SHE WANDERED.

Chapter III

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                    On the other side of the American continent a group of girls or rather... a girl group, lazed around a room in LAX. They were impatiently waiting for one of their member’s flight to arrive.

                  The group was consequently divided into three; Park Jihyo—the group’s leader, was talking to their handlers standing by the door, minding the flight board. On the other hand; Dahyun, Chaeyoung, Momo, and Sana were all silently browsing on their phones, whilst Jeongyeon, Mina, and Tzuyu were eating what was left of the group’s earlier brunch.

                  “Jihae noona, I’ll check the flight boards outside.” Yoonjung, the group’s junior manager informed Jihae—the group’s senior manager.

                  “Okay Yoonjung, ask the security for assistance as well, so that we can leave as soon as Nayeon arrives.” Yoonjung nodded as he went out of the waiting room.

                  “Jihae-unnie, after Nayeon arrives… are we heading to the hotel?” Jihae turned her attention from Yoonjung’s exit to her watch, it was 7 pm at California.

                  “Yes, since we’re way behind schedule you girls will head to the hotel first with Yoonjung, I’ll head to the Arena and start the security sweep and all the rehearsal preparations, then you girls will have to head to the arena at 3 am tomorrow. We will have the rehearsals then.” Jihae concluded, making last-minute changes to the group’s schedule due to the unforeseen delay of Nayeon’s arrival and the arrival of the concert staff and equipment.

                  “So we’ll have the rehearsals at dawn? Dress rehearsals?” Jihyo asked, worried that if they put on the clothes for their concert that they wouldn’t look fresh for the actual concert which would take place at dusk the same day of the unscheduled rehearsals.

                  “I think it would be better not to have a dress rehearsal, so that when we finish rehearsing around noon, you guys can be prepped for the actual concert.” Jihae answered, already making time-tables in her mind. She wouldn’t let anything ruin the concert these girls worked hard for, no delay or minor set-back could ruin what they all worked hard for.

                  “Okay, unnie, just tell me the strict schedule and I’ll deal with the members so you and Yoonjung-oppa can work together with regards the final changes with the concert proceedings.” Jihae smiled at Jihyo’s words, glad that she gets to manage such a hard-working and disciplined group, that even if they did have their own quirks and over-zealous characters, they were always a pleasure to work with.

                  “Thanks Jihyo, I’ll just check on Yoonjung, he’s taking takewytZg too long.” Jihyo nodded as Jihae threaded towards the door and out of the waiting area the airport kindly let them use.

                  “Jeongyeon-ah, has Nayeon texted you yet?” Jihyo sat beside Jeongyeon and closed her eyes hoping to rest her mind with everything that has happened.

                  “Not yet,” Jeongyeon answered having just finished snacking on the left-over of their earlier meal, “She’ll probably reply as soon as she lands though.”

                  “Hmm.” Jihyo agreed, knowing how Nayeon would always reply to Jeongyeon and to herself as soon as possible partly because of their own special bond; Jihyo, Jeongyeon, and Nayeon were closest to each other for they were chosen to be a part of another girl-group before Twice was formed, thus long history and shared pains made the trio the ‘unnies’ of the group as well as each-other’s closest confidant.

                  “Whose fault is it?” Jeongyeon solemnly asked, pertaining to the fiasco that happened back in Korea, before their flight to LA.

                  “Whose fault is what?” Jihyo clarified, not sure as to what Jeongyeon was talking about.

                  “Whose fault is the crash?” Jeongyeon asked with a finality in her voice loud enough that it took the attention of all their group-members.

                  “It was an accident, it’s no one’s fault.” Jihyo answered as she sat straight and looked all of her members in the eyes one by one, not wanting a single one of them to blame themselves but alas guilt filled the atmosphere as they all recalled the mishap that occurred half a day ago and half a world away.

 

It was the day Twice was supposed to fly out to LA to prepare for the Staples Center dream concert when things just didn’t seem to go the girls’ way and mishap upon mishap happened.

“Nayeon! Mina! Chaeyoung! You guys are taking too long; we have to go!” Jeongyeon, the second eldest of the group shouted as she herself rushed to get ready, they were all running late for their flight. They had just finished filming a commercial which took way longer than expected and thus they were all out of time to take their belongings and their-selves in time to the airport.

“Jihyo, you guys go ahead, bring everyone who’s ready, I’ll make sure we get there on time.” It was rare for Jeongyeon to step up and volunteer for any form of responsibility, but once she did, you knew she was serious.

