March 2017 - present day

Ji Eun cried in frustration, looking up at the ceiling to stop tears from spilling out of her eyes. She blew out a shaky sigh to stop the shakiness in her voice.

"It's a joke," she muttered under her breath. 

Min Hyuk gave her a soft sigh, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. "No, I'm not joking. I'm serious about this." He took a deep breath to repeat the same sentence to her over and over again. "We need to break up, Ji Eun-ah."

He looked at her straight in the eye to make her understand. "I'm breaking up with you."

Ji Eun tried hard in holding back her tears, but they rebelliously found themselves down her face, pooling at her chin. Her lips quivered, trying to hold back a sob. She wanted to hit Min Hyuk - inflict pain upon him just as he was doing it to her right now, but she couldn't. It wouldn't change anything that was happening.

"Why?" She managed to find her voice.

"I can't tell you that," Min Hyuk replied. He couldn't work up the guts to look her in the eyes, and immediately stepped aside to take a leave. Anywhere far from Ji-Eun would be better now.

"Oppa," Ji Eun tried holding onto Min Hyuk's blazer in a weak, shaky fist. It didn't make sense for her, or him to let go of everything, their relationship so easily.

He shoved her hands off him, and Ji Eun went toppling onto the floor unintentionally. Min Hyuk barely spared back a glance, traces of apology void on his lips, nor his heart. The pain in Ji Eun's heart was far heavier and stinging, compared to the one on her knees, now slightly red with hints of blood. It felt as if her heart had dropped out of her chest and onto the floor, and Ji Eun sobbed harder when she looked at the floor to find nothing. 

Her heart was missing.

Sniffling on her own, curled up into a ball against the wall, she heard footsteps drawing nearer, and a shadow hunched before her to try steady her off the floor. Lay and Chen lifted her off the floor gently, as if she was a broken doll, fragile and torn. "Ji Eun-ah, you okay? You hurt anywhere?" Lay asked, worry laced in his voice as he brushed the dust off her skirt.

"I knew it," Kai growled. "That bastard."

"Dude, she’s bleeding," Chen muttered, grabbing his wallet and ransacking it for plaster. "Lee Min Hyuk messed with the wrong person, alright," he said, voice calm but b with anger.

"We should tell hyung," Se Hun said in a panic and started punching Chan Yeol's number through his cell. "I’m sure he’ll take up on my offer to beat that up,” he mumbled.

No.

Ji Eun snatched Se Hun’s phone away at the mention of her brother's name. Don't. She tightened her grip to avoid him from taking it back. "O-Oppa, please don't tell him. He'll kill him. Please."

"After what he just did to you," Kai sighed. "You still want to protect that bastard?" Kai growled again, pacing the floor.

She nodded her head softly. Yeah.

Even when everything between them was somehow over for him - to her, it wasn't over yet. She still liked him, loved him, even. It was too hard letting go of someone you felt so much for, and Ji Eun felt tears trickling down her face again. She didn't try to stop them. 

She doesn't remember the last time she felt this sad.

"Yeah, okay, yeah, alright," Xiumin nodded, focusing on the frantic voice on the other side of the phone, static breaking in between them. "I'll tell hyung and try to calm him down. Ah, and don't forget practice starts at four. Be there or be square."

"Shut up, and hang up." Xiumin laughed at the reply.

Baek Hyun slowly placed down the magazine he was boredly flipping through. "Sup? Something's wrong?"

“When he said hyung, I guess he meant Yeol hyung, right?" Kris, the ‘robot’ in their team asked, emotions as stoic as ever. He spun the basketball a few times and tossed it to Tao who sat across him.

"Did something bad happen to sis?" Tao was the next to asked Xiumin. "It sounded serious. As if something bad had happened to her."

"Sis?” Luhan, the little devil chuckled at Tao’s question. “More like an ahjumma.”

A huge slap landed at the back of Luhan’s head and he yelped in pain. "Yo, watch your mouth!" Suho snapped. "If you don’t talk, nobody would say that you’re a mute, got it?"

Luhan whimpered, rubbing the back of his head continuously. “Alright, I get it!” You don't have to hit me that hard, he mumbled softly behind Suho.

