"Are you a retard?" Dara hissed. "Why did you even ask them to check on Chaerin and Bom in the first place?"

Jiyong hung his head. "To clear their names before everyone else's..." he pouted.

"Aish you're really retarded!" Dara harrumphed at him. "I'm going to find Bom now. You undercovers seriously have no brain to speak of." she gave him a look and ran out, clutching her bag.

Jiyong slumped on his chair and wrinkled his nose. "Aish this is so complicated." he raked his fingers through his hair. "I told you agents can't fall in love..."

The 2NE1 girls were immediately alerted when Bom ran out of the company away from TOP. Apparently it was rather a big thing since everyone saw her crying and sobbing along the way, and it soon became the talk of the company.

Bom had written that she was feeling down on the 2NE1 Whatsapp chat group and the girls immediately went to find their dead Bominator.

"Come on, open the door." CL frowned, ringing the doorbell incessantly.

Minzy tried to peer into the house through the curtains. "Do you think unnie is still outside and she hasn't returned home?" she asked.

Dara frowned. "Unlikely. She left two hours ago, she'd have reached by now."

But no matter how hard they knocked and screamed Bom's name, there wasn't any reply. Minzy stilled in shock. "Do you think Bom unnie was so traumatized that she..." she made a slicing movement at her neck.

The other two girls paled. "No way. Bom knows better than that." CL shook her head. "She wouldn't take her life that easily."

Dara nodded. "Yeah. The Bom we know might just be buying up all the killer heels in Seoul so that she could throw all of them at Seunghyun." she grinned.

Now that sounds more likely.

Someone mumbling incoherently under her breath and stomping up the stairs made the girls look back. And there Bom was, stomping like a bull with a sad and angry expression with full of corn.

"BOM!" the girls rushed to her side and hugged her.

Bom scoffed and didn't return their hugs, instead pushing them away. "Don't crush my corn!" she protested, holding her precious cup away protectively.

"So that's where you went? To buy corn?" Dara raised her brows. Bom harrumphed at their expressions. "Why can't I?" she retorted as she unlocked her front door. "An upset girl can do as she like." she stated.

They went into her house, a cozy apartment that screamed of Bom and settled down on the couch. Bom didn't care about the girls, gobbling the corn like no tomorrow.

"You wanna talk about what happened?" CL probed gently.

Bom sent a murderous glare. The girls cowered back and kept mum. They could only wait for Bom to talk about things when she wanted to. The Bominator was one hard nut to crack.

She finally finished her corn and stared blankly at the floor. The other girls looked at each other and nudged, wanting to make Bom open up.

Minzy was placed with the task and she got pushed by her unnie's towards the angry volcano. "Ehh..." she gulped. "Bom unnie...do you want to-"

"He asked me if I was the one who leaked the bidding amounts." Bom cut in.

The girls stared, shocked, with the exception of Dara who already knew from Jiyong. "What? How could he?" Minzy frowned disapprovingly.

"Besides the obvious fact that I would never ever betray YG as that he's just gone bonkers thinking that I might," Bom huffed. "That isn't the only thing that made me mad."

"It isn't?" Dara looked surprised.

Bom pouted. "I suspect he asked me that question in an attempt to run away from mine. Yang Sajangnim had given me two tickets to the musical and I asked him if he wanted to go with me."

She looked at the girls. "He didn't reply. Instead he threw that bomb question at me." she muttered, hurt.

She reached for a pillow on her couch and hugged it tight, trying to make up for the emptiness she felt. "Does he not like me so much that he can't even reject me properly?" she asked, angry. "If I had known that he wasn't interested, I would have left it at that, no need to ask me such ridiculous questions."

CL frowned. "But..." she hesitated. "Are you sure he doesn't like you?"

"I don't know!" Bom burst out frustratedly. "I mean he's always extra nice to me and he looks out for me, going out of the way. And at times like this I always think perhaps he does like me."

She sighed and hugged the pillow tighter. "But when I try to get closer, it's like he realizes what he had been doing and he purposely puts distance between us." she grumbled. "I don't know what's in his mind at all. Why..."

*Because he's an undercover.* Dara thought, but she couldn't say.

Bom wrinkled her nose and leaned back. "I don't want to care anymore. I'm not going to go courting a guy even though he's the one whom I think I might really really fall for. If he wants me, he better come personally." she humphed.

The girls looked at one another. Seems like they didn't have to worry. Their Bom didn't even take time to cry and dwell on her misery. Her next step: Making TOP suffer.

"What should I do, Jiyong?" TOP downed a shot and asked miserably.

The two of them had gone for a drink again, after the unfortunate incident.

"I can't believe I just asked her that straight." TOP mumbled. "Am I stupid or what?"

*Extremely stupid.* Jiyong thought. He sighed and sipped on his drink. "You obviously have to do something about like. Like apologize."

TOP nodded. "I know. But would that suffice?" he asked. "Bom's been more and more transparent about her interest in me, asking me to musicals and always shooing away the other people when we talk."

"You don't like it?" Jiyong questioned.

"I love it." TOP admitted. "I love how she's courageous enough to go for a guy when usually girls just keep it to themselves. I love how she frowns cutely when she's doing her work, but would always put on her special smile reserved for me when I find her. I love how she laughs, how she smiles, even how she scolds the other people when they do something wrong."

He took a panicked glance at Jiyong. "Damn, Jiyong. I think I may love her." he gasped.

Jiyong nodded. From what he heard, he thought so as well. "I think you do."

"What am I to do?" TOP asked, groaning. "But I can't...we're on a mission...what if.."

"Hyung." Jiyong placed a hand on TOP's shoulder. "I may have advised you to avoid Bom before, but now I'm taking that back. Because now it's clear that's wholly impossible."

TOP nodded, pouting.

"The only thing left to do is to confess, hyung." Jiyong told him. "If you can't protect her by staying away, then protect her while you're by her side. If you love her enough you'll make this work."

"You really think so?" TOP asked, doubtful.

"Yes." Jiyong nodded firmly. "I'll hide it from Boss so don't you worry. I permit you to drink tonight, but tomorrow, you're going to get your up and go to her and tell her the three words. The last thing I want you to do is to regret."

TOP nodded. "Arraso." he shuddered slightly at the image of Bom in his mind, screaming and yelling at him. "Let's just hope she won't get too mad."

Jiyong smiled softy and drank. To w honest, the advice he gave went against his own rules. The rules he set for himself.

But seeing TOP in this love sick manner, there was no way out. If the two were to remain as friends when they clearly loved each other, it's going to cause them more pain than ever.

Jiyong sighed. *But I'm not going to let that happen to me. No won is worth sacrificing my work for, unless she's Sohee.*