Watched: Listened: Take a Bow by Rihanna

      March 5th, 2010

March 5th, 2010

She could feel the smooth bed sheet underneath her, the fluffy comforter pulled up to her chin, her left hand being held in someone's clammy hands, fear over having no recollection from the night before, joy from being safely tucked in her own bed in her room, and immediate relief when she opened her eyes and saw a, very blurry, worried Tiffany sitting half on her own bed and half on Echo's. Since the two have the smallest bedroom in the dorm, they decided to push their single beds together to conserve more room for other things.

She felt her heart drop a bit, however, once her blurred vision sharpened, realizing it was the leader and not Tiffany waiting by her bedside.

"Unnie?" her voice cracked.

"Echo!" the singers voice was filled with relief. When she moved closer on the beds, the taller girl noticed Taeyeon's eyes were glassy. "Omigod, Echo, Echo, what happened last night?" her hand gently cupped the laying down girls right cheek.

"I don't know…" her eyes left the leaders face to rove around the room, her eyes examining the light peach colored walls and white ceiling. How did I get home?

She heard the singer sniffle, watched her lip tremble. Her heart throbbed at the thought that she was acting this way because of her. Wait, my heart trembled? Do I… do I care?

"Echo-ah, please tell me what happened last night," Taeyeon's hand glided to the younger girls hair, gently brushing through the long strands.

Echo was barely paying attention to the leaders words, her brain was rushing with the simple thought that she felt. She ing felt something! The past months were filled with sadness and fear. But now… now she felt guilt. It's not the best emotion, but it's an emotion. An emotion she once took for granted. She didn't give two s that it's a ty feeling, all she cares about is the simple fact she felt something. An emotion that means she feels genuine love towards another person. Not the forced love she's become accustomed to.

"Do you… not remember?" hesitation was in Taeyeon's voice, her eyes desperately searching within the other girls.

The younger girl closed her eyes, trying to remember exactly what happened the previous night. She remembers being irritated at her sister and the mess the media made of SNSD's contracts coming to light. In order to let off some steam she decided to finally take Willow's offer to go out for a night… they got to the club… and then…

"I don't know," she croaked, horrified at her voices cracking.

"You don't know what happened or you just don't remember…?"

"I went out with… with… water?"

Taeyeon gave her a confused look before realization dawned on her. She swiftly got up from the bed and retrieved a glass of water from the kitchen, a bendy straw sat in the glass. The leader bent the straw so it was positioned at Echo's mouth, gently prodding her lips with the plastic.

The water tasted like the best liquid she could have ever had at that moment. After she practically inhaled half the glass Taeyeon pulled it away from her, saying she didn't want to upset her stomach.

Echo understood, but was a little irritated.

"So what happened Echo-ah?" the leader softly asked, her hand going back to the younger girls hair after she placed the glass on the bedside table.

"I remember… I was really upset yesterday, so I went back to the office to go out with Willow. We went to a club… I remember her saying her boyfriend owned it," Echo's face briefly showed her disgust, realizing there's no way anyone her age would own a popular club. "I had a drink, we were dancing and…"

"And?"

"I… I don't know… Omigod, unnie I don't know!" Echo surged up into an upright position, immediately regretting her action when a strong wave of nausea hit her in the stomach and rose passed her sphincter, up her esophagus.

Taeyeon reacted immediately, grabbing a saucepan Echo didn't notice on the bedside table and it into her hands.

Echo puked.

"I feel like ," she rasped, her throwing up doing little to subside the nausea.

A cool hand pressed against her forehead. "You're really warm, Echo-ah." The leader gently laid the younger member back against the pillows, her head spinning.

"How much did you drink?"

"I chugged one… barely drank the other."

The leader hummed, believing her reaction was due to whatever was clouding her memory. "Are you sure you can't recall anything else?"

"Some sort of euphoria?" she snorted. "Nothing really other than blackness."

Taeyeon nodded, pulling the blanket back up to her chin, she went to get out but was stopped by a pale hand grabbing her wrist. "Please, don't leave me alone."

The leader felt her heart drop at the simple sentence, nodding and settling back down next to her sick member. "Yuri was diagnosed with swine flu."

Echo's eyes popped open, giving the girl a surprised look. Where was she then?

"She's staying at the hospital for twenty four hours then going home, the label is probably saying the same for you."

"They're saying… I got swine? Then they… what do they know?" her voice was grave, her eyes wide with terror. Oh, god. Was the company going to use this to kick her out of the group?

Taeyeon looked uncomfortable with the question, seemingly thinking it over before answering, "Last night… last night we only knew you were at the hospital. I don't know who brought you there, but you were unconscious the entire time. But the managers rushed down and brought you back after the doctors did some tests and said you were clear to come back to the dorm. They took blood, Echo-ah."

It took a few seconds for that to sink into her. "So, if there was anything weird in my system they'll know when the results come back?" She couldn't get herself to say the word 'drug'.

"Yeah," she softly responded.

The two sat for a few heartbeats in silence.

"I hate to do this, but I have a schedule I have to go to-"

Echo swiftly cut her off, eyes wide with fear, hands grabbing for the older girls. "Unnie, no! No, please don't leave me right now!"

Taeyeon squeezed Echo's hands in comfort. "Don't worry, I got someone to come watch over you while I'm gone. You're going to miss the Music Bank performance tonight and they'll see how you feel tomorrow if you're going to be back on schedule anytime soon."

"If they say I have swine wouldn’t I be off for, like a, week?" Echo grew worried at that fact. Not working for a week means not being paid for a week.

