Author's Note: 

Enjoy this double update, this will be my final gift for all of you. Thank you for your love and your amazing patience, I wish nothing but a year full of blessings for everybody.

_________________________________

Eunjung's P.O.V

After I exited that dressing room, I expected a lot of things to happen. I expected myself to start crying in silence, six steps down the empty hallway. I expected Boram to reprimand me when I entered our dressing room, 18 minutes late for the pre-recording stage. I expected that angry call from my manager, demanding I explain to him what was my relationship with Seunghyun.

What I didn’t expect, however, were the rumors of my supposed romantic relationship with Seunghyun to die down at a rapid pace by the beginning of the second week after the news dropped.

I admit I was relieved, and that the fact that I wasn’t going to see a ton of negative comments directed at me had, without a doubt, encourage my mood to brighten up.

Due to the fact that some members of my group along with me were preparing to start promotions as a sub-unit group, I was solely focused on recording and practice.

Two weeks have passed by after that last meeting with Seunghyun, and though I have ended up crying, I felt ecstatic at the fact that I was able to push Seunghyun away from my thoughts sucessfully; thanks to the hectic rhythm of the schedules of the days prior to the start of the promotions of the sub-unit I was in.

While other members were drained and exhausted from practice, I was – in the other hand – happy that my mind was too busy and tired to keep running in circles around Seunghyun, or entertain the thought about the now dead rumors.

The before 2 weeks were unbelievably physically exhausting, yet I couldn’t be more grateful for them.

I tried to ignore anything, either entiredly or partially related to Seunghyun in any aspect. And I was by the end of the first week, fortunate enough to feel proud about my absurb achievement.

But, what didn’t escape me, despite that, were the several articles about Seunghyun’s departure as a host in the music program we used to meet at a lot.

I was frankly shocked. My mind began to work out reasons as to why he dropped out, but came to the conclusion that I wasn’t a determining factor to any of them; and it was confirmed when I read that one of the two members from the group EXO, who was months ago hosting the music program, have returned from a concert tour to start hosting the show back again.

Though the news have stinged deep inside, and a sudden wave of refreshed irritation boiled on my blood, I thought that maybe those news was all I needed to assure myself that I was going to forget about him.

We were treading down diffferent paths, and there was no meeting point between his and my road, or so I thought.

The first day we were preparing to promote in the music program that Seunghyun used to host, the hallways seemed familiar, what wouldn’t have been strange, considering the fact that I was there two weeks, but that familiarity wasn’t welcoming. There was something odd about the thick atmosphere that appeared to be foreshadowing an impending event, and I hated how the thight air started to get stuck on my throath, as it difficulted my breathing to certain level.

It was pathetic how the simple shift in the atmosphere managed to trigger an alarm in my inside, for what I was reduced to a ridiculous ball of my own anxiety.

I knew something was bound to happen, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was, yet I hated how the acids in my stomach danced at an onminous harmony of dread and uncertainty.

I, nevertheless, managed to ignore the awful premonition and the oppresing atmosphere entertaining my thoughts, even if it was just for some minutes to joke with Qri about how she had delay the hour we were meant to be done with the dance practice for our song.

I was laughing at a joke Jiyeon dropped, when she butted in on the conversation, when we saw that Hyomin entered the dressing room locking the door behind her with an odd expression drew on her features.

Abruptly, that forgotten feeling in my stomach started to pump harder.

“Hyomin?” Qri called, her tone was careful.

Said female turned to stare at our direction and Jiyeon asked, “are you okay?”

Hyomin then pulled a smile and nodded her head, though that didn’t calm the uncomfortable thigtening of my stomach.

“I-“ she started rolling the word a second longer than strictly neccesary, “there was a strange guy, dressed in black – could have been a staff member – and he was following me after I greeted him at the hallway.”

“Following you?” I couldn’t help but questioned, “how so?”

Hyomin let out an exhale, “I felt someone was behind me, and when I stopped walking the steps of that other person halted, so I stared back and saw the same guy from before staring at the door of a dressing room.”

“That’s creepy, what kind of drug did you drink this morning?” Jiyeon tried to joke, but Hyomin shot her a glare and I drowned a chuckle at how Qri pressed her lips together to prevent herself from laughing.

“No, Jiyeon, I didn’t drink anything this morning except for water," she asserted.

“Could have been later…”, Jiyeon commented and that triggered a laugh out of Qri’s mouth.

I stared at Hyomin’s slightly annoyed demeanor, before she countered back, “I swear that that guy was following me, because he was even careful enough to leave a distance in-between me and him, but it was obvious that he was trailing behind me.”

Qri darted up a brow, “how are you so sure?” she asked before proceeding, “maybe he was heading to the same direction for something, that’s why he stopped at a dressing room, right?”

Hyomin shook her head at Qri’s reasoning, and I hated how thick the atmosphere was and how every second seemed to press down on me.

“No,” Hyomin rejected, “that guy was following me, because as soon as I started walking again that guy did, so I began to walk faster until I reached our room.”

A pregnant silence that streched for a minute setlled in, before it was rudely interjected by Jiyeon, “guess he could have been a fan or some weird admirer.”

Qri chuckled and Jiyeon shot Hyomin her signature grin, while Hyomin groaned and let the sound die in silence.

“Well, he hasn’t come knocking yet,” I said, more to assure myself rather than to comfort Hyomin because that upsetting feeling on my stomach wouldn’t stop.

“Exactly,” Qri butted in on agreement.

Jiyeon raised a skeptical, defined brow, “could have been, could have not.”

Hyomin groaned, “maybe I was just paranoid.”

“It’s not like he would come knocking at our room and -” Qri was cut off mid-sentence when three knocks were heard coming from the direction of the locked door.

The sound was awfully loud, and it forced another silence to swallow the whole room in a pregnant pause.

An onminous second proceeded, Hyomin’s face paled a tone in her skin, Jiyeon cupped with a hand, Qri’s expressive eyes expanded out, and a thick frown distorted the lines of the previous expression drew on my face as the frown hardened on my forehead.

The silence punctuated the atmosphere and a share feeling of uncertainty ensued.

I couldn’t concretely define what was happening, I was aware of how my thoughts were shooting across my mind setting fire to my senses, but I was trying hard to ignore how everthing was positioning itself against me, pointing their guns at me.

The knocking came again and Hyomin visibly flinched. Qri leaned back on the cushion she was sitting on with me, and my eyes met Jiyeon’s.

It was as if we were in a comedy sitcom, time appeared to drift back and slow down its pace to mock me. It was then, when Jiyeon stood up from her seat across Qri on impulse.

Hyomin nodded at her, and she seemed to be glad that finally someone reacted.

“I’m coming,” Jiyeon choked out and went to answer the door.

My eyes traveled after her, but from my position in the couch I couldn’t see who was at the door when she answered with quite a commotion.

Everything we could hear from the entrance of the room, a minute after Jiyeon went to open the door, was a quick mumble of apologies one after another.

None of us asked Jiyeon was wrong, but Hyomin was particularly curious about who was at the door, and so she asked, “Jiyeon, who is it?”

Jiyeon’s response came almost right after, “Hyomin, I think it is for Eunjung.”

My stomach did an upset turn. I frowned at that, and Hyomin turned to stare at me and snapped two fingers at me as if I was in some kind of trance, before she said “Eunjung”, for some reason her voice sounded loud, too loud, “someone is here to see you.”

Please log in to read the full chapter