𝙻𝚄𝚅 𝙻𝟶𝟶𝙺𝚂 𝙿𝚁𝟹𝚃𝚃𝚈 𝟶𝙽 𝚄

𝟸𝟹.𝚎𝚛𝚛𝟶𝚛.𝟸𝟹

The morning in the guest house was louder than usual. Alaric, who stopped his gym session early for this, rushed into the house and shouted for all five women to come down because it was an emergency.

Everyone came down in a hurry, Lia came up from the basement, wearing a big button up and sweats, it seemed like she just came out of the shower.

"What's going on?" Yeji said first.

"Everyone knows that you guys are here in New York, and they are making ties really quickly to find your location." Alaric announced.

"Wait, what? What do you mean?" Lia stood forward, looking at his phone in his hand.

"It's all over social media, the news isn't covering much of it yet, but people are figuring it out themselves mostly on TikTok. I guess someone recorded Yeji and Ryujin when they were on their date at the zoo and they leaked it. People quickly found out what zoo it was and realized you guys were there on a closed day.

Now they're thinking that you guys are staying with the owner of the zoo or a close friend to the owner. Soon enough my mom is going to pop up. They're already harassing the zoo owner for answers on relationships with you guys."

"Shit..." Ryujin whispered, looking at Yeji. "That woman at concessions... It had to be her."

"Who? So, it was a worker?" Yuna asked.

"Yes," Ryujin nodded, "She recognised us and went on and on, and I mean, on and on and on about how much she wanted us to show ourselves to the world and how supportive everyone would be apparently. But we told her that we wanted to live in secret for now. She didn't fucking listen."

"You're exactly right, it had to be her." Yeji nodded in agreement.

"Now what? I don't think we should let Elise, Jeni and even the zoo owner get this much hate for us." Chaeryeong said, everyone knew she had a point. It wasn't fair to the people that have helped them right? Even if they knew the risks....

They've done so much for the five of them, for them to continue to hide at a time like this just makes them feel utterly selfish.

"You're right, but I feel we shouldn't like... go out to do it." Yeji thought deeply.

"You mean like a livestream?" Yuna pitched.

"Yes. Alaric, can you make us an account on like Instagram or TikTok?" Yeji asked.

"Got it. I think for a livestream, Instagram will be better. It lets you save the stream to your account, Tiktok lives just deletes themselves once it's over unless you screen record.

"Perfect, I guess we're doing this." Yeji shrugged.

"Do we like get ready? Or make a script? What are we doing?" Chaeryeong questioned, she gets the idea, but she's still lost.

"Yes, but I don't want to go live immediately, I want to build things up. We should make a post or two, let it sit for today and then go live tonight or tomorrow. As of right now, unless you guys already have pictures, we should take some to post." Yeji answered.

"We should take some, I want to keep our private, you know?" Lia pitched, she just didn't want the world to see the pictures they took here. Those pictures weren't meant to be shared with everyone.

They agreed with that, all heading upstairs to get dressed to take pictures. What kind of pictures? Not formal ones, just ones of them living life, proving they aren't fucking machines.

"Lia Unnie," Ryujin stopped Lia from going into her room. The blonde stopped and faced her.

"Hm?"

"Are these Alaric's clothes?"