You’re Our Baby

Kim Yerim. Kim Yeri. Red Velvet’s Yeri. Red Velvet’s Positive Maknae Yeri…

…doesn’t seem so positive right now.

Yeri knows that she shouldn’t be affected by such comments. Especially when she first got in to the industry. But she’s only human. And like every other human, she too would get hurt if she ever reads something bad about her.

Now here she is locked in her and her Irene-unnie’s bed room, curled into a ball in the corner of her bed, silently letting her tears out.

She got home from school an hour ago and seeing as her unnies left a note saying they all went for a double date, she went about looking for something to do alone. Somehow she ended up watching random videos of their group in Youtube; and as every other idol, she grew curious as to how people view their group.

At first the comments were nothing new to her, but nonetheless she was thankful for the praises the people gave. However, when she stumbled upon a certain video of her Joy-unnie’s maknae moments; one comment threw her off.

“Joy is the real maknae, not Yeri.”

And just like other comments, this one got many replies. Yeri knows she shouldn’t look at the replies, but seeing as the comment pulled strings at her heart, she clicked on the replies button anyway. The first few replies were able to calm her heart, but the ones after that seemed to have plunged her deeper and deeper into that of discouragement.

“I wish Joy was still the maknae.”

“Red Velvet’s fine without Yeri.”

“Why’d they have to include a kid in the group and replace our Joy??”

“Joy looks so cute. Like the perfect little evil maknae, unlike Yeri.”

“I hope Yeri sees this and realizes she’s not needed in the group”

“I hate Yeri, I wish she just debutted with a different group, so that Joy was still the maknae.”

The last one struck Yeri hard. ‘They… hate me?’ Yeri shook the thoughts away before they grew, unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work as the words kept replaying in her head.

‘They hate me… They don’t want me in Red Velvet… I-I’m not a good maknae…’ Yeri felt something wet falling on her hand and didn’t realize she had started crying. Seeing the tear, she quickly dropped the tablet and ran to the sanctuary of her and Irene’s room and locked the door.

She tried stopping the tears, but it seems that the more she tried stopping them, the more they fell. She has to find a way to stop the thoughts, to stop the tears. Reaching for her phone by the nightstand, she knows she couldn’t call any of her unnies. Even if she was about to have a mental breakdown, she knows how much her unnies have been wanting to go out on a date. Plus, this is something she wouldn’t want to burden her unnies with. And asking her parents for advice in this category wasn’t going to work either.

Looking for the name in her contacts list, she immediately pressed the call button as soon as she clicked on the name…

---

In another 3 bedroom dorm…

“Cause girl you’re worth it… and you deserve it… the way earned it-“

“Fany-ah~, your phone…” Kim Taeyeon mumbled in her sleepy state, softly shaking the woman asleep beside her. “Hmm…” Tiffany gave a low hum, before reaching out to her bedside table to answer the ringing device. She looked at the caller and wondered why the little girl would be calling her so late when she remembered she was taking an afternoon nap with her ‘wife’ after her Heart-A-Tag shooting.

Yawning first and snuggling with her ‘wife’, she then answered the call…

“Annyeong, Yeri-ah~” Tiffany was expecting for a cheerful greeting coming from the usually bubbly girl, but the sniffing sounds she heard over the phone was enough to drive all her sleepy senses away and have concern replace all of it.

“Yeri? What’s wrong honey?” Tiffany’s worried tone awoke Taeyeon up completely from her sleep (not that she was still sleeping anyway) and raised her eyebrows to the eye-smiling girl. “What’s wrong?” she mouthed, in which Tiffany just replied with an “I don’t know, wait.”

“Yeri?” Tiffany called out for the little girl again and finally got a reply, albeit a shaky one.

“U-unnie?” Yeri says, “Yes?” Tiffany was patient, it was at times like this that she’s reminded of how emotional 16 year olds could be; especially since she’s had her fair share of crying moments. It was silent again over at the other end, but Tiffany didn’t give up trying.

“Yeri-ah~ What’s wrong honey?” Tiffany asked again, and a few seconds later, she got an answer.

“U-unnie… H-how do y-you… s-stop y-your… s-self f-from… crying..?” Yeri asks in between her hiccups. Hearing this, Tiffany frowned. She wondered what could possibly make the positive and happy girl cry. Nonetheless, she still gave an answer.

“I usually try counting to calm myself down, but honey what made you cry?” Tiffany says.

“I-I already t-tried t-that, but I-it didn’t w-work” Yeri says, purposely avoiding the question.

Unfortunately, Tiffany would have none of it…

“What happened Yeri-ah? Why are you crying baby girl?” Tiffany asks in her best motherly tone. She knows at times like these a teen would either want to be heard or not bothered, and if Yeri still won’t tell her this time, she would let the girl be.

“U-unnie… I-I…” Yeri seems hesitant to tell the older woman, but after hearing the reassurance from her sunbae, she ended up letting out everything.

And without waiting for a response, she quickly ended the call and threw her phone somewhere in the room and buried herself in her sheets, her eyes still letting out droplets of tears.

Tiffany could only stare at her phone in surprise when the younger girl hanged up on her. “What’s wrong Fany-ah? Why’s Yeri crying?” Taeyeon asks the silent woman. Tiffany shakes her head and tells Taeyeon of what Yeri just told her before hanging up.

Taeyeon sighs and wishes she could help the poor girl, but she knows this isn’t something they should be getting themselves involved to. They’ve done what they can, now it was time to call for the right people for the job.

She grabbed her Bear-cased phone and dialled the first person in her contacts list that’s in any relation to the girl…

“Yaboseyo Taeyeon-unnie?”

“Joohyun-ah, you need to go help Yeri.”

---

‘I knew it. I knew something was wrong.’ Irene thought as fidgeted in her seat in their group van. Wendy was seated beside holder hand, occasionally telling her that everything will be fine and that it’s something every teenager goes thru, but she wouldn’t have any of it.

She looked at the other