#taeyong ask | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

snowball-doie · 2 months ago

Note

cringey wattpad tropes or not, i'm just desperate for more content ahahahah i'll literally read anything you post about it

Bahahahaha OKAY BUCKLE UP PUPS! *cracks knuckles* We’re taking a Time Machine back to 2012!! Back to my roots, yippeee!!!

(i finished writing this like 9 hours later... it's giving "my mom sold me to one direction" pffttt but once you read it. you'll prob realize why this ISNT canon and also that im insane)

So this is in the future only slightly ‘cause TY and Jaehyun are in the military….. Also I’ve never mentioned this before I dont think? But canonically, a few weeks or so after Reyna’s born, she gets really really sick one night when she’s sleeping in Jungwoo’s room, and he panics and they take her to the hospital. She’s fine after spending a few days in the NICU. That’ll be mentioned / made important here 🫡

You know how busy the boys have been, solo schedules, group schedules, working themselves to the bone before another inevitable enlistment. They’re never all home together anymore. That’s hard for Ahri. She’s so used to having 8 men terrorizing their home, giving her a hard time, giving her so much love, never letting the house get quiet… But it’s been eerily silent without them, especially while they’ve been doing concerts as only 6 members in Korea, and they’re about to hop over to Japan for a few more shows— And Yuta’s not even around in between those because he’s busy with an encore to his own solo stage; and Hyuck and Mark are busy with Dream content!! Hmph… She misses having them around. She doesn’t like forcing herself to get quiet to an empty, quiet home.

The boys are gone again for a few days this time- Johnny, Doyoung, and Jungwoo doing some kind of press tour in the Southern part of Korea, a couple hours outside of Seoul; Yuta’s in Japan, and the Dreamies are all the way in Taipei for their own press tour… It’s been a while since Taeyong or Jaehyun have called. Nowadays, the WayV boys are the only ones still in the country, so they’re on stand by if Ahri or Reyna should need anything.

“Okay, baby, we have to get up early, so I’m gonna call it a night,” John tells Ahri, the two of them FaceTiming just before bed. Reyna’s already sound asleep in her bed in Johnny and Ahri’s room.

Ahri nods and lays in bed, plugging her phone in while wishing goodnight to Johnny, and Doyoung who fell asleep on John’s lap about twenty minutes ago. The house is quiet again after their call ends. Reyna’s snoring quietly. Ahri’s exhausted from work and keeping up with a baby alone, she falls asleep fairly quickly, tangled up in Johnny’s sheets, shoving her face into his pillow just to remember what his cologne smells like.

Reyna’s always been a fussy baby. She’s infamous for waking up every hour or so throughout the night in need of something, no matter how big she gets, or when she should have outgrown the habit according to doctors. She’s been a handful, much like some of her dads……. So Ahri’s body naturally wakes her up sometimes to check on Reyna to check on her— Especially since silence was Ahri’s worst fear after the hospital visit earlier in the year. Usually if she wakes up and Reyna doesn’t need anything, she’ll just pace around for a bit until Reyna does wake up, whining for food or crying about a nightmare… But Ahri stops when she leans over in bed to find that Reyna’s crib is empty. The fuck? She wasn’t an escape artist like Hyuck thought she’d be. Sure, she tried a few times when she was smaller to climb out of her crib, but she sucked at it, so she always gave up before just crying for one of her dads to pick her up. Reyna never escapes her crib. So Ahri turns on the lamp and starts to look around, checking under the bed, going into the bathroom. Nothing. So she ventures further, checking all of the boys’ rooms, under their beds, in the bathrooms, in closets, in drawers. Nothing. So she runs downstairs. On the couch, under the couch, under the table, behind the floor lamp, under the kitchen table, hiding between chairs, in the kitchen cabinets— Hell, even in the damn fridge! Ahri checks every single inch of the house and there’s no sign of Reyna. She doesn’t understand. She checks for a few more minutes, calling out for Reyna, cooing that it’s time to get back into bed… But nothing.

