“I know this sounds irrelevant, but I thought I’d bring it up now,” said Seungri.

Seungri and Jiyong were eating out once again, trying to calm Jiyong’s infinite rage against his cousin, who was now living with him.

Seungri continued, this time, his mouth full of food. “I told you I had a friend who went to Seunghyun’s school, right?”

“No,” Jiyong said, without interest.

“Oh, well, anyway, I have this friend that goes to that school. And his dad worked at the admissions department during the time you and Seunghyun applied.”

Jiyong’s chewing slowed down as his attention was suddenly caught.

“So I asked my friend – his name is Daesung, by the way – about that situation you told me about,” Seungri said, now picking up a piece of meat from his plate and stuffing it into his mouth. “And he told me what really happened.”

That was when Jiyong dropped his chopsticks and gaped at Seungri. “Go on,” he urged.

“Okay, he said the dean of admissions was definitely impressed by your interview and by your application,” Seungri began. “Now, the thing is, Seunghyun applied before you did, and he got rejected. His father had people inside the admissions department who were telling him what was going on, and since his son was rejected, he was willing to do anything in his power to kick out the next person in line for acceptance. That was you, just so you know. Since you were his ex-wife’s family, he didn’t have much remorse for you guys, so he jumped at the opportunity as quickly as possible. He paid the school about 600,000 won in donations, paid the dean of admissions for re-evaluation of their son, and Mr. Choi’s people inside the department scrapped and erased all your records behind the dean’s back.”

Jiyong’s animosity caused him to clench his fist around the chopsticks he was now holding and broke it.

Seungri resumed recounting what his friend had told him. “Daesung told me that Seunghyun knew none of this. He was told that he was re-admitted because of a glitch in the system and that they were truly impressed by his academics. Nobody had the guts to tell Seunghyun the truth because of what his father might do to them.”

Jiyong stood up. “What the hell? These bastards are afraid? Don’t they have integrity? What kind of school – ”

Seungri pulled his friend back down. In a low voice he said, “Will you calm down? People are looking at us!”

“No, like hell I’ll calm down. All this was because of his father! This whole time…” Jiyong rubbed his temples. This was too much for him to process in a minute. “His father was the root of all their problems. His mom leaving them… He claims that my aunt was just a gold digger and that she left him. He was the one who kicked her out of their life!”

Seungri watched as his friend was in so much anguish. A part of him wished he hadn’t told him the truth, at least, not when they were in a public place.

“Look how it’s a never ending cycle: his family banished his own mother, and now they’re kicking him out,” Jiyong scoffed. “His father shouldn’t have a family in the first place if all he does is control them and then kick them out in the streets… I can’t believe this. This whole thing was his father’s fault. It was his father’s fault!!”

Jiyong took out his phone.

“What are you doing?” Seungri asked as he examined his friend dial his phone furiously.

“I’m calling Seunghyun up,” he replied.

“What?!” Seungri nearly screamed, as he lunged towards his phone. “Don’t!!”

Jiyong dropped his phone, looking at Seungri with confusion.

“Don’t tell him! I promised Daesung… He wasn’t even supposed to tell me… His father’s job is on the line if you tell anybody, especially Seunghyun,” Seungri managed to say in between each pound of his rapidly beating heart. It was a close call for him; had not Jiyong stopped his phone call, both he and Daesung’s lives were on the line.

“Well, you can’t just expect me to sit here and watch as he continues to go to school based on lies!”

“But think about it!” Seungri argued. “What happens if you do tell him? Do you expect him to be all caring and compassionate and say ‘Oh, gee, Jiyong, thanks for the heads up; I’m going to withdraw from this academy straightaway so you can apply again’? No!”

Jiyong drummed his fingers on the table heatedly. Seungri had a good point.

“You just have to let him find it out on his own, I guess,” said Seungri.

“Oh! Jiyong, you’re finally home,” said Mrs. Kwon as soon as Jiyong appeared by their doorway. She sat in their living room enjoying an evening broadcast of the news with her husband. “I hope you’ve already eaten – ”

“Yes, umma, I have.”

“Good, because Seunghyun has a really big appetite and I’m afraid we couldn’t save some – ”

Jiyong clenched his fist and stomped his way up to his bedroom. A string of harsh curse words slipped furiously out of his lips as he shut his bedroom door behind him. For a moment he had forgotten how his cousin had double crossed him earlier that morning, until he heard that awful name uttered in his own home. He was so glad that his mother had moved Seunghyun out of his room, or else it would have become a crime scene of torturous blood and gore.

He plopped down on his bed, feeling the comfort of being alone in his own room once again. Just then, his phone began to ring.

In the speed of light, he got up and fished his phone out of his pocket, half hoping the caller was someone he’d been longing to hear from. His heart thumped vigorously as he scanned his caller ID.

He was right.

And without a second to waste - in case the caller had changed their mind and decided to drop it - Jiyong answered.

“Yeobosayo?” His voice quavered in sheer nervousness. He waited for a few seconds, quickly being terrified that his caller had hung up. Just as he was about to ask if there was anyone there, she finally spoke.

“J-Jiyong.”

Her voice, just as his, was also evident of nervousness and fear.

“How are you?” Jiyong had asked her immediately. Eun Ji was shocked.

She had thought that he was no longer concerned for her well being.

“I’m okay… I just wanted to talk.” She said slowly. “I’m sorry.”

Jiyong sighed. But this time, it wasn’t the type that showed disappointment or sadness. He was relieved.

“I’m going to hang up,” he said suddenly, causing Eun Ji’s heart to drop to the pit of her stomach. Though, she didn’t speak. A part of her knew that this was going to happen.

“Arasso..” She replied, her voice very soft that it was nearly impossible to hear her. “Bye.”

“No – wait. Wait for me.”

“Huh?”

“Wait for me. Outside.” Jiyong said.

Eun Ji automatically knew what he meant. “I’ll wait.”

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A/N: So sorry for neglecting this fic! I just started a new Yoseob fanfic out of the whim, which was a bad idea because I really need to focus on only one fic at a time! But, it's okay, I guess. Anyway, the truth is revealed about how Seunghyun really got that spot in the academy Jiyong was so frustrated about! And also, just to keep you guys heads up, most of my chapters weren't proofread or edited (since I'm so lazy to), so please disregard any spellings or grammatical errors. Haha. Also, I just remembered that 'Seungri' was only Lee Seunghyun's stage name. But obviously, I couldn't use 'Seunghyun' in this fic because you might all get confused. (In real life, Jiyong and Seunghyun call Seungri "little Seunghyun", but of course, it would be weird to use that in this fic).