There she was again, hanging up after 2 hours. Jiyong woke up and found himself falling asleep during his last night conversation with Jieun. Though, he still remembered his feelings last night. He was grateful that he had met Jieun and got close to her. Had he never realized he needed an existence of this kind of person in his life before? He became to believe that the world somehow turned their back against him just to turn another round with different fate. He quickly grabbed his phone and checked the news.

“Wow… it’s all over the news. And the fancams.” Jiyong mumbled and clicked on one of the videos. There were like hundreds of them and they were everywhere.

He diligently watched the video. It was well-recorded though and he would grin during his awkward talk with Jieun. Were they that awkward when they were alone? Absolutely not. He noticed that some of his reactions and expressiosn soon became so unprofessional. And he also realized he was so shy at that time. He came to think of the reason, figured out why but soon denied it.

“There’s no way because of Lee Jieun. No way.” He shaped his mind and put down his phone.

He needed a small break before his days of world tour. It was going to be the following week, which meant he had only a couple of days left to rest. He realized that he had nothing much to do anyway. Next week would become the start of a very long and weary schedule await for him, though he would meet his fans, which boosted up his mood a bit. Jiyong thought of doing something and suddenly Jieun popped up in his head.

“Should I spend some time with her before the tour?” Then, he would knocked it out and sighed. “I just spent time yesterday with her. Kwon Jiyong, you have become too greedy.” He would always scold himself like that.

He decided to spend his last day of “real weekend” staying at home and lying on his bed all day. He checked his Instagram and posted some photos. He had such a good team on taking photos though. As expected, his photos came out so well that he greatly satisfied. It made a good Sunday to him. A picture of BigBang appeared on the screen and it made him stop. It was Seunghyun, his best brother. Jiyong was worried, but he could not do anything. Seunghyun was just so… unlucky because who would not know that this mess was always a part of this industry. Jiyong had had before, and he would think it was not that bad at all. It was just… illegal. That was Seunghyun’s fault. That was one’s fault when one knew it wasn’t right but still did. Jiyong felt bad as he could not really protect Seunghyun from this. But he knew that no one could protect Seunghyun besides Seunghyun himself. Just like what Jiyong did before, he was the only one who protected himself, literally.

Lying on the bed until evening, Jiyong found his stomach empty and finally realized that the hunger was coming. He wanted to eat something, yet he was still so lazy to get out of his bed. Jiyong would think of his bestfriend, Dong Youngbae.

“What’s up bro?” Youngbae would humorously joke at the beginning of the call. He always did that.

“I’m hungry.” Jiyong whined to the long-lasting best friend.

“So?”

“Come over, please.” Jiyong started to sound desperate. He knew Youngbae would give in for this.

“Why do I have to come?” Youngbae was still half-undecided.

“Because you’re my bro.” Jiyong said in English with best effort he could make. Everyone knew he was getting better and better.

“Just bro?” Youngbae was trying to play hard to get.

“Best bro! Sweetest bro!” Jiyong shouted and started to get annoyed. “Just come, I might die from starving.”

“Ok ok. In 20 minutes.” Youngbae roared with laughters then hung up.

Jiyong grinned for being so a “crying baby” and he could finally get some food… for free.

Youngbae came and bought some food which disappointed Jiyong much.

“Sorry I was too lazy to cook. Can we just simply have some jajangmyeon?” Youngbae would make excuses and grin while Jiyong would pull a face.

“Pft. Best bro my .” Jiyong whispered, intended to let Youngbae hear.

“Say what? I’m going home. Annyeong Jiyong. Annyeong jajangmyeon.” Youngbae took the bowls away and pretended to go.

“Best of best bro. Best!” Jiyong would thumb up his finger and steal the bowl back. He was really starving though.

They talked about random things like all the time. Youngbae would always spend time over Jiyong’s house. They were friends for a long time, and well, they should know almost everything in their lifetime about each other. Yet, sometimes knowing someone too much would cause the other in trouble.

“You’re leaving for Macau on Friday?” Youngbae made a random question.

“Oh.. It’s going to be a long long long long schedule though. Flying is tired.” Jiyong would let out a sigh.

“Do your best, my friend. This is your final tour before you’re enlisting next year.” Youngbae would understand that anyway.

“Want some soju?”

“Soju?”

“Oh…” Jiyong turned to his kitchen and pointed. “The refridgerator… for reminding.”

“Oh yeah. IU-sshi.” Youngbae grinned and started to walk over there taking out some of the bottles.

Jiyong would think how could Youngbae manage to be so calm around Jieun after all those years she was so into him. If it was for other boys, they would burst into tears because of happiness. She got so many fanboys anyway, Jiyong knew that. He had sometimes checked news about her, which was pretty weird for Jiyong. He even found it weird for himself though.

“By the way…” Youngbae poured the wine into the glass. “It seemed like you and IU-sshi was not that distant, huh?”

Well, Jiyong felt guity. He never told Youngbae about Jieun, to be honest. He also did not know why he would not tell, but he just did not want to. He wanted to keep that for himself, a relationship that only he would know.

“Huh? How?” Jiyong tried not to make an eye contact.

“Who gifted people a refridge with soju unless they are close? That’s rare though.” Youngbae sounded like asking himself, instead of Jiyong.

“I guess, she’s… weird.” Jiyong just made it up. But he did think that was a weird present, even he thought about it now. Even if they were close, he would still be surprised the last time he saw people moving it to his house.

Jiyong: What is this Jieun?

Jiyong: (insert a photo)

Jieun: Surprise!

Jieun: Like it?

Jiyong: Woah…

Jiyong: I’m speechless.

Jiyong: How can you…

Jiyong: Come up with this idea?

Jieun: Drink well oppa.

Jiyong: How Jieun? It should be more than 300 bottles.

Jiyong: You’re trying to kill this oppa?

Jieun: You like soju, don’t you?

Jiyong: Well, I do but…

Jiyong: This is TOO MUCH!!!

Jieun: Drink well oppa…

Jiyong: Woah… Lee Jieun…

Jiyong: Really…

“Weird like you.” Youngbae looked at Jiyong. Youngbae meant something else.

“Me? Weird? How?”

“Don’t you tell me you don’t admit you’re weird.” Youngbae would attack. “You’re super weird, dude.”

“Ok. I admit I’m weird. So what’s the deal?”

“Something is fishy.” Youngbae just finished his first bottle. There he was, Dong Youngbae.

“What is fishy?”

“You and her.”

“Me and her? Who? Jieun?” Jiyong had not realized he once again addressed her real name.

“Yes. You and IU. Especially, you.”

“Why?”

“You don’t know? Did you watch your performance last night?” Youngbae widened his eyes.

“I just watched. So?”

“The way you look at her, dude.”

“When? Don’t you make things up, bro.” Jiyong became confused. How did he look at her? He did not even realize how his look was like.

“I have seen it before, Ji ah.”

“Huh?”

“You like her, don’t you?”