April, 12th, 2020

For two days straight, Donghyuck only came out of his assigned room for food and training with Doyoung. Chen Le had been constantly resting and ever since that slight slip up the previous day, Donghyuck had removed himself from seeing Chen Le's recovery process. 

Instead, he dedicated himself to finding out what exactly was going on. The serial killer, Stacey's murder, Chen Le being shot and NCT's involvement in the matter. Donghyuck thought that NCT was an easy target to frame as everyone knew that they had been looking for any evidence to put the gang away for life — this was the perfect opportunity. 

"Hello? This is Seoul Plaza; would you like to make a reservation for a room?" A soft voice asked from the other end of the phone Donghyuck was holding. Donghyuck blinked at the wall. 

"Er, no thank you," Donghyuck said and he heard a sigh. "I was actually wondering if anyone has used Mr Nakamota's key on April 3rd or 4th. I'm investigating a murder and we're missing some details, so it would be very helpful if you could tell me if his key card was used." Donghyuck stated, waiting for an answer.

"Um, wait just a moment." Donghyuck waited and waited until finally he heard belated breathing on the other line and another sigh. 

"I'm afraid you'll have to get a warrant for that, sir." And then he hung up and Donghyuck threw his phone on the bed. A warrant would take ages and Jaehyun had basically forbidden him from leaving NCT's house while he was still in danger; he would never be able to go and find clues. All of this was about him, but he couldn't do anything.

Donghyuck opened the door, blinking his exhaustion away. He had barely slept the last two days; staying up all night to see if he could find anything useful, but all of it had been in vain because nothing even remotely helpful had come up. When the smell of food hit his nose, Donghyuck began walking to the kitchen, stumbling a little on a way because of a slippery floorboard. 

He cursed the floorboard, darting into the kitchen and being met with the sight of Doyoung, Chen Le and the rest of the gang. 

"Oh, hey Donghyuck — have you been sleeping?" Doyoung demanded, getting up and coming to inspect Donghyuck's face and the huge eyebags underneath his eyes. Donghyuck swatted Doyoung's hands away and slumped into one of the seats at the table, not sparing a glance to the other members of NCT. 

"I'm fine; I just was looking into things. I called Seoul Plaza, but they said I'd have to get a warrant to know if the key card was used. I'm assuming they don't want to admit that they had a security breach as it's bad for business." Donghyuck explained, rubbing his eyes. Doyoung watched him carefully. 

"What else have you been doing?" Doyoung demanded and Donghyuck opened one eye to steal a glance at Doyoung's face before letting his eye fall shut.

"Training; fighting." Donghyuck muttered, hearing Chen Le's groan across the table. Donghyuck ignored them and tuned out Doyoung's scolding. He lowered his head to the table and felt relief at the cold surface shocking some tiredness away. 

"You can't keep doing this." Was the last thing Donghyuck heard Doyoung say before Doyoung's phone was ringing and the male was answering it with a small glare in Donghyuck's direction. Donghyuck's eyes peeled open when Doyoung started speaking into the phone. 

"Hello — oh, hi, Jaehyun — no, he's here — speaker? Are you sure? — well, alright." Donghyuck lifted his head as Doyoung put the phone on speaker and put the device on the table. 

"Lee Donghyuck." Jaehyun scowled and Donghyuck stared at the phone for a moment before rolling his eyes. 

"Yes?" He asked. The room had gone deathly silent, only the sizzling of meat on the pan being the only noise left in the room.

"You are in heaps of trouble. What the  did I say about not investigating this case until you are out of danger. I want you to help Chen Le and find his shooter, not go and solve the huge case first! The person that killed Stacey is far more powerful than the person that shot Chen Le!" Jaehyun shouted and Donghyuck blinked at the phone. 

"You want me to give up? Jaehyun, this is my case! You can't just ask me to stop investigating it and whether or not, I'm in danger, I'm not letting this killer go free." 

"Donghyuck." Jaehyun warned, lowly. 

"No, Jaehyun, I'm doing this with or without your permission." Donghyuck stated, firmly and Jaehyun exhaled slowly.

"Fine. If you get yourself killed, don't say I didn't tell you so." Jaehyun muttered. "I'm not about to stick around and watch you kill yourself for getting information you could get in about a week or so." Jaehyun said and Donghyuck sneered at the phone, some of his anger returning from the previous phone call he had this morning. 

