Work Text:
Taehyun silently awoke in his bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he looked around. He looked down at his phone and checked the time, grimacing as he realized he woke up literally one minute before his alarm rang. He sighed before sitting up in his bed, shutting off his alarm and whipping his legs to the floor. He checked the date on his phone and quickly perked up when he realized what day it was. Today marked the start of their collaboration with a popular Korean solo artist, Lee Youngji. Soobin previously went on her Youtube variety show, ‘Not Much Prepared,’ and they instantly hit it off. So, when their company wanted to team TXT up with an artist, they all jumped at the possibility of releasing a song with Youngji.
Taehyun was pretty excited, it had been a big year for them and he was looking forward to releasing this single for their MOA’s. He lazily got ready, sluggishly moving around his room as he packed his bag and changing his clothes.
Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to stay awake last night. I should sleep on the ride over to the company.
Once Taehyun packed his bag for their recording session and dance practice, he left his room to get ready for the day. He made his coffee in their kitchen quietly, not wanting to wake the others up since they had their recording sessions later in the day and didn’t need to wake up yet. Taehyun didn’t remember much from that morning, zoning out at appropriate moments, and mentally preparing himself to record.
Before he knew it, Youngji and the others arrived, and they began to record the song. The others were excited, tension high as they were recording with a new artist. Yeonjun went first, quickly nailing his part and doing a few more takes so they would have options for the final song. After Yeonjun was Kai, voice in perfect condition even though he barely warmed up. Taehyun silently cursed Kai’s natural singing talent, things certainly were different when recording with their maknae as he had experience spanning his whole life. Since Taehyun didn’t even know how to sing before he became a trainee, he had to work harder than the whole group to hone his voice to Hybe’s standards, even though he was their main vocalist. Taehyun didn’t spite the younger boy too much though, he instead paid it no mind and watched the others record. After Kai, Youngji started to record her part, nailing her rap part down to the tee only within a couple of takes. They all watched her fondly, she already hit it off with most of them, joking about how they were so handsome even in the early hours of the morning. However, she acted a little strange around Taehyun, looking at him seriously when he attempted to joke with her and focusing mostly on the others instead. Taehyun could sense a tense atmosphere around her when they were next to each other. He shook it off, figuring it was because it was still early in the morning and she must’ve been tired. After Beomgyu and Soobin went, it was finally Taehyun’s turn. While Taehyun was recording, the others excused themselves, either going to the bathroom or to talk with their staff. Which left Youngji alone with Taehyun in the recording booth. She quickly became uncomfortable, crossing her arms as she stared at him with a serious expression on her face.
It wasn’t well known, but she had a distaste for TXT’s main vocalist. She thought he was too serious, didn’t work hard enough, and was just handed everything after he debuted. She didn’t bother masking her hate toward the boy, already sick of him. Once the younger boy finished recording, he left the booth and joined Youngji, showing her a friendly smile. Her eye twitched as she crossed her arms and hmphed.
“Great job, Taehyun-ah.” Their producer said lightly, working at arranging their vocals.
“I’d beg to differ,” she said under her breath, but just loud enough so Taehyun would hear.
“S–Sorry? Did you say something, Youngji-noona?” Taehyun’s eyebrows furrowed, thinking he heard incorrectly.
“Don’t think you’re anything good. You only got it after a couple of takes. And, do me a favor. Don’t call me noona anymore. Call me Ms. Lee.” She said harshly, voice edged with anger and spite.
Taehyun’s eyes widened as the gears started grinding in his mind.
Wow, okay. Rude. But…I guess I should do as she wishes. It’s only for the next couple of weeks, Taehyun, you can do this.
“I––I understand. I’m sorry, Ms. Lee. I went too far. If you’ll come with me, I’ll show you where our practice room is.”
“Very good.”
💙
This collaboration was the worst thing Taehyun had ever experienced in his life. Of course, Youngji was not only clever, but also cunning. She was somehow able to bully Taehyun behind the scenes yet act like nothing was wrong when they were in front of the members. Their first week of preparation for schedules had been a mess. Since Youngji didn’t have any conflicting schedules, most of the time she accompanied them for most of their dance practices and promotions for the new single. Taehyun hated it. He tried to suck it up and just deal with it, but her constant comments when the others weren’t listening were easily overwhelming.
Her constant comments made Taehyun close in on himself, a small part of him believed her after all. At the end of the day, Taehyun was just a little kid, who was forced to grow up quickly and afraid of breaking open. He put on a sarcastic face and acted like he didn’t care, but at the end of the day it was a defense mechanism. Taehyun was secretly as fragile as a baby whose candy was just taken away. The others knew this, to some degree, they had been bonded together for over seven years at this point. Taehyun had his fair share of mental breakdowns in front of them.
