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"Oh, Mark. You can't be here."
"What? But I thought I had rehearsal?" Mark replies and moves to step around the staff member blocking him.
"No, it's canceled today."
"But Donghyuck and Jisung just went up there."
"What are you not understanding?" the staff exclaims. "Rehearsal is canceled for you. Go home."
Mark doesn't register anything else that the man in front of him says. Instead following Jeno and Jaemin with his eyes as they walk towards the practice room. He sees a figure he swears he recognizes follow them into the room.
"Alright, I'll leave, just please, please shut up."
Mark pulls out his phone as he walks away. He quickly dials Taeyong's number.
"Hey Minhyung, what's up?"
"Are you at the company?"
"I am, why?"
"They're not letting me get to the practice room, and someone went in the practice room that I think I know- oh shit."
"Don't curse!"
"Sorry, get to the practice room for the maknaes right now, please."
Mark shoves his phone in his pocket before turning and running past the staff in the lobby. He gets to the door at the same time as Taeyong and Johnny and is caught by his hand before he can go in.
"What's wrong?"
"My father is in there."
"Oh hell no." Johnny opens the door, slamming it against the wall as he storms in, going right up to Mark's father. "Get out! Get out right now!"
"Now, is that any way to speak to your elders?" Mark's father smiles sinisterly. "Can't you see they're in the middle of a rehearsal?"
"Can't you see that I don't give a shit? Like hell am I leaving you in a room with my soulmates when I know what you did."
"Johnny! You can't talk to investors like that," the staff scolds.
"I can talk him however I please because of what he did to my soulmate and if he is not gone in the next two seconds, I'm calling the police because he's violating a restraining order.
"You were supposed to leave, Mark."
The staff member closest to Mark and Taeyong reaches out to grab Mark but is stopped by Taeyong.
"You touch him and you're in for a world of hell. Don't you ever, ever touch my soulmate, any of my soulmates." Taeyong throws the staff's hand back at him before waving his boys over. "And if you won't make him leave, then none of my soulmates nor I will be in this building until this is fixed."
"Let's go," Johnny rounds up the dreamies, having them walk in front of him as they leave. "Jaeminnie, please text everyone else."
"Ok, hyung."
"I'm guessing that was Mark's dad," Chenle whispers to Jisung.
"Yeah, I recognize him from before," Jisung replies.
"Is he ok?"
Chenle and Jisung glance at Mark, noticing how he's shaking and clutching Taeyong's arm.
"He will be, Taeyong hyung can handle it."
Taeyong winces as Mark's nails dig into his arm, but he deals with the pain. He leads everyone out of the building as the rest of his boys walked out as soon as they got the text.
"Where are we going?" Jaehyun asks. "Because I don't think you want to go back to the dorm."
"We can go to my house," Chenle says. "My parents gave me a whole house to live in when I first moved here."
"That's where we stayed before, right?" Kun asks.
"Yeah."
"It's nice, and definitely large enough," Kun comments to Taeyong.
"Ok, lead the way."
Taeyong and Mark end up in the middle of the group as they walk, surrounded by their soulmates. Neither one talks for almost ten minutes, both boys too busy trying to process what just happened.
"Tae?"
"Yes, darling?"
"Can we stop for a minute?"
"Of course," Taeyong replies before reaching over to tap Johnny on the shoulder. "We need to stop."
"I see a park up ahead. I'll go tell Kun to stop there."
"Ok, thank you." Taeyong watches Johnny walk faster to catch up to Kun before he turns back to Mark. "We'll take a break at the park. I'm sure there's a lot of grass for us."
"Ok."
Mark sighs and as soon as they get to the park, he lays in the grass, pulling Taeyong with him.
"Are you ok right now, sweetheart?"
"Mhm. Thank you for defending me. Would you really leave SM?"
"If it means protecting you, then yes. Plus, I've had a couple of other companies reach out to me. They're smaller companies, but they have the necessary facilities and staff for a group like us."
"Is there one that you really like?"
"Yeah, you know how Psy started a company?"
"Mhm?"
"Well, his team reached out to me after they saw the news articles and the interview with Joshua. I guess they know how bad SM is."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Would you really want to switch companies?"
"If it means being able to protect you and having a company that will protect us, then yes."
"Ok. Thank you, Tae."
"You're welcome. I love you."
"I love you, too."
"Ready to go?" Johnny interjects, walking over. "Kun said we're still, like, ten minutes away."
"We can go," Mark replies. "Will you carry me?"
"Sure, c'mon."
Johnny helps Mark and Taeyong stand before bending his knees so Mark can get on his back. He walks next to Taeyong and carries Mark all the way to the house which is in a gated community.
They enter the large, two story house and Mark immediately gets off Johnny's back to go with Donghyuck and explore.
"Would you really leave SM?" Ten asks, standing on the other side of Johnny from Taeyong.
"I would," Taeyong replies. "But I'd like to talk to everyone before making a big decision like that."
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