21.  Past and Present

The idols froze in fear as Soo-Man waited for one of them to speak up. Jaejoong couldn't help but to bury himself closer into Yunho's chest, terrified of what Soo-Man was planning to do.

Yunho looked at his friend, who was fighting back tears of fear. He knew why Jaejoong was so scared; he'd been through a lot with that horrid man already, who knew what else Soo-Man would do to him. Yunho tried to force out an explanation, but his mouth refused to listen to him, due to the overwhelming shock of Soo-Man suddenly appearing. He'd faced a similar experience in 'Running Man' when he ran into Kim Jong-Kook, but compared to Soo-Man, the 'Tiger' was more like a kitten. "W-We were just going~"

"Going to look for your friends?" Soo-Man interrupted Yunho, who gulped shyly and nodded. There was no point in lying to him, it was likely that he had caught the three trying to take some food for Jaejoong and had worked everything out anyway.

Yunho looked at Jaejoong, who had taken his head away from Yunho and was looking at Soo-Man in worry. “N-Neh hyung, they left a while ago and haven’t got back yet. They said they were just going to get some food for~”

“I know. They got caught in the kitchen by one of my guards. I thought I said that there was no snacking in this house. You better have a good reason for disobeying me.” Soo-Man glared at the pair who stared back in silence. “Unless you don’t have a reason and want to make your stay difficult, then I will gladly make that happen.”

“They went to get food for Jaejoong. He wasn’t looking too good so we just thought it would be ok to~”

“So you disobeyed me for him?” Soo-Man pointed at Jaejoong, narrowing his eyes at him.

Jaejoong felt a huge wave of guilt hit him again. His friends had got into trouble just because of him, and all he had done was cuddle into the arms of Yunho. “D-Don’t pin the blame on him. It’s my fault, I asked them to get me some food as I was feeling ill and~"

"Why is everything your fault? Do you like causing trouble, or is it you don't care about anyone else but yourself?" Soo-Man raised his voice, mocking Jaejoong as he looked down, embarrassed by the man's horrid words.

"This isn't his fault! We decided to try to get the food for him, he was innocent. He didn’t know about the rule, he wasn’t at the meeting. Please just forgive us just this once!” Yunho started to beg, keeping a tight hold of Jaejoong in his arms.

Soo-Man sighed in frustration, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He should have punished them on the spot for disobeying him, but it would just make things harder in the near future. “Fine, I’ll let you guys off this once. Since you two weren’t the ones who sneaked into my kitchen to break rules, you won’t be punished. Yunho and Jaejoong looked at each other in uneasiness. Surely Soo-Man wouldn’t just let them off that easily; it was more likely that their punishment would come at some point. Soo-Man turned around and began to walk down the hall. “Come, it’s about time we have that meeting now.”

The group of guards gave Yunho a shove in the back, demanding that he followed Soo-Man down the hall. Yunho began to walk, still holding Jaejoong in his arms. Jaejoong looked at Yunho and motioned him to pull his head closer to him, allowing them to talk without being overheard too much. “I’m not hurting you, am I Yunho? If it’s needed, I can try to walk again. I don’t want to make things to hard for you.”

Yunho giggled quietly and shook his head as he carried Jaejoong down the hall. “Not unless you ate three times your bodyweight in food. I’m fine Jaejoong, don’t worry about me.”

Jaejoong bit his lip and looked at Soo-Man, making sure that the older male wasn’t able to hear them. “Y-You don’t think he found out about... you know... about YunJae?” The thought made them both shiver. They knew that they wouldn’t be able to stand being separated again. It would be too much to handle.

 “I’m not sure Jae. It’s hard to tell when he’s up to something. That look of evil doesn’t even disappear for a second, it’s like he’s always plotting something in that foul brain of his.” Jaejoong looked back at Yunho, resting his head on his shoulder.

“If anything happens to anyone, I just want to take this moment to say I’m deeply sorry...”

“Jaejoong, this isn’t your fault! Stop saying those ridiculous things!” Yunho placed a quick kiss on Jaejoong’s head, nuzzling his cheek on Jaejoong’s head, trying to comfort his hyung. “Don’t listen to anyone who says that you’re to blame. We are all to blame for this, I should have stuck by you during the struggling times, but I had to think of the fans too.”

“Yunho... I’m sorry.” Jaejoong nuzzled his head in Yunho’s neck, trying to muffle the sudden tears that were slowly developing in his prince-like eyes. Yunho sighed with a heavy heart. It wasn’t fair on Jaejoong to put the blame on him, but he was too convinced, that it became difficult to reach him.

