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28 || curfew

"What's this?" Jimin frowned, unamused by the frantic panting of the couple in front of him. He'd heard them thundering down the hallway like a hoard of elephants, but before he could make an escape, they'd burst through the door spouting words that were too muddled for him to comprehend. From the looks of it, they'd ran up the stairs to get to the penthouse, which was pretty much a death wish in their new apartment block.

"We... we-" He watched Nayeon double over to catch her breath, bracing herself against her knees. Taehyung rubbed soothing circles on her upper back as she struggled for air. After a minute or two, she regained her composure. "We were at the park having a picnic and-" She paused when she saw the dry look he was giving her. "Yes, I know it's suspicious, but you'll have to trust me on this; we weren't doing anything dodgy."

Jimin snorted, but nodded nonetheless. "If you say so..."

The other man picked up the story. "We were in a secluded spot, right? No one to be seen for miles. We'd been alone for a while, when all of a sudden there's this bright flash and a whirring sound from one of the bushes surrounding the clearing. Nayeon and I were like, 'oh my god, it's Dispatch coming for our asses', but when we went to check, there was no one but this stranger with a yellow hoodie and polaroid camera sprinting away."

"Wait..." Jimin finally took interest in the conversation. "Did you say polaroid?"

Nayeon shook her head up and down rather aggressively in agreement. "Mmhmm! We found what we think was the photo taken in the bush." She rummaged through her bag before pulling out a bent picture of the two sitting together in the middle of a shady green clearing, black marker scrawled over the space for writing at the bottom. "Sorry. It got a little scrunched up in my backpack."

He openly blanched at the message and cleared his throat. "Jeongyeon's not going to like this..."

Taehyung looked at him, confused. "Well obviously. I mean, what if we'd been seen-"

"Not just that. Give me a second." Jimin dashed off into his bedroom, making his way over to the dresser and rifling through his underwear draw. Gathering what he needed, he retreated back into the living room. "Look at this."

The bundle of photographs from earlier that week were unceremoniously dumped on the counter, as Jimin scrambled to undo the scrap of hessian holding them all together. "Jeongyeon found this the other day. She begged me not to tell anyone, but... I think this situation calls for it."

Nayeon picked up a polaroid, specifically the one of the two girls sleeping together. Her hand was visibly shaking. "Did she specify where?"

"No, but I think I have a rough idea. She found them the day I picked her up from the furniture shop. Did she seem off to you at all? Any changes in demeanor?" He let a hand brush over the photographs, spreading them further apart from each other.

A light pause weighed on the group. "I don't think... Wait! I came up to tell her that I was leaving, and she flung herself at me, which was strange since we'd had a petty argument only an hour ago. She was really pale, and I thought she might've been getting sick, so I offered her a ride home, but she said no. This must've been why." She heaved out a weak breath, rubbing her temples. "Oh god, I should've asked her what was wrong before I left... I'm such an idiot..."

Trailing off, Nayeon looked up at Taehyung, who wrapped an arm around her in order to rub her shoulder comfortingly. "It's not your fault. You were in a rush to leave, and I'm fairly sure Jeongyeon wouldn't have opened up if you'd asked."

Jimin shook his head in agreement . "It took me ages to get it out of her. I pestered her pretty much all evening, and in the end all I got was an 'Oh my god, stop raping me!' and a 'Stay out of it'." He mimicked the girl, raising the pitch of his voice and flapping his arms around.

"Where did the 'stop raping me' come from?" Nayeon snorted, hoisting herself up onto the edge of the counter.

The man debated how to approach that. "She was being difficult so... I may have carried her from the couch over to the kitchen."

She laughed sadistically again. "Sounds like she deserved it."

Both men turned to look at her, shocked. "What happened to the overprotective Nayeon we've put up with for the last fortnight?" Taehyung arched an eyebrow.

"Look, I'm not blind to the fact that Jeongyeon can be a brat when she feels like it. As long as you're not hurting her in anyway other than her ego and dignity, I'm fine. Deal with her however you see fit." Shrugging, she turned away, busying herself with arranging the photographs in the order she assumed they were taken.

Tae looked at Jimin blankly. "So, what should we do? It's obvious that someone's after her. Do we report it to the police?"

The other man barked out a short chuckle. "What're they going to do? This person hasn't actually done anything to threaten any of us. Besides, they never deal with sasaengs. They just disregard them as excessively enthusiastic fans."

Nayeon shuddered. "Dumbasses."

They all sat in an awkward silence, until she broke it again, voice weary. "We should make the curfew tighter. Much tighter. So that everyone is home by five most of the time. That way we don't risk Jeongyeon being alone at night."

"But our schedules-"

Jimin interrupted Taehyung. "I'll just tell the managers that this is something our parents came up with. So that we can all bond or something. We should probably tell the same thing to Jeongyeon."

"So, it's settled?"

The two boys exchanged glances before nodding at Nayeon in unison. They were just retying the polaroids together when the doorbell resonated loud and clear around the apartment. Jimin sucked in a sharp breath. "Hide the photos. I don't want her pissed at me for showing them to you guys."

He shuffled over to the door, taking his sweet time. Eventually, he arrived in the entryway, and tentatively looked through the peephole.

Huh. There's no one there...?

Fumbling with the key card, he notched it into the panel on the wall and opened the door. True to what he'd seen through the door, no one could be seen in the spacious hallway. He was just about to turn back inside, when a small piece of film on the floor caught his attention. Gulping, he snatched it up and locked the door, removing the keycard and bolting the safety lock. Hands trembling much harder than he'd like to admit, he turned over the photograph so he could see the print.

Nayeon and Taehyung could be seen sprinting across the park, grass beneath them and cloudy blue skies above them. A note was scrawled along the bottom tab of the polaroid.

You can run, but you can't hide.

A chill ran down Jimin's spine as he turned to face the direction of the others, pale and clammy.

"We'd better start that curfew now."