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Kim Taeyeon inhales sharply.
It takes a few seconds for her mind to make sense of her surroundings. Grey leather seats, manager not in his usual spot, the car at a standstill by the roadside. Her mouth is painfully dry and she swallows, hard, wondering how long she's been asleep for. With half-lidded eyelids, Taeyeon leans away from the car door, looks past the glass windows and realizes why the entire left side of her face is numb with cold.
Outside, rain pelts against asphalt pavements in a steady rhythm as a blanket of grey looms overhead. A flurry of umbrellas is seen at the traffic intersection ahead, and Taeyeon glances at the tiny rectangular screen next to the dashboard, noting the temperature. 9 degree celcius. A shiver runs through Taeyeon as she grabs blindly for the black winter coat lying next to her.
Where is her manager, though?
As if on cue, Taeyeon catches sight of a figure, clad in white, scurrying towards the car. The door opens and the harsh sound of heavy rain assaults her eardrums before the door slams shut and all is quiet again.
"Where did you go?" Taeyeon questions curiously and sits forward with both hands on the car headrest, eyeing the bag of medicine that her manager, Junghyun, had tossed on the passenger seat.
Removing his coat that's littered with a slight sheen of water droplets, Junghyun replies without turning around, "My son is running a high fever. Probably the weather."
His voice is steady and calm, but Taeyeon has known him long enough to notice the underlying tension. The way his fingers had a slight tremble to them as they pocketed the car keys, and the urgency in his glances. He's worried.
"Wait!" Taeyeon squealed. The car comes to a halt, lurching forward as Junghyun looks at the rearview mirror in surprise.
"Let me down here. I can take a bus back to the dorm on my own." Taeyeon continues as she tries her best to ignore the disapproving glance Junghyun sends her way almost instantly. Before he can speak up, however, she beats him to it.
"You stay a freaking 3 hours drive away, so don't you argue with me." Silence fills the air and Taeyeon notes it with a quiet sigh of relief. At least he's considering. "Hyunwoo needs you."
As soon as his son's name is mentioned, Junghyun draws in a sharp breath and his tensed shoulders do not go unseen by the nation girl group's leader. Another long silence drags by before the manager reaches into a drawer compartment and fishes out a familiar black face mask.
"Tell me when you've reached home. And call me if anything happens."
Taeyeon accepts the mask with barely constrained glee, the "stay in the cafe until the rain stops!" that Junghyun shouts after her swiftly pushed to the back of her mind as she hops out of the car with her black coat and jogs to the cafe a few feet away.
