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5.2

[Hope.]

Liang Wei sat next to Jun in the horrifyingly quiet room. She laid down on his shoulder, but for some reason, it felt uncomfortable to him. But it never felt like this with Xiaohua.

Finally, the manager spoke.

"We need to figure something out for you guys' comeback."

Jihoon stood up, almost in anger. "How are we supposed to work on that stupid comeback if netizens are demanding for an explanation from our most recent one?! And we have to attend an interview tomorrow! No doubt that they're going to ask us about that!"

The manager sighed deeply. "There's nothing we can do. We just need to brush off all the negative comments and do what we do best."

The members exchanged looks between one another and nodded. "We have to stop just brushing off the negative comments. Our budget is tight right now, and we can't afford to produce another album." Joshua, who was very tired at the moment, finally spoke.

The manager thought for a second. "But how are we- You know, what? Fine, do whatever you want."

Their manager was tired, tired of dealing with all the nonsense that had been happening. And to add on to that, he didn't want to deal with their nonsense, either.

Liang Wei skipped to the door. "Where are you going?" Jun questioned.

"The practice rooms. Me and Hao are going to practice his song." Jun's fists clenched at her innocent, happy voice. Why is she dancing with him when everyone else is helping to fix all these misunderstandings?

——

The next few days, most of them worked on fixing all the scandals, misunderstandings, etc. Most of them. But Hoshi and Wonwoo didn't, only worked on clearing Xiaohua's name and trying to prove others that she was still alive. But day by day, every hospital that they visited, never had anyone by the name of Li Xiaohua in their rooms. And day by day, more sensible articles about her death were uploaded onto the web. And day by day, they began losing hope in finding Li Xiaohua.

The news hurt Jun's pride. Because if he was honest, he still loved her, too. He wanted to join Wonwoo and Hoshi when they cleared Xiaohua's name. He wanted to come along with them to their secret hospital trips, just in case they did find her. But no, he couldn't. He loves Liang Wei now, and Xiaohua is all in the past.

All in the past.

——

About four months passed by. It almost seemed like everything was becoming normal again. Hoshi and Wonwoo tried to talk with the members again and slowly but surely, their friendships were making amends.

Their manager came to an agreement with the company that had been taking all their money away. When he told them the news, the members cheered and hugged each other, regardless of the broken friendships. It was an amazing sight.

And even though Jihoon wasn't able to explain anything about the 'copyrighted' song, he was able to meet Lim Hyunjoon and settle an agreement with him, too. Netizens quickly came back to their group, happy that the problem was fixed.

But, there was one thing that still bothered only Jun, or so he thought. The fact that Li Xiaohua, the joke, was still missing. And everytime he thought about her, he tried to remind himself about all the things she did to tear down their group. And he told himself that he loved Liang Wei now, and that he shouldn't have broken up with her in the first place.

But the feeling didn't go away. And the more he thought about it, the more it hurt. To the point where he'd secretly shed tears at night by simply just thinking about her. Even when he reminded himself about her true self, it didn't seem true. He didn't want to believe any of it.