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“Hyung!”
“Hyungie!”
Chenle runs up to Taeyong, Jisung slightly behind him, but equally excited.
“Yes, aegis?” Taeyong asks while chuckling at the two best friends.
“Renjun hyung said to ask you if it was okay if we could go to the nearest GS25?” Jisung says as he twiddles his fingers nervously.
He was still nervous around his 127 and U hyungs. Especially THE Lee Taeyong of NCT. Leader, rapper, dancer, vocalist, center, visual, THE face of NCT.
“Please hyung!” Chenle pleads making sure to open his eyes wide and pout, bottom lip sticking out.
The face of innocence if you didn't know how utterly mischievous Chenle could be.
"I don't know you two...it's getting dark outside, and we'll be ending practice soon."
"But hyungie! We're hungry now! Pleaseeeee!" Chenle pouts throwing in some aegyo that might have just softened Taeyong's heart.
"We'll be quick! Promise hyung!" Jisung adds quickly.
Taeyong looks at the two maknaes waiting anxiously. He knows that they won't stop till they get what they want because that's what maknaes do. Taeyong swears that it's some sort of unofficial and unspoken rule that all maknaes automatically follow.
"Well…" he drags out "Do you guys promise to be back quickly?"
"Yeah!" They scream excitedly in unison.
"And you both have your phones on you?"
"Yeah!"
"Do you guys need money?"
"Yeah!"
Taeyong sighs endearingly and goes to the corner in order to retrieve his wallet. The two follow behind him excited.
He hands over his card to the older and warns them, “Stay together, don’t talk to strangers, and come back quickly.”
“Yes, hyung,” both repeat seriously.
“Good boys, now don’t forget your masks!” Taeyong says with a gentle push, wanting them to come back as fast as possible.
And just like that, the serious atmosphere disappears. The maknaes become their usual energetic selves and nearly trample each other to get out the door after grabbing their black face masks.
Taeyong feels something bloom in the pit of his stomach. He knows that it’s not something good by the way the feeling curls and settles at the bottom. Maybe I pushed myself too hard today. That’s probably it. A little rest and I’ll be fine.
His attention is quickly shifted to the sudden loud shouting of Yuta followed by a softer version by Taeil. Poor WinWin-ie. He moves quickly in order to intervene before everyone becomes too distracted and practice had to be canceled yet again due to the sheer irresistibleness that was Dong Si Cheng.
“Yah! Yuta! Let go of WinWin for the last time! He doesn’t like to be manhandled!” Taeyong yells.
“I’m not manhandling him! This is called a hug,” Yuta smartly replies. “Tell him that you don’t mind being manhandled by me WinWin-ie,” he says while holding WinWin captive between his muscled arms.
“Manhandle?” WinWin repeats confused at the foreign word while actively trying to escape.
“Kun!” Taeil shouts for the other Chinese. “Please translate ‘Yuta is a manhandling bastard that is ruining his innocence’ to WinWin. Word for word please.”
Kun opens his mouth to protest, but Taeyong beats him to it, “Everyone please calm down. There are children present.”
“Don’t tell your hyung to calm down! Tell him,” Taeil points a finger accusingly at Yuta.
“Don’t you dare point your finger at me, old man!” Yuta fires back.
“I’M ONE YEAR OLDER THAN YOU! I’M NOT THAT OLD!” Taeil yells.
Taeyong sighs at the two and surveys his surroundings to find everyone else enjoying the situation. Be the leader they said. It’ll be fun they said. Be in charge of seventeen actual children they didn’t say.
Their choreographer watches from the sidelines and shakes his head in disappointment. They had been on a productive streak and had actually managed to get farther in the routine then he expected. He shouldn’t have complimented them and given them a break, knowing sooner or later that NCT [aka ‘Neo Crackhead Technology’ (he thought the name was very fitting) he knew some Americans referred to them] would get distracted and it wasn’t worth the effort to bring them to focus.
“Everyone!” he manages to yell over them.
All eyes turn toward him, silence finally filling the practice room. Well, at least they still have some respect for him.
“Yes?” Donghyuck replies sassily.
He deflates...maybe not.
~
“Hyung! What about this one?” Jisung holds up a bag of his favorite spicy chips.
Chenle scrunches his nose at the thought of anything spicy but allows Jisung to put in into the basket. It wasn’t his money after all. Taeyong hyung is going to regret giving us his card Chenle thinks and encourages Jisung to buy a few more things since the basket was only half full.
“Chenle? This too?” Jisung’s voice calls out from another aisle and Chenle rushes to see what his dongsaeng found.
~
“Hyung, do you think we may have gone overboard?” Jisung asks feeling a little guilty at the total that the snacks cost; certainly not expecting it to be in the hundreds of thousands of won.
“We’re fine, Taeyong won’t be mad, if he is, for long,” Chenle replies absentmindedly while eating the fruity popsicle.
“Taeyong hyung,” Jisung corrects.
“Taeyong hyung isn’t here,” Chenle exaggerates. He shifts the bags on his arms and Jisung takes one to hold instead. Bless his little soul uwu he thinks.
“We can always just say that we were thoughtful enough to buy some for the hyungs,” Jisung voices, often being the voice of reason between the two.
“But I don’t want to share!” Chenle fake pouts.
“Hyungs do so much for us already, the least we can do is give them a few of our snacks.”
“I guess they can all share a bag of chips,” Chenle teases.
The two share a laugh and know that they wouldn’t mind sharing with their older brothers.
“Yah-” Jisung yells.
Chenle turns to find the reason for his baby brother’s sudden shout when he is grabbed firmly and dragged into the alleyway. The bags and popsicle drop to the ground and Chenle worries about the groceries for a split second before turning to yell at one of his hyungs for making him drop their precious cargo. Except it wasn’t his hyung. Chenle had never seen those eyes in his life. He freezes as the man smirks behind his mask, eyes curling into sinister slits. A shout from closeby snaps Chenle out of his daze. His brother is trapped by another man preening down at the young boy in his arms with a predatory look in his eye. Something in Chenle snaps.
“GET AWAY FROM HIM. DON’T TOUCH HIM YOU BASTARD!” Chenle struggles against the man obviously twice his weight. Struggling to get to his brother who needed his help.
A slap echoes throughout the alley.
“Hyung!” Jisung’s worried voice cries.
“Stop being so difficult.” The man holding Chenle says.
He eyes the two beautiful boys, beautiful enough to be girls he thinks.
“Hyung! Hyung! HYUNG!” Jisung screams.
How annoying. The one holding Jisung thinks and moves to shut him up just like the last one.
“NO!” Chenle shouts, effectively freezing the hand about to hurt his brother.
“Let’s go.” the man holding Chenle says and continues to drag him.
Chenle struggles as much as he can but a bone-crushing grip to his arm makes him cry out in pain.
The man leans down to Chenle’s height, “What don’t you get? The more you struggle, the more pain I will cause you. The same goes for your brother.”
A silent tear makes its way down Chenle’s cheek.
“That’s better.”
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” A voice booms out commanding everyone’s attention.
Chenle knew that voice. More tears escape as the figure come into view. Their footsteps echo loudly due to the sudden quietness.
Hyung… please save us.