Sulli's POV

"Damn..." Krystal cursed in English, slightly wincing as she rubbed her forearms marked with ugly blue-and-purple bruises from the freaky gothic girl named Jiyeon, who apparently had some celebrity connections up in her sleeves. Her breath came out in a visible white gust in the air as all of us slowly rose from our crouching positions by the empty spot where Jiyeon used to lie, our mouths briefly open in shock at the recent lights of what just occurred.

"H-How could this happen?" Eunhyuk sniffed, apparently still thinking of Kyuhyun oppa. Maybe he actually had a small glimmer of hope, just a tiny one, that he actually could avenge his beloved maknae's unexpected death. Maybe he hoped that by doing so, the own poison slowly killing him inside would fade away. Maybe, just maybe...Jiyeon, after all, was one heck of a freaky and well...useless girl. If she's living only to make everyone burdened through her scary mentality of revenge leading to perfection, then...she really didn't deserve to live. More like, it should've been her under the knife rather than...than...

"Seohyun-ah," Sooyoung whispered, biting her lip while looking back at the door entrance as if just by her looking, Jiyeon could suddenly be summoned to die under unnie's hands. Looking over at Krystal's sister, I knew that she, too, felt the same way.

"Unbelievable," Donghae muttered, trudging on along the front of us. "Just how could Jung Yonghwa...he ruined everything for us. Everything. Our last chance, for...for Kyu too..."

"I know, Hae-ppa," Amber unnie murmured. She then put a reassuring hand on his shaking back as those two Dinos led the way out of the eerie, dark, and cold hall, Krystal trembling besides me as we padded along in our silver flats, arm-in-arm. I did notice that Taemin oppa, who was walking with Minho oppa and Victoria unnie [again!!!] behind us, was boring his eyes into my back, begging for some eye contact if not some conversation, but I didn't have the heart to take a hand in which I already knew I would let go sooner or later.

Meanwhile, Siwon oppa was nowhere to be found after the quick 30 seconds that Jung Yonghwa took to come and go, with that in tow.

Maybe he was chasing her...

Maybe he was mourning again in a dark, lonesome corner somewhere...

Maybe he was praying to a God that now just might seem a bit more faraway than usual...

Or, maybe he was in shock after seeing and witnessing with his own two eyes, just who in the world saved such a dark, aggressive girl. I mean, really, who would've known that humble, down-to-earth Jung Yonghwa would've saved such a girl like her, and even knock down Siwon oppa in the process?

Plus, how he managed to escape so quickly and flawlessly, as if he'd done this many times, was beyond me.

But, if my eyes continued to stay true to me even then...They revealed to me Yonghwa's eyes that reflected a slight glimmer of guilt, reluctance, and even fear before he quickly dragged himself and Jiyeon across the well-worn floor and out the creaky door, somehow making it past even athletic oppa Minho.

"Total waste of time," Vic unnie grumbled, as we all made it outside the haunted building and started assembling towards our respective vans to head back towards the SME headquarters. For once, I didn't argue with her; I was just as pissed as her for the way things turned out. All the fear, the risks, the danger, the planning...Plus, all the time could've been used to practice for the latest 'Hot Summer' promotions!! And it wasn't like SHINee wasn't busy either!!

And...Just how long would LSM sajangnim even allow SNSD and Super Junior to be idle before they would, eventually, have to promote again? And not just promote by themselves, lacking such good vocalists and images...but with a brand new trainee? Like Wonder Girls Woo Hye-Rim? Although...how well would it go with these two idol groups of the same company? Gawd, that Jiyeon girl ruined just too much. Just too much.

What's going to happen now? I wondered, as I sadly watched all our unnies and oppas and even Krystal dongseng in distress over the epic failure. I figured they probably were wondering the same thing - just what's going to happen next? We risked our lives to avenge those we loved, yet it failed and the creepy girl got away again, no doubt planning the next attack upon one of these legendary four idol groups. Who would it be? When would it be? And most importantly...what would be the next grudge stuffed in her heart that she would want to destroy?

That answer, we would probably never know...hopefully.

But...if I didn't waste those precious seconds the countdown of my life always records towards capturing a fleeting killer...then maybe I wouldn't have half as regretted what I did just a few weeks later.

