A/N: Hi, everyone! Okay, again, I'm so sorry for not updating last week. But like what I said in my last update, there was a good chance of the holiday rush drowning me, and it actually really did :/ So yeah...

Anyway, here's the next chapter. It's kinda a long and heavy one though. But not the emotional kind of heavy at least XD They discuss "serious" stuff about the issue and what they should do here.

Hope you like it!

“What have you got there, oppa?” I asked curiously, looking at the stack of papers Yunho had just set down on the coffee table.

It was late in the afternoon and most of the day had just been spent with the boys lost in their thoughts, thinking and hardening their resolve with the decision they’ve made. Right now, Jaejoong was working on dinner, and Junsu was just sitting quietly on the sofa beside me. Yoochun had given up mulling in his thoughts some time ago and had taken over my armchair and was now trying to distract himself with a back issue of some Japanese magazine. Yunho had gone into their room a few moments ago and he had now just returned with the said papers.

“Just some of our business and legal papers that I thought I’d start looking over,” Yunho answered with a shrug as he sat down on my other side. “Better start preparing for it early, right? I want these looked at by lawyers as well. These are actually just a portion of our copies of our legal documents, the rest are still back in Korea…”

That made Yoochun look up from his magazine.

“Speaking of which, how are we getting back to Korea?” he asked with a frown.

“What do you mean ‘how are we getting back to Korea’?” Jaejoong paused from chopping vegetables to look at his soulmate questioningly, confusion written all over his face. “By plane, of course, as usual, aren’t we?”

“I don’t think that’s what Yoochun hyung meant,” said a quiet voice.

We all glanced towards the dining area where Changmin had been standing quietly next to the huge glass windows and staring out at the towers of Tokyo for the last couple of hours.

Changmin had finally turned around from the view of the window to look at Jaejoong, then at Yoochun, then at the rest of his other members.

“Not showing up for our activities here is one thing, but suddenly flying back to Korea? Our manager would go even more crazy at us,” Changmin said seriously.

“Even more crazy?” Junsu asked skeptically. “I don’t think he can be any crazier than how he just acted this morning.. not to mention any angrier…”

Yoochun snorted. “Don’t be naïve, duckbutt. Knowing manager hyung, of course he can be crazier and angrier than how he was this morning.”

“So, how are we going to escape his clutches, then? Because manager hyung won’t just let us go back to Korea without giving him a reason. And we can’t exactly just say that we’re going back to file that lawsuit, can we?” Junsu asked worriedly.

s were silent for a while.

“Well...” Jaejoong said eventually. “We don’t exactly have to tell him that we’re leaving…?”

“So, we’ll just fly back without telling him? But we’re filing the lawsuit to ask for better working conditions first, right? If we keep on doing things that will anger the SM management even more, compromise will unlikely be reached again this time around…” Junsu continued on fretfully.

This made all of us pause.

Good point, I frowned inwardly.

I rubbed my forehead with my palm. Why does everything have to be so complicated?!

“Honestly, oppas…” I began, letting out a deep breath. Their eyes all focused on me.

“I don’t think you should really worry so much about how your actions leading up to the lawsuit would anger SM… because once you file that lawsuit… well, whatever anger that SM will have for those “smaller” things will pale in comparison with their anger towards that lawsuit…”

Their eyes all widened.

I grimaced and frowned at them as I continued, “Oppas, if you can’t face your management’s anger right now, how are you going face their anger towards the lawsuit, right? Because their wrath will be much, much worse then. As frightening as it sounds, it’s the truth…”

They all glanced at each other.

“The company will really be that angry about the lawsuit issue?” Junsu squeaked anxiously.

“Well, yeah, I’ve already told you about how they’ve prevented JYJ from appearing on TV in my time, right?” I answered carefully.

“But didn’t that just happen because we were unable to reach a compromise? Didn’t they just do that because we left?” Yoochun asked, his eyebrows furrowing.

“Well, that has got a great deal to do with it, yes,” I acquiesced. “But, oppas, here’s the thing… we all know that even just now the management’s already ‘unfair’ with you guys. Again, when JYJ filed that lawsuit in the future, it was such a huge issue. It wasn’t really just an issue about the three members and their company anymore, but it also became an issue about how stars in general were treated by their companies and lots of petitions were coming up from the fans in support of their idols. That really didn’t do much good to the image of SM, since it was basically made known to the public that they treated you guys like—like- well, that they treated you like . SM’s… displeasure… with what happened with JYJ in my time is not something we can just joke about… I- I just want you guys ready for that…”

“If SM’s already going to be that unhappy about us filing that lawsuit, won’t that make them a bit…I don’t know... maybe even a bit more not agreeable about working on a compromise, then?” Changmin asked me seriously.

“…probably,” I admitted hestiantly, not meeting anyone’s eyes.

“So, is that what you’re saying, then?” Jaejoong frowned. “That we’re going to be filing the lawsuit to try and compromise for better working conditions, but that lawsuit move will only anger SM, which in turn will not help at all with us reaching for a compromise?”

“…something like that, yes,” I answered in the same hesitant tone.

I took a deep breath. “Can I give you my opinion, oppas?”

That made them look at each other in surprise. After all, before now, I’ve been most hesitant to give them my personal take on their matters. But the thing is they really need to face one very likely possibility. Especially- I glanced surreptitiously at the leader.

“Sure, why not?” Yoochun replied, a bit startled.

“I know you guys have decided to try for a compromise first with SM, and I think that’s all very well good of you guys…”

“But?” Yoochun prompted, sensing from my tone that there’s gonna be a ‘but’ there somewhere eventually.

