- 019 - 

Jongdae came for a visit on Friday morning. Yeonseok let Jisoo know that her cousin would join them for breakfast since he started to worry about her repelling the technology for days now.

Since her pictures circulated on social media and many people suddenly acted like the absolute judges on her personal life, Jisoo turned off her cellphone and spent time at home all day. She started to show, what Yeonseok called as early symptom of paranoia, when she felt like everyone was talking bad about her. She was also afraid to answer the phone, sometimes she didn't even want to answer the intercom when someone pressed the doorbell. Yeonseok encouraged her to get out of the house several times, by taking her for a walk in the park or to shop at the market, he never forced her when she refused to leave. So that's why, because she didn't communicate with anyone while her cellphone was off, he asked for Jongdae's help to talk her out.

Jisoo was very happy that Jongdae came to visit her. Actually there were times when she was bored after days being lazy at home, and since her cellphone was practically dead, Jisoo never talked to him.

"What have you been up to these days?" Jisoo asked as soon as he sat down to eat his breakfast. Jongdae sat opposite her, shrugged at the question.

"This and that. We were busy preparing the finals." He answered protocolly, as if he had prepared the answer beforehand.

"How's school?" she asked again.

"It's boring."

JIsoo squinted at the answer, had a hard time to believe any single of it. After the weekend incident and seeing how her phone was bombarded with messages and phone calls from strangers for two full days, especially with the topic involving one of the most favorite boy on campus, Jisoo was not sure the problem would sink soon. The last time Sehun was on the Gossip Girl page, people didn't stop talking about him wherever they were for a full month.

Jisoo spun her head to Yeonseok who sat next to her, looking at him suspiciously. She was sure Yeonseok must have briefed him to keep unnecessary things from her.

"Just tell her. This is progress that she even wants to know what's happening out there." said Yeonseok as he realized Jisoo's accusing gaze.

"Well, it's a mess at school obviously. The student senate and the deans held a meeting for several days to decide whether to sanction Oh Sehun." Jongdae paused to sip his favorite tofu stew soup before he continued speaking, Jisoo listened to him attentively.

"Because, you know, this message has two videos ..."

"Yeah, I know. I watched the tape." she cut him, rather annoyed to see Jongdae began to cover up something again. But when he heard Jisoo's words, Jongdae looked rather shocked, especially because he had warned her not to open any message sent to her phone before.

"You did? But I told you not to open it!"

"Only the first five seconds, I didn't even know why play it anyway." Her explanation was more directed on Yeonseok than Jongdae, seeing her husband raised his eyebrows as he looked interested in her confession.

"Well, then, anyway ..." Jongdae cleared his throat. "Apparently the tape was sent to all the numbers in Sehun's phone contact. So everyone, including the lecturers and deans received it. That's what caused the recent riots on campus. Some people think he is responsible for all the incidents that happened last weekend, but others assuming someone had framed him into this mess because first, the message was not sent from Sehun's number, and second, when the message was outspread, his phone was off. We interrogated everyone associated with him, finding out how technically the message could spread."

"Did Sehun say anything about all this?" Jisoo blurted another question. It's impossible if after all that happened, he still stayed sillent.

"Of course he dodged it. I didn't meet him personally, but the Dean said he was in Pyeontaek when he was met last Wednesday. And he just found out what happened at the time, and pleaded not guilty. His family sent a laywer team to campus for investigating and reporting this to the police for defamation cases."

From everything she heard, Jisoo was more focused to when Jongdae said that Sehun was in Pyeongtaek all this time. What's he doing there anyway? To think about it, Jisoo didn't remember there was something there related to Sehun before. And why did the dean have to meet him there, instead he came to the campus himself. She was just about to discuss it, but before she said anything, Jongdae had spoken again.

"Hyung, you made the right decision not to issue any clarification for this. We discussed it at the meeting yesterday, asking about your stand in this case, and by not issuing clarification, you actually had confirmed that Jisoo was the victim in the case, and this issued her from the list of names that need to be investigated in the investigation. Dean said he had met with your lawyer, but I didn't know exactly what the results of their conversation were. Maybe this will be discussed at a meeting next Saturday. "

Jisoo jerked head back to Yeonseok, surprised to hear his laywer was mentioned.

"Why is your lawyer meeting the Dean? I think we agree not to press any charge against Sehun for this case. He even said he wasn't responsible." she said in raising tone, annoyed.

"We're not pressing any charge against anyone, Honey." Yeonseok answered with his soft calming tone. Jongdae, who heard her new pet name was clearly interested at the change of their intimate interaction, and he couldn't help but to smile at that.

"With a team of lawyers from Sehun's family bringing this case to the legal office, chances are they will need you to make statements and so on. I send my lawyer as your spokesperson so you don't have to deal with them." Yeonseok gave her a soft pat on her head as soon as he finished his sentence, then he ended his breakfast and put his eating equipment on the sink before excused himself to get ready for work.

In this situation, Jisoo felt so bad for both Sehun and Irene. For her, she might only have problems with people's opinions about her 'infidelity' pictures and videos with Sehun circulating throughout the apartment building, hospital and social media. But Sehun and Irene must face a more complicated problem since their most private activities were widespread throughout the world. Jisoo said all over the world because knowing his friend contacts were not only came from South Korea. Sehun synced his contact and all his personal account passwords with his email, this person must be really good; between making Sehun tell them his email password, or hacking it.

