“Unnie, wake up!”
An Yujin woke up to someone pushing and holding onto her shoulder lightly. Her eyes slowly lifted themselves open yet her mind was still absent from the present.
She blinked once and then twice before her vision steadied onto a girl that stood by the side of her bed. She felt her touch and shake her shoulder before deciding to push herself up from her bed.
“Liz..? What’s going on?” She asked out with a dry tone of her voice.
“Unnie…I don’t know how to explain it, I think it’s better to see for yourself.” Liz replied at the older girl, pulling on her arm and urging her to get out of bed.
“What are you…talking about?” Yujin asked as she pulled her blanket off of her. She slowly stood up from the bed before the younger girl started pulling on her arm, headed towards the door of her room.
“The thing is unnie…they found us!” Liz shouted back as they headed out into the hallway.
Their leader contorted her expression into a confused one when she heard her and got even more confused when she saw her members once again gathered in the living room.
Gaeul and Leeseo stood around the kitchen, pacing back and forth. Wonyoung stood by their door, peering onto the camera that showed the front of their dorm. The situation left her to wonder where their foreign member was.
“Who did? What even is happening right now?” Yujin continued to ask.
Liz pulled her leader through the living room towards their door. She got even more worried when none of her answered and explained what made their morning a bit gloomy.
“Yah, look at this.” Wonyoung raised a hand and slowly flicked it towards her.
Yujin didn’t take any notice at her informality but what she did notice was the confused and fearful look on her face. Whatever was going outside their dorm, she was starting to be wary of it.
Liz went off to the other side after she placed her leader in the middle between her and Wonyoung. Yujin stood beside the tall girl before she glanced down at the camera feed.
She saw nothing which questioned their situation even more. Maybe some person was trying to come inside earlier or maybe it was crazed fan trying to get their attention, she didn’t know which was worse.
“What’s…happening?” Yujin whispered at the two.
“I saw a group of people in front of the door earlier, they were looking for you, Unnie.” Liz explained, her arm wrapping back around her leader’s in fright.
“People looking for me..? I wonder who could they b-” Yujin and the two girls beside her suddenly turned their attention to the kitchen behind them.
“How dare they say that about us?!” They heard their eldest member shout out in anger.
“What’s going on, unnie?” Yujin asked as she walked back to the kitchen. She had never heard Gaeul mad so she had one of the biggest frights of her life when she heard her just flat out shout in anger.
“Everyone is making things about us now!” Gaeul showed her the open phone in her hands. The screen displayed the brightness coming from a news article that concerned the situation their leader found her in.
Now holding the phone in her hands, she looked upon the text displayed. Her eyes dash between each line of text there was, one after the other seemed to continue the blatant lie that has been spread through the now reports about their group.
“… It is said that her nasty attitude towards staff has rubbed off to her groupmates and the public has changed their opinions on IVE overnight, from the nation’s rising stars to the prime example of how fame can change people for the worse…”
Yujin scoffed under her breath before her eyes latched onto the comments of the article.
’ [+1249, -450] I always knew something was off with that group, thankfully they’re now showing they’re true colors ㅋㅋㅋ ’
’ [+987, -127] Yujin-ah, you’ve simply let the money get to your head, how could you do that to a member of a hardworking staff?? An Yujin please remove yourself from the group immediately! ’
’ [+383, -122] These brats are surely out of the industry now, right??? I’ve always hated their music in the first place! ’
She knew these were just people’s comments and it was best to just ignore them but knowing they would just believe the words of other’s instead of her own, it hurt.
Gulping down a painful breath of air, she turned the phone off. She sighed, putting it over to the counter.
“Yujin-ah, are we really going to allow them write anything about us?” Gaeul sternly asked the girl. She looked down, unsure what to answer the girl in front of her.
“We can try but I don’t think anybody would like to take our side right now, unnie.” Yujin replied, a sorrowful look on her face.
