This story is coming an end! Soon. I have been sort of stumped with assignments and working on a novel. But yeahhhh, update! Sutler's remix, woooo!

“Gods, this is ridiculous,” sighed Kris the moment he entered Jisun’s accessory shop to find her counter boy wailing in complete despair.

A few months earlier, to stop Kris from nagging at her, Jisun had promised she would hire somebody to help her run the shop. Then the day after, he found out Jisun had hired the dopey boy whose brother was a choreographer yet he himself amounted to no more than a little annoying klutz.

Anyway, the boy’s name was Dabin and he was a complete nightmare. According to Kris anyway. Jisun however seemed to have a soft spot for this lump of a child.

“What are you, fifteen?” Kris grunted as he dumped the takeaway he had picked up along the way from his hospital shift.

Tao was supposed to meet him at the hospital today, but something had come up and now he was stuck doing whatever award-winning photographers did during these times.

“No, I’m seventeen,” wailed Dabin, sobbing into his arms that were curled on the counter.

Kris groaned.

At that moment, the back door opened and in stepped Jisun with a tray of drinks in her hands. Kris immediately went to help.

“What’s up with him?” whispered Kris to his surrogate mother.

“Oh, you know. Teenagers and their heart breaks,” said Jisun cheerfully.

Dabin wailed louder.

“Would you cut it out?”

“Oh, be quiet Kris,” said Jisun brushing him off. “You were no different when you were a teenager.”

Kris grimaced. “I never drooled and dripped snot onto your counter. And I never cried over lost love or whatever.”

“That’s because you never lost,” Jisun said, “You just kind of…grew out of it. Busy with your future and-- now, what’s wrong, Dabin dear?” said Jisun, patting Dabin on the head. “I thought you cheered up a minute ago. Was Kris mean to you?”

“Hey!” said Kris.

“No, it’s just--” Dabin straightened up in his chair, wiping his face with the sleeve of his shirt. Kris could only grimace at this pathetic kid. “I’m just…just so afraid for her, I…auntie, why do girls always fall for bad guys?”

“Because the alternative would be this,” said Kris, waving his hand lightly at the display of the sobbing boy.

“Or this,” said Jisun, pointing back to Kris. “You know, Dabin. How about you come over to my place this Wednesday for dinner? Kris can tell you all about his own pining and lost love while he was in high school--”

“Mother!” hissed Kris, but the other two ignored him.

“Really?” Dabin lightened up, eyes flitting from the glowering young man to the kind woman. “Kris hyung, you failed at love too?”

“I didn’t fail.”

“Sure, he did. The girl he was in love with was in love with someone else,” Jisun said, sounding almost smug about it. “And you know what? She’ll be there this Wednesday. It should cheer you up to see our Yifan suffer at the dinner table!”

“What!”

Jisun smiled, her eyes shining. “My daughter is coming for dinner. And she’d be bringing her boyfriend.”

“What?!”

“I’m going!” Dabin said, grinning with mischief, all hints of earlier distraught completely gone. “Ah, I can’t wait to watch Kris hyung suffer!”

+

“Oh gods, they are all idiots,” Youngjae complained but even as he said this there on his face was a grin.

Tao smiled as Jongup flicked off the television in the private room.

“Have you seen the newspapers?” Jongup grumbled, picking one up and tossing it to Youngjae who was on the hospital bed.

Youngjae’s eyebrows shot up immediately.

“Okay, this is not the reaction I was expecting,” he said, scanning the front page.

    NATION’S PRINCESS: PLAYER OR PREY? Juniel, the Nation’s Sweetheart, Revealed Her Relationship with Underground Rapper Zelo. Speculations Have Been Made. Inside Sources Gave Varying Statements. Senior Representative of Juniel Stated to the Press, “it Is News to Us Certainly but Neither Is It News to Her nor to Those Close to Her It Seems. Now, Juniel and Choi Junhong Had Known Each Other since Very Young, It Should Not Have Been a Surprise That There Is More to Their Relationship than What the General Public Knows. Even so, We Do Not See This in Any Way as a Form of Deception. Who She Chooses to See Is Entirely Her Business Not Ours and We Advise the Nation to Adopt the Same Mindset. This Is for the Best Interest of Juniel and Those Who Love Her.” On the other hand, her fans are in complete despair as they do not believe rapper Zelo is a suitable companion for the nation’s favourite girl. The same is to be said among the reaction of the ravenous fans of BAP who believe there is more to Juniel than meets the eye. “There’s something about that girl you don’t want to know, I’m telling you. It sure is going to break her fans’ hearts. I better not say,” reported a popular girl group member who had once worked with Juniel and her agency… (flip to page 27 for more details).

