bunnliix - Tumblr blog

bunnliix · 10 days

Text

No need for sorries!! I kept waiting to see your next notification honestly. And I'm glad you loved my work so much that you had to binge it! I love getting feedback from my readers so I didn't mind all the notifications at all!!

The Invisible Strings that Bind us - Chapter Six

Where we get the boy's reaction to what their manager has done, plus fluff to come in and save the day!

word count: 3.2k

masterlist

warnings: panic attack, anxiety, I think that's it?

While y/n left the studio…

The boys were in their zone at the photoshoot, they were getting praised by the photographer and staff for how quickly the photoshoot was going by. Every shot was perfect, you could say that this was the effect of meeting their soulmate, their energy had increased so much and this was only after a day of having their soulmate with them. They quickly finished the first set of photos, and were sent back to the dressing room to change into their next sets of outfits, only to find that y/n wasn’t waiting for them in the dressing room.

They asked the stylists if they had seen their last soulmate, only to be told that the last time most of them had seen her was after the boys had left, and before they were all called by the manager to touch up the boys. One of the stylists stayed quiet, and this caused Chan to look at her, to which she couldn’t meet his eyes.

“You saw her after that, didn’t you?” He asked her, looked directly at her, receiving a nod in return.

“I saw her come out into the photoshoot area, and then one of the managers approached her, and said something. It didn’t seem like it was nice, and shortly after that, I saw her disappear. That’s the last I saw of her.” She explained to the idols.

“Which manager?” Minho growled.

“Manager Park Ji-hyuk.” She replied to the angry man, slightly fearful for what he’d do.

The moment Chan and Minho heard the name of the manager, they stormed out of the room, hell bent on kicking their manager’s ass. Their fury was almost palpable, and anyone in their way, quickly jumped out of it, lest they find themselves in the crosshairs of a furious leader and his second in command.

“PARK JI-HYUK!” Their combined yell was heard throughout the studio and said man turned to see them storming to him.

“Yes boys? What is it?” He asked, knowing exactly why they were upset, but truly, they couldn’t have bonded that quickly with that money hungry child. If they had, well he would just have to make sure the girl quickly found herself on the way back home. They didn’t need distractions like that.

“Where is our soulmate?” Minho asked tersely.

“You mean that girl that’s tricked you all? She left a while ago, as she should have. She’s doing us all a favor by leaving, you don’t need that distraction. She was just money hungry anyways, look at the way she was wearing Yongbok’s clothing.” Ji-hyuk explained to the two men.

What he didn’t expect was for the leader to slap him. The sound of Chan’s slap echoed throughout the studio, and Ji-hyuk’s head turned to the side due to the force of the slap, leaving a very red mark on the manager’s face.

“She’s our soulmate, you fucking cunt. She wasn’t money hungry, and Felix dressed her in his own clothes that he picked out for her. She didn’t trick us and now you’ve pushed her away from here and us. You better hope we can find her, or you’re going to get it.” Chan said in a calm voice, yet everyone could hear the danger behind that calm voice.

“You’ve gotten so upset over a girl, a simple girl. She screwed up your schedules yesterday, and now we’re running out of time for this shoot today. Let her go. If she doesn't want to be here, we’re all better off.” The manager retorted, and Minho saw red. His hands reached for and grabbed the managers collar bones, and he would have done worse if it wasn’t for the other boys grabbing him and pulling him away.

“Hyung, it’s not worth it, it’s not. Focus on finding y/n now, and we can deal with him later.” Changbin said to Minho, as Felix nodded, holding onto Minho’s other arm.

Minho took a couple deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. Han wandered over and hugged him, to which he immediately hugged the quokka back. This helped him calm down, and he whispered a thanks to the three boys.

During this, Hyunjin and the two youngest were frantically trying to contact y/n, to no avail. They could see that their messages were being delivered, but she wasn’t answering, which worried them further. Their anxiety over their soulmate’s whereabouts was rising, and fast. This contributed to y/n’s anxiety that she was already experiencing, unbeknownst to any of them.

“Hyungs, we can’t get a hold of her.” Jeongin said, voice cracking at the end as he was on the verge of tears.

