The first thing Jiyong did when he woke up on that next fateful day was to check his phone and reviewed his call logs and texts. Thousand of texts flooded his inbox, photos from last night bombarded his gallery. But the one text or ‘missed call’ he was looking for was nowhere to be found. Does she not miss him?

To that, he sighed. Maybe it was just him who is in love. Maybe it was just him who is committed to this relationship. ‘Forget it,’ he thought to himself before he decided to start his day and take a shower.

When he did join in with the other members moments later, something felt off. They were being their normal selves - playing with their phones and chatting among themselves - until he started walking in. Silence filled the air. They nervously stared at him for a quick second before avoiding the leader’s sharp gaze.

“What’s going on?” Jiyong asked.

“Hyung.” As always, the maknae always broke the silence - “Have you not check your social media? You’re all over the gossip sites. Someone took a pic of you and Kiko at the club!”

What? This is not good. He grabbed the maknae’s phone and checked it by himself. And it’s true. Photo of him and Kiko did surface in the internet. This could not be happening. Jieun wouldn’t like this. She would think that there’s something going on. And he promised her…

Damn it! He stormed off to his room. He had to explain to Jieun. He had to.

“Wait, Ji,” Youngbae caught up to him.

“I have to do something, Youngbae ah… Jieun has to know…”

“That’s what I want to tell you, Ji. She did something.” Youngbae knew he wouldn’t like to hear this but… “She uploaded a selca in her Twitter… with Eunhyuk.”

She did what? He immediately tried to check her social media to see it for himself.

“It’s already been deleted, Ji.” Youngbae explained. “But it’s all over the internet.” He showed the ‘scandalous’ photo to his best friend and from what he could see, his best friend could just murder someone with his look.

‘How could she do this to me.’ such thought swam through Jiyong’s mind. After everything he’s done for her. He couldn’t take it anymore. “Get out,” he coldly said.

“Ji.”

“Just leave me alone.” He collapsed himself to his bed, praying that this was all just a dream. It’s been rather a nightmare that he just did not want to handle it anymore.

“Just… don’t do anything stupid, okay?” He worriedly looked at his best friend who was obviously suffering before he did what he was told and exited the room.

Gosh, Jieun ah. He tried to call her multiple or a dozen of times but it all went to her voicemail. He tossed his phone aside once he had given up. Maybe Eunhyuk was just a friend. But what was he even doing there? And him shirtless? Thousand of possibilities ran through his mind but majority of them did not sound positive.

He couldn’t help but feel furious at her.

*

What had she done? She couldn’t believe herself. Uploading that photo on twitter for all the people to see. She was too blindsided by her jealousy. She was only trying to make him feel what she felt. It was not supposed to be like this.

She was short-sighted. She was being foolish. She let her heart clouded her judgment. And when she realised her mistake and deleted it off, it was already too late. The damage had already been done. Her image as the ‘Nation’s little sister’ tarnished just like that.

And the worst part of it all was Eunhyuk was also caught in this mess. An innocent victim from her careless action. He was just there to help her. He was not there to be involved in a scandal. How could she do this to him? How could she do this to an oppa who was only trying to help? No words could describe the amount of guilt she felt over him. Over herself. And over that guy.

She was still mad at him. If she just thought about that stupid photo of him and Kiko, she just wanted to hurt him. But still… it’s Kwon Jiyong, the guy who had constantly been on her mind. The guy who had been giving her butterflies in the stomach. She still wanted to be with him despite the photo. She still wanted to be with him despite the fact that he had just hurt her. She wanted to work things out between them.

Anger. Guilt. Regret. What was she to do?

Suddenly, her phone started vibrating. It was Inna. “Hi,” she uttered as she answered the call.

“For God’s sake kid, what were you doing?”

She could hear the disappointment in the unnie’s voice. And with that, tears just started to fall. What was she even doing? How could she do it? “Unnie…” More and more tears started to stream all over her face.

“It’s okay, I’ll come over to your place.” And with that, the phone call just ended.

*

“So tell me again. Eunhyuk came here to help you and then left, but you uploaded that pic suggesting you were both in bed? Because you wanted to make GD shi angry? What the hell you were thinking about, girl!”

“I know unnie… why am I so stupid?”

“But tell me the truth, nothing happened right?” to which Jieun nodded profusely. “But why was he shirtless?”

