Hands held tight,
I’m all ready not to lose you

(Across the Universe - Baek Yerin)

"You sure you don't want me to drop you off at your house instead?" Yongsun asked as Byul unstrapped the belt.

"Yeah, unnie. Don't you want to rest for a bit?"  Wheein agreed while Hyejin sat and waited for her answer. "You barely slept last night."

Sighing, she smiled at the girls. "I'm good. I think I've had more than two weeks of sleep in me to last me a while." Opening the car, she grabbed her bag and said goodbye to the girls and watched them drive off before going inside the cafe.

All of her employees were surprised to see her back after two weeks of disappearance again but welcomed her with opened arms. She checked on everything in the kitchen and bar area and even made a round at the tables before she finally decided to head for her office to go through the papers when she saw a familiar figure take a seat at the closest table near hear office which was separated by a divider. She didn't want to eavesdrop but curiousity got to her and she stood there a while with the divider hiding her.

"Why can't you understand, oppa? I need to see him!" Jo Ara's voice sounded shrilly and thin which got Byul feel even more irritated listening to it live compared to the voice mail she heard months ago.

"Look, he just got back. The man's tired from whatever it is he's been doing. He needs to rest." The man, who she doesn't know answered patiently and with his tone, it was apparent that he didn't want to be there in the first place. "Can't you just get over it? You're the one who did this in the first place."

"Me? Are you kidding me? It was him! This is all his fault! If he had paid more attention to me rather than work and work and work all the time, then maybe I wouldn't have gone and resorted to doing that!" The woman is lucky that it was a lazy hour which meant there were barely any customers at that time of day. "He's the one who made me lie oppa!"

"See, that's what I don't get. If he makes you do things like this in the first place then why don't you just let him go? Find another man. Someone who can give you all the attention you crave." The oppa answered not bothering to hide his irritation. "Because I can't! He as to take responsibility!"

"Responsibility? Of what? He's basically taken care of everything for you to live off for the next two more months! Why don't you get a job or something. Stop relying on others to provide you what you want and start learning to take care of yourself." 

Wow. Byul thought and she almost felt bad for the woman.

"Wah~. Just who do you think you are to talk to me like that? I didn't want to talk to you in the first place. I called to meet up with the CEO not some low life manager."

She heard the man scoff. "The CEO is far too important and busy to deal with an attention seeking leech like you. Next time you make a call, make sure it's for your lawyer. The company's dealt enough with your B.S. We've been nothing but civil but now you're just pushing too far."

Byul heard Ara gasp and some shuffling.

"Well, don't you want to know what your precious star needs to be responsible off? I still have one last card I can use against him and once the media get's hold of it, it'll be nothing but drama for him." 

She heard the man scoff again and saw his shadow as he took a step. She opened her door to hide inside the office when she heard what the woman had to say.

"I'm pregnant."

Byul wouldn't have missed a pin drop with how quiet her surrounding became as her mind focused on the two voices that mattered at the moment.

"I don't believe you the slightest bit. This is what got him to live you in the first place." Jo Ara let out a snotty laugh and said, "Well, I guess it's what's going to get him come back to me as well. If you want proof, then here."

Byul didn't listen after that and just locked herself in her office the whole day.

"It's not mine." Kyujong answered confidently with a straight face.

Kyujong was in the middle of packing up a lot of overnight items he could take to his rooftop room above his club when he received a call directly from the CEO asking him to come in for a talk. It sounded important so he immediately packed the last of the items and got it to his car before driving to the company.

"How can you be so confident and answer with a straight face? You've been gone for more than two months, what do you know?" The CEO is stressed and he understood perfectly why. What with having a compulsive liar for an ex and all.

"You said she's 11 weeks along, right? And you confirmed this?" Kyujong asked the manager who nodded. "Even brought her to my friend's clinic and she confirmed it. The baby's 11 weeks."

"Then without a doubt, that baby is and to hell with what ever she say, that baby is not mine. I haven't shared the bed with her for a month before the wedding and you," He pointed at the manager. "You're my witness to that."

"What do you mean?" His manager asked.

"My schedule was jam packed during that month and I mostly stayed in a hotel or at Eric's house because it was a hassle having to drive for hours just to sleep in the condo. The only times when I went home was for me to shower and grab some clothes." He answered directly at the CEO who seemed to have calmed down a lot.

"Then whose is it?" Asked his manager who seemed to have realized what he said.

"I already texted him. We're meeting at my club." He answered.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Tell him you'll meet him here instead." The big boss said but he disagreed. "This is between me and him. He won't do anything, I have two of the staffs doing an inventory right now and they won't be done anytime soon. I also have the security cameras."

"I can sit at the office." His manager insisted but he said no.

Knowing they can't convince him, they then said their goodbyes and let him go deal with the situation at hand.

As soon as he turned to park his car by the alley of his building, he saw his former friend standing by the backdoor waiting for him. 

"What's this about? I thought you were done with me?" Seunjung asked as he got out of his car.

He made sure to lock the car and then moved pass his friend to open the door so that they could get in.

"i thought you called me here to talk not to give me the silent treatment?" Kyujong slammed the door open making him jump. "Shut your trap and get in."

