"Kai, were you kidnapped?"

"What a random question."

Kai answered Y/n in a peculiar tone. She shrugged and continued practicing her left roundhouse kick against the punching bag as she spoke again.

"You seemed to relate to me a little while back and I just assumed. I guess it was a weird question because you told me that you were raised here and all, but I still need an explanation."

He nodded at her, either at her words or practicing, she'd never know.

"I made friends with Rina when I was about twelve, but I barely got to see her because we all got homeschooled here and our parents limited our contact with the outside world."

He chuckled suddenly, a little bittersweetly.

"It felt suffocating. So I decided to try and escape so I could see Rina more often. I know, it's stupid, but I was only twelve and stuck in a house the whole time."

Y/n agreed and nodded understandingly.

"But they didn't let me leave so easily. The rest of TXT found me and Rina and brought both of us back. I didn't want to be here at all, so I considered it as kidnapping. I was a little drama queen. When they concluded that I told Rina nothing that could ruin their reputation, they wanted to let her go, but she pleaded to stay."

Y/n stopped the swinging punching bag with her gloved hand, panting loudly. As she took large gulps of her water, she waited for Kai to continue.

"She was an orphan and had nowhere to go. That's also the reason she happened to be hanging around the mansion so much."

"Wow. I had no idea you were such a rebellious teenager."

Kai laughed heartily, the glistening sound of his high pitched giggles filling the room.

"It ended happily at least. Rina would be facing it a lot harder out there if it weren't for me."

Y/n thought about how hard it must've been for Rina to live as a homeless orphaned child all alone on the streets.

It made her wonder how much harder her life would be right now if she hadn't been brought here.

In turn bringing another question up in her mind.

"Hey, Kai?"

"Hm?"

"How was Beomgyu brought here?"

She quickly assumed that the look Kai gave her was suspicion, sending her spiralling into an endless list of excuses.

"I'm just asking because like you said a while back that only you Soobin Yeonjun and Taehyun were born and raised here and like you didn't tell me about Beomgyu and you also told me about Rina but like you never told me anythi-"

"Okay okay, calm down,"

Kai stopped her rant with a smile on his face.

"you don't need an excuse."

"E-excuse? Wh-wha-hat d-do y-you..."

She trailed off at the realisation that the stuttering made her seem even more suspicious, a blush creeping in from her ears.

Kai, noticing this, smiled teasingly.

"I mean nothing. You want to know how Beomgyu got involved somewhere along the line?"

"O-only bec-"

She cut herself off, settling for a small nod instead. Kai grinned, his eyes showing that he knew something she didn't.

"It's kind of a sensitive topic though. I think I'll just give you the main outline."

A figurative question mark appeared above Y/n's head, but quickly went away when she decided that prying wasn't an option here.

"Our leader of that time brought him in."

When Kai didn't continue, Y/n sent him an intensely confused look.

"That's it?"

"That's the outline."

"That's not an outline! That's barely even a dot!"

"Don't raise your voice in front of Molang!"

Kai backed up to the corner of the room and crouched down to cover the ears of the plushie sitting there.

"Why do you even bring him all the time? Isn't it unhealthy for him to watch violence?"

"He has separation anxiety."

"One of you has separation anxiety and it's not him."

Kai scoffed, hugging the plushie close to himself.

"She's just a scary violent lady who you don't need to worry about. I'm here."

He spoke into the plushie's ear, afterwards giving it a kiss.

=

"Hey, Taehyun? Can I talk to you real quick?"

Y/n placed her hand against the door, preventing Taehyun from closing it, just long enough to ask him for a moment of his time. Then she allowed her hand to drop limply to her side.

Looking back at her, he was taken aback, especially with the fact that she didn't even wait to put her food down before asking him, the tray still balancing dangerously on her single hand.

Walking slowly, Taehyun went into Y/n's room and approached the space next to her bed, grabbing the glass of water from her tray on his way. Sparing him a strange look, Y/n closed the door behind him and went to sit down on her own bed.

Once the tray was set down, Taehyun replaced the glass of water, earning another strange look from Y/n. Upon closer inspection to the food in front of her, she noticed that the stale piece of bread was replaced with a normal sandwich.

"The food looks edible."

"Yeah..."

Taehyun replied, scratching the nape of his neck a little. Y/n felt a little bad, assuming that he felt uncomfortable being alone with her.

"So like... there's a question I have... that like nobody is answering for me."

His hand fell from his neck, settling inside his pants pocket instead, following the example of his other hand.

"You don't have to answer, of course. I'm just asking out of curiosity."

Y/n added quickly, not wanting to make him feel any more uncomfortable than probably already did. He seemed to take it well, his head tilting a little as a way to tell her she could ask it.

"Kai told me about you, him, Yeonjun, Soobin and Rina getting here and stuff. I'm just curious to know how Beomgyu got here."

Taehyun's jaw clenched at the mention of her curiosity over another guy. Y/n didn't seem to notice, and she continued.

"Like, he told me that the leader brought him in, but he was very vague about it for some reason. He didn't tell me anything about his background or why he was just... taken in. Kai said that it was sensitive, but like I know basically nothing. I was hoping you could tell me."

She spoke softly, trying not to sound too eager to hear the answer just in case he didn't feel comfortable telling her. She looked at his face, trying to search for any sign that he was uncomfortable.

He seemed to be deep in thought, his tongue poking the inside of his cheek a little and his brow furrowed.

After a little while of silence, Y/n assumed that it was none of her business asking Taehyun, as he was clearly uncomfortable telling her.

"A-again, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, I understand if-"

"Should I be completely honest with you?"

Y/n's face lit up, thinking that she was finally going to hear what she wanted to know. She nodded her head.

"I think you should ask him yourself. It's kind of personal and I'm not sure he'd want you hearing it from someone else."

Disappointment clouded her face in a second. She contemplated replying with "How bad can it be?" but decided against it.

"Oh. Thanks anyway, Taehyun, and I'm sorry for wasting your time."

"So that's all you wanted to talk about?"

Taehyun clarified, sounding a little disappointed.

"Yeah, sorry again, I didn't mean to be a burden."

As Taehyun edged towards the door, he shook his head as a response, making Y/n feel at least a little better about the encounter.

I guess I have one option left...

taehyun wrecking me so hard irl rn
what are the thoughts so far???

a vote is highly appreciated <33