When she and Jongdae continued to eat, along with her thoughts about this, something struck her. She was acting rather rude to her husband before. She was kind of sensitive and easily offended these days, sometimes she could just spoke out her mind without thinking what others might feel and she knew, that she was being biased over Sehun's case. All Yeonseok did was protecting her, and instead of thanking him, she snapped at him.

"Wait here, finish your meal." Jisoo excused herself and followed her husband to the room. She found him changing his clothes at his personal closet room.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you." she said as she helped him tidy up the back of his shirt, tucking it into his trousers.

"Snapping forgiven." he replied casually with a smile on the tip of his lips.

"And thank you for bringing Jongdae, I'm happy he's here." Because Jisoo wasn't so confident to look at him while talking, she wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him. As she leaned her cheek on his back, she smelled her masculine perfume which had recently become her favorite. She loved the scent of him, it smelled like black musk, with a hint of Mandarin Orange, and anything of orange was her weak spot.

And as Yeonseok was done with his cufflink, he turned around and circled his arms on her waist. A wider smile grew on his face as he put the hair on her face to the back of her ear, 

"No need to thank me, I'm happy when you are."

Jisoo couldn't help but blush and smile at his words, after all this time and he was this good at consoling her. She felt lucky to have him at her side.

"Look, I might go home late tonight. If you're not comfortable at home alone, just go to Jongdae's house and stay there. I'll pick you up there tonight."

Jisoo nodded with his offer. Actually it didn't matter if she had to be alone at home since she was used to it, but maybe it was time for her to leave the house after so many days lazying, after all, this was only to Jongdae's house. There would be no terror there.

"Now what will I have for doing something right?"

Jisoo smiled again. She knew when he said something like this, there was a certain thing he wished to get from her. She was no longer embarrassed now if Yeonseok expressed the similar request, or whenever he mentioned intimate things just to . After days of snuggling on their bed, a series of hugs and frequent kisses, Jisoo must admit that they were getting much closer. Even though she couldn't say that she had completely fallen in love with him, there were some things that every time he did it, it made her heart beat fast, and she didn't hate it.

So to make him happy, Jisoo felt he deserved a a gift. And it's only fair with her granting his request. So with that, Jisoo grasped on his sleeve, she tiptoed to give him a peck on his lips. It was quick and she immediately looked away for embarrassment because this was the first time she initiated the physical contact between them.

He's chuckled as he pinched on her cheeks. It made her groaned.

"Next time do it properly." he said again before he leaned on to extend the previous short kiss on her lips.

When they left their room Jongdae was looking at them with a knowing smile while he finished the tofu stew in the serving bowl. Jisoo joined him again at the kitchen island after Yeonseok left, and despite being aware of Jongdae's assessment gaze, she paused, trying to avoid his gaze.

"Hmm?" Jongdae asked playfully, after a while of no response.

"Hmm what?" Jisoo asked nonchalantly.

"Come on, I heard that. You guys were making out at the closet." he put a finger on his right ear to tell her that his ears worked very well in listening to what he shouldn't have heard, his smile widened, deliberately teasing her. Jisoo was not really used to the word 'making out', although Jongdae often used it to as she was dating Sehun, but hearing it again to refer to different person made her ears itchy.

"Did I miss something here? First, he calls you Honey, and then this." he raised his eyebrows with a knowing look.

"I'm not discussing my personal life with you again, Jongdae." Jisoo left as soon as her food was finished and brought the dirty plate and bowl to the sink so she could wash them.

If there was one word to describe Jongdae other than 'nagging boy' was nothing but 'being nosy'. He was very good at gaining information, especially for the things that he shouldn't know, and he's also an expert of deducting. There were so many times had he used her privacy just to for his personal fun. For several times Jisoo gave him a little information just so he wouldn't bother her anymore, but this time Jisoo wouldn't say anything, because the last time she told him her personal problems with Yeonseok, it didn't end very well.

Still not satisfied with digging for information, Jongdae stood right next to her when she did the dishes."Tell me, you guys finally did it, didn't you?" he teased.

"We didn't." she honestly replied. There's nothing to hide, because that was the truth. But apparently Jongdae didn't believe that easily.

"You lied. It's impossible if you haven't done it, especially after what you did earlier?"

Jisoo rolled her eyes, she decided not to extend Jongdae's blast. Just go ahead, Jongdae was allowed to believe whatever he wanted to believe, it wouldn't hurt her anyway. "Whatever you want to believe then, Brother. Have you ever seen me lied to you before anyway?"

It seems that because she did not see the signs he usually found if she did what he alleged, Jongdae just started believing. After all, even though Jisoo admitted that they were getting intimate the more days, somehow Jisoo still had this doubt if she had to do it all the way. It's still too early for her to figure out her feelings, was this what she really wanted. With that, she also had to admit that Sehun factor was still the reason for her doubts.

"Well, that's a start. But if you're in this state right now, I believe that hyung has been doing things right."

And that made her chuckled. Whatever he wanted to say then.

After finishing washing all the cutlery and putting the remaining side dish into the fridge, they sat on the couch. Jongdae told her that Kyungsoo had taken care of their group's design project. That included submitting it to the exhibition section and prepared the final presentation at the end of the month. Jongdae also told her that the winter break would be shortened so they could finish the finals early. Jisoo listened while noting some important things on the calendar on her laptop.

"Hey, I was thinking whether I needed to tell you this or not, but I think you might want to know about this." Jisoo spun her head from the laptop screen to her cousin, shaking her head upright so he told her what it was.

"I think Sehun will enlist his millitary service in the near future. You kno