Time | NCT

It's Complicated

-03:00, January 1st, 2019-

A few hours later, in the middle of the night, the 127 members heard a loud knock on their door. People started to come out of their rooms, rubbing their eyes, still half asleep and waited for their leader to open it.

Taeyong finally came out with a huge yawn overcoming his mouth. He looked around the room and counted one by one before opening the door.

It was a cop.

"Hello, how can I help you?" Johnny's face furrowed and saw the cop move aside for the Dream and U members to come in. Taeyong was overwhelmed with nervousness and panic. Why are the kids up at this time of night? And why is a cop standing in front of him?

"You're Lee Taeyong, right? In charge of these kids?" Taeyong nodded quickly, "There's been an accident that involved some teenagers. It seems like some of your members saw it, and we're just placing them here for protection. Also, I advise you not to go outside until the roads are clear, most of the entrances have been blocked anyway."

"Thank you, officer. I'll call you if anything comes up." The officer nodded before he closed the door and stared at the Dreamies. He began thinking of what to say, but all that came to mind was what the hell happened.

"Tell me what went on, and why you are awake at 3 am, knowing full you have a busy schedule?" Mark glanced at them with his arms crossed. He felt guilty and wanted to tell Taeyong to lay off, but again, it was 3 am, and they were all dead tired.

Neither of them answered. The boys looked too scared to answer. Is my voice too rough or are they just shaken up, Taeyong thought to himself. On the other side of the living room, Jaehyun was rubbing his face with his hands, lightly slapping his cheeks to wake up a little.

"It's alright if you don't want to talk about it, but we have to talk about room assignments. I mean, there are 18 people in this room right now and what, seven beds?" Taeil said.

"How about this, let's pair up and if two can fit in a bed, try. Otherwise, we'll get the mattresses from the other dorms and lay them down on the ground. Let's have some more awake people to go over, no one under 18."

"This is over the top, don't you think? We can go back to our dorms and lay on the floor there, no need to get all cramped here." Jisung was the first of the Dream kids to speak up. Yuta glanced over and shook his head. It was terrible to argue with Taeyong when the man was exhausted.

Everyone stood there silently.

That is until Lucas spoke.

"That sounds like a great idea! It would be like a giant sleepover! It'll be fun, right, Jungwoo? We can bond, play games, eat snacks, drink some hot chocolate or tea, let's do it!" Jaemin smiled at Lucas and nodded excitedly. Jisung eventually gave in and went with Chenle to find a comfortable room. Renjun dragged Jaemin with him while Jeno helped Kun and Taeyong organize the beds.

"We can put Jaehyun with Doyoung and Sicheng, maybe Kun with Ten and Youngho." The three mumbled amongst themselves. Taeyong held a diagram of the dorm and wrote down names on the side of the paper.

"Hey, Taeyong, can I speak to you in private? I swear, it's swift." Jaehyun places his hand on his shoulder, his eyes holding slight concern.

"Yeah, of course. We'll finish this later, right now, assist anyone that needs it." Not a moment after, Taeil and Kun set down the pad. Taeyong led Jaehyun in the kitchen before wondering why Jung Yoonoh needed to speak to him.

"What happened with Yuta last night? I heard from Johnny that he disappeared for an hour or something like that?"

"Oh, don't worry about that, it was just a simple mishap. Jaehyun's lips tightened into a fine line. He knew when Taeyong was lying and Taeyong knew he did, so why was he lying? Why wasn't Yongie telling the truth?