You both froze but little by little, Sehun started to move away. There was suddenly a shadow at the open door and you couldn't figure out who it was. You slowly got up at the same time as Sehun. You looked over to Sehun to see him facing the door curiously. You turned back to the door and walked forward. When you saw who it was, your face turned pale and you suddenly felt sick. You could feel an immense feeling of hate and hurt grow and your arms felt wobbly. You couldn't even bring yourself to take another step. The flashes of the article and then the girl and the students from before made your stomach squeeze and your heart burn. Sehun bumped into you and stopped right behind you.
"Oh, Kai-hyung. What are you doing here?" You had your face turned down so you couldn't see the dark and tired expression on his face. It somehow was different to what Sehun saw, Kai wasn't usually that scary. Tired? Most of the time but the dark, cold eyes piercing at his direction? He's never seen anything like that. There was no answer from Kai and he just left while taking your hand.
You felt a tug at your wrist and looked up to see Kai dragging you away from the practice room. You didn't say a word, didn't ask him why or said hello or even stop him. You let him drag you upstairs and as you walked, you noticed that it was the way to the vice-president's room. He stopped and knocked on the door and even then, he didn't even look back to you. You could feel him holding onto your wrist softly but there was this other feeling, was he annoyed? Anxious? It seemed there was something wrong but you were afraid to ask. You heard the slight muffle and then the door opening. "Oh Kai, you're here. Uh, and ___-sshi again? Come on in." He gestured for you to sit down and just like before, you took a seat in front of him but this time, Kai was sitting beside you. His expression was hard for you to read. He just kept looking ahead and kind of ignoring you. You felt bad about yourself and wondered what was wrong with him. Was it about the article? Why isn't he talking with me? You looked down to your hands that were placed on your lap. You didn't even know why you were here. Kai dragged you here, that's right. "Kai, just like I said with _____-sshi, we need you to make a statement about the situation between you and _____-sshi." Kai just nodded. You stayed silent and let him talk.

"So, tell me about this 'secret girlfriend' is it true?" the vice-president started.
Kai was a bit hesitant and slurred his answer, "Well... uhmmm. Wait- how much of this is being recorded?"
"It's OK Kai, we'll just give the media what they need and nothing more, we are sure to be clearing this up, not make it worse. Just answer the questions as truthfully as you can and to the best of your ability."
"OK." Kai was probably getting more anxious by the second. It took a while until he spoke up, thinking through his words carefully.

"I don't really know what this is all about. Who are you talking about? Who is the 'secret girlfriend' in which I'm supposedly dating?" His face showed confusion in a sense but by his slight twitches and the tone in his voice, you could tell he was lying. In response to Kai, the vice-president went through a folder that was on the side of his desk and flicked out a photo.

"Here. Apparently, you have been seen walking around on many occasions with the unfamiliar girl. Through the eyes of fans and paparazzi, they suspect that you two are really close with each other." He explained. "Can you please regard or confirm that you are dating her?" He asked.

It took a moment before Kai looked to you then back to the vice-president to give an answer. "No, me and that girl are not dating. I'm with _____. She there," Kai pointed to the photo, "is just a close friend and we just hang out a lot." In your mind, it was hard to process what Kai was saying.

The vice-president asked another question, "Can you please say more about this? Just a short message to your fans to make things clearer."

"Well, to my fans I just want to say, please do not misunderstand this situation. Also, I don't really like it when too much of my personal outings are being captured and is made a scandal across the news. Don't start rumors about me. If I have something to say, I'll say it. I am human, I have many friends and she is one of them. Please give me some space, I would just like to have more privacy from now on."

After a stutter or two, Kai stopped and that signaled the end of his message. The vice-president was still writing down notes so you and Kai sat there for a few minutes in silence. When he finished, he read through it again as he put his pen down.
"OK, I think this is good enough. I was going to ask the girl to make a statement but hearing that and thinking again, it would be too complicated and I don't think it's necessary. Your statement would be enough for now and if the media are being pushy, I'll add in your statement to back it up, OK ____?" You just nodded and went along with it.
"Well, that's all I called you up here for. You may leave now. Have a good night."

Kai got up first and walked quickly out the door, not wanting to talk to you about. You pushed yourself out of your chair and bowed before following behind Kai. Kai got to the bottom of the building and by the time you turned the corner, he had already left out the door. Why didn't he wait for me? You just stood there. You thought back: I came here so that I was to go home with Kai but he left without me. How am I supposed to get home? It seemed that he forgot that you were sitting next to him that whole time. When he announced that she was just a friend, you were angry because you knew, you knew so well that he was lying but you didn't want to argue with him in front of the vice-president so you stayed quiet. As you stood there, you remembered back to your present situation. Right, need to find a way to get home. Time was ticking and you tried to think of something. Usually, when you came round to visit after school, you would just follow Kai and his manager would just take you home with Kai, Luhan, Sehun, Lay, Chen, and Kyungsoo in the van. Since you all lived in nearby dorms, it was easier to take you in a van all at once. The others had another manager to take them to their dorms.

You decided to call Kai and see if he was waiting for the van or already making his way home. You had your phone held to your ear and also started to make your way to the car park at the side of the company building. Maybe the manager hasn't gone off yet, and where were the others? Maybe you could catch up with them and ask for a ride. You were freaking out a bit when Kai wasn't picking up his phone. Through every ring you prayed that he would pick it up: once, twice, third, fourth. Finally at the fifth ring you heard shuffling on the other line.

"Hello?" You heard Kai's feint voice.
"Uh hey, it's me. Where are you?"
"I'm busy, I need to go somewhere." He said bluntly.
"OK. I thought that we could go home together today but that's alright. Do you know if your manager has left to take the boys home yet? I need a ride."
"By the looks of it, I don't think they have left yet. Just meet them at the car park and wait a few minutes. I'm sure they won't mind to have you taken home as well."
You nodded and with that came silence. You realized that your gesture couldn't be seen and so you quickly responded back to Kai, "Oh OK cool, I guess I'll see you later tonight then?"
"Yeah. I have to go. Bye." And before you could reply, he disconnected the call.

You stared at your screen phone with total loss that he hung up so quickly but then regained yourself again and made your way to the car park. When you got there, you saw the large black van at the end of the lot and saw everyone waiting there for their manager. When you came closer, some heads looked up and saw you.

"Hey, _____, what are you doing here?" Chen called. You waved to them and stopped right next to Lay who gave you a warm hug.
"Hey! Long time no see _____. How are you?" Lay asked. You hugged him back and then just looked at him plainly.
Being the delayed unicorn he was, Luhan and Sehun shoved him in the sides with a grave look which showed a warning.
After a few seconds, he seemed to have remembered and gave a surprised expression towards you.
"Oh, that. ____, I'm so sorry. I totally forgot with you and Kai and the cheating--"
He got cut off again when a grumpy Sehun placed his hand over Lay's mouth.
Lay was shocked for a second then tried to pry Sehun's hand away.
"Yah! I'm your hyung here, what do you think you're doing?" Sehun just looked to the ground coldly and didn't say anything.
Lay was a bit upset but realising what he just said, he felt really sorry.
"____-ah. Why don't you just ignore me for now. If you need to talk to me later, I'll be all ears." he comforted you quickly.
It became awkward after a few moments until the manager arrived.