*THUD!*
All of the girls in the room turned their head towards the door where their Japanese member loudly closed the door behind her. She leaned back as she breathed and exhaled heavily as if she just ran a marathon.
“There’s…a lot…of reporters…” She mumbled out softly in between her breaths.
“W-where did Rei come from?” Yujin asked, approaching the girl at the door.
“I ordered…breakfast.” Rei gave an exhausted smile as she raised her hand that held a white plastic bag with styrofoam boxes inside.
“Did you run all the way back up?” Yujin reached her hand out, before swiping some strand’s of the girl’s hair out of her eyes.
“Maybe…maybe not…I had it delivered at the bottom floor, didn’t realize there were loads of people looking for you, Unnie.” The foreign girl handed over the food to her leader that now held it in her hands.
“That’s fine. Sit down for a second, rest up while we get these ready.” Yujin gave her shoulder a soft pat.
“I told you to get them to deliver up here or at least let hotel service do it.” Liz appeared at the other’s girls side with a pout on her lips.
“I did but they said the elevators were crowded and I told them that I would just head there myself. Little did I know that it was filled with reporters looking for our door.” Rei explained, pulling her hair back to cool herself.
Yujin took in another long and contemplating breath. Her situation had gotten worse overnight and it had started affecting them in ways she would have never thought of like what kind of reporters would try to barge in their door?
With her members now affected by the actions of others, she had to do something and it had to be quick.
But what could she do? Perhaps, she’ll cross that bridge when she gets there as all of them were having quite the morning and they could use a hot meal.
Lim (YN) carefully treaded through the halls of a small office. He had his hands inside his pockets as the ID swayed along his movements.
The sounds of office chitter chatter echoed through the air, mixing in the with the typing of keys and soft humming from the printers in the office.
(YN) greeted some of the people along the way until he reached a smaller room past the cubicles. He breathed in the cold air as he placed a hand over the doorknob.
With an exhale, he knocked on it lightly before he slowly opened the door and entered the dim office. The man saw the chief of the news building sitting behind their table, reading pages of paper as he walked in.
“Good morning, Chief Hong. I heard you were calling for me?”
“Ah Lim (YN), just the man I was looking for. Please, take a seat.” The man glanced up from the papers in his hands and gestured him towards the chairs in front of his desk.
“May I ask why you called me in today, sir?” (YN) asked, taking a seat down onto the cushioned chair.
“I called you in today with regards towards the report you submitted, there isn’t anything wrong with it so there’s no need to worry.” The man explained.
“I-is that so?” (YN)’s shoulders dropped down slightly, now wondering why he was called into the office today.
“All it needs is a slight editing job and we’ll hand it over to the broadcasting team. Now as for the reason I needed you to come in today…” The older man coughed into his balled fist softly before they reached for a drawer below them.
Pulling the handle of the drawer, (YN) anxiously watched Chief Hong pull out a smooth clipboard with a piece of paper stuck on it’s center.
“I know you’ve been a very…diligent and hard worker for our local channels for the past few years. I am sure I speak for everyone when I say that we appreciate your efforts but…”
(YN) gulped as he heard the chief continue to talk. From what he was saying, it felt as if he was getting another job or worse, getting laid off of one.
“…The SKBC has contacted all of the local networks and has asked if there was anyone willing to accept the job of being a part of their brand new news program.” Chief Hong turned the clipboard towards the young man.
(YN) accepted it with his two hands before his eyes shifted down at the bold text at the top of the paper.
‘TRANSFER TO SEOUL.’
His eyes drifted down to the rest if the small text that detailed the rest of the job. The salary was already much higher than what he was earning and so were the other benefits it offered but he had already made his mind.
“Of course, this will depend on whethe-”
Chief Hong’s attention was suddenly directed back to the young man once he was suddenly interrupted.
“With all due respect, I would like to decline.” (YN) replied, slowly placing the clipboard back on the table.
