Chapter Text
You could say Yangyang was irritated, but even so, it would have been an understatement.
He doesn't know why he's like this in the first place. And honestly, life as an idol has already steeled him for things like this... But why is it bothering him so much?
Liu Yangyang is in their dorm in Korea, in his room, all alone with nothing but his trusty inanimate object companion (that didn't feel like a companion at the moment), his phone. He stares at the headline with absolute disbelief, 'NCT's Jaehyun and Renjun seen together at a restaurant in Seoul, fans suspect they're on a date.' in big, bold letters.
Yangyang scoffs sharply, chucking his phone away to the other side of the bed. It lands with a thud as it hits the headboard. This is insane. Who even ships idols? Honestly, people should get a grip on themselves.
"Yang? You there? Talking to yourself again?" Ten's voice echoes down the hallway. Yangyang's throat closes up, he manages to let out a stuttered, strained "No." to his hyung. Ten's reply doesn't come in, but instead knocks down the door to his room and drags him out to the dinner table where the others sat, "Right, sure." He says, like he doesn't believe Yangyang's words.
Kun looked up from his plate the moment they walked in, eyes studying Yangyang's rigid composure, the boy obviously trying not to show something. His gaze swept over Yangyang's tense shoulders, the way he refused to meet anyone's eyes, and during dinner, there was a sharp edge to his usual easy expression, but Kun stayed silent... for now.
The next headline comes in exactly two days,
Yangyang groans so loudly that the sound vibrates through the entire practice room, catching the attention of his fellow teammates and choreographers.
"Yah! Liu Yangyang!" Xiaojun scolds playfully, "Ditch that phone and come over here before I chuck your phone outside the window!" A light-hearted grin spread on his face. Yangyang sluggishly pulled himself up from the floor and sauntered over to his members with obvious resignation.
"What's gotten into you lately? You've been glued to that phone ever since we landed in Korea." Kun, the mother he is, nags immediately, though anyone could tell it wasn't ill-mannered. Yangyang just sighs in response and stretches his body, equipping his body to endure the long practice that lies ahead.
"It's nothing." He managed to grumble out before 'Big Bands' started to play through the speakers.
Yangyang opens TikTok, scrolls through about five cat videos, and literally in less than a minute, the algorithm decides to be a prick and a 10-minute video compilation titled 'Every NCT member being WHIPPED for Renjun' pops up on his For You Page. And it's literally every NCT member having some basic human decency and decorum. I swear on God's green earth, Jeno and Renjun just smiled at each other, it's just fanservice!
Yangyang facepalms violently. He tries to calm his breathing, going to the search tab to find something that could take his mind off of... this. He types into the search bar: 'How to tame a cat' and is bombarded with ship videos of Mark and Haechan trying to please an angry Renjun, like how one would tame a wild cat, during their DREAM x DREAM content. Yangyang groans loudly, almost punching the table in front of him.
"I fucking hate AI. Why do they even use it to run their stupid algorithms?" Yangyang scowls, shoving his phone away. Yangyang leans back in his chair, eyes squinted with rage, when a familiar figure ghosts above him. His eyes widen instantly.
"You okay?" Renjun meekly smiles down at him. Yangyang mirrors the gesture. All of a sudden, the previous tension surging through his whole body wanes. Renjun giggles seeing him, a hand coming to cover his lips, "You wanna get dinner? My treat. You looked like you'd seen a ghost just a second ago." Yangyang bolts up from his chair and nods enthusiastically. "Yeah! Okay, sure!" He grins, making Renjun giggle further.
"You're cute. Come on." Yangyang didn't get the chance to register Renjun's words when he took his hands into his own, leading him out of the building, and Yangyang let him.
What Yangyang didn't know was that his irritation was far too obvious to hide.
The remaining four members are all sprawled on the ground, in a pseudo-circle, with the way their lower limbs stretched out too unnaturally that it wasn't quite a circle, but it is kind of like that.
"Something's up with that boy, I swear. I see him sneering whenever he doomscrolls on social media." Hendery deadpans, lying on the dirty floor. After a short while of silence, Ten hums, slowly nodding his head, "I agree. But maybe it's just stress or just some random ragebait." Beside him, Xiaojun shrugs, "I don't know about that, he's never really the type to get mad easily at things as trivial as 'some random ragebait' on social media. There's got to be something deeper than that."
The night outside was quiet, and somewhere out there, Yangyang was already on his way back to their dorms while the rest stayed under the pretense of practicing more. He didn't question anything, just grumbled something on his way out.
"Well, I don't have any reply to that whatsoever. That's his business, and it should stay like that." Kun tells them off, the others groan in unison. "Don't be a killjoy. Do you see how seriously he reacts to whatever he's seeing on the internet? Admit it, you're curious too!" Hendery finally sits up straight. He sighs, massages his glabella, then turns to the bright monitor in front of them.
