genre: angst + crack + social media + slight fluff.
word count: 3.8k words.
date: october 4th, 2018.
status: unedited.

sypnosis: in which alyssa wakes up from a nightmare only to discover that she would living a nightmare of her own.

warnings: this chapter contains very little taelyssa, i'm sorry for that! but, the next part of this will be filled with taelyssa content <3

author's note: okay, so this chapter will mention two of my ocs: kat and wyatt. kat being my svt member and wyatt being my upcoming male soloist, and these two are very close to alyssa. just a heads up!

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

ALYSSA SHOT UP FROM HER BED, heaving heavily as her eyes anxiously surveyed her bedroom. She clutched her heart, checking if it were still intact because it felt like it could've jumped out at any given moment. Her unoccupied hand quickly reached out to the pillow next to her for Tete, a giant teddy bear that Taehyung had won for her at a fair during one of their unofficial dates. "It was just a dream, Alyssa," she muttered as she embraced the bear and held it close to her bosom, her hand stroking its artificial fur.

She felt beads of sweat trickle down her brow as she slowly began to rock herself, listening to the soft sounds of rain tapping on the roof. Soon after, she heard a loud roar, prompting her to tilt her head in the direction of her window and clutch Tete even firmer, knowing that a massive storm was just about to break out. Alyssa had always had a love-hate relationship with thunderstorms; they calmed her at times and made her want to cower and hide under her bed in fright at other times; it all depended on the circumstances, really.

Alyssa's pulse rate gradually slowed, indicating that her efforts to calm herself down were successful. She swallowed, hoping to dissolve the lump in her throat that had developed when she awoke from her slumber, the pictures of her nightmare being fresh in her mind. She felt a tiny ache in the back of her throat, which meant she was thirsty and in need of water.

After realizing this, she returned Tete to his initial position on the pillow next to her. Alyssa leapt from her bed and stepped into her bunny slippers before quickly snatching and slipping into her nightgown, which was hung on the vanity mirror. She then exited her room and sauntered down the hall, tying her gown belt in a knot as she walked to the kitchen. She entered the kitchen, turned on the light, squinted her eyes as they acclimated to the brightness, and dashed for the kitchen cabinet, opening it, and then taking out a cup and heading to the sink.

Alyssa opened the faucet, poured herself a drink of water, and gulped it down quickly, satisfying her thirst while trying to think of something other than the nightmares. She rinsed her cup and inspected her surroundings, her hands on the counter as she puffed her cheeks, concluding that going back to sleep would be futile because A, she was already awake, and B, she would have most likely returned to having nightmares, which sent chills down her spine. Knowing that sleep was not an option, she proceeded to the living room, deciding to check her iPhone for any texts or calls she could have received while she was sleeping.

She unplugged her phone from the charger and turned it on by pressing the power button on the phone. The enormous number of notifications she had was the very first thing that caught her eye. Don't get me wrong, Alyssa received text messages; it's just that as of recent, her phone had been as dry as the Sahara desert because she opted to uninstall her social media apps due to the amount of backlash she'd encountered following her departure from Blackpink and debut as a solo artist.

Alyssa discovered she had several missed calls and texts: 7 missed calls and 10 unread text messages from Katniss, 24 unread messages from her groupchat with Blackpink, 5 missed facetimes from her elder brother, 6 missed calls from Wyatt---and that wasn't even the half of it. Alyssa punched in her passcode, perplexed by the high number of messages she had received, and naturally, she selected Katniss' conversation first, anxious to learn what she wanted.

bb kat🐈✨
ALYSSA
SENT AT 3:05AM

bb kat🐈✨
ALYSSSSSAAAAAAAA
SENT AT 3:07AM

bb kat🐈✨
IVE CALLED YOU TWICE ANSWER THE PHONE
SENT AT 3:11AM

bb kat🐈✨
THIS IS IMPORTANT
SENT AT 3:15AM

bb kat🐈✨
bro i know ur sleeping but WAKE THE FUCK UP
SENT AT 3:24AM

bb kat🐈✨
ALYSSA CASTILLO
SENT AT 3:35AM

bb kat🐈✨
A L Y S S A   C A S T I L L O
SENT AT 3:37AM

bb kat🐈✨
THIS IS THE FIFTH TIME ANSWER
SENT AT 3:40AM

bb kat🐈✨
lYSSA lYSSA lYSSA
SENT AT 3:41AM

bb kat🐈✨
aLYSSA CATALINA CASTILLO
SENT AT 3:45AM

Alyssa read the text messages, wondering what Katniss wanted to say to her that prompted her to text her so frequently, so she answered, eager to find out what was so urgent.

