When Jaebum said that they would be following her from then on, he definitely wasn't joking about that. Rather than protecting her, Nayeon felt like she's been stalked and followed instead. Everywhere she went, someone would be behind her and most of the time, it's either Bambam or Mark.

Especially Mark since he's working at her family's cyber cafe and that was the exact reason why Nayeon hated what's going on in her life now.

That guy never talk! It's boring when it's his so called shift which could actually go on for the whole day. The fact that he did his job really well annoyed her too. He's been waiting for her after class every single day for the past two weeks and that had made her friends curious about him.

"Your boyfriend is here again, Nayeon."

Nayeon sighed exasperatedly, dropping her head in despair.

"He's not my boyfriend." She tried explaining for the umpteenth time. "He's just someone who's in charge of following me around."

"Don't be so mean to him." Her friend laughed, completely not taking her words seriously. "He might just go find another girl."

"You have no idea how much I wish for that to happen." Nayeon muttered lowly before she waved her friend goodbye since they were going different directions.

She took a quick glance at the guy who's leaning against the pillar and he seemed to be really focused on his phone. A playful smile formed on Nayeon's lips; maybe that was the best time to escape. She slowly took a few steps back, keeping her eyes on Mark and when she's sure that he's not aware of her actions, she turned away and made her escape attempt.

Unfortunately, it's a failed attempt.

"Yo Nayeon!" She came face to face with Bambam's smiling face.

Right, he's in her university now because he had managed to hack into the school system and enrolled himself into the school's game design course. Although Nayeon did wonder why would Bambam need to even attend school when he's probably better than most of the lecturers here.

"Hey Bambam." The long haired girl gave a sheepish smile. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"I saw you walking off so I thought I should say hi." Bambam explained casually but Nayeon could get his underlying "I know what you're trying to do" message.

Right at that moment, Mark walked up to them, his face still as dull as before even when he gave Bambam a pat on his shoulder.

"Look, you've been following me for weeks and nothing bad happened. So maybe, I will be safe?" Nayeon tried to convince the two boys but none of them was having it.

"That's because we are here."

"What are you guys?" Nayeon scoffed with her arms folded across her chest. "It's not like you're some magical creatures that can chase bad guys away? Beside, didn't you say no one knew about you people?"

Bambam gave her a smile in reply instead and casually wrapped an arm around her shoulder which Nayeon tried to shrug him off. However, his grip on her shoulder got tighter instead. She didn't have to know how many androids they had shut down everytime one was spotted by their radar.

In fact, Mark had just hacked into the system of a nearby android which canceled the program written in it. That was what he's so focused on.

"Jaebum will kill the both of us if we lose sight of you." Bambam joked while they started walking towards the bus stop. Mark followed right after, his hands kept in his pockets.

"Who does he think he is?" Nayeon scoffed again, not bothering to hide her dislike towards Jaebum from Bambam. "He's just a scary looking person."

That had earned a loud snort from Bambam.

"I dare you to say that in his face."

"No." Nayeon shook her head firmly at Bambam's playful suggestion. It's the fact that Jaebum seemed scary to her that made her disliked him and she's definitely not going to do stupid things like that.

"Anyway," Nayeon changed the topic, taking a quick glance to the back where Mark was before she gave Bambam her attention again. "Is he always this quiet?"

"He's not mute." Bambam answered her question. "But he doesn't like talking much either. When I first met him, Taecyeon had warned me to not pester him too much."

"Wait, who's Taecyeon?" Nayeon interrupted. "I've heard his name being mentioned a few times but I've not seen him."

"He's away for some business." Bambam explained. "Anyway, about Mark, he just needs time to warm up. He plays computer games with me sometimes!"

"Oh?"

"Well, I forced him to."

Nayeon couldn't help but to let out a soft laughter at Bambam's confession.

If only Bambam was the one who would be around her most of the time, maybe she wouldn't find the whole thing so annoying. At least, he seemed to be the most normal one out of the whole team and the one who seemed to treat her as a new friend.

Sometimes, Jeongyeon would be the one with her; she's nice and would occasionally talk to Nayeon but most of the time, she would be nagging at her instead.

Jinyoung definitely won't be able to follow her around especially since he's an idol. Jaebum hadn't been following her around either, thankfully.

But Mark-

Nayeon sighed loudly and turned her head slightly to look at the quiet guy seated in front of a computer in the café. The shop wasn't active at that timing and usually, Mark would be seated in front of a computer which her parents had allowed him to.

