“What?  What are you talking about?” Seunghyun asked, sensing frustration from the younger.

“You know what, hyung.  You know she hates it.  She saw the picture from the sendoff.  I told you, I don’t care, but since it bothers her, I’m trying,” Daesung replied.

Oh.  Her.  The happiness Seunghyun felt at seeing Daesung was dampened, hell, soaked because she was the reason for the visit.  The girl.  The reason Daesung spent even more time on his phone than before.  The girlfriend.  The reason Daesung was hanging out with Jiyong and Seungri on their off hours.  Daesung’s girlfriend.

“I don’t know why it bothers her, but it’s the least I can do.  I’m always away, always traveling.”

“What annoyed her this time?” Seunghyun asked, knowing full well.

“The picture from the sendoff, what else, c’mon hyung.  You know she doesn’t like those kinds of pictures of us.”

“Daesung, I just put my arm around your shoulder.  Why does that bother her so much?”

“Hyung, do we have to do this again?  It’s not so much you and me, but the fans reactions that bother her.  All the social media excitement that it’s proof we’re a couple, when it’s not true.  Imagine how that makes my real girlfriend feel,” Daesung answered, a hopeful look on his face.

Seunghyun really hated Daesung’s empathy at that moment.  He didn’t buy that it was the fangirling that upset her, he knew it was him.  Daesung may have been oblivious to Seunghyun’s true interest, but he knew the girlfriend saw it.  Still, he was going to use girl’s own game against her.

“So, just because some little girls fangirl over a few pictures, I have to stop?  We’ve already changed so much of our lives, Daesung, for fear of the public’s negative reaction.  Now, I have to watch how I act because of something positive?”

Daesung sighed, lacing his fingers together.

“Not change your behavior, hyung.  Just try to help me.  She gets jealous that it can’t be her.  That I haven’t announced her to the world like Youngbae hyung.  So she just gets even more hurt when she sees how the fans react.  The last time we were coming here, at the airport, when you had your hand on my waist, she was so sad.  I had to explain, we were just talking about the plans for food that night.  She knows that, but the pictures are still the pictures.  She’s mad at me, hyung, because I’m not doing the one thing that would quiet it all down.  But, you know me.  Better than anyone.  I don’t want to have to share my personal life to that extent.  So, I’m trying to do what I can to keep her happy.”

It was Seunghyun’s turn to sigh. 

“Sorry, Daesung, I’ll try harder.  I never plan it, I just forget and revert back to how things used to be.”

“Don’t say you’re sorry, hyung, it just makes me even sorrier.  I’m the one that’s sorry I’m asking you to do this.  I’m sorry I came in here, angry.  I’m not angry with you, just with myself.”

Seunghyun nodded, as there wasn’t much to say.  But, before he realized, the words came tumbling out.  “I’ll try to remember.  But what else are you going to do Daesung, to make her happy?  What if she asks you to quit the band?”

“Hyung, you know she’d never do that.  She knows what my career means to me right now,” Daesung looked at him like he was crazy.

Unable to control it, Seunghyun asked the one question whose answer he feared the most.

“Fine.  But the fans aren’t going to stop.  What will you do if she asks you to stop talking with me?” Seunghyun said, softly staring at Daesung’s face.

Daesung’s eye snapped up, surprise written in them, but not shock.  Seunghyun knew that meant it was a scenario Daesung, ever the strategist, had thought of before.

“She’d never do that either, hyung,” he replied, standing up.  In effect, playing the question off and inviting no follow ups.  “Ah, I should go anyways, it’s late and I said I’d call before I went to sleep.  Thanks hyung.”

Daesung hurried out of the room, and Seunghyun couldn’t help but notice that he never answered the question.