Yeonjun wakes up in the early morning light, feeling his head pounding, and his mouth is so dry he can barely feel his swollen tongue. He swallows hard, squinting at the dim light and he becomes aware of noises of quick shuffling of feet, and lowered voices. He realizes where he is; in his own bed, in his room, in the dorm, and he realizes the sounds he is hearing are from his room mates, his group members, his friends. His eyes pop open and he sits up quickly, turning to wake her and warn her that the house is awake but he turns to find the bed next to him empty. He looks around his room for some sign of her, but sees none. 

He jumps up out of the bed, still fully clothed in last nights attire, and he remembers exactly what happened in his twin sized bed and why he's still wearing his clothes from the club. He smiles at the thought of her, and that terrible drink he made, and then hears Beomgyu's voice arguing with Heuningkai. He moves quickly to the door, hoping she did not have to run into them on her way to the bathroom. He opens the door to his room and sees them both facing each other in the hallway. They stop arguing and turn to him.

"Oh, you're up, good, we're late," Beomgyu says. Yeonjun blinks hard, running his hand through his messy hair and he looks around the hallway. Heuningkai watches him. 

"You look rough Hyung, did you have a bad night?" Kai asks, looking over his now wrinkled clothing. Yeonjun shakes his head, confused.

"No, I had the best night. Where -where is she?" he asks. They both look at him confused, then look at each other. 

"Where is who?" Soobin asks as he walks up to join them.

"The girl I brought back here, you know, from the club." All three of them look back and forth between each other, surprised. 

"There's no one here Hyung," Soobin explains, shaking his head.

"What? She spent the night, with me, in my room. Where did she go?" He moves past them into the hallway and he walks toward the bathroom door which is shut. He knocks on it loudly. "Hello?" he calls in through the door and it's opened. Taehyun stares back at him.

"Hello to you too Hyung. Why are you still wearing last night's clothes?" he asks as he steps past him into the hallway. "We're going to be late for practice, the car is already out front." Yeonjun turns to look at each of them, standing in the tight space staring at him.

"She was here, with me, she came home with me. None of you saw her leave?" he asks, sounding a little desperate. They shake their heads.

"Maybe she snuck out when she heard you snore," Beomgyu teases, making Heuningkai laugh. 

"But, I didn't even get her name!" he looks at each of them, looking upset. They stop teasing him, thinking this might be more meaningful to him than they expected. Soobin steps up and touches his shoulder. 

"Hyung, I'm sorry. It was probably just one of those things. But we can't hang around here, we're gonna be late for practice if we don't leave right now." Yeonjun takes in what he's been told, and he nods, deep in thought, wondering why she would just leave. She must have left early before anyone got up, and if she had as much to drink as he did, she has to be feeling god awful right about now. He shakes his head and then returns to his room to quickly change into a t-shirt, sweats and a hoodie.

He manages to have just enough time to brush his teeth and wash his face before he joins the others at the company van out front, pulling his cap low and his hood up.  The same driver who took them from club to club last night is waiting for them. Yeonjun greets him with a half smile, feeling a little embarrassed about his hungover state. He drops back into the seat next to him and the driver looks over the lot of them, laying half asleep in the van. 

"You guys really over did it last night huh?" he asks. Beomgyu groans.

"Yeah, it's too bright outside, can you make it darker?" he teases. The driver looks over at Yeonjun who is sitting slumped against the window. 

"Where did you get off to? They were worried you wouldn't make it home," he asks.

"I met someone, and had way too much to drink. I'm paying for it today," he responds, pulling his cap lower on his eyes.

"Ah well, to be young and famous," the driver sighs. Yeonjun looks over at him. 

"She didn't even know who I was," he explains. The driver looks over at him as though he doesn't believe him. "It's true. She even left this morning before she saw anyone so I'm pretty sure she has no idea who were are, who I am," he defends her but to do it he's accidentally admitted that she stayed over, with him, and the implication is there. The driver looks over at him, narrowing his gaze. He might be thinking about whether or not he should report this back to the boss. Yeonjun looks away, realizing he definitely shouldn't have said anything to him, and he feels even more sorry for himself. He shouldn't have separated from the group. He shouldn't have run off with a girl, and definitely shouldn't have brought her home with him. But, in the end it was actually totally innocent, and now he will likely get into trouble for basically nothing. 

All that he can deal with, but what's really bothering him is that she would leave without waking him, without saying goodbye, or even leaving a note. How is he supposed to find her again when he has no way to contact her and no idea who she is?! He stares out the window, feeling a little dizzy still as the buildings flash past them quickly. He won't drink that much again, if he even gets another chance to go out, he won't make the same mistakes. His head is pounding. He feels a little sick to his stomach, maybe from the smoothie, maybe from not eating anything else. The idea of food makes his stomach churn more furiously. He wonders how he can make it through this choreography practice in his current state. 

As they pull in to the underground parking at HYBE the others begin to chatter about practice. Yeonjun takes a deep breath, and steps out of the van, giving one last glance over at the driver, hoping against hope that he won't report what he told him. The driver looks back at him sternly, and then he winks, smiling privately. Yeonjun exhales, with sudden relief, feeling slightly better about the situation. He smiles and bows a quick 'thank you' before the others are finished getting out. At least he won't have to worry about getting into trouble at work. Now all he has to do is survive dance practice. 

They step into their studio rehearsal space, which is massive compared to their last room at the previous office, and he can see two figures at the other end of the room near the music board. They each grab water bottles from the cooler as they pass it and walk toward the front of the room to see their choreographer, Mina, as she turns around to greet them, looking over them suspiciously. 

"Eh? You all look a little ragged this morning? What happened?" she asks, raising her eyebrow at them. Soobin looks down, and then back at the other members. He steps forward as he speaks up.

"We had a little celebration, because Taehyun and Heuningkai are turning 20 this year," he offers sheepishly. She smiles and nods, recognizing their sorry state. 

"Should we work you extra hard today then?" She teases, laughing. Yeonjun wonders at her words and he see the other figure come around the corner of the speakers. "Because of the jumps we have planned for this song, I thought it might be best to bring in a dancer with some experience in ballet. This is Ha-Yoon, she's been with the Seoul Ballet Theatre for three years."

Yeonjun's mouth drops open as he stands face to face with the girl, recognizing her instantly in her bright pink top and dark leggings. She stands in front of him, agape, looking back at him in utter shock and disbelief. The others turn toward them and notice something is occurring, and then as they begin to recognize her, they whisper among themselves. Mina turns and looks, confused.

"Do you two know each other?" she asks. Yeonjun smiles, and holds out his hand to shake hers.

"It's nice to meet you Ha-Yoon, I'm Yeonjun," he turns his head a little and winks at her so Mina can't see him do it. She bites her lip as she holds onto his hand, blushing with embarrassment. 

"It's nice to meet you too Yeonjun, I will try to go easy on you today," she says, stifling a giggle. The others realize they should pretend not to know her and they play along. Smiling and bowing in greeting to her.

"Right, shall we get started?" Mina says, and she turns back to the music console to start the song. Yeonjun leans in close to Ha-Yoon, and whispers.

"It's great to see you again 'Birthday Girl'. Maybe next time you won't leave without saying goodbye." He winks at her, puckering his lips into a kiss before he walks backwards to join the others in line to dance.

Thank you for reading 

Be sure to get the TXT comeback, The Chaos Chapter: Freeze

 release date, 5/31/21