Chan immediately moved to hug Jeongin, pulling the younger man into a tight hug, and a hug that quickly became a group hug. All of them needed comfort, before they set out to find their soulmate.

They all continued to text or call their missing soulmate, growing increasingly worried when none of it was answered. Chan told the boys to get out of their outfits and change into their street clothes, they were going searching for her. She hopefully hadn’t gone far, not in an unknown city. While the boys did that, Chan called their main manager, telling him that they were cutting the photoshoot short, the company be damned, since it was the other manager’s fault that their soulmate was missing. After hanging up, he quickly changed back to, getting rid of any makeup as well. They quickly left the studio, apologizing for leaving early to the photographer who just waved them on. No one in that studio held any grudges after what they heard, soulmates were precious and to push away another person’s soulmate was looked down upon.

Once they left the building, they split up into two groups, maknaes and hyungs, and spread out to try and cover as much ground as possible. They were unable to find her, she didn’t seem to be anywhere near where they were. This frustrated the boys even further, since they weren’t sure where she could have walked to, with no money and only her phone on her.

That was until Changbin got a text from his friend Wooyoung, after about an hour of the boys looking for her. It was about his soulmate, and why she wasn’t with them. He was confused about how Woo knew that they were looking for her. Had their appearances made it to social media? He didn’t know how else his friend would know what they were doing.

‘How do you know that?’ Changbin texted him back.

‘Because she’s here with the entirety of Ateez. And Yunho and Mingi found her on the streets of Seoul by herself, and had to help her out of some sort of panic attack or something.’ His friend replied.

“Fuck. Where are you? We’ve been trying to reach her, but she hasn’t answered.’ He frantically messaged his friend, to which Wooyoung sent the address of the cafe.

Chan’s eyes were drawn to Changbin, who suddenly was attached to his phone.

“She’s with Wooyoung and Ateez!” He shouted out, shocking the three others with him.

“What? How did she get to be with them?” Chan asked, worried but relieved she had found their friends.

“I’m not sure, but I have their location so let’s go!!” He yelled, running in the direction of the cafe, since Wooyoung had brought him and Yeonjun there before.

Since the cafe was the direction the younger boys went in, they met up with them on the way. They all ran to the cafe, breathing hard as they arrived at the front door. Pushing the door open, the staff member immediately knew why they were here and directed them to the back room, where they pushed the door open, seeing Ateez, and then their soulmate, who looked so small.

“Sunshine!” “Jagiya!” Felix and Han cried out, pushing past the others in order to reach her. She was still in shock as they pulled her out of the chair, boxing her in between them in a tight hug that pushed the air out of her lungs.

It was just a wave of apologies falling from their mouths, and it was too fast for y/n to even catch a word that came out of their mouths. The two sunshine twins had tears coming out of their eyes, and eventually devolved into crying.

“Why are you two crying? Please don’t cry.” She said, tears in her eyes at seeing the two of them so upset.

“They’re crying because you left, and we couldn’t find you. We were so worried and scared that something happened to you.” Chan cut in, coming up to her and gathering the three of them in his arms. “We were scared that we had lost you forever, baby.” He whispered, fear clearly heard in his voice.

He, as were the others, were scared that she’d disappear the moment they let her out of their sight. He couldn’t take it if they had to find her again, he’d break down. She reached out, running her hands through his hair, as she did the same with Felix and then Han, switching between the three of them.

“I’m sorry, I never meant to frighten you all. I just felt so out of place and unwanted there. I couldn’t go back there.” She confessed, evading their eyes. She didn’t want to burden them further than she already had.

“We’re never letting you out of our sight ever again. You understand that?” Minho walked closer, scolding her but you could hear it was only out of concern for her. She nodded, looking over at him. At her nod, he hummed happily, before turning to Ateez.

“Thank you for finding and taking care of our soulmate.” He said, bowing low in thanks.

The group of boys start waving off his bow, stating that they’re happy they were able to find y/n and keep her safe. The girl in question blushed at the conversation, hearing everything. She enjoyed the hugs from the boys, but also she needed to breathe.

“Boys, not that I don’t love hugs, but I also need to breathe please and thank you.” She told them, and they very quickly pulled away, allowing her to take a deep breath.

