jaemin, jeno and renjun were back to the dream dorm, where chenle and jisung had questioned him again. mark and donghyuck had come with them and listened once again to jaemin's history.

"that's a lot, hyung..." jisung spoke after jaemin's long speech.

"i know, but i really didn't want to worry any of us..." jaemin told.

"but it's dangerous..." chenle added. "you could die..."

donghyuck slapped the back of chenle's head.

"let's try staying optimistic and not thing about dramatic consequences yet." he said, looking at the chinese male who nodded his head after mumbling a small apology.

"i still can't believe you two knew and didn't tell anyone." mark said, pointing at renjun and jeno.

"jaemin didn't want us to." jeno lifted his hands.

"and we respect jaemin's choices." renjun added, making mark roll his eyes.

"at least, he's getting healed." donghyuck replied.

"yeah." jisung nodded.

"but still. that's childish." mark replied.

"says the boy who- "

"guys..." jaemin interrupted their conversation. "can you stop arguing about my issues? what is done is done."

the dream members nodded altogether, allowing silence to take place in the room once again.

"so..." chenle started. "what are you doing now?"

"i don't know..." jaemin replied. "manager-nim told me i had a meeting tomorrow. i guess they'll decide what i'll be doing there..."

💔

"na jaemin."

the teenager nodded, gulping hard when he found himself sitting in between his managers and facing lee sooman, the boss of all bosses.

"i learned about your little business..." the ceo of sm entertainment said, clasping his hands together. "needless to say, i am a bit disappointed in you. not only jaemin. but all of you."

"sir, we learned about the news at the same time you did." the dream manager spoke.

"how come you didn't know before?"

the two managers exchanged glances.

were they being accused for something they couldn't know?

"well... jaemin hadn't told anyone. so... we couldn't know." nct's manager replied.

"now, that's why i'm disappointed in you, na jaemin."

jaemin lowered his head again, something he seemed to be doing a lot these past days.

"when you were taken into sm entertainment, you signed a contract. do you remember?"

"yes sir." jaemin replied, almost robotically.

"and i'm sure you read all the content of that contract."

"i did."

"great. and do you recall the content of the contract?"

jaemin gulped. "i don't remember exactly every single line of it, but i remember the general idea..."

sooman chuckled, opening one of the drawers of his desk and pulling a bundle of paper out of it.

"let me refresh your memory."

the ceo place the paper on the desk, pushing it towards jaemin who stared at it with a confused face. on top of the document was written 'idol: na jaemin, august 13th 2000.'

"please, open this to page two, paragraph three." lee sooman said calmly.

jaemin did as he was told, his trembling hands having difficulty in turning the thin pages.

he eventually managed to see the paragraph the ceo was talking about.

"please, read it out loud." he said, turning around in his swivel chair so that his back was facng jaemin and the two managers.

jaemin coughed, concentrating on the said paragraph.

"an idol's life has to be- "

"you know exactly what i asked you to read." the ceo cut him in a rather harsh voice. "so please, read the right part."

jaemin's eyes wandered across the paragraph, until he found a certain sentence.

"an idol should be honest all the time. he should never keep secrets from his members or his managers if the said secret can become problematic and compromise the well-being of the group. also- "

"stop."

jaemin shut his mouth, looking at the ceo once again.

"what can you say now, jaemin?" he asked, turning around again to face the boy.

"i though my issue wouldn't compromise- "

"WHAT CAN YOU SAY?!" the ceo slammed his hand on the table.

jaemin gulped for the nth time.

"i didn't respect that rule." he admitted.

"great." sooman said. "now, go to the last page. there should be a handwritten sentence. could you read it, please?"

jaemin flipped the pages once again, finding his writing at the very bottom of the last page.

"i, na jaemin, swear to respect and follow all the rules in order to become an idol and ensure the well-being of my group. i accept to be punished if i ever disrespect a rule."

jaemin's eyes stopped a few seconds on the stamp staining the contract next to lee sooman's signature. that was the last step before becoming an idol. the freaking stamp, and the ceo's signature.

"so." the ceo clapped his hands, pulling jaemin's contract from the boys' hands. "do you agree that you did something wrong?"

"i agree..." jaemin lowered his head.

"look at me, jaemin." the man said firmly.

jamin did so, feeling his heart speeding up.

"you disrespected a rule. and as that last sentence says, you deserve to be punished."

jaemin nodded slowly, already expecting the worst.

however, he was far from expecting that this could happen.

his heart stopped beating when sooman tore his contract in half, before throwing it back on the table.

"you're not part of sm entertainment anymore, jaemin."