"How am I sure you're not going to do anything to me once we're inside?" Seunjung asked and Kyujong quietly reveled how this backstabber feared him. 

"I'm not one to stab a man in the back." He uttered and he watched as the said man clenched his fist before walking in with him following behind.

After one of his staffs served them cold beers and reported that they finished with the inventory, he thanked the both and let them live to rest. When he was sure that they were alone, Kyujong raised his bottled and congratulated him.

"For what?"Seungjung asked.

"Oh? Didn't Ara tell you? She's pregnant. For real this time." He answered so eerily calm that it gave his friends the heebie jeebies.

"What?" Seunjung let out a laugh and then stopped when the man in front of him was nothing but serious. "Y-you're lying! And even if it's true. I-I can't be the father. You're her fiancee!"

Kyujong sighed taking a swig of his beer and putting it down. "I was her fiancee and no. I am definitely sure that I'm not the father since you were the last one who slept with her 11 weeks ago."

For a moment, Seunjung showed confidence as he denied that accusation until Kyujong reminded him of the evidences he shoved at him before he left the church and then his face paled again.

"I actually have a video evidence showing her leaving your house a week before the supposed wedding." Seunjung glared at him. "Never knew you for a sweet guy who gives goodbye kisses."

"So what's this? Are you blackmailing me?" The man asked. "I don't have anything to give that you don't already have."

"On the contrary, I'm trying to help myself by trying to help you. I'm tired of having people ruin everything I've worked hard for and people taking advantage of me." He saw the evident from his friends eyes.

"And what if it's yours?"

Kyujong is very sure from the get go that there is no possible way that that baby, his ex is threatening her about now is his because of the fact that he had deliberately stayed away from the woman a month before the wedding.

"I made sure to have a jam pack schedule for the whole month before the wedding. Like I said, you're the one last seen with her." Kyujong's calmness only pissed the other man as he bolted up on his feet screaming, "Well what the hell do you want me to do about it?"

"What else do you think?! This is your child we're talking about!" Kyujong retaliated his voice louder. "For once in your life learn to stand in your own two damned feet and take responsibility for your own stupidity." He said snarled pressing a finger at Seunjung's chest. 

The two men stood glaring at each other until Seungjun decided to walk away.

"I'm serious Seunjung. I suggest you deal with this before your father get's wind of this situation." Kyujong said.

Seungjung scoffed and turned around. "So you really are blackmailing me?"

"Despite what you did, I'm only here trying to help you. The video I have, it's only a copy. I suggest you move fast before that person who has it makes their move." He said and then Seunjung left him alone.

I'm pregnant.

Those words and add the nasally voice, echoed over and over in her head.

It had been a week since she overheard that conversation between Jo Ara and her husband's manager in her own cafe and yet, no matter how hard she tried pushing the memory away, it keeps floating back up disrupting all of her peace of mind. And then at the same time, the memory of Kyujong telling him about the time where the wretched wench tried to manipulate him to marrying her with the same tactic surfaces and she can't help but think that she's using the same trick to manipulate him once more in taking responsibility.

"Hey there."

She got up and turned to see Yongsun standing by the doorway of her room and just as quickly, she turned her back and wiped the tears off her face before turning back around to face the older woman once more.

"Unnie? I didn't know you were coming. When did you get in?" Byul asked faking a smile and propping herself to sit by the edge of the bed.

Yongsun gave her a small smile and sat down beside her. "A few minutes ago." She answered giving Byul's cheek a gentle touch. "Why are you crying?"

Although she tried to hide her tears, she knew it wouldn't escape the notice of the older girl. She's felt so drained when she tried hiding the truth about her marital status until she confessed to the girls and now with this information, she just couldn't hold on anymore and let her tears fall as Yongsun held her in her arms telling her everything will eventually turn out right. 

Later, when she has calmed down, she told Yongsun everything she heard that very same day she got dropped off at her cafe and the older girl reacted with shock and anger.

"wait, so your husband left a message apologizing and asking to meet with you, wanting to make your marriage work and then you so happen to come upon the news of that woman being pregnant and that she's planning on forcing him to take responsibility, again?" Yongsun asked very much exasperated.

Byul shrugged. "I don't know. That's all I heard."

"Okay. And what about your husband? You said he's been leaving messages, do you think he knows?" Yongsun asked and she answered with a simple shake of her head. "Okay. Then, for now, let's insinuate that he knows. Now, I'm going to ask you, what are you going to do about this?."

Byul stayed quiet with only one definite answer in her head. "What else is there to do? There's a child involved, unnie. I can't-... A child deserves to have a complete family.'

"Even if it means that the child will grow up to parents who doesn't love each other with that possibility of him/her turning out one day to be a messed up citizen?" Yongsun couldn't even imagine the possible turn outs for this child. "Please tell me you're not seriously thinking on letting this kid go through that."

Byul could only feel guilt as she knew to herself that there are better options than to just end it with her husband and let Ara manipulate her way back into his life once more. But with all the hurt she is feeling right now, all she could think of was taking the easy way out.

*N: :)

I'm really having a hard time with all the changes I've done with the upcoming chapters. 

I hope I did a bit of justice on this one :)

BTW, let's stay tuned for the subbed version of WIdol.