Watched: Ghost Whisperer

      December 8th, 2009

December 8th, 2009

The confrontation from nearly two months ago did nothing to repair what damages the girls believed there to be. Instead, where there was a tiny gap was now a gaping hole in the fabric of their relationship.

Echo hadn't even spoken a word to Tiffany. She'd barely spent any time at the dorm. Even though her latest drama was over, she had a pleasantly growing number of solo activities including a couple CF's and variety show appearances. A few producers even approached SMe asking for her to accept numerous roles, however, due to other schedules the label had to regrettably turn all of them down.

The second maknae found herself staying out later, staying at the studio for longer hours, and going to the gym more. If she was home she would be found underneath her blanket with her headphones firmly pressed into both ears, unaware of everything around her.

She was truly in her own world now.

"HEY! YOU!"

Echo physically jumped at the booming voice, whipping around in the SMe hallway. A single eyebrow rose in her confusion. "Jonghyun-ah?"

The usually goofy and relaxed male was tense, her shoulders pinned back, nostrils flared, lips pulled in a tight grimace and eyes shining with anger. Just the way he thundered down the hallway was enough to keep Echo rooted to her spot.

"What am I to you?" he growled out, stopping mere inches from the girl.

"Excuse me?"

"I said: what am I to you? Because to me you're my girlfriend."

"And you're my boyfriend. Oppa, what's wrong?" the shorter girl tried hard to keep the fact she was nervous by this unknown man from her voice.

"Then why did I hear from Lee Jonghyun that you've been spending a lot of time with Jung Yonghwa? And don't you dare say it's related to your drama, I know that bull's over."

Echo scoffed. "Are you jealous, oppa?"

The SHINee member momentarily appeared taken aback by the others reaction, finding it incredibly uncharacteristic. "Do you like him?"

Smirking, the female idol stepped forward until she was dangerously close to Jonghyun, feeling his breath on her forehead. She felt a confidence she never had before, washing away her previous nervousness. "What if I do?" she whispered, a dangerous glint in her eye.

Jonghyun found himself backing up. An incredulous look on his face. The man briefly bit the inside of his cheek, his eyes showing his inner confliction perfectly. Then, softly, "Who are you?"

The SNSD member gave the other a 'what?' look without saying anything.

"What happened to Echo?" his voice still stayed soft, as if comforting a small, crying child. "Who are you becoming? What's going on in your head, babe?"

Echo rolled her eyes, crossing her thin arms across her chest. "Now it's 'babe'? Can we at least stay on one subject? Is it too hard for your little dino brain to comprehend?"

"Is this some sort of defense mechanism, Echo-ah? What happened? Tell me."

"So now you want to talk rationally?" she scoffed, once more. " you, Jonghyun." Without another word she brushed past the taller male and strut down the hallway towards the cafeteria.

What the hell has gotten into him? Do I really love that guy? she thought to herself, pushing open the double doors. Brown eyes hurriedly scanned the room, taking note of a handful of trainees scattered around. No idols.

"Echo-ah!"

The idol followed the voice to see a happily waving Willow. Echo swiftly made her way over to her table, taking note of the three other female trainees carelessly littered around the table.

"Sit down!" Willow eagerly patted the table top, sitting back in her own seat.

Slowly, the idol sat across from her old friend.

"What's up?"

Echo shrugged. "Nothing much, we're having our first concert in a few weeks."

"Coolio," Willow inspected her nails, not truly paying mind to her friends words. "How's being an idol doing for 'ya?"

"Um… fine? Stressful, I guess."

The other American girls' eyes lit up, jerking up from her nail inspection. "You wanna go out with us tonight? There's this awesome club a few blocks away, and I know the owner so we can get free drinks and other ."

Echo hesitated, feeling uncomfortable yet slightly intrigued by the offer. "I really can't afford nursing a hangover with my schedule."

Willow pursed her lips in defeat, slouching once more in her seat. "Well the offer is always open, so just let me know when you wanna do something fun girlie."

Feeling uncomfortable, Echo feigned having a schedule and excused herself from the table and swiftly left the cafeteria without looking back.

Echo punched in the code into the keypad, cursing at herself when it dinged at the wrong number combination. It took two more times for her to get it right, pushing her way through the front door and slamming it behind her in her aggravation.

Kicking off her shoes without bothering to properly put them in a shelf, the idol padded through the hallway and into the living room, stopping when she was met with a disturbingly familiar setup. Every member, except for her, was sitting in the living room, all were silent, and all their eyes were downcast.

"We're having our five minute talk," Tiffany softly said, her eyes sad, awkwardly shifting from her spot on the ground.

