Jon was enjoying a rare moment of peace in the C7 dorm kitchen. The other members had scattered to their activities, dance practices, studio sessions, or, in James's case, another suspicious "educational consultation" with Muse. With the dorm blissfully quiet, Jon had seized the opportunity to experiment with a new recipe designed to impress Sol, the stubbornly unsmiling food critic who had somehow become the focus of his romantic aspirations. He was amid a delicate plating technique, carefully positioning micro-greens with surgical tweezers, when the dorm's front door burst with such violence that he jumped, sending the tweezers and their precious cargo flying across the counter.
Julian sprinted into the kitchen with the frantic energy of someone being pursued by actual wolves. His eyes were wild, his perfect hair askew, as he waved his phone like it contained state secrets.
"EMERGENCY!" he shrieked at a decibel level reserved for natural disasters. "CODE RED! DEFCON ONE! MAYDAY-MAYDAY-RED ALERT-SOS!"
Jon closed his eyes briefly, mourning his ruined plating and the shattered peace. "What happened? Did Manager Kando find your secret stash of energy drinks? I told you hiding them in the practice room speakers was a terrible idea."
"WORSE!" Julian thrust his phone into Jon's face with such force that it nearly broke the eldest member's nose. "LOOK!"
Jon squinted at the screen, which displayed a blurry image captured as a screenshot multiple times, reducing it to something resembling an impressionist painting composed of pixels. After a moment, he could make out two figures walking hand-in-hand through what looked like a park. One appeared to be a petite woman wearing a colorful outfit, while the other was a man who seemed vaguely familiar.
"Who am I looking at?" Jon asked, still struggling to make sense of the grainy image.
"IT'S JAMES!" Julian wailed, hopping from one foot to the other in agitation. "WITH MUSE! ON TWITTER!"
Jon plucked the phone from Julian's hand to examine the image more carefully. "Are you sure? This could be any slim Korean man with black hair. The quality is terrible."
"Read the comments!" Julian insisted, continuing his anxious dance. "LEGION is already analyzing his jawline, ear shape, and walking stride! They're 89% sure it's him!"
Jon scrolled to the comment section, where C7's dedicated fans conducted terrifyingly forensic analyses of the blurry figure's physical shapes.
"Oh," Jon said faintly, reality setting in. "That's not good."
"NOT GOOD?!" Julian's voice ascended to a pitch that threatened to shatter glassware. "IT'S CATASTROPHIC! APOCALYPTIC! THE END OF C7 AS WE KNOW IT!"
"Calm down," Jon instructed, though his heart rate had accelerated considerably. "Let's think this through. Have you contacted James?"
"I tried! He's not answering! Probably too busy holding hands with Muse and DESTROYING OUR CAREERS!" Julian collapsed dramatically onto a kitchen stool, then immediately bounced back up, unable to remain still during a crisis.
Jon scrolled through the post again, noting the caption: "C7's James spotted at Yeouido Park with mystery woman. Dating rumors confirmed? #CrownSeven #JamesDating #C7Romance"
"The post is only from an hour ago," Jon observed. "Maybe we can contain this before…"
The dorm door burst open again, admitting Roman and Silas, both looking disheveled. "Have you seen…" Roman began.
"We know," Jon confirmed grimly. "Julian has already reached maximum panic level."
"I called Manager Kando," Silas reported. His face was even more expressionless than usual, paradoxically conveying an extreme level of stress. He's on his way with Director Blake." A collective intake of breath swept through the kitchen. Director Blake never visited the dorm unless something was extremely good or catastrophically bad. Given the circumstances, they could rule out the former.
"Did anyone warn James?" Roman asked, adjusting his glasses nervously.
"I texted him seventeen times and called twenty-three times in the last nine minutes," Julian reported. "No response."
"Wait," Jon said, peering closer at the blurry image. "Something's not right. Look at what he's wearing."
The others crowded around, squinting at the pixelated figure.
"A cardigan?" Silas noted with confusion, "James doesn't own cardigans. He says they make him look like someone's accountant uncle."
"True," Jon nodded, realization dawning. "That's not James. It is Evan."
A beat of silence followed this revelation, broken only by the soft whir of the refrigerator.
