He didn't even bother to open the message; his thumb quickly swipes down the setting and he chose the 'Block This Number' option without batting an eye. The messages disappear from his chat thread and Taeyong let out another sigh.
He suddenly feels more tired than he actually is.
•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•
[unknown number] 9:47 AM
Hello
[unknown number] 9:47 AM
I'm a big fan of yours
[unknown number] 9:48 AM
I hope you have a great day, Taeyong-ssi
══════════════════
Taeyong was having a bad day.
He woke up wrongly this morning, he added too much water in his morning coffee so the taste was too bland, he spilled shampoo when he was showering, and he just have this feeling that the list will go on all day.
It's late winter now in Korean and while Taeyong usually likes the weather, today was unusually colder than previous days. Taeyong bought his hands toward his mouth to breath hot air into the freezing skin; the jacket he chose this morning did nothing to warm his body. He was on his way to the company's building, having appointment with the production team regarding some of the tracks in their upcoming comeback.
"Morning." Taeyong greeted the men inside the studio. He got various replies from the crew production as the idol placed his bag into the cushion and make himself comfortable in one of the vacant chairs. The lead producer talked about reviewing some of their previous recording and adding ad-libs to the song while also doing some mixing if possible; Taeyong agreed to both.
And so he began to work.
People said when you are doing something you love; something you're passionate about, you will get lost in time. Well, that's true; the moment they finally finished doing their tasks, it was already past noon. The team took a quick coffee and snacks, brought by one of the managers, and reviewing their work today.
The song sounds amazing.
"Phew- that was one hell of song. Good work as usual, Taeyong-ah." The song engineer complimented the idol with a clasp on his shoulder.
"Thanks, hyung. I think the boys did a really good job in recording. They improved so much, I'm a happy parent." Taeyong replied, leaning back into his swivel chair. "My ad-libs are one point, but maybe we should contact the boys again to get their input for the vocal ad-libs?"
"Yeah, we need more harmonization for the last chorus, you have names in mind?"
"Yup. Their voice will be perfect match. Youngjae-hyung, can you arrange Haechan, Doyoung-ie, and Taeil-hyung for additional recording session?" Taeyong tilted his head to face his manager who's standing behind him. The said man took out his phone and busied himself with it.
"Doyoung and Taeil would be no problem this week. But I think Hyuck has some dance session with the Dream, I will have to contact Jungsu first." He said, pocketing the device back into his jacket.
"Sweet. We will do some mixing after lunch break. Take some rest, boi." The music engineer said while munching his glazed donut.
"Will do." Taeyong answered with amused chuckle.
They took a long break after that. Some of the crew went out of the studio to grab some food from the cafeteria below, the manager went out to make schedule for their next week, and Taeyong choose to remains inside the studio, making himself comfortable in the soft couch.
The idol took out his phone. He just realizes he never touch his phone since morning. He unlocked the device and met with some unread massage. He scrolled through the message apps; 112 unread chats from 127Squad, Taeyong sighed when he sees most of it was Johnny and Mark's banter. He checked the next unread massage, 15 unread massage from Doyocchi❤; the vocalist was asking if Taeyong want something specific for dinner, Taeyong replied a quick 'Chinese is fine' before checking the last unread message.
And he frowned at that.
Unknown number
Taeyong let out a frustrated sigh, knowing very well who the message is likely from. Just when he thinks that finally his day will become better, the universe chose to throw some shit into his life again.
He didn't even bother to open the message; his thumb quickly swipes down the setting and he chose the 'Block This Number' option without batting an eye. The messages disappear from his chat thread and Taeyong let out another sigh.
He suddenly feels more tired than he actually is.
══════════════════
[unknown number] 8:13 AM
Good morning, Taeyong-ssi.
[unknown number] 8:13 AM
I hope you have another wonderful day today.
[unknown number] 8:14 AM
I'm not sure if you read this message, but I hope you do.
══════════════════
The next day was fairly normal.
Taeyong went to studio, worked on some tracks, ate lunch with Haechan and Jungwoo, and then gathered in the dance studio to practice the comeback song choreography.
The dance practice went smoothly too. The boys did little-to-no mistake and they managed to perfect their synchronization to their choreographer standard. They got to finish early and the managers gave them free time until the time to go back to dorm; so the members chose to lazy around inside their spacious dance practice room.
"Should we do Vlive?" Mark asked their manager. The Canadian boy was sitting with his back leaning toward the large mirror. Beside him was Haechan, playing some arcade game on his phone, with Jungwoo watching him play with enthusiast.
"Vlive isn't a bad idea. Try not to spoil anything though, I'm talking to you, Donghyuck." Their manager gave the excited rapper the company's phone, where their Vlive account is, his eyes flaring dagger to the giggling maknae who has the gut to glare back to the manager with mischief in his eyes.
"I'm not promising anything, hyung." said the maknae with teasing grin.
