The very next morning, I found hybrids in places they were not in the evening before. They didn't like being alone in this new space, they felt threatened. I found Chanhee sleeping on the floor in the master bedroom. He had brought a pillow and blanket with him so it would be a little more comfortable.

"Chanhee, wake up", I said and shook him. "You can't sleep on the floor."

"Ouch, my back", he groaned.

"Exactly."

I helped him downstairs and then went up to check on Juyeon. He was trying to stay awake. I helped him down as well.

"What are we going to do today?" Eric asked.

"Explore", I said. "Let's look around, take some photos and see what happens."

They seemed to like that idea. They put on their outerwear and followed me outside.

"Y/N, you like us, right?" Sangyeon asked when we started walking.

"Yes, of course I do", I answered.

"How much?" Haknyeon asked.

"Very much."

"More than anything else?" Sunwoo wondered.

"Well..yeah...why are you asking such specific questions? Is everything okay?”

They just smiled at me, looking normal which made me even more worried. Were they sick?

“Guys, what’s going on?” I wondered.

—♤—

Juyeon had told all of us about his plan to manipulate Y/N to become ours only. We had a plan to make her feel bad about leaving us so often. And if that didn’t work...then we had another plan.

“We hate seeing you leave every morning to go to work”, Changmin said. “We hate being alone. We started to wonder if you didn’t like us as much anymore.”

“Guys...I absolutely adore every single one of you…”, Y/N said, sounding so sad and being close to tears. “I’m sorry if I ever made you feel like...like I don’t.”

Bingo. We have her where we want her.

“You’re the only one we have”, I said. “And...we’re the only ones you have.”

Seeing her cry hurt so fucking badly, but it was a part of the plan. We had to do this. None of us said anything as she wiped her tears, but I couldn’t take it anymore. My heat made me softer than normal and I couldn’t let her cry anymore. I pushed through the crowd and grabbed her, hugging her tightly. I looked at Juyeon who was nodding at me, telling me I did the right thing. Y/N pulled away from me.

“Okay, I will make sure that you understand that I love you. I’ll come up with something”, she said.

“Come here, hold my hand”, Younghoon said and took her hand in his. “Everything will be better. We’re here.”

“If you think logically, you only need us”, Kevin said. “We can give you everything you could ever need.”

I could see Juyeon glaring at him and shaking his head. Now was not the right time for manipulation. We didn’t want to upset Y/N even more. We had to be careful and not do too much in the beginning. I could see that she was holding on tightly on Younghoon’s hand, still having some tears in her eyes.

“Y/N, we know you love us”, Sunwoo said. “You don’t need to cry.”

“I just...you do so much for me, I want to give back”, she said, wiping her tears with her free hand.

“You don’t need to”, Jacob insisted. “The things you’ve done are already enough! You saved us from getting put down. If anyone is in debt to someone, it’s us.”

“Remember our promise? We’ll still take care of you”, I said.

-------------------------