Supernova

(Jiyong's P.O.V)

It felt weird being a team leader.

Not that I didn’t like the responsibility, or was unable to face it. No, actually I was sure I had done everything, everything I could, to prepare my team for the final show. Of course, it wasn’t easy and I wouldn’t have managed to do it without Seunghyun’s help. But together we had created a thorough plan and now I found myself being completely peaceful inside.

What was weird about being a team leader, was the fact that people listened to me and asked me for advice.

I had never felt respected by anyone other than Seunghyun. Even my family always treated me with some distance, took my hobbies and opinions with a pinch of salt. I had never been an authority.

But now, during the only and final rehearsal on the runway, I felt that everyone depended on me. They trusted my words and were willing to do what I told them. It was such a diametrical change that I was sure it would take me some time to get used to it. However, there was something that couldn’t be denied - I really enjoyed it.

Once, I had read an article about a film director, a young woman, who was extremely shy and every encounter with other people made her incredibly nervous to the point of fainting from stress. In everyday life she was unable to speak loudly and detested being the centre of attention. But when she stood behind a camera and the filming began, she would become a completely different person. She was confident, not afraid to give orders; she could scream at her actors and point out every mistake they were doing. It was as if the camera helped her to walk into another world, occupied by her alternative, but very real, self.

Then, two years ago, I couldn’t understand it. I had been unable to believe that one person could change that much just because she was doing what she loved. Those were times when my designing had been developing - I had had a passion just like the young director. Still I had never even thought about trying to do what she was doing - show myself to the others through my exceptional talent.

I had been hiding in my bedroom and behind a nickname that soon had grown to be the second me, trapped in my mind, losing a battle against my own self every single day.

Here and now, these two parts of me were one. And I finally let myself experience that other world, where there was no place for internal boundaries and timidity. There was only you and your passion.

This day I understood that director. In the end, I was in my element. The runway. Working with models wearing outfits designed and made by our duo. And it was an amazing feeling.

Without thinking about it, I told my sister she was walking ungracefully. I patted Daesung’s back more than once to make him straighten up. I grabbed Seungri’s hand and walked with him a few meters to let him adjust to the right catwalk pace. I fixed Dongwook’s collar and my hands didn’t tremble. I showed everyone the choreography, step by step, naming my every move to help them remember the order. I was able to do all these things.

I felt like a real fashion designer in his daily routine. It was so natural as if I spent every single day doing the same thing.

“Okay, everyone! From the top!” I commanded in English and a shiver ran down my spine, when the last word left my mouth.

No, no, Jiyong! Don’t think about him now.

I shot Seunghyun a quick look and saw his lips forming a smirk, but he kept his gaze downcast not to look at me and I internally thanked him for that. It was hard to remain focused on the preparations for the big show, having him near me. Seunghyun and memories of last night, that he awoke in my mind with every connection of our gazes, were really a distraction, so we had agreed not to even look at each other till the end of the rehearsal.

I needed to concentrate and forget about the morning, when Seunghyun had woken me with a sweet kiss and carried me princess style to the bathroom and then we had had a bath together and he had washed my hair with that strawberry shampoo, which scent I could still smell in the air…

“Earth to Jiyong!”

I blinked a few times and regained my grip of reality. CL was waving her hand in front of my face, making my vision blurry, so I had to grab her wrist to make her stop.

“Okay, okay. I’m here,” I said and smiled at her. “I’ve just switched off for a while.”

“Yeah, we’ve noticed,” CL chuckled and I let go of her hand. “Everyone is in their position, so we are only waiting for the music and your mental presence in the room.”

Seungri, Bom and Taeyang tried to muffle their laughter, but I still heard it.

“Thanks, CL,” I mumbled and nudged her to come back to her place.

I looked at my models standing in a row with smiles spreading on their faces. It seemed they got amused by that scene and I thought that it might have a good effect. It released the tension created by my constant orders. Even though no one had a thing against them and without it we wouldn’t be able to do a single thing, I had to admit even I got tired by the school-like atmosphere.

I made a mental note for myself to be less strict.

“Sorry, guys,” I sighed, apologising for both my bossy attitude and letting my thoughts drift away. “I guess we can start now. If we manage to do it without any mistake, we will finish the rehearsal.”

Taeyang and Daesung shared a high five and I smiled to myself at this sight.

