuddly, exactly what you had needed before getting yourself dressed into some comfy sweats and one of your boyfriend’s shirts. You always stole his clothes, but he didn’t seem to mind. You had passed the stadium where you would dress ily for him before you went to bed, looking for the most thin and y pajamas you could found. After the two of you had been dating for almost two years you felt as if it was better for you to keep those things for special occasions. Besides, he didn’t need you to wear something made of silk in order to think you were hot. You brushed your still dripping hair back behind your shoulders and walked towards the living room. 

As you passed the counter you noticed some mail spread carelessly across the platform. You remembered taking it out of the mailbox when you had come home earlier today, but you had completely forgotten about it. A smile crept onto your face as you thought about that postcard you friend had promised to send you now that she was away on holiday. Maybe it had arrived by now. On your bare feet you tapped closer to it, feeling the way your soles cooled down against the tiles. You lowered your glass beside the pack of envelopes before you grabbed the first one and opened it. Bills, you got tons of them and the influx of them never seemed to stop. Sometimes you wondered if the government thought you had a hidden vault somewhere. Though Jongdae and you were both idols and you had earned some great amount of money over the years, you were still surprised about how much you had to pay every single month for your electricity. With a sigh you put it to the side, telling yourself that you would look at it later. It was too late for this. Picking up the next white envelope you were surprised to see that their was no address on it. It seemed like some letter someone had delivered to your house personally. This was definitely not the post card you had been waiting for. An uncomfortable feeling pierced through you as you stared at it. There was no stamp on it either, and no receiver. It could be a fan letter for one of you, but then there would always be something that indicated it. The emptiness of the folded paper made you feel odd about this. 

You shrugged, knowing that there was no reason for you to be so paranoid about all of this. It was just a letter, nothing more nothing less. There couldn’t be anything inside of there that could possibly hurt you. Taking a deep breath you ripped it open and gasped when several heavy square pieces fell out and cluttered onto the floor. A frown spread your forehead as you crouched down to pick them up, surprised to see that they weren’t made of normal paper at all. Your mouth became dry when you noticed that they were pictures. Slowly you turned over the first one, and a scream tore through you when you saw which shots had been taking, reverberating through the empty apartment. Your heart beat increased so quickly that you were afraid it would end you. Panic filled every single nerve inside of your body, making it seem as if you were on fire. All the peacefulness you had felt a few minutes ago long gone. This couldn’t be happening. How was this possible? A very strange sound formed in the back of your throat as you rumbled through the other pictures, seeing that each and every single one was just as bad. You retreated your hands, feeling as if you had burned them, and your fingers were shaking unstoppably. You felt as if you couldn’t breath when you stumbled away from them, falling down on your before you scrambled back to your feet and searched for you phone. Dialing the first number you could think of, praying that he would pick up. When he didn’t you could feel the first tears cloud your view before they tickled down your cheeks. You felt an panic attack coming up, you were about to loose it. 

You called again, you needed him to answer his god damn phone. He always had the stupid thing inside of his hands, and now, when you needed him to, he didn’t. Finally, after the sixth ring and when you had almost hung up a second time just to call him again, his voice resounded on the other side. “Babe, I know I promised to be home on time. But something came up, the guys are…” His voice faltered when he heard a sob disturb the middle of his sentence. He was still in the practice room, surrounded by the other guys who were teasing him because his girlfriend was calling him to ask what was taking him so long. According to his friends, he was clearly the one who was listening to you and you were the leading figure in your relationship. Though, Jongdae had never been bothered about it. He couldn’t believe you were crying because he was late. “Listen ____________, I’m really sorry…” he tried again but got interrupted once more. “Jongdae.” You muttered and he immediately got alarmed by the terror that resounded inside of your voice. He motioned for his Baekhyun to be quiet as he continued to make weird sounds beside him. “What’s wrong? Is everything alright?” He asked, his eyes already scanning around the room to search for his jacket and his keys. He could tell something was wrong by the quivering sound of your breathing. Worry began to weave its way into his body like a web when he heard you crying on the other side of the phone. “Tell me what’s going on?! Where are you?!” He asked, louder this time, panicking as he thought of all the things that could possibly be happening right as he was speaking to you. 

“Jongdae… Someone sent me something. They took pictures of me, they’re threatening to spread them all over the internet.” He listened carefully as you rambled, your words filled with fright. Yet, his shoulders relaxed a little bit when he figured that you weren’t finding yourself in a physically threatening situation. Though he also knew something more was up to this. Pictures were taken of you every single day and were revealed for the entire world to see. Usually you weren’t upset about photo’s that were taken of you. “What kind of pictures?” He asked, needing more specific information as he walked towards his bag and searched for his car keys inside, grasping them inside of his hold as he found them. He’d been planning to spend some more time with the guys, but now that he knew what state you were in he didn’t want to leave you alone anymore longer than needed. “I didn’t think this could happen! How was I supposed to know? Our neighbors are never home! Nobody lives near us! But I was stupid enough to leave the blinds open and now someone saw…” You wailed and slowly the idea started to form inside of him before it hit him like a blow. the air around him seemed to still as he figured out what you were trying to tell him. “They took pictures of you?” He asked quietly, muting his voice so that the others wouldn’t be able to hear him. You whined something into the phone, impossible for him to understand. He could tell you were at the very edge of a mental break down. 