Panic strikes as soon as the reality settles in. And rather than call the boys who are hours away from helping, or the cops who would probably laugh at Ahri for being an overdramatic, hysterical mother the second Reyna would crawl out of some hidden crevice of the house, Ahri rushes to call the WayV boys who show up within minutes once they hear what’s happened. They’re half asleep, albeit, but they’re there, trying to calm Ahri down, splitting up to check the house again. Maybe there’s somewhere Ahri missed. Maybe Reyna’s just damn good at playing hide and seek. There’s a reasonable explanation for this, according to Kun who’s hugging Ahri and rubbing her back to calm down her growing panic attack. The boys come back one by one with no baby in hand….. They checked everywhere. They’ve done everything they can think of. The house is turned over, it’s a mess, and there’s no sign of Reyna. The police are the next solution.

Honestly, life is a whirlwind around Ahri as she sits in the living room, Ten beside her, rubbing circles on her back while a police officer stands in front of her, asking questions, while his partner checks the rest of the house with the WayV boys who try to explain that they already checked!

“And what’s the purpose of your stay in this house?”

Ahri doesn’t know how to answer that.

“Her husband lives here,” Ten replies on her behalf, like the quick thinker he is.

“And who’s her husband?”

Ten does all the answering while Ahri stares at the ground, trying to think of all the places Reyna could be. The yard? No, the boys would have seen her, or maybe even the cops? She couldn’t have even gotten out of the house. Yeah, okay, maybe Ahri was so tired that she forgot to set the house alarm, so she wouldn’t have known if the front door opened, but how the hell was an infant meant to unlock the door, open it, and make a grand escape? It wasn’t fucking possible!

“Yeah, she’s not here, hyung,” the other cop says after returning to the living room.

“Miss, do you know of anyone who’d want to take your daughter?”

“Take?” someone questions, but Ahri doesn’t know who because her ears start to ring and her breathing stops.

Ahri just sits in silence for a while as the boys go back and forth with the police, doing their best to help while also not trying to get anyone in trouble by revealing too much. After all, the police know who lives there. They know who used to live there too, the famous Taeyong and Jaehyun… They know who they’re dealing with. One slip up and everything’s over. But they can’t lie completely or else they’re of no help to the cops either. It’s a dangerous game to play, a slippery slope they have to navigate together while Ahri silently considers the worst.

“Ahr, look at me,” someone coos gently, pressing their palms to her cheeks. She looks up to find Doyoung on his knees in front of her, his eyes filled with worry, his face red from crying. “You okay?”

The boys are in Busan, there’s no way Doyoung was actually in front of her. No way. It’d only been a few minutes since she woke up and called the boys over for help.

“Ahr, talk to me.”

And then the couch cushion to her left sinks in under the weight of Jungwoo who is even more of a mess than Doyoung.

“How’re you here?” she croaks.

Doyoung sighs and slumps before explaining that Winwin called the second she called them, and the boys got on the first flight out of Busan. Ahri doesn’t believe it. That still two hours away at best, with an hour long flight, and getting to and from the airports…

“Baby, the cops have already been here almost two hours,” Jungwoo whispers.

Ahri looks around slowly. There’s more police now, swarming her home, investigating the little details of their private lives, like the family photos on the mantle beneath the TV, or the baby toys scattered around that make their way into evidence bags, or the dead security camera in the corner that faces the front door and the entirety of the living room— Johnny promised weeks ago that he was going to charge it… Doyoung offered to do it for him, but Johnny kept insisting that he’d get around to it eventually… Johnny’s standing in the entryway, the door propped open to accommodate the flow of traffic in and out of the house while he talks to an officer who’s jotting down notes and asking more questions. John looks… put together. While Doyoung looks like he cried the whole way home and tried to be presentable before looking at Ahri, and Jungwoo is crying at her side, clinging to her desperately… Johnny is standing tall, his head held high, not a single thing wavering about while he answered the tough questions, like why his girlfriend is seen kissing his group mates in framed pictures around the house.

“Where’s Reyna?” Ahri asks Doyoung.

Jungwoo presses his forehead against her shoulder and cries some more while Doyoung replies that he doesn’t know. The cops are looking. But they don’t know. They’ll know soon, though, he promises, she’ll be back home before Ahri knows it, and everything’s gonna be okay again. Yuta’s even on his way from Japan, and Mark and Haechan are trying to see if they can sneak out of their duties in Taipei to come home.

“I need to go look for her,” Ahri insists, pushing herself up to her feet. Doyoung and Jungwoo panic, both of them trying to sit her back down, telling her that she needs to relax or she’s going to hurt the baby. “I’m fine.” But Doyoung’s hands are glued over her baby bump as he has her sit back on the couch. “She’s probably just down the street or something. She’s been trying to push herself up to her feet recently—“

“Wait, she has?” Jungwoo questions.

