Jinwoon folded his arms tightly over his chest, his expression a hard grimace. “You have got to be kidding me. I don’t believe this. Nana...her mother...which mother would do that kind of thing to her own daughter? You’re lying through your teeth, aren’t you, Suzy.”

Suzy was sitting up on the hospital bed, the pillow against her back. She rolled her eyes in exasperation, her tone rude as she spoke. “Why would I lie about this? It’s all true. If you want to, you can go and confirm it with JB, or even Nana herself. But I think you’d better not. The last person who dared to ask JB about his family without him volunteering information was beaten up by him. That trainee kid, remember? The one who got kicked out of JYPE for getting into a fistfight with JB?”

Jinwoon remembered that occasion all too well indeed, as Suzy obviously knew; otherwise, she would not have chosen to bring up this particular example. The trainee in question had been a curious one, the type that could not keep his mouth shut and would just keep asking questions again and again if they weren’t answered. Jinwoon had been there when it happened, practising for 2AM’s debut; the trainee had been following JB around the entire day, questioning him about his family, completely not understanding the verbal cues that he should have drawn from the silence that JB answered him with. And when JB had finally snapped - well, Jinwoon couldn’t even completely fault him for it, now that he knew the whole story. The trainee had asked some stupid, rude question, something like “Come on, surely you have parents right, like, a dad and mom?” or “I’m sure you have parents, everyone does.” and JB had just snapped and whaled on the trainee. The 2AM members had only just been able to drag JB off the trainee, and had received bruises that lasted days for their efforts; the trainee, on the other hand, had ended up in the hospital with a broken arm and jaw. 

Suzy could see clearly that Jinwoon was going through that entire incident in his mind right then; she smiled a sly smile. “Well? Go ahead, it’s fine by me, you know.” 

Jinwoon folded his arms, clearing his throat as he tried to maintain his dignity. “I think there’s no need for that. Just tell me one thing - how the hell do you even know about this anyway?”

“Well - you know, tongues wag. I must admit, it’s a very well-kept secret. Only very few people in the industry know about this; I think besides JYP himself, only JB and Nana’s very closest friends. It’s just a pity Key likes to talk so much when he’s drunk...” Suzy mused, the glint in her eyes wicked. 

Jinwoon’s gaze was flat. “So you tricked the information out of Key.” 

Suzy shrugged shamelessly, her expression nonchalant. “Of course I did. How else could I have found out? Anyway, stop trying to change the subject. You agreed to help me, so are you going to follow through with the plan or not?” 

For the first time, Jinwoon hesitated. Now that he knew everything, now that he really knew what had happened to Nana and JB, he hesitated. Nana was his friend. A good friend, too, at that. A friend who listened to him when he needed to be listened to, a friend who would talk to him when he needed someone to talk to; they weren’t as close as, say, Nicole and Nana, or Key and Nana were, but they were friends nonetheless. And Jinwoon had a sneaking suspicion that whatever Suzy’s plan was, it would have something to do with revealing the secret that Nana and JB had worked so hard to keep; in essentiality, shaming Nana with it. 

Softly, he spoke up, not meeting Suzy’s eyes, “Nana’s my friend. You’re asking me to-”

“Yes, I am. You know you want to do it, too. Or are you going to let that hoobae of yours, who doesn’t even dare to confess to a girl first take Jiyeon?” 

Jinwoon grimaced at the younger girl’s words. “But if you intend to use JB’s family, then this isn’t just about Jiyeon and JB anymore. It involves Nana, their mother, and god knows who else-”

“Yeah, it sure as hell does, and the more you think about it, the more your determination will waver, and the worse you’ll feel, so just stop harping on it, okay!” Suzy barked, impatient. “So are you in? Or are you just going to continue being a whimpering coward and back out?” 

Jinwoon’s eyes flashed at Suzy’s words; coldly, he spat out. “I told you I’m in, what more do you want? A pledge signed in blood?” 

Suzy sneered at her sunbae, no respect for him at all. “I doubt you have the guts for that, so we’ll just leave it at a verbal promise, shall we?”

Jinwoon’s fists clenched at Suzy’s words, but being a guy, there was no way he could just hit Suzy, especially not the “Nation’s Precious Little Sister”. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t say what he wanted to her, “You know, they really should call you the Nation’s Little instead; it fits your personality much more.” 

