𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 | csc

𝙭𝙭𝙞.

The girls didn't see Aerin enter the house, and Hyunjae was out of sight as well. But what they did see was a figure exiting the dorm at exactly 1am, and at first glance it was obvious to Aki who spotted it first that it was their leader. She took a deep sigh and brushed it off, deciding to tell the rest of the girls eventually but for now, all Aki knew she could do was stare and stay silent. She also heard the sound of boxes being thrown and objects being clanked as her room was placed next to Aerin's but yet again, that was something she also chose not to disclose.

And so here Aerin was only a few minutes after dashing out the door, frantically knocking on the door of seventeen's dorm room. She was aware that she probably looked and sounded like a psychopath but that was the least of her worries compared to the pen she gripped in her hand as a way to suppress her strong emotions which led her to eventually tapping her foot as well.

10 seconds had passed before the door was cautiously opened to reveal an extremely tall man who was undeniably good looking staring her straight in the eyes. Confusion was all that was plastered on his face so Aerin decided to get straight to the point. "Is Seungcheol here? I really need to talk to him." The urgency in her voice startled Mingyu. He would have easily taken her as a saesang and shut the door on her if their leader didn't come up to him to take a look at who was at the door. Mingyu was about to explain how she was a saesang to Seungcheol and close the door but to his surprise, his hyung pushed him aside. "Aerin? What's up what's going on?" Mingyu's eyes widened. 

"Hyung wait how do you know-" 

"We need to talk. It's urgent." Aerin stated, cutting off Mingyu who sulked off to the side.

Seungcheol sharply inhaled, "follow me." Ignoring Mingyu and only focusing on the frantic girl in front of him, Seungcheol led Aerin through the long halls of seventeen's expensive dorm all the way to his master suite which conveniently had enough privacy for what Aerin needed to talk about.

Normally the girl would have made some snarky remark about how expensive his room looked and probably asked who else was in the dorms but the fact she immediately took a seat on Seungcheol's bed and looked him dead in the eyes alerted him that whatever she needed to tell him was serious; very serious. In fact, he had planned on meeting up with her later that day for a somewhat date, but he figured it was probably not the best day or time anymore.

"So you know how like right before debut the group gets a conference with the ceo where everyone is briefed on stuff just like about positions, concept etc?" Seungcheol nodded as he leaned against his dresser. Aerin was tempted to swoon at how handsome he looked with bed hair and his casual clothing, but she knew that if she didn't focus this meeting would turn into something very different.

"Well basically even though recording wasn't permitted, i got this pen that voice records a few years ago for fun and decided to record the meeting that day because being a leader i felt it was my responsibility to study the information later on." Aerin pulled out the pen from her pocket which she had placed it in only a second ago. "That day i guess i left the pen behind and even after i found it I just threw it in a random box since the meeting wasn't as important as i thought it would be. But last night i had the sudden urge to search through my old things for any more types of evidence against Hyunjae and somehow something activated the button to play the recordings on the pen and so i listened to it. I really just did it as a way to reminisce memories since i was done looking for that day and tired out but at the end of the recording i-. . . you know what i'll just play it for you."

Seungcheol was still confused but nonetheless attentive as Aerin clicked a button on the pen and used the mini-screen to speed forward to a certain part and the more he listened, the more and more Seungcheol was not only disgusted, but he also felt as if all the pieces of the puzzle he and Aerin had been working on were finally starting to come together. This had cracked the code.

𝘈 / 𝘕 !
Sorry for the short chapter but that's only because i'll be uploading again tomorrow!