“Ji Yong ah….” She watched him dressing up nicely for the day. “Do you have free time today?”

“I’m not sure. Why?” Jiyong said absentmindedly, putting another ring onto his index finger. “You need anything?” He looked at her through the big mirror in their bedroom.

Ji Hyun bit her lips. She knew what she was about to say might upset him, but she had to try. “How about we go to the hospital? You know, for….”

Jiyong stopped in his track, staring at her intently. He slowly turned back to face her, rested his body to the mirror while crossing his arms. “For what?”

“I did mine last week.” Ji Hyun stood up, came closer to her husband. “Doctor Kim said there was nothing wrong with me.” She said in a small voice, tried to be as sweet and gentle as possible. She didn’t wanna hurt his ego, even if it was just a small possibility. “He advised that you should do some check-ups too. So that we can know if something is wrong, then we can fix….”

“There is nothing wrong.” He said curtly, brushing off her arms around him. “Our time hasn’t come yet, that’s all.”

“Jiyong….”

“I said there is nothing wrong!” He snapped, dashed to the bedside table to grab his phone. “I have to go now.” He left the room quickly before Ji Hyun could say anything.

---

"Yah, cheer up." Seunghyun grunted while flopped down onto the spot next to Jiyong's. "What kind of that face?"

"Happy birthday." Ji Yong said absentmindedly, downed another round of whiskey to his throat.

"Enjoy yourself then." Seunghyun snarled. He was sick of seeing Ji Yong being pathetic after breaking up with Eun Hye. It's been months for heaven's sake.

"I am." Ji Yong shrugged. "Go, someone is looking for you." He cocked his head to where a new visitor just came in view.

"The guys will be here soon." Seunghyun announced while standing up to greet his friends. "Behave yourself."

Ji Yong snorted. He took another take, ignored the burning feeling in his throat and look around. It was Seunghyun's birthday party, and as usual, it was a closed one with close friends only. But this year Ji Yong didn't really enjoy anything. He was bored. Well, nothing amused him since the last 6 months. To him, nothing was right since Eun Hye wasn't involved in his life anymore.

It was funny, how people thought G-Dragon had everything he wanted. He wanted one thing now, and he could not have that simple wish, a permission from his girlfriend's parents. He was hurt, by many ways. He didn't think he was something bad for the elders to consider if he was good enough for their daughter. He never stopped being proud of his parents' dear son, and his parents always said how proud they felt because of him. But it seemed he was still disqualified in Eun Hye's parents eyes.

"You are no good for our daughter. She doesn't need some scandalous playboy in her life. You two should not be together."

And what pained him more was how Eun Hye gave up on their love after hearing what her parents said.

"I guess we should stop seeing each other then."

She didn't even fight for their love.

He bitterly recalled her last words to him and took down another shot.

"Hyong~~~~"

Despite his mood, Ji Yong laughed. Seungri always knew how to lift his mood up. He glanced up to see his brothers appeared. Youngbae gave him a light punch while Daesung wrapped his arm around Jiyong's shoulder.

"You're early." Youngbae said, taking Seunghyun's previous seat.

"No, you guys are late." He retorted, knocked Seungri’s head with his arms. “Miss hyung?” He whispered to maknae’s ear.

“Ewwwwww….” Seungri dodged out of Ji Yong’s close face. “You’re so gross hyung.”

Ji Yong just laughed and turned to bully the next available maknae instead, Daesung. Unlike Seungri, the gentle boy accept his hyung’s weird affection cooly.

“Yah get out, he’s mine.” The birthday boy appeared and grunted when he saw how Ji Yong “harassed” Daesung. He shoved Jiyong effortlessly to the side and sat himself next to Daesung. “You’re such a ert, Ji.” He snarled, which Ji Yong just pouted and turned to chat with Youngbae.

“Wooohooooo….” Seungri chirped loudly enough to gain the hyungs’ attention who were focused on their conversations. “Someone looks lost. Should I go and rescue the princess?”