Jiyeon's POV

“Jiyeon-ah!” someone shouted, desperately, in my ear. A part of me hoped, hoped with a foolishness that belongs to any girl deep in love, that it was Kyuhyun oppa, calling my name so desperately like he did that one day, five years ago, when he finally saw the bad side of Seohyun that I used to always complain about to him...that night, I hoped, hoped so badly with every fiber of my being that he would leave her, just leave her wretched soul alone for once...even for just one day. I mean, wasn't it enough to scare him away from his seven-year lover, to see her try to kill her own adopted sister whom she wished for? But...even if he did get to see the harsh, cold, raw reality with his own two eyes...

The fact that you love me is a lie.

“J-Jiyeon...are you there?” that same voice now tentatively asked, a shaking hand lightly ruffling my messy and slightly damp, coarse black hair, just the way Kyuhyun used to. Oh, the memories...

It was all lies, wasn’t it? All threats, lies, and big that I…don’t think I deserved...I mean, did you see how Choi Siwon beat me up!? Whether you’re alive or dead, I...I’m never left alone.

Thanks a lot, Cho Kyuhyun.

“Park Jiyeon...can you at least open your eyes, please?”

...huh? Whose voice is that? Where am I?

I’m not...back where my parents are...r-right?

Bracing myself, I bit my lip and slowly opened my eyes, surprised at how hard it was to just lift my eyelids. Am I really beat that badly? I used to be able to do anything and everything…

Once I opened my eyes to the awaiting world above, though, I squinted from all the glaring lights of what I saw to be another damn hospital, where by now I was familiar with all of its surroundings. I always believed that physical pain is far worse than emotional pain, but look where that led me – now I have needles and wires stuck onto me, and I could clearly feel the bruises that Super Junior’s lead image marked me with. Plus, thanks to him, I now have to waste two weeks of my time just merely existing upon an all-too-hard hospital bed, dealing with nurses that only cared about the condition of your physical body and how much money they would gain from 'treating' me...

Oh the joy. 

I didn't know he became that strong...I clearly underestimated SME’s idols, haven’t I?

"Jiyeon-ah, are you awake? Can you hear me?" Yonghwa sunbaenim, I realized, urgently asked, looking more scared and worried and...caring for me. His normally gentle-looking, wood-colored eyes were darker than usual, but whether that was due to the lack of sleep from his promotions or from fear I had no clue. Nevertheless, the waves of emotions he was sending me were ones alien-like whenever they were brought up right at my face thanks to the prolonged lack of them...

"Y-Yeah, sunbaenim..." I stammered, still taken aback. "I-I'm awake, and...I can hear you perfectly."

But hey, at least he was there for me...His eyes were so full of worry and...and tears!? that for a second, just a quick flicker of time, I felt obliged to at least smile, just to ease his aching heart...

Ohmagod. Did I just think that!?

Get a grip, Jiyeon...

S-Siwon getting the upper hand in this still is enough...

Yeah, but if it weren't for sunbaenim, the idols really would've killed you by now....whatever. It doesn't matter anyway.

Nothing matters now that neither one of us couldn't plot and succeed the revenge upon one another.

All of that terror and blood was just purely precious wasted time, for in the end, no matter what each of us tried to do to make things right in this one hole of a world...nothing happened. Nothing got solved, nothing improved, got better...

Nothing changed.

Everything is still one big mass of hell.

And now...I doubt there's any way to change that.

Even if, as the days and weeks went by and Choi Siwon’s lasting marks of anger on me faded away, all the while having a tired sunbaenim miss several schedules to watch over me, something deep and tingling deep in my soul always reminded me of my terrible failure to kill Siwon once and for all. That would’ve solved everything! Nobody would’ve been able to kill me anymore, because there were no witnesses. Nobody would have anymore evidence to track me down – unless those failure-of-a-work-idols had enough courage to report me.

And...I wouldn’t have to live in fear anymore, because...well, because I know that those idols – a classic mix of all four of the best-selling projects of SME so far – will not rest ‘til they find me. No matter how much I try to tell myself that they wouldn’t have the guts to, especially since each and every one of them are sweeping the music charts so well they wouldn’t want to risk their lives down for anything. Whether I liked it or not, the constant nervous fluttering from within my blotchy, aching stomach told me that nothing was over yet. Things were shifting by second, here and there, secretly within all of our lives now intertwined through mere accidents of fate and time...I just knew they wouldn’t let go. Especially that Choi Sooyoung and Lee Donghae. That pretty boy maknae Lee Taemin looked pretty freaked out and sad, too.

But, as Yonghwa sunbaenim put it, that very night, right before he left at 4:00 AM, about four hours later after he pulled me out from all their hard, furious, relentless grips...

“Give it a rest, Jiyeon...please. Not for the sake of them or for me, but...for the sake of you.”

