Chapter 55

"I beat you again!" Hyun Seng laughed with triumph.

Seungri blinked, unable to understand the reason of such happiness. He was awful at chess because he didn't understand why the king was so weak, and why was the knight's move so limited and odd yet it was the most powerful weapon on the board.

Seungri pursed his lips and felt the first inkling of anger at his loss and at Hyun Seng. But he felt ashamed for such disgusting emotions and quickly brushed it away.

Hyun Seng, at the realization of his petty action, blushed and replied humbly, "Of course, Seungri you tried very hard. It was a good game."

Hyun Seng held out his hand over the ivory checked board.

Seungri shook it grudgingly, and sat back down.

"Come on, Seungri," Hyun Seng could tell that his friend was upset by the way he pouted and lightly bent his brows. "I'm sorry I acted a bit arrogant."

"I am not mad," Seungri answered in a deflated voice as he an ivory pawn in his hand.

"Hyun Seng Hyung…" Seungri hesitated as he swallowed with difficulty, "Am I weak?"

"What? Who said that?"Hyun Seng asked, his voice quiet and full of anger.

Seungri's mouth parted in astonish at Hyun Seng's heated response. "I was just thinking…" Seungri faltered sadly. His fingers twisted into a nervous bundle. "Ever since I entered YG Entertainment as a trainee, I realised that differences in talent between me and the rest of the trainees were a huge gap. Singing, dancing, personal style…nothing could be compared. It wasn’t only G Dragon hyung and Tae Yang hyung who trained for so long, but the hyungs who entered YG Entertainment around the same time were just as good. Daesung hyung has a bright and positive attitude that was appealing. TOP hyung’s rapping skills and his middle-low voice to his smooth feeling control was outstanding.” Seungri looked up abruptly, “There were other areas where they were better but I didn’t have one thing to boast about.”

Seungri continued before Hyun Seng could interrupt, “Furthermore, YG is a company known for its hip-hop but I didn’t know much about it. When the sunbaes talked about music, I couldn’t actively participate so I found hip hop music to listen instead. I listened to a lot of hip hop music that the YG sunbaes produced but compared to them who spent a lot of time in this culture, I was still in the imitation standard….”

"No," Hyun Seng said firmly, “You are not weak. Trust me. Having no sufficient ability is an excuse and that can be filled in with hard work. If hard work doesn’t do the trick, then work hard again.”

"Trust me Seungri," Hyun Seng said confidently, comforting Seungri with determination in his eyes.

***

Seungri sighed wearily and ran a hand through his hair as he lay on the bed, staring at the white ceiling above him.

He had dozed off momentarily, and he had just dreamt about the past between Hyun Seng and him again.

Seungri disliked those sudden dreams that bought memories of things that should not be bothering him. These small things will trigger some sensitive sensation and images would rush into his brain, causing him pain and sadness of the innocent beauty that will never return again.

Seungri exhaled and glanced at the clock beside him and saw that it was three in the morning. Seungri tried to go back to sleep but half an hour later, he gave up and admitted defeat, knowing that sleep wouldn't come to him.

Seungri climbed out of his bed and quietly made his way to the wardrobe on the other end of his room. He changed into his training clothes and, as quietly as he could, left the dormitory to go and train his dancing in YG Entertainment.

***

Seungri kept dancing vigouroulsy, not allowing his mind to wander anywhere else. He kept dancing for hours until his mental and physical strength slowly succumbed to fatigue and when he saw the sky turn pink as the sun came up.

Feeling exhausted, Seungri lay on the floor as he panted and sweat beads were rolling down the heated skin of his forehead.

Seungri stayed lying on the floor, his thoughts were far away, wondering whether Hyun Seng was alright yet, at the back of his mind, he asked himself why he was thinking and worrying about that worthless piece of trash.

As the seconds passed, Seungri’s thoughts were interrupted rudely by the door opening with a huge bang that resonated throughout the room.

Seungri began pushing himself up from the ground, as G Dragon strode in angrily and a magazine into Seungri's face, exclaiming. "What's the meaning of this, Seungri?!"

Seungri looked at the front page and felt all the air around him vanish. He struggled to try and comprehend what he was seeing. His eyes scanned the page of the magazine, trying to make sense of the title displayed before him.

The pictures of the article displayed what Seungri had expected to see but the thing that had taken Seungri's breath away was the contents in the article. Everything had been fabricated including the things he said during the interview made it sounds as if Hyun Seng was the victim.

A disgusted laugh escaped his lips, sounding slightly mad even to his own ears. How could he have been such a blithering fool? How could he not realise that Hyun Seng would do something like this as a counter attack? The cold voice of reason, that finally could get in a word edgewise, told him that he knew Hyun Seng had meant it when he terminated their friendship, and unpredictable as Hyun Seng’s action was, he knew that Hyun Seng would pursue an ideal to its ultimate end, if he knew that was the best course of action.

"Seungri, are you listening?"

G Dragon's irate voice snapped Seungri back to the present.

Seungri looked up at G Dragon. He could see the rage clearly in his eyes. He knew that G Dragon was very angry with him, but he didn't know what he could say that would make things better so he just kept quiet and let G Dragon do all the talking.

"Are you going to at least try and explain what had happened during the interview?" G Dragon asked, biting back the anger he felt. “Didn’t I told you the do and donts for the interview?!”

Seungri avoided looking at G Dragon, holding his tongue. There’s no way that he could explain without letting G Dragon know about Tae Yang’s deeds if he told G Dragon everything.

Seungri rubbed at his head. His headache had come back with a vengeance.

"What do you want me to say?" Seungri asked, looking at G Dragon blankly.

"Is that all you can say?!" G Dragon snapped, unable to hold back the anger any longer as he turned the pages of the magazine. "You're ruining your own reputation!"

Seungri sighed and looked up to meet G Dragon's gaze. The emotionless mask drifted into place without him consciously aware.

"Like I care…" Seungri muttered not very quietly.

After hearing what Seungri had said, G Dragon started pacing the floor, hands shaking at his sides.

"Of all the things…I can't believe…I just don't know what to do with you!" G Dragon shouted. He was lost for words, which only meant that he was even angrier than before. “I have been trying very hard to bring you back into big bang. Yet, you destroy your chance by doing this. Do you think that the public would be happy if you get back into big bang with this kind of article published?”

Seungri opened his mouth to argue but nothing came out. He couldn't disagree with G Dragon. Everything that G Dragon had said was right.

Seungri gave G Dragon a calculating look before coming to a decision.

He turned away from G Dragon and headed for the door. He really needed to be alone. He couldn't trust himself to speak right now. Before he could leave he felt a hand close over his arm. He looked back to see G Dragon holding him firmly by the arm, black eyes swimming with anger.

"I'm asking you something, Seungri. Don't you dare walk away from me without explaining yourself!"

Deep down G Dragon knew he was being unfair on Seungri. He was shouting at him without even finding out what had happened during the interview. But as G Dragon was in the midst of a raging temper, his rational thinking was put on hold for the moment. All he wanted to do was make Seungri understand how angry and upset he was.

Before Seungri could say anything, the door opened and Manager Hyung came running inside, with an uncharacteristic look of worry on his face.

“Seungri, President YG is looking for you.”