Request by: faded_libra
TW: Physical and mental abuse!
"I can't believe this comeback has all 23 of us! That's crazy!" mark squealed excitedly to johnny as all 23 of them filed into the small practice room. they all stood anxiously as they waited for their manager and choreographer.
Soon the two men entered the room with excited faces looking upon the 23 boys before them.
"Hello everyone, today I'd like to introduce you to your choreographer for this comeback. Please welcome Mr. lee Hyunjae."
The man bowed with a warm smile as the 23 boys greeted him politely.
"it's great to meet you all! I'm excited to work with you."
"it's great to meet you sir, I'm lee Taeyong, the leader of Nct." Taeyong smiled warmly bowing to the man.
Hyunjae smiled at the leader eying him closely as he returned back to the line.
"Alright perfect, well I'll leave you guys to get to work, fighting boys!" the manager cheered excitedly before he left the room.
With that, the boys were immediately instructed on the new moves for resonance, and they all picked up the moves in now time.
Taeyong caught Hyunjae looking at him a lot more than the others and was wondering if his performance was not as good as the others.
After practice was over, the boys broke apart to drink some water and pack up to go home.
Hyunjae walked over to taeyong and tapped his shoulder.
"Yes hyung?"
"Hey, I was wondering if you could hang back a few minutes to run through something."
Taeyong was worried, was his dancing not good? He nodded smiling at the man as he finished his water.
"Great work boys! See you tomorrow!" Hyunjae called as the 22 boys trickled out of the practice room. once they were all gone, he shut the door and asked taeyong to join him in front of the mirror.
"So, what should we work on hyung?" taeyong asked softly.
"I want you to run through your part again, I wanna see it without the others distracting me."
"Okay hyung, no problem." Taeyong smiled as he got into his position and waited for the music to start.
Hyunjae pressed the button on the remote and resonance began to fill the room.
Taeyong followed the steps and executed the dance flawlessly feeling proud as he watched himself in the mirror. Once the song ended, he panted heavily and drank some water waiting for hyunjae's feedback.
Hyunjae approached taeyong without a word which made taeyong nervous.
"Hyung-
He was cut off by Hyunjae slapping him across the cheek.
Taeyong was in shock. Did his choreographer really just slap him? Was that allowed?
He brought his large hand up to rest on his stinging cheek. He raised his head and looked at Hyunjae absolutely horrified.
"Hyung... why...why did you hit me?" his voice was small.
Hyunjae slapped him again, this time harder.
"Be quiet!" he spat as taeyong held his face.
"Stand up."
Taeyong listened standing up, his hand still on his red cheek.
"you're dancing is terrible taeyong. How did you even get into SM? Everything you did was wrong and sloppy!" Hyunjae screamed at taeyong making the boy shake like a leaf in fear.
"I'm...I'm sorry hyung." Taeyong whimpered.
"Good. Now get out. Come back tomorrow and be better." He scowled turning his back to taeyong.
Taeyong bowed before he rushed to the door but stopped when Hyunjae called his name.
"Oh, and taeyong? Don't tell anyone about this or I'll start having private sessions with your dongsaengs as well." He threatened with an evil smile.
Taeyong felt his heart stop. He nodded before he left the room running to the dorm as fast as he could.
"There you are hyung! You were gone for a long time did Hyunjae give you a dance solo?" mark ran up to the leader his sparkly eyes shining bright as he smiled at the leader.
"Huh? Oh uh, no no he just... wanted me to work on some of the moves..." taeyong was clearly distressed and mark instantly noticed it.
"Woah, hey hyung? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm just really tired mark... I'm gonna go take a nap, okay?"
"Oh...okay hyung..." mark said quietly as he watched his leader rush off to his room.
Mark scratched the top of his head wondering what taeyong was upset about.
"Yo mark? You, okay?" johnny said approaching the younger.
"Yeah just, taeyong seems upset about something."
"Really? Did you ask him about it?"
"Yeah, but he just said he was tired."
"Then maybe he is just tired, don't worry so much." Johnny smiled ruffling mark's fluffy black bangs.
"you're probably right, thanks john."
"No problem dork, now come on, let's go do that Instagram live we promised." Johnny said before he wrapped his arm around mark's shoulders and led him to his room.
Upstairs, taeyong was in the bathroom examining the red mark left on his cheek, it felt sore as he touched it and he tried pressing a cool rag to his swollen skin to reduce its redness.
When he exited the bathroom, he accidentally ran into doyoung.