Taehyun really tried his hardest to stay strong and make it through her berating comments, but it was so incredibly difficult. And the fact that her comments were getting worse, to the point where she was straight up insulting Taehyun’s character definitely didn’t help. He was only able to hold back his anger exactly one week after she started sitting in on their schedules. He didn’t make it obvious to her, just his team members as he gave her a side eye and started talking to them behind her back. Taehyun thought of it as a venting session, something he could share with his members without being judged for it. Boy, could he be wrong. They were taking a break in their practice room, Youngji went to the bathroom so Taehyun decided to unload there.
“Why are you saying these things about Youngji, Taehyun-ah? Not cool.” Soobin said with a judging tone, crossing his arms defensively.
“Yeah, what did she ever do to you, Taehyun?” Kai continued, confusion laced in his tone as his eyebrows furrowed.
Taehyun looked at his members incredulously, eyebrows curling as a nervous expression overtook his face. He saw all of his team members looking at him with serious or confused expressions on their faces and felt his heart drop. They really hadn’t noticed how she’s been singling Taehyun out this week?
“Y––You guys really can’t tell? S––she’s been saying bad things about me. You really… didn’t hear?”
“What are you talking about, Taehyun-ah? Youngji-ah is really kind, she would never do something like that.” Yeonjun tilted his head confusedly.
Suddenly, the door to their practice room clicked open and Youngji walked in with a small smile on her face. She looked at the group silently, immediately sensing the tense atmosphere.
“You okay, guys?” She smiled slightly as she walked closer to the group, Taehyun holding his head silently.
“Y–Yeah. Taehyun was just saying you said something weird to him. But, he’s lying right? You wouldn’t say something mean to him, right?” Soobin tried to diffuse the situation, lightly laughing.
Youngji looked at Taehyun silently before putting her hand on his shoulder. Taehyun slightly flinched as the hand pressed into his shoulder deeper, clenching Taehyun’s muscles in pain. He slightly teared up before running away from her hold and out of the practice room.
He faintly heard Youngji say something along the lines of of course I would never purposefully hurt, Taehyun as he left the practice room.
What bullshit.
He ran to his personal studio and curled into a ball at the door, feeling hopeless all of a sudden.
If my own members won’t believe me, who will?
He cried into his lap, trying to think of some way to make his members believe him. Then, he got the most genius idea he could think of. He grabbed his phone from his pocket and set it up in a private crevice of his studio, somewhere most people wouldn’t see.
🩵
The group looked silently at the door of their practice room, which Taehyun just silently ran out of. What just happened? They were all so extremely confused as to why Taehyun was acting like this. And why did he say that Youngji has been making mean comments to him? That couldn’t be true…right? Who could hate Taehyun?
They all stood in awkward silence in the practice room, not knowing what they should do. Finally, someone spoke up.
“Um…if it’s okay with all of you, I’m gonna talk to Taehyun. He might’ve just misunderstood something I said. I’ll be right back.” Youngji said as she slightly smiled. Yeah, maybe Taehyun just needed to talk with Youngji about this. They all nodded silently, deciding to not worry about it until after they came back.
Youngji walked to Taehyun’s personal studio, she figured he’d be there since he seemed to like it the most. Anger started to spread in her body, nails digging into her palms as she walked closer to the studio. Finally, she reached the studio and knocked on the door.
“Who is it?” Taehyun’s muffled voice came from behind the door.
“It’s Youngji…can I come in?”
The door clicked open and there Taehyun stood with red eyes. He ushered the older woman in silently, face fully serious. They both stepped into the studio and shut the door, Taehyun silently glancing at his phone with a video recording behind her. It didn’t take long for Youngji’s anger to be put on full display, voice rising with malice.
“So you think you can get away with trying to tell them about those comments? You know everything I said was true, right? You’re a spoiled rotten brat who had everything handed to him. You wouldn’t know hard work if it bit you in the ass. I hate you. You are so incredibly stupid for thinking they’d trust you. They think I’m an angel. It’s hard to believe someone like me could hurt someone like you. They’ll never believe you, so you might as well give up and suck it up. No one will ever believe you.”
Taehyun looked at the camera behind her silently, making sure it was still recording. Youngji immediately noticed his gaze wander and her eyebrows furrowed together. She started turning around, wondering what he was looking at. Taehyun flinched, trying to grab the phone behind her before she grabbed it. He lunged forward and grabbed it successfully, shoving his phone into his chest.