“Maybe she took her first steps then wandered out.”

“Ahr, let the cops look for her, you need to relax,” Doyoung says adamantly.

But she’s up again on her feet, trying to make her way out of the house. Johnny’s attention is caught, and he’s what suddenly stands between Ahri and freedom through the front door. He’s saying the same thing Doyoung is. The baby this, the baby that. The cops are looking, Yuta’s on a war path on his way home from Japan, someone’s gonna find Reyna, but Ahri needs to sit down.

“Baby, you’re pale—“ Johnny puts a hand on her forehead. “Shit, Ahri—“

The boys have a tendency to be overdramatic when it comes to Ahri. Well, at least that’s what Ahri says. They feel like they’re completely in the right for having her taken to the fucking HOSPITAL after she passed out. She’s fine. It’s just the stress and exhaustion, and it doesn’t help that she is pregnant, like they tried to remind her of when she wouldn’t just sit down like that asked! Johnny’s giving her that look. The silent judging one that says if they weren’t in a hospital, and she hadn’t just woken up, and there wasn’t other things to worry about like finding their daughter, and she wasn’t pregnant, Ahri was in so, so, so much trouble. They flew back from Busan in the middle of the night to look for Reyna. How could Ahri get them all worked up and worried like this? But then he gives her another look, a softer one that’s filled with relief as he inches closer to her, his torso practically lying on the hospital bed as he kisses her knuckles. He’s just relieved she’s okay.

“Yuta’s almost here,” he says quietly, trying to keep her docile. “Mark and Hyuck are on a flight home.”

“Reyna?”

“They’re still looking. They checked the camera we have facing her crib… Someone was in the house while you’re sleeping—“

Ahri moves to push herself out of bed, but Johnny’s stronger than she is, and he has the upper hand, so it’s easy for him to just. Push her by the shoulders back onto the bed. Gently, of course. And she lays there, giving him a look that says she wants to be useful, she wants to do something, not just sit around and wait for someone else to find their daughter. But for the sake of not giving her any bad ideas, Johnny doesn’t give into her adorable eyes.

“Let me grab the others.”

He leaves her side for just a moment to open the door, and immediately a group of boys are flooding in. Doyoung, Jungwoo— And then a wave of relief washes over Ahri when she sees both Taeyong and Jaehyun, wearing civilian clothing.

“How?” she croaks as they both lean down to hug her.

“Emergency leave,” Jae replies, his hand on her baby bump. “I listed you as my next of kin, so they notified me when you were admitted. My commanding officer… I think he put the pieces together…”

And as he leans down to kiss Ahri’s belly, she looks at Taeyong.

“I have extraordinary performance leave of absence rewards saved up, because I was going to use them later to Reyna’s birthday.”

No one says anything to that. Instead, Ahri sits up comfortably, even though the boys look displeased. Overdramatic. So the police checked one of the only working cameras in the house— Because Ahri charged it before the boys left so that they could check on Reyna whenever they were gone and missing her— and someone walked through their home… Quietly went past Ahri to get Reyna, and walked out? How? Why? The alarm wasn’t set… No one else was in the house… And they picked the front door lock easily. Still doesn’t answer why, though. None of the boys have an explanation. The cops don’t either.

“A sasaeng?” Ahri breathes out the forbidden word.

To them, saying that is similar to the weight of “Voldemort” in Harry Potter. They never talk about sasaengs, never care about them, never make it seem like their actions will change a thing. Sure, sasaengs were the reason Ahri could never go out in public with the boys, and no one could ever know about Reyna. But that was a given from the first day Johnny asked out Ahri… Sasaengs did plenty of things to the boys since then, but they never let that impact their relationship. Ever. Maybe they should worry about them more… Fear them, even. Someone broke into their home and took their daughter. That doesn’t just happen. How could a random person know that the boys lived there but weren’t there, and why would they take Reyna without bothering Ahri? It doesn’t make any sense.

“She needs her medicine soon,” Ahri continues when no one says anything. “The prescription on the counter, it was still there when I was looking for… She needs it every twelve hours…”

The boys slump into their own chairs, hiding their faces in their hands while considering all the possibilities.