It's been another week.

Keeping her back leaned against the cashier table, Nayeon took another glance at the male who's really focused on his game. She couldn't get it; how could someone be this quiet? Despite Bambam had once told her to not pester him, Nayeon who's unable to contain her curiousity straightened up and took a deep breath in before she walked up to him.

"Hey." She started at the same time she sat down beside Mark but the male showed no response while he kept his focus on the computer screen. That irritated her a lot.

"Hey." Nayeon repeated, this time a little louder as she knocked on the table to get his attention. "Do you ever talk?"

Silence.

"Can you at least make a sound as a response?"

Still, he made no reply.

"Answer me! That's basic courtesy!" Nayeon kicked the bottom of Mark's chair and exclaimed.

"Leave me alone." The guy finally had some reaction.

"You're a part timer here and this place is opened by my family. Technically, I'm your boss so, I command you to talk to me!"

Mark rolled his eyes and put on his headphones instead. Nayeon widened her eyes slightly at his actions; that's probably the first time she had met someone as rude as him. She raised a hand, wanting to hit the guy right in front of him but she sighed instead and put her hand down.

Just how long more before she wouldn't be followed by anyone anymore?

That situation continued for another two weeks and Nayeon had gave up explaining to anyone about it. Even her family had started thinking that Mark was courting her. During the start of the current situation, she had tried her very best to explain herself without revealing any details. But now, she knew it wouldn't be any use.

Especially when all her family witnessed was Mark sending her to school and then back home. He would be at the café even when it's not his shift.

Like right now; even though the café wasn't opened for business yet.

"Can someone tell my why am I a part of this again?" Nayeon groaned in frustrations, throwing her pen at the table and leaned back against her chair as she messed up her hair with another frustrated groan.

However, despite her loud and exaggerated actions, Mark as per usual, still made no response. It's been almost a month and he remained the same. That pissed her off even more.

"Can you at least say something?" Nayeon stood up and watched the guy while he continued mopping the floor of the café. "And don't you dare ask me to leave you alone!"

"Something." Mark responded in his low voice, totally unbothered by her loud voice.

"You jerk!" She sighed and sat back down on the chair behind the cashier counter.

—
Two months.

It's been exactly two months since she's getting protected. Nayeon sighed, the side of her head resting against the lecture table. Everyone else had already left the place except her, who still had her laptop opened on in front of her. She would have already reached home by this time if this was a month ago but now, she really didn't want to go out there because she knew either Jeongyeon or Mark would be out there.

Maybe Bambam too.

One day of freedom and she would be satisfied. How long do they plan to follow her anyway?She just had to sneak away from them, somewhere crowded and somewhere really big.

Wait a minute-

Nayeon slowly sat up; how could she have forgotten? Everyone left the lecture hall early because of the festival that's going on in her campus right now! Maybe that's the chance!

Feeling excited for the first time that few days, Nayeon hastily packed her laptop into her bag and threw the rest of her stuff into it while she stood up from her seat, heading out of the lecture hall.

Just as she had expected, she met both Mark and Bambam outside.

"Nayeon!" Bambam called out, running towards her with Mark following calmly behind him. "You scared us. We thought something bad had happen when you didn't appear for a long time."

"I was just working on an assignment." Nayeon lied. "Anyway, do you want to head to the school main ground? I heard there's a mini festival going on!"

"No." That was Mark's firm reply. However, Bambam's face lit up instead.

"Let's go!" He smiled brightly and grabbed both Mark and Nayeon's wrist on both sides, dragging them to the direction of the school's main ground.

Due to Bambam basking in his own excitement and Mark's reluctance, neither of them noticed how a mischievous smile was formed on Nayeon's lips.

Despite it being called a mini festival, the atmosphere right then could be compared to any of the national festival. The place was filled with different stores set up by students and most of them had invited their friends over which made the place even more crowded.

Just exactly what Nayeon wanted.

To not arouse any of her two companions' suspicions, Nayeon let herself be led by Bambam which she got to admit that it's fun. However, she would be able to enjoy it more if she's alone. Slowly, she stopped following Bambam's lead and would walk to a random store by herself instead, going back to Bambam right after to make it seem like she's following them well.

Finally, her chance arrived.

A big group of students walked towards their direction and Nayeon slowed down her pace, letting the group be an obstacle between her and the two boys. Even though Mark was quick witted enough to realize what she's trying to do, the crowd was too huge for him to get to Nayeon.