“Okay, what?” Youngjae said, looking lost as Jongup threw him a different paper.

His frown deepened as he flipped the new one and scanned the articles.

    CHOI JUNHONG, known to the public as ZELO, is an underground rapper and bassist of the rising rock band BAP, known for his violence and abusive behaviour. On the eighteenth of July it has been revealed that Zelo is in a relationship with singer-songwriter Juniel. The majority believes this to be a hoax for BAP to gain more publicity while others speculated that Juniel may have been forced into this questionable relationship against her will. Now outside sources only seem to confirm this as Kim Jongin, a restaurant manager and childhood friend of Zelo and Juniel, claimed, “Junhong’s always been violent. Isn’t that why Junhee ran away? You didn’t know? Yeah, during our sophomore year, Junhee ran away from home. Nobody knew where she had gone and Junhong started beating other people in school when there was no Junhee for him to do all the abuse to. Oh yes! I’ve even got beaten up by Junhong once. I ended up in the hospital for two weeks. No, I didn’t press charges, I was too scared back then to do anything about it.” Another source, who would rather omit his name, stated that, “Junhong and Junhee. Yeah, I remember them, always together, never seem to be able to separate. Their relationship always seemed off to me, but I was young back then so I never thought much of it. The boy, Junhong, he was a popular kid. All the girls were onto him, but it wasn’t until Junhee vanished that he started getting interested in other girls. Juniel? Oh, Junhee didn’t have friends. She always got picked on a lot and I suppose I didn’t think much of it because Junhong was always there. He would never let anybody touch her, not even her friends. Would always want to be alone with her, he would. They would disappear a lot during school hours. Nobody knew where they went. Junhee had always been a little strange.” More speculations are being made by theorists and psychologists on the side effects of physical abuse; Dr Park Chanyeol from Sleepy Lab Experiment has an interesting claim on--

“Okay, what the ?” said Youngjae, chucking away the newspapers, right into Tao’s face who scrambled out of his chair.

Jongup looked grim. Tao was busy with his camera bag, now packing up his things in a hurry. He had an appointment somewhere and it was important that he went.

“Had any of them called?” Youngjae asked.

“Yeah,” Jongup said. “Himchan did. He said the band’s on hiatus and Yongguk’s been dealing with people keying the company’s vans and writing messages on our door. Anyway, Daehyun has gone back to Busan last night. He said he better use this free time wisely and spend time with his family as much as he can.”

“What about Zelo?”

“Zelo?” Jongup looked up. “Nothing from him. But he called in with Yongguk. He doesn’t seem affected by all this. He’s staying with Junhee.”

Youngjae rolled his eyes. “Of course he is.”

Jongup gave a half-smile to the floor. “Yeah.”

“All right, guys. I’m going. Take care, bye,” Tao said already making his way to the door.

“Bye!” Youngjae called.

Tao waved without looking and was gone.

“So I’m guessing Junhee’s okay then?” Youngjae asked.

“I guess. Probably.”

+

Some time after Tao's departure, Jongup made his way down the sterile hallway, slamming Youngjae's door shut with a sarcastic slam. Youngjae was being an idiot as always, not only throwing some baby tantrums about dirty forks and spoons but also about the itchy needle of his IV drip and how stupid he felt to be stuck in a ing hospital because, surely, there were more productive things he could do with his time.

Jongup had enough of that crap for the day and jabbed the bugging drug button to get Youngjae to fall asleep. Because, clearly, Jongup had better things to do with his time. But he was here anyway, so what the heck, really. N