Jinyoung leaned against the wall with his hands in his pockets as he looked from side to side in an attempt to spot Eunji. He sighed as he looked at his watch once again. Their usual meeting time was coming close, but Eunji was nowhere to be seen. Jinyoung didn’t even know if Eunji remembered about the meeting or not, but it wasn’t like he told her a long time ago. He had only told her earlier in the day about wanting to talk.

            Even though he didn’t have a set thing to talk about, Jinyoung knew that he wanted to talk about her recent “breakup” with Sandeul. From the beginning, Jinyoung knew that Eunji and Sandeul were in a fake relationship. After all, he was the leader and the CEO always told him those things. Jinyoung, however, kept it a secret from Sandeul that he knew about their somewhat fake relationship. The exact details of why and how Sandeul and Eunji got together were unknown, but Jinyoung knew that Sandeul wouldn’t be one to approach Eunji. They’re just not each other’s style.

            “Yo,” Eunji said as soon as she saw Jinyoung with a big smile on her face.

            “Don’t act like that with me,” Jinyoung sternly said.

            “What got into you?” Eunji asked as she took her usual spot next to Jinyoung against the wall. They were in an alley, an alley that they frequently met at when they used to date. It wasn’t that they had to hide from anyone or anything, it was just that that was the place that they ended up going.

            “Nothing,” Jinyoung said shaking his head.

            “Shouldn’t you be hanging out with your girlfriend, why are you with me?”

            “What girlfriend are you talking about?” Jinyoung asked in an attempt to play dumb, but it apparently wasn’t working very well since Eunji had the ability to see right through it. Well that and she already knew about Lila being his girlfriend.

            “Never mind,” Eunji said shaking her head. She wasn’t really in the mood to argue with Jinyoung about such things, despite knowing that they were true. “What did you want to see me about?”

            “Let the CEO break you and Sandeul up cleanly.”

            “What?”

            “You heard what I said,” Jinyoung said turning his head so he could look at her, although it was kind of hard since it was dark. “Let the CEO break you and Sandeul up cleanly so that no one has to be hurt in the end.”

            “Aren’t you already hurting him?”

            “What are you talking about?”

            “You’re dating Lila, you’re already hurting him.”

            “I’m not dating anyone,” Jinyoung repeated. It wasn’t hard for him to lie to Eunji since he knew that that was what he was going to have to do until he broke the news to the CEO that he was dating Lila. He didn’t want anyone else besides the group members to know about his relationship. He wanted to protect Lila, and it wasn’t like the public forgot about Lila’s past with Sandeul either. Thankfully, though, people didn’t know about the past that Jinyoung and Eunji had together. It was a mystery because they were together and broke up all before Jinyoung debuted.

            “Of course you aren’t,” Eunji said sighing. She didn’t know what it was going to take to get the details out of Jinyoung, even if she already knew that they were dating.

            “Anyway, just break up with Sandeul cleanly, just let it be something that the CEO says. I’m sure he’s not going to paint you in a bad light,” Jinyoung continued getting back on track for what he wanted to see Eunji about in the first place. “Anyway, we have school tomorrow. I should get going.”

            “Alright, alright,” Eunji said with a nod of her head as if to dismiss Jinyoung. “I got it, I got it. No need to be all…yeah.”

            “Okay, I’m just making sure that you don’t cause any of us trouble, or I would be able to paint you in a bad light,” Jinyoung said as he began making his way out of the alley.

            “And I would be able to paint you in a bad light, too,” Eunji said causing Jinyoung to turn back and look at her, but he said nothing and continued walking on his way before Eunji went her way back to her apartment.

“You should go to bed, I want my girlfriend to always have enough sleep,” Jinyoung said as he talked on the phone with Lila.

            “I should be saying the same to you,” Lila said with a light chuckle. “You’re the one who doesn’t get enough sleep because you’re an idol.”

            “Hey, and because I’m an idol, I can live on no sleep,” Jinyoung responded with a laugh. “You on the other hand, I want you to be well rested.”

            “Any particular reason?” Lila asked. She wanted to know why Jinyoung was suddenly taking care of her sleeping habits. “I mean, is it normal for a boyfriend to care about that type of stuff?”

            “Of course,” Jinyoung immediately said after Lila asked the question. “I’m always going to care about you. I thought we established that before we were even dating that I was always going to care about you.”

            “But I think it’s troublesome,” Lila said as she laid on her bed. “You don’t have to worry about me all of the time, I’m not someone worth the trouble. You’re an idol, there are plenty of other things that are supposed to be on your mind.”

