At 2p.m. sharp, the guys trooped in to the office. Jiyong led the way followed by Seunghyun and the rest by age. Youngbae wasn't watching and bumped straight into Seunghyun's back. He wondered why his Hyung had stopped walking and saw that Hyomin had arrived before them at the office. Once settled, sajangnim gave all of them a once over before talking.

"What happened today at the filming is unacceptable. You grew up together in Big Bang and expect all of you to stay united until the day I call for your disbandment. That day has not arrived yet. I will also not tolerate anyone who may threaten the unity of this group." 

Seunghyun stole a quick glance at Hyomin but she just stared straight ahead. Her face was hard and emotionless - he had never seen this side of her before and a bad feeling crept up on him. Seunghyun realized that she had a meeting with sajangnim already before they had arrived. What had he said to Hyomin to cause her to look like this? 

"I have never interfered in the past when you pursued relationships - as long as all of you were discreet, I never said a thing. Right, Youngbae?" The younger man nodded, head bowed but clearly meeting sajangnim's eyes. "For years, you worked together to get to where you are today. Is that something you can easily throw away? Huh, Daesung?" Daesung could only shake his head silently. 

"Seungri, as the maknae, how do you feel watching your hyungs fight like that? Risking their public image as well as Big Bang's?" Seungri shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I don't want to see this happen again. I think we need to take a break - I'm pushing back your comeback until we've all cleared our heads."

Jiyong let out a sigh of relief. This had gone easier than expected. He was just suspending their activities, which wasn't so bad...

"In the meantime, there's been a request to reshoot some scenes in Seunghyun's movie. I guess that will keep you occupied a while. Jiyong, you will work with Youngbae on his solo album and Daesung, it's back to variety for you. As for Seungri," sajangnim paused and looked at Hyomin. "We will push you out aggressively in the Japanese market. We've lost a lot of ground there since we've been so focused on the domestic market. With the new YGEX team, we will be pursuing the Japanese market again. At the same time, Hyomin will be moving over to YGEX as well. She will be leading your solo foray there."

Seungri was stunned by the news. Sajangnim was casting her out and away from YG. That was what he had meant by not tolerating any threats. Jiyong was exchanging incredulous looks with Seunghyun while both Youngbae and Daesung were just praying that their hyungs stated calm and not aggravate the situation with any sudden outbursts. 

"It will be tough on Hyomin, building connections from zero, adapting to the culture and life there - but the team at YGEX will help her. She is also looking forward to the new challenge." Sajangnim turned to Hyomin. "You promised you'll do whatever it takes to see them succeed right?" Hyomin nodded and cleared . "Yes, sajangnim. Like you said, we'll start with Seungri and he can pull Big Bang along."

Satisfied with her answer, sajangnim dismissed her first. "Don't be late for the flight tomorrow. Pack only what you need, you can buy anything else in Tokyo. The apartment there is already furnished." Without a word, Hyomin slipped out of the room. 

"Sajangnim, isn't tomorrow too rushed?" Seunghyun said as respectfully as he could under the circumstances. He found it hard to believe that sajangnim was getting rid if Hyomin like this. He had not even acknowledged that Hyomin had been in the middle of their fight; that feelings were involved. 

"The earlier the better," sajangnim said without looking up from his computer. "In fact, the longer she stayed away the better. Both you and Jiyong need to work it out on how you want to deal with this - without jeopardizing the team. Be fair to the rest - this is affecting them as much as it's affecting both of you. She's just another girl. Unfortunately, a very talented girl who works for us - making this mess even harder to clean up. Well, thanks to your childish behaviours, I had to clean this mess up for you. And I won't be able to use her here in Seoul until this blows over. Damn!"

Seungri clenched his fist - as much as he didn't get along the best with Hyomin, he didn't like how sajangnim was talking about her. Hyomin was much more than just any girl - she was a real friend and worked hard for Big Bang. Sajangnim dismissed everyone except for Seungri. "I want to talk to you about Japan so stay a while."

Once the hyungs were gone, Seungri focused on the boss. "Seungri ah," sajangnim finally looked up at him. "Actually, Hyomin wanted to quit." The surprise was evident on Seungri's face but kept quiet so that the older man could go on. "She's not the smartest when it comes to dealing with men and love I believe - she sincerely thought that by leaving, Jiyong and Seunghyun will make up and everything will be normal again."

"So what did you say?" Seungri asked.

"I scolded her for being a liar - she will never be able to put in her 100% for another artiste or a band for as long as her own feelings about Seunghyun and Jiyong are not sorted," sajangnim said. "I gave her the next best escape route. Go to Japan but continue supporting all of you in the only way she can. It wasn't a hasty decision - I had been considering her for a stint at YGEX for some time now. But keep this from your hyungs. I really want them to work things out so that Hyomin can come back to Seoul sooner than later."

"And what should I do then?" Seungri asked. Sajangnim looked at him and smiled, "You can say goodbye to that skin clinic girlfriend for a while - let her know you'll be with Hyomin and I'm sure she'll understand. They're best friends right?"

Seungri's jaw slackened. How the hell did he find out about Anri...