“I-is that really your choice? I advise you to think it through.” Chief Hong pushed the board back into his hands but the young man once again rejected with a smile.
“There is no need, sir. I must say that it is a very tempting offer but I don’t think it’s the right step for me currently.” (YN) replied, bowing down slightly in front of his superior.
“If that is what you really feel, then I have no objections. But I will remind you that this might be a once in a lifetime opportunity, I’ll be keeping this in case you change your mind.”
Chief Hong reminded the boy, trying to drill how big of an offer this was but from the look of his face to the way he talked, he seemed adamant enough on his stance.
“But I really do appreciate the gesture, sir! I’m sure anyone else would accept the transfer in a heartbeat.” (YN) replied with a shake of his hands.
“I know you feel like you owe the town a lifetime’s worth of debt but I advise you to think it through.” The older man coughed into his fist softly before placing the clipboard back into his drawer.
“Will…will do, sir.” (YN) answered, reluctantly with a deep bow.
*THUD!*
(YN) shut the door to the chief’s office softly behind him. His eyes were glancing down to the floor as his mind was elsewhere, drifting over and beyond of what felt like the offer of a promotion.
“Yah, did you really just turn down the chief’s offer.”
Hie absent mind wasn’t quick to pick up on the other person that was standing nearby the door. Once he heard them talk, his eyes shifted to a man around his age standing next to him in the wall.
“Seojin-ah? What are you doing here?” (YN) asked, slightly surprised.
“Answer me first, what happened inside there?” The other man tapped his shoulder before pointing back at the office of their superior.
“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.” (YN) replied, in an attempt to repel his close friend to pester him any longer.
“Aish, I can’t believe you’d turn down such an offer. It was like turning down a first class ticket to working in Seoul.” Seemingly having answered his own question, Seojin groaned out.
“Were you eavesdropping our conversation? Don’t you have anything important to do?” (YN) shot back sternly.
“I wouldn’t call it eavesdropping perse but I was just overhearing your conversation but I wasn’t intending to.” Seojin explained to defend himself.
“I still don’t know why you would decline such an offer though. The (YN) I know would’ve accepted it without another doubt.” He continued to ask him.
“I just don’t think it’s right for me now that’s all. I wouldn’t exactly mind it if someone else took the opportunity.” (YN) replied back, putting his hands in the pockets of his coat.
“Or maybe…no way you would decline the offer to Seoul just because you might bump into her, right?”
(YN) suddenly choked on seemingly nothing but air. He started a coughing fit as he placed a hand over his mouth to suppress the loud sounds.
“Wuah, I can’t believe it. That’s the reason, isn’t it?” Seojin clapped his hands lightly in astonishment of his friend potentially declining a life changing offer for such a petty reason.
“What are you…talking about?” (YN) replied softly as he struggled to breathe in air.
“What I’m saying is that you don’t want to go to Seoul because you don’t want to see or even bump into Yujin.” Seojin raised a finger at him as he talked.
“You do realize that she isn’t the only person there, right? It’s like one in a million chance to bump into her there.” The journalist tried to dismiss his friend’s claims but he wasn’t that far off from the truth as much as he wanted to deny it.
“Aish, the grudge you have against her will just attract her to you. But have you checked the news recently? It looks like Yujinnie found herself in a bit of a problem.”
Hearing her name didn’t to seem to have the same effect it once had, it felt like he was getting immune to it especially when each person in town seemed to miss her more than the one before them.
“Since when you were interested in celebrity news, huh?” (YN) replied, finally standing back straight.
“Says the one that collects any magazine cover she’s on.” Seojin smugly shot back.
The journalist could only grimace and scoff before looking away from his friend.
“You must have seen an article about her recently. Wait…here.”
(YN) watched his friend shuffle his hands around in his pockets before pulling out his phone. With a swipe, the phone screen was unlocked and he was quickly shown a news article.