Hesitantly, Echo sat on the ground a bit out of the weird shape the girls were in, feeling out of it. She uncomfortably bit her lip at the tension, looking at the floor, not willing to met any of the girls eyes.

Hyoyeon was the first to open . "A lot of us aren't close anymore. We don't have the bond we used to. We don't talk like we used to, it's been really lonely here lately."

A soft murmur of agreement ran through the group, Echo firmly keeping shut.

"I don't like how," Yuri spoke, her eyes downcast and she nervously rung her hands together in her lap, "no one seems to ever agree on anything anymore. We don't seem like one anymore."

"Certain members have been… displaying their activities. It's not fair and hurts the rest of us," Sunny carefully worded.

"We don't communicate well anymore, our smiles are too forced on TV," Tiffany admitted. "I don't feel like we're a family."

By habit, all the members shifted their gazes at Taeyeon. The leader had a dazed look on her face, her body rigid.

"You haven’t been talking lately either," Jessica pointed out, her eyes carefully guarded. "Tell us your thoughts for once, it can help us as a group. You're our leader."

"You're so down lately," Sunny spoke. "Tell us what you're thinking. You'll feel better after sharing, we can help."

A conflicted look appeared on Taeyeon's face, her face scrunching up and her nose turning pink. Without a second thought, the leader jumped to her feet and ran to her room, slamming the door behind her.

The rest of the members shared shocked looks, confused and bewildered from their leaders actions.

"She's really hurting…" Tiffany mumbled, eyes saddened from her friends actions.

However, every member couldn't help but think why she couldn't just open up to them. Why was she so timid? Was it because she was the leader and wasn't supposed to show them any weakness and was just trying to be strong for the rest of them?

"Being a leader must be hard," Seohyun looked near tears at the sour turning night.

"She carries a heavy weight," Sooyoung slowly  stated. "She has to look over nine other girls, she barely has time to get her own thoughts straight."

"Maybe we should… tell her to not be our leader?" Yuri cautiously suggested. The others were shocked by the mere question, but seriously considered it. Wouldn't it be better for their friends mental health if such a heavy burden was lifted from her shoulders? It could end up fixing other issues as well, all of them being on the same page.

Within seconds the other members voiced their agreement. Sooyoung got up from her seat to retrieve Taeyeon from her room. Unsurprisingly, tears were falling down the eldest girls red cheeks.

The only sound was the occasional sniffle from Taeyeon.

She took a few more minutes to control her emotions. Finally, she softly recommended, "Guys, let's just not have a leader."

The rest of the members swiftly agreed with her suggestion, relieved that none of them had to vocally suggest it.

Taeyeon looked slightly taken aback by their swift acceptance of her difficult decision. In the end, she bit her lip and nodded. The members dispersed one-by-one, retreating to their own rooms.

Echo found herself stuck to her spot on the ground, long after every one of her members left for their own bed. She opened her eyes, not knowing when she closed them, to darkness. Someone turned the lights off.

Slowly, she stood, popping tight joints and making her way through the apartment to her shared bedroom. She stopped as she passed Taeyeon, Sooyoung and Yoona's shared room. Echo raised a shaking hand to grasp the cool knob. But she froze. Reluctantly, she released the knob and continued on to her own room.

The lights were already out, Tiffany and Seohyun lost in dreamland. Without bothering to change her clothes, Echo got into her own bed, pulling the blanket up to her chin and closing her eyes.

Rustling met Echo's freshly woken ears. Her eyes opened in irritation when she felt a warm body brush up against hers. Who was in her bed?

Brown eyes widened when the idol noticed it was no other than her leader. What was she doing?

"Taeyeon-unnie?" she softly said, careful not to wake up the other members.

Taeyeon faced her, her eyes half-open with an unfocused look to them. "What do I do?" she slurred.

"Unnie?" the singer repeated.

"I can't do anything right…" she continued, paying no mind to the younger girls words. "I can't even keep my group together. I'm a horrible leader."

"Are you drunk?" Echo waved a hand in front of the leaders face, blinking when she received no reaction. Did she sleep walk in here?

It wouldn't be the first time the leader had sleep walked, and definitely not the first she sleep talked either. Echo felt her heart drop at the obvious action that meant she was much more stressed than she led on.

"My members fight, I don't even know what to say. How do I make them stop?" her jaw tensed. "I don't know what to do."

The leader stopped talking after that, but her eyes didn't fully closed.

Echo simply took the blanket off her own body to spread it over Taeyeon's and closing her eyes once more.

Taeyeon wasn't there in the morning.

Can Echo please be in a new drama?

I'm loving all of Echo's new activities! She's actually really funny and sweet!

Eh, I don't get the sudden Echo love.