Despite being full from the delicious meal he shared with his date, Taeil returns home feeling light as air. The dinner with Hyerim went extremely well and they agreed to go on another date tomorrow. They planned to spend the afternoon together at Han River Park. They both wanted to try the couple bikes and eat ramen while enjoying the scenery.

Taeil entered the tenth floor dorm with a huge grin on his face. He sees Mark and Jungwoo who were discussing very seriously on the living room couch. He thought the atmosphere was weird, like something bad happened.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” he asks the two younger members.

They didn’t notice Taeil coming in, “oh hey hyung, back from your date?” Mark greets him.

“How did it go, hyung?” Jungwoo asks.

“It went really great,” Taeil says with a broad smile but he turns serious when he asks, “what were you guys talking about before I came in?”

“Hyeyoon noona got attacked by sasaengs this morning,” Mark says, clearly displeased by the situation.

“What? Is she alright?” Taeil was surprised to hear the news. Hyerim is probably very worried about her younger sister, Taeil thought.

“We don’t know yet, Jaehyun hyung is at her apartment taking care of her,” Jungwoo answers.

“Why don’t we go and check up on her now? So we could also pick up Jaehyun,” Taeil suggested. He was genuinely concerned about Hyeyoon but it was also an excuse to see Hyerim again. Although he saw her less than an hour ago, he already missed her.

“That’s a great idea hyung! Let’s go,” Mark gets up from the couch.

“By the way, where’s Yuta hyung? I haven’t seen him all day,” Jungwoo says, remaining seated.

“Huh? He’s not here? I thought he went straight home after our gym session this morning,” Taeil quickly checked their bedroom but Yuta wasn’t there. Where could his roommate be?

“Let’s head down to the 5^th floor, maybe he’s hanging out there,” Mark says and tries to pull Jungwoo up but he doesn’t budge.

Jungwoo’s got a strange hunch that he shouldn’t go with them to Ms. Han’s place. He doesn’t know why but he thinks he might end up witnessing something he’s not supposed to see.

He groans, “I feel tired from the photoshoot.”

“Do you feel sick hyung?” Mark asks.

“No, just tired. You can go without me,” Jungwoo tells them.

“You should go to sleep early tonight, you might have caught a flu virus or something,” Taeil pats Jungwoo’s shoulder before he and Mark leave.

“That was weird, even for Jungwoo hyung,” Mark tells Taeil as they rode the elevator going down. “He was perfectly fine when we were talking together earlier.”

“Don’t think too much about it, maybe Jungwoo’s really just tired,” Taeil tells him as they get off the elevator.

They enter the dorm without ringing the doorbell and find everyone gathered in front of a laptop in the living room. They were intently watching the screen. Haechan was seated on the ground, holding the wireless mouse in his right hand. Beside him was their manager, Ingyu, who looked the most nervous out of everybody. The others, Johnny, Taeyong and Doyoung were all seated on the couch right behind them.

“What are you guys watching?” Taeil approaches the five guys huddled together.

They all look up from the screen and are surprised to see that Taeil and Mark had just arrived. Ingyu answers, “we’re watching the cctv footage of the assault that happened this morning, I’m sure you already know about it.” Ingyu turns to Taeil who nods in response.

Mark and Taeil find their own spots around the laptop to watch the footage with the rest of the guys. Haechan was trying to look for the right moment when Hyeyoon got attacked.

“What time is Hyeyoon noona supposed to be in our dorm to work, Ingyu hyung?” Haechan asks.

“Um, I think she’s supposed to be in around 9:30?” Ingyu wasn’t exactly sure.

Haechan fast forwards the video to the time Ingyu mentioned and there they saw Hyeyoon getting surrounded by sasaengs whose faces they could recognize because they saw the same faces repulsively waiting outside their dorms nearly every day.

 

 

 

“Hyeyoon! Unnie’s ho-,” Hyerim stops in her tracks when she sees Jaehyun washing the plates together with her younger sister.

The two of them halt what they’re doing and turn around from the sink where they see Hyerim standing in shock. Who is this strange but handsome man inside my studio apartment? The older sister thought while she eyed Jaehyun. Hyeyoon and Jaehyun exchange brief looks of panic.

“Who are you?” Hyerim inquires, trying her best not to sound rude.

“Hello Ms. Han, I’m Jaehyun! It’s nice to meet you,” he was flustered but did his best to give Hyeyoon’s older sister a good first impression. He bows at her and smiles politely.