Sure enough, it was the same one as the one he saw back when he was working in the school’s computer room. Initially, he just brushed it off, not putting any other thought behind it.
“The article looks serious but I can’t help but think that it’s only just for clicks.” Seojin said, before placing his phone away.
“It sure is doing a good job if so. It was on the front page, when I saw it yesterday.”
“It seems a little bit hard to believe, don’t you think? I mean the Yujin we know would never do such a thing.” Seojin sounded almost concerned.
“Don’t worry about it too much, I bet it’s just nothing and it’ll blow off soon.” (YN) replied, tapping the man’s shoulder. He couldn’t help but feel a sensation of dread, as if his words were the complete opposite.
“I hope that’s the case. Anyways, do you have anything to do later?” The man’s friend asked, finally changing their topic.
“Why’d you ask? Is there anything happen later?”
“You see, Haein and I wanted to eat dinner at the local barbecue place. I was wondering if you wanted to tag along, for old time’s sake.” Seojin replied, a hopeful look in the man’s eyes.
“L-later at night? I don’t know…” (YN) mumbled, remembering that he was also invited to a dinner by a certain lady that taught at the local school.
“What do you mean? I thought you didn’t do any jobs at night.”
“It’s not that, It’s just that someone already invited me to dinner later. I’ll join you guys another time, I promise.” The reporter clasped his palms together.
“Y-You’re going on a date? You should’ve said that sooner! I can’t believe you still find the time to do that knowing how busy you can get.” Seojin raised a brow at his friend.
“Date? No, What? Hanni just wanted to repay me back after I let her use the flower shop for one of her classes. And…I couldn’t really say no.” (YN) softly said the last part.
“Hanni…? As in the elementary school teacher? Yah, I didn’t know she was your type. I know you two were pretty close but not that close.” Seojin nudged the shoulder of the man in front of him as he continued on with his tease.
“Aish, what are you saying? It’s just a friendly dinner, nothing more.” The journalist responded when his friend raised a finger at him.
“Yah Lim (YN), you’re playing a dangerous game here. You’re just assuming her intentions when it might be completely wrong.” The other man warned him.
“What are you talking about?” (YN) scoffed back.
“I’m saying that you might think it’s just some friendly dinner but she might think of it as something else. If you continue on with that, one of you will end up hurting the other.” Seojin placed a hand over his friend’s shoulder before he pushed it off himself.
“Since when were you a love expert…” (YN) grumbled lowly.
“You should just be grateful that I’m telling you this. Anyways, I still have something to attend to. Good luck with your date later, alright?” Seojin softly punched the other man’s shoulder.
“Be grateful, my foo-” The journalist cursed under his breath as his friend walked away, leaving him standing in the hall.
An Yujin nervously stared at the phone that was laid on the coffee table in front of her. She softly nibbled on the tip of her nail as she listened to the soft hum of the phone that was trying to contact a number.
*BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!*
She let out a sigh of frustration before simply shutting down the phone. After running a hand through her hair, she softly rubbed her fingertips across her forehead as if she was trying to soothe a headache that was brewing up.
“Unnie…what do we do?”
Yujin turned glanced her head to the side where her group’s youngest member entered her view. She looked over at the phone with a worried look on her face, the same look that was shared with the rest of the girls that sat around in their living room.
“I’ll…I’ll think of a way to get out of this.” Their leader said simply. Her words masked what was truly happening in her mind. If she were completely honest, she was completely lost on what they should do next.
If media training taught her anything, she could just send out an apology and everything would just blow over…but she didn’t want to do that.
Apologizing meant she lost and was in the wrong, and she was anything but in her eyes.
“Everyone’s saying the same thing over and over again…” Wonyoung said out loud, scrolling through the articles through her phone.
“It’s really astonishing how they could run with the same story with different twists each time. I think some of them would make great fiction authors.” Gaeul was next to comment before she set down her phone down.
“Maybe we can let one of the reporters in and maybe they can hear unnie’s side of the story.” Liz suggested, laying her head down on the table in front of her.
