Wook Sajangnim received a negative report from the Public Relations team. Jihyo was gaining ugly comments. Alas, the kind of noise that Kang Daniel synced with the Allure preview wasn’t what he expected.

He phoned the young CEO, “Shouldn’t you be more careful following another girl on social media, Kang Sajangnim? This is reflecting badly on Jihyo ssi.”

Scoffed, “Ah really? How bad?”

Must be due to Korea’s patriarchal society that the Konnect CEO wasn’t worried. Instead of accusing him of cheating, society was blaming Jihyo for looking old and ugly that brought Daniel to seek another girl.

Taken aback by the inconsiderate response, Wook Sajang suddenly recalled Nayeon’s furious complaint about Daniel’s self-centric damage control in the wake of the dating news.

Him addressing it solely as a singer, not as an involved man, as if washing his hands of the issue. This abandoned Jihyo to carry all the dirt. Strike one.

And then his infamous breakdown at the dawn of MAMA awards, throwing off Jihyo unprepared. Strike two.

With the reinstatement of the deal, the JYPE CEO expected fair conduct this time. He even had to scold Sana and Jihyo for their unnecessary public displays. Yet, here’s the young CEO provoking to be called out.

Thus, the senior voiced “We are letting you ride on our hype. It’s not part of the deal for you to detriment us like this. You are being disrespectful.”

“Your hype didn’t do . I still have to pull myself up to get the most out of this. Even to a point of pertaining about her.”

Daniel mentioned in one of the Cyan promotions that for girls, beauty spots under eye are attractive. Which Jihyo has at her right cheek. With this, the general public would see him as an admiring boyfriend.

The dating news has blocked interviews for months. Silence has been implemented. All of a sudden, he’s breaking it; to think he had already omitted Jihyo since the beginning. As if this move is necessary now. Desperate.

Its effect, however, wasn’t at par to his demands. He blamed the lack of results to Jihyo’s shameless renouncement. “Tch, talk about disrespect- SHE is the one rude here, blatantly fooling around. And worse, with a Japanese girl!”

“KANG DANIEL SSI.”  

One shot, straight-up. Jihyo slams the now empty glass to the table. Though their CEO has finally woken up to his senses and withdrawn restrictions for the Jjakkungs, this isn’t a celebration.

While the leader drowns her own frustrations, the 3-mix unnies are keeping her company. Jeongyeon pours on their glasses, “Quite late for apologies. The damage has been done since that guy was brought in.”

She raises glass and adds “And look, he did it again! For the THIRD TIME. Ah jincha. The irony of ugly comments on a beauty magazine, brought to us by the bestest boy in Korea.”

Nayeon, on the other hand, exclaims in gibberish how she’s been right and what the men in authority should’ve done.

“If Jyo reall had t- save Korea, Sajang shoulda setup her up wid her ideal. Don’ make it hardrr for nyone. Should b sum one dependable. Or! or… a Least sum who won’t bring u down.”

Jihyo chuckles on a memory back in What is Love era where she quizzes herself to the members. In which, the unnie guessed everything right. Shaking head, the leader mockingly retests “What kind of guy is my dream guy?”

“I said~ Dependable guyyyy. How may time do I haf to b right?!”

Jihyo sluggishly smiles as she swings hand side to side, “Unnie~ You’re wrong. She’s not a namja. She’s not just a dream. She is”, starts blaring, “SANAAAA!! You’re the real deal~ Mianhaeyo! Saranghandagoo!”

How much do you love me?

“I don’t know but-” She casts her cares on her chosen poison. For every shot chugged down, it kicks her into vivid reminiscence.

The risks she has taken flashes through mind. Especially, the Music Bank kiss. The kiss that best friend Jeong had to plot with the rest of Twice.

Jihyo has fear of what people would think and say. Yet, she welcomed judgement the moment her lips touched her one and only Sana.

The authenticity of every moment, the presence with her all this time, Jihyo couldn’t deny it that she wouldn’t stomach to be partnered with someone else. Thus, she found answers.

Jihyo is not using Sana to show she’s not dating Daniel. Rather, she’s forsaking him because her truth is Sana. For her, there can only be one partner she belongs to. Hence, she rejects anyone who is not her.

THIS is how much Jihyo loves Sana. But how could she measure this? She doesn’t know how much that she could only profess “I really really love you, Sana-yah.”

