baby don't like it {lee haechan}

26

jeno stormed into the 127 base, ignoring the shrieks of jungwoo and mark. his eyes were angry and bloodshot as he glanced around the base, looking for a certain japanese man.

"where the fuck is yuta," he said in a low and aggressive voice. 

jeno's eyes drifted to taeyong, who was calmly descending the staircase in front of him. the young boy gave way to his anger and grabbed his leader by the collar, "did you order this? did you order yuta to go after haechan?"

taeyong's calm eyes shifted into confused ones, "yuta?"

"don't play dumb. yuta is a member of your unit, you should know about his doings at all times," jeno scoffed, not letting go of taeyong's shirt collar.

taeyong pressed his lips together, "jeno... i don't know why you're suddenly bringing up yuta, but his name is taboo in my base. i suggest you let go of my shirt and never utter a word about that man again or you can face the consequences. shotaro may give you a lot of freedom as a member of nct dream, but i am lee taeyong and you cannot storm up into her and disrespect like that."

jeno instantly realised what he was doing and let go, bowing slightly, "sorry... i'm just on edge at the moment. i didn't mean to disrespect you taeyong."

taeyong gave the boy a grim look, "yuta hasn't been a part of our gang for years. he deserted a few years back... two years to be exact. i had him tracked for a while since i heard his intentions were to kill off the nct members one by one. however, he moved to japan and i stopped keeping tabs on him after that."

so jeno's intuition was right after all, "what made him go rogue?"

taeyong's eyes darkened, "i haven't the faintest clue. either hansol's death finally got to him or he was always a traitor from the very beginning. either way, why are you mentioning him now? you barely knew him."

jeno didn't know how to tell him without freaking him out, "yuta is in korea. and he tried to send yumi to kill haechan."

taeyong blinked twice, "did i hear that correctly? yumi... as in haechan's dead girlfriend?"

jeno sighed, "well. that's what we thought but she isn't dead. she was sent off to japan and then she lost her memory in an accident. i have no idea how she got tangled up with yuta, but it seems like his blackmailing her into killing people for him. he calls them 'commissions'."

"and he wanted her to kill haechan?" taeyong asked with an eyebrow raised.

"yes."

"and did she?" taeyong asked.

"well no, otherwise you would know by now.

taeyong sipped on a glass of water that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, "then what is the concern? everything should be good now. he's not dead."

"but yuta is still out there! and if he finds out yumi is with us again, he's going to try and kill her!" jeno cried in frustration.

taeyong shrugged, "and how is that of my concern?"

as much as jeno looked up to the leader, he really wanted to strangle him at this moment, "why aren't you cooperating with me?"

taeyong was amused, "because i know you and your boys are capable of going at this alone. there comes a time where you need to stop coming to me to plan out your missions and projects. you need to decide what the next move is and then go from there. i know you can do it, especially if you're protecting yumi, you guys would do anything."

jeno wanted to pull out his hair, "but this is serious, yuta is trying to kill the whole gang, not just us. it concerns you too."

taeyong shook his head, "no. not really. yuta is not a big threat, he is a poor shooter and a mediocre planner. he does things on a whim and although he is intimidating if you ever talk to him, he feeds off of fear and only fear. without it, he doesn't know what to do. the few people he has working for him are bound only by fear of losing their lives or their families. even then, these aren't properly trained killers that he has surrounding him, just a few mix and matches he's found on the street."

jeno blinked, "i think i have a plan."

taeyong patted him on the back, "go get em."

~

"are you sure that you can do this? if you're scared, then we can think of something else," jeno grabbed yumi's hand, stopping her from crossing the street

she rolled her eyes at him, "i'll be fine jeno. i'll be out in a jiffy," she gave him a toothy smile and hopped out, running up to the cafe where she was to meet yuta.

jeno had come home earlier with a plan in mind, yumi would have a meeting with yuta and place a tracker on his phone as the first step. when he had presented this idea, half of the dreamies had stood up in protest, scared of placing the girl in danger once again.

in the end, yumi had agreed and called yuta to meet her at a cafe far away from nct dream's base. 

"give me a few more days," jeno overheard through the small in-ear contraption that yumi was wearing.

"you've never taken this long before," yuta said.

yumi sighed, "come on, this is a completely different country. i need more time and the guy will be as good as dead. i'll even bring you the body instead of burying it as proof. what more do you want?" she made sure to sound confident. 

yumi stood up as soon as yuta muttered an agreement and stepped forward to pat him on the back in reassurance. she knew that as soon as she would touch him, he'd look up at her in shock. she took this chance and slapped a tiny red tracker into one of the speaker ports of yuta's phone, where it would hopefully stay undetected.

not wanting to converse any longer, she ran back out of the cafe and didn't bother looking at the walking metter before crossing the street. 

jeno's eyes widened as he saw the big truck speeding directly towards yumi. he reached an arm out and dragged her to the sidewalk, clutching the girl in his arms and they both breathed heavily in shock. 

"are you crazy? look before you cross the street!" he was almost yelling.

yumi wasn't paying attention. the shock of the moment added with the proximity of jeno's face to hers was doing things to her mind. she closed her eyes as mini versions of old memories bloomed and played inside of her head like tv bloopers. 

she saw snippets of her life before, even seeing shared kisses and other intimate moments with no one other than jeno. however, her long-term memory loss didn't grant her permission to see the full version of these memories and she took them for what she could make of them. 

she remembered. she remembered the boys and how much they cared for her. she remember her struggle with her father and then being kidnapped. tears fell from her closed eyes but she still couldn't place a finger on why she didn't seem to recall any memories of the boy who called himself haechan.

if only someone could tell her the reason those memories were still repressed was because of the pain associated with them. yumi and haechan's relationship- as beautiful as it was- was filled with unhappy memories for the girl. she had given up so much in return for heartbreak when she had just started loving him. her own mind was shielding her from the memories that would hurt her the most. 

and so yumi forgot her entire time with haechan, even the sweet moments.

her eyes fluttered opened and she stared into jeno's eyes, looking for answers, "were we in love?"

jeno paused, "you..."

"i remember. everything," she cried.

jeno couldn't believe it. he hugged her tighter, ignoring the muttering of the onlookers around them. 

"jeno. answer my question."

he paused, not knowing whether to follow his heart or his mind.

hi cuties! i've just published a jungwoo mafia au and i would be so happy if you supported that one just as much as you've loved this book <3