Chapter 5:

After the strange double-date with Taeyang and his wife Jiyong had no plans to see Hyoyeon again anytime soon, yet four days later she was running into BB Loans looking frantic. Though Jiyong didn’t notice her at first as he was preoccupied with the guards and the medical professional dabbing at his face, causing stinging pain along his cheekbone.

Smacking the nurse’s hand away he hissed, “God, enough!” He glared at the man ordering him away with his narrowing gaze.

Once he was out of Jiyong’s sight he saw Taeyang speaking to a familiar figure while he was holding an ice pack to his face. Why was Hyoyeon there? How did she even hear about the fight? Standing from his perch on Daesung’s old desk he made his way over to them, the pain in his side aching more with the movement.

“--orry for this,” Hyoyeon was saying when Jiyong arrived. “He shouldn’t have done this, I-I don’t know why he would risk it.”

“Who?” Jiyong questioned sternly. He didn’t like the way the usually calm and collected girl was rambling and looking slightly disheveled. Her black hair falling out of the twisted bun it was in, boots and the cuffs of her pants drenched from the rain puddles outside and her sweatshirt was hanging crooked on her frame.

Hyoyeon turned her attention from Taeyang to Jiyong, her face pale and riddled with guilt. Her hands, barely peeking out from the oversized sleeves, knitted together as she bit the inside of her bottom lip.

“Who?” Jiyong pressed.

“Uh,” she croaked out. “Bambi.”

Jiyong’s temper flared, his vision almost going red as he leered at Hyoyeon. “He did this?” he growled.

“H-He wasn’t in his right mind. I’m s-sorry,” she muttered.

“Right mind?” Jiyong bellowed. Hands going to fists at his sides as he took a single step forward to hover over Hyoyeon, who shrank back slightly. “He attacked my business! No he’s not in his right mind. How the did you even find out?” His voice bouncing off the walls making it sound even louder and making his security team halt their work to stare at the fuming boss.

Hyoyeon visibly gulped as her fingers knotted together almost painfully so, from the way her knuckles turned bone white. “B-Bambi showed up at my place,” she began. “He was drunk and rambling and . . . And I hurried here after kicking him out.”

An audible growl left Jiyong as his chest heaved in rage.

“GD, you should calm down,” Taeyang said trying to step in between him and Hyoyeon, but all that he managed to squeeze between the two was an arm. “This isn’t her fault. Just some drunk bastard, and nothing too bad happened. Just a scuffle.”

Shoving Taeyang’s arm away Jiyong whirled on his partner with a look that could kill. “A scuffle?” he spat. “Seunghyun has a broken hand and our office is trashed! Stop trying to defend her when this is entirely her fault.”

Suddenly Jiyong was stumbling to the side, Taeyang’s bruised face dropping in shock before it moved out of his field of vision. Before Jiyong could recover himself from the forceful shove and shock, his right ear was filled with a voice that was too calm for the situation playing out.

“This is not my fault you arrogant man. I was purchased by you. I work for you. I had no say in any of this since the beginning, so don’t you dare put the blame on me. I already apologized because I know Bambi came after you for me, but it’s your own fault for not heeding his desperation.” Hyoyeon’s voice far too steady for an upset woman and when Jiyong turned his head to look at her he saw nothing but that expressionless mask she wore when she first appeared in his office. It was cold and distant.

Gritting his teeth he hissed, “Women are more trouble than they’re worth.”

“Says the man who has deluded himself on what he believes love is,” she retorted coldly.

“See,” a new, yet annoyingly familiar, voice said next, “just a couple’s spat. We don’t have to get involved.”

“Xiumin,” another familiar voice huffed. Whipping around to face the entrance Jiyong laid eyes on Yejin -- ignoring the auburn haired man at her side that was boredly glancing about the messy work space. “Enough. It was your friend that caused this.”

“Only because your godfather decided to take the one person Bambi’s probably ever cared about,” Xiumin retorted as they started across the room towards the trio (Seunghyun was upstairs having his hand treated). Jiyong’s emotions roared inside him, a mess of anger, frustration and confusion.

Yejin sighed at her husband. “We’re not getting into that again.”

“Fine, but you know Bambi’s in the right,” Xiumin muttered.

Ignoring him Yejin stopped in front of Jiyong, a concerned look on her face as she scanned his features for injury. “Are you guys alright?” she asked.

Jiyong couldn’t find his voice, the dark emotions having stolen it as he stared at Yejin. Why was she even there? She was the last person he wanted to see at that moment.

“We’re fine,” Taeyang answered instead.

“I’m leaving,” Hyoyeon stated. She stepped around Jiyong, not even sparing him a glance as she passed.

“Hyoyeon,” Yejin said and the younger girl stopped, though it seemed reluctant. “Maybe you should stay. As GD’s support.”

Without missing a beat Hyoyeon coolly replied, “That only works when you’re the one he wants, so how about you stay and I’ll go.” She took a step to leave, but stopped to glance back at Yejin, who’s expression had gone stiff. “While you’re at it maybe you can pull him out of his delusion that he’s in love with you.”

“What?” Yejin squawked.

“You believed he was?” Hyoyeon questioned, faint surprise coating her tone. “Then you both were helplessly delusional. Do you even know the real Kwon Jiyong?” With that challenge Hyoyeon turned away and left BB Loans.

The stretch of silence she left behind was broken by Xiumin who chortled, “I see why Bambi likes her so much.” A grunt of pain followed.

“Shut up Xiumin,” Yejin said after elbowing him.

Shaking off his shock Jiyong composed himself despite the echoing words in his head. Do you even know the real Kwon Jiyong? Did she? Did Yejin know what he did to make her happy? Did he himself even know the real Kwon Jiyong anymore? He seemed to fade away when he started regularly communicating with a sixteen year old. Where was he now? Did he even exist anymore? He had to if Hyoyeon had seen him, right?

“Yejin, we’re fine,” he said, her name rolling off his tongue in a sour way that made him scrunch up his nose. Maybe it was because he was so use to his term of endearment “sweetheart,” but that just didn’t seem to fit in the atmosphere that hung around them. “Ah, Jinjin,” he tried again, using the name she had taken to using with work and it flowed easier out of his mouth. “You can leave. I have to call a meeting, business partners only.”

Yejin’s eyes widened, so did Xiumin’s. “GD, but--”

“I still have a business to run, Jinjin,” he said simply.

“I have a request--”