Chapter 15

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Seok-min asked Soon-young.

He asked it with such a serious expression that Soon-young was a little taken aback. There weren’t many moments when his buddy Seok-min’s face was as solemn as now while talking to him. But Soon-young had genuinely no idea why Seok-min asked that question. "What are you talking about?" he asked after a long silence.

"Oh, come on, hyung. You’ve got to know what I’m talking about."

Seung-kwan and Chan looked at each other, unsure about what to do. Unlike Seok-min, they hadn’t seriously considered the possibility that the girl in the hotel was Soon-young’s girlfriend. The thought had crossed their mind, but they had discarded it immediately. It couldn’t be, right?

"I don’t." Soon-young said. Then he looked at the other two members. "Can anyone tell me what’s going on?"

Chan decided to explain the situation. "Hyung, please don’t get mad. Earlier in the afternoon, I was on my way to the dorm when I saw you enter a hotel. We thought it would be fun to see what you were up to, so we waited for you in the lobby of the hotel..."

Soon-young looked confused. But not for the reason the others had expected. Chan just told him he saw him enter and leave the hotel, while Soon-young had spent about four hours there. "You waited there for hours?" Waiting in the lobby for hours seemed quite boring to him.

"I went back to the dorm in between. But that’s not the point. We saw the girl that walked with you to the lobby."

"Okay... What does that have to do with me having a girlfriend?" Soon-young still looked as confused as before. "Wait..." he said as realisation finally hit him. "You guys thought she was my girlfriend?"

"I didn’t." Chan defended himself while he pointed at Seok-min. "Seok-min hyung did."

"Well, now that I think of it, I can see why Seok-min hyung thought that. Your eyes did look like little sparkling stars when you smiled at her." Seung-kwan said as he tried to reenact the expression Soon-young had while he waved at Ji-yeon.

"They did?" Soon-young asked as he scratched the back of his head. He hadn’t noticed that, although he had to admit that he felt really happy when he was together with Ji-yeon. He thought she was a great friend, but he hadn’t thought of their relationship as more than that. At least not yet.

"That girl was Ji-yeon, right?" Seok-min asked. A look at Soon-young’s face told him he was right. "You met her yesterday and today again. Is it just because she’s in Seoul right now? Please don’t get me wrong, hyung, I’m not judging you, I’m just worried about you. You know we’d get in trouble if any of us has a girlfriend already."

"I know." Soon-young said solemnly. "But you don’t have to worry. Ji-yeon and I are just friends. Her mother and my mother have been friends since their university days. That’s how Ji-yeon and I got to meet each other as children. We were like the best of friends until she had to move. We lost touch with each other until a few weeks ago, when my parents decided to visit her family again. And since she’s only in Seoul for a few days and we’ll be busy preparing for the release of our second album soon, I just wanted to make the most out of this opportunity..."

It was quiet for a moment until Seung-kwan cleared his throat again. "So... since we’ve cleared up this misunderstanding, maybe it’s time to head home?"

Right on cue, Soon-young’s phone started ringing. He looked at his phone in surprise. Usually, he received much more messages than phone calls, but this was the second day in a row that one of the members called him. He gulped when he saw the current time above the caller ID. "Did any of you tell Seung-cheol hyung that we’d be late?"

The alarmed expressions of the other three members made it clear that none of them had told any of the other members back at the dorm that they’d be late. They were slightly starting to panic.

The members of Seventeen had debuted at a fairly young age. Only six of the members, including Soon-young, were already adults. The others, including the three that were with him now, were all still minors*. That was why Seung-cheol, as the leader and oldest member of the group, felt extra responsible for everyone. Being late – especially more than a quarter too late – without telling anyone would definitely make him concerned.

Soon-young, realising that if he waited any longer, the phone would stop ringing, quickly answered the phone. "Hello? Seung-cheol hyung?"

"Where are you? Are the others there too?" Seung-cheol asked quickly. Soon-young thought he sounded a little bit too concerned, considering that it wasn’t even 7:30 yet and this was the first time Seung-cheol was calling him this day.

"If you mean Seok-min, Seung-kwan and Chan, then yes, they’re here as well. We’re on our way to the dorm. Is something wrong?"

Seung-cheol heaved a sigh of relief. "I’ve sent them tons of kakao messages, but no one replied! I even tried calling them, but Seung-kwan’s phone went straight to voicemail and Seok-min and Chan didn’t pick up their phone. They said they’d be back before 7 o’clock."

Soon-young looked at the three younger members with a questioning look. They quickly turned to their phones. As preparation for their little investigation, Seung-kwan had turned off his phone – because that’s what he thought a real detective would do: besides making sure that you won’t accidentally reveal your location to your target, you’d also have one less distraction – and the other two had decided to just put their phones on silent mode. Now they realised that as a result, they had all missed a few calls and lots of kakao messages.

Seok-min moved a little so he would stand closer to Soon-young’s phone. "Sorry, hyung," he said to Seung-cheol, "we didn’t realise that you called."

"Okay, well... just get back quickly, the others have all finished eating already." Seung-cheol answered.

Soon-young and the other three became quite hungry at the thought of food.

Seung-cheol added something he still had to mention before ending the phone call. "Oh and guys... I asked Ji-soo where you guys went, but he said he didn’t want to tell on you. I think you’ve all got some explaining to do."

* In South Korea, you’re a minor until your international age is 19.

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