“We’re sorry!” The three chorused, their faces displaying how apologetic they were.

“It’s okay, I just like breathing, and I’m pretty sure you like me breathing as well.” She stated, giggling a bit.

“Well, we’ve gotten what we came here for, so we’ll stop bothering you now.” Minho took charge, grabbing a hold of y/n’s hand.

He started dragging the younger girl out of the room, as she hurriedly said goodbye to the men she had met. Chan shook his head at Minho’s actions, gathering up the rest of his soulmates/children and pushing them out the door, saying goodbye to Ateez. Minho was already outside, and on the phone, calling their vans to come pick them up and bring them home. He still held onto y/n with the hand that didn’t hold his phone. He hung up just as the rest of them walked outside.

“They’ll be here soon. 10 minutes.” He quickly said.

Ten minutes passed quickly, to the relief of everyone. Lino dragged Han and y/n with him into the first of the two vans, Hyunjin quickly joined them as Chan rounded off that van. The remaining four boys hopped in the second van, and both vans drove off as soon as everyone was safely buckled in.

Minho still had yet to let go of y/n’s hand, and it didn't seem like he would. Y/n understood he needed the physical touch and wisely didn’t say anything about it, even if her hand was starting to get sweaty. She had caused them so much stress and so she’d do what she could to make up for it. Whereas the boys were worried about her, since they had no clue what exactly had been said to her by their manager, and they were afraid of exactly how mean the man had been, by the way he spoke of her to them.

The ride back was much longer than it was this morning, whether that was because of the distance or how y/n’s anxiety made time pass much slower, she wouldn’t know. It was at this point that holding hands with Minho was helping keep herself calm, and she was grateful for it. It was at this point that they arrived back at the dorms, and Minho waited for everyone else to leave the van, before ushering y/n out before he got out.

Han came up to y/n’s side, as Minho occupied her other side. They both took her up to the maknae dorm once again, but quickly guided her right back into Lino’s room, ignoring the others entirely. Chan followed them, stopping the door from being closed, reminiscent of the previous night.

“We need to talk with y/n before you two decide to hog her. We have to have a talk about what happened today, and how we’re going to proceed going forward.” He scolded the two, before moving to grab y/n from the two of them and leading her back out to the living room, sitting beside her on the couch. The other two walked back out, sulking that they were denied time with their soulmate.

“Now that we’re all here, we need to talk about today.” Chan started, before turning to look at y/n. “What did the manager say to you? Please tell us, we need to know.” He softly asked her.

“He told me that all I would be is a distraction, and that it was my fault that they had to cancel and reschedule your schedules yesterday. And that there was no proof that I was your last soulmate, that I was here just for your money and fame. That it was best for me to go far away and disappear from your lives.” She recounted, voice growing quieter as she continued on.

Each of the boys felt their hearts drop into their stomachs as each word came out of her mouth. They couldn’t believe their own staff would say something so hurtful to their soulmate. Ji-hyuk had never been particularly nice to them, but he had never been so awful, and a few of the older members wondered why the sudden change of attitude, and one knew exactly why. But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that, he and the other boys needed to comfort their girl.

Changbin comes to kneel right in front of her, looking up at her. His voice never wavers as he talks, telling her, “Every word that came out of his mouth was and is a lie. We want you here, you’re never a distraction for us. You are our soulmate, we all know this, and we know you’re here for us, not fame or money. We need you with us, please never leave us.” He pleaded with her at the end, looking sad at the thought that she might leave them and him.

Whoever wasn’t on the couch joined Changbin on the floor in front of her, looking up at her, silently begging her just as Binnie verbally did.

“Binnie is right. Every word that Ji-hyuk said to you, was in no way true. He’s just playing the part of staff and it wasn’t right for him to say any of that to you, nor was any of it true. His words do no in any way represent our thoughts. We want and need you here with us, as our soulmate and as our missing piece.” Chan told her gently but firmly, rubbing her back as he did so.

“Okay. You promise?” She said, the need for reassurance could be plainly heard in her voice.

“We promise.” All of them said simultaneously.

This was the start of making her feel at home and secure in her place with them, but by no means did her insecurities about it vanish. Those would take longer to disappear, but she felt that the boys would help her resolve those insecurities. This felt like an environment where she’d be able to tackle her worries and anxieties safely, where she’d be supported no matter what.