"I'm not asking you to." Donghyuck said, crossing his arms.

~~~~~~~~~~

April, 15th, 2020

Donghyuck threw a punch at the bag in front of him, using the anger he had been saving up to beat the living daylights out of the punch bag. A right hook, jab, uppercut; it was all second nature as he threw punch after punch at the bag; he could no longer feel the ache in his knuckles or the slight pain in his lip from biting down too hard. 

A grunt slipped from his lips when he aimed a kick at the middle of the bag, his foot connecting with the harsh rock-like bag. Ignoring the pain, Donghyuck continued his punching; a small sheen of sweat had begun to coat his forehead and back. 

By the time someone came into the room and saw Donghyuck, he was soaked in sweat and no doubt smelt horrible. He was breathing heavily, but aimed another hard punch. His fist connected with the bag with a slam — it filled the air and before Donghyuck could throw another, someone cleared his throat. 

Donghyuck turned around and was met with a boy around his age with brown hair styled to perfection. He had an air of confidence around him when he regarded Donghyuck.

"What do you want?" Donghyuck demanded, taking off his gloves. Ever since the others had got Donghyuck's stuff, he had been using his own gloves; the ones that were slightly tearing and looked years old. It was funny really because as much as Donghyuck hated the guy, the gloves were gifted to him from Taeyong. From ages ago — the male had told him he had gotten them in a larger size, so that he wouldn't have to get new ones as their family was quiet poor and the gloves were expensive ones back then. 

"A guest is here to see you." The boy said. Donghyuck looked up, attention being caught and watched as the boy rolled his eyes, gesturing for Donghyuck to follow. The boy lead him into an unknown room and since Donghyuck didn't have any time to put his gloves away, he clutched them closer to his chest and ignored the other faces in the room. 

The sight he saw had his mouth falling open; in front of him was Kun and Jaehyun; standing and talking to Chen Le and Doyoung like the gang members in the room didn't exist. Donghyuck spotted Mark in the corner of the room, chatting quietly to Taeyong. 

"Jaehyun? Kun?" Donghyuck exclaimed and Kun turned, a smile spreading across his face. Donghyuck grinned wildly and ran to Kun, flinging himself into his friends arms, the said male spinning them around. 

"Hey, Hyuckie." Kun said, softly. "Ten wanted to come too, but he was caught up in the office and well ..." Donghyuck sighed and felt his eyes prickle against his better self. Seeing familiar faces that seemed to far out of reach after 5 days of being cooped up in NCT's house felt overwhelming and so, so good. 

Kun seemed to notice this and panicked, glancing at Jaehyun in shock. Donghyuck barely ever cried and now he was rubbing his eyes and trying not to make eye contact with anyone. It was surprising and shocking to say the least.

"Donghyuck, hey, hey, why are you getting all emotional on me now?" Jaehyun chuckled and it seemed like their little fight had no meaning; it was like it didn't matter. Donghyuck breathed in deeply and tried — he really did try — but it seemed like his tear ducts had a better idea. Before he knew it, tears were falling from his eyes, his head lowered so that no one could see the mess on his face. 

"Oh my god ~" Someone breathed and Jaehyun shot them a hard glare before scooping Donghyuck into his arms and rocking them back and forward. Donghyuck didn't make a sound when he cried, he only shook with sobs: eyes clenched tightly shut and his tears soaking Jaehyun's shoulder. 

"I'm so sorry, hyung." Donghyuck cried. "I'm such a bad influence to Chen Le and Jaemin ~"

"Jaemin dying wasn't your fault, Hyuck ~"

"Yes, it was!" Donghyuck cried, slipping out of Jaehyun's arms and sinking to the floor, bringing his knees to his chest. "It was all my fault — he died because of me, Jaehyun, h-he ... I — all my fault ..." Donghyuck gasped out, lowering his head onto his arms and he cried. He cried his heart out and ignored the others in the room. 

Jaehyun picked up Donghyuck's fallen boxing gloves and Taeyong blinked, mouth falling open in shock. 

"Hyung?" A boy asked Taeyong, drawing everyone's attention to Taeyong who took a step forward and another and then another until he was standing in front of Jaehyun and examining the gloves. 

"These are mine." He breathed. "I gave them to Donghyuck ten years ago when he was ... when he was nine." Taeyong said, carefully taking the gloves from Jaehyun and turning the gloves over. As an extra gift, Taeyong had payed extra money to get the initials L.T and L.D sewn into the fabric, so that whenever Donghyuck used them, he would think of Taeyong. 

Taeyong glanced at Donghyuck. "He kept them?" He asked, hearing Donghyuck's cries stop as well as his shaking and watched as Jaehyun and Doyoung got down and shook Donghyuck. He didn't react and Kun stared at him for a moment. 

"He's asleep." He whispered and Jaehyun glanced at Donghyuck before looking at Taeyong and getting to his feet. 

"You take him to his room." Jaehyun said and Taeyong blinked stupidly at him until Jaehyun made a face. "Did you hear what I said? Are you going to do it before I change my mind or not?" Taeyong shocked out of daze and nodded, not noticing Doyoung get to his feet. 

"Jae, Haechan wouldn't like that." Doyoung said and Taeyong watched as they shared a glance. 

"He won't, Do." Jaehyun agreed. "But, I'm tired of watching him torture himself. The last time he was actually happy was when he was with him." Jaehyun said, pointing to Mark, who's eyes went wide. "Donghyuck's younger than both you and I were when we joined the force. He's the baby of our group, but he always carries more burdens than all of us combined." Jaehyun stated before turning to Taeyong. 

"And you; if you hurt Hyuck again, I will personally make it my mission to put a bullet through your forehead." Jaehyun sneered and Taeyong gulped. His gang members were standing and staring at Jaehyun with shock in their eyes; the way Jaehyun spoke to Taeyong and the way he responded was unfamiliar to all of them.

"I understand." He whispered.