She knew what to expect when she arrived without any notice. Her instincts were right as she stepped inside her home with the spare keys she always has. She looked at the guy's shoes as she removed her own shoes after she closed the door behind her. She could hear the heavy breaths as she stood still in her silent home, her childhood memories came back. She sighed; it is going to be embarrassing but she has to do it. 

"Ma!" Victoria shouted, and the heavy breathing stopped. A silence followed and then came the sounds of two people moving quickly. Then came footsteps from the staircase and now two people came into the view. Her mother came out, half dressed (of course) and following came a guy (in only jeans) who might be just few older than her. The guy looked embarrassed as he quickly rushed past away, not forgetting to take his shoes with him. Her mother looked at her daughter, the younger noticing how thin her mother had become. A minute passed without a word utter. 

"Are you okay?" Ms. Song asked her daughter, her voice soft with worry. 

Victoria did practice mentally when she was on the plane back to her home. She had this scenario, where she knew a guy that she didn't know would be there with her mother. She would ask her mother if she had seen the news, and first start out explaining her feelings and then slowly would say that she is pregnant. But now with her mother just few steps away, her eyes filled with fear and worry, Victoria suddenly felt very dry. 

"I am pregnant," she said. She watched her mother's eyes go wide in shock, and blink a couple of times. Then she saw the change in her face; something about the expression made Victoria scared. "I will not kill it. I will do everything and I won't ask your help. It's going to live with me and I will take of it and you don't need to do anything. I just had to come back and-" 

"Does he know?" Her mother interrupted her. Victoria stopped her speech and looked at her feet. She shook her head for the answer. "Don't you think he should know about this?" her mother told quietly. 

"I don't want my child to have the same fate as me," Victoria replied, not daring to look at her mother. A minute passed without any response, and slowly she looked up to see her mother's turned face. 

"I actually bought a house in Qianjiang. I am sorry I didn't tell you before, and I didn't take any loans so you don't need to worry. If you had come next week, I wouldn't be here and you would have met the new owners of this house. I sold this house and with the money you send me every time, I bought an apartment. It only has two rooms, but once when the baby grows big enough, I think-" 

Victoria stopped her by embracing her, letting all her pain, fear and tears out. Her mother understood what her daughter was suffering. "It's okay, I won't do what my family did to me," Her mother promised. 

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The girls headed to the cafeteria after their meeting with various people in SM. They concluded that for now, all f(x) activities would be stopped except for commercials. 

All commercials and endorsements of Victoria would be given to someone else, and SM would pay for whatever payments they had to pay for breaking the contract. For now, the girls won't do anything but practice their dance and singing. Also they would have plenty of free time, so the girls can focus on whatever they like. They couldn't do any activities since it would be a bad publicity to promote after one of the members had left the team. So for now, they really had no jobs except for commercials. 

As they entered the cafeteria, they could feel everyone's eyes on them. They knew about the rumors going in the company; their manager told them everything they needed to know. Luna scooted Krystal and Sulli beside her as they made their way to the line. It was tensed, with people staring and talking about them. Some of the stares were out of curiosity, while many were pity. The girls didn't say anything as they got their trays filled with food and headed to the last table at the end of the room. 

Krystal didn't make an effort to eat at first, but with constant nagging from Luna made her to at least pick the spoon. Sulli played around the food while Amber actually made an effort to eat. They lost their appetite with people gossiping around them, making no pretend to be silent about it. Amber's phone suddenly ringed, and the younger girls froze with her. With uncertainty, Amber pressed the button and placed the phone on her ear. 

"Amber, are you there? It's Song Qian." 

The tomboy sighed in relief. "I'll call you later on this number," she said in Chinese. The elder understood and hung up. Amber looked at the girls, a twinkle in her eyes that made them understand everything. A small smile was on their faces as they quickly got up and placed their dirty plates away. They tried to not look so happy as they crossed across the room, but they were suddenly stopped since EXO crowded the entrance. They bowed to their sunbaes, but there was an awkward atmosphere as they remember the last time they met. The girls bowed and exited quietly, not wanting to start a conversation with anyone. 

The boys got their food and sat at their usual table. They tried to be as normal as possible, with Chen and Baekhyun trying to joke around to make the atmosphere a bit more light. But that was hard since they could hear everyone gossip, even the table beside them with trainees. 

"I heard that Sulli and Krystal wanted Victoria to leave so they complained to the CEO and he got her fired. It should have been easy since they are the "princesses" of SM," one of the ladies mocked. 

"What if Victoria knows something that no one should know so that CEO got her fired?" Someone else whispered. 

Kai was stoic, but s knew that he was fuming with rage. 

"Does that make sense? She could have blackmailed the company and get whatever she needs. If she wanted to, she could have sold the secrets to the media and got a load of money. I believe that she just getting money from the company to keep shut and she left the celebrity life for good." 

"What if she is pregnant?" Another whispered. 

Kay gritted his mouth shut, trying to control his anger. The members looked worriedly and some were about to stand up but Suho just gave a look to keep their mouth shut. 

"With whose child would be the question. I swear that Kyuhyun and Victoria were ing each other, you can't deny that. Also, I heard from someone in JYP that she and Nichkhun were having some intimate moments in the practice room. Also, did you see her with Kangta sunbae?  She would have let him get in her pants if she could have. She sure is a lucky ." 

"She seemed nice though...." 

"They only look nice so that some guy could get under their pants. Not only are they , but they are selfish es. Ah, I feel bad for the remaining members.." 

Kai slammed his hand on the table and abruptly stood up, causing some of them to be silent. They watched as he gave them a chillingly glare to the ones gossiping and exited before he could break someone's arm. He would have never hit anyone, but sometimes his anger could get the better of him. Kyungsoo was about to get up but Suho stopped him. 

"Leave him alone. He needs some personal time to sort out his feelings."