Maybe I am

And Mina

"It's just a simple task really, to distract the fandom from the recent rumors about twice lip syncing in their performances." the manager explained with an attempt at appearing confident to the 9 girls assembled in front of him.

There were a variety of emotions running rampant in the room. Anger being the dominant one followed by anxiety, disappointment and frustration. The girls were scattered around the room, each lost in their own thoughts and emotions.

"Do we even have a choice in the matter?" Momo asked with a sarcastic tilt to her head, her teeth clenched in anger. Honestly the fact that they would even suggest - nah. Order. That was definitely an order. The fact that they would order one of them to do something like that without asking for their input was pissing her off way more than the allegations had.

The manager sighed as he put his head in his hands. He hated pushing such decisions onto them. And he could clearly see where their anger was coming from. But he really had no choice in the matter. The order was after all from the top. With a tired sigh he looked up to face their wrath again.

"You guys should try and think about it rationally. She is the only one among you all who passes the physical requirements. And moreover it is not really dangerous. As long as she keeps a cool head and follows the instruction it will all go smoothly." he tried to reason.

"But what if something goes wrong? What happens then?" Nayeon demanded her cheeks pink in anger. The others nodded in unison and looked at the poor manager. All except for Mina.

Mina was busy staring holes into the girl whose fate was being discussed at the moment. She watched as the girl's face maintained its emotionless mask throughout all the shocking revelations and angry outbursts, staring at her shoes the entire time in almost boredom. Finally she looked up to answer Nayeon's enraged questions nonchalantly,

"Then I die."

At this everyone in the room also found themselves looking the same way.

Chaeyoung shrugged trying to smile in reassurance as all eyes bored holes into her in varying degrees of intensity. They all stared at her incredulous as she walked up to the table where the manager had kept the form and stared at it, her face a mask of indifference.

"All I have to do is jump off and pull at the right moment. Isn't that right?" she asked, her tone inquisitive as she stared at the man in front of her. She understood he was truly helpless in this and so she smiled in reassurance even though inside she was feeling nothing but numb.

Immensely relieved the manager smiled back, an apology clear in his eyes before nodding, "Yes that's it."

Chaeyoung looked down at the paper, her eyes a bit unfocused as she tried to not let herself overthink the matter. She could feel Mina's heated stare at her back, had been feeling it for a while now. Finally, because she knew better than to ignore it, Chaeyoung sighed and turned to acknowledge her silent demand for attention. As their eyes met though Chaeyoung could see that they weren't eyes threatening her to deny the request as she had expected. Those pretty eyes she had often felt more than simple admiration for were instead begging her silently to say no. Pleading with her to refuse.

But even as she pleaded silently, Mina could see the answer clearly in Chaeyoung's determined and apologetic eyes.

With a reassuring small smile Chaeyoung just nodded at her and then turned away from the pleading stare. She looked at the manager then with a tight smile as she said, "Ok. I will do it."

This invited a shout of anger out of every one of her members except for Tzuyu.

Nayeon couldn't believe her ears and stepped forward with every intention to yell some sense into the girl. But Jeongyeon, who was standing beside her, held tight onto her hand. With an annoyed huff Nayeon turned to glare at her only to find Jeongyeon giving her a very stern shake of her head. The two exchanged a look and Nayeon almost groaned in frustration. It was a clear look of 'trust me it's not a good idea'. And Nayeon knew better than to not trust Jeongyeon on matters regarding Chaeyoung.

Among her member's loud protest Chaeyoung proceeded to sign the required documents, expertly ignoring everything else around her.

Sana closed her eyes in frustration as she watched Chaeyoung sign off the consent form. She knew it wasn't too dangerous as long as they learnt the instructions well. But this was one of their maknaes, ordered to do something this risky just to stop a rumor that shouldn't have started in the first place. How could they let it happen without protesting?

But then they weren't really given a choice were they? And damn that thought hurt her pride more than necessary.

Lost in the chaotic mess of her mind Sana didn't hear a person walk to stand beside her. So she startled a little as she felt a hand slowly hold hers in comfort. But then she relaxed as she felt the familiar feel of the hand in hers. She opened her eyes slowly with a sigh, turning her head to the side and meeting Tzuyu's eyes.

Tzuyu smiled at her, trying to radiate reassurance without a word. When Sana's eyes teared up suddenly though she let her smile drop too and without a question hugged her, silent in her attempt at giving comfort.

"She will be okay unnie. Don't worry." Tzuyu muttered to her in a reassuring tone of voice, and patted her head gently. As she felt Sana nod against her neck she sighed to herself.

Tzuyu wasn't really surprised with how this had turned out really. After all she had known Chaeyoung's answer all along. The instant the manager had announced it she had known the girl wouldn't refuse and resigned herself to it.

Chaeyoung would do anything for the group. Would go to any extent. It was a given that if she could do something to help them have an easier time at this cut throat industry Chaeyoung would do it in a heartbeat with zero hesitation. Tzuyu knew her enough by now to know that no amount of pleading would get her to change her mind.

Just like she knew that Mina wouldn't stay quiet about it.

Tzuyu turned her head a bit to look at the girl leaning against the wall with a solemn look on her face. The way she was looking at the papers and tilting her head Tzuyu knew instinctively that shit was about to get hella complicated. She watched wide eyed and observant as always as Mina suddenly pushed herself off the wall.

Mina wasn't really an impatient impulsive person. She liked the quiet peace of doing things at her own well thought out pace and hence made it a rule to always plan things ahead of time. But there were times she made an exception to that rule. Sometimes, like in that moment, she had only one thought in her head driving her forward. And at such times she had no control over her actions that stemmed from extreme feelings - in this case the feelings were that of anger and hurt.

Anger at the company for pushing such plans onto them without any prior discussion. Over feeling like a helpless kid again stuck in a world where she couldn't decide things for herself and those she cared about.

Hurt over the fact that Chaeyoung didn't have a care in the world about what Mina or any of the other members wanted. It didn't matter to Mina that the whole thing wasn't as dangerous as it sounded at the moment. What mattered was that Chaeyoung didn't care one bit about what could happen in the worst case scenario. What mattered was that Chaeyoung seemed to not care at all about how nobody in the team wanted her to go through such a trial. And that both hurt and pissed off Mina a lot. Because she had thought after so many years of being together and caring for each other Chaeyoung was over the stage where she considered herself alone.

So with her emotions in a haywire Mina didn't really hesitate to make her decision. She snatched the papers from a surprised Chaeyoung's hands and proceeded to write down something on it. As everyone stared at her she threw the paper on the table casually, letting it slide towards the manager. She threw him a small smile and turned to give Chaeyoung a cold look before walking out.

It took only a few seconds for her to do all this, thus leaving the members too surprised to do anything about it. They all just stared at her leaving form before looking back at the two people in the front.

The manager looked down at the paper curious, as did Chaeyoung. A few seconds later the manager shook his head in surprise as he stared dumbfounded at the paper in front of him. Meanwhile Chaeyoung remained scarily still for a while, looking pissed off even though her face gave away nothing.

Curious and concerned over their reaction (or lack of it) Jihyo stalked forward to take a look at the papers herself and then felt her heart drop to her feet.

At the beginning of the form requesting the name of the consenting party, beside Chaeyoung's name, was a clearly written "And Mina". And right at the end of the form was her sign right beside Chaeyoung's.