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"So, how was it?"

You question as Zitao settles beside you.


He covers his eyes and mutters, "It's disgusting."


"Why?"

The younger removes his hands and whispers as discreetly as he can.


"They were doing it... In the restroom."


Your eyes go wide.

Wow. That's such a pity because you actually think the deejay is pretty cute.

"Did you get anything?"

"Just a few. I had to get out before my poor eyes are defiled."


He hides his face in his hands again.

You pat him sympathetically on the back.


"Welcome to the real world, kiddo."
 

Two seconds later, the snide remark comes back in a full circle to bite you in the .


The real world, you bitterly remember, is also small.

And when the universe decides to screw you, they do it in the form of smug lips and counterfeit smiles.


"Hi Gaeun, fancy meeting you here."

❖❖❖

It's just Kyungsoo's luck that his best friend has to puke all over the floor when the basin is just three meters away.


Well, at least it's on the floor and not on his own black shirt and jeans, the deejay decides.


Still, being the civic conscious person that he is, Kyungsoo props the drunk singer at the side while he throws some paper towels upon the mess, swiping and cleaning up as much as he can.

Ten minutes later, Baekhyun rouses from his half-sleep.


"Kyungsoo- ah, just leave it, somebody will clean it up."

The deejay sighs.

"At least you are more sober after throwing up." He observes, discarding the soaked tissues into the waste bin.


"I guess, but I still need a hand here." The singer frowns from the begetting headache.

Kyungsoo washes his hands and returns to his friend's side, sliding a supporting arm around Baekhyun's waist.


"You're the best, Kyungsoooo..." The singer croons.

"Yah, yah, I know."


He just hopes there's no further mishaps awaiting him the rest of the night.

❖❖❖

The girl you renounced as friend a year ago is now standing in front of you, slim and pretty as ever in her red figure-hugging tube dress and cocktail glass in manicured hand. You remain seated on the bar stool.


"Gaeun?"

Another person calls out from behind her.

You'll recognize that voice anywhere.

Your ex-boyfriend appears beside Hyemi in a crisp white shirt and grey slacks.

"You... cut your hair." He notes.

You stop yourself from rolling your eyes.


"You look great. How are you?" He continues lightly.

The plain, almost innocent question ignites a sharp burst of fury in your heart. You want to shake him and scream how am I? How am I? Do you really wanna know how I spent every single day drinking and then puking my lungs out, waking up with painful cheeks and eyes because of all the crying I almost thought I'll go blind?


But that's not the Gaeun you are now.


You are supposed to be Choi Gaeun, artiste manager of KB Entertainment with a soon-to-debut Chinese singer under your wing at a charity party.


The facade must go on.

"I'm fine, thank you." You answer, hoping that you sound unaffected. You think Kris would have at least told you both your subjects will be attending tonight.



"Good to hear that." Jongdae gives a wired smile and nods. "And you're still working as... ?"


"Artiste manager, yes. But I left ES for KB Entertainment. Here's my newbie." You motion calmly to the baffled looking photographer.

The two exchange fleeting greetings.


"KB Entertainment? I haven't heard of that." The singer muses.

"It's a branch from our Beijing company." The memorized fib comes out easily. "Besides, there's a lot of things you haven't heard."


Jongdae picks up on the underlying hostility in your tone and purses his lips in defeated silence.

His partner's reaction however, is just the opposite.

"Oppa is too busy to be bothered about trivial stuff like that." Hyemi snorts.


You rise abruptly from your chair, to which she takes a tentative step back.


"So is sleeping with the heiress of ES Entertainment considered trivial?" You counter lowly.

There's a flash of emotion across her face.

And you know, the rumor is true.
 

"Hyemi ah..." The singer tugs on his girlfriend's arm, but she only shakes him off and closes the distance between the two of you.

"Don't talk about it like you know everything." She hisses under her breath.


"I might not know everything, but one thing I know for sure, is that what goes around comes around." You reply solemnly. "If you play with fire, it will come back and burn you down."

You see her pretty nose flaring, breath heavy with suppressed outrage.


But knowing Hyemi, she's not one to back down without a fight.


She presses in closer right next to your ear.

"No matter what, the name he's calling in bed is still mine. Even when the two of you were together, Gaeun ssi. You were the third party, not me." She withdraws with a triumphant look.

You blink, feeling your composure breaking as she continues.

"I was the one who encouraged oppa to get close to you. You were the top artiste manager in our company then, anyone that's under your tutelage blossoms into big stars." She glances at Jongdae. "Oppa has never loved you. It's purely business."


Purely business.


There's a stir in your chest and you will away the intrusion.

"I thought you were a friend." You utter, quivering slightly. And from her smirk, you know your pretense is cracking.


"Aw... Don't take it too personally, Gaeun ssi. You of all people, should know how this industry works. We were never anything more than colleagues." She shrugs and casually sips from her glass. "Now if you'll excuse us... We gotta go... "

She makes to turn but stops half-way.

"And oh... Send my regards to your little brother. It's such a pity really, a handsome boy like that, he'd be a charmer," She leans in the rest of the sentence for emphasis. "If only he's not half blind."

Your eyes spark wide.

The front that you've been putting up finally snaps and you unconsciously lift your hand to slap that offending woman's cheek, but the intended move is intercepted by a strong grip.


You spin around to face the intruder.

A pair of doe-eyes stares back at you.


"Let's be civil here, shall we?"

It's the subject of your case tonight, Do Kyungsoo.





For a brief moment you feel like ignoring him and slap the woman anway, but then rationale sets in and you promptly shake yourself loose from the deejay.


"Tao, let's go." You utter to your partner, who dutifully follows your brisk footsteps out of the club.



"Are you.. alright?" Kyungsoo turns his attention to Hyemi.

"Y-Yes, thank you, Kyungsoo ssi." She just hopes that he hasn't overheard anything he's not supposed to.


"It was a misunderstanding." Jongdae pipes in, trying to laugh it off. "Some petty misunderstanding."


Kyungsoo interviewed the singer before and knows of his shady reputation in the industry, so he just keeps his mouth shut and nods noncommittally.



"Kyungsoo ah... Are we ready to go?"

He's wholly grateful to Baekhyun's interruption at the moment.


Tilting his head in farewell, he helps Baekhyun back to Room 5 to fetch their friend.




On the drive back, Kyungsoo unwittingly lets his thoughts wander back to the earlier scene.


He first saw Hyemi, Chen's girlfriend, flinching at someone's raised arm and instinctively stepped forward (releasing a stumbling Baekhyun in the process) to stop the perpetrator.

It's not until you whirled around that he recognized you, having met you once when you brought an artiste to the radio station for an interview a long time back.


The glistening in your eyes recurs in his mind. Have he made the right choice in intercepting?


He remembers you particularly for your refined disposition and genial attractiveness. Yet that same person has been raising her hand at someone else.



Well, time can change a person.


He figures and sighs, glad that the night is soon over.

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