            “Hey, don’t talk like that,” Jinyoung said. “I don’t care if we just started calling ourselves official, as in we’re officially going out, but I’ve cared about you since the moment I saw you at the mall that day with Eunji. I care about you more than you could imagine.”

            “Hmm,” Lila said as she attempted to think about it.

            “Do you not care about me?” Jinyoung asked. He was half joking and half serious in his question. He wanted to know whether or not Lila cared about him. Jinyoung knew that he wouldn’t be mad, no matter what Lila’s answer was, he was just curious as to what their position in their relationship was at that current moment.

            “I…I care about you,” Lila hesitantly said.

            “You don’t sound so sure there,” Jinyoung said with a laugh.

            “No…I am,” she said more confidently than she had before. “I really do like you and I really do care about you, that’s why I’m telling you to go to sleep, too. I don’t want you to be tired during your schedules just because of me.”

            “Don’t worry,” Jinyoung said with a chuckle at how cute Lila was being. “We don’t have any schedules for a couple of days, besides Sandeul because of his drama, and that’s why we don’t have any schedules. I mean, as a group we don’t have schedules, so there aren’t really any interviews or anything. There’s just some guesting on shows, but that’s all easy, and I don’t have a schedule tomorrow.”

            “Oh…” Lila said.

            “So, get to bed, alright?” Jinyoung asked. “Sleep well, and I’ll pick you up tomorrow, okay?”

            “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Lila said with a smile on her face before the both of them hung up their phones. As soon as she hung up the phone, Lila placed it on her bedside table before gently falling asleep. Jinyoung, however couldn’t fall asleep so easily. Somehow he felt like there was something that was going to go wrong. He had a bad feeling about something, but he wasn’t entirely sure what.

            “Are you okay? You seemed so happy before, hyung,” Gongchan said as he noticed the sudden change in attitude.

            “I’m alright, Channie,” Jinyoung said forcing a smile. “I’m just tired. I guess I should go to bed like Lila said, and you should too.”

            “Be right there, hyung,” Gongchan said as he finished up playing his game before turning it off and going to bed.

            The next morning, however, Jinyoung’s intuition was correct. The internet was ablaze with the news that he might have a girlfriend and at the news that it was his own group mate’s girlfriend. “They don’t know what they’re talking about,” Jinyoung said pushing it aside as he talked on the phone with the CEO. “I was just speaking with Eunji, we don’t have a relationship.”

            “Then we better get things cleared up pretty quickly, I don’t want this to hinder Sandeul’s drama role,” the CEO explained.

            “We’ll clear it up,” Jinyoung told him. “We can issue a statement. I don’t know why I can’t speak to Sandeul’s girlfriend without everyone thinking that I’m stealing someone’s girlfriend.”

            “That’s what it looks like, Jinyoung,” the CEO explained. “People just base things off of what they see, you know?”

            “Yeah, I know,” Jinyoung sighed. “I hope we get this cleared up soon, but I have to go to school, I’ll talk to you later.”

            “What did he say?” Baro curiously asked.

            “He just said that we’ll get everything cleared up,” Jinyoung said shrugging his shoulders as he grabbed his backpack to get ready to go to his classes. “I mean…Eunji and I were just talking. I’m not stealing Sandeul’s girlfriend. I have Lila, only…they can’t know that.”

            “We know, hyung, we know,” Gongchan said as he attempted to comfort Jinyoung.

            “I have to go pick Lila up at her apartment so I’ll see you guys there, alright?” he asked the two of them.

            “Sure, we’ll see you there. We’ll go hurry Shinwoo-hyung up,” Baro said with a laugh as he pushed Gongchan towards the bathroom.

            Meanwhile, Sandeul was on his way to the drama filming. He had attended a small script reading before, but it was his first time to actually be filming with the costumes and everything and frankly, he was nervous, but he wasn’t as nervous about the drama role than he was about finding out the news about Jinyoung and Eunji. Somehow he figured that it wasn’t just a regular meeting that they were having. It seemed like there was something going on between the two of them that he couldn’t pinpoint.

            “Are you okay? Are you nervous about the role?” the manager asked seeing how fidgety Sandeul was in his seat.

            “I’m alright,” Sandeul said nodding his head as he attempted to remember what he had to shoot that day. He didn’t have time to be worrying about Jinyoung, Eunji, and Lila. He should be worrying about his drama role and about the lines that he needed to remember, not about his friends. His friends were always going to be there for him, the chance for the drama role was not.