I left the auditorium and took my position at the very end of the runway, from where I could see my models approaching. I switched on the CD player we had had to bring with ourselves, because the guys from technical support team had now a break, and the music sounded in the big hall.

Everything went smoothly, all the models remembered the steps, kept the right pace, knew where to stop and where to turn around.

I closed my eyes, when Seunghyun emerged from the auditorium, because I couldn’t let myself get distracted now. I counted to fifteen, knowing that in that time he should reach his position on the stage.

When I opened my eyes, I saw that I was right. Seunghyun was only a few feet away with his back turned to me, exactly how I had told him to do.

I counted to twenty aloud to let the others know how much time I would need to walk from the auditorium to join Seunghyun during the show. In the evening, I would be there with them backstage to remind them once again about all the moves in the final sequence, but now I had to coordinate everything from here. Fortunately, no one forgot their part and 30 seconds later the final rehearsal could be officially over.

“That was great!” I exclaimed, clapping my hands and smiling like an idiot, but I couldn’t help it. “I’m really proud of you, guys!”

“We would do nothing without you, little Jiyong,” Tablo said with a grin.

Dami ran to me and pulled me into a tight hug, her action was soon repeated by the other girls.

“I’m sure we can win!” Bom chattered into my ear, ruffling my hair enthusiastically.

“Who would have thought that our shy Jiyong could make such a great leader!” CL pinched my cheeks.

“How is it that cute gay guys get the most attention?” I heard Taeyang asking and I felt heat settling in my cheeks.

“Seunghyun Hyung, aren’t you a bit jealous? Do something!” Seungri added with a chuckle and everyone burst out laughing.

I looked at Seunghyun and saw him smiling. His eyes were full of familiar flickers and I knew what he was thinking.

It’s great to have friends.

This thought stayed with me, when we went to the hotel restaurant to have an early dinner. We wanted to avoid the same crowd that we had experienced the day before and it seemed that we would have the whole place only for ourselves today. All the other teams must have been busy with preparations, because no one showed up here for the next hour.

We had connected four tables to let us sit together. Everyone was chatting and joking and I felt my heart growing in my chest from happiness. A new feeling overtook my body and I finally realised that I had grown so fond of this circle of friends that I would never think of exchanging them. Even for a group of professional models.

I watched them having fun by eating and I couldn’t stop a smile from spreading on my lips. CL was feeding Dongwook with cherry tomatoes, while sitting in his lap with his hands wrapped around her waist. Seungri was trying to convince Taeyang to something, gesticulating enthusiastically in front of his face, and to my surprise, Yongbae actually seemed to be interested in what the younger boy was saying, as he kept nodding from time to time and had his hand rested nonchalantly on the other’s shoulder, as if they had never been in negative relations. Daesung and Bom were watching some variety show on the iPad (I wasn’t sure who it belonged to) and snorted with laughter occasionally. Only my sister and Tablo were sitting still, nibbling at their portions of lasagne and I could feel an awkward tension between them.

Suddenly, Dami felt my glance on her, so she looked up and smiled at me.

“Jiyong, you should eat something nutritious,” she said, having scanned the content of my plate. “If you don’t, you may faint from too much stress.”

I winced to myself and shot Dongwook an angry look. He was the one who had told my sister about my fainting in the Chois’ holiday house. Now he only tilted his head to the side and smiled at me innocently. I shook my head with a sigh.

 “I’m quite relaxed, Noona,” I took another bite of my strawberry cake. “I’m sure I won’t faint.”

“You can’t know that,” she stated and stood up only to take me by the hand, forcing me to leave my comfy armchair.

“Let’s go and get you something proper to eat.”

She pulled me towards the buffet, not giving me a chance to protest. She handed me an empty plate and started filling it with completely random things.

“Noona!” I exclaimed. “What’s going on with you?”

Her hand stopped halfway to the bowl of a Greek salad. Dami hesitated for a short while and then looked at me with her best smile.

“What do you mean?”

She took a spoonful of the feta cheese and put it on my plate.

“Are you crazy?” I asked her with my eyes wide. I couldn’t believe in what she was doing. She seemed equally surprised by my question, so I nodded at my plate. “Sushi with French fries and feta cheese? If it is what means ‘nutritious’ to you, I’m afraid I won’t eat it.”