"What do you think, Winwin hyung?"
Winwin, who was on a call with them, suddenly jolts up in surprise, clearly not ready for Hendery's attention towards him. He fiddles with his hands, "I don't know... But it is Yangyang's business, so I don't think we get to have a say in this."
Hendery groans again, "Not you too, hyung!" He covers his face with his hands and flops back down on the ground. "I mean, if you wanna know so bad, why not just ask him?"
"Are you crazy?! We won't do that, Yang will think we've gone cuckoo and was trying to pry into his business like a nosy, overprotective parent!"
"Well, what do you want me to say? To secretly stalk his online behavior and find out for yourselves?!" Winwin snaps. The room goes still, like the idea was marinating in their minds.
"..."
"What's happening? Why are you all so quiet? You guys are scaring me..." Winwin's voice slightly trembled over the line, his face sported a worried expression.
"That's it, Winwin hyung! We'll do just that!"
"Wait—what?! No! Are you all crazy?!"
Ten grins like a Cheshire cat, the one that lets everybody know he's up to trouble. "Unfortunately, hyung, we are."
The following days passed like a blur, with the others trying their best to snatch Yangyang's phone unnoticed. Hendery was the first to attempt it, loud and shameless as always. He threw himself down onto the couch right next to Yangyang, practically draping his entire body over him in a messy, clingy hug, talking loudly and fast about nothing important at all while his hand snaked toward Yangyang's pocket with all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop. Yangyang didn't even pause scrolling; he just shifted his weight slightly, turned his shoulder away, and elbowed Hendery lightly in the ribs without looking up. Hendery let out a dramatic gasp and fell back, defeated before he'd even gotten close.
Ten went for distraction next, thinking he was the cleverest of them all. He walked over holding two bottles of cold drinks, waving one in front of Yangyang's face until he finally looked up. "Yangyang, catch," he called out, tossing the bottle in a high, easy arc—hoping that for just one second, Yangyang would let go of the device in his hand to reach for it. Yangyang caught the drink one-handed, never taking his eyes off the screen, never shifting his grip on his phone even a fraction. Ten stared at him, baffled, while Yangyang just took a sip and went right back to reading yet another article, this time about Renjun's visit to China for a survival show, completely unbothered, but also at the same time, his jaw was set in that familiar, irritated line that annoyed them for days on end. They've got to know what he's hiding.
Xiaojun tried the subtle approach later, during a break in practice. Yangyang had set the phone down on the floor beside him for barely ten seconds while he stretched his legs, and Xiaojun saw his chance. He sauntered past, casual as anything, pretending to adjust his own shoes as his hand crept slowly, slowly toward the edge of the phone case. He was inches away—fingers almost touching it—when Yangyang's hand shot down, snatched it up, and tucked it securely behind his back, all without stopping the stretch or even glancing in Xiaojun's direction. Xiaojun straightened up with a cough, pretending he'd meant to tie his shoelace twice.
Even Kun joined in, though he acted like he was only doing it to keep the others in check. He came over with a stack of towels, dropping one onto Yangyang's lap and starting to talk seriously about schedules and arrangements, leaning in close like he needed to check something on Yangyang's screen together. But the moment Kun's hand hovered anywhere near the device, Yangyang tilted it away, turning his whole body until his back was to Kun, nodding along to every word while guarding that phone like it held state secrets.
By the end of the day, the four of them stood off to the side, watching Yangyang walk around with it pressed tight to his side, held in his hand, or tucked into the front of his shirt like a precious item he'd never let out of his sight.
Today was their first official practice for NCT 2026. Everybody is hyped, well... except for maybe the dreamies who look like they're still... sullen, like they still have tears left to cry, but it isn't pouring out. The others have noticed, of course, they were going through it, too, but it's just sad to see them act like they're okay even though they're obviously not.
Renjun enters the practice room with water bottles in his hand. He slowly makes a beeline towards Jaemin and the others, handing them their bottles with a soft, tired smile. Ten notices the way Yangyang's eyes never leave Renjun, seeing the little pang of hurt in his gaze. He makes his way to Xiaojun and Hendery, "They've been crying." He says it like it wasn't a question or an assumption. It was true, very much so.
"We know. Let them be for a while, practice doesn't start until the afternoon, anyway." Xiaojun soothes Yangyang with caresses on his back; Yangyang slumps in his hold anyway. "They'll be fine. We'll be fine." Hendery hugs Yangyang tightly.
"We should go talk to them." Kun appears magically beside Ten, startling him. "Dude, you don't have to scare me like that..." Kun just laughs, but then trails off. Ten follows his line of sight and spots him.
