It was a silent ride. Neither Sungjong or Gonam utter a word once the car left the apartment compound. The radio was playing in low volume as a background music. They paid no mind to it. There wasn’t too much vehicle on the road either. One can say it was a peaceful night but Sungjong’s heart wasn’t the same.

“Hyung, truth to be told…” Sungjong started while looking straight in front of him, sitting comfortably in his seat.

“Yes…” Gonam replied. “What is it?”

“…I’m scared.” Sungjong took a look at Gonam and repeated, “I’m scared, hyung.”

Gonam glanced at Sungjong before focused back on his driving. “Don’t you worry much, Lee Sungjong. Myungsoo won’t be mad too long. I never see Myungsoo be angry for so long though because he got cool pretty fast.”

Sungjong exhaled. He looked back to the front. “It is not Myungsoo I worry about. I know him and his warm heart, one of many, many reasons why I love about him.”

“Cool to know you really like him. Then what is it?”

“Can you pull over?”

It was like a déjà vu. Both the manager and the maknae singer have had been in the same exact situation like this a few months ago.

“What? Right now?”

“I want to show you something. Please, pull over, Gonam hyung.”

Since Sungjong was asking nicely, Gonam did what he had been told.

Once they were on the side of the road, Sungjong said, “I received a text message when we were exiting the restaurant.”

“Ahh, the infamous text message. I thought you’ve deleted it.” Gonam’s remark gained a judging stare from the lemon candy guy. “Wha-what? Sorry I overheard your argument. I was in the car, just a few meter from you guys, so.” Gonam rested his case.

Instead of replying, Sungjong handed his phone and showed the text to his manager.

Gonam couldn’t believe his eyes. He had to reread it twice, thrice. “What the hell am I reading? Is this real? Someone is threatening you?”

“I—I… I don’t know, okay? It is so much real as it is. It’s from unknown sender. I don’t know if this was the same person who text me before, I--,”

“Before?! What do you mean before? Is this person texts you a lot?”

“Only two times, so far. Twice,” Sungjong told truthfully. “At first, I thought someone is just pranking me or something so I didn’t bother to care too much.”

“Where is the first one? Why they aren’t chained to each other?” Gonam was confused.

“The other is here,” Sungjong showed by clicking back button and opened another text, and added, “Either one person is using different numbers or there is actually more people involved, I don’t know what to say other than I’m so scared because I don’t know how serious they meant it.”

Gonam sighed and handed back the phone to the owner. “Why can’t you just tell Myungsoo about this? That poor guy literally begging you. I thought you love him.”

“Because I love him, that’s why I can’t tell him. I don’t want him to think I’m too much of a burden on top of being a freak. Where he can be with anyone, instead he chose me. I should have brought him happiness, not life problem. Plus, this is my problem. Logically speaking, I’m the only one who should solve it. And he’s already too busy with all his works, I can’t really—”

“Hold up, lemme stop you there. You can’t possibly love others before love yourself first, Lee Sungjong. How could you say that? That you don’t believe in Myungsoo’s love—”

“I don’t say that!” Sungjong blurted.

“But that’s what I’m hearing.”

“I—I,” Sungjong was trying to find his words so he won’t be misunderstood. “Maybe there’s some truth to what you’ve said.”

“Which is?” Gonam glanced his way.

“That I don’t love myself enough. I can’t help it but blaming myself for what’s happening,” Sungjong admitted. “I love Myungsoo too much, I don’t want him to get hurt. After I got the first text, Myungsoo was hospitalized with two broken ribs. According to Sunggyu hyung’s crazy theory, it was Kim Doyeon’s work. Either it was indeed Kim Doyeon or not, or this unknown sender’s doing, Myungsoo did get hurt. This feels like a punishment or some sort because he and I are together. I brought this all mess to us. So tell me hyung, how could I love myself when I constantly put Myungsoo in danger? And now, the second text mentions my unborn child? I’m the bad luck charm for them.” Sungjong can no longer held his tears.

Gonam handed him a tissue before saying, “No one is blaming you but yourself, Sungjongie. I don’t think others will think that, let alone Myungsoo. The villain is not you. You are a victim here, the victim. You shouldn’t feel bad, okay? Now take a deep breath, try to calm yourself.”

Sungjong wiped his tears away and doing as he had been told. “It’s not like I don’t believe in Myungsoo’s love for me either. It’s just he doesn’t deserve all of this mess. Maybe he doesn’t think like I did. Could be he’s actually okay with all of this. And that makes me feel more guilty.”

“Aigoo,” Gonam extended his arm and rubbed soothing circles on Sungjong’s back. They stayed silent for awhile to absorb the information, to think pros and cons about the next possible steps, to feel the emotions which often spoke louder than words and to