“There is no traitor,” Baekho immediately admitted. It came out of his mouth quickly, and with such ease. It was almost too easy to get that answer out of him. After all of the commotion that the prospect of there being a traitor had caused among the Seventeen members, that one sentence that Baekho had uttered so simply just seemed so inappropriate, so anti-climatic.

“What the ?” Vernon asked, not heeding the cameras.

“No traitor. It was a lie,” Baekho explained, “because my members wanted to bring down Seventeen more. And they figured that accusing another member of wanting to destroy Seungcheol’s career is a good way to do it. I didn’t agree with them.”

“How noble,” Junghan scoffed.

“But wait,” Seungkwan responded, “if there is no traitor, then does that mean the affair was a lie as well?”

Baekho nodded, “I’m sorry on behalf of all my members for spreading this false information. And I’m sorry to all of the members’ mothers for putting them in the limelight and liable to accusations.”

“I totally called it,” Junghan said and addressed s, “I told you guys!”

As Junghan was scanning the eyes of s, he noticed that Woozi was sitting there, in the farthest possible chair from Baekho. He was leaning back slightly in his chair, so that Minghao’s body shielded him from Baekho. Woozi sat so that eye contact between Baekho and himself was impossible.

“You ing s!” Mingyu spat towards Baekho, “you turned us against one another!”

“Then I guess we were right to say that you guys aren’t as close as you pretend to be,” Baekho replied insolently and raised his eyebrows.

“Can we please turn off the cameras?” Vernon asked the CEO with clenched fists, “I want to show that prick a piece of my mind.”

“Please,” Junghan begged as well, turning to the CEO.

The CEO had been sitting back in his chair and listening in on the conversation. “Fine. We’ll turn off the cameras, but first we’ll film a scripted apology. A real one does not seem to be happening anytime soon,”

The CEO turned to Baekho and asked him to apologize again to the members sincerely and pretend to cry. Baekho immediately conceded, as all of the cameras went around him and filmed him giving his fake speech with the fake tears.

“Great, prefect,” the CEO said, he turned to the members and asked them to pretend to have angry faces that softened up. Junghan sighed, but also obeyed. He pretended that his face softened up and was affected by Baekho’s speech.

The CEO went on and asked more members to say certain things. To pretend to be crying. To say that they forgave NU’EST. The CEO had Junghan say that he always admired NU’EST. He had Woozi apologize for the whole ordeal with Armor. He had Seokmin sing a NU’EST song. He had Baekho crack a joke, and he had all of the members pretend to laugh. He had them pretend to have small talk. It was ridiculous, but they all knew it was for the best that the public thought they made up.

When the agonizing process of filming the scripted apology was over, the CEO asked all cameras to be turned off, and ordered that the editors start working on it immediately.

The staff slowly poured out of the room, leaving only Seventeen’s manager and the CEO in the room.

“No physical fighting,” the CEO told the boys. He looked to the manager in the room, “make sure they don’t hurt one another. We need their faces pretty and their bodies functional for the marketing.” The CEO then left, not giving a damn what else happened between them. Now that the media play was secure, it didn’t matter what the Seventeen members did to Baekho.

“So are you really sorry?” Junghan asked Baekho, “you don’t have to pretend anymore. There are no cameras.”

“Not to you,” Baekho sneered.

Junghan made a face.

“Also, I’m not as sorry as I pretended to be in front of the cameras,” Baekho replied with his arms crossed.

“I want to hit you so bad,” Vernon interceded.

“How old are you, kid? Twelve?” Baekho asked with an amused laugh, “you best not try anything with me or I’ll break you.”

Vernon looked triggered. He stood up, only to have the manager yell at him ordering him sit down. Vernon obeyed, glaring daggers into Baekho.

Junghan looked out to see that Woozi was still hiding behind Minghao’s body.

“Woozi, what do you have to say to him? You’ve been quiet,” Junghan said.

“I have nothing to say,” Woozi replied, ferociously shaking his head.

“Really? Nothing?” Baekho asked. He couldn’t see Woozi because of the way Woozi was positioning himself, but he still looked in that direction. “Nothing at all?”

“No.”

