The reporters from every news outlet in the country were having a field day after the controversial tweet of Yoon Jeonghan, one of the hottest K-pop idols of his generation, got posted online. The news portals were filled with Jeonghan’s pictures and screenshots of his tweet with headlines that read: “Seventeen to perform as 12?” “Boyband Seventeen disbanding” “Yoon Jeonghan leaves boyband Seventeen” and “Yoon Jeonghan is quitting” among hundreds of other headlines flooding the front pages.

Since the break of dawn, a huge mass of reporters have flocked at the entrance of the Pledis building in hopes of getting something out of the staff or the other members. This pushed the management to give out a memo to its staff and artists to use the back door.

At 8 A.M., the staff, managers, and the remaining twelve members were called for an urgent meeting by the CEO of Pledis Entertainment Mr. Han Sungsoo. Everyone knew this was coming. Despite being in a state of shock themselves, everyone was preparing for the worst scolding they’ll ever get.

“Speak,” the CEO demanded in a cold tone, breaking the deafening silence enveloping the room. Seungcheol’s heart jumped at the sound of his voice.

“I-I,” he stuttered before clearing his voice to hide his nervousness, “I’m sorry. I’m equally as clueless as everyone else is.”

The CEO shot him an ice cold glare, sending shivers down Seungcheol’s spine. His eyes spoke volumes. Seungcheol knew he was in for an embarrassing scolding in front of everyone in the room. He thought he deserved it, though. Which leader doesn’t even know where his co-member is? Which friend doesn’t even have an idea what happened to his friend? What kind of friend—no, brother—does that make him?

The members, all tensed up, had their heads hung low. Even the managers didn’t dare say a single word. They were all ready to take in all the curses their CEO would throw at them when a soft voice was finally heard.

“He may have hinted me about this around 3 months ago,” Joshua confessed, his lips quivering. His eyes had lost their spark. Everyone’s had.

“What do you mean he gave you a hint?” the CEO hissed.

“H-He,” Joshua answered, ignoring the fast beating of his heart, “he said he didn’t want this life anymore. I didn’t understand him then. I didn’t know what he meant by this life. He said it out of the blue when we were talking about the old times at the roof deck. We were drinking, so I thought he was just tipsy or something.”

“You call that a hint?” The CEO shouted at him, slamming his fist on the table. “You’re telling me that he said he wanted to quit and you didn’t understand? And you didn’t even think of telling anyone? Your 10th anniversary concert’s in a month for crying out loud!”

Everyone in the room froze at the sound of his voice. He was shaking in anger and his eyes were boring holes into Joshua, but everyone knew he had every right to be mad.

With only a month left to their anniversary concert, they couldn’t risk wasting time changing the choreography, recording all over again, and re-arranging the songs. Even the usually calm Jihoon almost lost it when he knew about the tweet after being bombarded with questions by reporters as he arrived at the company. He obviously didn’t get to read the memo about passing through the back door.

Their media partners also threatened to cancel their contracts if the issue won’t be fixed, telling the company that the issue it will taint their reputation. The CEO assured the staff that they won’t back out; it was just their ploy so they could demand more from the company. Still, everyone’s on their toes.

Minghao suggested they cancel the concert, but they couldn’t even do that because they’d have to deal with the refunds, and everyone knows that would be a mess. They’ve already spent billions of won on the concert, too, since it was said to be one of the grandest concerts of all. Pledis couldn’t suffer such a huge loss just because a member refused to join, or has gone missing.

“You have a week to bring him back,” CEO Han said before exiting the conference room, “but don’t wait for him. I don’t think he has plans on coming back.”

“But he will,” Seungcheol objected, his voice firm.

Everyone turned to him, shocked that he had the courage to speak. He himself got shocked by his own voice. He didn’t know where the courage came from. It just felt natural for him to speak up and defend his friend at that moment.

“What makes you so sure of that?” the CEO challenged. Seungcheol noticed that his eyes were shaking, but he didn’t want to point it out.

“I-I just know that he’ll come back,” he added, “Jeonghan won’t leave us this easily. I know him.”

Mingyu scoffed beside him, but Seungcheol didn’t notice. The CEO left the room without saying another word. He just stood up and left, leaving everyone trying to sort out their emotions.

The already-cold atmosphere in the room became colder after their exchange even though there were more than 20 people inside the small conference room. Everybody was in a state of confusion. At some point during the talk, Chan had started to cry. Hansol who was beside him had been comforting him while also holding back his tears. All of them were already grown-ups but the magnitude of the situation shook them enough to break their barriers.

“How could he do this? He could have told us. He’s being selfish. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself,” their newest manager accused.

“Don’t talk about Jeonghan like that!” Seungcheol fumed, glaring at the manager, his voice startling everyone. “You don’t know him.”

“Hey.” Hansol sighed. “Let’s not fight amongst ourselves here. How about let’s just help each other and find Jeonghan hyung so it’ll be faster?”

“Hansol’s right,” Seungkwan agreed. “There’s no use in fighting. We don’t know if Jeonghan hyung is okay right now. We need to find him fast and we all need to work together to be able to do that.”

“I agree,” Seokmin added. “Does anybody have an idea where he might be?”

“His favorite places might be a start,” Junhui suggested. “Seungcheol hyung, Joshua hyung, you two know him best among all of us. Maybe he mentioned some places he has been to before, too.”

“Joshua, sure, but Seungcheol? I doubt it,” Mingyu muttered under his breath. Wonwoo nudged him beneath the table, making him cry out in pain. Nobody seemed to catch his words except Wonwoo, though.

“The karaoke bar down the street?” Seungcheol asked.

“Nice try, but I’ve called them earlier and he’s not there,” Mingyu replied as he rolled his eyes.

