성재: I wait for Se Na to reply, but it quite bewilders me that she doesn’t. Pouting, I think that maybe she’s already settling something so I let her be. We go back to practice and for the next seven hours no text still comes. Every given time, I would sneak to hold my phone, but no message from Se Na appears. I’m starting to worry.

It was originally planned that we would have a snack-out but since we’re too tired, we decide to head straight to the dorm. Changsub-hyung just got injured.

“Sungjae, really, you might as well just put Velcro on your phone and your hand,” Ilhoon-hyung remarks, as we drive home from the company. “You keep holding it,”

Peniel-hyung, who sits in the middle of us three, looks at me, also intrigued. “Are you waiting for a call?”

“A message. Or, yeah. A call,” I reply, absent-mindedly, with my head on the window-glass.

“Why don’t you call the person yourself?”

“I don’t know…” I sigh. “She might be busy…”

The inside of the car immediately erupts in cheers, that I’m startled, confused. All sorts of speculations are yelled right in my face such as—

“OH MY GOSH, MAKNAE HAS A LOVE-LIFE!”

 “ARE YOU HITTING ON HER OR SOMETHING?!”

“YOOK SUNGJAE, YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND?!”

“EMERGERDDD!”

Well, that escalated quickly.

“Aniyo, aniyo!” I vehemently deny, screaming at the top of my lungs. “She’s not my girlfriend!!!”

“THEN WHO IS SHE?!”
“Kids, kids! The voice, the voice!” manager-hyung, who’s driving, reproaches.

The atmosphere eases a tad, and I tell them to all listen to me.

“She’s not my girlfriend, hyung. Nor am I hitting on her,” I don’t need to. I secretly think. They all eye me with interest, paying very close attention. “Remember when I told you I went to Busan?”

“Hm-mm,”

“Well, I have a friend there…no, best friend there. She’s here in Seoul now…”

 “Can we meet her?” Donggeun-hyung queries.

“When we’re all free,” I answer.

More questions are exchanged after that, and eventually the car pulls over for a stop. The topic dies out once we’re in the dorm, as everyone immediately retires to rest and most of them sleep, promising to wake up later for dinner.

Despite of the lethargy, I find it hard to rest. For some unknown reason, I feel nervous, really nervous that I couldn’t keep still. I keep on walking across the living room; I keep on drinking water so as to calm myself down, but nothing happens. The unnerving sensation is still there.

“Yook Sungjae, if you’re not getting dizzy with yourself, well, I am, so will you please sit down?” Hyunsik-hyung says, quite impatiently, concern more obvious rather than irritation. “What’s the matter?”

I plop myself beside him. “I don’t know, hyung,” I groan.

“Is that love?” he chuckles.

I shake my head. “It’s another thing.”

“Where’s your phone?”

“In the room.”

“Has she messaged you?”

“Not yet.”

“Have you checked it again?”

“Yeah.”

“When was the last time?”

“Two minutes ago.”

“When was her last message?”

“Eight hours ago.”

He clucks his tongue. “Have you called her?”

“Uh…no. I always assume she can’t be disturbed.”

He scowls in bewilderment. “So what do you plan to do now?”

Scratching my head, I whine, “Ah, I don’t know!” it’s probably because of drinking too much water that I feel my bladder’s loaded. “Ah, wait, wait. Call of nature,” I stand up, and quickly go to the bathroom.

As soon as I’m out I hear my voice being called, and it’s Donggeun-hyung. “Sungjae, Sungjae!”

“Yes?”

He shows me my phone. “You have three missed calls from…” he takes a look at the screen. “Who is this, ‘fiancée’?”

I snatch my phone from his grasp in the blink of an eye. “Oh my god!”

“I answered it.” Peniel-hyung states, staring at me blankly. “The last call, I mean.”

“What did it say?” I hurryingly scroll through the screen.

“It was an ahjussi that talked over the phone.”

“What did it—“ I gulp. “Who-what-who?! HYUNG YOU HAVE TO TELL ME!”

“Okay calm down!” he holds out his palms in front of me. “He said your friend is in the hospital…”

It takes only one second for me to reach the door. “I’m going somewhere!” the door’s already opened when I’m stopped—

“Hold it right there, maknae,” Hyunsik-hyung coolly stands up from the floor. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I have to go to my friend, hyung! She’s in danger!”

He scowls. “You’re not going anywhere.”

I resist cussing at him. “Hyung, please.” My throat tightens.

“Not without me.” he corrects, which makes one of my brows rise. His eyes disappear into mere slits when he adds, “I’m coming with you.”

What?

“Y-you’re coming?”

He swings his arm over my shoulder and laughs. “Yeah!”

“Eeeeeeh wait!”

We turn.

“You guys can’t leave me out here, you know that, right?” Peniel-hyung says, with brows knitted.

Hyunsik-hyung and I both sigh. “Alright, alright! Come here you,” hyung flaps his hand at his direction and Donggeun-hyung trots to us, hissing “Yes!”