being an idol, it's impossible for hate to not come along. it comes in all different ways: in written letters, online comments, verbally, etcetera. especially if you just happen to be the only different gender in a group.
dayoung had already had her fair share (and possibly even more) of hate from the time she joined sm entertainment up until now. and with nct 127 growing in fame in america, it allowed for more people to acknowledge the fact that she was the only girl in the group whose twenty one other members were all boys.
she did her best to brush the hate comments off, putting thoughts of her and the boys happily being together in her head instead, but everyone has their breaking point.
it started when the 127 subunit returned to america for their world tour and arrived in new york. while being tourists and traveling to the different sites, they stopped and hung around a big opening. fans were dancing to their songs (which they joined in on right away) and everyone was having fun.
dayoung got to talk to and meet a bunch of them, and she felt like no one could bring her down. some of them handed her letters, a few with envelopes that were adorably decorated while the rest were blank.
"thank you! i can't wait to read them," she said with a big smile.
they all danced and talked a bit more before they had to leave to head to the next place. dayoung wanted to read the letters during the car ride, but she was so immersed in putting all of her undivided attention on the boys and living in that moment, she ended up putting it off until they got back to the hotel.
which was probably for the better on her part.
after shutting the door to her and mark's hotel room behind her, she walked over to the bed and let her backpack slip from her shoulders. everyone was in yuta and taeil's room, and mark had fallen asleep in there before dayoung left.
she tugged on the zipper and opened her bag, pulling out the letters given by fans earlier. she decided on reading the ones that had cute stickers and drawings on it first since they caught her attention more.
taking the folded card stock, a couple of photos and stickers fell out, and she made sure to put it back into the envelope before reading the note.
dayoung!
i'm not sure if i'll be able to get this to you...
and the cute, heartwarming writings continued throughout the rest of the accented envelopes. as for the blank ones, dayoung's smile was replaced with a prominent frown.
words like talentless, and immature, and overrated filled her now-cloudy vision.
is this really what people think of me?
she used the hem of her shirt to dry her eyes before tears fell, but it was useless — they streamed her face as if they were waterfalls.
when she had read every letter, good and bad, dayoung stuffed them back into her backpack and tossed it on to the small sofa. she huffed and kneeled down next to her suitcase, wanting to take a shower and try to erase the negative comments from her head. temporarily, at least.
meanwhile, mark was still half asleep when haechan brought him into the room. the former was mumbling incoherent words that made no sense whatsoever as he hung off of the younger.
"hyung, you're acting like you're drunk," he said before dropping him on to the bed.
haechan was about to leave but a piece of paper on the carpeted floor caught his eye. it was one of the letters dayoung received, and being the curious person he is, he picked it up.
he was waiting for cute, clichè words or playful teasing ones, only to be met with insults. in the middle of it, he heard the bathroom door open. dayoung stood there with damp hair and red eyes.
"donghyuck? what are you doing in here?" she asked.
"what is this?" haechan ignored her question, holding up the folded paper.
"it's exactly what it looks like."
haechan raised an eyebrow at the sudden attitude and dayoung sighed, letting her head fall.
"i'm sorry," she mumbled, obviously distressed.
she traveled over to the other bed and sat down on the edge. haechan followed suit and pulled her closer by wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"you know they're just jealous, right? something you can do is to ignore it. they live off of reactions and they'll probably fall back when they get none. you're stronger than to let them get to you. it didn't affect you then, don't let it affect you now. only nct can make fun of you."
dayoung softly chuckled and nodded her head while her stare on her fingers softened.
"are there more?" he continued.
"yeah," she mumbled. "they're in my bag."
frowning, haechan thought for a second before standing up and pulling dayoung with him.
"i'm pretty sure some of the others are up, messing around," he said. "why don't you go join them? they were expecting you to come back, y'know."
she lightly laughed and rolled her eyes. "alright," dayoung smiled. "are you coming?"
"i'll be there in a bit. i'm gonna stop by my room first."
after haechan ruffled her hair, dayoung left with a happier expression, and once the door clicked shut, he went over to her backpack and unzipped it. he went through the letters to sort which were from so-called fans and brought them to the bathroom.
he ripped them up and dropped them into the trash can, heading out of the room afterwards.
"i'm coming, shortie~!" haechan exclaimed and skipped his way back to the lively room.
➥ 終。
➥ )): i didn't know how to end this hhhhh i might finish this story after a couple of more chapters but i'm not entirely sure,, it feels like no one reads this anymore bc i'm so inconsistent w updating