“Oh,” she gasped, having realised what she had done. “Sorry, Jiyong.”

Dami took the plate out of my hands and wanted to replace it with a new one, but I stopped her by catching her wrists.

“Noona, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she mumbled, avoiding looking me in the eye.

“I’m not blind. Tell me, what’s going on.”

Dami sighed and finally fixed her gaze on me. It was visible that she was fighting against herself for a while, but in the end she uttered, “It’s Seonwoong.”

I had to try hard to prevent myself from smiling. I managed to keep the serious face and with a nod encouraged Dami to speak.

“He told me he wanted us to be together again,” she murmured almost inaudibly, but still I knew that this sentence was coming.

“Noona! That’s great!” This time I smiled and hugged her. “But I don’t see the problem here. You like him back, so why are you so tense?”

Dami shrugged her shoulders. “I’m not sure. I haven’t given him the answer yet.”

“So you should do it then!” I patted her shoulder. “You were always so happy, when you two were a couple. I want that Noona back.”

Corners of her lips began twitching and she blushed slightly, filling my heart with a warm sensation. “I’m so happy for you,” I added and finally a full smile graced her face.

“You think I should say ‘yes’?”

“Definitely!”

“Thanks, Jiyong,” she whispered and pulled me closer for another hug. “I kind of need that.”

“You’re welcome, big sis,” I ran my hand up and down her back.

“When did my little bro grow so much?” she asked, burying her face in the crook of my neck, but I knew she didn’t mean my height. “What has happened to my helpless childish Jiyong?”

“Seunghyun happened,” I said with a chuckle and she squeezed me tighter, before letting go.

Our joyful gazes locked and Dami was the first to speak after a short while, “You’re also hiding something, aren’t you?”

Dami had always had this magical ability to read me like a book.

“Maybe?” I stuck out the tip of my tongue. “But that’s a longer story.”

“Aigoo, Jiyong, your cheeks are burning!” Dami laughed. “Promise you’ll tell me later, okay?”

“No way! I’d sooner die than describe it to you!”

“So you admit something rated M happened?” Dami raised a brow playfully and smirked. “Now you’ll have to tell me! You know I need inspiration for my Super Junior fanficion!  I’m sure you and Seunghyun can try some things out for me, because I’m not sure if it is even possible to-“

“Aaaah! Noona, stop!” I exclaimed, covering my ears.

Dami bent down, hugging her belly as she laughed at my flustered expression.

“I’m glad you enjoy making fun of me,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Who? Me?” she asked, pointing at herself. “I swear I don’t. The fact is that I only want to make sure you do everything safely-“

“I’m done talking to you!” I my heel and quickly went back to our table.

I still could hear Dami’s laughter behind me, but she didn’t follow my steps. I took my seat in the armchair and sighed in relief that I managed to run away from my annoying big sister.

“What’s going on?” CL asked, noticing my quick comeback, but I only waved my hand at her.

“Just my Noona and her teasing.”

“I see,” CL replied and returned to talking with Dongwook.

I decided to finish my strawberry cake, but my mind was still occupied by thoughts about Noona and Tablo and it made me feel all fluffy inside. I had somehow predicted that they would be back to each other and I was happy that I had decided to choose Seonwoong Hyung as my tenth model and he had accepted my offer.

I heard someone approaching and suddenly everyone looked up at the person standing behind me. I was sure it was Dami with another crazy food combination for me and that was what made everyone’s eyes go wide, but when I turned around, I didn’t see Dami, but Seunghyun.

And I almost choked on my cake.

“Hyung, what happened to your face?!” Seungri cried, voicing my own thoughts.

Seunghyun’s right cheek was red and slightly swollen, some blood gathered in the corner of his lips.

“Jiyong,” he said calmly, ignoring Seungri’s inquiry and people gawking at him. His expression could almost be described as blank. “We need to talk.”

My heart froze, but I slowly stood up from my seat. I could see that Seunghyun was all nervous and struggled to remain collected on the surface. I hoped it didn’t have anything to do with me. Did I do anything wrong?

Seunghyun took my hand in his and we left the restaurant and the rest of our team. Only when the door closed behind us, Seunghyun wanted to start talking, but I prevented him from doing so.

“Bathroom first,” I ordered, feeling that I had to clean Seunghyun’s face.