All he could do was watch the girl disappear into the crowd after she stuck out her tongue at him.

"Bambam!" He shouted, grabbing Bambam back by his shirt. "Stop playing, Nayeon escaped."

"What?" That finally caught Bambam's attention who turned around quickly as he scanned his surroundings.

"The crowd." Mark said in a low voice, looking around too. "She made use of it."

"Jaebum is going to kill us."

"I need my laptop." Mark stayed while he and Bambam walked away from the festival. "Or any laptop."

"I have mine." Bambam said before he walked towards an empty corner by the staircases. "It's definitely better than the school's ones. They ."

He added at the end, placing his bag on the floor and took out his macbook.

"Call Jeongyeon." Mark commanded after he sat down on the stairs with the macbook on his lap.

"But Jaebum will be there—"

"There's only one laptop now, I need her help." Mark calmly explained, keeping his focus on the screen as he plugged his USB in.

Bambam let out a groan, knowing that the older male is right before he took out his phone and made the call to Jeongyeon.

—
Nayeon turned back once more to make sure that she's not being followed by anyone and when she saw how Mark and Bambam were nowhere in sight, she muttered a quiet cheer to herself before running out of the school campus.

A bus ride had never felt this good and she thought that maybe it's better to not head back home that early, assuming that Mark would be there.

Nayeon ended up at the mall which she hadn't been there for a while due to her deadlines and her getting protected. At least that's what they've said even though she didn't see the need at all.

Nothing had happened all these while.

Nayeon shook her head, not wanting to think of all those complicated stuff as she bit on her small ice cream spoon. It was almost a perfect day for her — spending time alone in the air conditioned mall; eating her favourite strawberry cheesecake flavoured ice cream from Baskin Robins. The day couldn't get any better.

Or so she thought; if only she noticed her phone lighting up for no reason.

—
"Did you manage to track her down?" Jaebum asked from the other side of the phone, an annoyed tone obvious in his question.

"Mark is working on it." Bambam answered as he took a glance at Mark who's working on his laptop. "Did the radar catch anything?"

"Jeongyeon is still working on it." Jaebum stated but his tone changed right after. "I told you not to lose her!"

Bambam chose to ignore the older male, not wanting to be nagged with a whole lecture of them needing to be more careful. Instead he turned his attention back to Mark who had hacked into the telecom station's database. Bambam watched closely on the screen and when Mark's almost done, he grabbed Mark's phone on the table.

"The duplicate phone is ready. We are getting the information from the telecom." Bambam explained to Jaebum on the phone again while Mark packed the macbook back into Bambam's bag. "She's at the mall..."

"Bambam, wait!" This time Jeongyeon was the one who exclaimed through the phone. "There's a huge frequency of data detected surrounding the mall. I think they found her again."

"Can you shut them down?" Jaebum turned to face Jeongyeon, the phone still against his ear.

"There are too many of them, boss." Jeongyeon turned to look at Jaebum briefly then back to her computer screen. "And our system here at your office wouldn't be able to do it."

"What about your side, Bam?"

"I will try." Bambam said, following Mark into their car and taking the passenger seat. "We are heading to the mall now."

"Keep in contact." That was Jaebum's clean and simple command before he hung up on them.

Bambam then put his phone aside and took out his macbook from his bag again, opening it on his lap while Mark started the engine of the car.

"How's the situation?" Mark asked quietly as he kept his gaze on the road, using his phone as a guide.

"Wait." Bambam muttered as his fingers typed furiously on the keyboard before he cursed quietly under his breath. "Do they really have to bring that many people just to catch a girl."

Grabbing his phone, Bambam called Jaebum again and the speaker mode.

"They're going all out." Bambam stated, his eyes staying fixated on his computer screen. "It will take some time—"

"."

It was Mark's cursing that interrupted the phone conversation.

"What happened?" Jaebum and Bambam questioned at the same time.

"The connection got cut off." Mark explained. "Either they found her or they realised that we are tracking her."

Silence took over the moving car before the sound of Jaebum taking in a deep breath could be heard.

"Let's call for Udon."

—

happy friday and update day everyone! i hope your week had went well? this chapter is a build up and yeah, there's a few markyeon scene. i hope the time skip isn't too confusing? how do you feel about the last part; does it make you anxious even if it's just a little? i'm never one to write exciting scenes because i at them but i hope this story will help me, so your feedbacks are important.

until then, see you next friday! you can ask me questions on the links below! thank you for reading <3

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