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When Hoyun woke up from his surprisingly deep sleep, the first noises to his ears was a bunch of crying and shouting. An irritating, ear burning level of volume that forced him to sit up immediately and scrap the idea of sleeping in during a group hiatus. So, he stood up, rubbed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair before setting off to the living room and seeing a lot going on. First, there was a random kid in the middle of the room crying at the top of her lungs, and she sort of resembled Hojin when he used to be younger, with the exception that her hair was pitch-black and not a deep blue. Second, both Kang Ichae and Jeong Dajun were embracing each other as if in fear(?) whilst also trying to talk. Kim Sunghyun seemed to have buffered out, seeming completely unreliable and Seong Jiwon wasn't even present in the room.
Hoyun blinked, slowly. "What the hell did you do?" His gaze locked onto the read haired human, expression morphing into disgust when he saw Ichae again. Probably since he pouted so exaggeratedly upon the deserved suspicion, that it looked as if they were swollen, grossly. Even then, the moment he spoke up, all the sounds in the room paused and the little girl, who looked to be a toddler, turned to him with big eyes.
Therefore, when stared at by a much younger child with unknown intentions, one would obviously feel a sense of foreboding. A chill ran up his spine, and despite the lack of threat, the girl dashed to him and hugged his legs, finally calm for what Hoyun guessed would be half an hour, considering just how red her eyes were. Well, either way, the biggest shock was her calling out, "mommy!" As if there was a female in the dorm - which, to be clear, Hoyun had strictly prohibited since times ago.
He lifted the girl effortlessly into his arms, by a strange sense of compulsion, and stared at her closely, a frown forming a deep line on his face. She did look a little familiar, but, "who's your mom?" Hoyun raised an eyebrow, as all skeptics do, and ignored the thud from where both Dajun and Ichae fell off of the couch. Either way, the girl remained silent, staring at him, and then leaning closer as if that answered enough. "I don't think I have a kid." He finally spoke, realising that the girl whose name he didn't even have had already fallen asleep, somehow.
"Y- Y- You got that crying demon to finally be silent?!" Ichae shouted, before Sunghyun's hand clamped over his lips to quieten him. Granted, that was after he shouted.
He paused, staring at Ichae's trembling finger and then he sighed. Seo Hoyun doesn't understand a thing that is taking place. All he manages to do is place the girl onto the couch, and attempt to step away before realising her hand gripped the hem of his shirt tight enough to wake her up if he actually created distance. The behaviour itself reminded him of someone enough for a bitter taste to well up, but he still plopped down close enough that he wouldn't need to worry for his clothes's wellbeing. "Just explain what happened."
The three look between each other, and then Sunghyun is pushed forward simultaneously - he stumbles, then manages to stay standing straight and scratches his head somewhat sheepishly. "When I woke up, I found her just watching me and assumed I was hallucinating. Turns out, she just- appeared at the doorway looking for her 'mom'." His gaze lingered on Hoyun's face, and then dropped back to the child. "But when she realised that her mom wasn't here, she started crying and we couldn't do anything to stop it. It caused Ichae-ya and Dajun-ah to both wake up, and when she saw them she just started crying louder."
That's... So unplausable Hoyun might as well hand these guys over to the authorities and give up on them completely.
Hoyun furrows his brows when he glances over and realises just how similar she looks to that guy, and then he sighs, smacks his head, and swears aloud because there is no way in hell he wants to say anything out loud. Nor does he want to contact that guy after how firmly he broke up with him. When he looks over again, he reacknowledges every similarity. The way she manages to sleep sitting up even fits him completely.
He smacks his forehead again, and notices Dajun startling with the loud 'clap'. He doesn't pay too much mind, since he's more busy with running a hand down his face and sighing deep to his bones in the hope his system might throw him a bone.
[Ding!]
[lmao not my authority]
Did it just- You know what, so many things are happening today that Hoyun doesn't even think it's in his brain capacity to care at all. Either way, he atleast knows that this situation wasn't caused by the situation, but another factor. Oh, and that the kid probably is his.