The leader shrugged. "They didn't release an official statement yet, they may just say they're waiting for test results and they came back negative and you have a regular flu. I'm not sure really."

The door bell rang.

Taeyeon gave the younger singers hands a gentle squeeze before getting up to answer the door. Echo heard the door open and close, along with some soft words between Taeyeon and the visitor. She assumed it was the person who was going to be taking Taeyeon's place at her side.

The mystery person and Taeyeon entered the bedroom.

Echo shifted herself so she could see her new babysitter better. "J-Jonghyun?"

For the first time, in what felt like forever, there was a tug at Echo's heart. The adoration and love she once held for the man surged back into her body at full force. The numb feeling she's had since looking at any loved ones the past months was washed away, replaced with complete and infatuated love.

The short boy gave her an awkward smile. "What? No 'oppa'?"

Taeyeon looked between the two, believing she's missing something. But, she shook it off and said goodbye, leaving the two to attend her schedule.

"You can sit down," Echo gently patted the spot next to her, her eyes never leaving Jonghyun's.

He faltered, but slowly sat down, keeping a few inches between them. "How do you feel?"

"Like ."

The male idol snorted. "Do you… know what happened last night?"

"We think I was," she gulped, finding it hard to say the word, "drugged, by, something."

"So, are you hungover?" he gave her a questioning look.

"I don't think so, I barely sipped my first drink and chugged the second. I don’t think that's enough to get a hangover though."

"As long as the drink wasn't all hard liquor… I would say it's the drug."

"You think that can help us find out what it is?" piquing her interest.

"Where's a laptop?" Jonghyun asked, searching the room for one.

"Tiffany's is under her bed," Echo rolled her eyes. She remembers when she questioned the elder she simply stated that if they had robbers it was the best place to hide it. Echo told her that's where everyone looks first but she firmly denied it, saying her laptop was safe.

"Whoa," Jonghyun gaped when he opened the laptop.

"If it's pretend you never saw it," Echo swiftly said, eyes wide, fruitlessly reaching for the laptop, only to receive a dizzy spell and fall back onto the pillows.

Jonghyun didn't notice, too focused on the laptop. "Did you know your abdominal scar is becoming a hot topic?"

"My what?!" She went to sit up but Jonghyun gently pushed her back, giving her a chiding look. "Stop moving so fast."

"It's all over this Girls' Generation fansite, which is hysterical that it's what Tiffany was looking at by the way, and it's completely taken over the site."

"Click one!"

The SHINee member gave her a confused look, taken aback by her wide eyes, but he did what she asked. "It's titled 'Echo's Ever Showing Stomach Scar', the top comment is 'I wonder how we're only noticing this now, is it recent or old?'"

Echo hid her face in her hands. "How many views does the article have?" her voice was muffled.

"Uh," he hesitated, "over a hundred thousand."

"Call Jessica."

"What? Why?"

"Just, ing call Jessica!" she yelled, slamming her fists into the bed sheets. Her new wave of entangling emotions pushed aside any illness she felt.

Without further question the male idol whipped his phone out and found the number, after pressing dial he handed it to his ex.

Once the dial tone ended Echo didn't let Jessica say anything. "Unnie, it's Echo, they know."

A pause. Then a confused, "Know about what?"

"My scar, unnie. The thing on my stomach."

Another pause. There was some muffled speaking on the other end before Jessica spoke, "Look, unnie will handle it. Don't go posting anything anonymously on any site, your secret is safe the public won't know."

Instead of relief Echo felt anxious. Softly she spoke, "Unnie, I can't go through this again."

"You won't. Trust your unnie, okay? Just focus on resting." A pause. "I love you Echo-ah."

The corner of the female idols lips tugged upwards. "I love you too."

She hung up.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Jonghyun asked after the two sat in short silence.

"Can… can we cuddle?"

The SHINee member was surprised by the request, but slowly nodded. Echo faced the wall, Jonghyun's muscular arm wrapped around her waist with his body pressed against her backside.

"I'm fine, stop asking," Echo rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time at the all too familiar question.

"You sure? I can make you something if you're hungry," Sooyoung offered, half hanging off the doorway.

"I don't think I could keep it down if I tried."

"I'll make juk." Before Echo could stop the dancer Sooyoung was already out of her bedroom and in the kitchen.

The singer sighed, closing her eyes, facing the ceiling. She loved her members dearly but ever since they returned from Music Bank they've all been doting around her, taking turns asking if she needed anything or how she felt every few minutes. It was a nice gesture, but insanely annoying as well.

"Echo-ah?"

Please don't ask me how I feel.

"Yeah?"

"I got you something."

Her eyes popped open. To her great surprise Yoona awkwardly stood by the double bed, a small pink book in hand.

"What?"

She handed her the book, revealing it to be a new diary, with a gold colored lock. "I thought you could use this," she smiled. "The key is in between the pages."

Before Echo could say anything Yoona already left the small bedroom, probably to go to bed, she looked like a walking zombie.

She gently brushed her thin fingers against the pink leather. It was an incredibly sweet gesture by her member, and she was surprised by it. She didn't understand where Yoona was coming from, but she couldn’t help the smile on her face by the simple gift.

A buzz met her ears.

Echo grabbed her phone, smiling at the caller's name.

"Hey, Ari. What's up?"

It looks like the makeup artists became lazy, if you look at past Oh! performances you can see Echo's scar slowly revealing itself.

Maybe she just got surgery? It's not that big of a deal…

Who the was staring at her lower stomach long enough to notice that light blob?!

I realized I wasn't really fair in the hints I gave last chapter, so I gave you more in this one, so feel free to give the guessing a second shot!