“Can you do that? Please?”

“Yes,” my mouth spoke, oh so quietly as I averted my gaze from his sad eyes...all the while feeling an unusual, painful crunch in my heart at how sad he looked. I still had no idea why or how I suddenly cared about Yonghwa sunbaenim's feeling so much. I mean, it was him that agreed to this arranged marriage in the first place, leaving me no choice but to say yes because I was the poor girl and had no voice in the matter anyways. He was the one that had to be an idol and therefore got to spend even less time with me, making me soon go insane from all the dark memories, clawing, scratching its way up to my weary soul once more. And...it was he who loved Seohyun too. Therefore...

No, my mind shouted.

It’s too late, my heart cried out, leaking tears mingled with the blood still pumping, pumping within my veins and giving me life, whether I wanted it to or not.

~*

Yonghwa’s POV

Sunbaenim, are you alright?

Sunbaenim, you look tired...you should sleep.

Sunbaenim, just go back to the FNC headquarters, please? You look so uncomfortable here...

Y-Yonghwa sunbaenim, I saw you on TV...good job performing that song...um, Intuition right? You were really good...and so were your band mates...good job.

Why, Jiyeon...why?

Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden? Have you given up that quickly already? It’s not that I don’t like it or anything, but I’m just merely shocked and...a bit worried I guess?

No, worried isn’t the right word...more like, confused, and...well, burdened.

Why?

Because...her voice was starting to drown out Seohyun’s. 

It wasn’t due to romance or anything. That I was sure of. I actually had no idea why this was happening. Was she just grateful that I saved her from the possibility of her sleeping in her own grave yard that very night? Was that it? ‘Cause really, that’s all I did...

But at the same time, I doubted that was the case, mainly because she still called me sunbaenim. From the moment she met me in the vast living room of my parents’ mansion, when she stepped in tentatively, her long, raven-black hair shining with her two black orbs of sad eyes under the gloomy white sky of early fall, she did. I still remembered how shy and broken she seemed back then; she wouldn’t speak to me or even look at me, keeping her head inclined towards her ruffled white dress the whole time. The only time she ever reminded us she was there was when she looked at my eyes just once and blurted out, passively, “Nice to meet you, Jung Yonghwa sunbaenim. I’m Jiyeon.”

And ever since from there, she did. Her parents snapped at her to stop and call me by my real name many times, but before she could ever really bend to their request, I already debuted under the band CNBlue and left her to the lonely premise of her own apartment. To be honest, the only reason Jiyeon got left under my care was because her parents intimidated my parents to take her in. However, looks like my parents were scared of her also and instead abandoned her to a lonely, creaking, old apartment amidst a crowded forest full of dark trees which hid the reassuring glow of the warm, yellow sun. So, without much choice, I visited her there rather than my mansion the few times I would get a break…

The 13^th time I visited her during the two-year span we were engaged, however, was when she made me kill Seohyun. And ever since then, things has been hell as she even managed to murder Super Junior’s Kyuhyun and almost died under his fellow hyung Choi Siwon and his many hoobaes…

But now? After Jiyeon finally, finally seemed to let go and, maybe, if my hopes weren’t too high, give up...?

Maybe, maybe, things would finally, finally become brighter. Maybe, just maybe.

I’m not saying I deserve this. I actually don’t believe at all that I deserve any better than what I have now. I mean, I killed Seohyun – someone I loved very much ever since we got set up to be on WGM...I killed a legendary star. I killed a sweet-hearted, beautiful girl. I killed someone with much potential to become the top, and halted her growth, dreams, and all her future possible plans.

And I ruined everyone’s lives.

But...why are things in my personal life finally getting better when everything else is such hell?

Things are shifting by the second, but...I don’t know whether I like it or not. In fact, I don’t even know whether I should like it or not.

Because nowadays, I have no idea at all what I should expect.

~*

[A/N: So, so, so, SO sorry for the slow update T^T feel free to throw rocks @ me all you want, although I wouldn’t want to be stabbed like our beloved SME maknaes >_< But anyways, I really hope you enjoyed this update! It was more of a filling chapter, but it’s a huge transition into the next phase of murders, mystery, love, hate, and…changes ;] plus, it cleared up a bit more of the connection between Yonghwa and Jiyeon, I hope! Also, THANKS INFINITELY STARSOME SUBSCRIBERS!!! <33333333 u guys seriously made my day <3 I did not ever imagine my fanfic could reach 43 subbies >_< *hugs* Gomawo, and hope u enjoy the fanfic as it goes~]