“But who’s willing to listen to me?”
The words had seemingly slipped out of Yujin’s lips. It might have came from the pessimism growing inside of her but even she was surprised about what she was thinking.
“Even if someome came, I don’t feel like facing any cameras at the moment.” Yujin sighed out, almost in a whisper.
“Then what if we just disappear…” Their youngest member suddenly spoke out into the blue.
“Leeseo-yah, you know it’s not nice to think about such things.” Gaeul replied quickly after which made their young member shake her hands in disagreement.
“That’s not what I meant! I was trying to say that why don’t we go somewhere where no one would bother us at all!” Leeseo repeated herself.
“Why would we do that when we still have schedules to attend to?” Liz pouted her lips out.
“No, she’s right. Schedules should be the worst of our troubles in our situation since we might as well be on hiatus from taking on any jobs.” Yujin painfully admitted, looking off into the ceiling above her.
It was a painful realization to the rest of the girls that without a solid solution or without any resolution, they might as well been suspended from all of their activities.
“Then where should we go? I feel like they’ll even follow me if I went back home.” Rei said out loud.
“What about somewhere far from any city and more importantly somewhere we could live silently until I come up with a solid plan? But I don’t know where all of us could go…” Yujin suggested to the rest of the group.
As she mumbled the last few words under her breath, the rest of the girls picked up on it.
Wonyoung quickly turned her head to her leader.
Gaeul placed her leg down from the chair she sat on as she looked at Yujin.
Leeseo placed a hand over her leader’s own.
Yujin noticed all of their stares and felt like they wanted to tell her something. Once she realized what she said, she immediately understood what all of them wanted to say.
“W-what’s this? Don’t tell me you’d follow me back to Gyeokpo-ri…” Their leader blinked in confusion.
“Where else could we go? The media would follow us to our homes and I’m sure none of them know where you’re actually from.” Gaeul explained with all of the girls nodding along with her.
“I’m sure none of us would pass on living next to a beach for a while.” Wonyoung smiled and so did the other girls.
Another massive decision appeared in front of Yujin. It felt like she was being forced back home but then again, she had no other choice other than to hide from the media and any other person that wanted a statement from her.
All of the other girls were agreeing with the idea but was she ready to face the town she called home after all these years?
“Fine, go pack your bags.”
Yujin sighed out loudly. She gulped nervously as if she just made a life changing decision but no matter what happens next, she was doing this for her members more than herself which made her choice more reasonable.
*KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!*
All of the girls’ attention turned towards their front door as loud knocks rang throughout their dorm. They all froze, not knowing what to do until Yujin gestured them to their rooms.
“Don’t answer the door for anyone and go pack your bags!”
*Meanwhile…*
Hanni meticulously checked through paper after paper on her desk inside of the teacher’s room. She carefully swiped her pen across, marking all of the correct answers as well as the wrong ones.
This was as busy as she got when she didn’t have a classroom of kids to teach. After writing the score on the paper, she quickly moved onto the next.
Before she got to checking the paper, she glanced over at the small watch she wore around her wrist. The time showed that it was an hour into the afternoon, meaning that she still had some left for work.
“Just a little more and I’ll go out with (YN)~” Hanni mumbled softly.
The PE teacher that sat next to her could only shake her head at how stupidly infatuated her friend was.
*RINNNNGGG!~*
The telephone on the other side of the room suddenly blaring out its loud ringtone, alerting all of the teachers in the room. The math teacher that sat comfortably next to the phone, quickly picked up the phone and pressed it against her ear.
Hanni went back to work, thinking that it was a call that didn’t concern her or any of her students. Come to think of it, she hasn’t ever received a complaint from a parent which she was glad for.
“Hanni-ssi, it’s for you.” Sakura covered the bottom half of the phone as she gestured the teacher to come closer.
