Seunghyun was officially in panic mode.

It wasn’t the obvious sort of dread that was easily seen by everyone and their brother. He did have an obnoxious side, a playful side that he wasn’t wary of displaying for the world’s dissection, but for the most part, Choi Seunghyun preferred to keep the serious parts of his life as private as possible. So even though he was drowning in a sea of worry because Jiyong hadn’t responded to any of his calls for the last ten hours, he was confident that nobody at the studio was able to tell.

He tried to tell himself that it wasn’t a big deal. Jiyong had probably fallen asleep—it had been midnight when his boyfriend had called after all, and it was only ten in the morning now. Hopefully, he was merely sleeping in on one of his rare days off. 

That’s what Seunghyun kept telling himself anyway.

“Are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?”

“Huh?” Seunghyun was startled out of his thoughts by Youngbae and Daesung settling into the two chairs in front of him. They both had stern frowns on their faces, although Daesung’s looked considerably gentler than Youngbae’s. That made sense. They were all great friends, but Seunghyun had always been closest with Daesung, and Jiyong had always been closest with Youngbae.

Daesung gave him a look. It was the same one he often received from his mother when he was misbehaving as a child. Seunghyun didn't understand why people always thought he was the one that did something wrong. 

“Are you going to tell us what’s wrong or are we going to have to force it out of you?”

“Because I will force it out of you, hyung or not,” Youngbae added.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Seunghyun mumbled, doing his very best to avoid their worried eyes.

Youngbae sighed heavily and Daesung placed a hand over Seunghyun’s knee to hold it still.

“You got here early this morning which is shocking since you’re never even on time. You’ve recorded the same thirty second rap forty-seven times and it still . You’ve been jiggling your leg incessantly, and your face looks like a clinically depressed monkey.”

“Hey, my face--”

“Does resemble a monkey right now. If I had a veterinarian on speed dial, I would ask if they had medication for sad primates. That is how serious I am right now,” Youngbae interrupted sternly. “Spit it out, hyung. Nobody has heard from Ji in the past day and the only time he goes silent is when he’s pissed off.  What did you do?”

“I didn’t…” Seunghyun paused, knowing that lying to his friends wouldn’t do him any good. Technically, he didn’t do anything, but he had his suspicions about what the problem was. He was angry at himself for allowing the situation to happen in the first place. Swallowing the anxiety down, he clenched his hands tightly together and explained what happened.

Expectedly, Youngbae was not pleased.

“Hyung, you know that he acts arrogant and overconfident, but on the inside he is not nearly as tough. He’s probably never come right out and said it, but you must have realized how he feels about Director Lee. That he’s afraid of losing you to him.”

Seunghyun snorted out a laugh. Why would Jiyong be worried about that? Sure, he and the director were friendly, and the older man wasn’t unappealing, but Seunghyun loved Jiyong. He was in love with Jiyong. Nobody else made his heart race and melt in the same way. Nobody else could make him smile quite as bright. Jiyong was his best friend, his boyfriend, his lover, and his leader. He was everything.

Why would he ever doubt that?

Because you talked about John like a lovesick schoolgirl. Because you turned your phone off while you essentially went out on a date with John. Because John answered your cellphone inside your apartment in the middle of the night.

Seunghyun groaned miserably. There were reasons that those things happened that had absolutely nothing to do with romantic feelings for the director. Seunghyun admired his skills and his passion for film making, so sometimes he did go a bit overboard when talking about the man. It hadn’t been a date at all, but they had eaten dinner together and then gone to the movies. He had turned his cellphone off though. He had allowed the other man into his home very late at night. Seunghyun could understand how those things looked bad, but he couldn’t believe that Jiyong had so little trust in him.

He trusted Jiyong completely. In fact, he wasn’t worried at all that his boyfriend was in an entirely different country, pretending to date a very attractive woman. A very attractive woman that happened to have a lot in common with Jiyong.

“Hey, I wanted to show you first, so that you’re not too surprised later,” President Yang said quietly as he walked in the room. He stood between Youngbae and Daesung, looking both pleased and a little unhappy. That didn’t make any sense. He handed his tablet to Youngbae first.

Seunghyun’s curiosity peaked as Youngbae frowned and handed the device to Daesung. Daesung gave a tiny gasp and turned the screen away so that Seunghyun couldn’t see it. “I-I’m not sure now is the best time, hyung.”

Ignoring him, Seunghyun grabbed the tablet and stared down at the picture in disbelief. It was Jiyong, his Jiyong, kissing the girl that he’d said he’d hated. Kissing her on the cheek right there in the middle of a restaurant for everyone to see. Her hair hung down in the way, but it was obvious what he was doing. His arms, the very same arms that had held Seunghyun while they fell asleep only four days ago, were wrapped around her waist protectively as they left the restaurant.

Seunghyun felt lightheaded. He must have noticeably paled because in the next instant Daesung was carefully pushing him down to the couch, running a soothing hand over his forehead.

President Yang sounded sad when he spoke. His voice seemed almost uncertain. “It’s all fake, Seunghyun. Don’t forget that he’s doing this for you.”

If that was supposed to make him feel better, it failed miserably.