Joohyun’s eyes jolted open upon a ping from her phone. She wondered who might message her that late in the evening. But it’s not like sleep had visited her yet so she reached for it from her bed table. She saw it was a message from Jennie, the message preview was Tick Tock. She frowned as she opened it and frowned more upon seeing the attachment.

Damn, Jennie-yah, she cursed. She doesn’t need this right now. What she needs is sleep, which won’t be coming soon because of what she sent.

It was a video of Seulgi and her performance a while ago. She closed her eyes and pursed her lips, to try not to click on the play button. But who was she kidding, her curiosity on how Seulgi and her looked on that third person view seemed so enticing.

Joohyun clicked the play button.

Joohyun clicked the close button and locked her phone.

No, she doesn’t need this now. At least not yet. What she needs is sleep, to recharge and prepare for another day of heart storming.

+++

Joohyun took a deep breath of sigh. She had finished her breakfast, had complete sleeping hours, had took a bath and had mentally prepared to layout the thought process she needed to sort out. She’s analytical like that, she just needed the step-by-step visualization for her to be able to digest things properly.

She opened the drawer where she safekept her purple hardbound notebook and opened it to the page where she left off; where she had written Seulgi’s name. She run a finger on the name and a smile crept out of her face.

Seulgi.

Seulgi.

Just the name bears weight somehow, inside her chest. Like a huge space on it was taken already by it now.

If she’d go back, back to the time when they met, when they were just kids—

“Hyun-ah! Your friends are here!”

“Argh!!!” Why can’t people leave her alone?! Joohyun grunted in frustration after hearing her mother from outside her room, again. Why do people interrupt her especially on her vital thinking?! Damn it!

Joohyun pursed her lips and closed her eyes in annoyance then went out of her room. “Who is it this time, mom—Yerim-ah? Sooyoung-ah? And Seungwan-ah??? What are you all doing here?? On a Sunday???” She asked in confusion after seeing who were waiting for her in the living room.

“Hi unnie.” The three of them greeted with a smile, a smirking smile.

“We’re here to kidnap you.” Yerim said, eyes glistening in excitement.

“What—???” Joohyun asked.

“With permission, that is.” Sooyoung nudged the giggling maknae.

Seungwan chuckled and approached the oldest, draping her arm over her. “We have to go to our secret headquarters unnie.” She looked down at the still confused girl. “For operation Surprise Seulgi.”

+++

After the ride on Sooyoung’s SUV vehicle, they reached an empty warehouse in a pier wharf. Sooyoung took the lead to open it and went inside. It was empty except for a whiteboard in the middle of four laptops on crates, and smaller crates acting as chairs.

“Oh my god Joy-unnie!!” Yerim exclaimed in excitement, spinning around the area then running towards the middle where their things were setup. “You got the vibe going!”

Sooyoung huffed in confidence. It’s what she envisioned when Yerim and her talked about their plan.

“Yeah Sooyoungie! This is like the shooting location for Before U Go drama music video, drama version where Yunho and Changmin got featured on!” Seungwan agreed exasperatedly.

“Oh my god, you’re right, Seungwan-ah!” Joohyun agreed next as she looked about the area.

Sooyoung giggled as she sat on her chosen area. “Actually, it is.”

Joohyun and Seungwan looked at each other with clear amazement on their face. “Daebak!!”

Once they were all settled on their respective areas, Yerim stood in the middle, in front of the whiteboard. She wrote AGENDA: OPERATION SURPRISE SEULGI. She cleared . “So here’s our proposition,” She started, looking at Sooyoung who nodded. “We were thinking, since Seulgi-unnie’s birthday is coming up, why not surprise her with something she’d like?? So, Joy-unnie and I thought to have a Seulgi fan meeting! What do you think? With this, we can surprise Sulgi-unnie and have some sort of activity for our band. Hitting three—” A glare from Sooyoung made her stop. “—two birds with one stone, really.” She chuckled sheepishly at the glaring Sooyoung, for almost hinting on their actual secret agenda for it.

Seungwan and Joohyun’s eyes went wide in surprise.

“Woah! That’d be nice. I mean, Seul really treasures our fans and was planning something close to this. Just a bit more disorganized, but yeah.” Seungwan nodded in agreement. She turned to Joohyun. “What do you think, leader?”

Joohyun thought for a while. True, Seulgi really has that soft spot for their fans, and was really talking about how they can spend some time with them to at least thank them. So, there is no question that she’ll like this surprise. “I think Seulgi-yah will like it.” She nodded.

“Great!” Yerim clapped excitedly.

Sooyoung stood up and went beside Yerim in front. “Me and Yerim will do all the organizing, unnies.”

“You sure?? We can help—”

Sooyoung cut Seungwan off. “We can manage Seungwannie, no worries. We need you both for other more important tasks.”

The two older girls stayed quiet, waiting for Sooyoung’s next words.

“Seungwannie, your very important task is to make sure Seulgi-unnie won’t get any hint of our surprise.” Sooyoung started. She had noticed that Seungwan is good at making distractions that makes Seulgi bite unto it, no question. “Although Seulgi-unnie is a bit on the dense side, she can be quite a curious cat, so make sure she won’t get any idea. Or it’ll ruin the surprise, not to mention the fun.”

Seungwan eagerly nodded. “Got it!”

Sooyoung smiled and nodded. She then turned to Joohyun next. “Joohyun-unnie. Yours is the biggest task, and it’s no exaggeration to say that the whole plan will fail without your task, or the failure of it.”

Joohyun gulped at the seriousness of Sooyoung’s words.

Sooyoung looked at Yerim and both nodded. “We need you unnie, for information.”

+++

And true enough, Joohyun’s task was the most vital. She had provided them of important information such as how, where and who does Seulgi usually spend her birthday with. Sh