“Are you sure unnie?” Jihyo asked Jeongyeon worriedly, not because of her lack of trust in Jeongyeon’s ability to control their members but because it would be taxing to do so, and as their leader, she felt like it was her responsibility to make sure that they all arrived at the airport on time.

“I’m sure Jihyo, don’t worry about us, it will be better for all of us if you are the first to arrive at the airport so that you guys can start processing our papers and deal with all the media and paparazzi waiting at the airport.” Jeongyeon smiled and reassured Jihyo.

“Okay unnie, just please…be fast!” Jeongyeon nodded, grabbing Jihyo’s hand bag which was sitting on top of the coffee table and pushing it towards Jihyo.

“Okay, just go already!” Jeongyeon shooed Jihyo and the other girls towards the waiting van and motioned for them to go.

Jeongyeon sighed in relief once Jihyo and the other members left in the van, she turned back and threaded quickly towards their apartment, “Nayeon! Chaeyoung! Mina! we have to go!”

“I’m done unnie!” Chaeyoung came dashing out of her shared room with Mina, hair still wet but nonetheless, ready to go. “Where’s Mina?”

“She’s just putting on some clothes unnie,” Chaeyoung replied, trying to dry her hair with the towel she was holding.

“Okay, I’ll check on Nayeon, we’ll go in 5 minutes.” Jeongyeon went up the stairs and into her shared room with Nayeon.

“Nayeon are you done?” Jeongyeon asked as she knocked on their bathroom, she was answered by a hasty yes and a yelp that quickly followed. Jeongyeon shook her head at their eldest’s clumsy tendencies, “Careful Nayeon!”

Jeongyeon looked at the state of disarray their room was currently in, and seeing that there were no clothes laid out by Nayeon, she figured that Nayeon still hasn’t chosen her outfit. Jeongyeon decided to pick Nayeon’s clothes out for her to save time, knowing how indecisive Nayeon was when it came to picking an outfit—for Nayeon was a picky person when it came to what she was going to wear, which more often than not ate up a lot of time; they didn’t have that leisure now.

“Jeongyeon?” Nayeon came out of the bathroom still dripping wet. Jeongyeon grabbed the clothes she picked and gave it to Nayeon with a stern face, showing no other choice but for Nayeon to wear the clothes she picked. “Wear this Nayeon, we have to go.”

Nayeon seeing Jeongyeon’s strict expression nodded and took the clothes from Jeongyeon, keeping in line her inner criticism of the clothes Jeongyeon chose, not because Jeongyeon had a bad sense of fashion but because it was in Nayeon’s character to rate and judge clothes; wherever, whatever, and whenever.

“We’ll wait for you downstairs, please be fast unnie,” Jeongyeon’s face softened as she saw the internal struggle Nayeon was having with her own clothes, “and please don’t pick another set of clothing, just wear this for now.”

Nayeon nodded and went about fixing herself and wearing her clothes.

Minutes later, Nayeon came down the stairs to see Jeongyeon, Mina, and Chaeyoung waiting all-set, although it was evident that they didn’t have a lot of time to fix themselves as almost all of them still had damp hair.

“Let’s go.” Jeongyeon motioned for all of them to exit their dorm, “The driver is waiting, go to the car, I’ll just lock the apartment.”

Nayeon rode on the passenger seat of the sedan as Mina, Chaeyoung, and Jeongyeon sat at the back-seat. Their driver started the ignition and stepped on the gas, setting them into motion.

It was evident that even the driver was aware of their schedule as they went past speed-limits, which had all of them holding on to their seat-belts… and while Nayeon was enjoying the fast pace, the three people at the back were scared for their lives.

“Oppa, will you slow down a bit?” Mina meekly requested, holding the hands of her group-members tightly, “Sorry miss, but we’ve got to make it to the airport on time.”

“Whoo, yes!” Nayeon shouted as she opened her window and enjoyed the strong winds and their continuing speed.

Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung tried to calm Mina who was scared of them getting into an accident, but Nayeon’s whooping exclamations did nothing to help with their efforts.

“Nayeon-unnie!” Nayeon stopped her antics unaware of the trio’s dilemma and turned to face her members at the backseat, “Yes?”

The three simultaneously glared at her, and they were seconds from reprimanding her and her ignorance but was distracted by the ringing of a phone.

Jeongyeon fished out her phone from her back-pocket and answered it once she saw who was calling “Yes, Jihyo?”

“Unnie are you still at the dorm?” Jeongyeon furrowed her brows to the evident concern in Jihyo’s voice.

“No. We’re near the airport, don’t worry.” Jeongyeon replied, trying to reassure Jihyo.

