A/N: Some filler chapter… sort of. But I hope you still enjoy this chapter regardless :)

***

If Jiyong could only name one person he has some kind of jealousy for (it is important to note that such feeling is rarely felt by the superstar), it would be that guy he is seeing in her SNS right now. Oh Hyuk. Damn him. And damn on the fact that Jieun is friends with him. Why is it that their comebacks are so close to each other to the point that they could promote them together? Meanwhile, he is still stuck here in the studio, still working on his album. God. It doesn’t help that it’s been a while since he saw her physically – her album has just been released after all.

“Must you really promote your comeback with him, Jieun ah? Can’t you do it alone or something?” he voices out his concern over the phone. He knows he’s being irrational right now but nothing can stop him from getting what he wants.

“Oppa come on, he’s just my friend. I promised him months ago that we would do it together since he helped me out with that song,” Jieun replies exasperatedly. She tries so hard to make him see from her point of view but he is as stubborn as a stone. “Besides, it would be nice to have another artist to promote with. I could probably even garner more listeners from this,” she adds last-minute. Hopefully, that would bring some sense to him.

“You’re not even just singing one song with him – you’re singing two! Two!”

“If you’re that possessive over me, then why can’t you promote Palette with me huh?” she just has to go there since she is starting to lose her cool. Why must he be so… unreasonable? She mentally wants to shake him so bad.

“You know I’m currently swarmed with album preparation, Jieun ah. Don’t be so hard on me. Besides, you seem to manage fine promoting it alone.” He was glad that she could promote her title track alone – yes, she even does the rap herself though she would only rap an edited version (“Oppa, stop laughing! I know I’m too much of a noob to rap it!” she once said when he couldn’t stop making fun over her failed attempt to rap the original part). He does not know how on Earth he will be able to endure the possible jealousy he would have to face if another rapper were to perform the rap.

“Then you should stop being so hard on me too!” she uses his own words against him. “You know what? I can’t deal with this now. I’ve got too many things on my plate right now to deal with this. Call me when you stop being such a jerk.”

And before he could even say ‘wait, I’m sorry’, she has already ended the call. No ‘talk to you later’. No ‘take care’. Just the sound of silence still lingering in the air. And he hates it. Why must he be so irrational over it? It’s not like he was ever this jealous over his exes whenever they had to do some seductive shoots or works with some male models or artists. And it’s not like he has doubts over her feelings for him. So why is he being like this?

He has to fix it.

*

Days passed by since that incident yet it has yet to escape from his mind. Sure, they have already made up from the fight but the problem is still out in the open. How to fix the situation? Oh Hyuk is still just one guy – Jieun has gazillion other guy friends so he has gazillion similar problems to deal with. There’s Haneul whom she is awfully chummy with from her last drama, he is just glad that he is going to the army soon. There’s Seulong from 2AM whom she’s planning to celebrate his birthday with soon. There are several others but thinking about all of the guys in her life just gives him unnecessary stress.

Why is he so focused on this anyway? He should be focusing on making record with Jaesang hyung right now. Yes, he is collaborating with hyung again – he had fun collaborating with him the first time around. Jaesang hyung truly is an inspiration. Despite the many controversies surrounding his personal life and career, he manages to become a worldwide superstar. This is why he could not refuse the opportunity presented to him when hyung personally asked him to do a feature in that song. The song is, after all, something he could definitely resonates with – for some reason, the media just won’t stop nitpicking about him, be it the way he pronounces things or his own personal life that they have no right to nose about. Look he knows he is an idol and with that kind of career, public scrutiny is definitely a price he has to pay.

But enough is enough. He just wants to give a big you to all the haters. And doing this song helps achieve that.

*

“Are you sure you don’t want to guest with me in Fantastic Duo? Think about it… it could be a great YG showdown!” Jaesang proposes the idea to him again over the break. He knows it is a far-fetched idea but hey, a guy couldn’t help trying.

“I wish I could, hyung but I still have a lot to do in preparing for my comeback,” Jiyong politely declines the offer. “Sorry,” he adds, giving him a smile hoping that the older one would understand.