“What is that? Show me what’s in your hands!”
Taehyun made quick work with his hands, hiding his phone behind his back, wondering if it was still recording. Still, even if it wasn’t, he had plenty of evidence to show his members of her attitude towards him. He slightly shook, fear tensing his muscles.
“I–It’s nothing. I’m sorry, Ms. Lee.”
“Let me see!” She lightly pushed against Taehyun. She finally peeked behind his back and her eyes widened as she pulled the phone from his hands.
“Were you recording me? That is an invasion of privacy! I can call the cops because of this, you know?”
Taehyun flinched, hanging his head as he bit his lip.
What am I gonna do now?
The phone was flung in front of Taehyun’s eyeline. He flinched before looking at Youngji once more.
“Delete it. Right now.”
“Yes, Ms. Lee.”
Taehyun opened his phone and looked at her silently, she had her arms crossed and was looking to the side uncomfrtoably, visibly agitated. He saw this as his chance to send this to his Beomgyu-hyung. He was sure his Beomgyu-hyung would understand. He clicked a few buttons and it was soon sent to his Beomgyu-hyung before he deleted it.
“I deleted it. I’m sorry. Please forgive me, Ms. Lee.”
She looked at him seriously before nodding.
“As long as it doesn’t happen again. Now, we should join them again before we arouse suspicion. Come on.” She put her arm around his shoulder and Taehyun tensed visibly before walking to the door of his private studio.
🩵
Beomgyu saw a text from Taehyun and realized it was a video. He immediately opened it, silently watching the footage before turning up the volume.
“You’re a spoiled rotten brat…I hate you…no one will ever believe you…”
He immediately recognized it as Youngji’s voice, and tensed silently. Was she really saying these things to Taehyun? He knew something was off when Taehyun started talking about her, Taehyun almost never talked wrongly about someone.
Taehyun was right. Youngji was bullying him.
“Guys, come here. Taehyun just sent me this video.”
Everyone gathered around him and Beomgyu replayed the video, heart breaking.
“Taehyun was right. Youngji is bullying him. We were…wrong.” Kai said, heart breaking at his words.
Beomgyu slowly lowered his phone, looking at his members silently.
Then, Taehyun and Youngji came back in, Youngji’s arm wrapped around Taehyun’s as the boy stood uncomfortably. His team members tensed, Beomgyu immediately stepping forward and grabbing Taehyun’s wrist silently. He pulled the younger to his side before shielding him from Youngji, hand still in Taehyun’s.
Soobin asked Beomgyu for his phone, the younger handing it to him silently before turning around to Taehyun. He put his hand on the younger’s cheek delicately, noticing the fading tear streaks on Taehyun’s cheek.
“Are you okay?” He whispered, examining the younger’s face. Taehyun’s eyes widened, eyes illuminating with curiosity as he nodded. Beomgyu smiled and went to hold his hand again.
“Youngji…is this you?” Soobin held the phone up to Youngji’s face, her eyes widening as she realized it was indeed her.
“N–No…this is–– uh–– I––” She immediately spluttered, not knowing what to say.
Soobin immediately knew it was her when she started spluttering, clearly flustered. He sighed and looked down at the floor, disappointment clouding his mind.
“I think that’s enough. And from now on, you don’t need to meet our team anymore outside of promotions for this single. Please, do not approach us again unless it’s for an important reason. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have to get back to practice. Please leave, I’m afraid you’ll only distract us.” Soobin immediately said, flaunting his leader's side to her.
“N–No, Soobin-ah…you don’t understand–– I––” She said as Soobin pushed her out of the room silently, shaking his head before fully pushing her out. He locked their practice room from the inside and turned back to his team.
Taehyun held his head silently, how was he feeling right now? Glad? Proud? Relieved? Taehyun really didn’t know. Soobin tried catching his gaze, lifting his head gently with his head. Taehyun’s eyes shined as his lips slightly trembled. He quickly calmed himself, eyes returning normally.
“I––I’m sorry, hyung. I just––”
“Don’t apologize, Taehyun-ah. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. I failed you as a leader. I’m sorry.”
Taehyun shook his head, empathizing with the older’s sentiments.
“Don’t worry. I’m not mad about it. I’m just glad she’s gone. This week…had definitely been hard for me with her. But I feel better now, knowing I have you all.” Taehyun smiled at them, cheeks turning pink.
They all smiled as well, going to hug the member of their maknae line warmly.
“We’re sorry too Taehyun. We should have trusted you no matter what.” Kai said during the hug, arms squeezing tighter around Taehyun.
Taehyun smiled widely, huddled by the warmth of his four brothers.
Fin