ELC | ⁿᶜᵗ ᵃᶠ

The Predicament | 1

Everyone in the living room jumped. Then the sound of a slamming door resounded in the dead silent dorm. They all gave each other confused looks.

"Jisung, are you okay?" Seoyeon called out.

"Oh, uh, yeah," came his stuttered reply. "I'm fine, noona. I just... tripped and dropped the glass."

"I'll go help him clean it up," Yuwon said, heading for the kitchen.

"If Jisung's still here, who slammed the door?" Haechan asked.

"The wind?" Dior offered.

"But it sounded like the front door," Seoyeon said. "The wind couldn't have opened it then shut it."

While they pondered the unusual noise, three people remained silent: Chenle, Renjun and Eunji. 

The first was suffocating in the awkward air surrounding him. Eunji liked him? He couldn't think of a worse situation to be in. He, himself, had a pretty serious crush on Eunji's best friend, Jihye. And he was sure that his best friend, Jisung, had a crush on Eunji. Was this a love square? Chenle shivered at the idea. He was in so much trouble... But wait! Jisung was in the kitchen. Maybe he hadn't heard Eunji's reply. Chenle prayed it was this way. He didn't want Jisung to be weird around him. 

Renjun was frowning at the floor, wondering how his plan had failed. It shouldn't have happened like this. Why did Eunji say she liked Chenle? Hadn't she confessed not that long ago that she liked the maknae? How could she have changed her mind so quickly? And to Chenle of all people?! Unless...

Eunji was lying. What she had said was one hundred per cent untrue. A fat lie. Never in her life had she had anything more than friendly feelings towards Chenle. A crush on him? Never. But pretending to have one was her only choice in that situation. Renjun had asked that preposterous questioning so unexpectedly. She panicked! I bet he did it on purpose, Eunji thought. Oh, but it didn't matter now. Chenle thought she liked him, and from the look on his face, the feeling wasn't mutual. Not that Eunji was complaining! It would all still be so uncomfortable, though. What to do... Well, at least Jisung hadn't heard. 

Right?

Chenle coughed awkwardly. "I think I should go now. My mum said I needed to be home by six."

"Uh, sure, I'll walk you out," Dior said. 

They left. 

Even with Chenle gone, Haechan could feel the awkward air in the room. "So..."

Seoyeon, also feeling uncomfy, turned to Eunji. "Chenle, huh?"

Eunji gave a pained smile. "It-It's not what you think."

"Guys!" Dior ran back into the lounge room, her eyes slightly panicked. 

Yuwon and Jisung came back from the kitchen.

"Jihye's bag is at the door," Dior said. "That means she came home. But she's not here."

Eunji's eyes widened.

"So did she slam the door?" Yuwon asked.

"Maybe she left something at the company and ran to get it," Renjun said.

Dior looked worried. "I don't know... I'm worried. Even if that's true, it's getting dark now."

"She might get hurt," Eunji said.

Click. The sound of the door unlocking. All eyes shot to the doorway, tension high as they waited for the person to reveal themselves.

"Eunji?" Haechan wondered as footsteps approached the loungeroom.

Jaemin and Jinri appeared, bright smiles on their faces. The smiles fell immediatly when they noticed the other's expressions. 

"What's wrong?" Jaemin asked. "What did we miss?"