They all turned to where Seungri’s eyes laid. A petite girl in a simple yet elegant deep blue dress stood timidly at the outside of the party. She definitely looked lost, looking back and forth as if looking for someone….

“Play with her,” Seunghyun stood up and said in a deep voice, not even looking at the maknae. “And I will kill you.”

They watched Seunghyun hurriedly went to the girl and soon after that, they heard he called out loudly. “Ji Hyun!”

The girl startled at first but once she saw it was Seunghyun, she broke into a huge grin.

And that was when something funny happened inside Ji yong’s heart. Some fluttering feeling.

Seunghyun enveloped her into a tight hug, which surprised everyone. They all knew how uncomfortable Seunghyun was whenever it came to girls and women, let alone skinship. But he was the one initiating the hug first, and even lifted the girl off the ground.

“S h i t, is she his girlfriend?” Seungri mumbled when they watched Seunghyun led her towards their table.

“I didn’t hear anything about a girlfriend.” Daesung said confusedly. Daesung was the closet to Seunghyun, so, this must be something very secretive.

They watched Seunghyun smiled warmly while taking her hand in his, tugged her towards the BIGBANG boys. “Aish don’t worry, they won’t bite you.”

She shyly hid behind Seunghyun’s back when they came in front of them.

“Meet my dearest girl, Yoon Ji Hyun.” He said to them, with that goofy smile on his face.

“Hi, I’m Seungri.” As usual, maknae was the quickest when it came to women. “Nice to meet you, TOP’s lady.”

Seunghyun smacked him on the head. “Don’t spread false rumor. She’s like my little sister, a close one.” He declared, signaled for them to make space for her.

Youngbae and Daesung automatically scooted away, while Jiyong still rooted at his spot. Seunghyun pushed her to sit down next to Ji Yong, then sat himself next to her. “Behave, all of you. Try flirting with her, I will cut you all’s head off.”

Ji Hyun chuckled. “You’re no fun oppa.” Then she turned to look around all of them and smiled timidly. “Hello, I’m Yoon Ji Hyun, nice to meet you all. I heard oppa talked about you guys a lot.”

“Oh really? What did he tell you then?” Youngbae spoke up with a friendly voice, his eyes twinkled in amusement. “Did he say we’re the most annoying brothers he ever had?” He chuckled when seeing Seunghyun’s sulky face. “You did say that, didn’t you, hyung?”

“Well...yes, in fact, he did.” Jihyun grinned and both she and Youngbae bursted out laughing. “I think half of the times we met, he just went on complaining about how annoying you guys were.”

“Yah Yoon Ji Hyun!”

“I didn’t know you thought about us like that, hyung.” Seungri said in a fake hurt voice, while Daesung pretended to sob silently.

Jiyong cast a judging glance at the two dramatic maknaes, snorted quietly before spoke up for the first time. “How did you know hyung? We never heard he talked anything about you.” He asked in a casual tone, but Seunghyun frowned. He sounded like he was interested, but pretending that he was not instead.

“Well…” Jihyun started uncomfortably. “We’re acquaintances for a long time. Friends, kind of like that.”

“My mom and hers are close friends. We knew each other since babies.” Seunghyun stated calmly while motioned for a waiter to come over and grab a cocktail for Jihyun. “Her family moved to America about 10 years ago, and we rarely met ever since then, even though we keep in touch. The last time I met her was years ago. I never mentioned her because well… there’s nothing about her related much to my life here.” Seunghyun finished his talk with a shrug, earning a smile from Jihyun as well.

“But you’re here now?” Youngbae asked Jihyun directly, genuinely concerned.

“My brother just moved back here for his business, and I’m tagging along for a while. I just graduated anyway, need some refreshing time.” She leaned forward to put the cocktail on the table, and Seunghyun scowled when he noticed how maknae’s eyes following Jihyun’s movement from head to toes.

“Yah maknae, what did I say?” Seunghyun grabbed some fruit and threw at the sly maknae, who grinned apologetically. “She’s off limit, you idiot.”

