20 OCTOBER 2020, SEOUL, KOREA.

Taemin opened the door & got himself in the back seat of the car. And Euisoo-manager pushed the start button to drive him home.

Both of them were silent as Taemin seemed to be exhausted to have any conversation at the moment.

The new album was at the edge of getting released in less than a month now & hence he was more than just busy, running from dance practice to musicshows to shooting sets for the entire week.

It was already 12.30 am, his whole day packed with making up to the shows he was promoting through & then again to the sets of his MV shoot & had none other than this time from the day to practice his choreography for a while to make his body feel comfortable in it & anyway he wanted some time for himself before heading home, so practice room was perfect for it. 

After having dinner with Euisoo-nim, he had crashed the practice-room, spending almost an hour extra there after the real practice hours, experimenting with the hook part of the choreo for a while.

He opened his phone to find a few notifications from stylist noona with some photos of costume & some with themes & designs for the jacket shoot that was happening next Monday, which he replied saying, he'll let her know soon.

Then right below, there seemed to be a giant streak of messages on their friends’ group-chat, 98 was the number on the chat window, they were probably planning the get-together tonight, which he had already missed by now.

It wasn’t the first get-together he was missing & probably his friends would know that he’s busy when he won’t reply, so he moved on to more unreplied messages scrolling down without replying to the group chat.

There was one from his mom too amongst the 10+ unread tags below, asking about his meals & asking him to take care of himself when he hadn't replied the former ones, so he opened it to reply back with a short ‘Okay’ thinking of calling her in the morning again.

He closed the app, as there was no other important message he needed to respond immediately, and decided to lay back for a second, closing his eyes to get some calm from the chaotic day.

However his mind wasn’t as calm as he wanted it to be, a war of passion & exhaustion was rising inside his head in an attempt to win over his conscience, as he tried staying silent for some longer.

“Hyung, can you play some songs?” he asked with his eyes closed, as Euisoo-nim reached the music-player to press the play button.

‘Rise’ , one of his own songs, started playing on the playlist when manager-nim had played the playlist on the top ‘Ballads’, knowing how Taemin could relax listening to that kind of music when exhausted, especially at nights.

But as soon as the first lines of the song came up, a tear had dropped down from the corner of his eye. He realised again how the song was relatable to him in many senses. He had sung it himself, and every word of the song was touching him immensely as ever.

He was not sure if the physical exhaustion or his mental tiredness was taking over his mind now, but he felt his chest getting heavy with emotions.

All the thirteen years he had been on the stage, singing & dancing, trying his best to give his all in every moment, all of those moments started coming front of his eyes as a flash of time-plot from some movie.

He could rest for a while for sure but it was true that he was working every-day without a single stop until now, because he loved every bit of his passion for being the artist he had made out of himself.

And now that he was enrolling for military, all he did till now was going to get paused for a while, and it was making him emotional all the time, thinking how he won’t be performing for a while on stage, how his feet won’t be dancing & he won't be singing every day before the audiences, his fans, who cheered him in all these years.

His art & the audience was all he had gained through this passion till now & thinking about this short but compulsory halt again & again was making him anxious as well as nervous at times like this, since the day was getting nearer.

Of course he wasn’t very comfortable & prepared, but everyone around him was saying it would be okay & he truly wanted to believe those words to keep his mind sane till he comes back again.

The thoughts were interrupted when Euisoo-nim calling him to tell that they had arrived home.

“Are you okay?” Euisoo-nim asked, as Taemin had opened his eyes letting out a deep sigh.

He wasn’t really okay but didn’t even knew if his struggle was worth-discussing, and thus he nodded his head in ‘yes’ silently, opening the door to leave, waving his hand in goodbye, “Get home safely, hyung” “See you tomorrow” he pushed the door back, walking into the elevator.

He got the shoes off, pulling on the slippers as he dragged his feet to the couch in the living room.

As soon as his back touched the couch, he had closed his moist eyes feeling comfortable in the softness of the couch.

He was already asleep when he felt kkoong’s presence in his lap as she was kissing his hands now, cuddling into his arms. He looked at her through the slit-opened eyes as she wanted to play but then moved down seeing him not respond back, which made him close his eyes back, trying to sleep again.

After a while, he felt her furry tail trailing on the skin of his hands again, as she moved up on his stomach again. But he was too tired to open his eyes, though he could feel everything, including the soreness in his body turned into numbness now, making him lie strength-less there without daring to move much.

