“It’s Wendy. She’s in the hospital.”

“What?!”

Chanyeol almost let go of his phone in shock, and he felt like his heart dropped. He tried to stay calm, but to no avail.

“It’s—”

“Is she alright? Where is she? What happened?!” Chanyeol demanded more and more questions to Wendy’s manager, and the EXO members couldn’t help but stop their practice. They were all looking worriedly at Chanyeol.

“Okay, okay, I got it, I’ll be there in 10,” Chanyeol said as he hung up, and he hurriedly picked up his stuff and his car keys.

“Wait, Chanyeol, what’s wrong?” Suho asked worriedly.

“It’s Wendy… she’s…” Chanyeol tried to answer, looking disheveled. “She’s in the hospital. Poisoning. I’m sorry guys, I have to skip practice, I have to—”

“Go! Hurry!” Suho motioned for Chanyeol to exit the room, waving his hands to the door.

Chanyeol drove as fast as the laws allowed him to, and soon he reached the hospital Wendy was staying at. He rushed to the elevator to reach the floor of the more private rooms and ran to where Wendy’s manager told him she was staying. Chanyeol opened the door and saw Wendy’s tiny frame on the hospital bed, sleeping soundly. Chanyeol approached the bed slowly, afraid that his smallest movements might wake her up. He sat down beside the bed and noticed how pale and frail Wendy looked. Her manager already told that it was food poisoning, but he still had no clear details about how it happened.

A few minutes later, Wendy’s manager entered the room.

“Oh, hey. You’re here. I just talked to the doctor, and to some of the higher-ups…” the manager explained. “It’s bad.”

“I can see that. What happened? Did she eat something bad?” Chanyeol rubbed his forehead in frustration.

“It’s worse. Chanyeol,” the manager took a breath. “One of her fans gave her that food. We got a picture from the surveillance cameras at the university; it might be due for an investigation.”

“One of her fans did this? That’s impossible. She has the sweetest fans. Do you have a picture?” Chanyeol said, brows furrowed in thought.

“Here, they just sent it to me. It’s a bit blurry, but you can see her face here,” the manager replied as he showed the blurry screenshot to Chanyeol. Chanyeol stared at the picture in concentration, when he realized something.

“,” Chanyeol muttered. “. !”

“What’s wrong?”

“I know her,” Chanyeol wanted to pull his hair out. “Iknow her. She’s one of my sasaengs. I can recognize her from afar. She’s been my sasaeng from the very start. !”

“, that’s…,” the manager took a deep breath. “Chanyeol, you know what you’re saying, right?”

He did. Chanyeol was shell shocked. He knew sasaengs always crossed the line by invading their privacy, but they never went this far. And to his girlfriend, his best friend.

“Are we sure she’s the culprit?” Chanyeol asked.

“You know I want to take this to the authorities, but the news might also leak to the press,” the manager replied. “But yeah, we’re around 90% sure she’s the culprit. She was seen going in with Wendy’s lunchbox.”

“Well, we need to take this to the authorities,” Chanyeol fumed. “Look at her!”

“Chanyeol, I know you’re stressed right now, but we need to decide as a company first to determine what’s best for her,” the manager responded calmly. Chanyeol rubbed the crease between his eyebrows.

“Have you called her parents yet?” Chanyeol asked.

“I haven’t. I was so busy arranging all the medical documents, and I’ll coordinate with SM’s legal and PR teams,” he answered truthfully. Chanyeol nodded and grabbed his phone, calling Wendy’s mother.

“Chanyeol! It’s so good to hear from you! How are you?” Wendy’s mom sounded ecstatic as she answered her phone.

“It’s an emergency, Wendy—”

“Oh my god, what happened to our daughter? Is she alright?”

“Her food was poisoned, we don’t know the details yet, but she’s been rushed to the hospital. She’s recovering now. The doctor says she’ll probably be out for a day or two at most, and she’s on IV,” Chanyeol explained.
 

“Her food was poisoned?!”

“Yes, we don’t know all the details yet, but—”

“Is it just our Wendy?”

“Yes,” Chanyeol sighed.

“What did the doctor say?”

“All they told Wendy’s manager was that there was something in her food, but she should recover by a week or two.”

“Oh my god. Our daughter. Please call me when she wakes up, okay? And I’ll tell her father, and we’ll see if we can file leaves to get to Seoul. I’ll call you constantly, Chanyeol. Please always give me updates. Take care of her for us, okay?”

“I will,” Chanyeol answered as Wendy’s mom ended the phone call.

Chanyeol’s rational mind told him that he should wait until the investigation ended, but he knew.He knew that it was his sasaeng who did this to Wendy. Knowing them – they followed him all throughout his career – they probably figured out that his relationship with Wendy was his most meaningful, his most serious relationship to date, and one of them decided to strike. This was probably one of the reasons why Wendy told him she felt so uncomfortable, like she was being followed for the past year. His sasaengs never did this with his previous girlfriends or flings – they usually, somehow, stayed on their lanes (as much as sasaengs could, anyway, which meant they never bothered them on their dates). Who in their right mind would ing poison someone? Chanyeol felt sick to his stomach.

Chanyeol’s thoughts were interrupted when the door opened, and the four remaining Red Velvet members entered the room with their managers in tow. Chanyeol stood up from his seat beside the bed to give the girls space to see their friend.

“Chanyeol, you’re here,” Seulgi said. “What did the doctor say?”

“It’s food poisoning, from the lunchbox. Your manager said you all had the same breakfast, and you’re all fine. It’s the lunchbox,” Chanyeol explained. “The doctor said that she’ll probably be unconscious for at least a day or two for her body to recover, since she was frail to begin with, but she insisted that Wendy will be fine in a couple of weeks. The police will probably be involved at some point, but I think it’s one of my sasaengs who pretended to be Wendy’s fan.”

The other four gasped, and their eyes widened.

“Why would they do that? To our Wendy?” Joy was on the verge of tears.

“Don’t worry guys,” one of their managers said. “SM already decided to pursue an investigation with the police. No conclusions yet, Chanyeol. Please don’t beat yourself up over this. It’s not your fault.”

“,” Yeri mouthed suddenly as she was scrolling to her phone. “The news outlets found out about it already. It’s on ing Naver!”

“I’m betting it’s the police who leaked it,” Irene angrily said.

“Chanyeol, I’m advising you to not read it, you’re emotional, and I know you’re blaming yourself—” the manager said, but he was interrupted.

“I’m fine,” Chanyeol said as he took a deep breath, convincing no one that he was ‘fine.’ “We need to just take care of Wendy and catch the sasaeng.”

The managers urged the Red Velvet members to go back to their apartment to get some sleep and to look after themselves for a while, especially after what happened with Wendy.

Chanyeol was left alone with Wendy in the room, scrolling through the various articles already written about the incident, and constantly checking his phone for updates from SM and from the police.

Naver: [BREAKING] Red Velvet Wendy rushe