Soo-Man stopped in front of a door that was guarded by two tall men. One of the guards bowed and walked towards his boss, whispering into his ear about something. Yunho and Jaejoong watched as Soo-Man nodded his head and gave the guards the signal to open the door. Yunho nearly dropped Jaejoong in shock as he walked into the room, catching the sickening sight of Changmin, Yoochun, and Junsu, who were shaking in fear and huddled together on the floor.

Changmin and Junsu had a red mark on their cheeks, where a guard had slapped them, and Yoochun, along with the red mark, had a cut on the right side of his lip, where he had been punched after defending the younger singers. Yunho quickly placed Jaejoong on the floor next to the group, who quickly embraced their hyungs in relief. “How are you feeling Jaejoong hyung?” Changmin managed to force out, still shaking in the shock of the sudden abuse.

Jaejoong’s heart truly sank as he observed the damage done to his younger members. The last thing that he wanted to happen was for his own friends to be hurt, but to his horror, it had already happened. “Don’t worry about me! What happened to you, are you alright?”

Yoochun nodded as Yunho carefully looked at his wound. “Yeah, it’s not as bad as it looks hyung. We shouldn’t have tried to steal food anyway. It’s our own fault.”

Soo-Man raised his eyebrow as he paced around the group of singers. “You’re lucky I need you five for my plans. Otherwise, you’d all be in so much pain that you wouldn’t want to attempt to move!” Soo-Man quickly bent over to whisper in Yunho’s ear. “So anymore of your screw-ups, and I won’t hesitate to make that happen. Understood?”

Yunho nodded quickly, biting his lip to fight the tears that were trying to escape. But he couldn’t cry now, crying would show a sign of weakness, and he wasn’t letting his win that easily. “Understood hyung, It won’t happen again.”

“I know it won’t.” Soo-Man took a stack of papers and placed them in Yunho’s hands. “The trail is planned for two days away, so I want all these facts learnt by every single one of you. I want no mistakes during the trial, and you won’t either. Any mistakes will cost your friends a lot amount of pain.”

Junsu’s eyes widened at the large stack of paper, and then looked at Soo-Man directly. “You want all of this learnt in 48 hours? That’s not much time hyung. What if we can’t manage it?”

Soo-Man walked behind Junsu and quickly grabbed his hair, forcing his head to bend back 90 degrees to look at the wicked man. Junsu quickly grabbed at Yoochun’s arm, ensuring that Soo-Man wouldn’t pull him away from his friends. “You better be able to manage it you little , or you will personally be attending SHINee’s funeral!” Soo-Man yelled in his face, causing the younger male to bite his lip in fear.

“I’m sorry hyung, we will learn everything, I promise!” Soo-Man threw Junsu back into the group, smiling as the five huddled together in fear of him.

“That’s what I thought. Since I don’t want any more incidents with you five, I’m locking the door until it’s time for dinner. Letting you roam free seems to cause trouble anyway.” Before the five could protest, Soo-Man left the room, locking the door and demanding the door to be guarded. The idols were more rebellious than he had thought, but he’d soon fix that.

As Soo-Man walked down the halls, he could only think of how life used to be before the lawsuit, back to the times when he was happy. He was married, had money to burn, and was one of Asia’s top businessmen. But now his life was all turned upside down, because of the band he made the most money from. On that day everything was ruined...

**********************

“The evidence is clear and there is no further questions needed. Court finds in favour of the artists Kim Jaejoong, Park Yoochun, and Kim Junsu. We have agreed that Lee Soo-Man is guilty of all charges.” The head of the jury stood up and bowed to the judge as he gave the final statement.

“Very well, Lee Soo-Man you are found guilty of physical attacks on your work colleges, illegal breaking and editing of contracts, and various cruel acts against human rights.” Soo-Man clenched his fists as he watched the judge read out his sentence. In the corner of his eye, he could see the three members who were responsible for him being there in the first place. “I sentence you to 2 years in jail, a pertinent suspension of your position in SM Entertainment, must never have contact with the company unless given good reason, and you are to stay away from the victims that you have caused damage to.”

The judge slammed down the gavel, ending the trial. The court room filled with cheers from his former artists, who hugged each other in joy and relief. His gaze set mainly on Jaejoong; the little who started all of this. He was too busy, happily hugging and celebrating that he had settled the case, that he didn’t even realise the looks of hate that his former manager was giving him. Behind the rejoicing group, Soo-Man could see Sunny, his niece and member of his former company’s band Girls Generation. Sunny watched with a heavy heart as she finally realised the true side of her uncle, she was clearly upset and repulsed by the sight of him, and quickly looked away when she noticed that her uncle was watching her.

He hated that he’d been found out. He hated the band for doing this to him. He hated Jaejoong for starting it all.

