Lost and Found

Seven

Over the course of a few months, everything had gone surprisingly well. Minji had begun preparations for a new album with her group and had even left the country a few times to kick off their tour. She felt overwhelming joy, running on near fumes during concerts just to see the fans' smiles.

She had just gotten ready for the day, gathering her bag for another day in the studio when she felt her phone vibrating. Siyeon raised an eyebrow at her, watching as she lifted the phone to see an unknown contact pop up.

"Weird..." Siyeon whispered. "Are you going to answer it?" She asked.

"I do in case it's family." Minji shrugged her shoulders, answering the call. "Hello?" She spoke calmly while walking out of their shared bedroom and into the hallway.

"Is this Kim Minji?" A male asked.

"Speaking, who is this?" Minji frowned.

"Seo Youngeun's father." He answered.

Minji froze in her tracks, feeling her heart drop into her stomach.

"I saw that my daughter has found you. I wanted to reach out and tell you that you need to stay as far away as possible from her. Forget you had her like the original agreement was. You're going to ruin her life with your nonsense and I can't have you screwing with her head like you are now." His voice grew increasingly agitated with every word, causing Minji to feel a sense of dread as he continued. "If you don't I will take legal action against you and you're little mistake of a group. I'll ruin you and everything you've worked for." He growled. "Do we have an understanding Miss Kim?" He asked.

"Y-Yes, sir..." Minji whispered.

"Good. She isn't your daughter anymore. She's never been yours. She's mine."

Minji heard the familiar click of a call being ended and she felt increasingly sick to her stomach. How was she supposed to go about her day and the rest of her life knowing that she had to give up everything she had been working at the past few months?

She forced herself to get her mind together, only half paying attention to anything until she had pulled herself back to the dorm. She skipped dinner, ignoring every little call from her members until she made it to her bed. She crawled under the covers, clutching her stuffed bear tightly while the tears escaped.

Everything was always too good to be true.

Bora eventually walked in, seeing the older woman curled up under her blankets. She could hear the muffled crying and knew something terrible had happened. But she knew the older woman was in no state to even begin to explain what was going on. So she just climbed into the bed and hugged her tightly.

"We're here when you're ready to talk," Bora whispered.

Minji hadn't said anything to anyone about what had happened until days later when everyone was on their weekend break. She explained everything with a heavy heart and knew that the girls were going to be upset.

"Legal action? Against everyone?" Gahyeon whispered. "What does he have against us?" She frowned. "Isn't that kind of illegal?!" She added.

"I'm not a lawyer but I think you can sue anyone for anything..." Siyeon whispered. "Like I could sue Yoohyeon for not sleeping in her bed."

"Those are fruitless cases." Yubin scoffed. "More like forgetting to buy milk when she buys cereal." She chuckled.

"Why me?!" Yoohyeon complained.

"Kids!" Bora collected them back in, frowning at them. "What are we going to do?" She whispered.

"Stay away from her," Minji whispered, shocking everyone. "Your lives don't need to be ruined. The second he takes legal action against me, her career is over." She sniffed. "I can't ruin her life like that. I can't ruin yours either."

Everyone had sadly agreed, knowing that it was more than likely in the best interest for the kid to have a better chance in her own career than their own. No one liked the idea, but they knew what they had to do.

Which was exactly how Yoohyeon found Youngeun crying on the steps one afternoon. She frowned when she realized that it was in fact Youngeun, and heavily debated on going near her at all. But she did.

"Hey... What's the matter?" Yoohyeon asked quietly.

The younger had lifted her head, recognizing the older woman immediately. She had wrapped her arms around her tightly, happy to see a familiar face.

"Umma hasn't been answering my calls or texts and she avoids me in the company when I'm here." She cried into Yoohyeon's shirt, causing the older girl to start to tear up. "She hates me." She sobbed.

Yes, it had been easy to agree with Minji's words. Stay away from the kid, it'll be better for her. But seeing her in such a state broke Yoohyeon's heart. Nothing about this was easy and it was clearly hurting her to the point of no return.

"Come..." Yoohyeon helped the girl up, wiping her tears before leading her into a practice room where the rest of the girls were.

"Finally! You're late!" Bora shouted at her. "And... With company." She muttered.

"Yoohyeon we promised!" Siyeon shouted.

"She was sobbing the stairwell!" Yoohyeon shouted back at the older woman, causing everyone to go silent. Minji stepped into the practice room, frowning the second she saw Youngeun. "Unnie... We have to tell her... She thinks you hate her." Yoohyeon whispered.

Minji hurried over, taking Youngeun's hands in her own.

"I could never... Ever hate you." Minji quickly whispered. "I just..." She felt the lump in her throat the second she thought about everything she needed to say to her in order to clear everything. "Your father... Called me and told me that he would take legal action against all of us if I didn't stop contacting you." She explained. "Him taking legal action would hurt your career and life...I couldn't do that to you." She whispered.

Youngeun burst into tears, throwing her arms around Minji's neck tightly. The older woman held her as tight as she could, rubbing her back until she calmed down. Everything about the situation was horrible and it was just an entirely messy situation to be in.

"Can't we still talk?" Youngeun sniffed when she felt a little better. "In person?" She felt more tears forming as she tried to find ways around everything. "You promised you wouldn't leave again." She cried.

"I know... I know." Minji cooed while continuing to rub her back gently.

No one had any answers for the kid. It hurt them to see her so distraught, but it was way out of their own league. None of them had this kind of life experience.

By the time they were back in the dorm, everyone felt extremely drained. No practice had been held as scheduled causing them to be a day behind with preparations. No one seemed to care since it was an extremely heavy day.

When morning came, Minji was surprised by yet another call. Her parents had reached out to her, checking in on her wellbeing and everything. At least until they dropped the massive bombshell of their daughter speaking with the out-of-wedlock child she had.

It had led to a massive fight, causing Minji to have a complete breakdown right before the managers had come to pick them up for their own schedules. Everyone tried to make the situation not as bad, but like all bad things, they always seemed to get worse.