~ Nayeon ~

Entering the club with a scowl and heading straight to the bar, “The usual, T.” I said curtly to the familiar bartender and set down my purse, huffing when I hoped to sit on the chair.

“Bad day?” T - the bartender smiled sympathetically at me. “You seem to have it so frequently recently.”

“Yeah…” I mumbled, watching him preparing my drink. “I didn’t know running a restaurant would be this hard.”

“Here your drink.” T handed me my favorite alcohol, if you called cocktail as alcohol. “Drink slowly, don’t make your head dizzy.”

“Thanks, you’re the best.” I flashed him a tiring smile before taking a gulp, downing almost half of the drink. He winced, laughed and shook his head, then he left to do some other work. I rested my head on the stool, didn’t care about anything else. I was exhausted, and I needed to relax.

“Yah, they’re here again.”Some girly voice next to me whispered.

“OMG yes, it’s all 5 of them this time! We’re lucky today!” Another one, probably her friend, replied in excitement.

“I just wanna catch Kwon Jiyong tonight. You can have the rest.” I raised an eyebrows upon hearing the familiar name. “He would be mine tonight.” She said with a determined voice.

“Whatever, I just need the movie star.” The other smirked. “Or the great Taeyang.”

I sighed. I didn’t wanna eavesdrop on their conversation, especially this conversation. I was about to get up and leave but what they said next stopped me. “But be careful, I heard Kwon Jiyong is a player.”

“I know, I wanna try him.” She said with confidence. “Rumors said he was a jerk, an , also a beast on bed. I wanna try the bed part, and slap him the next morning.”

“Actually I heard they are all jerks, that BIGBANG group.” The other said in worry. “Should we try to seduce them at all? I heard they had this way with women, which makes women fall on their feets and worship them unconditionally and unrequitedly.”

I tried hard not to snort. People’s tales were the most imaginative, I saw.

“Of all the 5, I think Kang Daesung would be the most gentle one.” The conversation was still going on, it’s so tempting not to listen to. “Kang Daesung is famous for his angelic personalities, and the Kang Enterprises is a bonus. I wanna go to his shopping centers and buy everything without even pay a penny.”

“But there’s this rumor.” The voice got smaller and smaller. “That he was the most amazing on bed compared to the other 4. Don’t let his angelic face fool you. He’s such a beast when it comes to .”

I wanna cough. Uh oh I had something to tease Daesung later now.

“No, I’m sure the best one would be Kwon Jiyong.” I raised my eyebrows again. “Just look at the number of girls he had each week, yet no one ever complained on his “skill”. They just said he was a jerk for playing with them only one night.”

“I even heard…” The voice got smaller again. “He made them go mind-blowing, and they would have at least 3 s a night with him.”

I shot up and downed the rest of my drink, pretended to be choked by drinking too fast. I glanced at them briefly. They had their backs on me, wearing the tightest and shortest skirts I ever saw. Based on their back view, I guessed they were hot. Hot and seductive, just like how girls supposed to look in a night club.

“The great Taeyang is always a mystery though.” They still continued talked about this topic. “Some said he might be still a , since he never spotted to have a girlfriend or even one night stand. Some claimed that he was a hidden God, though.”

Youngbae, we’re gonna have some nice talk soon.

“I kinda wanna try TOP too.” I rolled my eyes. “He’s surely a God, that was undeniable.” The other girl nodded without saying anything. “I heard he slept with most of actresses he worked with, though.”

Uh oh Seunghyun would not like this. Not a bit. Not at all.

“Lee Seungri seems to be the least mysterious one.” Once again, I tried hard not to snort. “He flirts with any girl, and sleeps with girls on daily basis. I heard he likes and stuff, that is a bit scary.”

“But he’s rich, and knows how to make money.” Again, the girl just nodded.

I sighed. Hearing these girls talking about them like that made me half amused half angry. Not even half the things they said were true. And I felt like these girls were the ones toying them, not the other way around.

“OMG they are walking over here!” My head snapped up when I heard their quiet gasp.