“It’s going on six hours since you noticed she was gone,” Johnny says. “The police aren’t going to do anything ‘til they have a lead, but maybe we can rush them along if they know we’re racing against the clock…” He bites his lip— A bad habit he has behind closed doors when he’s anxious. “Sasaengs are detectives too, right? They can find anyone.”

Taeyong shakes his head. “Absolutely not.”

“It’d rush things along.”

“No.”

“It would just be me… I’ll do it alone—“

“No.”

“What are we even talking about?” Jungwoo questions.

And before Johnny and Taeyong can continue to duke it out, the door opens again, a frantic Yuta running in to kiss Ahri before turning to Johnny.

“Who do I have to hit?”

Johnny gestures for Yuta to sit and cool off. He only just got back, he doesn’t know that for hours they’ve been sitting around, waiting helplessly for the police to do something, all of the boys left to ponder what they’re going to do to the asshole who took their daughter once they get their hands on him. Yuta seems on the side of torture. Johnny’s not…. against the thought… But he’s the one who has to keep them together, so he tosses up his idea again, but rather than leaving it as a potential solution, he’s adamant he’s going to go through with it.

“I’ll take to the police. They might set up a press conference, or I’ll do it at the company. Either way… We just need the fans to know what’s going on.”

“What do you not get when I say no?” Taeyong argues. “It’s a bad idea. It’ll ruin you, Ahri and Reyna won’t be anonymous anymore, you put Reyna at risk even more—“

Yuta takes a seat on Ahri’s bed rather than in a chair like the others. “What the fuck did I miss?”

“He wants to hold a press conference to ask for help finding Reyna.”

“Wait, like… Tell everyone about us?” Jungwoo’s eyes go wide.

“No, no,” Johnny insists. “Just me and Ahri. Listen, it’s inevitable, don’t you think? My name’s on Reyna’s birth certificate, the damn marriage license with Ahri so that she doesn’t have to lift a finger, so that we can take care of her. Every doctor we’ve seen knows I’m her dad. They sign her paperwork with my name all over it. Nurses see us in these hallways every few weeks for check ups… Everyone at the company knows about me and Ahri, they know about Reyna. What do you think is gonna happen when she gets old enough for school and we have to put her in day care? All those fancy private schools are going to ask to know who her father is, and they’re going to interview me and Ahri, and do background checks. People are going to find out. Either someone’ll leak it to the press, or we get ahead of it, I take the shame and blame, and instead of asking for their forgiveness, we ask for their help. All those girls out there who love us and have their ways of finding people will take pity on us, and help us find Reyna. If they want to keep shaming me for having a family after that, then… We deal with it then. But for now, if I do this, we find Reyna, and no one has to find out about all of us. All the doctors, nurses, and teachers will just think that my group mates are supportive and help me and my wife out with the kid. Right?”

Taeyong shakes his head still, refusing to look at Johnny. Because he’s right. A baby makes it next to impossible to stay a secret forever, but if they can change the narrative, and if it’ll help Reyna, then how can they not try?

“What if the other sasaengs get upset too and try to do something to Ahri or Reyna again?” Jaehyun asks.

“The cameras weren’t charged, hyung,” Doyoung says flatly. “And the alarm wasn’t on… and the lock is old… We did everything wrong, and that’s our fault. Whatever happens, we don’t let it happen again.”

Yuta shifts slightly to face Johnny. “What about your career, hyung?”

“I don’t care. I want her back.”

Taeyong’s less than happy about it, but after that, Johnny goes to talk to the police again to see if they’ll let him hold a press conference. Parents do it all the time when their child goes missing. They use the news to ask for help searching for a suspect and their kid, so why couldn’t they do the same? Being idols doesn’t mean they can’t ask for their daughter back.

Ok blah blah Aurora is skipping a bit cuz I'm over this part and want to move the plot along yada yada-- anyhow. I'm gonna go back to summarizing for a second. Bear w/ me plz <3

So Johnny goes through with it, making a heartfelt plea in front of the police station, facing the cameras, a letter in his hands. Ahri hardly ever sees Johnny waver. But when she and the rest of the boys watching on the TV see him shaking like a leaf, it sends a shiver down her spine. He's always so stoic... But not now... Not as he reveals that he's legally married to a woman he really loves, and the cameras start clicking more and more as he reveals that he has a family, a beautiful baby girl who went missing in the night. His plea for help, for their baby to come home because she needs her meds breaks Taeyong. Mark and Haechan get to the hospital just after the press conference, the two of them in shambles. Hyuck hardly keeps it together while cuddling in bed with Ahri, and Mark crumbles the second the others take turns hugging him.

