February 20, 2018
11:15PM

“Seungwan!” I jolt at the sudden sound of Seulgi’s voice yelling my name by the entrance of our dorm, followed by the front door slamming close.

“In a minute!” I reply, carefully nudging the cake batter to middle of the countertop before making my way to the living room where Seulgi’s currently pacing back and forth in front of the couch, face contorted into a worried expression, “Seulgi? Is there something wrong?”

“I think I lost my phone,” she replies, voice almost a whisper but the implication makes my heart thunder almost immediately.

“You what?!” I find myself yelling out incredulously in surprise. Wait. No. I must’ve heard wrong. Because it sounds like Seulgi just said that she lost her phone. As in the phone with all those secrets (her and Joohyun-unnie’s couple pictures, for starters) and the weirdest selcas imaginable by every Red Velvet member.

Seulgi stops her pacing and whirls at me, looking like a desperate lost bear that I had to backpedal and gather my wits, “Okay, first of all we need to calm down. Do you remember where you lost it?”

“I don’t know for sure,” Seulgi frowns, “But I had it with me earlier this afternoon when I was hanging out with Joohyun-unnie. I haven’t used it since she had to leave for her schedule, though. So I only noticed now.”

“Okay, I’ll just call unnie for now and ask her just in case you left your phone with her,” I tell her gently, pushing her to sit down on the couch before walking back to the kitchen to grab my phone.

I immediately dial Joohyun-unnie’s number, waiting patiently as the receiver rings (since I’m not sure if the schedule that Seulgi was talking about is over already) until the call finally goes through, “Unnie! I’m so glad you picked up! We have a bit of a problem-”

“Seungwan-ssi?” a voice that definitely does not  belong to Joohyun-unnie answers and I had to double check if I accidentally called the wrong person.

“I’m- Sorry but who is this?” I ask, immediately suspicious when I see that I dialled the correct number, because even if the voice is familiar, it doesn’t sound like any of our managers.

“Oops, I’m sorry! This is Jennie!” the voice replies and I can feel one of my eyebrows raising already because the familiar voice suddenly makes sense. But what is Joohyun-unnie’s phone doing with Black Pink’s Kim Jennie?

“Is Joohyun-unnie there?” I politely ask, choosing to ignore this weird development because I still have a lost phone to deal with.

“Oh, Joohyun-unnie’s asleep in my room right now, is it important? Should I wake her up?” Jennie inquires innocently and I feel my other eyebrow raising up.

Just… what is going on here. Didn’t Seulgi just say that Joohyun-unnie had to leave because of a schedule? Then why does it sound like she’s having a sleepover at Jennie’s dorm?

“No, it’s okay. Just tell her I called when she wakes up,” I mutter out reluctantly, lost phone suddenly forgotten in the face of another seemingly bigger problem.

“Alright, I’ll do that,” Jennie replies.

“Thank you, Jennie-ssi,” I answer, ending the call soon after. Biting my lower lip anxiously, I didn’t have much time to compose myself when Seulgi enters the kitchen soon after.

“Seungwan? What’d she say? Is it with her?”

It feels like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do I tell Seulgi? What if this ends up causing problems between the two of them? But then Jennie spoke as if the entire thing is casual and it doesn’t look like she’s trying to hide anything at all so maybe I’m just the only one overthinking things.

“I didn’t talk to her,” I start slowly, buying myself some time to decide how to break this to her.

“Eh? But I heard you talking to someone?” Seulgi’s brows scrunch up in confusion and I sigh tiredly.

“I was talking to Jennie.”

“Jennie? I didn’t know you’re close with her,” she tilts her head now, looking even more confused.

“I’m not.”

“Then why?”

“She answered Joohyun-unnie’s phone.”

There. I said it. Good job, Seungwan. Now you have to deal with whatever comes next.

“Joohyun didn’t mention recording with anyone from Black Pink today,” Seulgi’s probably really flustered right now. She very rarely slips up and calls Joohyun-unnie without the honorifics when she’s with me.