“Are we okay now?” She asked.

“We’ve always been okay. But if this happens again, which hopefully it won’t, please don’t hesitate to call out to us or find one of us instead of running away, please?” Chan said to her, reassuring her that everything was okay.

“Okay, thank you.” She replied.

Minho decided that this was now the time to steal her away, standing up from the floor, and picking her up bridal style.

She shouted, not expecting him to do so, “Lee Minho! What are you doing?”

She wrapped her arms around his neck, worried he might drop her. Instead, he walked back to his bedroom, calling out for Han, and the little quokka followed behind Minho and her. Once in his room with the door shut, she was deposited on his bed as Han and he searched for clothes for the three of them to wear. The muffled shouts and complaints of the others could be heard through the walls, yet neither boy paid any attention to them, diligently continuing on their search for clothing. Eventually, an outfit made up of a mixture of Han’s and Lino’s clothing was found, because yes Hannie keeps some clothes in Lino’s closet. It was laid out for her, while the other two changed, their backs turned to her to give her some privacy. She quickly changed and then looked away as the boys changed into comfier outfits.

The two men joined her on the bed, sandwiching her in between them. The three relaxed on the bed, the two pulling out their phones and scrolling on their social media of choice, while y/n pulled out her phone to see if there had been any updates on her favorite fanfics. She was happy to find that there had been multiple updates across several of her favorite ones, and so she lost herself into those fics. Eventually the two boys noticed how quiet she was, and looked over to see her immersed in her phone, and they looked up at each other and smiled, their plan to make her relax had worked.

After a couple hours of scrolling on their phones, they looked up to see that it had gotten late, and that y/n had fallen asleep at some point during all of this. Her head was resting on Han’s shoulder, and her phone had fallen onto her chest. Minho carefully picked it up, and quietly moved to plug it in for her, since she wouldn’t be using it now. His movement prompted her to move, and to the boys’ relief, she didn’t wake up, instead snuggling closer to Han, who looked very smug as he watched Lino’s expression change to that of slight jealousy.

Lino knew that they needed food, and so, trying not to wake her up, got out of bed and left the room, headed towards the kitchen. There he found Changbin and Seungmin already prepping food.

“You’ve finally emerged from your lair, have you hyung?” Seungmin teased, for which he got a hit on his arm from said hyung.

“What are we making?” He asked them.

“Ramyeon, because none of us have any energy to make anything else.” Changbin replied.

Minho quickly joined in, helping make food for all nine of them, and making some side dishes as well. They quickly laid it out on the table, however Minho didn’t join them, taking food back for Han and hopefully y/n if she would wake up.

While Minho was gone, Han had tried to wake y/n, but she was sleeping deeply. When Minho returned with food, and seeing the quokka’s predicament, he fed the younger man the ramyeon, before eating his own. He hadn’t brought any for y/n seeing as he didn’t know if she’d like it, and whether she’d be awake.

A while after the two had finished their food, and she still hadn’t awoken, both of them decided it was time to call it a night, they had recording sessions in the morning for their upcoming comeback. Minho helped Han get himself and y/n under the covers, before stripping himself of his top and slipping in bed himself. Han turned to face Minho and their smaller soulmate, and the exhaustion from the day quickly took over. The younger man’s eyes quickly slipped closed, a sleepy, “Goodnight jagi” falling from his lips as he fell into sleep. Minho waited until he was sure his soulmate was asleep, before closing his eyes and drifting into sleep himself.

Prev | Next

Taglist: @queen-thiccness@k-k-kn1v3s @ihrtlix @calisnewworld @lailac13

#lixie rb

74 notes · View notes

bunnliix · 10 days

Text

I just wanna say that I was watching all of your reblogs come up on after the other and honestly it makes me so so happy to see how much you enjoyed my series, both this one and my other current one, that it made my night truly. There were moments when your comments on some of the chapters had me going back to read my own works just to see where the comments came from hehe. I'm so glad to see that you're enjoying my work, and this applies to all of your reblogs, not just this one. It's just a lil easier to pick one to reply to haha <3