"There's no updates," Johnny says after he gets back to the hospital. He sees Mark sitting in the corner, and the two of them meet to hug. Hyuck doesn't even try to get out of the hospital bed. "The police said they'll call me if there's anything else..."

They wait. A long time. Most of them didn't sleep the night before, and even with their anxieties over the situation and how they are trying so hard not to fall asleep, but it's next to impossible at some point to keep their eyes open... Hyuck falls asleep first, then Jungwoo, Doyoung, but then the fluttering eyes stop there. Johnny's sitting with his phone charging in his lap, staring at the dark screen, waiting for it to light up at any moment with news. Jaehyun and Taeyong are talking quietly, and Mark is picking at his lips while staring at the closed door, hoping that someone'll run in with Reyna, saying that she's home and she's safe, that whoever took her somehow got her meds for whatever impossible reason... When Johnny's phone does ring, the whole room wakes up, listening for what's going to be said on the other side after Johnny turns on the speaker. It's not the news they were hoping for. Not the news they wanted.

Side note from Aurora again: I think someone asked me before if Mark ever finds out that he's Reyna's dad. Canonically, no. But here we go.

Well, bringing it public worked, but not in the way anyone expected-- A demand was made, a simple one. Money? No. Did they have some kind of blackmail? Kind of. What was it? They want Johnny to be honest about who Reyna's dad is, and the truth about their relationship. The boys are petrified. What? Why? They don't even know who her dad is, so what does it matter? How does the person who has her even know about them, about how Johnny might not be Reyna's biological dad? What would this person get out of it?

"I'll call you back," is all Johnny says before he hangs up on the officer calling.

"How would we even know the truth?" Jaehyun asks. With their second kid, they know who the dad is, they know Jaehyun is the one responsible for that-- But with Reyna, they promised that they would never know the truth in order to be fair.

"She had a bunch of tests done when she was in the hospital this year, you remember?" Johnny sniffles, staring at the ground in shame. "I had them run a DNA test, just in case she was sick with something hereditary, I don't know, okay, I was panicking, and as her dad, I didn't need to do anything but ask the nurse to just... do it..."

"Fuck, Johnny," Yuta curses angrily.

"None of you even noticed when I took your used coffee cups or toothbrushes for the samples."

"Jesus," Jae whispers.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know what to do, and I didn't think it would matter!"

"Who knows?" Ahri asks.

"Anyone in this hospital, and then anyone they could have told, and so on."

The reality was crashing down on them. Fuck. Shit.

"We didn't know why she was sick! I was scared!"

"You can't just go behind our backs like that, though!" Jungwoo cries.

Taeyong stands and paces for a moment, catching everyone's attention, drawing the room to silence again before he speaks, "So who is it?" Johnny gulps. "You know the truth, and they're demanding we say something, so it can't be you or else no one would care. So who is it?"

Johnny bites his lip momentarily. "Mark."

Everyone's gaze shifts to the second youngest who goes pale, his eyes wide, his breath stopping within an instant like it had been knocked out of him by Johnny himself. Mark. Out of all of them, the one who was most nervous about having Reyna, the one who doubted himself the most, but also the most worried about her when she got sick was Mark, and all along, Johnny knew the truth.

"We can't tell anyone," Haechan immediately insists. "If we do, it'll be over. Everything. He's been working for all of this for too long, harder than most of us, giving up more than all of us combined-- If Mark's name is dragged into this, it's over. Our groups, his album, his career. We can't."

"We could lie," Doyoung offers.

"And if the person who has Reyna knows we're lying, then what?" Taeyong bites rudely, still pacing and shaking his head. "It's over."

"We can wait for the police to catch a lead," Jaehyun says.

"And if that takes too long, then what? She's already past when she needed to take her meds... If we wait longer..." Taeyong chokes on a sob that he swallows after a deep breath.

Mark finally lets out a shaky breath while leaning backwards, his head hitting the wall behind him with defeat. "We have to do it."

"Even if we don't say who her dad is, and even if we lie, they're still demanding we tell the truth about our relationship," Johnny adds.

"They have no proof, though," Ahri says, letting out a defeated scoff. "They're probably just guessing, or trying to make you say something they don't know is true in order to ruin your careers and reputations. There's no proof! So why do we have to listen to them?"

