a/n : otl sorry for being late on updates D:

"Seul-ah!" Sana threw her arms around Seul the next day when she entered the clubroom on a Friday afternoon. "What happened yesterday? We were worried that you ran away for good! They almost made you cry, didn't they? Huh? Huh?"

"We should go teach them a lesson!" Bambam rolled the sleeves of his uniform up, not appearing intimidating at all. 

"I'm fine, guys. We should focus more on our upcoming edition, so we don't have any time to pick fights. Are we pulling an all nighter? Or do you guys want to come to my place to work on it?" Seul walked over to her desk with Sana still clinging on to her like a koala.

"Aish, you frustrating girl!" Sana pulled back and rested her hands on her hips. "You always act so depressed after meeting like those! Lighten up abit Seul, losing to them is not worth moping over~ Hey, let's go karaoke later!"

"Ooh, we're in for that!" Joshua and Bobby grinned. 

"Yeah, let's go instead of overworking ourselves to death. We're just high school students." Seungcheol sighed.

"Hey, let's just go now! We can bring Hanbin too, it's going to bring his first time hanging out with us!" Joshua grabbed his bag and ran to the door. "It's going to be my treat too."

Hearing Joshua offering to treat them did make all of them want to go, though Seul was still unsure if they should be working on what they were going to publish or not. She did cry her eyes out yesterday which tired her out, so maybe having a bit of fun wouldn't hurt her. She watched her team members dragging each other out of the room, making too much noise as they did it.

Seul shook her head at their childishness. She was the last one to exit the clubroom, and just as she locked the door, Taehyung happened to come out. They met eyes and looked down to the ground at the same time. The air around them was starting to turn awkward. This awkwardness left Seul with nothing to say, she wanted him to break the silence.

"Um..." Taehyung started off, "you guys going somewhere? N-not that I'm curious or anything, just askin, that's all."

In response, Seul bobbed her head once. "Yeah, we're going to karaoke nearby."

"Oh... near Myeongdong?"

"Mhm..."

What is this atmosphere... Seul found her gaze switching from the ground to a quiet Taehyung biting on his lip. His change of demeanor did make her wonder what in the world could've happened to him. He was never this shy around her, could it have been because they held hands yesterday?! She remembered that Taehyung said he would go back to his normal self, but he was completely different right now. 

There could definitely not be any misunderstandings between them. Seul wasn't going to allow this, she was going to clear it up.

"Kim Taehyung, if you're acting like this because you held my hands yesterday then I suggest you-"

"HAHAH, Seul you sure are talkative!" Taehyung forced out a laugh. "I'm perfectly fine, I've been acting like this for the past eighteen years! You think I'm acting like this because of you? You're wrong. I'm acting like this because of myself, yeah. I really need to meet Jungkook now, so I'll be going."

As Taehyung hurriedly walked off, he abruptly stopped midway. Seul could see his backview clearly and his figure was wavering ever so slightly. The boy roughly ruffled the back of his head before turning to face her, though his eyes were glued on the window of some random classroom.

"Myeongdong's dangerous, so... just be careful when you're there. Don't get distracted and don't drink or eat anything suspicious, got it?" Taehyung asked, but when Seul didn't answer he figured that he was being a little too caring and he rubbed the back of his neck? "Damn it, just be safe you idiot! I don't want another incident like that night club thing to happen again. And is it that hard to nod?"

"No..." Seul mumured softly. "I'll be safe."

The corners of Taehyung's lips quirked up slightly, but vanished after a few seconds. Seul couldn't tell if he was amused because he loved to make a fool out of her. After she saw the short smile, the boy turned around and started to walk away. There seemed to be a skip included every time he took a few steps forward.

There seemed to be gossip around the school after a few days. The focus of all this gossip seemed to be centered on Taehyung's girlfriend, Yoon Seul. Taehyung hadn't known about it at first. He was sitting at his desk, trying to doze off, but Kento suddenly burst in the classroom screaming for his name. Behind him, Mingyu and Sooyoung followed.

"Taehyung-san, did you hear?!"

Taehyung's gave s a stoic look. "If it's not involving us, leave me out of it."

"It has to do with us," Sooyoung said, "wait, it doesn't really have to do with us-"

"So, does it have to do with us or not?" The three of them kept silent, so Taehyung was going to take it as a 'no'. "See, it doesn't have to do with us. Leave me out of it, guys."

"No!" Mingyu slammed a palm on Taehyung's desk. "You can't be left out of this hyung, because it does have to do with us! 'The Hanguk Gossip' is getting EVICTED!" 

Taehyung shot up from his sleeping position. "What do you mean by that? How?"

"We don't know much yet, because we just heard about it this morning from other students who said they saw the paper." Kento frowned. "Do you think they're okay? I can't even imagine being in the situation Seul-san and her team members are facing."

Taehyung's chair screeching against the floor sounded around the classroom and in the blink of an eye, he found himself sprinting through the corridor of the third floor to the first. 

Nearing the end of the first floor hallway where the clubrooms were designated, Taehyung found it to be empty. It wasn't always this deserted during school hours, but strangely today it seemed to be lonelier than usual. The hallway was d