Narrowing my eyes, I looked at 5 hot men walking leisurely further to the club, and yes, to here. Seunghyun and his infamous poker face with sunglasses, Daesung and his angelic smile, Seungri and his flirting eyes, Youngbae and his boyish grin. And yes, Jiyong with his smirk. They recognized me instantly but kept their composure, only Seungri walked faster and reached me first, not forgot to pass a wink to those 2 girls in front of me though.

“Noona!” He said loudly, arms opening readily to envelop me, which I declined by brushing him away.

“Hello you too.” I mumbled, seeing how quickly those girls turned their heads back to look at me. I saw fire in their eyes. Uh oh.

“Yeon Kim!” Jiyong put his arm on my shoulders carelessly and pulled me stand up. “What are you doing here alone, my dear princess?” He asked seductively and winked at me.

“Leave me alone.” I scoffed and took his arms off me. “You’re late, jerks.” I glared at all of them.

“C’mon, let’s find somewhere more private, shall we?” Jiyong put his arms around me again, this time Youngbae took my other side too. They both dragged me out of the bar, heading to where Seunghyun and Daesung sitting by themselves comfortably and enjoyed their drinks.

“Hi, Nayeon.” Seunghyun greeted me in his usual deep voice. “Long time no see.”

“Hi Mr. TOP.” I growled. “Hey there Daesung oppa.” The said man acknowledged my greet with a nod and a smile.

“Noona!” Seungri once again leaped at me, and this time I didn’t dodge away from him, I let him crush me into his tight embrace. I laughed and patted him back. “Easy there, kid. Noona is tired today.”

“Maknae, go somewhere else to find your girl to play with. Let Yeon Kim rest.” Jiyong pried Seungri off my arms and pushed me to sit on the leather couch in our VIP booth.

Yeon Kim, he liked to call me so now, not Nayeon anymore. He said he like it that way more, saying it’s special.

6 months. We knew each other for 6 months now, and I was rather surprised at how close we quickly got. It might be because of business, since he gave his chef to my restaurant. Or it might be because he was my regular customer. He visited my restaurant at least 3 times a week. He said I drugged him with the food, whatever. Or maybe it was because of the late nights hanging out at his favorite bar - this place. I wasn’t sure when, but we just became pleasant partners, and friends also.

I got to know his close friends too. He introduced them one by one through luncheons and dinners at my restaurant. Dong Youngbae - or as how Koreans knew as “the great Taeyang”, the superstar singer, who possessed the very first Grammy award in Kpop history - Jiyong’s best friend. Choi Seunghyun - or as how the world might know as Mr. TOP, the movie star who had quite a number of blockbusters from Hollywood - Jiyong’s most trustworthy person just next to Youngbae. Kang Daesung - the heir of the Kang Enterprises owning most of the most luxurious shopping centers in Korea - Jiyong’s mentor in everything, from personal to business matters, even though he was younger than Jiyong. Lee Seungri - whose nickname was “the powerful millionaire Lee”, rumored to have magic with money, since he only made money grow bigger and bigger - Jiyong’s dearest dongsaeng, even though he loved to bully the kid to the bone. People quickly noticed the closeness between the 5, and they called them as “BIGBANG”, something I felt kinda amusing. But leaving the flashing aspect of theirs aside, they’re great guys. They were very respectful, polite and such gentlemen, well except Seungri, he might be a tease sometimes, but not as bad as Jiyong anyway.

I came to realize that, Jiyong was masking his true identity. He was a famous player now. Each night he would sleep with some random girl, then ditched them the next morning. He teased, flirted and seduced, but then be a jerk and left very soon after taking advantage of them. That was how people summarised about Kwon Jiyong these days. He never explained, but I guessed I knew the answer. He was still mad about being cheated by his latest girlfriend.

He never tried to flirt or do anything inappropriate to me, though. As I said, he was being a nice friend to me, he always was. And actually, I kinda thought he was….overprotective to me, as a friend. Seungri did try to flirt with me at first, and he went on teaching the kid a good lesson about “don’t you dare play with Nayeon or I will kill you”. That was how Seungri told me later anyway. When we talked and had fun in the bar, he would glare and shove off any guy trying to hit on me.

