April 2015

It took Krystal a few days to finally get the opportunity to speak privately with Klaire without prying eyes and ears. After hearing Krystal’s reason for cornering her in an empty recording studio in SM building, Klaire lifelessly asked to talk to Jessica using Krystal’s phone. Upon hearing Jessica’s voice, Klaire shouted, “You ignored me for months and then you sent your sister to bring me to your house? What do you think I am, a e? Go yourself, Jessica Jung!”

Klaire disconnected the call and roughly put Krystal’s phone on top of a speaker before she turned away to walk to the door. The next thing she knew, her body was slammed hard into the wall. She turned and looked at Krystal in disbelief as the girl had just pushed her with great force.

“No one speaks that way to my sister.” Krystal said, gritting her teeth.

The two Americans got into a catfight before a group of staff heard the commotion from the studio and barged in to break the fight. They were sent straight to the CEO’s office after that.

-

“You wanna tell me what that was about?” Mr. Kim glared at the two girls sitting in front of him. “Klaire? Krystal?”

The past few weeks, Klaire had been to the same exact office multiple times, her personal record since she started her training in the company. Her assault incident with her therapist and her desire to terminate her contract had raised ruckus amongst the high ranks of the company. Honestly, all she wanted was to have a break for a year or two to clear her mind and start fresh but in a spur of the moment she kind of implied that she wanted to leave the group and the company altogether. She had since been trying to explain that what she wanted was a break but everyone was still making such a big deal about it and the word termination was the one that went around the company.

It was already a bad day for Klaire before her encounter with Krystal, now it was even a worse day that she had to sit in front of and listen to someone she had come to despise.

“You two are going to pay for the broken equipments. I hope you know how expensive those things are.” Mr. Kim walked back and forth in his office, lecturing his two employees about how their behavior was unacceptable.

“You were lucky the trainees have gone home. Can you imagine what kind of rumor that would be going around if they saw you two fight?”

After a few moments of silence from the girls' part and seeing he couldn’t get anything out of them, Mr. Kim finally dismissed Krystal with a warning. He sat back on his chair when Krystal had left the room, looking at Klaire. “If your group hasn’t just lost someone last year, I would have kicked you out right now.”

Klaire did nothing but scoffed, which further making Mr. Kim angry.

“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” He asked, suspiciously.

“She pushed me first.” Klaire protested. She winced when her body moved, feeling the pain on her shoulder that crashed into the wall earlier.

“It doesn’t matter, you played along so you’re at fault as well.” He sighed and crossed her arms. “Since when did you become so violent, Klaire? The assault earlier this month and now, this?”

“I threw the lamp to the floor. I didn’t mean to hurt Ms. Jang.” She protested.

“But the broken glass piece cut her skin. And you shouldn’t break someone else’s thing in the first place. You even yelled and cursed at her.” Mr. Kim raised his voice.

“I told you I don’t need help. I don’t like sharing my feelings to strangers. All I need is a break from everything. I can’t do this.. idol thingy anymore.” Klaire replied frustratingly.

“Well, that’s exactly what people who need help usually say. Sometimes you don’t realize it, but the people around you do. You talk differently and you act differently, you suddenly became this angry person nobody recognizes anymore.” Mr. Kim kept an eye on his artists and he had been paying close attention to Girls’ Generation ever since the scandal last September. The managers were obligated to tell him whatever was going on in the group and as much as they favored the girls, they all agreed that the CEO needed to be aware of Klaire’s issues.

Hearing no replies from the singer, Mr. Kim continued, “The thing is that you’re not even trying and I can’t tolerate that. You want out? Okay.” Klaire finally paying real attention to what the CEO was saying since she got into the office.

“But I want you to know that this is not me granting your wishes. You’re out because your existence right now ruins the group. The girls are already having a hard time as it is, and I don’t think they should be dealing with someone who’s not willing to cooperate.”

Mr. Kim went on and on, cruelly trying to make Klaire feel guilty. He then explained that SM would announce the news about Klaire taking a break from the group’s activities a few days after their new Japanese single dropped. He then assured Klaire that the company’s PR Team would soon come up with a good reason for her hiatus along with some fabricated lies to make it convincing and to avoid the news causing unnecessary hate to her.

However, it wasn’t all rainbow and unicorn for Klaire. She still had to see a therapist, a new therapist since the old one didn’t want to deal with her anymore, and she had to stay in the country so the company could keep an eye on her. Before Klaire left the CEO’s office, Mr. Kim said, “You’re a very talented singer, Klaire, I would hate to see such talent go to waste.

Klaire hung by the door for a few seconds, thinking whether what he said was a compliment or a threat. On second thought, she didn’t really care.

-

All her members were there at the corridor outside the office, except for Hyoyeon and Yoona, who were having their own invidividual schedules. They were cornering and glaring down at Krystal when Klaire stepped out of the room. When they saw Klaire, they all went to her and asked if she was alright.

“Oh my God, you ear is bleeding.” Yuri said in shock, seeing dry blood stain coming from behind Klaire’s right ear. All the attention was now on Klaire but she just shrugged it off. She knew Krystal’s bracelet scratched the back of her ear ealier.

“It’s fine. Where’s Jungmin-oppa by the way? I need to get my shoulder check, it hurts really bad.”

“I think you owe her an apology.” Klaire heard Tiffany’s voice from the side. Apparently she was talking to Krystal, gesturing to the girl to apologize to Klaire. But the young girl looked at her with a mocking face.

“She deserved it.” Krystal said.

“Is that the way you treat your senior, Jung Soojung?” Tiffany asked, clearly irritated. She didn’t like people messing with her members, especially when it was Krystal. Someone younger than her, a junior, and a person she used to be close with but now treating her with nothing but disrespect.

“Leave her alone. I started it.” Klaire suddenly said.

“What? I thought she attacked you first?” Sooyoung asked.

“She pushed me because I said something, okay? Can we just leave her alone now? I really need to go to the hospital.” Klaire turned around and left the scene with her members followed suit, still concerned over the blood they saw. At the corner of her eye she saw Tiffany purposely bumped her shoulder to Krystal’s while walking away. She slowed down to make sure that bump was the end of it and when she saw Tiffany power walked to catch up with them, she sighed in relief.

-

As if her day couldn’t get any worse, the doctor showed the X-ray result and told Klaire that she had a dislocated shoulder. Apparently when she crashed to the wall the bone popped out of her shoulder socket. Luckily, no tissues or nerves around the shoulder joint were damaged. Therefore, the doctor only needed t