"The pictures in the house, Ahr," Johnny says. "They were in our home, you think they didn't gather evidence about our lives first, digging for something else to blackmail us with?"

"Okay, the pictures show us hugging and kissing. So what?"

"Idols have been burned for worse," Haechan croaks.

Silence again for a minute.

"I'll do it," Mark finally says more confidently as he sits up straight. "I'll do it just to get her back."

"Mark--" Hyuck tries to protest.

"I can't speak for the rest of you, so I'm not going to, but I just want Reyna back safe, and if that means giving up our glory days, then... fine... I'll gladly give up the spotlight for her."

Taeyong sits again. "Me too. All they know, and all there's proof of is that we've all had a relationship with Ahri, and that's not against any laws, especially if we don't fess up to a timeline or that we're all... You know..."

They can't be that honest. Even if they wanted to, admitting the reality would land Taeyong and Jae in jail, and the others would face too many concequences to count. It was true, there were pictures in the house of their family, but it was mostly just them standing around while Ahri posed as she held Reyna in her arms. Others were of her kissing one of the boys, or one of them kissing her cheek. There is no timeline for anyone to form out of those images, and the hope is that those pictures will never make it to the public anyhow. So... the best thing to do is say that they all dated Ahri, and that Mark is Reyna's dad. It meets the demands, and it saves their skin for the most part. Their careers were going to be over, but Mark seems certain that he doesn't care, and Taeyong's right behind him.

"Okay," Yuta agrees.

Jaehyun, Johnny, Doyoung, and Jungwoo are all nodding. There's just one odd man out, one person who's frozen in place, shaking like a chihuahua in Ahri's arms. Haechan. Being an idol is all he's ever known-- All most of them have ever known, but it's his life, it's where his family is, and being on stage is what he was born to do. Giving it all up in an instant is terrifying.

"Do we all have to say it?" he asks quietly.

Johnny shakes his head. "I can do the talking, and maybe Mark'll have to, too, but you won't."

Haechan gulps. "Do I have to stand in front of the cameras?"

"We have to apologize, Hyuck," Doyoung replies shyly.

Because of the shame of what they've done, they all have to get up there and apologize to the fans-- Even though they shouldn't have to, and the whole situation is so stupid and unfair to them! They aren't hurting anyone. They were happy living a quiet life with Ahri and Reyna behind closed doors while still going out and performing for the fans who love them so much. Apologizing feels wrong... But it's necessary, unfortunately.

Hyuck nods with a deep breath then turns to hide against Ahri who holds him and tells him that it's going to be alright while Johnny and Mark get up to call the police back, to set it all up.

"I'm so sorry," Ahri says.

No one blames her. It's not her fault they fell in love with her, and it's not her fault that they all agreed to dating each other. It's not her fault that this happened to them, that some fucked up person decided to intrude on their personal lives. She doesn't have to apologize anymore than they do... But like them, she feels like she has to.

Ok Aurora's back to check in on how we're doing. Do we need a drink? I got vodka in the cabinets. I can get soju or something if you need to get through the rest of this. How about some snacks? Maybe a anti-delulu pill? No? We good? Okay. Let's run it. We're gonna be switching to the boys' POV now wowowweewow (I'm going crazy)

Ahri doesnt watch the news when the boys leave for the press conference. She can't bear to see what's going to happen, even though it's the boys who have to endure the worst while she lays uselessly in a hospital bed as the reason that all of this is happening in the first place. If she never met Johnny, this wouldn't have happened. If she didn't have that threesome with Yuta, she and Johnny never would have talked about being in a polyamorous relationship. If she'd stopped eye-fucking Taeyong, Doyoung never would've gotten drunk and confessed his feelings for Ahri, and then Taeyong wouldn't have asked her out too........ If she didn't wear that short blue skirt on her birthday, then Reyna wouldn't have been born, and another babby wouldn't be on the way, and none of this would be happening. Their careers would be in tact. They wouldn't have to constantly worry about getting caught with Ahri or Reyna, or being seen being intimate with each other. It doesn't matter what the boys say, Ahri knows that all of this is her fault, and she just can't bear to watch it all crumble for that reason.

