27. A Group Effort

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Wonwoo and Inha came back from Busan, extremely energized to resume their respective lives that they left back at Seoul. But a few days later Wonwoo found himself in a dating scandal with none other than his legally wedded wife. Grainy low-quality photos of him with Inha taken during their Busan trip floated around the Internet, but thankfully in all the photos Inha's face was invisible as she had worn a huge hat to shield herself from the sun. The rest of the SEVENTEEN members found the situation so funny as they teased him.

"I think Wonwoo Hyung is the only person to get into a dating scandal with his own wife" Seungkwan joked which earned him a glare from Wonwoo.

"What? Even Inha Nuna is laughing. Look!" Seungkwan pointed out as they were all sitting together in the living room of their Penthouse except for Hoshi and Woozi. Those two were still in LA and hadn't returned back yet. 

Sure enough Inha covered her mouth while Seungkwan pointed towards her, trying to suppress a laugh.

"Sweetheart, not you too" Wonwoo warned her as she tried to compose herself but failed badly.

"Guys, this is serious. This is not a dating speculation that he's been subjected to many times before. Even if the quality of the photos are bad, people still found out that it's Wonwoo" Ayat said, reasoning to the group.

Inha's ears perked up when she heard that Wonwoo had been subjected to dating allegations before. She tried to dissipate the jealous feeling even before it took roots in her heart. 

"Did our cyber security find out who posted these pictures?" Seungcheol asked his members

"No Hyung, they are still looking into it. But it was an anonymous post" DK said. "So far they haven't figured out Inha's identity, which is a good thing," he further said.

"So what next?" Wonwoo asked the group for answers on how to navigate the situation he found himself in.

"We just allow this matter to blow over. That's all we can do. It's better to not confirm or deny that it's you," Seungcheol said and Ayat nodded her head at his answer. 

"What I don't understand is how they knew where to find us. All the places we went to were deserted spots that only Jihoon's Appa knew" Wonwoo said, which caught the attention of everyone.

"Hyung, apart from us, who else knew about your trip to Busan?" Mingyu asked

"No one, I didn't even have time to let my family know. I don't think Inha told her father either" he said looking at his wife who answered that she also didn't tell anyone.

"This might be a stretch, but what if someone were following you both? Mingyu said which elicited a groan from almost everyone present.

"Yaah!, talk about what is possible." Minghao scolded his friend, but Mingyu's reasoning made Inha look up to her husband.

"Oppa, What if it's my stepmom?" Inha told Wonwoo about the sudden hunch that rose in her heart. 

"What makes you say that Inha?" He asked her, giving his full attention to her. By now everyone was engrossed in Inha's reasoning.

"Well before I married you, my stepmom used to track me. I knew she was tracking me using a phone application but I couldn't say anything then or seek help. But she was the one who broke my phone after our engagement, and since then she couldn't track me anymore. What if she's the one behind this?" She said exasperatedly while the others looked at her with concern.

"Come to think of it," FeiFei said suddenly as she was also present there. "Your stepmom knew where to find you in the department store when we went shopping the other day" She said which elicited a gasp from Sarang.

"That makes so much sense" she muttered under her breath

"Okay, timeout people. Let's not get too ahead of ourselves now" Joshua said, trying to bring back some semblance of rationality within the group. 

"But why would your stepmom track or follow you Nuna?" Dino asked Inha as he couldn't wrap his head around why someone would do that to her.

"Because she has abused me…" Inha said, pulling the sleeves of her cardigan up till her elbows to show her scars to the group. "... as a means to control me," she said. Everyone around her looked at her scars with a shocked expression except for Mingyu and Ayat who already knew as Wonwoo had told them before, nevertheless they still looked horrified when Inha revealed the physical reminder of her abuse.

"Your stepmom did this?" Fei asked as she went near Inha, trying her best to understand what her friend might have gone through. Inha nodded her head, as tears threatened to spill. She didn't know what came over her to open up about her abuse to Wonwoo's friends. However she felt so emotional seeing their concerned faces knowing that by now her support system included not just Wonwoo but his friends too.

"Oh Inha!" Fei cried out hugging her friend, which only served to solidify their new found friendship further. Meanwhile, Junhui leaned against the wall with his arms crossed looking at the whole thing unfold with an unreadable expression on his face, as if trying to decipher how his wife became close with his people. 

Inha's reasoning may or may not have made sense to his members, but it made total sense to Wonwoo who had witnessed Inha's stepmom's psychopathic tendency first-hand. He knew she was capable of doing something like this and it frightened him. "I think it's time we check your bag, Inha-ya," he said, finally looking up at his wife.

Inha nodded her head and headed to their room to bring out her bag. She gave it to Wonwoo who turned it upside down on the coffee table as the contents of the bag spilled out. The girls sorted through her belongings to find whether something incriminating hid amongst her things while Wonwoo searched the nooks and crannies of the bag. Sure enough his fingers came in contact with a hard plastic and when he fished it out, he threw it on the coffee table for everyone to see: A black GPS tracker that brought forth chills amongst everyone who were present.
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A/N
Hiya! I am back with another chapter! I think this could be the last one for now as Ramadan is fast approaching. So I'll be taking a break, almost like a mini-hiatus. I hope you will understand my decision. After Ramadan I am going to my motherland for vacation so I don't know how frequent I'd be able to upload while I am there. But I will be back here guys, don't worry.!

Meanwhile keep pouring the support for this book. I felt bad that I hadn't included the group dynamic in the book for so long. So there you go. I hope you like it. Pls do vote and comment! Don't be shy because I love reading your comments.

TC, Love,
Aara!







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