minhyuk quickly knocked on the door while holding the drinks. shownu and kihyun finally caught up to him after taking their time walking up the stairs. jooheon opened the door to let them in, but minhyuk burst into the dorm.

"guys, kihyun has news!" minhyuk announced to everyone. kihyun closed the door and sighed. he passed everyone their drinks as they all sat in the living room to hear the news.

"so, while me, minhyuk, and shownu hyung were in the coffee shop," kihyun started to explain. "we bumped into the other group."

jooheon and changkyun's eyes widened, being surprised.

"did they talk to you?" jooheon asked, taking a sip of his americano.

kihyun nodded. "he wanted to know if there was something between us and y/n."

"why does he care anyway?" minhyuk asked.

"i have no idea, but he requested if we could ask y/n to visit them." kihyun finished. "that was pretty much it. it is not that interesting, sorry."

"hyung, what are you talking about?" changkyun put his hands on kihyun and started to shake his shoulders. "it is about y/n. everything about her is under our control, and we should protect her no matter what."

"changkyun, stop talking nonsense." shownu said. "that is her father's job, not ours."

"anyways, i think something is up between y/n and them." kihyun said. "did anyone notice anything on the first day we met her?"

"group a seemed like they did not care." jooheon answered. "i was standing next to gunhee, and i heard him sigh when y/n came into the room."

"there, and you guys thought i was overthinking, right?" minhyuk scolded. "what jooheon said is a sign. something must have happened before, and that day was not their first encounter."

"my question is, how did they meet?" kihyun asked, thinking aloud. "i mean, y/n goes to an all-girls school. as long as we have been training with them, we have not seen y/n once."

everyone stayed quiet as they thought of ways that could have happened. shownu then broke the silence.

"maybe hyungnim pulled the same thing on them." shownu started to explain his thought. "you know how y/n has been visiting us recently? what if before, hyungnim let y/n hang out with them?"

"that could be true." changkyun agreed.

"sounds the most reasonable." kihyun added on. "just in case, should i ask y/n to visit them?"

"no." jooheon replied. "if she felt uncomfortable talking about them, what makes you think she will be comfortable hanging out with them?"

"honestly, i say we should." minhyuk argued. "i mean, it is the only way we can learn more about this whole situation."

"but our debut!" jooheon barked at minhyuk.

"i am sure y/n is not going to tell on us because of one stupid question!" minhyuk yelled back. "if she is our friend, she would not do that!"

everyone stayed quiet for a while; what minhyuk said struck all of them. were we really y/n's friend? they thought. they never made it official to y/n about them being her friend. to them, it was not a big deal, but they assumed that y/n never had any guy friends before.

especially, when she mumbled about her not having friends at all. kihyun thought.

"changkyun, call y/n." shownu ordered.