(Back in usual time)

“Look who’s hiding..” –Leen

Hanbin was walking pass at the coffee shop as secretly as he could with all his jacket, mask, shades and hat. Although as soon as he heard that voice behind him, he knew he didn’t succeeded to her.

“Meoya Leen-ah!” He hissed.

“What? Leen-ah again?” –Leen. Then again, he never fail to annoy her. “Yah, one more time and I’ll shout your name here.”

He suddenly pulled her towards the exit with him.

“Meoya?!” – Leen

“What’s with you too?? Aish, remember it’s your fault why I’m in this hiding!” – Hanbin

“Yah, you should be thanking me! You get all these praises and popularity because of me.” – Leen

“Only in the spotlight. I never thought it’ll be this hard. Aish, it’s seriously hot.” Hanbin get more irritated as he felt the warmth of his get up. He was wearing a jacket at summer.

“Then take it off idiot”

Hanbin handed his coffee at Leen then took it off. “What flavour is this?”

“Just café latte, why?”

Without answering, she took a sip at his cup. “Yah! What are you doing?!”

“I’m just tasting it..aigoo..what’s the fuss??”

Hanbin was actually the type of a very hygienic kid towards his belongings, especially food. Well, it was her by the way. Omo He smiled gently at the thought of it.

 “Waa, Hyorin’s also getting big huh.” – Leen smiled as she looks at Hyorin smiling and acting cute at a skincare product on a giant electronic billboard.

“Huh?” Hanbin looked up. “Tss..who knew this tomboy would look all these girly there? Aw!” He cringes looking away.

“Huh? Tomboy?”

“Yeah..she was more of a guy than Donghyuk before. Haha”

“You sure knew each other well before huh”

“We were the best rapper trio ever.”

“Trio?”

“Me, Hyo and Bobby hyung”

“Uwaa..”

“and that’s why Bobby hyung got a crush on her. Haha”

“and you didn’t?”

He was surprised for a while and comfortably said, “No”

“Why?? If I were you I’d fall for her too. She’s just amazing”

Hanbin smiled weakly like somethings bothering him. “Don’t know..” He suddenly swifted his mood and , “If that’s the case, why didn’t you fall for me? I’m far more amazing”

Leen stopped walking, though she can’t see his face with all the mask and sunglass she knew exactly his smirking. She hit his back.

“That’s exactly why I didn’t. Tss..your humble image on TV is seriously all show,” – Leen

Despite being hit, he just laughed it off. He’s getting used to it.

“Anyway, are you going off somewhere?”

“I’m just walking home. You? Why are you roaming around by yourself?”

“I’m tired of closed rooms. Everyday I was either at home, practice room or broadcast shows. I can’t even breathe some fresh wind.”

“Haha, how pathetic..” She more.

“Then again, thanks to you”

“With or without me, it’s your fault. This is the life you wanted to live *merong*”

They were just walking and saw another poster of Hyorin in a bus stop.

“Uwaa, she’s everywhere” – Leen

Hanbin just smiled. They sat down at the empty stop.

“Bi,” – Leen

“Yeah?”

“Why did she quit?” – Leen never know how to be careful. She was always direct to point.

Though he was quite startled, he knew that somehow Leen would ask that.

He sipped his coffee, “She…has an ear disease”

Leen looked at him in shock. Leen practically knows how a trainee goes through but aside from their hard work she didn’t realize a different reason would cut a trainee’s road to its dream.

“It’s called Tinnitus. She hears ringings even without a sound present. It affected her practice and performance of course. She won’t hear her surroundings and would only hear ringings. And it’s occurrence can’t be determined. It just comes randomly so she can’t fully prepare herself when it comes…and worst,..it came in their last monthly evaluation performance after it was announced that they’ll debut 3 months after that.”

She can’t feel anything but sorry towards Hyo. He remembered it again.

-Flashback-

Every trainee was in the room to witness the last montly evaluation practice of Hyo’s team. Hyo was actually in a good mood and was all confident. She even forgot that constant disturbance in her ear before.

When their performance begun Hyo blanked out and halted for 3 seconds. She heard it again, the ringing, worst was she didn’t hear anything else but ringing. It was worst than what she experienced before. Just at the second line of their song, she halted then looked around. With a quick mind, she managed to find her beat at their choreo just doing as practiced although she was already looking worried. Hyo can’t hear anything and when her part came, she just tried to sing. She was really off pitch and missed her beat. Her expression was at awful that time, she looked very fearful but pushed through until the end.

After their performance, her members looked really upset and despite their hissing, she can’t hear them. Worst was when YG sajangnim scolded them. She could only see his angry expression but it worried her more that she can’t hear anything else besides the gradually piercing ringing in her ears. Hanbin and his team witnessed everything, as she puts her hand on her ears with a painful expression. Everyone thought she was rebelling at how the boss was scolding them. . then she collapsed.

-End of Flashback-

“Two weeks after the incident, she left quietly, without even telling all her members. Only six of us knew that time that she was forced to quit because of the circumstances. It was only Jenny, me, Bobby, Jinhwan, Seungyoon hyung and YG sajangnim who knew. Everyone was devastated and some are angry. After much time, the 3 of us in the team opened it to the others and so does Jenny. She didn’t contact us after she left and we didn’t open that subject again.”

Leen can’t say anything. She could only imagine one’s dream was shuttered because of a disease.

"I remember, Bobby hyung even cried when she left." When he looked at Leen, she was crying silently.

“Yah, why are you crying??” Hanbin was caught off guard.

“Huh?? I don’t know..I just,..Hyo..she’s a nice person, how could it be that she actually suffers from that? She doesn't deserve it. Why her??”

He let out a laugh, “It doesn’t matter now, see, she already succeeded well” He pointed at the poster near them.

She wiped her tears. Hanbin then helped her wipe her tears with a tissue. She was already getting touched when she sniffed the tissue,

“YAH, IT’S WET WITH SOME COFFEE YOU IDIOT” She suddenly bursted.

Hanbin got shocked again with her sudden change of mood. He looked at the tissue again. Yes, it was his spare coffee tissue but he didn’t notice it was the tissue he wiped off his spill a while ago.

He just laughed. “Sorry, hahahah”

“MEOYA, my face feels sticky!”

“Don’t worry coffee is good for the face, HAHAHAH”

“KIM HAN-”

Hanbin stopped laughing and quickly covered . “Yah! NOT MY NAME!!!”