“Did you perhaps bring the envelope on top of the coffee table in our living room? It has our flight tickets.” Jihyo nervously answered, Jeongyeon felt anxiety creep at her emotions, but decidedly needed to be calm.

“Okay, we’ll head back to the dorm, is there anything else you guys forgot?” Jeongyeon motioned for Nayeon to tell the driver to turn back to the dorm, which thankfully Nayeon understood and swiftly asked the driver to head back to their dorm before they missed the U-turn section of the road.

“What is it?” Nayeon asked Jeongyeon as soon as Jeongyeon ended the call with Jihyo, “They forgot to bring our flight tickets.”

They didn’t think their driver could drive any faster, but drive faster he did… to the point that even Nayeon was clutching her seat-belt tightly in fear for all of their lives. 20 or more-so life and death situations later, and they’ve arrived back to their dorm. Jeongyeon sped out of the car and into their apartment and in record time, returned back holding an envelope, “Let’s go!”

The driver once again sped out of their drive-way and into the city traffic. Nearing the airport, Nayeon noticed a gray van tailing their car, “Oppa, there’s a van that’s been following us for quite some time…”

The driver looked at the rear-view mirror and saw the Van, “Yes, I’ve noticed… hang-on tight girls.”

Their driver started evading the van that was tailing them but to no avail the van was still at their tail… Still their driver made sharp turns to lose them off their back, doing that at such a high-speed was a catastrophe bound to happen, and happen it did.

They were approaching a stop-light intersection and their driver tried to speed by the green light to cut the van off their tail, but they were totaled by a car coming from their left.

Feeling the impact of the crash, the girls held onto whatever they could as their car came rolling down the pavement and came stopping up-side down. Nayeon was the first one to snap out of her reverie as she turned towards the back and was thankful to see all her group-members still awake and safe.

“Chaeyoung-ah, Mina, Jeong…” all of them respectively looked at Nayeon who was looking worse for wear out of all of them, other than the driver.

“Can you guys get out?” Nayeon asked as she tried to unbuckle her seat-belt.

Chaeyoung unbuckled her seatbelt easily and was able to get out of the car by climbing out of the window-pane onto the pavement filled with glass-shards, she stood up and turned towards the car and opened the door and helped Mina and Jeongyeon get out.

Jeongyeon turned towards the driver’s door and tried to jar it open, but it was stuck, thankfully Nayeon was finally able to loosen her seat-belt and was helped out by Chaeyoung and Mina. “Jeongyeon call Jihae-unnie.”

Jeongyeon tore her attention away from the forming crowd surrounding them and turned to Nayeon, gasping, she walked towards Nayeon and worriedly held her by the arms… for Nayeon was bleeding from her fore-head and there were some glass shards of the wind-shield that was imbedded into her shoulder. “Unnie! Are you okay?”

“Huh?” Nayeon disoriented by everything, looked at her injuries which Jeongyeon tried to nurse. “Call them Jeongyeon-ah. Call them.”

Jeongyeon hesitantly nodded, clearly concerned for Nayeon’s wellbeing. Jeongyeon took her phone out of her pocket to call Jihae.

“I’ll do it unnie.” Chaeyoung took Jeongyeon’s phone out of her shaking hands and dialed their manager’s number.

Nayeon checked on Mina, Chaeyoung, and Jeongyeon for injuries and was once again thankful that they only seemed shaken and no physical injuries were showing. “Are you guys alright?”

“Alright? Nayeon have you seen yourself?!” Jeongyeon still shaken by the car-crash and still afflicted with fear especially with how Nayeon looked like.

“I’m fine Jeongyeon.” Nayeon answered as she walked around the car and tried to wake their driver up. Seeing no gas leaking and no signs of a fire breaking out, Nayeon stopped trying to open the driver’s door open as it was damaged and was therefore stuck.

“Jeongyeon, take the envelope.” Nayeon collected their things from inside the car and handed it to Jeongyeon. “Check on Mina.”

Jeongyeon nodded as she went beside Mina and tried to comfort the fear-stricken girl as Nayeon checked on the other passengers of the car that crashed into theirs, not long passed before authorities and their managers arrived.

“Jeongyeon!”

“Mina!”

“Chaeng!”

Jeongyeon, Mina, and Chaeyoung turned their heads to see their managers; Jihae and Shin, with their leader; Jihyo rushing towards them.

“Are you girls alright?” Jihae asked as she scanned each of them, they nodded and reassured their manager as their other manager; Shin, immediately went to check on their driver and talked to the police.

“Where’s Nayeon?!” Jihyo exclaimed in fear and panic for not seeing Nayeon with the girls.

“I’m right here Hyo,” Nayeon softly answered, which resulted to the gasps of Jihae and Jihyo seeing her state.