The manager sighed in defeat. "Do as you likes, but make sure your phones isn't present, we don't want any crazy sasaeng to test out their new-found number on you guys, right?"
"Yikes." Mark spat in disgust as he set his phone on silent and threw it inside his black backpack.
Unlike the rapper, the maknae took out his phone and his eyes were challenging, "I still hold the record for not getting sasaeng call in two months." Haechan proudly declared, earning whistle from Yuta.
The members were actually really amazed by the fact that their Maknae did having the least amount of sasaeng calls inside their group, and the youngest refused to tell them how.
"Who's in?" Mark asked the scattered members around him. He got a 'Me!' from Johnny and Taeil, a quite hand-raising from Yuta, Doyoung and Jaehyun. Jungwoo still on his hiatus-status, so the manager prohibit him to appear in the Vlive. He ended up went out from the practice room for a quick session with his physiatrist, he told them the kind doctor was teaching him how to deal with panic attack. The rest of them cheered on him, fully supporting his recovery.
"How about you, Taeyong-hyung? You don't appear much in Vlive these days." Mark called out their leader, who was chatting casually with their choreographer.
"Go ahead without me." Taeyong said, pausing his conversation and flash a quick smile to the other members on the other side of the practice room.
"Okay, just come here if you want to join, hyung!" Mark said again.
Taeyong turned his attention back to the choreographer beside him; they are talking about what kind of improvement they can add to their dance. Taeyong suggested a rather risky move for the section after the dance break, and they are discussing whether it is worth to try or not. He vaguely hear the boys greeted loudly into the camera, their Vlive is starting then.
"I think it's worth to try. But is it okay with you? If we do this, you will have your knee step on during all the live performances..." Koosung, their main choreographer, asked carefully after considering the suggestion. They move a bit toward the side, not wanting to appear inside the frame of the Vlive streaming.
"Give me some credit, hyung... My knee will be able to handle it." Taeyong playfully whined, tugging at the shorter male's sleeve, earning a light chuckle from the dancer.
"This boi is pretty strong." Taeyong gave his right knee a pat.
"Alright then, we will discuss this with the boys in our next dance practice, how's that sound?"
"Perfect."
Unbeknownst to them, they still can be seen from the reflection of the mirrors surrounding them.
Taeyong then feel his phones vibrated inside his sweatpants pocket. He ignored it, thinking it was probably some spam messages or advertisement.
══════════════════
[unknown number] 9:21PM
Why didn't you join the Vlive?
[unknown number] 9:22PM
I miss hearing your voice
[unknown number] 9:22PM
But I see you dressed up nicely as usual
[unknown number] 9:23PM
Looking forward for the comeback
══════════════════
The Vlive ended up after 32 minutes interacting with their fans and Haechan tried to spoil the choreography with the amazing count of 12 times spoiler-attempt. They are laughing and joking around, the mood around the dance studio was really positive. Taeyong appeared for a mere seconds before they ended the live; waving his hand cheerfully.
"Ya, who's the one getting the next mention party?" Taeil asked as he's playing with Haechan's hair.
"isn't it Doyoungie? Mine was set after the comeback..." Johnny answered from his right, sipping into his latte.
"Huh? My turn is just before you, hyung"
"Let's just ask the manager. Insoon-hyung! Wait, where is Insoon-hyung?" Johnny called for their manager, but realized the older man was nowhere to be seen inside their practice room.
"Insoon-hyung got called by the promotion team but don't worry, I have the schedule copy on my memo." Taeyong said as he took out his phone, typing his pin quickly and frowned slightly when he noticed the notification.
Taeyong was careful with his expression, but Doyoung notice the change of mood right away, "Something wrong, hyung?"
Taeyong sighed, he wanted to keep this from the others but maybe he didn't have to, "I think my number is busted."
That earned some disapproval sounds from his bandmates, feeling emphatic.
"Damn, do you need to change number?" Yuta asked in annoyed tone, Taeyong shrugged, he knows that the Japanese man really loathe sasaeng behaviour. He remembered that one time when his fellow 95line friend created a rather nasty scandal of flipping off their stalker and sasaeng fans, and some k-netz pointed him of having 'bad manners'. Taeyong knew better than testing the Japanese man's patience; Yuta will not hesitate to give you the finger if you piss him off.
He wanted to laugh at the memory, he couldn't believe that some people out there tried to defend some crazy fans who were invading their privacy.
"This is already my fifth number..." Taeyong pouted, his thumb once again pressing the 'Blocked' option, watching the message disappear.
Frequently changing your number created inconvenience even when the newest mobile software update providing facility to ease up the transfer; he still has to recover all his data, memorizing his new number, and telling his new number to important people who may not have saved his previous number.
"Change your number if it gets worse." Doyoung said from his left, eyes boring into his mobile screen as if wants to take a peek of the sasaeng's message, too bad Taeyong had already deleted it.
Taeyong nodded, but can't help but shiver at the thought,
If it gets worse, huh?
Can it get any worse than this?