“______________, baby, listen to me. Everything is going to be okay. I’m on my way home right now. Ten minutes! I’ll be there in ten minutes.” He promised and you nodded your head, even though you knew he couldn’t see it and swallowed the next sob that was crawling its way through you. You hung up the phone as he rushed over and supported yourself by placing your hand on the counter, your head down as your tears dripped on top of the stone. How could you have been this stupid? It didn’t mean that you lived in a safe and small neighborhood that you should become careless of the things you did. You had just thought that if there was one place inside of this world where you could have some privacy and you could be yourself it would have been your own house. But how wrong had you been. This guilt ruin everything. The image you had worked for all these years, your career, Jongdae’s career. What would s and his management say after they saw those photos of you leaked on the internet? What would his fans say? You relationship with you would be threatened, because how could you expect from him that he would stay with someone like you after all this was over? A wave of rage tore through you and you screamed as you swung your hand through the air, smashing the glass of wine you had been enjoying earlier against the nearest wall. Scattered crystal pieces flew through the air, one bounced back against the stone and managed to hit you right in the face, creating a cut on your cheek. 

All the energy you’d had left drained from your body and you felt utterly exhausted at this point. Everyone had a certain turning point in their life, it seemed like you had reached yours. It was as if you had hit the bottom of a dark and empty bottle, not able to fight your way back up. As your legs buckled underneath you, you let yourself slip against the kitchen cabinets until you reached the floor, feeling the coldness sink right into your bones. What had you done to deserve all of this? How could someone hate you so much that they wanted to do this to you? If other people would see you like this they would perhaps think that you were overreacting. But for you this was the last drop in all the thing you’d been forced to go through during the past few months. People who continuously judged you and claimed your life as theirs. The comments and the hateful messages. You were so tired. Out of breath you rested your head on top of your knees, shaping yourself into a small ball. Right now you just wanted to do nothing more than simply disappear, transform into nothing. When you heard the front door open and rapid moves into your direction you remained still, letting your shoulders shock as you cried. Jongdae had made his way home as fast as possible, shaking off s as they had suggested to come with him, knowing something was wrong. He didn’t know what he would find as soon as he would walk into the apartment but what he did know was that you wouldn’t want anyone else around right now. He had given his friends as less information as possible, just a rough sketch of the situation. They had all suggested to help, had told him that if he needed them he’d just have to call. But he wanted to be able to solve things himself before he involved anyone else, hoping that he’d be able to find a way for as less people as possible to find out. 

As soon as he walked into the house a sob echoed against the walls. He dropped his stuff on the floor and rushed towards the kitchen, but jolted in his step by what he saw. Glass was spread across the floor, a deep dark red stain visible on the usually white painted wall. A letter was laying on the tiles, surrounded by several pictures. Anger took away his breath but he kept it inside, not wanting to upset you even more by loosing his temper in front of you. Whoever had done this to you, he would make sure they were going to pay. Then he spotted you, huddled a little further away and he skillfully dodged the shards on his way as he ran towards you. He felt you flinch when he pressed his hands on your arms. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s me.” He shushed you, trying to keep his voice smooth and soothing. He hated seeing you like this, he hated it that people were able to hurt you like this. He waited until you lifted your head to look at him and his heart dropped in his stomach when he saw your puffy eyes and tear strained cheeks. He wished he could undo every bad thing that ever happened to you. The thought that another person had been sneaking up on you and spying on you through these windows, to see you and to use that again you made him feel sick. Softly he cradled your face in between his hands, not making any sudden movements so he wouldn’t startle you. “Baby, I’m so sorry.” He muttered, wishing he could stop the fresh amount of tears that collected inside of your eyes. 

He wiped them away with the pats of his thumbs as they rolled down. “Why is this happening?” You asked, sounding lost. By the look inside of your eyes he could tell that you were blaming yourself for what had happened. That you were angry for not closing the blinds like you usually did, for being so careless about all of this. But he couldn’t be angry at you, not for thinking you were safe in your own house. That was how you were supposed to feel, how he wanted you to feel. “Don’t you dare think this is your fault.” He said, gazing deep inside of your eyes before pulling you against his chest. Not knowing what else to do he hit his arms tightly around you, feeling you rest your weight against him. He could tell you had recently taken a bath by the sweet smell of your hair. It was even worse to know that you had been happily preparing for a nice evening with him and you had been totally alone when you had found out about this. He should have been there when you had opened that envelope. Though, thinking about what ifs wasn’t going to solve anything right now. He couldn’t keep thinking about the past, he had to think of how he was going to fix this. “There are camera’s around the house. Whoever this person is, we’ll find him soon. I’m not going to let them get away with this.” He assured you, his hand over your hair in the hope to calm you down. Eventually he heard the sounds of your sob fall silent and the only thing that remained were small hiccups. Relieved that your panicked state seemed to fade he slightly pulled away from you to look at you and smile convincingly. “I promise I’ll do anything I can to keep this from spreading. I’ll always protect you.” These seemed to be the words you needed to hear. Jongdae saw your lips tremble as they tugged up into a small smile and even though it didn’t seem very convincing, it was a start.