bb lyssa🦋
the government name😫😫
SENT AT 4:01AM

And, of course, Katniss being Katniss, she responded right away because she was constantly on her phone and she never slept.

bb kat🐈✨
fINALLY
SENT AT 4:01AM

bb kat🐈✨
it took you long enough
SENT AT 4:02AM

bb lyssa🦋
so, what was so important that you spammed my phone?
SENT 4:02AM

bb kat🐈✨
have you checked twitter at ALL today?
SENT 4:02AM

bb lyssa🦋

SENT AT 4:03AM

bb lyssa🦋
you REALLY spammed me at 3am AND used my government name all bc you wanted to ask me this? 🤨
SENT AT 4:03AM

bb lyssa🦋
and to answer your question: no, i have not checked twitter bc i deleted that toxic app..been twitter free for the past two months😌✨💅
SENT AT 4:04AM

bb kat🐈✨
well..you might want to re-download it and check the recent trends/your notifs..
SENT AT 4:04AM

bb lyssa🦋
why can't you just tell me? is it really necessary that i re-download that app again? <\3
SENT AT 4:05AM

bb kat🐈
this is something you need to see for yourself...just, please do as i say.
SENT AT 4:05AM

bb lyssa🦋

SENT AT 4:05AM

bb kat🐈✨
ALYSSA PLEASE
SENT AT 4:06AM

bb kat🐈✨
THIS IS SERIOUS
SENT AT 4:06AM

bb lyssa🦋
well damn
SENT AT 4:06AM

bb lyssa🦋
now i KNOW that it's serious bc you said 'please' twice in a row..and that's a new record.
SENT AT 4:07AM

bb lyssa🦋
okok let me see what's so important on twitter.
SENT AT 4:07AM

bb kat🐈✨
thank you.
SENT AT 4:08AM

She exited her chat with Katniss with more questions than answers. Despite her perplexity at Kat's peculiar behavior, Alyssa followed her instructions, promising herself that she would respond to the other text messages as soon as she knew what Kat intended to tell her.

Alyssa tapped her home button, closing the iMessage application and going straight to the App store, where she typed Twitter into the search box. She hit the download button on the first app that displayed when it had completed loading the options. As she waited for the app to finish installing, she began pacing around her living room impatiently. Soon after, Alyssa noticed the open button, indicating that the download was complete.

Alyssa pressed the button quickly, her eyes catching sight of the familiar Twitter logo on the screen, indicating that the program was loading. After that was done, Alyssa logged into her account by typing in her username and password. She then saw the Twitter logo again, followed by her home page, which displayed an excessive quantity of notifications in her mention section. She was confronted by an overwhelming number of accounts all hurling insults at her when she clicked the mention button. Alyssa furrowed her brows in perplexity and clicked on one of the notifications, hoping to figure out why so many people were insulting her.

Don't get me wrong, Alyssa was used to receiving hate, but this was an unusually large amount. She started to wonder if she had done anything wrong and hadn't realised it. The first thing that got her eye was the tweet that she had clicked on; it was calling her an untalented brat, which was nothing new to her, but what caught her attention was the tweet that the user qouted---it was a tweet that had been posted three hours earlier, which had a large enagement, by the Soompi official account, which had a link attached to it, and the display pictures had been of her and Taehyung, which made her heart skip a beat.

Shit.

They can't possibly know, right? She wondered to herself, her heart racing as she clicked the link to the Soompi article, silently praying it wasn't what she had expected. This link sent her to her Safari browser, where she took a deep breath and waited for the page to load. Her eyes widened when she read the enormous headline beneath a collage of her and Taehyung when the page eventually loaded.

"BTS' V AND SOLOIST ALYSSA ARE DATING!" The headline read. As Alyssa skimmed the article, she finally understood why Kat had been behaving oddly over text, why her phone had been exploding with text messages from friends and family, and why her Twitter inbox had been flooded with hate---it was all because Dispatch chose to expose her secret relationship with Taehyung. When she realised that her relationship was now public, her eyes welled up with tears as she considered what this disclosure would mean for the two of them...Would their agencies force them to split up? Alyssa didn't even want to think about this.

I mean, there were multiple reasons why they wanted to keep their relationship hidden from the public eye, one of which was the hate they would receive for dating---both idols had already been subjected to enough hatred as it was, and this would've only added to it. This realisation also dawned on Alyssa, who heaved heavily as she wondered how they had been discovered despite their best efforts. They always met late at night, and if they happend to meet during the day, Taehyung would make sure to pick her up at JYP Entertainment's back exit. If they were out in public, they would disguise themselves with hats and glasses, and if they were on a date at Alyssa's, he would park his car in the underground parking garage so no one would see.

