“She said what?!” Tiffany blurted as Hyoyeon revealed her job to bring back a hostage. “So she’s behind the sudden comeback.”
“Well, it would explain why the managers didn’t say anything any sooner.” Sunny sat with a large pout on her face. “We have to tell Jessica and the others!”
Tiffany immediately protested. “If they knew, they’d worry too much. We’ve already settled on the fact that we don’t want to worry them any more than we have to. Even if we were to tell them, they couldn’t do anything.”
The tension between the girls steadily rose. “I don’t want anyone to go be a hostage, though.” Taeyeon, still a little groggy from her slumber, was a little slow on the uptake. “Can’t we just hide or something?”
Hyoyeon gave Taeyeon a concerned look. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think going back to her would make things worse.”
Eunhyuk had joined the girls. He was still a little confused by everything that had happened, but he no longer wanted to be kept in the dark. “Does it have to be Tiffany or Sunny who go? I could go instead. I can fend for–“
“No!” Surprisingly, Tiffany and Sunny were the first to object Eunhyuk’s offer. “You just got better…” Sunny continued. “If we’re hostages, she wont hurt us, anyway.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. This isn’t a movie.” Hyoyeon retorted. “If it was, we wouldn’t worry because the good guys always win. This is real life. We can’t expect things to just happen in our favor.”
“I was just saying that-“
“This isn’t a joke!” Hyoyeon suddenly got louder. “I don’t want to see anyone else getting hurt. I wont allow it to happen!”
Eunhyuk tried to calm Hyoyeon down. “Don’t worry, we’re all on guard now. I’m sure Sunny didn’t mean anything by it.”
There wasn’t anything anyone could do about the level of tension that weighted on everyone’s shoulders. Taeyeon was confident in her ability to protect Jessica, but the sudden news that one of her best friends would become a hostage threw he game off. Hyoyeon was starting to crack under the idea that she might be why everyone was getting hurt. Tiffany and Sunny were starting to lose hope, and Eunhyuk felt as though his inability to protect anyone made the group worse off.
Taeyeon suddenly jumped when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. “Sorry, I’ll just take this…” Taeyeon excused herself form the group while the others continued to wallow in helplessness.
“How has the practicing been?” Taeyeon asked.
“Fine…” Jessica was a little short on breath. “Just finished a few hours of practice. How are you?”
“Uh…fine I guess. Get some rest, okay? You sound tired.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be okay. I have a few days before the live. Oh! Did I mention that I managed to score everyone seats? And I talked to the manager to let you and Hyoyeon backstage.”
“That’s great!” Taeyeon did her best to sound excited, but at heart she was too preoccupied with other things. “I guess that means even less chances for me to be able to bring a gun, though, right?”
Jessica scoffed. “If you think you’d be able to come in with a gun to begin with, you’re really underestimating our staff.”
“Kidding, kidding. I need to get back to the others and talk about stuff.”
“Get back? You guys discussing something?” Jessica asked with concern.
Taeyeon tried to recover from her unintentional slip. “Just thinking of how to go about everything. Never did a group operation like this before so…” Taeyeon thought she managed to get out of the situation well.