"OH MY GOD IT'S WORSE!" Julian wailed, resuming his panic dance with renewed vigor. "IT'S THE TWIN DECEPTION SCANDAL! THIS IS NEXT-LEVEL DISASTER!"
"How is this worse?" Roman asked, puzzled. "If it's Evan, not James, then technically no C7 members are involved."
"Because…" Jon explained patiently, "Fans think it's James. Which means either we admit it's his identical twin, revealing the whole twin-switching situation that's been happening, or James takes the fall for dating Muse, which doesn't solve anything since he is interested in her, just not currently holding hands with her in that photo."
"It's a quantum dating scandal," Silas observed darkly. "Simultaneously involving and not involving James until we collapse the waveform through observation."
Before anyone could appreciate this unusually poetic assessment from their most taciturn member, the dorm's security system announced the arrival of Manager Kando and Director Blake. The four present members exchanged panicked glances, silently communicating the same thought: "We're doomed."
The door opened to reveal Manager Kando, whose hair either had been recently electrocuted or had been frantically running his hands through it for the past hour. Behind him stood Director Blake, as impeccably composed as always, his expression revealing nothing despite the crisis. "Where is James?" Manager Kando demanded without greeting, his voice tightly controlled yet still tinged with hysteria.
"Unknown," Silas reported. "Unresponsive to communication attempts."
"And we have reason to believe," Jon added carefully, "that the person in the photo might be Evan."
Manager Kando's left eye developed a concerning twitch. "Evan? The twin? The kindergarten teacher who is NOT supposed to be publicly linked to any C7 members due to privacy protocols we established FIVE YEARS AGO?"
"That would be the one, yes," Roman confirmed unnecessarily.
Director Blake, who had remained silent during this exchange, finally spoke. "The company's PR team is monitoring the situation. The post has been shared a thousand times in the past 40 minutes. C7's official fan cafe is experiencing unprecedented traffic levels. The hashtag #C7Romance is trending nationally." The assessment made the situation feel even more dire.
"I've called an emergency meeting," Director Blake continued calmly. All members must be present. It will be held for one hour in Conference Room B, company headquarters."
"But we can't find James," Julian reminded him, still bouncing anxiously. "Or Jake. Or Vic. They're all... out."
Director Blake's gaze could have frozen lava. "Find them."
With that simple command, he turned and left. Manager Kando slumped into the nearest chair. He looked like a man contemplating a career change to something less stressful, like bomb disposal or tightrope walking overactive volcanoes. "This is fine," he muttered to himself. "Everything is fine. Just a minor twin-related identity scandal during our carefully organized break, designed to avoid exactly this type of situation. Perfectly fine."
"Should we split up to find the others?" Roman suggested practically.
Before Manager Kando could respond, his phone buzzed. As he read the message, the expression that crossed his face suggested either catastrophic news or imminent bodily dysfunction. "Director Blake has informed me," he said faintly, "that in the five minutes since we arrived, three different entertainment news sites have picked up the story. Dispatch is sending a photographer to the dorm. And," he added, looking like he might faint, "Starlight Entertainment's CEO just texted Director Blake asking if the rumors about C7 'abandoning their signature single status' are true."
"Starlight's CEO has Director Blake's number?" Silas asked, focusing on the least relevant part of this information.
"They play golf," Manager Kando replied absently. "Not important right now. What is important is that THIS IS A FIVE-ALARM CATASTROPHE AND NONE OF YOU SEEMS APPROPRIATELY TERRIFIED!"
This uncharacteristic outburst from their composed manager shocked the members into action. Within seconds, they were formulating a military-precision search plan for their missing bandmates.
"I'll check the dance studios," Julian volunteered. "Jake might be there stalking Tina again, I mean, 'observing contemporary technique.'"
"I'll try the music production suites," Silas offered. "Vic sometimes hides there when arranging his flowers... metaphor... things."
"I'll contact Evan directly," Jon decided. "If he's with Muse, he might know where James is."
"And I'll compile all available information on the social media spread and prepare a preliminary analysis of potential response strategies," Roman added, already typing on his tablet.
Manager Kando looked at them with gratitude. "Thank you. I'll coordinate with PR and meet you at headquarters. And remember - absolute discretion. No one mentions dating, relationships, or fruit to anyone. Understood?"
Four heads nodded solemnly, the fruit reference causing a brief but quickly suppressed flash of collective trauma.