He followed me without a word of complaint and we soon found ourselves in one of the restrooms for hotel guests. I made Seunghyun lean against the wall and then took off my light blue shirt from Codes Combine to soak it with cold water. I was glad I wore two layers today.

“Jiyong, don’t,” Seunghyun protested, when he realised, what I was going to do, but it didn’t stop me.

“I told you I don’t care about these clothes,” I said quietly, focusing on my task and when the fabric was wet enough, I approached Seunghyun to wash the corner of his mouth gently. “I only care about you.”

I soaked the shirt again and squeezed it and then made a compress for Seunghyun’s swollen cheek.

“Who did that to you?” I asked quietly with my heart breaking in my chest. “Who dared to hurt your beautiful face, Hyunnie?”

“Gong  Minji,” he finally said, fixing his gaze on me and I took a sharp breath of shock.

“I will kill that ,” I mumbled to myself, feeling anger boiling in my stomach. I gritted my teeth and shook my head furiously. “God, I hate her so much!”

But Seunghyun only closed his eyes and shook his head slowly.

“She found her collection destroyed this morning. And she thinks we are the ones who did it.”

“What?!” I almost shouted in his face, not believing my own ears. “Is she stupid or something? What a question, of course she is! But hurting you because of her dumb accusations?! I’m really going to kill her!”

Seunghyun put his hands on my shoulders and tried to calm me down.

“Jiyong, it’s a serious thing. If she goes with it to the committee, we will get disqualified.”

“No, we won’t!” I snapped, shaking his hands off. “We didn’t do it and there is no proof, so I see no reason why we could get disqualified because of one witch’s words!”

“That one witch has a powerful daddy behind her back, remember? One their word and we are out of here.”

Words got stuck in my throat, so I only looked at Seunghyun with my lips twitching. “She can’t-,“ I managed to utter.

That would be so unfair. We really had nothing to do with destroying her collection, so why would she put the blame on us so easily?! Sure, we weren’t in good relations, but there were people who detested her more, for example…

“The Frenchies!” I gasped. “I shouldn’t accuse them that quickly, but who else could have done it? Everyone knows that-“ I stopped, almost biting my own tongue, when another thought struck me. “No one knows they hate Minzy,” I added slowly and Seunghyun nodded miserably.

I recalled the events from yesterday and quickly realised that the Frenchies did nothing to show their dislike to their schoolmate publically. It was only our team that was in an official conflict with Minzy.

“Oh God,” I groaned. “It’s obvious they would believe Minzy that we did it!”

“Even if the blame is on your Frenchies, there is no way we can prove that,” Seunghyun commented. My internal pain grew even stronger because of the sight of the sorrow in his eyes.

“I guess there is nothing we can do now,” I spoke quietly, leaning to Seunghyun to rest my head on his chest. “I would never think that it will all end before it even started…”

“Jiyong,” Seunghyun grabbed my arms and pulled me away, making me gasp in surprise at his unexpected action. I looked at him questionably, as he continued, “Maybe it isn’t too late yet? We only have to talk to Minzy.”

“But-,“ I tried to interrupt, but Seunghyun didn’t stop talking.

“We shouldn’t give up so easily.”

“I know, but Seunghyun, it’s the Yoghurt Primadonna-, no, Watermelon Witch Minzy!” I cried. “I would do everything to clear our name, but I won’t beg her for forgiveness for something we didn’t do! I have my pride.”

“So do I,” Seunghyun smiled softly. “But our hard work can’t be wasted and we both know it, Ji. We have serious chances of winning and we can’t let Minzy destroy it, just because something happened to her outfits.”

“You’re right,” I said reluctantly. “But if you think I can do a sabae-“ (A/N: traditional formal Korean male bow)

“I would never force you to,” Seunghyun chuckled quietly and the familiar flickers were finally back to his deep brown eyes. “We should only try to explain it. Because she didn’t give me a chance to say a word. I was causally coming back from the technical support office, after having left them our CD, and then Minzy appeared out of nowhere. She just ran to me and punched my face all of sudden, shouting like mad that ‘she knows we had done it!’ I had no idea a girl can have such power in her fist.”

“We have something to report to the committee, too.” I hissed through clenched teeth.

Seunghyun laughed and ruffled my hair. “You’re so cute, when you get angry, Ji. But my face doesn’t hurt that much now that you helped me.”