"We should bring Yangyang with, he looks like he's gonna break anytime soon." Kun lightly chuckles, already on his way to Yangyang, dragging them with him to greet the dreamies.
"Hey, guys. How're you all holding up?" The dreamies were packed into this tiny corner of the room, as if they wanted to distance themselves from the others. Jeno looks up, eyes slightly red, "Fine. As long as we don't fuck up the new choreo." He jokes with a soft chuckle, but Kun knows better; he sees better. Without hesitation, he lifts up Jeno's sagging body and embraces him in a tight hug. Jeno visibly melts in his hold, and a stray tear cascades down his cheeks. The others follow suit, ten grabs ahold of Haechan and Chenle before they could escape.
"I miss him, hyung." Jeno's voice comes out strained.
Kun hums, "We miss him, too. He'll come for us, later." The word 'later' was vague, because nobody really knows when Mark will come back to Korea to visit. Hendery looks over Jaemin's shoulder and sees Yangyang soothing Renjun. Call him crazy, but there's no way Yangyang's eyes twinkled with absolute awe seeing Renjun in his arms.
By the time the dreamies had calmed down, Ten and the others had to chat with the instructors, bargaining for more free time since the other members weren't in the right mood.
When their wish was granted, Xiaojun went around to tell them the news. He passes by Taeyong, Sion, and Yangyang with the dreamies, and for a split second, his eyes catch a silver rectangular object from the corner of his eye... Yangyang's phone.
The four idiots were crammed in one bathroom stall. "We shouldn't be here!" Kun whisper-shouts, "We look like we're having a group masturbation! Honestly, couldn't you lock the door?" Hendery shakes his head solemnly, "It's a two-way door. If we lock it on the inside, it also locks from the outside."
"Doesn't that how normal doors work?" Kun retorts. Hendery blinks at him. "Fine. But don't get eepy when we get stuck here."
Ten stomps on Hendery's shoes, "Guys, shut the fuck up, we have bigger fish to fry."
"Like what?"
"Like someone seeing us in the bathroom, duh?" And like on cue, the bathroom door opens, and they hear a familiar voice.
The door shuts quite loudly. "Shit shit shit." Kun mouths. Ten and Xiaojun climb up on the toilet seat, holding onto each other for dear life while Kun and Hendery try to climb up the wall like they were Spiderman.
Spiderman? More like Spiderma...
"Mark hyung!" A high-pitched whine reverberates through the whole bathroom. "When will you come back? I miss you."
All four of them stare at each other in horror as a low, guttural, muffled voice comes out from somewhere, "Haechannie, I'll be back home in a few months. As much as I want to go home right now, I can't... Please wait for me, Hyuckie."
"But that's such a long time! I need you, now!" Haechan sobs painfully. "I know you do, Hyuckie. But I'm gonna need you to hold on for a bit longer before we can do this."
"Do what?!" Kun angrily mouths to them. "To fuck, I think?" Ten mouths back, Xiaojun nods aggressively, like it was the most agreeable thing on earth. "I knew they were fucking, honestly. I've consumed way too much MaHae media to know that there's definitely something between those two." Hendery mouths, but the other didn't catch it because he was going too fast, "What!?"
"Yeah." Hendery nods aggressively.
"But I want to get married right now! Don't you get it?!"
"What the fuck?!"
All four immediately slapped their hands to their mouths, but since they were using those to hold themselves up, they landed on the bathroom floor with four loud thumps.
The door to their stall opens up, revealing Haechan. A silent exchange of pure dread between them.
"Well, that was a bust. Who knew they were fucking and getting married? Honestly, they've been abusing the pre-marital sex thing."
"Yeah, I thought Mark would wait until they were married so he could pop his cherry—" Hendery stops himself, "Was that the right metaphor? Am I sexist for using feminine metaphors to describe Mark and Haechan fucki—"
"Guys, please be rational about this. If you guys get caught, you'd all be in trouble!" Winwin's voice echoed through the speaker of Kun's phone. He is ultimately ignored when Hendery ends the call with a sweet "We'll update you!"
"Well, scratch the metaphors and similes! Let's see what Yangyang's been hiding from us!" Ten shoves Hendery to the side and opens up Yangyang's phone and starts looking. They open the Chrome app, ready to face some random porn Yangyang has on, but are met with different articles... of them?
Well, not really for them, specifically. But of NCT.
"Jaehyun and Renjun spotted at a restaurant—on a date?"
"Jaemin fixed Renjun's hair during a variety show?" They read the headlines out loud.
"Wait... this is..." Ten scrolls through the tens of open tabs full of even more articles about NCT. "Why is this all Renjun?"
Silence falls over the four as they realize what's actually been going on with Yangyang. Kun clears his throat,
"Well, that explains everything."
[05/29/26]