Taeyong was mad. Irritated. Angry. Furious. Delirious?

He was sitting in the gate, waiting for their flight to departure to Los Angeles for The Korea Times Music Festival. Right in front of him he saw Seulgi talking to Sicheng. She never talked to Sicheng and still went to talk to him just now? And as for himself? Yeah, she still avoided him, not even bothering to spare a single glance at him.

Why was she acting like that, though? He just couldn’t get it. At first he thought she was just busy with her schedules after her fame rose to the top, so it was probably why she couldn’t take his calls or have time to answer his messages, or the memes he sent her. She didn’t even stop talk to him when they passed by each other in the halls at the company building. He would call for her but she would just shout “sorry, I’m busy. Talk to you later!”

But now… He heard Youngho talk to her on the phone, multiple times. Jisung even told him that she had stopped to talk to him for a few minutes multiple times the past month. So, why? Just why was she ignoring him? Was she ignoring him on purpose? Because it had been like that for more than two months now. She still didn’t accept his calls or reply back to his messages. Just, nothing.

There couldn’t possibly be something he had done, right? He didn’t do anything. So, again, why? Just as their friendship was going so well she just decided to avoid him? It was just all so confusing.

He closed his eyes as he took a long breath, letting the heavy music absorb his thoughts.

“Taeyong,” he could hear Donghyuck whisper after his earbud left his right ear.

“What?” he murmured, keeping his eyes closed as he listened to both the music and Donghyuck. 

“Sicheng just left Seulgi, she’s sitting alone with Sooyoung now,” he whispered which caused Taeyong to let out a small sigh.

“So?” he said, unbothered.

“What do you mean, so? Go and talk to her!” Donghyuck whisper-shouted, knowing Taeyong had been feeling down because she was ignoring him.

“She doesn’t want to talk to me,” Taeyong opened his eyes to look at Donghyuck who gave him a look that expressed ‘really, Yong? really?’

“She’s been ghosting me for over two months. Why would she want to talk to me?” he then reasoned.

“But you want to talk to her, don’t you?” Donghyuck encouraged. “You told me she was one of your best friends and I think it would be good for you to know why your best friend is ghosting you.”

Taeyong leaned his head back on the wall, looking up at ceiling. “Alright,” he nodded and took out his earphones. He stood up and looked at Seulgi who was sitting and talking to Sooyoung. He cleared his throat and walked up slowly to them, quickly getting their attention.

“Oh, hi… Taeyong,” Sooyoung smiled before looking down at her own hands and then at Seulgi.

“Hey, Seulgi,” he spoke and she looked up at him, looking into his eyes for what felt like the first time in forever.

“Yeah?”

“Can we, uhm, talk?” he asked, putting his hands in his back pockets as he waited for her response.

He noticed her glancing quickly at Sooyoung before looking back up at him. “Sure,” she responded.

“Alone,” he pointed out as she and Sooyoung sat still on their seats.

Seulgi bit her lower lip, already knowing how uncomfortable and awkward their talk would be. “Yeah, of course,” she then responded as she felt like the other answer would’ve made it even more uncomfortable and awkward. She stood up, letting him lead the way to a more quiet place, and they ended up right outside the gate, where it was pretty much empty.

“Why are you ignoring me?” he asked her, straight to the point.

“What? I-I’m not,” she denied and he took a breath, pressing his lips as he thought about something. “Yong, I’ve been really busy,” she explained to him and he shook his head.

“Seulgi. You have been ignoring me for more than two months now. Did I do something?” he inquired.

“No, Yong,” she assured him. “I’m so sorry that I haven’t called or texted you back but trust me, I’ve been really busy.”

“Is it because of some girl code thing?” he then snapped, getting tired of her denying everything. 

“Girl code?” she furrowed her eyebrows, feeling taken aback. “No, Taeyong. For the third time, I’ve been busy,” she responded harshly.

“Is it an unwritten rule that the best friend to the guy has to stop hanging out with him because he has a girlfriend, is that it?” he hissed, having to jump to different conclusions since he knew she wouldn’t tell her right away anyway.

“Alright…”

Joohyun chimed in between them and gently pushed Taeyong away from Seulgi. “I believe you two have talked enough for today,” she remarked and linked her arm with Seulgi’s as they walked back into their gate.

“Seulgi!” he then called but she and Joohyun continued to walk and didn’t bother to look back at him.

“Are we going back to hating each other again, is that what’s happening right now?” he then huffed. It sounded more like a joke, but you could still hear the confusion and disappointment in his voice.

He watched them walk away, hoping that Seulgi would just turn around and tell him that that wasn’t the case. But no, her back was still pointing at him and she continued to walk, not even hesitating about whether she should turn around or not. She just walked.

“I see,” he mumbled to himself disappointingly. “What the heck just happened?” he then thought to himself and scratched his nape before walking back to the gate after a while.

——————————————

.

Seulgi felt her whole body shaking and her palms getting sweaty as she stood by the baggage claim, catching a small glimpse of Taeyong who stood on the other side, completely drawn into his music. A tight feeling appeared in her chest and his words haunted her brain yet again. She tried not to think about them during the plane ride here, and it was easy to get occupied by the multiple movies or the food on the plane. But as soon as she saw his face clearly she could feel herself losing control of her surroundings. Their recent argument being the only thing in her mind.

“Seulgi, you’re shaking. Are you okay? Are you cold?”

Joohyun placed her hand on Seulgi’s shoulder, a worrying look spreading across her face. “Are you having a panic attack?” she then exclaimed in a whisper, the worrying look turned into a panicked one.

“I-I don’t know,” Seulgi responded hesitantly and blinked her eyes rapidly, feeling short of breath all of a sudden. “I haven’t had one for a few months,” she tried to stabilize her breathing.

“What’s happening?” Seungwan walked over to them, and soon the other girls surrounded them as well.

“I-” Seulgi choked on her words and squinted her eyes shut a few times.

“We need to move to somewhere el