“What if I wake her up?” Yerim whispered to the three girls who were eagerly pushing her into Seulgi’s room.

“That’s why you need to be quiet, now get going!” Joohyun scolded her quietly and Yerim groaned before turning back to Seulgi’s room door.

She twisted the door knob slowly and quietly, opening the door and peeking her small head into the room before opening it fully and walking in. She looked at Seulgi who slept peacefully with her back turned to her. After taking a deep breath, she stood on her toe tips and tiptoed slowly towards Seulgi’s desk, being careful of not waking her up. She quickly grabbed Seulgi’s laptop and phone, pursing her lips as she saw the screen turning on because of the constant notifications. She turned around and tiptoed out of the room, closing the door and then turning to the other girls.

“She will find out anyway,” Yerim then pointed out as she handed over the laptop and phone to Seungwan.

“Yes, but not now,” Joohyun said and they all walked back to the living room.

“I really did not expect those news,” Sooyoung commented as she sat down on the sofa, causing Joohyun to let out a light scoff.

“I did,” she stated and crossed her arms.

“Nothing’s confirmed yet, though.” Yerim told the older member.

“But fans are already speculating,” Seungwan added as she came back from her room. “I hid Seulgi’s things in my closet, now we just need to distract her with board games or something.”

“Did I hear board games?”

The girls all looked up to see a drowsy Seulgi, standing by the living room door as she rubbed her eyes tiredly. “I love board games,” she yawned quietly and stretched her back before walking, or more like wobbling, to the sofa, dropping her body on the empty spot right between Joohyun and Sooyoung.

“Geez, how much did you drink last night?” Joohyun asked the hungover girl, remembering the amount of soju she had drunk last night as they celebrated the new year while the others only had one or two glasses.

Seulgi wasn’t the type of person who drank out of pleasure, Joohyun knew Seulgi saw alcohol as a way out and knew that when she drank, she couldn’t control herself. Seulgi was a heavy drinker and loved to drink until she passed out, and Joohyun had tried multiple times to stop her last night but she kept on insisting and telling her she was fine. Joohyun sighed as she knew something was bothering Seulgi because of the amount she drank, and the bewildering news was therefore not something Seulgi had to know about today.

“I’m fine,” Seulgi groaned and buried herself in the pillows behind her. “I know I drank a lot, but honestly I’ve had worse hangovers.”

“Well, maybe you should just rest today then,” Seungwan suggested and Seulgi looked up tiredly at her.

“But I wanted to play board games,” she pouted. “Where did we put the Monopoly?”

“You won’t be able to play Monopoly for at least four hours like this,” Yerim told her and grabbed the remote from the table in front of them. “Let’s watch TV instead,” she suggested and turned it on.

“Oh yeah!” Seulgi lit up, “let’s watch Hwayugi! I missed the premiere last week.”

“You missed it?” Sooyoung exclaimed, her eyes widened. “How do you miss the one and only Lee Seunggi?” she then asked, this time with a playful frown on her face.

“I’ll turn it on, stop fighting.” Yerim laughed as she browsed through the channels.

“NCT’s Taeyong and a mysterio-”

Joohyun widened her eyes in panic and with the speed of light she reached for the remote in Yerim’s hand and turned off the TV.

“Who wants to play Monopoly?” she then asked with an unsure smile and put the remote down on her lap, holding it tightly in case Seulgi would take it.

“What was that about?” Seulgi asked Joohyun, her eyebrows furrowed from confusion. “And what was the reporter saying about Taeyong?”

Seulgi stretched out her hand, reaching for the remote but Joohyun quickly stood up, the remote still in her hand. She averted her eyes to all the possible directions, not wanting to look Seulgi in the eye and tell her what was actually going on. Seulgi had enough worries already and this would just worsen everything.

Seulgi pressed her lips together as she tried to figure out why Joohyun was acting so weird. “Did something happen to Taeyong?” she then asked, turning to Seungwan, knowing she couldn’t lie to her.

“I-I… I m-mean… Y-you know…” Seungwan stuttered, struggling to not tell Seulgi the truth about what was happening.

As if the hungover feeling went away with one second, Seulgi got up from the sofa and ran back to her room. She had told the the others about her small crush on Taeyong and they knew she cared about him and probably didn’t want to worry her with whatever news there was about him. But Seulgi couldn’t help the overthinking going on in her head. If the girls didn’t tell her, did that mean something really terrible had happened? Did something happen after the show yesterday? Did the guys get in a car accident on the way home? Did they get in a fight with someone? Were they followed by a group of sasaengs?

Seulgi burst into her room and let out a helpless groan as she noticed her laptop wasn’t on her writing desk. She rushed to her bedside table, opening the different drawers in hopes of finding her phone. “,” she cursed and slammed the drawers shut, knowing the girls had taken her phone as well.

She sat down on the floor and leaned back on her bed, sighing as she ran her hands through her hair. There were at least one hundred scenarios running through her head at the moment, one hundred terrible scenarios that could’ve happened to Taeyong. Was she worrying too much, maybe? The girls didn’t seem too worried themselves, but it definitely was something serious if they hid it from her.

“We should just tell her,” she heard Yerim argue from outside her room.

“Do you know how much this will affect her?” Joohyun argued back.

“She’s going to find out anyway!”

“Yes, but now is not the time!”

“She’s suspecting something already!”

Tired of hearing the two of them arguing, Seulgi stood up and walked to the door. As her hand touched the door knob she stopped for a moment and took a small breath of the air. She twisted the door knob and got met with eight eyes directly pointed at her. “What is going on?” she asked calmly and Joohyun crossed her arms, staying quiet.

“Tell her,” Yerim strictly told her.

Joohyun rolled her eyes and reached for her phone in her back pocket. She typed a few things on it and handed the phone to Seulgi.

“Before I read it,” Seulgi started and looked up at the girls. “How bad is it?”

“It depends on how you choose to take it,” Sooyoung answered honestly and Seulgi nodded her head slowly.

“Does that mean I’m involved in it?” she asked them and they all nodded their heads.

A tired sigh escaped Seulgi’s mouth, “at least he isn’t hospitalized,” she murmured and looked at the phone screen, scrolling through the multiple headlines on the news site.

[BREAKING] NCT’s Taeyong spotted holding hands with a woman - Netizens suspect it isn’t Red Velvet’s Seulgi.

Seulgi too