[Kim Tae Yeon’s POV]

“Wow, she’s really so nice!”

“I suddenly felt so bad about what we did to her.”

”I cannot believe she just let us go like that. I really thought we’ll be kicked out forever.”

“Yeah, I’ll always be indebted to her. She’s so kind. I really hope she’ll do well on her debut. She deserves it.”

I’ve been in the hallway for what felt like forever before I finally heard their voices. Emerging from the room one by one, I went to approach them. They stopped when they saw me and gave me a polite bow. I nodded in response. 

“So, the trial’s over?” I asked.

“Yes, sunbae,” one of them answered.

“How did it go?” I asked again. 

“We’re forgiven. Han Na sunbaenim is really kind. She made Manager Song get us off the hook,” another one answered. 

The two girls sighed like they’re inside some wonderful dream. I tapped my foot on the floor, suddenly feeling impatient. I didn’t come here to eavesdrop about their sentence. I already knew they’ll be saved, anyway. I came here for another reason. I stared at Yeri meaningfully.

"You can leave us, for now. I’ll just follow after you later,” she said to her minions. They nodded and immediately obeyed, leaving the two of us in the middle of the hallway. “What do you need?” she asked, sounding annoyed.

“Whoa there. I’m not Han Na. Don’t use that kind of tone to me,” I warned. Yeri and I were friends eversince childhood. We lived in the same subdivision and our parents were fairly close. I’m only a few years older than her but I was scouted much earlier so I had become an Idol while she remained to train under the company.

“Don’t you dare say that name in front of me,” she blurted, glaring at me. I chuckled. 

From the start, I already knew what they were doing to Han Na. Baekhyun told me about Han Na’s upcoming debut during one of our phone calls and I was the one who told Yeri about it. I knew she’d be mad. God, she was fuming with anger. She told me everything that they did to her - the bullying, the harassment.  I warned her about it, telling her to be careful because that girl’s well protected, but she didn’t listen. Thankfully, Han Na’s kind, or she’ll definitely be out of the company by now.

“I’m only here because there’s something that you didn’t tell me,” I began. “Something about Baekhyun getting involved in this issue.” 

She seemed to remember what I mean and snapped her fingers. “Oh yeah, that. I forgot to tell you about your favorite boy barging in on us and protecting that poor girl like he’s some kind of a prince charming straight out of fairy tale books,” she said her voice filled with sarcasm and deep annoyance.

Anger welled up inside me. “Don’t you dare speak of him that way,” I told her in the most dangerous and feral manner I can manage. She seem to back off a bit.

“Okay, fine, I’m sorry.” she said, her hands raised in apology. “Just what exactly do you want to hear from me?”

I took a step back and leaned my back on the wall. I turned to face her and with my fingers, began playing with a lock of my hair. I answered slowly, “I want to hear what Baekhyun exactly did.”

“I told you already. He came barging in the restroom out of nowhere and helped that girl,” she said, her voice full of disgust.

“Helped her in what way?” I urged.

Yeri rolled her eyes but replied, “He yelled at us. He was so mad that time that even I got scared of him. He’s almost shaking with anger. And his eyes...” Yeri shivered and continued, “He even threatened that he would hurt us! Could you believe that? He ordered us to apologize to that girl and threatened to hurt us if we didn’t. God, I almost thought he’d really do it. But that girl came and stopped him.”

This caught my attention. Baekhyun threatened to hurt them? I never even once saw him get mad at a guy, much less a lady. This is all news to me.

“What did the girl did?” I continued asking.

Yeri shrugged and said, “Nothing. Just stopped him and asked him to leave. He obeyed her and left us there.”

Now this is really something. Baekhyun is not the type of person to be bossed at - especially not by someone who’s younger than him, most of all a girl. I am older than him for years but he never once obeyed what I order him no matter how hard I tried. And he’ll just obey Han Na like that? A girl who’s younger? I’m getting more curious about this.

“Do they seem like... weird?” I spoke after a moment.

“Weird? What kind of weird?” Yeri asked, confused.

“Weird. You know... Do they seem like...” I began but cannot find the right words. Yeri seem to caught up on what I was thinking and clapped her hands, laughing hysterically.

“So this is what it’s all about, huh? You want to know if Baekhyun likes Han Na?” Yeri’s very much into it that she hadn’t even noticed that she already mentioned Han Na’s name. “You should’ve just said it earlier! You don’t need to go through all that talk with me!”

I rolled my eyes at her and folded my arms. “Just tell me if you noticed anything,” I said, getting serious now. “I want a direct answer, Yeri.”

She waved away my comments and replied, “Okay. Okay. I’ll answer” She seem to think about something for a bit. Later on, she cleared and began, “You know what, honestly? From a girl’s perspective, I don’t think Han Na has any feelings towards your boy. She seems normal when facing him. It’s your Baekhyun you should be worried about. I think he’s in a critical situation.”

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