Nayeon’s eyes opened slowly as rays of sunlight hit her face. She sat up just as slowly. There was a reason people jokingly called her a senior citizen. Before walking out of the room, she looked in the mirror. God, she looked like a mess. So she went to the bathroom first.

After finishing her hair and light makeup, she walked over to the main room. Only Jeongyeon, Dahyun and Chaeyoung were sitting there, all with blank faces. And as soon as Nayeon caught their attention, Chaeyoung immediately got up and ran to the oldest girl to hug her.

“Nayeon unnie! I swear I didn’t say anything about it I-“

“Woah, slow down, what are you talking about?” Her eyebrows furrowed.

Jeongyeon walked over to them and spoke. “Haven’t you read about” she paused and inhaled, “the news?”

“No. What happened.” She really hoped that it wasn’t what she thought it was.

Jeongyeon took out her phone, seemed to type something, and then handed it to Nayeon.

She squinted at the phone, reading out the title of the page.

Are two Twice members dating?

No. No. No.

Nayeon sat down on the couch. Her whole body felt heavy.

It was definitely what she hoped it wasn’t.

Her eyes scanned further into the article. She couldn’t believe it.

Twice members Nayeon and Momo spotted out on a date…and not a friendly one.

“What the ?” She didn’t intend to say it out loud. But sometimes it happened that her thoughts came out strongly.

“Unnie..” Dahyun sat closer to Nayeon, putting her hand on her shoulder.

“Wait.” It sounded more aggressive than she wanted to.

But it was hard to keep calm and maintain inner peace when your private life was being exposed in front of the whole nation. She could say that this is just a joke, that these are baseless rumors, but no. The pictures and the videos showed otherwise. This could ruin her and Momo’s career, and even the whole group’s.

Momo.

Nayeon jumped up and stormed into Jeongyeon’s and Momo’s shared room. No one. Dahyun followed her and asked, “Unnie, what are you doing?” She was visibly worried. Nayeon ignored her and went in the kitchen, slamming the door open.

That made all of the girls in the room turn to Nayeon. Sana, Mina and Tzuyu were sitting at the table while Jihyo was cooking. Now all their eyes were on her.

Jihyo was the first one to speak.

“Nayeon unnie y-“

“Where is Momo?” It was loud. She was pretty sure that the whole house heard it.

Jihyo walked closer to her. “Nayeon, please calm down.”

“I’m calm, I just.” Nayeon paused. Her mind was a mess. “Just where is Momo?”

Just when she asked that, Jeongyeon also came in.

“We uh- we don’t know.” She scratched the back of her neck. “One of her shoes are absent so she probably went out.”

“And you just let her leave?!” Her anger was rising. Even if she didn’t want to go off on her friends, sometimes she couldn’t control it.

“Of course not! She was already gone when I woke up. What the hell do you think?” Jeongyeon’s voice also rose up.

“Hey. Hey. Hey.” Sana interposed herself between the two. “Please don’t fight. We already have a… complicated situation on our hands.”

They both stopped. The tension in the air grew bigger. The atmosphere was very heavy as they all stayed in silence. Nayeon looked at the others. All of their expressions showed concern, or perhaps even pity.

Nayeon swallowed.

“If any of you have anything to say about me or Momo, then do it now.”

Silence installed again. Some were looking at eachother, others were looking down and Nayeon was trying to read them.

“Whatever. I’m gonna go look for Momo.” Nayeon frowned as she walked back to her room to get dressed.

She hated that silence. Not knowing the other’s thoughts right now made her feel uneasy. , even insults would be better than this.

“!” The girl almost screamed as she slammed her fist on the sink. She quickly retrieved at the hurtful contact though. She was a mess. Her brain didn’t even know what to focus on right now; finding Momo, saving whatever was left of her reputation, dealing with the hate comments, releasing a press statement to clear this situation up and protecting the rest of the group. Too much.

She looked at herself in the mirror. Shaky lips, teary eyes and red cheeks. She hated herself like this.

“Unnie?” Dahyun’s quiet voice and a light knocking was heard through the door. “Are you okay?”

Nayeon pushed the said door open. She sniffled. “Yeah.”

Jeongyeon was also there, right behind the younger girl.

Just when she was about to leave the house, Jeongyeon stopped her.

“Can we come with you?” Jeongyeon gulped as Nayeon turned around, with a sour expression. “We’re worried about Momo.”

“All of us are.” Dahyun added.

A soft sigh escaped Nayeon’s lips. “Sure, whatever. Just.” She didn’t end her sentence, just vaguely gesticulated in the air.

But someone prevented her from leaving. Again. “Wait.” The three looked back at Jihyo, who just spoke. She was holding a phone. And her eyes met Nayeon’s.

“Manager-nim called. JYP wants you in his office.”

The older girl swallowed. She expected that, too.

-

As the van stopped in front of the JYPE building, paparazzi was already ganging up there. Nayeon winced as she turned to the manager. “Take the backdoor.” So they followed her order.

Before entering she looked at her phone again. Countless new messages and missed calls but the one that marked her the most were the calls from her parents. Nayeon