Johnny didn't hear anything from the girl after their 2 minutes call. It was almost midnight and he was sure that she wasn't at the company and he was sure that she found out that she was going to be added to NCT, if what Haechan said was true.
He grabbed his phone sending her a short message. He looked at his phone confused as the message showed as delivered. He dialed her number, passing around the room. "Aera? Where are you?" He asked as soon as she picked up and it took her a few seconds to answer him.
"Home."
"What did they want?" Johnny asked unsure of what to say or tell him. Her voice wasn't as exciting as it usually is. "You want me to come over?"
"No its late. I guess I'll just sleep-"
"I'm coming over, leave the door open." Johnny didn't wait for her to answer, sensing that something was wrong from her voice. He quickly got out of his room, bumping into Taeyong on his way out.
"Where are you going?"
"To Aera's." Taeyong panicked, putting his hand on his back pocket, making sure that his phone was in it as he made his way downstairs with Johnny.
"I don't know, she doesn't sound okay." The two left the dorm, quickly, forgetting to tell the others that they were even leaving. The 7 minutes walk, turned into a 3 minutes run as they were standing in front of her dorm. Johnny checked the door and noticed that it was unlocked, just like he told her. He entered with Taeyong following him. "Aera." He called, and a few seconds the girl came from the kitchen smiling at the two of them, clearly looking like she was crying.
"What happened?" Taeyong walked over to her, putting his arms around her quickly receiving a respond from her as she wrapped her arms around him.
"They want me to debut with NCT." Taeyong pulled away, smiling at her, but the surprise was still clear on his face.
"Aera, that's great." He exclaimed, but the girl shook her head softly, looking down. Taeyong looked back at Johnny, before pulling her by her arm, sitting her down on the couch beside him as Johnny followed them and kneed down in front of her. "What happened?"
"Taeyong, girls in the industry just receive hate if they just looked at a boy from a famous group. You guys are becoming way more famous as days pass, and now they want to add a single girl to the group, ignoring the fact that I might get hate and no one will like me, ignoring the fact that this might ruin NCT, and you're just starting. Why can't they just put me in a girl group? Why can't they just make it normal? I'm starting to feel that I don't belong in SM."
"Don't you dare say that. You're perfect in SM, everyone around the company loves you. You're literally everyone's favorite person around the company, and it would kill everyone if you left. Lee Soo-man trust you, that's why he's giving you such a big chance to shine. I know that it might be scare because of the hate and everything, but I mean people already love you and you have a big fanbase. You're finally debuting Aera. You should be happy about it." Johnny commented, moving to wipe the tears, falling on the girl's cheeks.
"I know I should be happy, that's why I feel so guilty that I'm making a big mess out of this, but I'm just scared-"
"Everyone becomes scared the second they know that they're debuting, and I know that you're more scared than normal, but trust me every single thing SM does just somehow becomes successful. He believes in you, we all do. So if they want you to debut as a part of NCT, then congratulations for becoming NCT's 16th member."
