CIRCA 2017.

haneul wasn't sure how it began or from where the feelings initially sprouted. all she knew was that one day, she walked into the sm building and the sight of mark lee made her feel uneasy. she'd known the guy since the days where they nearly shared the same height; she never would have even considered seeing mark as anything more than a friend, yet sometime in the winter of 2016, her views towards him changed. she got a little nervous around him and her heart would do crazy flips—bit by bit, mark lee was driving eo haneul into a world she'd never stepped into before.

as much as she would hate to admit it, her crush on mark wasn't a secret for long. everyone (and she meant everyone who witnessed their interactions) could see that the way she treated mark compared to the rest of nct was different. of course, they knew it couldn't be because she was some solo mark stan. everyone but mark, that was.

for over the course of months, haneul was approached by the older members in statice, worried over how the young one was going to deal with said feelings. they knew she'd never fallen in love before, they knew she could be a little too emotional, they knew that they were ready to obliterate any boy who dared break her heart.

 "i'll be fine," haneul would assure them. for once, it wasn't even a lie. she really was fine.

though there were times she hated how she felt around him, it wasn't too much of a disturbance. she didn't feel the need to tell him how she felt as she could already predict what would happen. she didn't hold any expectations either, as mad as she was for him, she didn't let her infatuation blind her from the reality: she was a rookie idol. he was a rookie idol. same company, both currently underaged. a relationship between them would be more forbidden than the tale of romeo and juliet.

so haneul kept it to herself. the feelings would go away one day and if they didn't, maybe when the time was a lot more appropriate she'd be able to tell her close friend how she truly felt about him.
if she was lucky, she dreamt that he would tell her he felt the same.

unbeknownst to the world, mark lee was the inspiration behind most of haneul's romantic lyrics for the following few comebacks, be it for statice or for any of the subunits.

it was known to the world (or at least, the sm family), including and especially mark lee, that he was also the inspiration behind all of haneul's devastating, heartbreak lyrics that were incorporated in the songs released after the summer of 2017.

the statice members were only joking around in the confinement of their designated practice room. it was midnight, after hours of strenuous training. they were tired, drowsy and just wanted a little bit of fun. they decided to tease haneul about mark, ignoring her pleas for them to cut it out, until the first member who was about to leave the room realized that the girls weren't alone.

none of them had noticed that the door was open; neither did they notice that there stood mark lee, awkward with flushed cheeks. apparently he had approached the wrong room and upon hearing the girls' topic of conversation, couldn't find it within him to move away.

 "how long have you been standing there?" one of his same-aged friends asked.

 "long enough." he replied and haneul could feel her entire soul leaving her body.

they both didn't know what to do but haneul toughened up and pulled him into privacy, determining that they needed to talk. she never expected for it to happen this way and from the look on his face, she knew what she was going to hear, yet when the words actually left his mouth, nothing could have prepared her for the pain that followed.

mark was filled with guilt. haneul was filled with shame. their little talk that night led to the last of a beautiful friendship, as haneul avoided nct as much as she could and mark was clueless as to how he could ever make things better.
haneul couldn't face her own members either. it took her days, nearly weeks, to be able to forgive them for what happened and that said a lot about how hurt she was.

sometime later, when haneul had put the whole thing behind her and was considering befriending mark again, she was complimented for her lyrics. she was asked about how she conveyed her emotions and how she came up with ideas and the question that stood out to her the most was if she had ever fallen in love and used those feelings for a song.

 "no," she lied. she could envision mark's smile and hear his laugh and it made her want to lie so much more.

sky had never been in love, but eo haneul sure had.