“Seulgi-ssi?” the manager calls for Seulgi.

Seulgi moves her head away from her phone, hands immediately covering her phone to conceal what she was reading. She faces her manager that was seated in front of her inside the van and she asks, “Yes? Sunbae-nim?”

“Why are you smiling by yourself out there?”, the manager smiles, “You’re scaring me a little bit”

“Oh! This?” Seulgi laughs, “My friend just sent me something funny”

The manager looks at her, not fully convinced but she lets it go, “As long as you’re okay in there at the back”

Seulgi lets out a relieved sigh, turns her phone on again, and scrolls to the current entry of the thread. She smiles when she saw what was written.

 "I like Seulgi's eyes"  

And just like that, Seulgi goes back a few years ago. Red Velvet just debuted back then. Having their debut… was something else.

The high of their debut was a flame that heated the same industry that had been longing for the next Girl’s Generation and f(x).

All eyes were on them.

And at the same time, all eyes were on them. And those eyes were a boulder they carried with a hopeful smile on their faces.

And despite the weight that they were all carrying, Joohyun had extra weight on her back, for she was assigned to be the leader.

It was unsurprising, really.

Bae Joohyun. Natural leader.

She was assertive, yet gentle.

Kind, yet strict.

Graceful, yet strong.

A lot of trainees would probably never guess that Joohyun would grow to be a great leader. After all, people who never really knew her would say that she was intimidating, calculating, and cold. It also didn’t help that the agency seemed to be in favor of her. SM sees her as a goldmine that might possibly surpass Yoona and they were trying to groom her the most, alongside Seulgi.

While others would ask how can such a cold person lead a group, Red Velvet would dare argue that she was just the perfect balance.

As a leader, Joohyun would come to face a lot of problems, but her very first ordeal started on this day.

The news of their debut had just been announced on SNS and thus far, the netizens were not accepting of them. The fans of f(x) were mad because the agency had been neglecting them, yet they were planning to debut another.

Joohyun understood where the anger came from. But, at the same time, she saw what the public couldn’t.

She saw how Seulgi desperately overcame the crippling depression that took her voice away.

Joohyun was the one to fetch Seungwan from the vocal room to make sure that the younger one won’t strain her voice from practicing too much.

And Joohyun was the one to soothe Sooyoung when she was crying in the corner of the studio with her insecurities eating up her soul.

And now that they were finally getting to the debut that they desired so much…

It wasn’t fair, Joohyun thought. For not giving them a chance.

And that was why Joohyun found herself with her team in the studio. Dead silent. Just all of them trying not to talk about the elephant in the room. Three more days to prepare before their debut.

Ever since she was a child, Joohyun would make plans for every step. She would come up with an order of things she needs to do. But during that moment, for once, she felt so lost.

“So, Bear? How do you do, lately?” Amber asked Seulgi over lunch.

It had been a few weeks after their debut and people still weren't receiving them warmly. Amber reached out to her for lunch but deep down, Seulgi knew that the older just wanted to check up on her.

“There have been some... challenges,” Seulgi chopped a bit of her steak and smiled, “But nothing our team can’t handle. Red Velvet is great!”

“Ever the optimist, Seulgi. Are you the leader of the group?”

“They thought of it but the final decision was Joohyun unnie”

“That’s fitting,” Amber smiled, “No offense, Bear, but Joohyun did tame that loud hyperactive kid— what is her name again?”

“Kim Yerim?”

“Yeah, that one” they both laughed. After they finished their steak, Seulgi asked, “Unnie, do you have any tips for me?”

“Don’t check the comments,” Amber wiped and reached for the shaved ice.

Seulgi laughed, “A bit late for that”

“I can see that, you have bags under your eyes,” Amber teased, “What have you read about?”

“Have you heard? That somehow there’s this rumor that Baekhyun oppa and I were together?”

Amber almost spilled her dessert, “Didn’t you two just audition together coincidentally?”

“Yes,” Seulgi sighed, “I feel sorry for my members. We already have a lot of haters, but it seems like I just added fuel to the