"Hyung, what happened?" Kyungsoo, (who preferred people calling him D.O for short) asked innocently after laughing. 

With a bummed outlook, Xiumin shook his head, giving a sigh. He didn’t know how to word everything out without making it sound too serious, and he knew well the boys would overreact at what he was bound to be saying. "You guys remember Min Hyuk, right? The vice-captain of the basketball club?"

"Our so-called brother-in-law?" Kris huffed, putting on a non-interested-look. "Hmm, what about him?"

Xiumin ruffled his hair a few times and took a deep breath. "Thatloserdumpedher." He said it in one go, leaving the members confused and squinting at him.

"Speak up bud, we can't get you," Kris answered, pretty much annoyed at the tension Xiumin was building up in the room. 

"WHAT?" Tao shrieked, comprehending what Xiumin was trying to say. Luhan joked that he shrieked as if he'd found out that he ranked last for the upcoming exams, earning a glare from Suho that translated 'you better shut up or I'll punch you next'. 

"Bravo, bravo," Luhan clapped his hands dramatically, acknowledging Xiumin's newfound information. "Finally a happy goodbye to the donkey that was no different than a bigger ."

"What about Ji Eun, is she okay? How-"

Luhan stopped when he sensed a dark aura in the room, the chattering noises slowly dimming down, as the boys across him looked behind him with panicked eyes. 

Oh boy.

He slowly turned his head and fake-beamed at the person standing beside the door.

"What do you mean?" Chan Yeol's voice sounded stiff as if he was controlling his anger. "Who dumped who?"

"Hyung!" Everyone in the room shouted in surprise, looking at each other to back things up.

Chan Yeol scanned through everyone in the room. His eyes were like lasers, shooting out beams and burning people. "Get up and follow me." The boys scattered around to follow the older.

Baek Hyun, the only person who dared confront the older stopped him. "Where to?" It wasn’t surprising, that Baek Hyun had the guts. The both did grow up together, and personally, he knew more about Chan Yeol than anyone else in the room.

"Where else? To find that and punch him in his pretty face. Break his legs even, so that he can't walk or jump to hoop a ball anymore." Chan Yeol growled. "That’ll teach him a lesson to not mess with my family," he rolled up his sleeves, pushing Baek Hyun aside. "I knew he couldn’t be trusted.”

Baek Hyun quickly side stepped forward again, and blocked Chan Yeol from walking away. "Hyung, don't do this."

"Get out of my way, Baek Hyun," Chan Yeol eyed him angrily. “I said, get out of my way.”

Baek Hyun only eyed him back fiercely, silently. He stood firmly without taking a step back, Chan Yeol's height be damned.

"Hyung," Xiumin softly interrupted from behind. "Calm yourself down, alright? I know exactly how you feel. I mean, we all do, and we all want to beat that bastard up, but guess what? Ji Eun says no, hyung." he laments. "She begged us not to tell you, and she wanted us to stop you."

"Let's respect her decision okay?" D.O asked softly.

Chan Yeol softened his gaze, and he could feel his heart dropping. He faced Xiumin with a broken expression. “Ji Eun really said that? Why? Is it because she can't forget about him? She still loves him?”

Xiumin shrugged, internally sighing in relief that Chan Yeol had calmed down. "I guess so."

Oppa.

A familiar voice made Chan Yeol looked back.

There she was, his little sister he cherished and love with his whole life. Ji Eun looked so tiny and vulnerable, eyes already puffed up in evidence of crying.

Ji Eun sniffed a little of her tears up. "Min Hyuk oppa, h-he,"

Chan Yeol quickly surged forward and hugged his sister, smoothing down her hair in what he hopes would be comforting. "Oppa, why does it hurt so much? Why does my heart hurt this much?"

He had enough. He couldn't stand the sight. Seeing his little sister crying made his heartache too. He wanted to crush this guy with his bare hands, like he would crush a walnut. "Shh, it's okay. Oppa's here, alright? Stop crying, oh? Crying doesn’t solve anything, you need to stay strong."

Lee Min Hyuk, you better watch your back. Chan Yeol looked up from his embrace with a cold glare. You're lucky my sister saved your pretty .