January 19th, 2014
Day 232

"We seriously have a crazy amount of birthday's in this group in January," Hye Rin pointed out, leaning her head back into her seat in the van. The girls were on their way to Inkigayo for their performance, and after would go to the small restaurant that their leader picked to celebrate her birthday at.

"Yeah, my whole paycheck has been gone to get birthday presents for you guys," Seol Ae scoffed, legs crossed as she blankly looked out the window.

"Not all of us," Rui mumbled under her breath.

"What was that?" the visual growled.

"I didn't say anything," she shrugged, not looking at the other girl.

"Do you have a problem with me?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Excuse me?!" Seol Ae whipped around in her seat, eyes blazing.

"Are you deaf or something?" Rui's tone was monotonous. Was the other really this shocked? She was a to her, what else did she expect?

"How dare you! I've always been nice to you!"

"Bull ing ," she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Then ing explain yourself, !"

"We all knew this day was coming," Holly grumbled, following Yerim's actions and putting her earbuds in.

"You seriously think I need to explain myself? Are you stupid? Damn, you're dumber than I thought," the singer rolled her eyes.

"Apparently dumb enough to agree on picking you to become apart of Legend!"

Rui went quiet. After a few heartbeats she softly uttered, "I hate you."

Seol Ae froze for a millisecond, too quick for most to notice, she scoffed, "Oh, really? How much?"

"You could die and I wouldn't care," she stated with a blank look.

The members lapsed into silence once more.

With a deep breath, Haneul looked over at Minhwa. "Hey, Minhwa-ah?"

The maknae was shocked the elder was the one to break the silence, especially to speak to her. "Y-yeah, unnie?"

"I got a letter from your nanny the other day..."

Minhwa's eyes uncharacteristically narrowed.

"She said she received notice from your homeroom teacher about how... the other kids have been treating you."

Her blood ran cold. Her eyes shifting away from the leader, terrified of what her facial expression could give away. She didn't speak.

The other members, that weren't wearing earbuds, zoned into the conversation, their eyes glued onto the maknae. Was the leader saying what they thought she was?

"You know, you can tell us if something was wrong. I can tell you've been trying to be careful but, concerning the random bruises you would have, a limp, never speaking about your classmates, when you hyperventilated when you saw a classmate appear at a fan signing, and even leaving school early claiming that your classes were canceled. Minhwa-ah, what's going on?"

"Nothing," her voice was tight, her face down and covered with cascading hair. Noticing, Yerim pulled out an earbud and paused her music, sending the maknae a confused look.

"You can tell us anything," Hye Rin put in. "We'll protect you."

Her fists tightened on her lap, her shoulders began to shake.

"Minhwa-ah, please be honest with us," Yerim softly said, leaning forward, she placed a reassuring hand on the small girls shoulder.

"STOP IT!"

Before any of the girls could give a proper shocked reaction to the youngest girls scream, their bodies painfully jerked against their seatbelts. The car's rubber wheels loudly screeched against the black road, Jiwook slamming his foot against the break in a desperate attempt to get the van to stop spinning.