“That’s good. I hope that the swelling will disappear till the evening, though.”

“I hope so, too. But first we have to do something to be allowed to show our collection at the gala.”

“So it seems we have to find the witch’s hut,” I sighed and we quickly left the restroom.

However, we had no idea, where Minzy’s hotel room was located, because she wasn’t accommodated on our floor. We decided to go where Seunghyun had last seen her - near the great hall, but we weren’t allowed to walk in due to other team’s rehearsal on the runway.

“Maybe she doesn’t want to be found,” I murmured, as we were crossing the corridors. “Or she has already gone to the committee office.”

“No, they have a press conference right now,” Seunghyun said. “That gives us one more hour, or something about it.”

I could only pray that this hour would save us.

Seunghyun giggled all of sudden and I sent him a surprised look.

“What’s wrong?” I asked with a frown.

“No, nothing,” he shrugged his shoulders, still smiling. “It just reminds me of New Year’s Eve, when I was looking for my cousins in all the rooms in our house in Busan. And they turned out to be in the most obvious place, I somehow didn’t even think about.”

“So maybe we should use this strategy this time?” I suggested. “Where would we go, if our collection was destroyed?” I shivered at the unpleasant vision, but tried to remain focused on the task.

We walked a few seconds in silence and then it suddenly struck me.

“The storeroom!” Seunghyun and I exclaimed simultaneously and we both dashed towards the staircase. I tried hard not to slip on the steps, but I somehow managed to reach the storeroom door without doing any harm to myself. Considering my clumsiness, it was really an achievement.

I was sure that the storeroom door would be locked, because it should be after all, but it occurred that we were able to open it by just pressing the handle. We looked at each other meaningfully, realising that it was a sign that someone was inside. And that someone was probably Minzy.

We walked inside and shut the door behind us. I quickly scanned the room and my gaze stopped on the clothing rack with our ten silver garment bags. Something knotted in my heart and I wanted to run to them to check, if they were all fine, but Seunghyun stopped me.

“We can’t show which outfits are ours,” he whispered. “Minzy’s here.”

I was about to ask how he knew that, but then I heard quiet sobbing coming from behind another row of clothing racks. I made a small nod to myself, being glad that Seunghyun didn’t let me check our outfits now. It could have been a great mistake, because Minzy might still be planning a revenge. I was almost sure punching Seunghyun didn’t satisfy her.

We quickly found Minzy’s hideout and saw her curled up into a ball in a corner. She seemed so… vulnerable and I suddenly pitied her. Wasn’t it a natural to behave like that when you get hurt unexpectedly? There always is denial, rage and then sadness. Minzy was just a human.

But indeed, a very mean one. And she proved that by jumping up to her feet rapidly, the moment she noticed our presence. It took her only a few seconds to wipe her tears away with a sleeve and then she set her outraged look on us.

“What have you come here for?” she hissed. “Haven’t you done enough?”

I narrowed my eyes, trying to control my feelings, not to burst into anger.

“Actually, the point is that we didn’t do a thing, Minzy,” Seunghyun said calmly. “We’re here to explain that misunderstanding-“

“There’s no misunderstanding,” the girl snapped and crossed her arms, challenging us with her self-confident gaze that I knew far too well from the previous day. This time, however, it was slightly different. Even though Minzy wanted it, there was no way she could hide her swollen eyes and runny nose.

“Of course there is. You have no proof that we did it, so you shouldn’t accuse us that easily,” I stated matter-of-factly and surprised myself with the coldness of my voice.

Minzy’s brow rose up and she laughed derisively, tilting her head back.

A real witch, I thought to myself and gritted my teeth, forcing myself not to rip off the smile from her face.

“You want a proof?” she asked. “Then I’ll give you one!”

She bent down and pulled out one of her garment bags from the bottom of a big pile. She lifted it, holding by the rack, and ped the cover in one swift motion. The sight of its content made me hitch my breath.

Inside, there was a faded orange dress, or rather its remains. Irregular straps of fabric cut with fury barely stuck to one another and looked as if they were going to fall apart in any moment. But there was one thing that connected this messy composition - a red inscription that made blood in my veins freeze.