The sudden contact scared taeyong and he impulsively flinched apologizing instantly.
Doyoung looked at him confused. He placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Taeyong? Hey, it's alright, it was an accident don't worry about it." Doyoung gave him a warm gummy smile, but it fell when he felt taeyong's trembling body beneath him.
"Hey, yongie are you okay? You're shaking."
"Oh uh, yeah I'm fine just...cold. Anyways, sorry for running into you." He said quickly before he continued down the hall to his room.
Doyoung was left extremely confused but decided to ignore it and go about his business.
The next day after practice, taeyong stayed behind like he was told trying to act as natural as possible.
Once everyone was gone, Hyunjae approached taeyong and grabbed him by the collar getting in his face.
"Did you say anything to them?"
"No! no of course not hyung..." he cowered in fear trying to avoid hyunjae's angry stare.
He felt hyunjae's large hand hit his cheek once again.
"Look at me when I'm speaking to you!" he screamed.
Taeyong forced his eyes to meet hyunjae's before Hyunjae threw him against the wall aggressively.
His back hit the mirror hard causing him to gasp in pain.
"Get in position now."
Taeyong complied doing the dance focusing on nailing the moves to please Hyunjae.
When he finished, he was still met with several firm slaps and angry yelling just like the previous day.
"Hyung... I'm sure I did the moves right this time-
"No! no you didn't taeyong! Not even close!" he screamed in taeyong's face, his big hands gripping taeyong's shoulders way too tight.
"Get out of my sight before I get mad." He growled throwing taeyong down.
Taeyong scrambled off the floor and ran back home absolutely terrified.
He sprinted through the door and fell in the doorway, his breath hitching as he crashed to the floor.
"Taeyong!? Taeil's voice echoed through the room as he and Yuta ran to the boy.
"Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?" taeil asked as he picked taeyong up off the ground.
"n..n.no I'm okay..." he forced himself to breathe.
"Are you sure? Here, maybe you should sit down." Yuta said taking taeyong's arm and leading him to the couch.
"Did you hit your head bubu?" taeil asked softly as he softly stroked taeyong's head.
"n... No hyung."
"Okay, that's good." Taeil sighed in relief.
"Taeyong? Why were you running? Are you alright?"
Taeyong really wanted to tell them what was going on but then he was reminded of hyunjae's threat, and he couldn't let Hyunjae hurt any of his members, especially the dreamies.
"I just...tripped, I'm fine."
"Are you sure yongie?" taeil asked firmly.
"Yes hyung."
With that, taeyong left the room leaving taeil with Yuta.
"Somethings wrong with him." Yuta said.
"Yeah... why won't he tell us what's bothering him?"
"I don't know hyung, but I'm worried."
Over the next week or so the hitting continued and taeyong forced himself to keep quiet even though his skin had several bruises from hyunjae's hands, and his anxiety had gotten ten times worse since they started.
One afternoon, Hyunjae was in a worse mood then usual and when taeyong asked him a question, he charged at him and punched him square in the face.
Taeyong stumbled backwards holding his face as he bit back tears. He was in so much pain as the skin around his right eye instantly began to swell. Hyunjae kicked him into the wall before storming out of the room leaving taeyong alone.
He fell to the ground in tears as his eye and stomach ached terribly. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and gasped seeing the forming bruise around his eye.
How was he supposed to hide a black eye from the others? He quickly wiped his eyes and forced himself to stand pacing around the room as he dreaded the thought of facing the others. Before he left, he spotted a pair of sunglasses sitting on the cart where the speakers were. He quickly grabbed them and put them on his face before exiting the room and going home.
The next morning taeyong came downstairs still wearing the sunglasses and the others looked at him confused.
"Hyung? Why are you wearing sunglasses?" jisung asked softly.
"Oh, I have a bit of a headache and the light is hurting my eyes." he lied feeling his eye throb.
"Really? Why don't you stay and rest then? I don't want you getting sick." Johnny said softly placing a hand on taeyong's shoulder.
"I'll be okay, besides, there's only a few days left I can make it till then." Taeyong gave him a reassuring smile.
"Hyung, I think you're overworking yourself... maybe you should take a break-
"No mark! I said I was fine!" taeyong snapped at the Canadian boy which made the room go quiet.
Taeyong instantly regretted yelling at him but decided to just head to practice and get this over with.
Johnny patted marks back reassuringly.
"don't take it personally man, he's just stressed." Johnny gave him a warm smile and led him out the door following taeyong.