"So... Is there-?" He cuts off Dajun with a loud, loud glare and no one dares speaking until the door clicks and Seong Jiwon walks into the room, freezing at the sight and tilting his head. That causes Ichae to collapse dramatically, with a loud thud that wakes up the girl. She's a light enough sleeper to have taken after him in that, too. The hand gripping his clothes tug tighter, until he's practically holding her in his arms.
Anyways so he had to explain the whole thing from what he knows to Jiwon, of course omitting certain details which he either doesn't know or doesn't want to reveal. Either way, now '-', as she said her name was, was asking for her dad. No, -, you can't see him.
But how is he supposed to break that to her when her eyes fill with tears as if she's threatening Hoyun to start bawling if she doesn't see him. God, who taught her to use her tears like that? Hoyun's brows furrow enough to probably make up half of his wrinkles when he's old, and he stammers enough for it to be clear he actually does have an answer and is just withholding it. The stares on him are all making his face heat up, and he grumbles to stand and set her down on the couch. "I'll go and call.. him. Don't cry whilst I'm gone."
He doesn't know if the call would actually connect and prays it doesn't with every fibre of his being, because he undeniably knows that number by heart, and the motions of dialling each digit are already ingrained. To his horror, it truly does go through.
Meanwhile, the moment Hoyun had left the room, The Dawn all simultaneously burst into shared murmurs. "Why does she look like Hyung..." Dajun, the loudest and least tactful(?) speaks aloud and they all turn to stare at him. "No, how is this possible?" Ichae nods, because the shared surprise is true and probably ingrained deeply to all of them. It really seems impossible when you consider just how devoted Hoyun is to Noeuls. The same man who denied a leading role in a promising series simply because it had romance in it, and because he didn't want to go against his fans. Even the way she watched them calmly, after confirming her 'mother's' existence was similar to his, or how her frown looked on her face, or how she crossed her arms like someone who's jester wasn't entertaining them enough. Actually Sunghyun felt faintly ridiculed from the young kid.
Well, he brushed it aside. There was more pressing matters to attend to, like how after Hoyun left his room, he seemed deeply drained of all colour and life and tossed his phone away like it carried a plague. Or how the girl immediately brightened upon seeing him and got up just to hug him again. He guesses maybe Seo Hojin would have more answers to this, but decides waiting for the father would be enough for the time being.
Exceedingly, only a minute or two after the call, the doorbell rings and no one stands to receive it, because Hoyun's expression darkens and he drags himself up to the doorway, concealed completely out of view. Strangely, Sunghyun presses down on Dajun's shoulder because he thinks it might be better to wait a little longer.
Iwol was breathing heavily as everyone does when they run as if being chased by an unknown figure. Well, he isn't being chased, he's chasing because it feels like if he delays even a moment longer, his last chance will disappear again and he might just have to start wallowing in despair again. He kept his oldest number even after his debut with Spark, he kept it hidden and told no one because no one deserved to know that number except two people, and one of them didn't even remember him. Imagine how hard he jumped when a ringtone that was so different from his usual one rung out in the quiet dorm, the same ringtone Hoyun had secretly changed it to as a prank because he thought the default was so boring.
Multiple pairs of eyes stared at him immediately in that very moment, and he didn't even have the mind to regard them because everything felt both dry hot sweaty and clammy, and all he could do in that very moment was accept the call and run out of the room as soon as he heard the familiar voice that would never be unrecognisable to Iwol himself.
"Come to my group dorm. Quickly." Was the first words he heard and the first words he complied to. He ignored the rest of Spark and inwardly apologised to them because he'd definitely need to explain his behaviour later but definitely couldn't now. He doesn't want to explain why he already knows where The Dawn's dorm is, he doesn't want to explain why he desperately kept Hoyun on the phone for as long as possible right up until he started running for his life to where he knew it was.
When the door opened, Iwol ignored how much he'd been heaving (surprisingly) just to look up and stare at Hoyun's face. He didn't say a word, dropping his gaze to the child who looked almost exactly like the one holding her.
"Daddy!" She shouted, and Iwol is sure he blue screened.