“’Stay away from GD&TOP’,” Minzy read aloud and fixed her gaze on my shocked face. “Hmm, I guess it rings a bell, doesn’t it? Let me think. GD&TOP?” she put her finger on her plump lips and pretended to be deep in thought. “Oh, I know! It’s you!” she exclaimed and extended her hand in our direction, fury filling her expression. “You really could have been more subtle with giving me a warning,” she hissed. “So I’m warning you now,” she made a pause and narrowed her eyes, lips quirking into a smirk. “You’d better go to your room and pack your stuff, before they kick you out without a chance to say a word.”

I was grinding my teeth so hard, that my jaw muscles hurt from overstretching. I realised that I was breathing heavily with my hand clutched on Seunghyun’s sleeve. It seemed that it was good that I held him, because Seunghyun was shaking with wrath. We were both withholding one another, not to jump at Minzy.

She’s a girl after all. A girl, Jiyong. You should never hit a girl. I repeated to myself, focusing on calming down.

I shut my eyes tight and squeezed Seunghyun’s hand, nonverbally telling him to do something, before either of us burst.

He seemed to have heard my unspoken plea, because he drew a deep breath and spoke, in low, but surprisingly composed voice, “Do you seriously think that we would leave a signature, if we destroyed your outfits?”

His words struck Minzy, but me as well. My eyes widened and so did hers. Seunghyun was right and each of us knew it.

“I guess it’s a proof that shows our innocence, Minzy,” Seunghyun continued. “You should have given it some thought, before accusing us. Writing our team’s name after destroying your collection would be like asking for punishment. We would never risk disqualification, only because we dislike you. We’re quite serious about this competition, if you haven’t noticed.”

Minzy looked at him in disbelief. She seemed to be taken off guard, but she didn’t stay silent for longer than just a few seconds.

“You’re saying that on purpose,” she choked out in the end. “This is your strategy to fool me, to make me believe you’re not guilty!”

“God, please!” I exclaimed, unable to hold it back any longer. “Listen to yourself, girl! You’re talking nonsense!”

Minzy lowered her gaze, suddenly looking like a beaten dog.

“Who has done it, then?” she whispered almost inaudibly and I found myself coming with a quick reply.

“We won’t tell you that, because we have no idea. And accusing anybody basing on your own assumptions has been just proved to be wrong.”

“But this someone is trying to protect you!” she whined. “You should know who it could be!”

Seunghyun shook his head slowly. “Look, Minzy, we have befriended many teams yesterday, while you worked really hard to turn them into your foes. It’s hard to say who has decided to go that far and get revenge on you. And I’m sorry, if it was done in our name. We would never ask for anything like that.”

“And even if we told you, Minzy,” I said with a frown. “Would it help you to get that team punished? I mean, your collection still will be destroyed-“

A loud sob escaped and her eyes suddenly filled with tears.

“What else can I do, then?” she whimpered. “How can you be so heartless?”

“And who’s saying that?” I replied, before biting my tongue and I regretted my harsh words almost immediately, because Minzy let out another heartbreaking wail.

“Jiyong isn’t heartless. Just realistic,” Seunghyun tried defending me and corrected Minzy’s words with his gaze set steadily on her shaking frame.

Me - realistic? It sounded so absurd that I almost snorted with laughter.

“He might have his head in the clouds, but when it comes to work and fashion, Jiyong is always realistic,” Seunghyun explained, as if he had just heard my thoughts. “You should try being as mature as he is, Minzy.”

I would never describe myself as mature and it sounded equally wrong as realistic. But this time I didn’t want to laugh. I swallowed hard at the realisation that Seunghyun was right.

I may be childish and emotionally unstable in everyday life, but undoubtedly, I am much more serious and collected, when I design.

“How old are you anyway? Seunghyun asked.

“16,” Minzy answered reluctantly.

“So you have plenty of time to learn that skill,” he said, cheering her with his reassuring smile. “I’m sure you will win many contests in the future, because you’ve got that charisma and temper. But you need to concentrate more on fashion as art, not a field for competition. You can’t make people’s lives miserable, just because someone has treated you unfairly. There will be more such situations, if you don’t change your ways.”

“We can’t get disqualified now,” I added in a low voice. “For us it’s now or never. We might never get such a chance to work together and win a contest as a team. Seunghyun is graduating high school this year. And if we lose this opportunity, we won’t get another one. We may never again be able to work as a duo.”