When the press conference is over, the media's trying to ask all kinds of questions while the boys are corralling each other off-stage. They had it set up at the company this time, the big logo behind them, some of their friends watching from the office windows, gossiping about what was going on. Johnny did most of the talking, like he promised. They admitted to the relationship with Ahri, and he said that his daughter isn't his, but actually Mark's. He didn't offer up any more details than necessary, and they refused to answer questions or make more comments. They are all so good about keeping their shit together in front of the cameras, even Haechan who is shaking uncontrollably and reaching to hold Mark's hand while they bow after after apologizing-- But the second they're inside and building and heading upstairs, perhaps for the last time before the company decides to kick them to the curb, he breaks. Haechan feels like he's being suffocated in the confines of the elevator. The second the doors open, he runs out and rushes to the locker room they always used after practices when they needed to shower... The boys follow. Haechan's already peeling off his clothes, running hot water and dipping under the shower head while crying, hoping the warm water will stop his shivers, and that the water will cover up his tears. But nothing helps. He holds onto the wall to balance himself while trying to control his breathing.

"I've got you," Taeyong coos, taking off his jacket to keep it try before reaching to keep Hyuck on his feet.

Yuta closes the locker room door behind all eight of them, then sits on the floor, his back against the door so no one can get in. Mark silently navigates his way to another shower in the far back corner, and without even taking off his shoes or stripping out of his clothes, he turns on the water and falls to his knees, facing away from the room so no one can see his face. Doyoung, Jungwoo, Jaehyun, and Johnny gather around the benches where they used to set their bags down while they changed clothes or stripped before showering. Now it's used for all of them sit in silence except for Johnny. He stands, his back pressed against a wall full of unused lockers.

They're all trying to think of something funny to say to lighten the mood, but nothing comes out. Not while Mark is isolating himself in the corner and Haechan's having a panic attack. Now all there's left to do is wait. Wait for news about Reyna... Wait for the public reaction to their scandal... Are they going to be shunned forever, forced out of the industry, never to show their faces in public again... Or will the fans be split on the situation, allowing the company to keep the boys on but at least put them on hiatus for a bit until things die down... And what about Mark and Haechan participating in Dream? Will the fans call for their removal or will no one give two fucks?

"Should we go talk to the police?" Doyoung asks.

The police were downstairs, still talking to the media, not about the boys' relationship with Ahri or the scandal itself, but asking for more help finding Reyna, trying to get information about who took her.

"Let's just... sit here for a bit..." Jaehyun responded. "Nothing matters in here..."

Once Yuta would move out of the doorway and they'd step outside, reality would hit again. They would have to face the consequences of their actions, apologize some more, explain themselves to questioning executives, talk to police officers who were practically useless trying to find Reyna. But in that locker room, the eight of them were just... them. The same locker room where they used to snap towels at each other, or where Johnny would find a way to turn off the hot water so all of them jumped into freezing showers unexpectedly, or where some of them kissed for the first time because there was no one around and it was guaranteed that there were no cameras watching them. In the locker room, Taeyong could take care of Haechan without worrying about someone catching onto why he was actually doing it. Inside, Yuta could guard the door to protect the others while they grieved what should have been the most successful years of their lives-- Despite their shitty company who never did them any favors. Inside, Jungwoo could start to sob as he worried about Reyna. Afterall, he was the one who had her in his room when she got sick, and he spent every day since then worried to death that something else would happen to her. He kept track of her meds, he made sure she ate enough of Johnny and Doyoung's cooking, he made sure that none of the boys were in contact with her after traveling abroad because that's what the doctor ordered. His worst fear was having her get sick all over again. And while this was worse nightmare than that, the anxiety of thinking about what was happening to her without her meds made it impossible for Jungwoo to think straight.

Minutes later, Johnny's phone rings. He frantically answers it with a worried croak, "Ahri?" that catches everyone's attention except for the three boys in the shower room. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, J. I have her."

"What?"

"I have her. Reyna. She's fine. She's here with me, she's safe, she's healthy, she not sick. I have her back."

Johnny suddenly slides down the lockers before sitting on the floor with a loud thud that leaves the rest of the boys even more concerned. "How?"

"I don't know," she says. "I was asleep after you guys left, and I just woke up, and there she was, in a hospital crib next to my bed, asleep and babbling happily."

"Someone just... left her there?"

"I guess? I don't know."

The ever so stoic Johnny falls apart, sobbing into his free hand while still holding his phone up to his ear. It worked. They took a gamble giving into the demands, giving up everything they've built together, but it worked.

"Ahr has Reyna," he announces to the boys with a cry.