“What are you doing, Jiyong?” I asked him one night after the 3rd guy he scared off.

“Protecting you from jerks, Yeon Kim.” He winked. “Your fragile heart cannot take another pain right now.”

“Who said it’s fragile?” I raised my brows at him.

“I know, Yeon Kim. Because mine is, too.” He smiled sadly at me.

Ever since then, I understood his “game” of being a player, and did not question him about this matter anymore. But sometimes, when he asked me to help him get rid of some girls, I was annoyed though.

“If you hate this, why would you seduce them to sleep with you at first then?” I grumbled into the phone while walking towards his office. I could spot a pretty girl standing tentatively outside the room.

As if on cue, the room bursted opened. But before the girl could say anything, Jiyong already walked past her and reached to pull me into his office lovingly, if you knew what I meant. His hand would be around my waist and the other hand would lace with mine. He had this stupid goofy smile on his face and such fake longing eyes. “Sweetheart, you make me wait forever.” He said sweetly to me, intentionally ignored the girl who was experiencing a shock.

“J-J-Ji Yong, who is she?” The poor girl stammered.

“My girlfriend.” He replied with pride, and I inwardly winced. When would this game stopped?

“She’s such an understanding girlfriend.” He leaned in pretending to kiss me but he knew I would just brush his face away.

“Now that you see he has another girl, please leave.” I acted my part, hated to break the girl’s heart but…. I secretly pinched his stomach, satisfied to see him winced a bit.

“Are you crazy?” The girl shouted. “You let your boyfriend sleep with other women?”

Bingo, that was the crucial point, because the next would be.... “I have to, since I cannot satisfy his incredible ual needs.” I whispered to the girl’s ears, which made her widen her eyes in another shock. She would slowly step back, shook her head, “no-no-no” she would repeat that like it was the scariest thing in the world and left the scene with no regret.

Yes, that was the ploy we played. I was his girlfriend, but he was such a ual beast so I decided to let him have side affairs to satisfy his needs. Such a sick girlfriend and a sick jerk, too.

Up to now we only had to play that ugly ploy 3 times, when there were these 3 girls who refused to believe that Jiyong only wanted just a normal one night stand with them. Each time it was the same, and I would benefit some expensive gifts from Jiyong, a bag, or some necklace, and had him to visit my restaurant for a whole week. It’s not like that would benefit anything for my restaurant though, since I always charged him nothing whenever he had meals at Heaven. That was the least I could do to repay him handing out his talented chef for me. Thanks to his chef, my restaurant had quite some loyal Japanese customers. They said they’re crazy for the Japanese dishes at Heaven.

I was known as Jiyong’s girlfriend to his office, of course. We didn’t bother to correct that also. There would be no use, since Jiyong purposely posed to the world that he was a playboy. Seungri - Grand Hyatt’s CFO - knew about this too. But since he also witnessed us being just close friends, so he decided that we were just weird friends who liked to play around.

As for my side, I didn’t really care.

Jiyong actually didn’t need to scare of those guy approaching me, since I had no intention for anything romantic right now. I didn’t need to become a player like Jiyong, I just felt off whenever I was around men now. Maybe that was why I could be this comfortable around Jiyong and his friends.

“Hey Yeon Kim.” Jiyong poked me, pulled me out of my thoughts.

“What?” I turned my head to look at him.

Through my tiring eyes, he still looked so handsome. He was an attractive man, that was for sure. Actually all 5 of them were, but for some reason, I thought Jiyong was the most handsome one. No, he was something more, it was like, he was a mix of “beautiful” and “pretty”, “hot” and “attractive”, “y” and “seductive”. Girls knew he was just a player, but they still launched themselves at him, because they could not resist his charms. Right now, he did look like a God, in my opinion. Stylish blonde hair, simple white shirt and tight leather pants.

“What?” I reminded him, noticed how he just stared at me intently without saying anything.

He traveled his eyes up and down my face, stopped momentarily at my eyes, as if wanna convey something, some emotion. Then, very slowly yet clearly, he whispered.