When they arrived taeyong was surprised to find a note on the door.
"Hyunjae called in sick so run through your parts today."
Taeyong relaxed slightly relieved he wouldn't be hit by Hyunjae.
Things were going well until about halfway through practice.
Taeyong did a spin and before he could stop it, his sunglasses flew off his face and hit the floor with a loud clatter.
He froze.
Mark ran over and picked up the glasses and went to taeyong to return them but stopped when he saw taeyong's face.
"h...hyung... what happened to your eye!?" mark's words startled the others.
Suddenly all eyes were on taeyong.
"Tell me how you got that hyung." Mark said sternly.
Taeyong was overwhelmed. He never wanted them to find out but now he had no way out.
As he looked at mark's huge, concerned eyes he couldn't keep it in anymore. He burst into tears as he let all of his built-up emotions out.
Mark was taken aback seeing taeyong cry and he was soon surrounded by several of the members who were all beyond concerned for their leader.
"Hey, hey, yongie... don't cry... tell me what's going on." Taeil cooed softly stroking taeyong's face.
Taeyong couldn't speak so he just continued to cry.
Johnny stepped up and took taeyong in his arms.
"Tae did somebody hurt you?" johnny asked softly keeping taeyong secure in his strong arms.
The sentence only made taeyong cry harder which answered johnny's question.
Several gasps of disbelief were heard from the others.
Johnny felt his rage bubble up inside of him.
"Who taeyong? Who the hell hurt you?" johnny asked trying to keep his composure.
"h...h...Hyunjae-hyung..." taeyong whimpered miserably into johnny's shoulder.
"What!?" doyoung shouted.
Taeyong buried his head further into johnny's chest just wanting to disappear.
He heard some of the others crying from beside him and he didn't even want to know who it was.
"Yongie... why didn't you tell someone!? He needs to go to jail taeyong... this isn't okay." Taeil said frantically trying not to cry.
Taeyong rose off of johnny's shoulder but johnny kept his hands on him.
"He...he said that... that if I told anyone he'd... he'd... he'd hurt one of my dongsaengs..." he cried sadly, his breath hitching.
"i...I couldn't let him hurt any of you guys..."
Johnny was infuriated. He clenched his fist at his side as angry tears filled his eyes.
"Taeyong... how long?" johnny said.
"Since the first day we started working with him..."
taeyong heard one of the other boys choke out a sob from beside him.
He looked over to see donghyuck and jisung crying into Jaehyun's chest.
Jaehyun tried to calm them as best as he could, but the younger boys were far to upset.
"Oh god... oh my god taeyong I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry none of us noticed something was going on!" taeil cried feeling awful.
"No, no hyung it's not your fault... I didn't say anything..."
Taeil took taeyong back from johnny and held him close.
Johnny stormed out of the room which caught mark's attention. He ran after him and caught him by the arm.
"Hyung..."
Johnny turned around revealing his teary eyes.
"Where are you going?" mark said sadly.
"Mark...how could he?! How could someone hurt taeyong like that!?"
Mark grabbed the older and hugged him.
"I don't know john; it makes me sick."
Johnny squeezed the smaller tight.
"I'm gonna kill him mark... I'm gonna kill him." Johnny cried more angry tears.
"I know john... here, take a deep breath." Mark said trying to not cry himself.
"let's go get our manager, okay? We need to get Hyunjae reported."
Johnny nodded rising off of mark's shoulder.
They ran off towards their managers office in search for their manager.
Several minutes later the manager appeared in the practice room and immediately engulfed taeyong in a hug.
"Taeyong-shi, I'm so sorry! Hyung is so sorry for putting you in danger. Don't worry, Hyunjae is gone, he will never come near you or any of your members ever again I promise."
Taeyong squeezed the man tight.
"I'm sorry hyung... I know this will set back the comeback..."
"Hey, none of that is important taeyong-shi. All that matters is that you are safe, the comeback can wait."
"Thank you hyung."
The manager sighed sadly holding taeyong close.
"Please take a few weeks off taeyong, anything you need just tell me."
Taeyong just nodded before he pulled apart from the man.
He left the boys with taeyong while he went to deal with the paperwork for Hyunjae.
All 22 boys took turns hugging and crying with taeyong before they took him home, taeil and johnny not leaving his side.
It took several weeks for taeyong's eye to heal, and he spent most days at home with his members and saw a weekly therapist to help him feel safer.
They were able to release the music video about two months later and the members made sure that taeyong was okay throughout the whole comeback.