“Oppa please.” Jihyun just rolled her eyes and winked at maknae. “He’s a cute boy, isn’t he?”

“You’re talking like you’re my noona.” Maknae was surprised. Seunghyun could understand that. Jihyun actually looked much younger than how she was supposed to.

“Because she is.” Seunghyun could not help it, he had to smack the fool maknae. The kid always became so silly whenever he was in front of pretty girls. “She’s the same age with Jiyong and Youngbae.”

Youngbae let out an “oh” while Daesung and Seungri quickly stood up and bowed at Jihyun, in which she chuckled and patted their shoulders with a laugh. The two maknae then quickly engaged Jihyun in various talks about her life in America and now, sometimes Youngbae would jump in and they all chatted pleasantly. However, Seunghyun could not help but noticed a quiet Jiyong next to Jihyun. Seunghyun didn’t know who made it, but Jiyong, or Jihyun, kept quite a subtle distance between the other, even though Jiyong’s boring yet intense gaze could not be unseen once in a while he watched she talked with others.

“Jihyun-ssi…” Jiyong spoke up suddenly, cut in maknae’s boring story about how he first got his MAMA award as Best Male Artist a few years ago. “Would you like to dance?”

“W-what?” Jihyun clearly flabbergasted, while the maknae protested heatedly.

“No! I’m talking to noona….”

“You talked enough.” Jiyong snorted and stood up, grabbing Jihyun’s hand and pulled her up. “Let’s go, don’t just sit with them, they’re boring as hell.” He cast a lop-side smile at Youngbae’s rolling eyes and Daesung’s confused face. “Go, there’re still lots of beautiful girls here.”

“This is unfair! You can’t have noona for all yourself like that hyung!” Seungri yelled in frustration while Jiyong already dragged Jihyun to the dancefloor.

Seunghyun smirked inwardly. They all could try to charm girls with many subtle-or-not tactics, but none of them could ever compare to Jiyong’s nature when it came to girls and women. And, even though Seunghyun thought he did suspect this before, for some reason, he had a gut feeling that if Jiyong and Jihyun ever met, something would happen.

Seunghyun just was not sure if that was a good thing for them.

__________

“Why?”

When Jiyong and Jihyun started dating, Seunghyun was happy for them, yet worried. Relationship is the most complicated thing in this world. They might not stop think about or miss the other, but for all you know, they also could hate the other with all they have the very next minute. They could be the world to the other, also they could turn out just strangers the very next day. It was just… unpredictable, a risk, an experiment. When Jiyong and Jihyun got married, Seunghyun was relieved. He hated to think about what would he do if these two broke up. He could not choose to side with either of them, they were both  not-blood-related but dearest younger brother and sister to him. Sometimes, when they had a fight, Seunghyun would take Jihyun out for a meal, or told Jiyong to go have a shot or two, to listen to their problem or whatever stupid or not reason they were having. They never had a serious fight though. Mostly it was just because Jiyong’s childish nature when he dated someone, and Jihyun’s easy-going nature with everyone which led to Jiyong’s jealousy, but nothing ever too serious. In fact, it surprised everyone, when just mere a year later, they got married.

“Talk, Jiyong.” Seunghyun said sternly when he noticed Jiyong didn’t answer his question, just poured himself another glass. “I asked you a question. Why?”

“I have nothing to defend for myself, hyung.” Jiyong replied quietly, still not looking at him but the space in front. “What’s done is done, and we can do nothing to unchange everything.”

“But why?” Seunghyun asked irritatedly. “Why did you and Jihyun go so wrong?”

“Life happens, things change, hyung.” He said pensively, knocking down another shot. “I wish I can find an answer, I asked myself this question over and over again too, trust me. But I just...don’t know. I don’t know what is the reason, I don’t know what came between us. The only thing I know is, we aren’t what we used to be anymore.”

“Is it because of the pressure of having children? You know it doesn’t have to be...”