“Oh alright, let me know if you change your mind,” the hyung grins.

“Okay, I will.” Jiyong almost forgot about that situation by this time. Almost.

Because not long after, he could hear his phone ringing, alerting new messages. He grabs his phone and checks to see the unread messages. There are two new messages from Seungri: ‘Thought that you would want to see this. Enjoy!’ is the one typed message; the other message being a video. He grabs his earpiece nearby and clicks open to watch the video to see that it is from the music show that Jieun always perform at whenever she is making a comeback – Yu Huiyeol’s Sketchbook.

In this video, he could see her being interviewed by the host with that guy. He could feel his heart boiling. She’s not even in her awkward self, she actually seems comfortable in this. ‘Okay, probably because she and Huiyeol sunbaenim are actually friends,” he thought to himself. He tries to give her the benefit of the doubt as he watches the video.

“Say something,” she says to Oh Hyuk in that video when Hyuk is being his shy self.

That does it. He has reached his breaking point.

“Are you okay? Is there something wrong?” Jaesang hyung asks him out of nowhere. Jiyong does not realize that he was actually that transparent with his feelings.

“Ugh, actually no... I'm not okay,” he decides to come clean with it.

“You want to talk about it?” Jaesang’s eyes show concern.

“Uhh, I don’t know if I should talk about it.” Jiyong nervously scratches his head. He doesn’t know if he should talk about his love life problems with a colleague who is way above his peers.

“Try me.”

“So it’s about this girl…”

“It’s always about a girl,” Jaesang hyung knowingly smiles, remembering how it felt like when he was at that stage in his life.

“Look, I know she’s not the type to cheat and all but gosh, the guys she surround herself with… she just has way too many guy friends!” There, he said it. He finally said the problem out loud. It feels nice to finally let it out.

“Do you want a piece of advice, Jiyong ah? If I were you, I would probably tell her about it…” He looks back at the younger one’s reaction and sees the dissatisfaction that is apparent on his face – “I’m guessing you’ve already done that. In that case, it’s either you compromise and let her carry on being friendly with those guys, or you could do something about it – something big.”

All of a sudden, an idea pops into his head. He couldn’t stop grinning about it. “You know what hyung? You’re right. I’ve got to do something about it and I know just what to do about it.” He looks back at Jaesang hyung, cheeky grin intact. “I think I know who you should guest with in Fantastic Duo.”

*

Ring. Ring. It is from that number again. That was the seventh time that number calls her. She does not know how that person gets her phone number. It’s not like a lot of people actually know her phone number – only her family, staff and several close friends know. So who could it be?

“You, who’s that?” Jiyong asks her.

“I don’t know but it keeps on calling me today,” Jieun worriedly answers. She prays that it is not some sasaeng fan or else she would have to change her phone number.

“Wait, let me see it.” He grabs her phone and checks the number. Oh, it’s Jaesang hyung. So he finally decides to ask her about it. The hyung originally contemplated against it – stating that their musical genres do not match. He probably has already seen the light by now.

“Do you know who it is?” Jieun feels rather frightful at this moment. It does not help that they had just finished watching some horror movie.

“Hm, Jieun ah… I think you should answer it the next time he calls you,” trying to give her an answer as vague as possible. He likes to as much as possible.

“He? You actually know who it is?” He could not help bursting into laughter when seeing her reaction. “Oppa, stop it! Tell me who it is!” She tickles him as much as possible so that he would surrender into giving an answer that she desires.

“Nope, my lips are sealed!” He imitates the motion of lips being zipped tight, no matter how much he wants to tell her… eventually. This is fun.

“Oppa, come on!” she swats him with a pillow from the sofa. She feels extremely annoyed by his childish behavior.

“Okay, okay… it’s Jaesang hyung. I gave him your number when we worked together few days ago,” he surrenders after minutes of endlessly teasing her.

“Psy sunbaenim? But why?”

“He’s planning to ask you if you want to guest with him in Fantastic Duo. I suggested you as one to him,” he explains.

“Oh I see, but why did you suggest me?”

“Hey, you’re the one who said that it would be nice to have another artist to promote with.” This time, he is using her words against her.