Soo-Man held is head low as he was dragged out of the room by two police officers; the crowd booed and shouted insults as he was lead away. He wanted to lash out at the three bastards for telling on his evil ways, but that would cause more trouble. He sat in the back of the police car, watching the three singers walk out of the building, surrounded by cheering fans that were happy that JYJ had finally put their evil manager where he belongs. But even though he had been found out, they hadn’t seen the last of him. ‘One of these days I’ll get you all back, you and that pathetic company.’

Slowly, the years passed and Soo-Man was finally let out of jail.  He had heard about how SM had held a grudge against the same men that had put him in jail, refusing them to see their former band mates, and the whole company altogether, as well as keeping them off most of the radio and TV channels. Sure SM had been fined many times for doing so, but that wasn’t going to change the fact that he was let down by SM, who didn’t do enough to stop the truth from getting out. He was still going to bring them all down, little by little.

Soo-Man got into his black van, greeted by his new personal driver, and given some papers. “I’m afraid that you’ve lost over 75% of your profits while you were gone. Your homes were taken from you, but you still have the forest mansion that you bought a few years back. Of course it hasn’t been used in years and will need some refurbishing, but it’s far away from Seoul, private, and is still yours to keep.”

Soo-Man rubbed the bridge of his nose, sighing at the news. Most of his money was gone, and his houses had been taken, leaving a forest mansion for him to live in. “Will my wife be joining us at the house, or is she already waiting for us?” Soo-Man looked up at the driver who had suddenly gone stiff.

“W-Well about that sir... It seems like she had a slight change of heart while you were gone.” Soo-Man looked through the papers, stopping at a form that broke his heart. He held it up to make sure what he was seeing was actually genuine. Sadly the horrifying document was 100%, leaving the man speechless in a moment of defeat. It was a signed divorce form.

**********************

Soo-Man clenched his fist as he tried to wipe the horrid memories from his head. Before he knew it, he was stood in front of Jonghyun’s bedroom. He didn’t bother to knock; it was his house, so he just walked in to find his son lying on the bed. Jonghyun turned his head to see his Appa walk into his room, and rubbed his drooping eyes. “Appa, I’m still very tired, so let me rest for a while.”

Soo-Man ignored his son, and quickly made his way to the bed, keeping a fixed gaze on Jonghyun. “Don’t try to boss me around, not after that stunt you pulled in the office!” Jonghyun noticed the anger in his eyes, and started to back up into the headboard of the bed. “Care to explain what happened?”

Jonghyun tried to remember the reason for acting the way he did, but his brain was fighting to keep the memories of his true self inaccessible. “I-I don’t know why I acted that way. I j-just... I just did it.” Jonghyun yelped as Soo-Man grabbed his son’s ankles, pulling him away from the headboard, and in the middle of the bed. He tried to quickly get back up, but Soo-Man quickly got on the bed, sitting on his son’s stomach, and pinning both of Jonghyun’s hands above his head with his right hand.

“Now care to give me a real explanation? Why did you act so sympathetically towards Key? He’s nothing to you now, just a mere slave in the palm of your hand!” Soo-Man looked into Jonghyun’s frightened eyes, noticing a build-up of tears.

“Because I... I think I care for him Appa. I feel like he’s family, so I don’t want to hurt him.” Jonghyun began to tremble as Soo-Man sighed in frustration. “I don’t know why I feel this way, I just do...”

“Son...Ignore anything you feel for him. Don’t care about him that much! He’s not worth it!” Soo-Man let go of Jonghyun and climbed off him, sitting on the end of the bed with his head in his hands. The recent painful memory of Taemin rejecting him replayed in his head. All he wanted was to start a new after the whole revenge ordeal was over, but why did they have to make it so hard?

Jonghyun sat up, staring at his Appa who kept his face hidden by his hands. “Appa, please don’t be upset with me. I’ll listen to your every order, I promise.” Jonghyun crawled next to Soo-Man, and rubbed his back, trying to comfort his Appa, who was almost in tears for the first time since the news after his release. “Just tell me why I can’t care for them Appa...”

Soo-Man slowly looked up at Jonghyun, rubbing his eyes to look at his son. He couldn’t believe that someone was finally listening to him, it was very comforting. “Because son... Once you care for someone, and you try to look after them... In the end they just leave you. They won’t give you a second chance. They just leave you when you need them the most!”

“I understand Appa. I’ll stay by you no matter what!” Jonghyun wrapped his arms around Soo-Man, hugging the older male, who gasped in surprise. Suddenly he felt something that was new to him; he was actually caring for someone again. Soo-Man hugged his son back, whispering words of gratitude to his son; the only one who truly understood him.

Not as long as the others, but still a good chapter.

I bet no one expected to see this side of Soo-Man, did ya?

So what do you think? Do you feel sorry for him, or do you think he deserved what came to him?