Leo heaved a tired sigh as he used a pair of chopsticks to poke around at a boiling pot full of ramen. It had been almost two

days since his talk with N and things weren’t going so well. N had retreated into a shell that no one could penetrate. He barely

spoke anymore unless he absolutely had to, even to the fans. Leo was beginning to really believe the problem ran much deeper

than only stress and the maknae line’s teasing. Thankfully, the two of them had gone out to a movie since they will have some

time off for the next two days. At least the hyungs would have some peace and quiet for a bit. 

“It smells so good~!” Leo glanced up to see Ken sauntering into the kitchen. He draped himself over Leo, looking at the ramen

with a hungry look in his eyes.

“Get out of the kitchen and go call the others to eat.” Leo growled out, shrugging out of his embrace. 

“Okay~!” Ken practically squealed in his ear, skipping out of the kitchen. Leo rolled his eyes in amused annoyance as he heard

Ken calling out to the other two members. A couple minutes later, Ken and Ravi were sitting on the floor eagerly awaiting their

meal.

“Where’s N?” Leo asked as he set the hot pot down on a wiry stand.

“He’s sleeping. I called into the room several times but he didn’t respond.” Ken said with a shrug. Leo frowned as he made his

way into the bedroom, N had been asleep the entire day. Normally, that wouldn’t have worried Leo except that he knew N hadn’t

eaten at all since he’d gone to sleep the night before and it was already 10:00 pm. He knew something was wrong the moment he

the light and saw N laying curled up in his blankets still dressed in the clothes he’d been wearing the day before. He

was sweating profusely and his chest was heaving as if it was hard for him to breathe. His expression was one of discomfort and

Leo stooped down to put a hand on his forehead. His eyes widened at how heated it was.

“Hakyeon?” Leo tried, kneeling in front of his leader and squeezing his shoulder, “Hakyeon-ah, wake up.”

The only response Leo received was the twitching downward of his eyebrows and a quiet whimper. 

“Hyung..?” Leo turned to find Ravi in the doorway, watching with a worried look on his face, “Is N hyung okay?”

“He’s running a high fever,” Leo said with a shake of his head. He motioned for Ravi to come closer, “Come here, help me get him

to the couch.”

Ravi hesitated a moment before shuffling to Leo’s side. Leo slid his arms under N, one under his knees and the other around his

shoulders, and lifted him up. His worry for N grew as he felt the heated body in his arms trembling uncontrollably. 

“Gather the blankets.” Leo instructed over his shoulder as he carried N out of the room. Ravi nodded, gathering all the blankets off

of the floor and following his hyung out the door. Ken looked up in confusion, watching as Leo carried their leader to the couch

and gingerly set him down.

“What’s going on, hyung?” Ken asked, getting up from his position on the floor. 

“N hyung is sick.” Ravi replied as he helped Leo spread the blankets over the shivering N. Leo sighed as he ran a hand through

his hair, their manager wouldn’t be back until their next schedule because he’d had a family emergency to attend to. Usually, when

one of them got sick like this, their manager would take them to the hospital to get treated but since he wasn’t here and Hongbin

and Hyuk had gone to a movie, they didn’t have a car. They’d have to keep N’s fever down themselves.

“Jaehwan, go to the shop nearby and see if they’re still open,” Leo said, “See if they have medicine.”

Ken nodded and after pulling his coat on, made his way out the door. After he was gone, Leo turned to Ravi.

“Go get a clean rag and fill a bowl with cold water.” 

“Yes, hyung.” Ravi disappeared into the kitchen. Leo turned back to N who’s clothes were soaked with sweat. Deciding it was

probably best to remove them to keep him comfortable, Leo kneeled down and started pulling N’s shirt over his head. This

garnered a reaction from the sick leader who’s eyes fluttered open for a moment before scrunching closed as he groaned in

discomfort. After Leo removed most of N’s clothes, leaving him in only his underwear, he wrapped him in the blankets hoping they

would help quell the chills. As he began folding N’s clothes, a small slip of colorful paper fell out of his pant’s pocket. 

‘It must be from the other day’s fan sign.’  Leo thought, picking the piece of paper up and flipping it over to read the message

scrawled on the front. 

“VIXX would be better off without you, you ugly f**got. You’re nothing but a worthless piece of sh*t. Do the other

members a favor and go kill yourself.”

Leo’s eyes widened in surprise at what he’d read. As he read over it again just to make sure he wasn’t seeing things, he felt a

fierce rage build up inside him; it was all he could do to keep himself from storming out of the dorm to search for the person who

wrote the note so he could give them a solid punch to the face.

“Hyung, what’s wrong?” It was Ravi who brought him out of his fury.

Leo forced himself to calm down. He didn’t want to tell Ravi about his new findings, he knew how angry his dongsaeng would get.

Quickly shoving the offensive note into his pocket, he turned to Ravi.

“I’m fine.” He stated, reaching his hands out to the bowl and towel in Ravi’s arms, “I’ll take these, go put N’s clothes in with the

dirty laundry.” 

Ravi nodded as he picked up the clothes and quickly scurried off to the laundry room. Left alone with N, Leo allowed the anger to

seep back into his mind as he dipped the towel in the cold water and wrung it out before placing it on N’s forehead. He couldn’t

believe someone would write such a hateful thing to anyone let alone N. N was the most gentle and loving person Leo had ever

known and for someone to write such things with so much hate for N made Leo so angry he felt nauseated. Leo gazed down at

his leader, the distressed look on his face had somewhat disappeared when Leo had put the cold cloth on him and he seemed to

be resting more peacefully. Reaching a hand up to at N’s sweaty hair, Leo felt the anger turn into sorrow as he imagined

how his leader must’ve felt when he’d read the note. For a Starlight to say something like that to him must’ve broken his heart.

Leo could only hope that the person was an anti and not a Starlight.

‘This must be why N feels hurt when the members .’  He thought with a sigh. His hand froze as a sudden thought

occurred to him. What if this wasn’t the first malicious note he had gotten? What if this had been going on for a while now and N

was just too afraid to tell anyone about it? He knew it’d be hard to get N to talk about it but he also knew it was an issue that

couldn’t be ignored. 

“Hyung?” Leo looked up to see Ravi standing over them, “Will N hyung be okay?”

Leo nodded and patted to floor next to him as an invitation to sit, allowing Ravi to rest his head on his shoulder as they waited for

either N to wake up or Ken to get back with the medicine.

FINALLY! I finally managed to write this chapter lol I'm so sorry it took so long but school the life outa me, and then when I finally had time to write the next chapter, I had completely forgotten where I was going with this story T^T But it's all good now :) Also, for any of you guys who want a romance Neo fic, I'm writing one! I'm trying to get better at romance haha so please check it out!