“I’m a member of NCT 127, just like Taeil hyung,” he adds.

Hyerim was confused. Why would he be here with Hyeyoon? The two of them alone? She gave Hyeyoon a skeptical look while the younger one gives her sister an awkward smile.

“How did your date with Mr. Taeil go, unnie?” Hyeyoon asks, trying to relax the awkward tension that was slowly forming.

Her unnie smiles timidly before answering, “it went quite well.”

The three of them suddenly fell silent. Both Jaehyun and Hyeyoon felt like they were caught doing something criminal while Hyerim was having thinking all sorts of thoughts about what the two of them did while they were alone. Jaehyun clears his throat and decides he should explain what happened today.

“Actually Ms. Han, I’m here with Hyeyoon because she got assaulted by sasaeng fans this morning.”

“Assaulted?! Sasaeng fans? What are those?” Hyerim has never heard of that term before, she didn’t know what it meant. But she was more alarmed hearing that her younger sister got assaulted.

“Why don’t you take a seat first unnie,” Hyeyoon suggested before she let Jaehyun continue talking.

The three of them take the seats around the small round dining table in the middle of the apartment before Jaehyun and Hyeyoon relay to Hyerim the events that transpired during the morning.

Hyerim quietly listened to the two of them talk. But, by the end of it she was beyond furious, “what kind of people are those girls?! They don’t seem sane! Are you sure you’re not hurt, Hyeyoon?”

“I’m truly fine unnie, if it really wasn’t for Jaehyun oppa I would have…” Hyeyoon doesn’t let herself say the words: panic attack. She feels like just saying them aloud will trigger one.

“Thank you so much Mr. Jaehyun!” Hyerim gives him a sincere grateful smile.

“No Ms. Han, I can’t accept your thanks. I should be apologizing. It was our group’s fault that Hyeyoon had to go through that. I’ll talk to our manager and see what action we can do against those people.”

“Yes, those so called sasaeng fans deserve to be punished for what they did!”

It was getting late and Jaehyun knew he should start going. The members are probably worried sick about Hyeyoon and they’re going to ask him a lot of questions about what ensued. He gets up and tells the two sisters that he’s leaving now.

“Why don’t you see him out, Hyeyoon,” Hyerim suggested.

Hyeyoon blushed at her sister’s remark but she’s secretly thankful that Hyerim said it. Hyeyoon wanted to say good night to Jaehyun properly and it would be too awkward if her unnie’s around.

“Have a good night Ms. Han,” Jaehyun tells Hyerim before he and Hyeyoon leave.

 

 

 

“Those ing sasaengs have crossed the line! We need to goddamn sue every one of those es!” Doyoung shouts after they finished watching the cctv recording. He gets up and smashes his closed fists on the wall.

Haechan slams his laptop shut and fans his shirt to cool his mad body down. The rest of the guys remained stuck in their places but they were all mirroring fuming looks on their faces. They felt absolutely sorry towards Hyeyoon. She had to suffer because of their group’s crazy stalker fans!

Ingyu was the only one wearing a scared expression on his face, he was sweating bullets from the anxiety he was feeling. This is big trouble if this doesn’t get controlled.

“I wonder what those crazy girls were screaming at Hyeyoon? It seemed like they were saying something about Taeyong?” Johnny spoke.

Taeyong turned around to face Johnny, “I thought they were saying my name too.” He buries his face in his hands and groans from frustration and resentment. Those sasaengs probably saw me driving Hyeyoon and confronted her because of me! It’s my ing fault! Taeyong thought.

Mark could see that Taeyong was holding himself responsible for what happened. He lays a hand on their leader’s shoulder, “hyung, don’t blame yourself. It’s those sasaengs who did it!”

“I think we should head to Ms. Han’s place and check if she’s alright. Jaehyun’s still there too,” Taeil suggested again.

“Let’s go now,” Haechan said as he twisted his knuckles in anger.

“Guys, why don’t you all calm down first before we do anything,” Ingyu says, trying to control the situation.

“You’re right, Taeil hyung. I can’t just stay put after knowing what happened,” Doyoung agrees to their oldest member’s plan.

“Doyoung, please calm down first!” Ingyu pleaded.

“No, I cannot calm the down hyung! Didn’t you see the they did to Hyeyoon?! Would you be okay if you witnessed the girl you like getting hurt like that?!”