“A part of it, yes.” Jiyong cut in tiredly. “But there’s more.”

“Jang Eun Hye then?” Seunghyun asked in a cold voice.

Jiyong looked up to meet Seunghyun’s eyes bravely, and Seunghyun had to praise him for not cowering under his powerful gaze. There’re only a very few people could hold his intense gaze. “And my child.”

Outside he was calm and collected, but inside, he was raged. Seunghyun was furious. Of all the things Kwon Jiyong might be capable, cheating was not something he would ever imagine Jiyong would do.

“I know you’re angry with me, hyung.” Jiyong said quietly and returned to another shot. He downed too many shots tonight already, but he could not care less. “I promised you I would take care of her.”

“Do you still love her?”

Jiyong didn’t answer right away, just twirling the glass in his hand distractedly.

“Did you ever really love her at all?” Seunghyun raised his voice when he realized how tentative Jiyong was right now.

“I did!” Jiyong said immediately, outraged that Seunghyun thought he never loved Jihyun. He did, really, sincerely, he did. It’s just….what he had with Eun Hye was a...history. “I really loved her, hyung. If not, why did we get married?”

“Yes I wanna ask you about that too!” Seunghyun angrily put his glass on the table, making a dangerous sound which one might thought that the table could be cracked into pieces. “If you didn’t really love her that much, why did you ask her to get married with you?”

“I was sure…”

“No you were not!” Seunghyun barked angrily, making Jiyong jump slightly at his tone. Luckily that they were in a private corner, but, even if they were not, he could not care less. “I knew something was off. You were always overjoyed with everything regarding to Jihyun, and just the fact that you got married after just less than 2 years of dating is so unlike you. It was like you’re trying to show everyone and yourself that you had moved on, quickly, easily. And for some reason, maybe it was because Jihyun’s love for you, you guys had a beautiful marriage nevertheless. Until the past came back to haunt you.”

“Hyung, I did love Jihyun.” Jiyong reminded him in an annoying tone.

“Yes, you might, obviously just not as much as what you have for Jang Eun Hye.” Seunghyun glared. “And you use the past tense. Twice.”

“I…” Jiyong seemed to surprised with himself as well.

“You disappointed me, Jiyong.” Once again, Seunghyun interrupted whatever Jiyong intended to say. “I don’t blame you if you don’t love Jihyun enough or anymore. I know how much you loved Jang Eun Hye. What angers me is, you cheated.”

Jiyong went silent, staring off at his palms.

“Our life as celebrities isn’t simple, and I don’t know about you, but I was very torn when I asked Nayoung for marriage. I was afraid a non-celebrity like her could not be able to cope with a life with someone like me. We constantly have to face rumors, scandals, accusations, expectation, public image and whatever they think we are responsible. Nayoung is a strong and smart woman, but she is also very hot-headed you know. Sometimes she acts before she thinks, and that was why we easily engaged ourselves in meaningless arguments. But I love her too much to ponder about right and wrong. I just acted as what my heart told me to do, and believed in my heart, believed in our love, believed in her. We had a difficult time as husband and wife at first, when Nayoung easily got jealous with every girl I met. But we got through it eventually. In those hard times, even when Nayoung was the most annoying wife ever existed, all yelling and screaming or even hitting me, never even just once I thought of going to another woman.”

“You don’t understand…”

“No, it’s very simple, Jiyong.” Seunghyun glared at him for cutting in his speech. “That is your wife, Jiyong. Wife. Cheating your wife is much more horrible than cheating your girlfriend, don’t you understand? Where did your oathe go? And I thought, of all people, you should be the one thoroughly understands this point. Kwon Jiyong is famous for being the best man or all women out there, aren’t you?”

“What do you want, hyung?” Jiyong said tiredly, he looked totally exhausted. “I already told you, the damage is done, we are not happy anymore, we better just divorce. Even when Eun Hye didn’t get pregnant, the possibility was still there. It’s been going for months…”

“I want nothing. You still don’t understand it, do you? I don’t care why you feel like you should end your marriage. You have all the reasons you feel like acceptable, I have no say in that, it’s your life after all.” Seunghyun replied, surprisingly came back to his calm demeanor. “I just wanna understand why someone like you could treat your own wife like that. Cheating. I just cannot get it.”  

