You Try (Even when the world doesn't want you to|| WayV Lucas Angst

How to manage PR while not being stupid: a tutorial

Dae-un stares at her now black screen for a minute before a thought strikes her.

"What did he do?"

And then she's filled with anger and rage because Lucas had already hurt Baekhyun once, and now he's probably done something to his own members. The hiatus is for the scandal, to cover up his ass.

The fact that no other member was going on hiatus never crossed her mind.

In fact, it's the rage that drives her into opening one of the forums she's part of and ranting about Lucas. About how disrespectful, how full of himself, how ugly, how untalented. About how he talked to Baekhyun, how much of a disgrace he is, how stupid and loud, how dare he hurt Baekhyun like that, how dare he?!

She's crying in anger by the end of it and, to her surprise...

It's her most popular post to date.

Five million likes.

Sixteen thousand comments.

A thousand dislikes of blind, dumb people that don't appreciate idols the way she does, the way five million people do. So she ignores them. Ignores the comments about how wrong she is , about how her post could hurt Lucas because that's the point: it is meant to hurt. To burn so bad he never speaks again. Not like that. Not to Baekhyun.

She opens her iPad and writes one quick statement.

"Hello, this is SM Entertainment

WayV Lucas blah blah

Hiatus blah blah

Medical reasons blah blah

We apologise for causing concern.

Thank you."

Dae-un finds herself not satisfied. Not with the way Lucas can just walk over everything and everyone and come out of it scot-free. Or with the fact, that everyone around her seems to be okay with it.

She decides to intervene then. To search in the deepest parts of the internet, to watch every video and every interview, to ask every single person in the company if necessary, everything if it means bringing such a horrible person down.

It's four months later that she uncovers the truth. The ugly, devastating truth.

She searched. She watched. She asked. And she sort of wishes she could go back.

Worst of all is that there's a part of her that's still angry, that still thinks: "He deserves it."

It's, unfortunately, that part of her that has her opening the forum, Twitter on her computer, gossip about how "strong, good Lucas almost kills himself," about "how much of a hypocrite can one be," written on perfect Helvetica Neue font, and she's angry.

Angry at Lucas for starting all this.

Angry at herself for not being able to decide what's wrong and right.

Angry at the internet for supporting her.

Angry at the internet for not supporting her.

Dae-Un closes her laptop and walks out the office's door, offering a small smile at one of the rookies that greets her.

Coffee will make it better, she decides. Coffee and a bed, but the latter is impossible in her current position so, she goes for the coffee machine inside the little breakout room and basks in the smell.

Steps resonate in the halls, and voices of busy people with busy lives are carried within the walls, and she finds it quite ironic. The fact that her mind feels like drowning in a turbulent river while the rest of the world moves with the currents like dancing. As if Chopin had given them the sheet music and not her, leaving her mind to fight and thrash against the unfightable.

Dae-un heaves a sigh as she finishes her drink and resolves that she should go back to work and decide whether to post the words written on her laptop or not.

It's as she crosses the door that she sees him. A figure taller than the rest but without the same smile it used to wear. Maybe it is that fact that drives her into following him, or perhaps it's the way it carries itself, shoulders hunched, steps light, invisible. Maybe it's neither. Possibly, she just wants her suspicions to be confirmed.

Confirm that the figure is bad, horrible, despicable.

That the figure hurts other people and it shouldn't be allowed into this type of job.

Maybe.

She's standing behind a wall when she hears Baekhyun's voice resonate through the walls, then Taemin's and when the figure's breathing stops sounding like he's dying, she's left inside a silent bubble of feelings.

Her feelings, perhaps. Baekhyun's feelings?

...Lucas?

She sits there when Baekhyun breaks, when he curses out people like her, and when his sobs sound through the walls because Lucas forgave him.

She sits there as Lucas...Xuxi breaks, when he curses out himself, when he screams at Bakehyun in pain, when his devastating sobs resonate through her heart.

And it occurs to her that perhaps, she set herself up for all of this and not Chopin.

That, maybe being hateful, wasn't helping anyone, especially not the people she thought she was protecting because...perhaps those people didn't need protection.

Especially not hers or those people on the internet.

Maybe they had been protecting the wrong person all along.

It's when she hears the door close, and Xuxi's voice says, "I'm okay," to someone on the phone that Dae-un decides she's heard enough.

She stands from her place on the cold tile floor and starts walking towards her office, Hendery runs in front of her as she passes, and a small smile plays on her lips once she realises where he's headed.

Her phone vibrates then. Once, twice, non-stop as she takes it out of her pocket.

It's one of the forums. A hundred Twitter notifications.

A sense of dread fills her body as she opens the app.

"NCT Lucas on hiatus because of eating disorder: SM Entertainment refuses to tell the truth"

Her knees buckle underneath her, forcing her body to sink to the floor like the tears that fall from her cheeks.

Posted 5 minutes ago

1000 comments

What an idiot.

Oh, so now weight bothers him.

What a hypocrite

Now he'll complain when he brought this all upon himself

He should honestly just disappear forever.

...

She's going to throw up.

Notes:

So, this is a really short chapter (only 1475 words. I'm sorry) but it's meant to be more of a filler, without it being quite a filler, y'know?

What happens in this chapter is like super important to what's going to happen next so, yeah, filler but not filler. It also showed a bit of a different perspective ig.

Hope you liked it!!

1. What did you think of the chapter?

2. What was your favourite part?

3. What do you think is going to happen next?

As always, luv you beautiful human beings 💜💜💜💜