Saying it out loud was even more painful than thinking about it. But Seunghyun and I were well aware of what the situation looked like. And I only hoped that it would convince Minzy not to seek revenge on us baselessly.

“Okay. I won’t accuse you in front of the committee,” Minzy sighed and once again dried her tears with the help of her sleeve, smearing black eyeliner on her cheeks. “But I’m afraid I won’t have a chance to win any other competition.”

“Why?” I asked, surprised. She didn’t want to change at all?

Minzy just shrugged her shoulders. “My father won’t let me. He hired best models for me and now it turns out he paid them for nothing. He hates wasting money, so I’ll get punished for that.”

Seunghyun and I looked at each other, both feeling pity for the girl.

“You can tell him what has happened,” I suggested, not knowing what to say.

“It won’t change a thing,” Minzy sighed “You don’t know my father. He will be here in the evening to see my presentation… But, well, I have nothing to show tonight.”

My brows drew together and an idea bloomed in my mind.

“Can I see these outfits?” I asked and to my surprise Minzy agreed without a word of protest. She ped other garment bags and I squatted to check their content.

Minzy’s collection consisted only of dresses. They had been made of finest fabric, each of different colour and texture. I was able to asses that they were hand-dyed and I internally praised Minzy for good work on it - her shades maybe weren’t as perfect as ours (we had used this technique for two of our sets), but they still were admirable.

“What was your theme?” I inquired, grazing my fingers across furrowed outfits. My heart hurt a little. Such a good work got wasted.

“Solar System,” the girl answered.

“Oh, I see,” I smiled to myself and tried recognising each planet, which unfortunately wasn’t an easy task, as some sets were cut into pieces completely. “It looks as if a Big Bang happened in your universe,” I joked, mainly to myself, but I heard Seunghyun muffling a chuckle.

“That silver one was the Moon, right?” Seunghyun asked Minzy, trying to regain his composure.

“Yeah. The Moon and the Sun were my favourite ones,” she explained miserably. “But there is almost nothing left from them.”

“It’s not that bad,” I stated and pulled myself to my feet. “You still have some time till the gala. You can transform these scraps into something different.”

Minzy looked at me as if I was an alien from one of her planets, who had managed to escape before the big explosion and now came to Earth to ask her for shelter.

“You’re kidding right?” she asked and I shook my head with a soft smile. “I don’t know how.”

“So try. Experiment,” I shrugged. “It’s not that hard.”

Minzy’s expression was full of doubt. “I really have no idea how to do it. I sew things I have designed, but I can’t even imagine remaking the outfits from the bits and pieces.”

“She shouldn’t do it,” Seunghyun spoke suddenly and I shot him a surprised glance. “She would break the rules. A designer is not allowed to make any alternations to the collection  before the finals.”

Crap, I completely forgot about the regulations.

“Anyways, I don’t have a chance to present my collection tonight, “ Minzy concluded with a sigh. “I should accommodate with it.”

“No, you don’t have to,” Seunghyun said with a mad grin. “There is one way out.”

“What way?” Minzy and I asked simultaneously.

“You can do that,” Seunghyun turned to me and my jaw almost dropped to the floor.

I hadn’t expected that.

“Can you?” Minzy asked with hope in her eyes and I found myself gritting my teeth again. That was just wrong.

“Minzy, give us a second,” I told her and grabbed Seunghyun’s arm. “We have to talk, Hyun.”

I pulled him towards the exit, but we didn’t walk out of the storeroom. We stopped in front of the door and I looked up to see Seunghyun’s cocky smile. Our gazes locked and we were challenging each other for a short while. Eventually, I had to blink and that way I lost.

“You’re the Tailor, Jiyong,” Seunghyun spoke and I gasped in shock, completely taken aback by his words.

“No no no no, Seunghyun don’t!” I shook my head quickly. “Don’t use that strategy on me, I beg you!”

“Why not? It’s our tale Jiyong. Our tale coming true again. I’m the Prince, you’re the Tailor and Minzy’s that little girl, whom the Tailor helped by making over her damaged dress. Haven’t you seen her tears?”

“Seunghyun,” I groaned in displeasure. “I don’t want to help her. She was treating us like dirt and now I should forgive her just like that and do her work without a word of complaint?”

“Yes,” he confirmed, his expression unchanged.

“But why?” I really couldn’t understand his way of thinking.

