The plane ride from Incheon to Tokyo wasn’t particularly long but it seemed to be when Jiyong’s nerves were intent on behaving like livewires beneath his skin. He’d made the journey countless times before and he’d never been quite so anxious. The only obvious difference was that those trips in the past hadn’t been to negotiate a false relationship with a girl that he barely remembered meeting once.

A bit of turbulence caused the blue folder in his lap to slide off to the floor. From the corner of his eye he could see the stewardess that had been blatantly checking him out since he stepped onto the plane begin to walk in his direction. He had enough lady problems without this woman ‘accidentally’ groping him again. He hastily bent over and began sweeping the papers into a pile before anyone could see them.

How awful would it have been if the media had gotten a look at that particular set of paperwork? The thought make him cringe as he settled back into his seat with a white knuckled grip on the folder.

-------

The Nylon building was much larger than he remembered it being. Jiyong frowned down at the sloppily handwritten address on the post-it note that Hyunsuk had handed him two days prior. It definitely said room 411. Or was that 477?

“Why didn’t he just have his secretary write it? That’s what she’s there for!”

“Do I need to call security?”

Jiyong jumped in surprise. He turned around slowly and with a practiced smile. “Sorry about that.” He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck causing his shirt to ride up and show a piece of his hip bone. Girls ate that up. Most girls. The girl in front of him appeared thoroughly unimpressed as she crossed her arms and huffed.

“What are you doing here? The people at the front desk aren’t supposed to let creepy men into the building.”

“Creepy men…” Jiyong repeated to himself in disbelief. “Don’t you know who I am?”

“A ert?”

“Kwon Jiyong.”

She motioned with her hand for further elaboration. “Is that supposed to mean something? I’m going to need more than that.”

“GD. G-Dragon. The fearless leader of Big Bang. Fashion trendsetter. Beloved writer, composer, and producer for YG Entertainment-”

“Wow! Someone sounds pretty full of himself,” she remarked in a bored tone. A second later recognition flashed across her face and she smile coyly. “Big Bang? Do you know that handsome rapper? TAP?”

“It’s TOP.” He narrowed his eyes in annoyance.

She batted her eyelashes at him in a way that was probably supposed to be attractive but really just made her look like she had a twitch. “Will you introduce me to him? Please?”

“No,” he replied flatly. Jiyong was NOT going to introduce his boyfriend to her. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Seunghyun, but he certainly didn’t trust her. She was tall with a slender figure and a delicate bone structure. Her hair was long and dark, and she had wide deep brown eyes. She was pretty, beautiful even, but Jiyong knew girls like her. They were schemers that just used people and did anything to get what they wanted. “I don’t even know you, so there’s no way that I would introduce you to my friend. What if you are a ert?”

She gasped in shock, holding a hand to her chest as if he had physically wounded her. “You can’t talk to me like that! I’m Mizuhara Kiko!”

“I don’t care who you are-” Jiyong paused. Mizuhara Kiko? Wasn’t that the name of… “No. This can’t be happening,” he muttered to himself as he pulled out the blue folder from his designer messenger bag. He hastily flipped through the stack of papers feeling dread erupting through his body like a volcano leaving him dried out and shaky. In bold letters the name that he’d been praying wouldn’t be written glared mockingly up at him. “.”

Fate was a merciless .

-------

“Seunghyun-ah, why didn’t you come with me? After the day that I’ve had the only thing that can make me feel better is falling asleep next to you.” Jiyong pouted even though his boyfriend couldn’t see it over the phone. He knew Seunghyun would be able to picture it anyway. The man had a way of reading Jiyong like an open book even when the rest of the world only saw a blank mask. It was one of the many reasons that he loved his hyung.

“You know that I had my audition for that movie today. I wish I could have gone with you, but I’m really hoping to be able to act again.  All these Still Alive promotions are killing me.”

“Have you been getting enough sleep? Are you feeling well? How are the others?” Leader-mode momentarily took over. He forgot about his awful encounter earlier that afternoon and began to consider whether or not he should request a break for everyone.

