The initial jealousy has subsided and Soojin’s back to her normal self... except that she’s bored. She can’t find anyone to bother—I mean talk to, so she’s always asking for Eli.

“Is Eli awake yet?”

“No.”

“When do you think he’s going to wake up?”

“I don’t know.”

“Does he normally sleep like this?”

I sigh and fold the newspaper I was reading. “He was up for three days straight. Do you expect him to sleep for just one night?”

“No...”

“I’m waiting for him to wake up, too. I’ve been dying to punch him since two days ago.” I’m not even joking. The calls haven’t stopped and they just keep getting worse.

Soojin’s head is hanging off the edge of the couch. She’s going to get a headache if she does that. She suddenly sits up and goes to the stairs. “That’s it.”

“Where are you going?”

There’s no answer. Great.

∞

After a few minutes, I decide to go upstairs to Eli’s room. As I open the door, Eli flinches and grabs a pillow.

“I see you’re finally awake.”

“Hyung! I—” He looks scared out of his wits. I must look very pissed off.

“Because of you, our practice hours are doubled! Do you know how tired we get when we practice too hard? You’ve been sleeping for days while we’re running from radio shows to performances to interviews! The staff and I have been doing damage control; my phone keeps ringing even during we’re performing on stage! Do you realize what you’ve done to our image?”

“Stop being such a drama queen,” Soojin says.

Excuse me, what?

Eli’s staring at her incredulously and I glare at her. “...what did you just call me?”

“I told you not to be such a drama queen. How many hours do you practice every day? Four hours for both dancing and vocals?” Soojin counted on her fingers. “Oh, it’s 56 hours in a week... I’m sorry, carry on.”

At this point... I think I’m just going to pretend to be angry at Eli just to see what Soojin’s reactions will be, though I would really love to ruin that jawline of his.

“I swear, when I get my hands on you...” He’s cowering under the sheets. He’s really scared... as well he should be.

“Yah!”

“What is it now?”

Soojin explains to me over again why I shouldn’t hurt Eli. What is she, his mom? She’s my sister, why is she siding with him instead of me?

Oh, stop it, Soohyun. We’ve talked about this. Besides, I’m only pretending.

“Kyeong Jae, if it weren’t for this girl right here... practice harder, do you hear me?”

Eli nods and I leave. Outside, I smirk. I cover my mouth to suppress a laugh and I hurry away; if Soojin hears me laughing, it will be the death of me.

∞

As they go downstairs, I compose myself. Eli sits at the table opposite me and I glare at him. There’s his scared look again. I should be a professional actor.

“Hyung, don’t look at me like that!”

I pound my fist on the table and hiss, “Tell me, why shouldn’t I look at you like this?”

“Oppa!”

Soojin’s not only his mom, she’s his bodyguard as well. Well, now.

I cross my arms grudgingly, but what Soojin said next made me choke on my saliva.

“If you don’t have anything else to do, why don’t you delete your videos from your computer?”

My... videos? How does she know about those? Didn’t I put a password on my computer? “How did you—”

“I was bored, and I wanted to use the computer. I went to your room and—”

“Don’t be so loud!” Eli snorts, and I bet he was there when Soojin discovered my secrets.

“I would have deleted those if I weren’t so scared of what I saw.”

“Why’d you even look at them?”

“How could I know that those were ? If appa were still here he’d chase you out of the house... ah, really.”

Oh, God. I’m so embarrassed. My sister saw my... I can’t do this.

I stand up from the table and as I’m going upstairs, I overhear the rest of their conversation.

“He’s right, though. You should really consider yourself lucky.”

“Oh, I do.”

∞

Kevin keeps on singing Let Us Just Love by A-Pink. It’s getting annoying. I’ve told him several times to stop, but he just ignores me and keeps singing. I bet he’s teasing somebody again.

Eli sighs loudly and shakes his head. Kiseop pats his back and he meets my confused gaze. “I’ll explain later,” he says quietly.

∞

“What was that about?”

“Do you remember that amygdala thing from Jaejoong hyung’s drama?”

I roll my eyes. Kevin would not stop repeating that line weeks after he finished the drama. “What about it?”

“You do know that Eli was with Kevin when he watched that, right?”

“Yeah, so?”

“Eli used that line on Soojin.”

He looks at me expectantly and to my own surprise, I laugh out loud. I can’t believe he would do that. I mean, he could, but he’s not the type of guy who’d memorize a line from a drama and use it on somebody he likes.

“I know, right? That was my reaction when Eli told me about it.”

“How does Kevin know?”

“Soojin asked him what it meant. She didn’t know that he and Eli were together when he watched it.”

“So that’s why Kevin was singing A-Pink’s song...” I wipe a tear from my eye and pat his back. “Go to bed.”

Kiseop stares at me. “Hyung... that sounded wrong.”

“I meant ‘go to sleep’! Ah, really, Lee Kiseop!”