“Because you’re a good person. It won’t make you any difference. It will be just a good deed.”

“We won’t get anything from that. We will only waste our time, we can spend on-“

“On doing what, Ji?” Seunghyun interrupted me. “On constant worrying and biting our nails in anticipation. Be both know our work is completely done. I don’t want to see you freak out from stress. This task will keep your mind occupied.”

I remained silent, doing nothing, but staring into Seunghyun’s dark eyes that seemed to be convincing me even more effectively than his words.

“People don’t change that quickly,” I said slowly. “She won’t even thank us, I’m sure.”

“Do it for yourself, not for her,” Seunghyun replied with wide smile forming on his lips. “You can also prove me that your skills are equal to those the Tailor possessed in our story.”

“They are even better, Hyunnie,” I chuckled. “I didn’t imagine that.”

“Show me, then.”

Hesitantly, I agreed with a nod and we came back to Minzy. She was standing still in the same spot, surrounded by the opened garment bags, which contents were mixed a bit. I had been comparing the fabrics and unconsciously put the scraps to wrong covers or left them where I simply wanted. The mess was almost inspiring.

“And?” I heard Minzy asking.

I managed to take off my eyes of the colourful scraps and looked at Minzy who was impatiently waiting for our answer. I wondered if she had heard our conversation and knew what I was thinking about her.

“Jiyong decided that he’ll help you,” Seunghyun announced and Minzy’s expression brightened. She raised her hands to her chest and smiled merrily.

“Thank you so much!” she squalled and my brow rose.

Already a ‘thank you’? Now I was sure she had been eavesdropping.

“Know my mercy,” I muttered to myself and laughed internally at my attitude.

“I hope it isn’t too much trouble for you,” Minzy said, probably not having heard my words. “You wouldn’t get disqualified because of that, right?” Her voice was deprived of her previous virulence.

Now she worries about our disqualification? Has she got a split personality or something?

Well, probably yes. But the same thing could be said about me. I still couldn’t believe that I let Seunghyun convince me to help her. He was a really good talker, indeed.

I hunkered down to focus on my task and allowed Seunghyun to take care of Minzy’s inquiries. He probably explained her that we weren’t breaking any rule, because the organisers hadn’t thought about a situation of one team helping another, but I wasn’t listening to his conversation with Minzy.

Instead, I concentrated on matching the pieces of fabric in my mind. It was like a big puzzle game, where the pieces didn’t really fitted to one another. It was a challenge, but I always liked games that weren’t easy and required rethinking your strategy thoroughly.

“I’ll bring you my drawings, so that you’ll know how the outfits looked like,” Minzy’s voice rose above my internal talk with myself and my head jerked up in surprise.  

Is she seriously thinking that I’ll bring the outfits back to their previous state?

“I’m not a god, Minzy,” I told her with a soft smile. “It’s impossible to make your collection look exactly the same ” Her eyes widened at this realisation.

“So what will you do?” she asked, meeting my gaze.

I shrugged. “I told you it was a Big Bang,” I reminded myself of my joke that now seemed to be a an apt observation. “You didn’t pay attention during your physics classes, did you?” I smirked at her.

“We don’t have physics. I attend an art school,” Minzy said.

“Oh, so it explains everything,” I commented. “So let me tell you how it works,” I started collecting as many pieces of clothing as I could hold in my hands at once and then stood up.

“When there is an explosion in a galaxy, because, for example, its biggest star is too old and blows up, the whole systems get destroyed. It expels so much energy that it demolishes everything around.,” I threw the scraps of fabrics into the air and three of us observed them falling to the ground slowly. The remains of the Moon dress mingled with Jupiter, Earth’s oceans created a contrasting pile with Mars’s burning red hills and humble grey Mercury was suddenly awarded with Saturn’s pale yellow ring made of finest satin. “Such explosion is called supernova. It may seem like a weird name, because nova means new in Latin. But the fact is, that this explosion triggers formation of many new stars. The remains of your collection are like the old star’s material that can be used to create something different and original. And this is exactly what I’m going to do now.”

Minzy kept looking at me, wide-eyed. When I finished my little astronomical speech (I had no idea my brain stored such kind of information), she swallowed hard and finally smiled at me.

“G-Dragon-ssi,” she turned to me politely. “I think that you’re, in fact, god.”