“Oh my God… Unnie you’re bleeding!” Jihyo said, her voice filled with concern as she held Nayeon carefully. “I’m fine, it doesn’t hurt as much as it looks.”

Jihae turned towards the authorities that approached them, the paramedics took Nayeon and the driver towards the ambulance as others checked on Mina, Chaeyoung, and Jeongyeon.

“The crash occurred due to your driver’s reckless driving, he sped past the red light.” Jihae immediately apologized on behalf of their driver and on behalf of their company and provided the contacts for the penalty and for the settlement of the entire accident.

As their managers talked to the Police, Jihyo and the girls went to the ambulance where Nayeon was, to check on her.

“Unnie, are you okay?” Nayeon smiled at them with assurance, “I’m okay girls, but I think you guys will need to go ahead and catch the flight to LA... if we haven’t missed it. I’ll probably have to be brought to the Hospital.”

“No, we’ll go with you.” Chaeyoung shook her head as she held Nayeon’s hand.

“Don’t be silly Chaeyoung, we have a concert tomorrow, you guys at have to be there.” Nayeon said, reminding all of them of their concert at the staples center, it was their dream stage, and they would never stand and perform there if Nayeon wasn’t with them.

“No unnie, we won’t go if you won’t go.” Mina voiced out their sentiments, although it was evident that she still was shaken with the earlier events.

“Girls no need to plan a coup d’état.” The girls turned towards their managers; Shin and Jihae. “Shin will stay and take Nayeon to the Hospital to get her wounds sutured, after that they’ll take the next available flight to LA. We need to go now to catch our flight, thankfully the flight got delayed.”

The girls nodded somberly and bid their farewell to Nayeon as Shin sat next to her on the ambulance, watching the paramedics close the door and the ambulance leave… the girls headed back to their van with Jihae to go to the airport.

                 

“Whose fault is it?” Jeongyeon asked again, guilt filling her gut and tears welling in her eyes. An uncomfortable silence encompassed the room as Jeongyeon’s tears slowly fell out of her eyes, which in turn led to the release of Jihyo’s frustrations.

“It’s mine! If I didn’t forget the envelope the driver wouldn’t have the need to drive so fast!” Jihyo exclaimed, already decided that the whole fiasco was her fault. For if she was responsible enough to remember their flight-tickets then the driver wouldn’t have had to risk her members’ lives just so that they could catch their flight.

“No. It’s my fault.” Jeongyeon answered calmly with grief, in contrast to Jihyo’s loud outburst… thinking that if she had just grabbed the envelope with Jihyo’s bag when she was forcing Jihyo to head to the airport first, then they wouldn’t have had to get into an accident, Nayeon wouldn’t have had to be hurt.

“It’s no one’s fault unnies, accidents happen…” Chaeyoung tried to reason with her unnies as she along with Mina hugged Jihyo and Jeongyeon to comfort them, knowing the strain the accident caused on both of their unnies.

A comfortable yet solemn silence filled the room as the entire group felt like they all had a part to contribute as to why things happened the way it did.

“Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.” It was Nayeon’s teasing voice that broke them out of their gloomy reveries. “Here I am thinking you girls would be fine without me, yet look at all of you~”

“Nayeon!”

“Nabongs!”

“Unnie”

“Nayeon-unnie!”

Simultaneously all of Nayeon’s group members looked her way, rushed and engulfed her in a big, tight group hug.

“Ah! Girls not too tight.” Nayeon tried to fight off the pain of her injuries being squeezed to death by her members. All at once, her members let go of her and warily scanned her for injuries. Seeing their concern, Nayeon’s infamous bunny smile broke out as she herself grabbed her members into another group hug.

“Just-kidding girls, I’m right as rain! Stop this gloominess, we’re in LA!” Nayeon enthusiastically exclaimed, not minding the pain she once again felt due to her injuries.

Jihae smiled as she saw how Nayeon tried to comfort her group members even when she herself wasn’t fine, and seeing Nayeon’s well-hidden pain, she decided to break the group’s mini-reunion.

“Okay, break it up girls… We need to get all of you out of this room and into your hotel rooms.” Jihae affectionately barked at the Twice girls, pushing them to collect their items.

“We’re in LA girls! Staples Center Leggo!” Nayeon exclaimed as she childishly ran around the waiting room before finally exiting, the entire group’s atmosphere lightened as they all gratefully followed their eldest member whom still was acting like a child.

 

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Hey guys! I hope you like this chapter! sorry for the late update kinda had to finish a paper for my business class~ 

Comment your suggestions and reactions!!!!!!