"It's all right, Alyssa. It's okay---" Alyssa murmured, taking a deep breath and attempting to compose herself, but she was cut off abruptly as she caught a peek of the comments section, as she had not yet clicked out of the website.

Usernameone: Y'all, I'm sorry for this but Alyssa is not good enough for Taehyung. She's too much of spoilt brat and quite frankly, I don't like her at all.

Usernametwo: They DEFINATELY won't last, I'm predicting it now. They're polar opposites so it obviously will not work out.

Usernamethree: So many pretty idols in this industry and he chooses the brat??? he clearly has no taste in women.

Usernamefour: I don't know who the hell Alyssa is, but what I DO know is that Taehyung will soon leave her for someone else once he realises that there's better women out there.

Usernamefive: Lol, isn't this the same girl that's Seungcheol's ex? I'm glad that he left her and I hope that Taehyung does the same.

Alyssa's attempts to get herself together were to no avail because after reading the first five comments, the tears she had been desperately fighting threatened to spill out, and she felt a knot in her throat as she pondered about how true the commentary was.

What if their agencies forbade them from dating? Worse, what if Taehyung, like the rest of them, ended up abandoning her? And, to be honest, Alyssa would've understood if he chose to end their relationship at that time because he had worked too hard for his efforts to be wrecked by a dating scandal. Alyssa knew she shouldn't be thinking such things, but she couldn't stop herself. She had been a natural pessimist, always seeing the worst-case scenario in whatever awful situation she encountered.

"Fuck it," Alyssa muttered, finally letting herself to express what she was feeling. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," she continued to curse, the knot in her throat tightening with each syllable she uttered. She then slowly lowered herself to the marble tiles, oblivious to the fact that they were cold. She laid down on them, her back to the frigid surface and her face to the ceiling, finally succumbing to the impulse to cry. A tear streamed down her cheek, and she was soon sobbing her heart out.

After about ten minutes of sobbing on the floor, Alyssa came to a halt, feeling as if she had cried to her heart's content. She sniffled and wiped her tears away as she grudgingly rose up and took her phone with her, realising that she should definitely inform Taehyung about their relationship being revealed.

As much as she didn't wish to be the bearer of bad news, she knew that Taehyung would have rather to receive the news from her rather than through some gossip tabloid the next morning, and I believe a part of her was worried about what would happen to their relationship now that it was out in the open. Would Taehyung choose to leave her for his career? This must have been painful for Alyssa, but as we all know, good things must come to an end, right? 

But, what if their relationship being revealed wasn't entirely a bad thing? Perhaps there were some advantages to the disclosure. For example, Taehyung and Alyssa would not have had to worry about being observed each time they went out on a date together, and they could have tried to persuade their agencies that this situation could be used to their benefit because they both had large followings and could help each other boost their fame and status.

"Stop thinking so much, Alyssa," she reprimanded herself as she hurriedly unlocked her phone and went straight to the phone app, without missing a beat as she dialed the number she recalled off the top of her head on the number pad.

She finished by holding the phone to her ear and listening to it ring while pacing nervously around her apartment. She heard his voicemail after a few rings, urging her to leave a message after the beep. Alyssa stopped the call when she heard this, thinking it was odd that he hadn't answered his phone. She understood that it was 4 a.m. and he was most likely sleeping, but Taehyung usually answered her phone calls on the first or second ring. He would pause anything to return her calls, which is why Alyssa tried not to contact him too frequently when she knew he was at work, as she didn't want to disturb him while he was working. 

Alyssa huffed, redialing his phone number on the number pad and lifting her phone to her ear as she glanced at the ceiling, tears bubbling up in her eyes as she listened to his phone ring, slowly inhaling and exhaling. Taehyung answered on the second ring this time.

"Hello?" Taehyung inquired with his deep morning voice booming through the speaker, "Do you know what time it is, Lyss? It's 4 a.m. right now---" He began, his voice reflecting his perplexity, but Alyssa cut him off.

"They know about us, Taehyung." As the tears began to spill out again, she said, sniffling.

Despite the fact that Alyssa couldn't see him, Taehyung furrowed his brows and sat up in his bed, his face marked with concern as he heard the distress in her voice. "What exactly do you mean, Lyss? Why do you sound as if you've been crying?"

She swallowed the lump in her throat, afraid to speak for fear of bursting into tears again at any second. "You know what, I'll just send you the URL so you can check it out for yourself," she stated as she closed the phone app. "Expect a text message from me in a few."

Alyssa then ended the call, leaving Taehyung on the other end of the line puzzled as she opened the Safari browser, which swiftly loaded and displayed the Soompi article. She then copied the link to her clipboard and opened the iMessage app again, scrolling through her recent chats until she found Taehyung's and clicked on it, pasting the link into the chat, and sending the message.

