Chapter 14

"You know, hyung, I don’t think this was a very good plan."

In the lobby of a hotel, one guy with a hat and two others with a cap were trying to act as casually as possible while they skimmed through some magazines and simultaneously eyed the entrances to the other parts of the hotel. But now, one of the guys with a cap was complaining to the other guy with a cap.

"You said we had to be here early, because Soon-young hyung might stop by the convenience store to get some extra food before going to the dorm. But now we’ve been here for half an hour, it’s almost 7 p.m. and he’s still not here. Maybe I was mistaken and he didn’t even come here!"

"Don’t worry, Chan." The other guy wearing a cap replied. "I texted Ji-soo hyung and he said Soon-young hyung hasn’t come back yet. He’s probably just running late."

"So are we now..." Chan murmured.

The plan itself was quite simple. Late in the afternoon, Seok-min texted Soon-young to ask if he’d come back for dinner at 7 p.m.. Soon-young replied, saying that he would. The distance between the dorm and the hotel was about 5 minutes, so the only thing they’d have to do was be in time to wait for Soon-young in the lobby and they might be able to see what – or whom – he had come to the hotel for.

Seung-kwan had immediately agreed. He thought it’d be fun to act like they were undercover. After looking in his closet, he quickly found a hat that’d fit today’s plan. Chan didn’t really know what to think of the plan, but decided to just tag along. Ji-soo still thought that it’d be better to just call Soon-young and that things might just get worse if more members were seen at a hotel, so he told the others he wouldn’t go.

When Seok-min saw that Chan tried to stand up to leave the hotel again, he quickly grabbed his arm, trying to stop him from leaving. "Okay, okay, I admit that it’s not that much fun, but if we become more famous in the future, we won’t have a chance to do something like this again!"

Chan sighed. It wouldn’t hurt to wait a few more minutes. He just hoped the other hyungs wouldn’t get mad or worry about them if they arrived too late.

"He’s here! He’s here!" Seung-kwan nudged Seok-min while he kept his eyes on the entrance connecting the lobby to the special facilities of the hotel.

Seok-min and Chan followed Seung-kwan’s gaze and saw Soon-young walk out of the special facilities area. He was wearing a cap, so it wasn’t as easy as usual to recognise him. But these guys had been living together with him for three years, and were practically family, so it took them no more than a few seconds.

The three Seventeen members quickly hid their faces behind a magazine, while continuing to look at Soon-young. They saw that Soon-young wasn’t alone – there was a girl next to him. They noticed that she looked quite pretty and that she was not much shorter than Soon-young, so she seemed to be relatively tall for a girl. Soon-young was talking to her and judging by their smiles, they seemed to be pretty close.

So that’s Ji-yeon, Seok-min thought to himself. Seung-kwan and Chan gave each other a questioning look, wondering who the girl next to Soon-young was. Since neither of them seemed to know the answer, they turned to Seok-min, who just gestured at them to wait.

Soon-young and Ji-yeon said their goodbyes. Soon-young waved and smiled at Ji-yeon while she walked towards the stairs to go to the second floor. Once he couldn’t see her anymore, he left the hotel. The three wannabe detectives quickly put down the magazines and walked casually towards the hotel entrance. As soon as they had left the hotel, they started tailing their target. Realising that he was on his way to the dorm now, they decided to confront him.

"Hyung!" Chan shouted at Soon-young, who was walking about ten meters in front of the other three members. They didn’t feel like running towards him, because it was way too hot for that. There weren’t any other people walking through this street at the moment, so it didn’t matter anyway.

Soon-young recognised Chan’s voice and turned around. "Chan? What are you guys doing here? I thought you’d be eating dinner with the others."

Before Chan could answer, Seung-kwan cleared his throat to ask for attention. "Mr. Kwon Soon-young, where were you and what were you doing just now?" He asked in a dramatic and overly formal manner.

"What are you doing? Questioning a suspect?" Soon-young asked jokingly.

"Spot on." Seung-kwan replied. He tried to look as serious as possible.

Soon-young’s smile turned into a small frown as he scrutinised his dongsaengs’* expressions, trying to figure out if they were just joking around or seriously wanted to know what he had been doing. Seok-min had an absent look on his face, but the other two were looking extremely serious. However, judging by Seung-kwan’s tone, it looked like they were at least partly messing around, so Soon-young decided to just play along. "Uhh... It wasn’t me, detective, I was just meeting a friend. I didn’t do anything. Please let me go." He said pleadingly.

Chan couldn’t help but chuckle at the two older members’ acting.

"I can’t. You still have some explaining to do." Seung-kwan continued his interrogation as he nudged his older ‘partner’. "Detective Lee, try to get him to talk."

Seok-min hadn’t really paid attention to Seung-kwan and Soon-young’s acting, because he was busy thinking about what they had seen in the hotel. Soon-young had told him that Ji-yeon was his childhood friend, but that smile that he gave her while he walked away, made Seok-min suspect that they might be more than just friends. And Soon-young hadn’t told any of the other members that he’d go to a hotel... Seok-min hoped he was just overthinking things like he thought Chan was doing earlier today. If one of their members already had a girlfriend so shortly after their debut, they could get in serious trouble.

Seok-min hesitated for a moment, but decided to ask what he had to ask.

"Soon-young hyung. Do you have a girlfriend?"

* dongsaeng (동생): usually a younger sibling or a younger person that you’re close with.

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