~Aron’s POV~

It was about noon, and I was worried sick. Lime told me that the previous night, Minhyun came by to talk to Sandy and they went for a walk and they never returned. I wondered what Minhyun wanted from Sandy, but of course, I never suspected that they were a couple.

Everyone was nervous. JR called the police to report them missing, but the police said that they can’t file a report unless they've been gone for over 48 hours. Ren began to cry because he was afraid that Minhyun was angry with him for flipping out, and Baekho tried to spread his optimism by saying they’re probably okay. But even the cheerful Baekho couldn’t hide his anxiety.

Then it happened. A picture got sent to us of Minhyun half- on a park bench. Is belt was loose and he was covering himself with Sandy’s jacket. Sandy was lying on top of Minhyun in a tank top. Another picture zoomed into the button on her jeans that wasn’t there anymore…

It probably isn’t Minhyun, I thought. Minhyun isn’t like that. He wouldn’t be like that with any girl, let alone the girl that I liked. Minhyun hasn’t even had his first kiss yet. This is impossible.

Maybe it was staged?

Maybe a crazy fan got two actors that looked like Sandy and Minhyun because she hates Sandy and so she’s trying to make her look like a .

Maybe Minhyun got something on his shirt and so he threw it away. Maybe Sandy got fat and so the button on her jeans was dislocated. Maybe Minhyun’s belt was too tight and so he loosened it a little. Maybe they were just talking on the bench and they both fell asleep and ended up in this weird position. Yes. That’s it. That’s probably what happened, I made myself believe.

Anything was more believable than what the picture implies: that Minhyun and Sandy were intimate in ways I have yet to experience.

But it made sense that Minhyun and Sandy would like each other. That’s why Minhyun acted weird when I told him I was confessing to her. So Minhyun and Sandy are a thing. That’s why she rejected me, and that’s why Minhyun knew she was going to reject me. It had been him all along. He was Sandy’s boyfriend. That was the truth that Minhyun told me would hurt me.

The fool should have just told me… I thought as I looked at the picture. Instead of going behind my back and doing all this crazy with her. On a public bench. What the hell is wrong with him?! I raged internally.

While I was raging internally, containing all my negative thoughts to myself, JR was not. He cursed at Minhyun. He swore to beat the crap out of him when he sees him next time. I had never seen our leader so affected. He was almost shivering from all the tension in his limbs and it felt like he would burst into tears at any moment. He was in disbelief that Minhyun would do such a thing, I guess. He was worried what this would do to the reputation of Nu’est as well. Little did I know then that were other reasons for his outrage.

Pictures and videos of them were being uploaded on the Internet fast. The more I saw, the more inclined I was to believe what everyone else was saying. “Minhyun betrayed Aron.” “Sandy is cheating on Aron.” “Sandy and Minhyun had .” Even articles that accused them of having illegal wild on a public bench I sort of almost believed, even though I knew Minhyun would never do it.

I would be lying if I said it didn’t hurt a little. Who am I kidding? It hurt a lot. It hurt so much that the girl I liked was with one of my best friends. It hurt so much more that one of my best friends would date her behind my back. It hurt a lot to know that they were at that level in their relationship, and I didn’t even know the relationship existed in the first place. It hurt that they didn’t even seem guilty about it. If they were guilty, they wouldn’t go to that level.

My heart physically hurt. But I kept it all inside. All of the negative emotion, I concealed with a poker face that pretended I was okay.

Manager-noona had gone to where they were and saved them from all the paparazzi and reporters forming around them. Pretty soon, noona stopped by at the Nu’est dorm and Minhyun got off. Before Minhyun came inside, Baekho tried to calm JR down, telling him to control his anger.

Minhyun appeared shamefacedly. He looked different than usual. There was something dead about his face. He looked completely traumatized and it was obvious he had been crying. He didn’t even look at any of us. He just went inside his room, put on a shirt and headed for the door.

“Minhyun!” JR screamed, “are you just going to pretend we don’t exist?” he raged.

“I have to go meet the CEO now,” Minhyun responded indifferently. “I’ll explain it all to you later.” He walked towards the door, and JR dashed towards him and grabbed his collar.

“I didn’t know you’d do this sort of behind our backs! Especially with a girl that doesn’t belong to you,” JR yelled authoritatively, making Minhyun shiver. Minhyun pushed JR’s hands away.

“I said I’ll explain it all to you later, don’t jump into conclusions,” Minhyun responded. I think it was Minhyun’s apathy in the way he spoke that outraged JR enough to make him push Minhyun against the wall violently.

