“So you called for backup, hm?” Joonmyeon asks Yoojin. He lets out a long, twisted laugh. “Of course.”

“Hand over your ing phone,” Kai snarls, storming up to Joonmyeon.  

“Sorry, brother,” Joonmyeon shrugs. “It’s too late. My secretary already has a copy of the photo. Tomorrow morning, you and Professor Oh will be on the front cover of every newspaper in the country.”

“Brother?” Hana whispers. “Jongin, did he just-,”

“Oh, your boyfriend never told you?” Joonmyeon cackles. “I’m Kai’s half-brother. The other son of the CEO. That’s why he’s been my competition, all my life.”

“Holy ,” Yuri mutters. “They’re... they’re brothers?”

“Whoa,” Kris says, his head swiveling from Joonmyeon to Kai and back. He has been friends with both for years, and he knew that they despised each other. But brothers?

“How come you never told me?” Hana demands, turning to Kai. Kai shakes his head, his attention solely focused on Joonmyeon.  

Joonmyeon smirks. The desperate, agonized boy who had broke down in front of Yoojin a few minutes ago has disappeared, replaced by a callous, chillingly intimidating man.

“Yes, brothers. Although I’m ashamed to be related to an oaf like him.”

Kris turns to face Joonmyeon. “So this is your true nature?” He stares in disgust. “Suho, what the hell? You’re so nice and... and awesome all the time. What happened to you?”

Joonmyeon tsks. “I’ve always been like this. Twisted. Manipulative. Evil.”

“You’re sick,” Kyung Mi hisses. “To think I looked up to you-,”

“It’s over.” Yuri clenches her teeth. “We’re too late. The picture’s been released.”

Yoojin says, “That’s alright. Because there’ll be an even bigger scandal which will overshadow Kai and Hana’s.”

Joonmyeon quirks an eyebrow, staring at Yoojin with an amused expression. “Oh? And what could possibly be bigger than an illicit student-teacher relationship involving the son of a chaebol?”

Yoojin smiles. “A psychotic son of a chaebol.”  

She pulls her phone out of her back pocket. She presses a button, and suddenly, Yoojin’s voice echoes through the room.

And you were immature as hell, too. I know what kind of things you and you friends did. Those days you stumbled into the house at 3 AM, smelling like and beer. Framing a poor butler for breaking your Father’s favorite vase: something worth hundreds of thousands. The time you and your friends hired strippers when your parents were in Bali.

A pause, before Joonmyeon’s voice says, I did those things.

Every single jaw in the room, except for Yoojin’s, is hanging wide open.

“Oh, and this.” Yoojin skips to a later part in the voice recording.

I don’t want to be CEO! I never wanted to! I wanted to stay with you on the island and keep exploring! Yoojin, I wanted to be by your side forever, because I loved you. But I couldn’t let my Mother down. She would’ve suffered in shame, a forgotten figure from my father.

“I recorded our entire conversation,” Yoojin tells Joonmyeon. There is an unyielding look in her eyes. “I knew I had to prepare a backup, in case you had already sent the pictures to the press. So I the recording app on my phone as soon as I walked in. Now I have you on tape confessing to various crimes, the bullying of a girl and others due to pure snobbery, and all your other dirty, dark secrets.”

“Holy , Yoojin,” Yuri breathes.

Joonmyeon looks trapped.

“I don’t care what you have to do,” Yoojin says, placing her hands on her hips. Adrenaline is coursing through her veins. “Just make sure that picture isn’t published, somehow. Threaten the media with a huge lawsuit. Claim the picture is fake. Otherwise, you’ll be facing a possible stint in an insane asylum. You’ll definitely lose your job, and you might be removed from school, too.”

Everyone gapes at Yoojin. She saved us, Kai thinks in a stupor. Yoojin saved Hana and me.

A desperate, torn look rages in Joonmyeon’s eyes. He stares at Yoojin for a full minute, completely mute.

“It’ll all be for nothing,” Joonmyeon says faintly. “Everything... my entire life... it’ll be gone, once I lose the CEO position.”

Yoojin’s eyes pierce into him. “Maybe you should have thought about that before you decided to play dirty.”

The HSC realizes with a shock that Joonmyeon is crying. Salty tears are streaming down his face, his eyes darkened with red. Joonmyeon’s body begins to wrack with horrible, painful shudders. Despite the situation, Kris’ primary instinct is to move forward and comfort his friend.

But Yoojin holds up a hand in front of him. She shakes her head.

“Let him be,” she murmurs.

Yuri looks like she's going to throw up. Kai is staring at his brother, stunned.

“Alright,” Joonmyeon finally says in a thick voice. “I’ll do it. I’ll stop the pictures from spreading.”

It has been 2 weeks since Hana and Kai’s lives were nearly destroyed by Joonmyeon.

2 weeks since the HSC stayed up the entire night after their confrontation with Joonmyeon, biting their nails and constantly checking the news, until they had finally confirmed that the pictures had not leaked out.

After that eventful day, the rumors surrounding Kai and Hana’s relationship grew even stronger. They had been sighted by several students and teachers, running all around campus. Worse, Hana did not have her disguise on, causing even more shock and suspicion amongst students.

Someone had taken a picture of her, dark hair flying free, high heels in her hand, and posted it on the university forum. It was captioned, Professor Oh: what is the truth about her?

Hana is convinced that she would have been reprimanded or even fired... if Kai had not stepped in and sweet-talked the Dean.

It has 2 weeks since Joonmyeon suddenly disappeared, leaving his confused father and grief-stricken mother behind.

Yoojin knows what she did had to be done. She knows she had to take advantage of Joonmyeon’s trust, manipulate his feelings, pounce on his weaknesses. Otherwise Joonmyeon would have hurt even more people she loved.

But when she discovers that Joonmyeon has vanished, mysteriously fled to some other place, Yoojin cannot help the boulder of guilt and sadness that settles on her heart. She cries for days. Her mood dampens, turns dull.

Yoojin tries to hide it from Kyung Mi and Yuri and Kris. But her pain is blaringly obvious.

Something about Joonmyeon's tears broke every single one of them on the inside.

The most affected, strangely, is Kai. He has the CEO position practically in the bag, ignoring his father's staunch disapproval of him. He has beat Joonmyeon, finally.

But why does he keep thinking about his brother?