“It’s 7pm!”

Seulgi quickly rushed out to the living room and jumped on the sofa, and a second later both Yerim and Seungwan came running and sat beside her.

“How is it?!” she exclaimed and waited for Joohyun to answer.

“I’m searching fo-”

“You’re so slow!” Sooyoung, who sat beside Joohyun, exclaimed irritatingly and grabbed the phone from her hand. As she typed on the phone her expression darkened and she looked up at the others with a blank face.

“Here,” she said while handing the phone to Seulgi, “I’m going to go and take a shower.”

Seulgi gulped as she didn’t dare to flip the phone and see the screen. They had just made a comeback with Red Flavor and if it didn’t do well on the charts the girls would only have one more chance before they would officially have to disband. Their debut song, Happiness, was a flop and didn’t do well with the public. Their next singles and comebacks hadn’t done that well on charts either and were considered flops. The public was disappointed and shocked that SM’s new girl group didn’t meet their eyes and the whole group was considered a flop and the reason that SM would go bankrupt if he kept investing in them.

The situation affected all the girls negatively, but it affected Seulgi the most. She already suffered from bad anxiety because of the seven trainee years. Seven years that consisted of late nights of her sitting on the bed, staring into the dark, asking herself an infinite number of questions, then overthinking about the questions and the possible answers to those questions. Feeling that she wasn’t good enough to debut and soon developing a bad temper. She questioned her worth, pride, value, and even herself. Was she really good enough? And it only got worse after her debut, when she got all her questions answered. And this time she definitely wouldn’t be able to deal with another comeback that was a flop.

“Seulgi,” Seungwan said and placed her hand on Seulgi’s shoulder, reassuring her that no matter what happened, it would be fine. Yerim did the same and placed her hand on the other shoulder, showing her that they were there for her. Seulgi looked up and saw Joohyun giving her reassuring smile.

She slowly flipped the phone and looked at the charts, only resulting in her closing her eyes as she took a deep breath to calm down. She then heard the phone vibrate and opened her eyes but was confused since she didn’t feel the phone vibrate.

“Did you all hear the phone vibrate?” she asked as she pointed at the phone in her hand and Joohyun got up and walked over to the counter in the kitchen.

“It was your phone,” she then said and tossed the phone to Seulgi.

“Hey! It’s my phone, you know?” she said and opened the message on her phone. “It’s from our manager.”

“What does it say?” Yerim asked.

“You have a meeting with Lee Sooman tomorrow at 13pm,” Seulgi read out aloud and Seungwan furrowed her eyebrows.

“That’s all it says?” she asked and Seulgi nodded. “I wonder what it is about.”

Seulgi stood up and stretched her body. “I’ll go to sleep, good night,” she then said and proceeded to walk to her bedroom.

“Now? But it’s only 7pm!” Joohyun exclaimed, worried about her friend that hadn’t eaten a proper meal for a whole week now.

“I’m tired.”

“But you should eat something!”

“I don’t have an appetite.”

“You should still eat something!”

“I’m on a diet.”

“Seulgi!!”

“Good night!”

Seulgi closed the door and locked it. She sighed as she walked over to her bed and collapsed on it. She grabbed her pillow and screamed into it. The screams soon turned into heavy sobs and in the matter of a few seconds she felt her pillow getting wet. She threw the pillow at the wall and crawled under the covers, the tears didn’t stop running down her cheeks. “Seven years only for a song to place 497 on the charts,” she said and closed her eyes. Crying herself to sleep.

--------------------------------------

Silence. It was a thing that many people enjoyed. A lot of people felt calm experiencing silence and they said that it was more relaxing than listening to relaxing music. They said that it made them think clearly about stuff and that it helped them to come up with solutions to their problems.

But Seulgi did not feel the same. Sure, the silence did make her think. Overthink. And right now, she was sitting in front of Lee Sooman who was working with his paperwork. He had told her that they waited for another person to come to the meeting and then he would tell her the news he had. That small conversation led to a five minute silence and it was enough to make Seulgi come up with random things that Lee Sooman could tell her. Was he going to terminate her contract? Was Red Velvet going to disband? Was he going to send her to another label? Would the group be given a new chance? Would she be given a new chance? Would it be her last chance?

“I’m sorry I’m late!”

“What the heck is going on?” she thought as she recognized the ugly voice behind her.

“Taeyong! It’s okay, come, sit down.” Lee Sooman said and gestured for Taeyong to sit on the chair beside Seulgi. She sat upright and turned to look at him, he walked over to them with a smile and as he noticed her his smile slowly turned into a frown. He sat down and turned