“I’m fine with it. Does anyone have any objections?” Hyoyeon asked and she looked around the table she and her members were sitting.

Yuri and Yoona shrugged while Sunny shook her head.

“Do you think Maknae would mind?” said Tiffany who was sitting across Taeyeon.

“I don’t think she would mind a little change in the dorm,” Taeyeon said.

Jessica clapped her hands and stood up. “Okay, then. I’ll start packing tomorrow.”

“Me too,” Tiffany stood up next in line and then Taeyeon followed after. The eight members of Girls’ Generation left the dining table and retreated to their own rooms, oblivious to the fact that the youngest girl in the group was standing behind the front door, holding it just a crack opened, listening to the conversation.

“Change in the dorm? Packing?” she repeated the words her unnies said. “What’s going on?”

**

Nothing changed for the next few days and Seohyun was starting to feel left out. No one seemed to remember to talk to her about their little conversation on the dining table the other night and it was eating her inside. What was going to happen? What with all the packing thing and changes in the dorm? And she started to think of the worse scenario that could possibly happen: the disbandment of the group.

But no, she said to herself, convincing her soul that nothing was going to happen to the group. Then what was the change her unnies were talking about? And the word that really made her worry was ‘packing.’ Would there be someone moving away from the dorm?

Thinking of that made her frustrated and she didn’t have the guts to ask her unnies about the conversation because clearly none of them needed her opinion. Well, why should they be bothered by it? She was just a little girl to them, unworthy of sounding her mind.

**

A week went by and Seohyun was still unsure of what would happen in the dorm. More horrible things came to her mind and fighting them off was getting harder and harder. She got to the point where everything became to unbearable and she flipped out. The thing that triggered her whole emotion burst was the scene of Taeyeon packing her clothes into a duffle bag.

“Unnie!” she shouted and the oldest girl in the group stared at her in surprise and puzzled.

“Wha- what?”

“I can’t take it anymore,” Seohyun said, “Are you leaving the dorm? Are you leaving the group? Tiffany and Jessica—unnie too?!”

“Leave?” Taeyeon was puzzled.

Seohyun’s eyes began to blur by tears, her whole body trembled in anger. “I heard what you and the others talked about the other night. About changes in the dorm and packing stuff. Are you leaving?”

Taeyeon was baffled by the maknae’s sudden rage. She could not even utter a word from .

“Is this because of those rumors spreading on the internet?! You knew from day one that this would happen when we stepped into this world! You out of all people should know that giving up is not a choice! Don’t leave the group!”

Tears melted down Seohyun’s chubby cheeks. She cried like a child.

“Hyunnie…,” Taeyeon stood up and hugged the crying girl.

“We still have twenty years to go as a family… don’t leave us now,” said Seohyun in between her sobs.

With Seohyun in her arms, Taeyeon said in a gentle voice. “No one is going anywhere. I won’t leave the group, Tiffany surely won’t and not even that sloth Jessica. Like you said, we’re a family and family won’t leave. We’re stuck with each other, Baby Girl.”

“Then what’s with all the changes and the packing?”

“We’re getting a dog.”

Seohyun stopped sobbing and pulled herself away from Taeyeon. “A dog?”

“Me, Tiffany and Jessica want to keep a dog in the dorm so we have to make room for them. That’s why we’re packing some of our stuff and sending them back home.”

“So you’re not leaving?”

“No.”

“So you made me cry over nothing?! Over dogs?!”

Taeyeon grinned innocently.

The Maknae her heel and groaned. “Ugh! Why didn’t you just say so instead of keeping me in the dark? I was so worried….”

Then Seohyun cried again.

“Hey, don’t cry! I thought you were angry. Get back to being angry.”

Seohyun wiped her flowing tears with the back of her hand. “I’m relieved…. I thought I’m going to lose you….”

So Taeyeon hugged her again. “We will never leave.”

That was the time Taeyeon felt so proud of the Maknae, of how she thought so highly about the group and the bonds they shared. Her anger was more than just feeling betrayed because no one told her of what was really happening, but it was a rage came from a fear of losing a family. Because that was they were to her. A family of nine.