“We’re fine, Ji,” Seunghyun assured him. “Don’t worry about it and get some rest. You need it just as much as us if not more.”

Jiyong smiled softly to himself at the reprimand from the older man. He might have been the leader, and he definitely enjoyed his position as such, but sometimes it was nice to feel taken care of. From his seat in front of the window of his hotel room the view of Tokyo at night was picturesque. It was a beautiful painting of neon lights and soft glowing streetlamps. It made him miss Seoul. He felt an uncomfortable knot forming in his chest and mentally berated himself for becoming such a sap.

Jiyong cleared the cotton feeling from his throat. “So how did the audition go? I’m sure you nailed it.”

“The casting executive said that someone would contact my manager in the next few days if I am chosen to do a callback for the director.” The excitement in Seunghyun’s voice was almost tangible. The sound of it only made Jiyong feel more homesick. “When I was getting ready to leave, one of the assistants told me that Director Lee requested for me to be on the callback list. He didn’t even see my audition! I don’t want to have an unfair advantage over the other actors, but I think it’s because we worked so well together on 71 Into the Fire…”

Jiyong frowned deeply, wrapping the blanket from the back of the couch firmly around his shoulders to try to ease the chill of loneliness. He hated it when Seunghyun talked about Director Lee. His boyfriend could literally go on for hours about the ‘innovative style’ and ‘astoundingly emotional’ methods that the director used. It was more than a tiny bit irritating. After the other movie Jiyong had fervently hoped that Seunghyun would never work with Lee again.

That had obviously been a foolish hope. Choi Seunghyun was a talented and stunningly attractive actor. John Lee was a world famous award winning director.

Jiyong half-listened to his boyfriend turn into a squealing fanboy for another man while contemplating his own situation.

After a few minutes of silence on the other end, Seunghyun realized that the younger man wasn’t even pretending to listen anymore. He felt his cheeks burn as he realized that he’d been speaking too much about John again.

“How did your meeting with Mizuhara go?”

Jiyong groaned in response. The mere sound of that woman’s name gave him a headache.

“That bad, huh?”

“She’s awful! I don’t remember her being so y when we met for that photoshoot two years ago.”

Seunghyun laughed. “Everyone is on their best behavior in front of cameras. You know that, Ji. What’d she do to make you so mad? Should I fly over there and teach her a lesson?”

“She called me a ert! When I finally convinced her to show me where her manager’s office was she tripped me…ON PURPOSE!” He felt frustrated again just thinking about it. There was no way he’d ever be able to get along with Mizuhara Kiko. If his relationship with Seunghyun didn’t depend on it, he would have let her feel the full power of the terrifying wrath of Kwon Jiyong. Since that sadly was not the case he’d merely held his tongue and did his best to remain calm. The things he did for love.

“I’m sorry. You,” Seunghyun took a deep breath and sounded rather pained when he spoke again. “You don’t have to go through with this. We could-”

“Choi Seunghyun, shut the hell up. I’m going back tomorrow to finalize the agreement and then I’m going to sign it. Anything is fine as long as we can be together.”

A failed attempt to stifle a yawn reminded them both of exactly how late it was.

“Go to sleep, pabo. I’ll call you again tomorrow.”

Jiyong slowly crawled off the couch and slid onto the bed. It felt much too big without Seunghyun beside him. With sluggish movements, he placed his cell phone on the pillow beside him and the speaker phone.

“Hyunnie, sleep with me?” There was a deep chuckle and the rustle of sheets.

“Of course. I love you Jiyong.” 

Jiyong pulled a pillow down and imagined nuzzling his face into Seunghyun’s neck and draping an arm across his chest. The pillow was entirely too soft and squishy to be his boyfriend, but it was nice to have something to hold.

“I love you too.”

***************

A/N: So... I had to quit my job which is sad for me, but good for all of you lovely readers. Faster and more frequent updates!