“Well, I have something to say to you, Jihoon,” Baekho said, “and it’s that I hope you’re well, and that I miss you.”

Junghan saw that Woozi stiffen. “I am well,” Woozi replied with a slight stutter, “and please don’t say that you miss me anymore.”

Baekho laughed, “you can stop me from saying it, but not from feeling it.”

“Bleghhhh,” Mingyu interceded with a cringe, “please stop with this gay romance bull. I can’t stand it.”

Baekho smiled slightly, and nodded, “I’ll stop. But only because Jihoon would prefer it.”

All eyes were suddenly on Woozi, waiting for him to say something. Woozi shifted uncomfortably. Junghan noticed Woozi's uneasiness, and so diverted attention from him by asking Baekho, “What are your other members planning now? You ruined S.Coups, are you targeting someone else later?”

“I have no idea what they’re planning,” Baekho said with a shrug.

They continued to argue. They asked where the other members were, what ulterior motive he had for turning himself in, whether or not the other NU’EST members would do the same. Baekho did not give any satisfactory answers to any of them. He threw shade at Seventeen often, which led to the manager trying to restrain Vernon and occasionally Mingyu. Junghan also felt the urge to trample on Baekho’s face, but he had the self-control to wait.

If it were the last thing he did, Junghan would have his revenge. He just needed to set up a situation when there wasn’t a supervisor keeping them from hurting him.

At one point Vernon couldn’t handle the lowkey insults Baekho was launching at them. He threw a water bottle at Baekho’s face, and Baekho’s nose started to bleed. The manager, furious, kicked all of the Seventeen members out of the room. That was the end of that meeting.

-

There were two vans for the Seventeen members that would take them back to their dorm. Woozi told the members that were riding in the first one that he would ride in the second, and the ones that were riding in the second that he would ride in the first. He then went into a bathroom and hid there until he could see that both vans were gone from the small window in his cubicle.

Woozi then shuffled quietly through the Pledis halls, making sure no one was around to see that he was not where he was supposed to be.

He just needed to talk to Baekho alone, without s listening. He needed to set things straight with him.

Was Baekho really there because of what Woozi thought?

Woozi considered that there was some ulterior motive. Maybe Baekho was there to kill or hurt the members. And there he was, going to meet Baekho alone, unguarded and vulnerable.

Would Baekho hurt him? Woozi didn’t think so, but he also wasn’t so sure.

He prayed that there was no one in the Pledis meeting room with Baekho. He took a deep breath and opened the door. Baekho was sitting there on his phone, a tissue stuffed up his bloodied nose, bloodstained tissues everywhere around him.

When Baekho looked up to see who had entered, he smiled when he saw Woozi. It was not a smirk or a grin or anything devious like that; it was a genuine smile, the one characteristic of the cheerful, optimistic lover that Woozi had known.

Baekho got up from his chair towards where Woozi was. Woozi froze right in front of the door. He had not the slightest clue what Baekho would do: kill him?  Kiss him? Hurt him? Hug him?

Baekho reached out and did nothing but close the door behind Woozi, who did not even realize that he had left it open.

“Why are you scared?” Baekho asked taking Woozi’s trembling hands, “You don’t actually think I would hurt you, do you?”

“I don’t know anything anymore,” Woozi stammered, pulling his hand away.

“Jihoon, I abandoned my group because I was angry with them for what they did to you. I swear I tried to stop them. I didn’t want them to release that last statement. I didn’t want them to reveal that there was a traitor in your group.”

It was exactly what Woozi thought.

“I’m so angry at them for it,” Baekho continued, “and so I left.”

Woozi turned his face away from Baekho. He felt so ashamed. But he needed to know the answer: “Why did you lie to my members about there not being a traitor?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Baekho replied. He tried again and took Woozi’s hand in his own. This time, Woozi did not pull away. “It’s because I don’t want them to figure out that it was you.”

A/N: BOOM. Bet you didn't see that one coming.

When I told you to guess who the traitor was, I actually used a Woozi gif, but no one caught on to that hint lol.

Also can I just say that I love that people are actually engaging with this? I love reading all of your theories about what would happen. They actually give me ideas too!