“Because he didn’t love Jihyun.”

A voice spoke up from behind, a voice which was noticeably even much deeper than Seunghyun’s famous deep voice. It belonged to someone, the only one Seunghyun knew that was much more calm and collected in appearance than himself.

Quickly standing up, Seunghyun turned around and bowed politely. “Hyung! I didn’t know you were here.”

If Jiyong was quiet and tired when he talked with Seunghyun, he now went pale visibly and started biting his lips worriedly. He also bowed and said in a small voice. “Hyung…”

Yoon Jae Min patted Seunghyun’s shoulders lightly. “I saw you guys walked in for a while, I just decided to come over just now.” Jihyun’s older brother greeted Jiyong with a silent look.

Yoon Jae Min was someone you would not wanna mess with. He was the heir of Yoon enterprise, and his own business in Seoul was expanding unbelievably, making him one of the youngest successful businessmen in Korea. But what truly scary about him was, he easily intimidated you just by his look and his voice. He was like those horribly handsome mafia, he made you feel dangerous, but you found yourself being pulled towards him.

“You know, Jiyong, I am very disappointed with you.” Jae Min repeated what Seunghyun just said a moment ago. “Even though, if I’m completely honest, I’m more disappointed with myself, for trusting you with my sister’s life.”

“Hyung, I…”

“You were very sincere.” The big hyung crossed his arms and shot that unnerved look to his former brother-in-law. “Jihyun didn’t have that many boyfriends to compare, but I honestly liked you, maybe more than I should have. You took time to play golf with Dad, even though you knew nothing about the sport. You took time to play volleyball with me and Jae Hyun, even though you played so horrible. You suffered yourself in our mom’s kitchen for hours to help her prepare for Jihyun’s birthday party. None of her ex-boyfriends ever took that many efforts for our family, you know.”

With each and every word, Jiyong went more and more embarrassed, and maybe, ashamed. He bowed his head so low, neither looked at Seunghyun or Jae Min.

“But what made us really approved you, despite your notorious image as a Kpop star, that you always showed your respect to us, her family.” Jae Min continued. “You asked my permission first before you asked her to be your girlfriend. Then you flied all the way from here to America to meet appa, to ask for his permission before you proposed to her.” Jae Min paused for a while, let the memory washed away. “We thought you treasured family value.”

“I do, hyung.” Jiyong replied immediately, in a small voice, still not dared to look up.

“Cheater is bad enough, Jiyong. Don’t be a liar as well.” Jae Min’s voice went even colder, beyond what one could possibly imagine. “See you around, Seunghyun.” Seunghyun didn’t have time to replied, the big hyung was already gone.

“You are like a brother to me, so I just really upset about this whole thing.” Seunghyun said quietly after a while. “It’s not about Jihyun, it’s about you, you know? It’s like you’re not the Jiyong I knew anymore.” He touched Jiyong’s arm. “Just...I know the whole thing about Jang Eun Hye is complicated for you, but I just hope you’re sure about your feeling.”

Jiyong replied after a moment of silence. “I am, hyung.”

Seunghyun removed his hand on Jiyong’s arm, a look of deep sorrow swept over his face. “Alright, if you said so.”

And he left Jiyong alone in their private area, where Jiyong continue to drink himself into drunkness.

A/N:

Hi :) Thank you so much for the support! I dont know why but I'm really inspired by this story, I keep writing the chapters smoothly, even myself have to surprise. I think I even had the whole story lay out until the ending. There're several chapters in stock already, so please let me know your opinion, please, as much as possible, so that I can have the motivation to publish the upcoming next ones faster :)

Do you guys hate Jiyong? Am I too harsh on him? But it's how he was supposed to be in this story...