Jaehyun lets out a sigh of relief into his hand as he leans forward. Doyoung's able to cry again after trying to hold back in front of Ahri ever since they got back from Busan. Jungwoo's crying more, but he has enough in him to ask if she's okay. Yeah, she's okay. She's the happy baby they know and love.

Yuta abandons his post at the door to go to the shower room, kicking off his shoes before walking over to Mark who's still drenched in his own clothes beneath the freezing cold water that makes Yuta hiss when he reaches out to caress Mark's back lovingly. Mark jolts when he's touched. He looks up, eyes red and puffy, obvious tears streaming down his face despite his attempt to hide them in the shower. Yuta turns off the water. He crouches down besides Mark and pats him on the head.

"Ahri has Reyna back."

Mark's lower lip trembles, then he grabs Yuta's shirt and starts to cry against him.

Taeyong turns off the water and helps Hyuck out of the shower finally now that he's calmed down and isn't shaking so much anymore. The good news comes as an overwhelming relief to all of them. Hyuck gladly accepts help getting dried off and put back into his clothing because he knows that the sooner they're ready to leave, the faster they can go back to the hospital to see Ahri and Reyna. Mark's a bit slower. It takes him a few minutes to be convinced by Yuta to be lifted to his feet as he's still crying, and when they walk into the locker area where the rest of the boys are, Doyoung's already supplied one of the stupid company merch T-shirts and a pair of gym shorts that are always in the locker rooms for whenever one of the boys stupidly forgets to bring practice clothes with them. Usually that only happens to the trainees... Still, the extra supply of clothes helps them in the long run because they manage to peel Mark out of his sopping wet clothes and into dry ones.

"I'm gonna talk to the police before we leave for the hospital," Johnny says, already off the phone with Ahri since nurses wanted to check on Reyna. As he weaves his way through the group, he gently holds the back of Hyuck's neck and presses a kiss to his temple, then continues on towards the door.

alright, squad, let's take a breather... *pops an anti-delulu pill* that'll kick-in in about 30 min, so let's finish this puppy

Later, when the boys arrive at the hotel, Johnny's first mission is to see with his own eyes that Reyna is in fact there, alive, and okay, before he finds the doctor and starts asking about how the hell someone walked through the hospital with their daughter in a hospital cradle, dropped her off in Ahri's room, and walked out without being seen. No one knows. The police are checking cameras, trying to figure out who's responsible, and how and why this all happened... But no one knows anything. And that irritates Johnny. How's he supposed to keep his family safe when they don't even know who or what he's supposed to be keeping them safe from?

The other boys rush Ahri's hospital room like a fucking stampede. Everyone's trying to be the first to see her, all of them asking a million questions that Ahri has few answers to. Yes, Reyna's healthy. The doctors can't find anything wrong with her... It's almost like she did take her meds, which is odd, because they're prescriptions, and they're in the house still, according to the police who went to check earlier. No, she's not upset. Hell, Reyna doesn't even know what the fuck is going on. The second she's in Taeyong's arms, she's giggling and reaching to poke the little divot spot under his eye. She's not exactly happy to be in Jaehyun's arms, which is the only unusual thing, but they realize once she tries to reach up for his now non-existent long hair that she's just pissed his hair is still so short. Like mother, like daughter.

"Can I?" Mark chirps up, stepping forward between Taeyong and Jaehyun.

Their smiles falter slightly at the realization of what this means to him now, after everything, but Jaehyun willingly surrenders her to Mark who accepts her with a heavy, scared sigh. As she settles in his arms, Reyna coos happily again. And then she hiccups. She whines uncomfortably, squirming around in his arms, trying to get comfortable as she hiccups again... But Mark's giggling at her.

"Welcome home... Our little Reyna..."

Back then, when she was born, Mark held her in his arms, and he was giggling and cooing at her the same way when the name "Reyna" accidentally slipped out of his mouth. He hadn't meant to name her. He figured that should've been left up to Ahri, or Johnny, or someone else, but never him. It just happened so suddenly. "My Reyna," that was what he said back then. But now, after everything, she was their Reyna.

good job, squad, we survived! hope you enjoyed this non-canon retelling of a dream i had about poly!ilichil x ahri lol

#op #fanfic #ask #ahri thoughts #johnny #yuta #taeyong #doyoung #jaehyun #jungwoo #mark #haechan

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