            “You know, the boss told me all about what’s going to happen to Eunji,” the manager continued, “and you shouldn’t worry too much about it.”

            “What?” Sandeul asked looking at their manager.

            “He told me about how she had approached him saying that she had information about one of the members, although she didn’t really specify who, and how if she didn’t get to date one of them she was going to tell all of the secrets. Of course the boss, being the type of guy that he is, automatically took the deal because he didn’t want to tarnish one of your reputations.”

            “He what?” Sandeul asked again. It was the first time he was hearing such information. At least, he didn’t remember ever hearing anything like that before. Maybe he did but he forgot about it, but Sandeul was sure that he would’ve remembered something that big. Eunji knew something about them, but who it was he didn’t know, no one knew.

            “I’m guessing you didn’t know,” the manager said with an awkward laugh.

            “So that means that I was used?” Sandeul asked in disbelief. “I was used just because of some threat? I was told to break up with Lila just because of some threat Eunji made that we don’t even know if it was true or not? I liked a liar?”

            Many questions were circling around Sandeul’s mind. He thought about the long relationship that he had with Eunji and questioned whether any of it was true, about whether Eunji’s feelings were true or just faked so she could get what she wanted.

            “Well…um…we’re here,” the manager said breaking the awkward silence as he looked out onto the filming site. “Let’s get going.”

“Ready to go?” Jinyoung asked Lila as she opened the door to her apartment.

            “I don’t know if I’m going today,” Lila said as she stepped back into her apartment. Jinyoung hesitantly took off his shoes at the front door and hesitantly followed behind her.

            “Why not? Are you sick? Are you not feeling well?” he hurriedly asked as he attempted to look at Lila to see if anything was wrong with her, but he couldn’t find anything visibly wrong.

            “I…I just don’t feel like going,” Lila said as she went to her bedroom and sat on the bed. Without question, Jinyoung sat down next to her. “You can go, I think I’ll stay here all day.”

            “This doesn’t sound like you.”

            “Hmm, it’s me,” Lila said nodding her head.

            “Well…I mean,” Jinyoung began, but he couldn’t find the right words to say. There seemed to be something amiss with Lila. Did she see the things that the people on the internet were saying about him and Eunji and also about her and Sandeul’s past relationship? “Lila…don’t believe those people on the internet.”

            “I don’t believe them,” she said shaking her head.

            “You trust me, right?”

            “I…I guess I do.”

            “Mm,” Jinyoung said with a nod of his head. It was a good enough answer for him at the current moment. They were in a brand-new relationship, so of course trust was in shallow water and would only develop over time as they spent more time with each other. They couldn’t just trust and love each other right away, that would be absurd. They both did like each other a lot, they knew that, they just didn’t know if it was love. “I’m going to protect you, Lila. I promise.”

            “Protect me. I don’t think I need protecting,” Lila said as she thought about it.

            “Well then I’m going to make sure that nothing is ever going to harm you, how about that?” Jinyoung offered.

            “I guess that’s alright,” Lila hesitantly said. She didn’t know what to tell Jinyoung. Of course she just wanted to say it right out loud, but she was afraid of the consequences if she did so. She was afraid what might happen to her if she were to say something. She was just afraid. She wanted Jinyoung to tell her that everything was going to be alright, and even though he was, he didn’t know the type of situation that she was in, which caused her to slightly not believe his words.

            Lila did believe that Jinyoung would protect her, but she didn’t know if he would be able to protect her from what she was hiding. After all, she was hiding it from him.

            “You’re going to put faith in me, alright?” Jinyoung asked. “Put faith in me and go to school, I don’t know why you don’t feel like going, but go with me and everything will be alright, okay? Can you do that for me?”

            “I…I guess,” Lila said as she sighed. “Now leave, I have to get changed,” she said with a laugh as she pushed him out of her bedroom so she could get ready for school.

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What secret is Lila hiding? What happened to her? What will Sandeul do now that he knows the truth about Eunji? Will Eunji do anything to prevent the breakup of her and Sandeul? Does Lila know about Jinyoung and Eunji's meeting?

Here's Chapter 18. Hope you enjoyed :D

And I know that this chapter may have been slightly confusing, but everything will start clearing out in the next chapters...or maybe get a little bit more confusing before everything starts to make sense, haha. And sorry for not updating this in for like...ever, haha. But...college life.

So, it's 12:42 AM here and I should get going to bed.

Good morning, good afternoon, and goodnight to everyone! :)