The science teacher looked up from her papers once again, now with a slight sense of confusion and more importantly, a sense of doubt. Her students were having no difficulties, as far as she knew unless they chose to not tell her.
“Who is it?” Hanni asked in a whisper.
“You’ll know who it is.” The math teacher replied, continuing to gesture her to pick up the phone.
With a sigh, Hanni stood up from her desk. She noticed the almost teasing look that Sakura had which made her confused to whom the caller might be. She continued to walk towards the other side of the room where the phone was.
“Is it a parent?” Hanni asked once more.
“Just see for yourself~” Sakura replied, offering her the phone in her hands.
The small woman slowly picked up the telephone and muttered something under her breath, helping her brace herself in case it was an angry parent.
“H-Hello?~” Hanni softly spoke into the telephone.
“Hanni? Finally, I’ve been wanting to call you for a while now.” She heard the familiar voice of a man on the other side of the call.
“(YN)? T-this is new, what made you call the school’s telephone?” Hanni’s anxiousness suddenly faded away, being replaced with a small smile.
“I was to meaning to call your phone but they don’t exactly have the best signal where I’m at currently.” (YN) explained from the other line.
“Hopefully it isn’t anything urgent. Where are you anyways?”
“I’m in the next town over covering a story and I was wondering if you could do me a favor?” The journalist asked with the sounds of ships honking in the distance faintly going through the phone.
“Favor? What kind of favor?” Hanni slowly asked back.
“You see, I think I’m gonna go around around the town a bit more before I can head back home. I was wondering if you could accompany Seowon home once her classes are over.” (YN) told the teacher his favor.
“Wow, what a tall favor to ask.” Hanni chuckled softly through the phone.
“I know it’s a bit tough to ask for but I couldn’t keep her waiting in school, could I? You two are pretty close already so you were the only person I thought of.”
Hanni’s smile grew as her hand began wrapping itself around the cord of the telephone.
“Gosh, you and your words. Fine, I’ll do it but you’re gonna owe me one after this. But if you suddenly call me to babysit your sister, I will be charging you.” Hanni giggled through the phone before biting down on her lip softly.
“Fine, fine anything you want. I already told Seowon about this and I gave her a spare set of keys for the front door. Sorry, if this was all so sudden.” (YN) apologized sincerely.
“No, it’s fine! You’re just doing your job and you’ll be back soon but…you won’t be that late, right?” Hanni warily asked, trying to remind him of the dinner she had set up.
“I’ll be back before dinner, don’t worry Hanni. I’m on my last quarter so I have to put the payphone down. Be careful on your way home, alright?”
The woman’s heart fluttered more, thinking that the man cared about her maybe as deeply as she did.
As she wrapped the cord more tighlty around her index finger, yhe smile she had grown fully as she released a soft giggle over the phone.
“I see and we will, I’ll watch over her while waiting for you. By-”
*BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!*
Hanni wasn’t able to say goodbye as the telephone call suddenly ended with loud beeps. Despite being disappointed that she couldn’t talk to him further, she was optimistic thinking that they were going out later.
The teacher placed the telephone down before looking at the other woman that had a teasing look on their face.
“Ah~ the effects of being young and in love~” Hanni heard a voice come from behind. She turned around and saw Minji prop her legs up on her table.
“Just make sure to invite all of us to your wedding!~” Danielle said, adjusting the glasses as she looked away from the laptop screen in front of her.
“I guess I’m already at the age where I can be a godmother~” Sakura was next to tease as she nudged the arm of the small woman.
Hanni’s cheeks quickly flushed red in embarrassment before looking down at the floor. The strands of her face slid down her cheeks with hopes that she could cover them before she shyly shouted out.
“G-get back to work!”
༝ ˚ ｡⋆ 𓇼 ⋆｡ ˚ ༝ ˚ ｡⋆ 𓇼 ⋆｡ ˚ ༝ ˚ ｡⋆ 𓇼 ⋆｡ ˚ ༝
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