My mind was racing and my freaking phone would not stop going off. No matter how many times I pressed the ignore button, people just kept calling. My frustration and annoyance was rising by the minute and I finally decided to turn the whole thing off. The moment I did, I glanced at the screen and saw CAP’s name flashing across it.

“Where are you?” 

“At home.”

“How is Min Ki?”

“He’s still with my mom. She’s gonna keep him for a little bit.”

“That makes sense. Do you want me to come over?”

I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me. “No, that’s okay. There’s some people hanging around outside. I don’t want you to get in any deeper trouble. Andy already wants to wring my neck.”

“He’s not that bad,” CAP said.

“This is kinda what he was worried about. Now it’s either come out about it or come up with some kind of lie.”

“I’m coming over.”

“CAP, no.”

“Anna, listen to me.” Uh-oh. He never called me Anna, even after all this time. “I’m coming over. We’re going to talk about all this and handle it together. You don’t have to do everything alone anymore. You have me now.”

“Thank you,” I said quietly. He had a point.

An hour later CAP was knocking on the door. He slipped in quickly when I let him in and joined me on the couch where I’d been laying the whole time I’d been waiting for him. There were dark circles starting to form underneath his eyes which made me feel bad. I didn’t want him to be stressing over me when he had work to focus on.

“What do you want to do?” he asked after a long while of us just sitting in silence.

I made a noncommittal noise and let him continue playing with my hair. The gesture was both comforting and distracting. He nodded but let me think for a while longer.

“I think it would be a good idea to come out with it,” he said.

I sat up so I could look at him in the eye. The look on his face was dead serious and I could tell he’d been thinking about this hard.

“Why?”

“I’ve been a coward my whole life-”

“You’re only twenty three,” I teased.

“Just listen, okay?” I nodded. “I’ve been a coward my whole life. For once, I want to do the thing that terrifies me and find out if it was worth it.”

“You do realize what could happen right? This isn’t just about you, or me, or Min Ki. You have a career to think about. The other boys’ futures could very easily dissolve because of this. Is that a chance you’re willing to take?”

He nodded. “It was L.Joe who saw the article first. We’ve all been talking about it. The others all have things they want to do if they get the chance. They’ll be alright if the group disbands. Everyone just wants me to do what I think is right.” He looked me straight in the eye and raised one eyebrow. “Now. You’ve heard what I have to say. What do you want to do?”

“I think we should call Andy and let him know now. If he hears it from us first, then maybe his head won’t explode.”