“She was.. sleeping in their dorm.”

Silence follows my declaration and I watch as my words sink in. I didn’t mention unnie sleeping in Jennie’s room specifically but Seulgi seems to jump to that conclusion all the same.

“But.. Joohyun said- This can’t be right- I don’t understand-” she stutters, unable to complete a sentence.

“Seulgi, calm down, we shouldn’t jump into conclusions,” I try to push her back to the couch but she tugs her arms away from me.

”I can’t believe she lied to me. She said she had to record until way past midnight! It’s just 11:30 now! What is she doing in Black Pink’s dormitory?!”

I don’t have answers to her questions so I just stand there uselessly as Seulgi’s face morphs into one of anger.

“I’m going there,” she declares before stomping towards the door without giving me a second glance.

“What?! No! Wait! Seulgi come back here!!” I yell after her in frustration. There’s no time for me to change so I just grab a random hoodie lying around on the floor before dashing after my friend dressed in sweatpants and flip flops.

I manage to catch up with her when she’s about to close the door of the cab, and I somehow end up entering too because she threatened to leave whether I join her or not.

This is not good. Not good at all.

•••••

Five minutes to midnight, we arrive at the building where Black Pink’s unit is located. I walk briskly after Seulgi as she expertly navigates her way through the lobby and elevators, punching a specific floor and getting off without saying a word.

“Seulgi, are you sure about this? Why don’t we ask Joohyun-unnie first? I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for this,” I try to convince her but my words seem to enter one ear and exit the other as she suddenly stops in front of one door and presses the doorbell.

Oh my God. This is really happening. Seulgi’s really going to do this. I shouldn’t have said anything. What if this is all just one giant misunderstanding?

My panicked thoughts come to a startling halt when the door opens to reveal one half of my current problem. Jennie stands in full glory wearing a comfortable sweater and… a party hat?

“Well??” Seulgi smirks and I glance at her in confusion. Which is multiplied when Jennie smirks back in response, stepping back to allow us access inside the unit.

“Perfect timing, Kang. Come in.”

Right.

I guess I should’ve seen this coming.

Because there, inside Black Pink’s dormitory, are the rest of Black Pink and every single one of my annoying members, Joohyun-unnie included. All of them wearing giant eating grins on their faces along with party hats and balloons and a birthday cake. 

I ignore the shutter coming from my left where Seulgi’s standing, holding her phone up (and forever immortalizing my dumbfounded expression) that’s been on her back pocket all along.

One of the walls in the living room has been decorated with ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEUNGWAN!!!’ and everything suddenly makes sense.

These jerks.

•••••

February 21, 2018
1:30AM

“This is delicious, unnie, you should make one for me too on my birthday,” I hear Jennie ask Joohyun-unnie eagerly, while gesturing at Joohyun-unnie’s signature seaweed soup that she regularly makes for the members’ birthdays.

“Ask Jisoo to make one for you,” Seulgi answers with a cheeky grin, one arm casually slung over Joohyun-unnie’s shoulders.

Jennie pouts, turning to glare at the door that Jisoo and Yerim disappeared to half an hour ago, “She’s too busy gaming to do that.”

“Someone’s jealous,” Seulgi snickers and Jennie turns to smirk at her.

“Careful, Kang. Maybe we should make our little skit earlier a reality,” she wriggles her brows teasingly, turning her head to wink at Joohyun-unnie, who just laughs heartily while munching on some cake.

“Not a chance,” Seulgi grumps, arms tightening around Joohyun-unnie and I clear my throat loudly as I get reminded of the little acting job they pulled on me earlier. The three of them glance at me all at the same time and I glare at them.

“I’m going to get back at you guys for this,” I mutter darkly and they all throw me sheepish looks.

“Aww Seungwan, you didn’t like our hidden camera? We worked so hard on planning for it,” Seulgi playfully pushes me and I throw her another glare.

Oh well, at least they got me new Locobonita dresses. So they’re forgiven for now.