—MINJU—

4 days later — 6.13 a.m

Minju is the only one awake in the dorm like always. The very first thing she would do every morning is to wash the dishes from last night. She roll up her sleeves until her elbow and tie her hair back into a pony tail. She runs the water on the sink and start to clean the plates and glass one by one. Not even half done, her activity is interupt by the doorbell. She cleans both of her hands and run towards the door. From the front door monitor she can see the manager standing there alone, so she buzz him in. 

"Good morning!" Minju greets him politely. 

"Hey, is anyone awake yet?" he asks as soon as he steps inside the dorm. 

"No, not yet. Why?" 

The manager did not answer immediately, instead he walks toward the dining table and sit on one of the chair. "There's a rumor spreading." 

Minju follows him quickly as soon as she hears the word rumor. "Rumor? What rumor?" 

The manager isn't answering Minju, but he takes out his phone and tap on the screen a few times. MInju wait patiently as she make hot tea for the manager.

"Here..."

The manager hand out his phone to Minju, she put down the cup of tea in front of the manager and grabs his phone. She sees an article from one of the most famous news in Korea. She scroll down the page and see the title of the article. 

BTS Rap Monster is spotted leaving a building with The ARK Yuna Kim

As soon Minju red the title her eyes dilated and quickly scroll the page down to read the article. "On Monday night, around 11.15 pm Rap Monster of BTS was spotted leaving a dance studio building with the ARK Yuna Kim in Nonhyeong-Dong area. Both of them seems to had share a casual time together from their attire. From the picture that was taken by a fan, Namjoon was seen to be opening the van's door to let Yuna in. From this event, fans start to speculate that they're both might be dating this whole time..." 

Dating? DATING?! Minju's heart throbs super fast and loud. So loud, it seems that the manager could also hear it from where he is right now. Minju scroll the page down slowly and see a few pictures of Namjoon and Yuna together in low light. Even though the lighting isn't that good, there are 2 pictures where Yuna and Namjoon seems like they're facing the camera. It's clear enough for identification of who this two people are. 

"...fans are stating to see from previous picture if both had share any specific couple items and found several similar items that they both use. Is it true? Or is it just a coincidence?" the article stops there and followed by a few more pictures of same item they wore before. 

"Oppa, did you know that they met?" Minju asks carefully. 

"Of course. I drove Yuna there. I was sure that no one was on the neighborhood," the manager take his phone from Minju's hand. "The CEO was really mad when he red this article and called me immediately. I got scold because I was not careful." 

"It's not your fault though, Oppa." 

"No, it is. I should know better that meeting another idol—at NIGHT—alone is never a good idea. I should've prevent her." 

Minju couldn't respond to what the manager just said. She's just quiet in her position, being awkward playing with her nail. At this point, being scold by the CEO is inevitable. 

"Wake her up. We need to ask her straight on." 

"Wait... do you really think they are dating?" Please no. 

"I don't know. What do you think? They've known each other way before he and she debuted. It's possible that they are." 

At this rate Minju doesn't know what to feel anymore. Her fingers is trembling like a shaken leaves, she takes heavy step towards Yuna's room and slowly open the door. She see her sleeping peacefully on her bed. She shake Yuna softly to wake her up. 

"Yuna, wake up now, the manager is here. He wants to talk to you. Wake up, quickly!" Yuna wake up immediately, try to get to her senses then walk slowly outside her room. Minju follows Yuna from behind, she is holding her feeling inside. She doesn't even know how to act normal anymore. 

"Yuna. Get to your senses, we need to ask you a serious question," says the manager without any small talk. 

"Uuh... sure. What's going on?" Yuna takes the seat in front of the manager. She blinks her eyes couple of times trying to adjust to the light. 

Minju seats on the floor next to the manager. She and the manager trade look with each other then face Yuna. "Tell me honestly. You're not dating Namjoon, are you?" the manager asks without any hesitation. 

❉ ❉ ❉

—YUNA—

Yuna is just woken up from her sleep and she's being ask with a heavy loaded question. Yuna is still trying to get back to her senses. She wipes her face with both of her palm. 

"What?" she squint both of her eyes. "No. Why? We're just friends." 

"After you met him the other day, at that dance studio you asked me to drove you to... someone spotted you there, and thinks both of you guys are dating. So tell us, are you sure?" 

