Aaron refrained from hitting anything. He smiled at Minhyun, but the other boy could see only the terror radiating from his pupils. He widened his smile, and Minhyun dropped his as he spoke.

            “Minhyun, hi.” he began, approaching him. Minhyun stood stiff and unmoving. This skin grew colder and colder until goosebumps became visible on his arms. Aaron noticed, but said nothing. “I have to talk to you.”
            “Yeah?” the taller of the two replied shakily. He stood his ground still, but quivered as Aaron turned to look down the hall. He placed a hand on his back, leading him to a set of chairs at the end of the hall. They both sat heavily, Minhyun staring right in front of him, afraid, for some reason, to look him in the eye any longer. Something about the glitter in his eye screamed horror, and he wanted to ignore it, but his conscious mind would not allow it. He took in a breath of air.

            “This is going to sound so weird.” he informed him. Aaron took his head in his hands and ruffled his hair before looking up again. “But you don’t know why I just saw them kissing, do you?”
            “Who?” Minhyun asked quickly.
            “Ren and,” Aaron paused again, trying to cough the name from deep within his throat. “JR.” he accomplished. “Maybe they weren’t, but it looked like it. Maybe I’m seeing things.”
            The air in Minhyun’s lungs seemed to have disapparated from within him as he lost his breath. He tried his hardest to calm his senses and he spoke again, taking a long breath through his nose. “Kissing? No.”

            “You don’t seem surprised.”
            “I,” he took another breath through his nose, trying to hide the fear still growing in the pit of his stomach. “I’m not surprised. About Ren. We all knew what he did with,”
            “Shut up.” the eldest argued, his voice raising against his will. “I mean, yeah. But you don’t seem surprised that it was them.”
            “I don’t know what you want to hear from me,” Minhyun’s heart raced and it was definitely clear to Aaron. “But this is the first I’ve heard of anything like that.”
            “Don’t lie to me, Hwang Minhyun.” His voice was low now, but still just as terrifying, if not more so, as before. “What do you know?”
            “I don’t know anything, Aaron.”

            Aaron rose from his seat quickly and raced down the hall. He had almost disappeared in a second, and if Minhyun would have blinked, he would have missed it. The brunette let out a long breath of air and allowed his tense palms to run down his thighs toward his knees. He rested his forehead there. His stomach curled over itself as he shook, not only in fear. How could Minki have been so stupid to have kissed Jonghyun in public, where everyone could see them? He rocked on his rear in the chair as he regained his breath. Minhyun stood, finally, his legs shaky as he moved down the hall as well. As he reached the automatic doors to the outside world, he wanted to collapse. He’d meant to visit his friends, but he felt as if getting as far as he could from where Aaron had last seen him was the best idea.

            Joonkin stood only feet from the now opening doors. Minhyun looked most shaken up, and he approached him with caution.

            “Minhyun,”
            “Are you here to visit, or could you take me home, please?” Joonkin placed a hand on his shoulder and nodded.

            “What’s got you so freaked out, Min?” the manager asked as they pulled from the parking lot again. “Oh, and Kaeun’s been asking me where you’re at. You’re not answering your phone.”
            “Oh, yeah. Yeah, I’ll call her.” He didn’t answer his question. Joonkin acknowledged that, but allowed him to stay quiet as they rode their way to the house.

---

            Kaeun dialed Dongho’s number. She must have been the only one with hope still that he could be found. When the call had gone to his already full voicemail box for the eighteenth time that day, she had almost given up. He laid flat on her back on her bed, her cell phone beside her. When it vibrated unexpectedly, she only half expected for it to have been Dongho. She stared at the screen with the most miniscule smile on her pink lips as she read her best friend’s name.

            “Minhyun?” she answered without the usual ‘Hello’. “Thank god you called, I was going crazy.”
            Minhyun’s light laughter would be heard from her end of the line, and whatever piece of a smile he had had fallen onto the sheets that covered her bed. “Yeah. I wanted to call to check up on you. Joonkin said you’ve been looking for me. Sorry I haven’t answered my phone; this Baekho thing, you know.”

            She knew well. The thought of the end of her eighteenth call was too fresh in her memory not to remember clearly. “Yeah. I’ll see you at dance practice tomorrow, right? With all of this going on you guys have missed three performances. Han-nim can’t be happy.”

            Minhyun had almost forgotten, in the midst of all of this, what his profession was. At the realization of just how much the group had missed, he shuddered in embarrassment. “Right, Han-nim. No one could be happy. I’ll be there.”
            “Good.”
            “Yeah.”
            “Minhyun?”
            “What?”
            “Are you okay?”
            “Why wouldn’t I be?”

            Kaeun took a breath and spoke again, picking at a small piece of lint stuck in her long, dark hair. She focused on it as she spoke.

            “Every reason in the world.”
            “Right.” Minhyun’s voice cracked. it was only the voice of his best friend that could have convinced him that nothing was right; not if he was in his right mind, anyway. “Hey, I just got home. I’ve got to go. I’ll text you later?”
            “Okay.” she sighed, lying back against her bed. “Promise me something, Min?”
            “Anything. I owe you. What is it?”
            “Be strong, okay? We all hope Baekho will be all right, but in the case that he’s not, I don’t want you to feel bad or anything.”

            The line was quiet for several long seconds.

            “Well, we’ll all feel bad, but you know what I mean. Don’t let anything get to you.”
            “I’ll try.” his voice was even lower now.
            “No, promise me.”

            Minhyun was quiet for a moment. Kaeun could hear him unlocking the front door of the house and quietly closing it over his small whisper.

            “I promise.”
            “Stay safe.”

            The line died, and Kaeun dropped her phone to her side again. She pulled her legs to her chest and her side, falling asleep again, despite the morning sunlight shining brightly through the window.