"Aish... All this drama that you youngsters give me... He loves her but she loves him and he loves her back... And her friend is your love of your life... Seriously..." Sajangnim grinned as he leaned back into his chair. "If anything at all, I hope Jiyong or Hyomin gets good inspiration from this to write a good song or two!"

One Hour Ago...

Hyomin knocked on Sajangnim's door and entered as instructed. She was ready to be questioned for the fight earlier between Seunghyun and Jiyong but was surprised to see Jennie in the office. Sajangnim gestured for her to take a seat while he continued his conversation with Jennie.

"... well, you've shared enough - you seem to be either well-connected, a great snitch or an atrocious gossip." Sajangnim's words wiped the self-satisfied grin off Jennie's face and Hyomin was also caugh off-guard by his caustic tone. "Monitoring your seniors' personal lives so closely, I won't be surprised if some might confuse you with sasaeng fans."

Jennie gulped and apologized in a timid voice. She kept her head low and gripped her hands tightly in her lap. Sajangnim cleared his throat to get her attention. "You are lucky that you're talented and will not hold this incident against you. But I do not tolerate any threat to my artistes. From the way I look at it, today's fight could have been avoided if you had not alerted your oppas unnecessarily and allowed Jiyong and Hyomin to iron this out on their own. This is between two adults - not quite your place to barge your nosey self in to."

Hyomin's eyes widened as she turned to look at Jennie. Now she knew why Seunghyun had managed to turn up in the dressing room with such uncanny timing. As much as she hated a snitch, Hyomin wasn't too confident that whatever it was between Jiyong and her would not have been resolved so quickly. Jennie stole a nervous glance at her and Hyomin glared back.

After Jennie was dismissed with a warning that the day's incident had caused her 'one strike', Hyomin settled more comfortably in her chair. Just knowing that Sajangnim already knew the truth meant that she didn't need to rack her brains to cook up a story.

"Hyomin ah, what have you done?" Sajangnim started. "You're supposed to make the fans fall in love with Big Bang, not for you to fall for a member and have another member fall in love with you!" Hyomin kept her head bowed and remained silent. She had no words to reply him. "It may seem like something between you three, but this will affect Youngbae, Daesung and Seungri! They're a team!"

"I'm sorry sajangnim, I never meant for this to happen," Hyomin said without looking up. "I acknowledge that it was a lack of professionalism on my part but I can assure you that I'm prepared to take responsibility for this."

Sajangnim glared at her for a while. "Lack of professionalism? Mind you, I met my wife here in YG too so that's the last thing I will ever chide my staff about," Hyomin jerked her head up, hearing this for the first time. "I'm sorry sajangnim, I didn't mean that you're unprofessional..." he held a hand up to stop her.

"And responsibility? How?" Hyomin gulped and said she was ready to offer her resignation. That clearly wasn't the direction sajangnim was hoping to go down as he slammed his table and stood up. "You are leaving?! Running away will only cause more problems for me! The only one absolved of this will be you but Seunghyun and Jiyong will still be in a mess!" Hyomin apologized and kept silent again.

Sajangnim sighed and sat back down in his seat. "Other companies wouldn't want you - because I will tell them not to take you in. There's no way I will let someone useful like you go to another company. You will still work for YG and create YG stages only." Hyomin nodded obediently.

"Who do you love?"   "Erm... Seunghyun Oppa."

"And Jiyong?"   "I don't know if there's anything... but I do know I feel bad for him... because I really treasure his friendship and all that he taught me. I can't look at him properly, knowing that he has feelings for me. Feelings that I don't think I can reciprocate," Hyomin said. Although she had hesitated in the beginning, once she had decided to open her heart up to this fatherly figure, she couldn't stop."And I know it's starting to affect the other members but I don't know what to do. If being with Seunghyun means pain for Jiyong, then I think I shouldn't have appeared in their lives in the first place."

Sajangnim was silent even after Hyomin had stopped talking. Just when Hyomin thouht she should say something to fill the silence, Sajangnim spoke. "Go to YGEX." He shared how he had been thinking of sending her there for a while now and that this seemed to be the most opportune time. She will be put in charge of Seungri's solo activities there since he spoke the best Japanese. This will also give her some time away from Seunghyun and Jiyong - time to think and decide what she wanted to do.

"A clean break for now - to test what you and Seunghyun have, to test if what you feel for Jiyong will disappear, and to give the two boys time to grow up." Sajangnim said. "But at the same time, do what you do best to support the boys in their careers. That's what their fans like about you too. If you're going to end up with one of them, you'd better continue doing a good job. The fans will be watching you."

Hyomin smiled at Sajangnim's teasing tone. She knew he was just trying to cheer her up and she felt really indebted to this man before her. She knew the YGEX posting wasn't quite a stroll in the park too - pushing out Korean artistes in the Japanese market was really difficult - what with all the jealousy Japanese artistes were showing Korean artistes who were seen to be "infringeing" on their market space. But Hyomin was game for it; for all the reasons that Sajangnim had mentioned above.

"Right, the boys are coming in soon. I will announce your move so remember, clean break for now," sajangnim said just as there was a knock at the door.