“Do you have any idea how many people you’ve hurt with this!? And you act like everything’s going to be fine? You hurt me, you hurt Aron, you hurt all of Nu’est, your hurt Pledis, you broke the hearts of all of the fangirls that think you’re innocent… do you have any idea what this could do to us!?”

Minhyun finally showed responsiveness and began to cry. “I’m sorry,” he said, wiping his tears. “I’m sorry Aron. I’m sorry JR. I’m sorry to all of you…”

That apology seemed to remove all the doubt JR had about his relationship with Sandy because in that very moment, JR did what he’s never done to any of us ever before. He punched Minhyun. Minhyun collapsed and held his jaw as blood started coming from his mouth.

“W..why did you d..do that?” Minhyun stuttered, looking up innocently with wide eyes at JR as he cried with pain.

“Because you’re a ing traitorous and I can’t believe I thought I knew you!” JR said before dashing into the bathroom and slamming the door behind him.

Although I also, to some extent, felt bitter with him, I felt sorry for him. He looked like a shaken puppy as he sat there crying and wiping the blood from his mouth. I walked up to him and extended my hand to help him up.

Minhyun didn’t take my hand. He made eye contact with me, as if trying to read me and to decipher what was going through my mind. He looked so broken. “What do you think of all of this hyung?” he asked almost coldly despite how helpless he looked.

“I just wish you’d have told me, Min,” I responded.

Minhyun looked dissatisfied by that. He pushed my hand away. “I can’t believe it,” Minhyun said quietly, shaking his head and he turned his head to look at Ren and Baekho. He then made eye contact with me, and suddenly the tears began to fall at a faster pace. He then said, “I can’t believe you guys are my so-called friends. Do you all even know me? Do you actually believe I had with the girl you like? Do you actually believe I associated myself with her at all?! I thought you'd all trust me more than that!”

Suddenly I felt a pang of guilt overcome me. Of course Minhyun wouldn’t do that. What was I thinking?  I couldn’t believe I thought that way and believed it.

“I’m so, so, so sorry, Min,” I said regretfully when the realization hit me, and collapsed on the ground next to him and put my arms around him apologetically. “I’m an for thinking like that. I’m sorry, I’m so, so, so sorry.”

Minhyun didn’t return the hug like he usually did when I hugged him. Instead he pushed me away from him gently and wiped the tears from his eyes and the blood from his mouth.

“Manager-noona is waiting for me,” he stated and he quickly got up and left.

~Sandy’s POV~

“When I said you would be caught cheating on Aron, this is NOT what I meant!” the CEO said furiously when Minhyun and I were brought before him.

Minhyun talked to the CEO in Korean. I assumed he was explaining what had really happened and the CEO listened carefully to Minhyun and then shook his head in disapproval. He excused us then without saying a word about his intended course of action.

I remembered last time this happened to me. It was the scandalous picture with Aron at the police station… To think it happened again, in the same exact way: falling asleep in a public place in the hands of a K-pop idol. It never ends well.

Last time, Aron was kicked out of Nu’est. Will the same thing happen to Minhyun? Will Minhyun be asked to lie in public so that the stupid Netizens get their edge? Whatever it was the PledisBoss decided to do with me and him, I didn’t really care anymore. I’ll be forever known in Korea as the ty that that broke Aron’s heart and corrupted Minhyun’s innocence no matter what happens.

Noona took me back to the Hello Venus dorm. The girls all smiled at me, and Alice dragged me to the middle of the room and asked me to tell her about my relationship with Minhyun. She asked me with such enthusiasm and when I told her there was nothing she looked disappointed.

“The pictures were taken out of context. I’m not in any sort of relationship with him,” I said to them. They asked me what had really happened and I told them.

~Aron’s POV~

Manager-noona called me a little later to tell me that all of our schedule today and tomorrow was cancelled. She told us to avoid leaving the dorm until further notice.

“Where is Minhyun?” I asked her.

“In a trainee dorm,” noona replied. “Aron, he looks terrible. He’s so pale, and he’s been crying for such a long time. He’s depressed.”

I felt so guilty. “Can I see him?”

“He told me he did not want to talk to any of you ever again,” noona responded with a despondent undertone. “Aron, he asked the CEO to take him out of Nu’est…”

NOOOOOOO! Nu’est without just ONE member isn’t Nu’est anymore. They all complete one another~ What a depressing chapter… :(

Lol, I kinda feel like I’m pushing it with the overload of drama, right? Oh wellz…

((AND DONGJUN FROM ZE:A SAID I WAS PRETTY I AM SO HAPPY.))