“What about his sister’s apartment? That’s not far from here. Maybe he slept there,” Seungcheol suggested again.

“You know, genius, if I haven’t called all the obvious places he might be at yet, we wouldn’t be here,” Mingyu deadpanned.

He was right. Mingyu had already called all the obvious places Jeonghan might be at after he cried his eyes out in front of Seungcheol that morning. He even tried tracking Jeonghan’s phone with Wonwoo but it was all to no avail.

Jeonghan left no footprints at all.

“Hey, watch it.” Seungcheol glared at Mingyu. “When are you going to stop talking like that to me? I’m trying to be patient with you because I know you are devastated, but I am, too, so if you stop being a pain in the then maybe we-”

“Stop, stop, stop!” Chan cut Seungcheol off, his voice louder than they’ve ever heard since they’ve known him. Everyone got startled and turned their attention on him.

After wiping his tears with his sleeve, he stood up and said, “Let’s all split up. Rack your brains and call or go to all the places he may be at. Think about where he could be. Maybe he mentioned it before and you just forgot. Please don’t fight.” He paused to stop his tears from falling down again. “Time’s not on our side here. We don’t know if he’s okay where he’s at right now. I just want him back safe.”

After saying those words, Chan let his tears flow in front of everyone. His knees gave in and Hansol caught him in his arms in time and patted his back, while the rest shared glances then proceeded to leave, following the instructions of the youngest one.

The managers went in pairs and went ahead of the others. They also tried to get rid of the reporters on their way out so the members won’t get squeezed when they leave. Apparently, they’ve infiltrated the back door, too. The police were on their way to control the crowd.

The members decided to go in pairs, too, with Jihoon and Soonyoung, Chan and Hansol, Seokmin and Seungkwan, Wonwoo and Joshua, Junhui and Minghao, and Mingyu and Seungcheol together.

Mingyu hated being paired up with Seungcheol due to reasons unknown to the latter, but he had no choice because after he stayed too long in the bathroom, nobody else was left behind except for Seungcheol. He could only sigh at his wonderful luck.

Mingyu was one of the closest members to the eldest of the group, so the reason as to why he hated being around him so much ever since Jeonghan disappeared is beyond everyone’s knowledge. He made it obvious to everyone that he despised everything about their leader. Nobody questioned it, though, as they were all preoccupied with the issue at hand—that Jeonghan tweeted that he’s quitting and now he’s nowhere to be found.

Within minutes from his tweet getting posted, the hashtags “JeonghanComeBack” and “WeLoveYouYoonJeonghan” had trended worldwide. The Carats, their fans, had been frantic, posting about all their guesses and conspiracy theories on what might have happened. However, everyone had no knowledge that Jeonghan had gone missing and that even the members and the staff are oblivious of his whereabouts.

The haters enjoyed the chaos. An anti-Seventeen group even threw a party as soon as the news broke out, celebrating his departure. He was called names, too. He was called a liar, a user, and a traitor among many other disgusting names. The members agreed not to go on any sites unless it was urgent or necessary in their search for Jeonghan.

Mingyu drove his car to begin their search, with Seungcheol riding shotgun. They did not speak a single word to each other except for the older one’s instructions on where to go next. They checked all the places Jeonghan frequented but it was all to no avail. They tried contacting him again, even though they knew it must be turned off, in hopes that maybe one call would go through, but his phone cannot be reached. Even his family was clueless on where he was.

They decided to stop by their house when they were in the neighborhood, hoping to find Jeonghan there, but alas, he was not. It was such an obvious location for Jeonghan to hide at, anyway, since Seungcheol knew the way to their house by heart.

His mother was bawling when Seungcheol informed her of the situation, and he couldn’t help but choke up with tears while talking to her. His heart broke, seeing Jeonghan’s mother crying, while telling him to find her son over and over again. Seungcheol’s shirt got soaked with her tears in no time but he couldn’t care less. He felt as devastated as she was, if not more.

Seungcheol and Joshua had been close to Jeonghan’s family ever since they became friends. Jeonghan’s parents treated them like their own, since their own parents couldn’t visit them in Seoul as often as they could visit their son. There were instances when Jeonghan’s parents visited them even when their son wasn’t around. Even Jeonghan’s younger sister considered Seungcheol and Joshua as her own brothers already. That was how close the two were to the Yoon family.

“It’s so unlike him.” Mrs. Yoon bawled. “He would never go missing like this without telling me. Something must have gone wrong, but he never told me anything about it.”

After assuring Jeonghan’s mother that they will try their best to find her son, Seungcheol and Mingyu bid their goodbyes to continue their search. On their way out, the older one felt somebody tug on his shirt. As he turned around, a pair of eyes met his—Jeonghan’s sister’s eyes which became all red from crying. Seungcheol nodded at Mingyu as a way of saying he’d follow him after having a talk with her.

“I’m so sorry this had to happen,” Seungcheol said as he pulled her into a hug, “I didn’t take care of your brother enough. This wouldn’t have happened if I-“

“It’s not your fault,” she said, looking up at him. “I know he won’t like it if you’re being overly dramatic like that. He would have pushed you and rolled his eyes at you already for being too emotional.”

Seungcheol let a smile creep onto his face. He broke away from the hug and held her hands in his.

“Still,” he continued, “I feel sorry for everything.”

“I know. You’re only human, after all. It’s okay to not know some things sometimes. It’s okay to be clueless, but sometimes they lead to things that we may regret. Then it’s up to us if we’ll choose to know or choose to stay in the dark.”

“I don’t quite understand what you’re getting at,” Seungcheol admitted, “what do I not know?”

“Well, maybe you do know,” she replied, “but that doesn’t matter now. I need to tell you something but promise me you won’t tell anyone else.”

“Okay,” he agreed, holding his pinky finger out, “I promise.”

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