Blood drench off of Yuna's face and her adrenaline kicks in. Her heart beats faster. "Yes, I am sure. We're just a really good friend." 

"You meeting him like that, is it a casual thing? Do you guys do that often?" 

"Manager-nim, we're just friend," she feels offended that the manager doesn't believe her. "For years it was the first time we actually meet each other in private. I swear," she said with a panic voice. 

The manager sigh deeply and trade looks with Minju again. Minju did not say anything. She just sits there being awkward, not sure what to say. 

"We have to meet the CEO. The company needs to give an official statement to the media before this gets out of hand. You just need to be ready, cause the CEO will scold you," says the manager, now with a softer voice. "Get ready, we're leaving in 5 minutes." 

"Are we all going?" Minju asks carefully.

"No. Just you both." The manager gets up from his seat and leave without saying anything else. 

Minju and Yuna is now left alone in the room. They look at each other but nobody say anything to each other. MInju looks away and get up then walk to her room. Yuna get up quickly and grab Minju's hands in a flash firmly. 

"민주야—" 

"Just go get ready, we don't want to make the manager wait too long," Minju cuts Yuna without letting her say anything at all. Minju wont even look at Yuna in the eyes. She lets go of Yuna's grip and enters her room. 

Yuna is left frozen, lost words. She scratch her scalp quickly and runs to her room and grabs her phone. She open the messenger app. 

YOU-나: Have you seen the article from S news?

❉ ❉ ❉

—NAMJOON—

Namjoon is sitting with Hoseok in the living room alone. Nobody say a word for the last 15 minutes. They only sit there. Namjoon leaning back to the seat, he cope both of his hand with one another. Hoseok is sitting across Namjoon holding out his phone and reading something on the screen slowly. He rubs his nose couple of times because he has a mild fever. Hoseok is in his sweat pants and gray jacket, meanwhile Namjoon is in his white t-shirt and jogging pants. They've been awake all night, after they got back from the studio around 2. That's when they found out about the news. From that moment on until now the sun almost rise, they haven't lay their body on their bed even just for a second. Although tiredness is eating them up from the inside, but it seems like that tiredness is nothing compare to what the article had given to the whole world. 

Suddenly the room is filled with a 'ding' sound from Namjoon's phone. Hoseok and Namjoon turn their attention to Namjoon's phone on the table. Namjoon lean his body forward to see the quick-glance notification on the screen and see Yuna's message. He didn't budge off, after he sees the message he return to his position.  

"Who is it?" Hoseok asks. 

"It's from Yuna. She.. uh... she asks... if I've seen the article or not." 

Silence.

"I guess... she wants to know what you would do next," says Hoseok carefully. "I mean, if you both are—" 

"What? No," Namjoon cuts Hoseok immediately. "We're not... pfft... and she knows that." Namjoon voice is full of solicitude. 

"Okay, well. It's not like this is the first time right? Jungkook experience this before, the company took it well, WE handled it well."

Namjoon frowns and shakes his head lightly. "No, it's not about that. Taking care the netizen is the easy part. I'm worry  about someone else." 

Hoseok did not answer immediately. He takes his time to think then, "About Yuna?" 

Namjoon shakes his head once again. 

"Owh..." Hoseok understands now. "What are you worry about?" 

Namjoon lean forward, he rest both of his elbow on his knee, still coping one and another's hand. "I just don't want her to misunderstand. I mean..." 

"Try asking Yuna then." 

"Yeah, I guess..." before Namjoon could finish his sentence, his phone rings. Someone calls. He grab his phone and see the manager's caller ID. "Haaaah... it's the manager." 

"You should take it, before he gets even more pissed." 

Namjoon stands up and walk towards the window. He press the green button and place his phone to his right ear. "여보세요? (Hello?)" 

"Namjoon? Have you seen the article?" the manager asks straight away. 

Namjoon sigh and massage his temple with two of his fingers. "Uh... yes, I have." 

"I have so many question to ask you, but first of all. How come you did not tell me you were going to meet Yuna from the ARK?" the menager's voice sound irritated. 

Namjoon takes a deep breathe and explain slowly and carefully about what happen. He's not leaving any details, he tells the manager everything about what happen that night and he explain that there's nothing going on between him and Yuna. They are just pure best friend. He knows exactly what to say to the CEO, the manager, even the netizen. But there's only one person that he doesn't know how to explain himself. 

❉ ❉ ❉