“But, while I think that we really should do all that we can to try and reach that compromise first… I think… well, I think you really better prepare yourselves for the possibility of really leaving SM.”

I said that last part very quickly, throwing another glance at Yunho, whose face was just blank.

“You think that we won’t be able to reach a compromise with SM,” Yunho said after about a minute of silence, his tone very neutral. And he didn’t even say this as a question, but as a statement.

“Again, they’ll be furious for what that lawsuit would do to their image… Also, I’ve been thinking… if they give in and tried to re-work your working conditions with you, well, won’t that be like already admitting that the way they were treating you before really is unfair? And that’s gonna do their image even less good… whereas if they stuck with refusing to work with a compromise with you, sure they’ll still have a negative reputation with the fans, but at least for them they still won’t admitting their faults, right? They can still do what they did with JYJ in the future, when they claimed that JYJ’s only filing that lawsuit for their own personal gain… for matters of ‘greediness’ and all that…”

“And I can’t believe that anyone would buy that kind argument from SM!” Jaejoong huffed in irritation, going back to chopping the vegetables with sheer force that I was worried about what would be the state of the dinner that we would have to eat later. “I mean, really! People would actually believe that our future selves decided to bring that kind of hell upon ourselves just out of ‘greed’?”

“Actually, some people didn’t really even need for SM to say that; people can also come up with those same delusions by just themselves, oppas,” I said darkly, a grim look suddenly gracing my face.

“Those stans who are against us?” Junsu asked for confirmation sadly.

“Yeah,” I sighed heavily, nodding a bit.

It was silent again for a while, before Yunho suddenly let out a breath and grabbed the stack of papers from the table and started looking through them.

“Well, so be it then,” he muttered, as his eyes started scanning through the pages.

“So be what?” I said slowly.

Yunho glanced at me. “I already said we were leaving SM if we don’t reach a compromise. If you think that compromise is something that we can’t achieve this time around, then I accept that we’ll most probably be leaving.”

“And you’re really okay with that?” I can’t help but ask, knowing it won’t lead to anything good if he would regret it in the end.

“Leaving the company, I can live with; my members being hurt, I cannot,” he said very firmly, before going back to the papers.

And that had me admiring the leader again.

With that, Jaejoong returned his full attention back to our meal, Yoochun went back to his magazine, and Junsu and I just started to chat quietly about trivial things to give our minds some rest from the issue. Changmin turned his back on us again to face the window, giving me the feeling that he really was brooding about something.

Huh, I wonder what would be running in the maknae’s mind right now?

He’s probably just thinking about their issues with their company, I thought listlessly.

But then… somehow I get the feeling that there’s something more that’s bothering Changmin than just the things that have to do with their careers.

But what else could it possibly be?

Ah, well… whatever it was, it can’t have anything to do with me, so it’s really not any of my business to wonder and worry about it, right?

With a mental shrug to myself, I focused back on what Junsu was saying.

“…well, my brother nor my other members haven’t really shown much interest it, but I’ve always been wondering about acting on theater, especially musicals. And I-“ Junsu suddenly broke off, a shocked and worried expression suddenly crossing his face.

“What?” I asked quickly. The sudden change in the DBSK member somewhat unnerved me.

“OMG SUN!” Junsu suddenly shrieked loudly, making me clap my hands on my ears.

His four other members were also startled: Jaejoong swore as he cut himself instead of the carrot that he was currently slicing, Yoochun’s magazine went flying in his shock, Yunho dropped his papers and they fell on the floor in a mess, and Changmin’s neck must have cricked with the speed that he turned his heads towards our direction.

“What on earth?” Yoochun said, massaging his chest in his shock. “What’s wrong, duckbutt?”

“OMG SUN! OMG SUN! OMG SUN! OMG SUN!” Junsu just kept squealing frantically.

“Do you plan on talking with some sense any time soon, hyung?” Changmin rolled his eyes.

“What’s gotten into you, Su?” Yunho asked worriedly.

“I just realized! We have to go back to Korea, don’t we?” Junsu stuttered, recovering his power of sensible speech.

“Well, yeah,” Yunho said, looking very concerned about Junsu’s sudden panic. “Like I said, most of our papers and stuff that we might need for the lawsuit are still back there, right? And besides, it’s to a Korean court of ours that we need to file the lawsuit. We can’t file it here in Japan…”

“But how are we getting back there?” Junsu asked, still frantic.

“Didn’t Yoochun hyung already ask that?” Changmin frowned. “We already agreed that we won’t tell our manager…”

“That’s not my point!” Junsu just squealed again.

“What is your point, then?” Jaejoong asked, grimacing in pain as he started to lightly on his wound. “Honestly, you’re starting to freak me out, Junsu-ah…”

Seeing this, Yunho hurriedly walked over to Jaejoong and pulled his finger from his mouth, looking it at so anxiously that it was as though Jaejoong had acquired a fatal wound instead of just a small cut.

Ah, Yunjae, I thought fondly, distracted from my concern over Junsu.

“ERIN!” Junsu said loudly in his high-pitched voice in reply to Jaejoong, yanking me from my Yunjae thoughts.

“What did I do?” I asked in confusion as Changmin suddenly asked urgently, for some strange reason sounding a bit panicked, “What about her?”

Junsu turned his frantic eyes to look anxiously at me. “How are we getting her back to Korea with us?”

“Well, by plane too, with us, of course,” Yoochun said, not seeing the problem. “What, do you expect her to just walk and swim to Korea?”

At the mention of me on a freakin’ plane, the blood rushed out of my face and my mind went blank in fright. I just stared blankly into space with wide and fearful eyes.