Jihyo leans as she loses grip. Fallen and caught. The leader entrusts herself to this warm and steady presence. It whiffs off a familiar sweet smell, that of candies. She likes it. Her newly found grip clutches tighter.

So tight, wincing is felt and groans are heard.

Her brows furrowed, slowly waking up to reality. And it’s beautiful. On bed, Jihyo found herself fully wrapped around a now orange-haired Sana. She couldn’t help but smile at the thought, she loves me too.

Could be an even more beautiful sight if Jihyo could eliminate Sana’s faint clamor and bring her peace. Thus carefully, she tries to untangle herself without disturbing the other. Her arm is stuck, however.

The queen awakens.

“Mian”, Jihyo whispers. “For…”

The leader wants to say more, as this isn’t just for invading the bed space. But the Japanese turns aside as she heard enough raw confession last night. Sana sedately speaks, “For everything? Me too. Could we-”

Jihyo anticipates anything her queen may ask of her. Sana continues “From now on, could we be more… tender and kind to each other?”

“O?” It got Jihyo thinking. Tender, she said. Sana must’ve been hurt so badly for her to ask it. The leader imprints this in mind and swears to the best of her ability in fulfilling it. Whatever that tender means. “I’d like that too.”

Sana serenely breathes into this new day. The Jjakkung relationship starts anew. But catching up would have to be saved for later. She stretches out priming oneself and says “Kaja. We might run late.”

Right, they are the busy Twice. Lots to shoot today, they get up and hustle accordingly. By the time they arrive at the last shoot, they’re dazed. The leader mutters in flat tone, “Let’s have fun.”

The rest of the girls give her a look nudging her to change up since they are filming a fun-filled program. Nayeon murmurs back, “Sure, have fun!”

Jihyo slaps herself, “What’s up with me?”

Perked up, they then greet “Hana, deul, set! One in a million! Annyeonghaseyo~ Twice imnida!”

Today, April 16^th—Twice is playing Karaoke games for their reality show. Jihyo gestures hand towards Sana, as if giving her the mic to shout the next spill. There’s a bit of delayed response though, as it’s unexpected.

The partners talk with their eyes. The Japanese turns to the camera upon understanding the leader. “Time to~ TWICE!”

When it felt lacking, Sana brushes on Jihyo’s thigh urging a redo. She’s requesting to sound more fun and bright karaoke style. With arms up hands waving vigorously, Jihyo leads this time.

Like the previous set of games, Twice is divided into 3 teams. For today, they are: JeongSaMi as Team Madonna, NaJiTzu in Team Michael Jackson, and DaChaeMo for Team Bobby Brown.

In the segment Running Karaoke, any member of a team must race to one live mic amongst three when they know the song from cue and then sing it with the precise lyrics.

This type of games significantly puts the foreign line to disadvantage. Sana is timid most of the time while the others have gone fiercely competitive especially Jihyo.

But then comes up a cue that the Japanese is familiar with. She joins the battle to the live mic. When Chaeyoung gets the words mixed, Sana steps in to steal. To which Jihyo has also been looking for a chance.

The leader pushes herself in. Upon realizing she’s crossing Sana, Jihyo stops immediately. She remains still on her side with head bowed down waiting sheepishly. Tender, she remembers. She wouldn’t fight Sana.

Filming wraps up. While packing stuff, Jeong jokingly shoves Jihyo and teases about Sana. “Seems you two made up?”

“Kamsa”, Jihyo expresses gratitude.

“What did I do? Thank your idiocy.” In Jeong’s memory of last night, Jihyo crawled her way to Sana’s doorstep. She had kept knocking and calling until she’s let in.

The leader smiles foolishly. Like the ones she emanated behind Sana during the reality show filming. She shrugs telling Jeong, “Can’t say we’ve made up. More like, we’re learning about us in depth.”

Jjakkungs got passed the flirting phase. The serious fight laid tough questions that geared Sana and Jihyo into maturity. Defining what it means to be tender and kind.

So far, Jihyo has thought that it meant physical gentleness. Giving Sana the space to breathe. And that she must work on channeling anger to healthier expression.

Of course, this too ain’t easy. The following days, whenever the leader puts distance, the Japanese goes astray and find others’ tenderness. Jihyo couldn’t reconcile what Sana meant.

She’s supposed to be understanding of Sana’s affectionate nature, if not be professional in the More & More filming set. Yet, she can’t hide the sulkiness in watching Sana around Dahyun.

She resides on a thought of what this could be. “Ah, the punishment for being a bad girl.”