Everyone was frozen after Doyoung’s explosion. He has never raised his voice to their manager ever and his confession made his outburst even more shocking. The only one who knew about Doyoung’s feelings was Taeyong but he was the most stunned of them all. Hearing his best friend reveal to everyone his feelings for Hyeyoon without a single shred of doubt made him see Doyoung as a competitor rather than a comrade.

“Your comeback is in four days,” Ingyu reminds them quietly.

They all remained hushed, not one of them looking at another. They know if they take action towards those sasaengs, they might retaliate by trying to start a nasty rumor against any of the members. A scandal could come out claiming that one of the members is dating their housekeeper. It could go wrong in so many ways.

“We know hyung…” Taeyong spoke up, he is the leader after all.

“I’m sorry Ingyu hyung but I have to see her. I need to see if she’s alright so I can feel at ease,” Doyoung said looking at Ingyu with angry tears in his eyes.

“Then I’ll drive you there,” Ingyu says as if surrendering in defeat. He wordlessly gets the van keys and goes out of the dorm as they all watched him.

Haechan gets up and follows Ingyu outside. Taeyong and Doyoung briefly look at each other before trailing behind. Johnny and Mark, along with Taeil who proposed going to Hyeyoon’s place, were all unsure if they should go. The three of them understood this wasn’t just about Hyeyoon getting assaulted by their sasaengs. This was a battle between three men who liked the same person.

They didn’t know a fourth man has already won.

 

“I’m sorry for lashing out on you, Ingyu hyung,” Doyoung apologizes as they waited for the elevator to arrive.

“It’s okay Doyoung,” Ingyu pats him in the back. Their manager never felt any anger towards Doyoung. Ingyu sighs as he thinks about how chaotic the coming days will be.

The elevator opens, revealing an irate Yuta who had his hands in pockets, “where are you all heading?”

They were wondering why he seemed so angry. Does he know about Hyeyoon’s incident?

“If know you’re wondering where I’ve been all this time and why I seem so pissed off, I was at the police station,” Yuta says stepping out of the elevator.

“What were you doing there?!” Ingyu was beginning to have a migraine. The trouble the guys were getting in to seemed to grow which means more bad news for him.

“I was coming home after meeting a friend when I saw the sasaengs who we’ve been seeing around for the past weeks and I lost my temper, so I reported each and every one of those psychos to the police.”

He took his hands from his pockets and continued, “I had to sit at the police station and explain everything, don’t worry I called the company and they sent a lawyer there to assist me,” he looks at Ingyu who was starting to sweat again.

“Those crazy people ended up slipping that they actually assaulted Ms. Han this morning! Can you believe that?! Some of them were minors so they all couldn’t be detained-“

“What? They admitted themselves to the police they that they hurt Ms. Han?” Doyoung was about to laugh at how dumb those people were.

“Wait, you know about it?” Yuta didn’t expect the news to come out so fast. Did the company tell the other members right away or something?

“We’ll explain it to you later! Let’s go,” Taeyong runs towards the elevator doors that were about to close.

“Thank you hyung!” Haechan says as he passes by Yuta before entering the elevator.

“You’re welcome?” Yuta stands confused as he watches the doors close.

 

“I’m so glad Yuta hyung reported them! I’ve had enough of those sasaengs! Plus the company also decided to help too, finally!” Haechan was extremely pleased that things were getting resolved.

He was happy that the sasaengs were getting punished for the constant violation of the group’s privacy that they’ve been doing and most importantly for hurting Hyeyoon.

“Do I turn left here, Taeyong?” Ingyu asked. They were all in the van, going to Hyeyoon's apartment. Taeyong was the only person who knew where it was. Doyoung and Haechan were hiding their jealousy towards their leader.

“Yes hyung, it’s that building over there,” Taeyong points to a 10-storey brick building a few meters from them.

Ingyu parks the car at a spot very close by. Everyone was about to get off the van but stop when they notice that Hyeyoon and Jaehyun were right outside the apartment building.

 

“Are you going to be okay now?”

Jaehyun holds Hyeyoon’s small hand in his. She gives his hand a squeeze and nods her head with a smile on her face.

“Can I see you tomorrow?” he asks her.

“Yes,” she blushes as she answers him.

He leans in and kisses her, “see you tomorrow beautiful.”

 

Ingyu could practically hear Taeyong, Doyoung and Haechan’s hearts simultaneously breaking as they watched Hyeyoon and Jaehyun share a kiss.