While on the other side, Taehyung sat on his bed, staring at his phone like a teenage girl waiting for a notification from her crush, feeling slightly dazed as he was awoken abruptly from his sleep, wondering what had caused Alyssa to be so upset. When he heard his phone ding, indicating that he received a new text message, he was quickly jolted out of his reverie.

my love ♡︎
https://rb.gy/amgmps

Taehyung tentatively clicked the link, his brows knitted, being a little fearful of what he could've found. When the page loaded, the headline made his mind spin as everything came together. He could finally understand why Alyssa was unhappy earlier because he was starting to feel upset as well. He grumbled and closed his browser app, not wanting to read the story because the headline itself made his anxiety skyrocket, and he had been wondering about just how they had gotten caught. 

Taehyung quickly shook his head, realising that sobbing over spilt milk was foolish given that the damage was already done. His thoughts reverted to Alyssa, and he was concerned about how she was handling the fact that their relationship was now public. To be honest, it didn't alter anything for him, but he was aware of how profoundly Alyssa had been affected by the tremendous amount of hate she had been receiving in recent months, and this new situation would just fuel that hatred. As he debated heading over to Alyssa's apartment and comforting her, he clicked the phone app, his finger hovering over her phone number. 

I mean, sure, it was raining outside and it was 5 a.m., but had that ever deterred him? No. Taehyung grinned as he reminisced about the times when he couldn't sleep, so he travelled to Alyssa's place for movie nights when they were still best friends. He made his decision and pressed the call button on his phone, holding it up to his ear while listening to it ring.

"Hello?" Alyssa said, answering on the first ring. "So, what do you suppose we do? What's the next step from her---" She inquired, her voice cracking, but Taehyung stopped her short.

"I'm coming over," Taehyung announced, cutting her off as he quietly rose from his bed, trying to avoid waking up his sleeping roommates, Jimin and Hobi. 

Alyssa sighed and said, "Tae, don't be so silly. Just get some rest and we'll see how we handle it when we wake up or something. I'm okay," She said, unsure whether she was attempting to convince him or herself of this.

Taehyung mentally scoffed, recalling that Alyssa had a habit of pretending to be fine when she was, in reality, far from it. "Okay? Your voice, on the other hand, suggests otherwise," he pointed out.

"Okay, but it's raining outside," Alyssa replied, her voice barely a whisper as she fiddled with the hems of her silk nightdress.

"Lyss, rain has never stopped me before. Remember when we used to have movie nights?" Taehyung reminded her, leading her to grin faintly as memories of when she and him were best friends flashed through her head.

Even though he couldn't see her, Alyssa raised her hands in surrender, conceding defeat. "Fine, you win. Just, make sure to shoot me a text when you're here so I know that it's you." 

Taehyung agreed, and the two of them said their final goodbyes. He then placed his phone on the dresser before quitely opening the cupboard and searching for a pair of a suitable shoes. With his pyjamas, disheveled bed hair, drooping eyes, and sneakers, he knew he'd look foolish, but that was the last thing on his mind; he solely cared about one thing at that moment: being there for Alyssa.

Once Taehyung was finished putting his shoes on, he raked his hand through his unkempt hair before grabbing his car keys, being very careful not to rattle them, and phone from the chest of drawers, and was about to walk out of the room, until it occurred to him that he should definitely leave a letter for in event that the members awoke and he wasn't back yet. 

So, he quietly made his way to the kitchen, flicked on the light, placed his keys and phone on the kitchen counter, and went in search for a piece of paper and something to write with. He rummaged through a few drawers and discovered a stack of sticky notes from which he tore one, as well as a black marker in the same compartment. 

He uncapped the marker, placed the cap between his lips, and wrote:

Went over to Alyssa's apartment. Don't worry, I'll be back in time for work in the morning! :)
- Taehyung.

Once done, Taehyung put the lid back on the marker and surveyed the kitchen for the perfect spot to attach the sticky note so the boys could easily see it when they woke up, entirely oblivious to the fact that the best location to affix it was practically right under his nose. He quickly realised this himself and placed the note on the kitchen counter. 

After that, Taehyung grabbed his phone and keys from the counter, turned off the kitchen light, and walked to the door, but before putting his hand on the door handle, he inspected the kitchen one last time to ensure that he hadn't forgotten anything. Once he was certain, he opened the door and vanished into the night.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

notes,
the next chapter will be a full-blown taelyssa fluff chap AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR IT. yes, and i chose to not tell you what she was dreaming about because that will be revealed in a future chapter ;)