He was soon fast asleep on the couch with his track pants & t-shirt, which he was wearing during the dance practice. Not bothered by the sweaty smell today, all he wanted was to rest for a few hours before he had to wake up again to go for the shoot of the variety show tomorrow at 10 am in the morning.

His eyes finally opened when he couldn’t resist his loud phone echoing in the empty house.

He lifted his heavy body to reach the phone & received the call without opening his eyes completely, when sleep still had enough control over him.

“Hello?” a girl’s hesitant voice came from the other end which startled him enough to open his eyes as he sat up to check the caller id.

He moved the phone to his ears again, “Hello! oppa!" he was about to hang up, "Please don’t hang up on me” she had a desperate tone, and a drunk stutter in her words

Is she one of the sasaengs? The first thought that crossed his mind, as he was wide awake now, confirming that this wasn't just a bad dream.

“Please listen to me!” she kept blurting out words in that mumbled voice, as he removed the phone from his ear to re-check the number again.

It was definitely some sasaeng calling him at midnight, in a long time again.

It was an unknown number, and the way the girl was speaking there was no other conclusion he could thresh out from this kind of call.

His eyes caught the time on the top of the screen, shocking him more, it was 3.30 am & why did he even picked the strange call at this time.

That lead to confirming his doubt.

He had to change his number numerous times because of such calls on random & unusual times. He thought he was out of that mess after 14 years, but he was wrong all along. He didn’t even has the count of how many of such encounters he had faced in past. It had decresed since last six years, unlike the scary times in the beginning of his debut, still there were few recurrences, when he would still receive such calls once in a blue moon.

He shouldn’t have received the call at all.

He disconnecetd, without interacting anyfurther & sent the number to Eui Soo-nim right away. ‘Can you check this number for me? I think it’s another sasaeng. I got a call just now, just tell them to check as soon as possible,’ he wrote the text to him. And slipped the phone on the table again leaning back on the couch trying to relax but his head was again flooded with number of thoughts and concerns.

He understood the love & hated to be rude to his own fans in such manner, but this behavior wasn’t something to be endured & he was definitely not going to let them get away with the insensible methods like this.

It wasn’t just about his personal space, because he loved sharing that with his fans, but this shouldn't be the behaviour what he was expecting in return.

He was not able to sleep again & had to take pills then, after going to his bedroom to get some sleep for the remaining hours.

------------------

“I have informed the legal team about the call” Euisoo-nim looked back through his rear view mirror, where Taemin was checking the photos sent by stylist noona yesterday, from which he had to choose the outfit for the radio-show, he was visiting tomorrow.

“Ah! Right!” he replied with his eyes on the phone. “What are they planning to do about it?” he raised his eyes glancing at his hyung to get more details.

“I gave them the number to trace & so they will do a background check of the caller & take the necessary action against them accordingly” Euisoo-nim conveyed all the details he was informed by the legal team in-charge of the company, he got in touch with, this morning, after reading Taemin’s message.

“Okay!” he nodded as he reached the coffee tumbler in the cup-holder near his seat, “You had your breakfast, hyung?” he asked between sipping the coffee.

“Not yet,” manager-nim answered, smiling softly at kind-hearted Taemin.

Eui Soo-nim always had breakfast after dropping Taemin in the morning to his destination & sometimes with him, when he had to pick Taemin too early in the morning, because of which Taemin would miss having a meal in the morning.

“You should be eating well to take care of me, hyung” “Don’t you think so?” Taemin would make sure his hyung had his meals when he was busy running from this place to another with him.

“Hmm” “You know I’ll have it after I drop you off” “Don’t worry!” Euisoo-nim looked through the mirror again to get a glance of Taemin when he happened to look back at him, and they had an quick eye-contact, bringing smile to each of their faces.

“By the way” Eui soo-nim had a serious face, as the smile now disappeared, “You better not hide the sasaeng calls as before from us” he warned, as Taemin followed the serious face then.

“You know it can burst into a serious problem at times.” Euisoonim added, trying to make him understand the content of his concern.

“Yeah! I know" ''I won’t neglect it” he nodded in reassurance, pressing his lips together.

“You will be in the military soon so we need to be extra careful” manager-nim was worried after the sudden call in a while, appearing just before his enlistment when they had it under control till now.

“Hmm, I know,” Taemin nodded again, his heart sinking just by