“I accidentally dropped a bowl of soup on him, so he took off his shirt. But he had an underwear shirt that it wasn’t seen in the photo. I realized too late…And I was in pajamas.” She sobbed. Million of thoughts popped into her head to the point that she could not think straight. Anger. Guilt. Regret.

“It’s okay, baby.” Inna comforted her with her warm hug.

It was what she needed. She cried her heart out, expressing her guilt through her tears and gradually, the tears lessened. She was thankful for Inna. She could not imagine what wreck she would have done to herself if Inna wasn’t there. She was thankful.

“Feeling better, kiddo? Want something to eat?” Un-ma Inna warmly asked.

“It’s okay, unnie. I’m not hungry at all,” Jieun weakly replied.

“But I bet you didn’t eat anything. I´ll cook something and you have to eat it, no matter what,” Inna persistently said. She was not going to let her dongsaeng starve and risked herself. She wasn’t going to let her friend alone.

*

She had been staring at the same contact detail for hours, contemplating whether to call or not. A part of her felt that she was not ready - she could not face his wrath, she could not face his disappointment. But a part of her knew that she should. The longer this dragged out, the worse the possible consequences.

Just as she was about to press ‘Call’, her phone vibrated. Her palms started to sweat as soon as she saw the caller ID. It’s him. Kwon Jiyong. To answer or not?

“Hi,” she weakly answered. Yes, this was the right decision.

“How have you been doing?” She could not figure out if he was angry or not - his tone almost robotic.

“I… Listen, I need to talk about…” She wanted to say so many things to him, explained her side of the story but…

“Don’t tell me. We need to talk face to face.” It’s that robotic tone again. She could not bring herself to stop feeling the emotions that she had just managed to dispel.

“Okay.” The only word she could manage to say.

“I’m about to get a flight back to Seoul. Let’s talk when I’m home.”

“Okay, let’s talk when you’re here…” He could hear her sobbing. At that point, he almost forgot the anger he felt. At that point, he almost told her ‘it’s okay’ and just eased her pain. Almost. No. She did him so wrong. And with that, he just dropped the call.

She knew she did him so wrong. Why did she do it? Why? He was so cold during that call that she knew…

By the time Inna came to Jieun’s room, she could see the dongsaeng wallowing in tears.

*

Ring. That was the sound of her door. She knew it was him. She looked nervously at Inna, seeking for an ounce of moral support.

Inna tried to give her a small smile. “I’ll leave now so you two can talk in peace. Call me if you need me.” She leaned over the dongsaeng and planted a kiss on her forehead. “Fighting!” she whispered, giving the strength that Jieun needed.

With that, Inna made her way out. She prayed that everything would be alright between them.

Hopefully.

*

So many things he wanted to say to her. So many emotions she wanted to express to him. But both of them could not bring themselves to do so. There was a deep silence. She could tell he was hurting too - the dark circles gave it away. It was not just her.

“Jiyong ah…” She decided to break the silence. “Did you have a good trip?” Oh wait - “Why am I even asking? Of course you had a great time there,” she sarcastically said.

“Jieun ah, don’t say that. Why are you assuming things?”

“The only thing I asked for, was not to disappoint me. Why were you with her? Why her?” She could feel the rage growing again in her chest as she recalled that photo.

“And what about you? Why were you in bed with another guy?” It was fire against fire. He was furious just thinking about it.

“Eunhyuk oppa came here to help me because I was feeling ill. He just stayed for a while. We did nothing of what you think. But what you did…”

“ Mwo? What did I do? I just took a drink with a friend at the bar in a very public place! And you? You were in bed with another guy. He’s even shirtless for God’s sake! How that’s supposed to be better than what I did?” He vented out.

And with that, Jieun felt speechless. Even if it was nothing like how he imagined, he had a point. He was right.

Things were silent between them again. Many thoughts were processed through their heads. They avoided looking at each other - both couldn’t decide whether to just drop the anger or not. They both felt wronged but…

“I…” She knew she wanted to say ‘I’m sorry’ but… “I just wanted to make you feel what I felt. But nothing happened. Really.” Her words failed her.

“You’re so childish, Jieun ah.” He scoffed. “You know what, this is not working out. You don’t even trust me!”

“I swear nothing happened,” she pleaded. She could feel the lump in .

“Maybe we should leave things this way,” he bitterly said.

Wait, did he? She astonishingly stared back at him. “Why are you doing this to me? Is it because of her?”

“No! You still don´t understand kid. We can´t be like this. It´s better to stop now before we end up hating each other.”

“Oppa…” Please, no.

“Let’s break up.”