Suzy just laughed coldly, unfazed by the older man’s insults. “Please, you just wish you were as popular as I am. Now, are you ready to discuss the next step of my plan or are you going to spend more time letting me see just how much of an inferiority complex you have?”

Jinwoon’s face flushed red with anger, but he tamped down on his emotions with all the composure he could manage. “Get on with it, then, or I’m going to start to wonder if you even have a plan at all.” 

Suzy leaned forward, her game face on, the spark in her eyes cruel and anticipating. “All right then. Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to check myself out of the hospital and go to Music Core today...” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Myungsoo ran a hand through his unruly hair, hating the hairdo that his manager had given him today. Who thought it would be hot to have a guy go up on stage to sing, looking as if he had just woken up and hadn’t even combed his hair? Then again, Myungsoo supposed that he should be glad this was only for a minor event like Music Core, and not something like a year-end show. 

“Stop touching it. You look fine.” Sungyeol told Myungsoo, without even looking up from his phone. 

“No. You all look fine. Not me. I mean, seriously, what kind of hairstyle is this?” Myungsoo grumbled, giving voice to his complaints. “I look like I went for a perm that got screwed up.” 

Sunggyu turned around to look at him, his eyebrows raised; the hyung bit back a cough. “Well- okay yeah you do look a bit like Big Bird with that hairstyle. But come on, the fans can’t be bothered to look at your hair; they’ll be too busy looking at your face. Or rather, they’ll be too busy looking at me.” Sunggyu grinned. 

The other Infinite members rolled their eyes at their leader’s inflated ego. 

As the Infinite members hopped out of their van, Myungsoo perked up to see the T-ara members getting out of their own van, not to parking lots away from Infinite’s van. He hurried over, looking left and right to make sure there weren’t any fans looking at him - as an idol, you never could be too careful - and felt a sting of disappointment to see that Jiyeon was not with her other members. He bowed low to T-ara, a greeting and an apology all in one. “Annyeonghaseyo.” 

Eunjung looked at him coldly, seemingly ready to ignore him, but Boram kept her tone civil enough. “Yes, Myungsoo-sshi? Is there something you need?” 

“I was just wondering where Jiyeon-sshi was-”

“Why,” Hyomin cut in rudely, “so you can break her heart again?” 

“Hyomin!” Qri rebuked, softly yet firmly, as she grasped the younger girl’s hand. Boram’s expression was unchanged; polite but distant as she answered, “She won’t be coming for today’s performance, she’s busy with her filming schedule.” She dipped her head to the younger man, then moved past, the other T-ara members trailing behind her without acknowledging Myungsoo. 

“Ouch.” Sungjong whistled. “That was kind of cold.” 

“He’s just going to have to slowly earn back their trust if he wants to get together with Jiyeon again.” Hoya commented, as if Myungsoo wasn’t even there. “And honestly, if Myungsoo here wasn’t our friend, I’d say he deserves it, considering the move he pulled.” 

Myungsoo glared irritably at Hoya, who grinned back at him in his usual cheeky way. Shaking his head, Myungsoo headed into the MBC building. 

As he headed in the direction of Infinite’s dressing room, he was surprised to see the Seulong and Jo Kwon standing outside the door of Miss A’s dressing room, as they chatted with Miss A’s Min and Fei. He bowed his head to them, greeting them politely, “Annyeonghaseyo.” 

Seulong nodded, more than a little frosty - Myungsoo supposed that was to be expected, given that he was in the same company as JB and was rumoured to be quite close to him. Jo Kwon, on the other hand, smiled at Myungsoo in his usual friendly way. “Hi. Here for the Music Core performance?” 

Myungsoo nodded back in response, then indicated the door with his hand. “Uh...why don’t you go in?”

“Oh, we’re not performing. Seulong and I are just visiting; actually, Jinwoon dragged us here. Apparently he wanted to talk to Suzy, and they just locked us out of the room.” Jo Kwon replied, sticking his finger at the door.

Myungsoo’s head whirled around to look at the door, his eyes narrowing automatically to hear mention of Suzy’s name in conjunction with Jinwoon’s. Without waiting for the others to say anything, he walked up to the door and rapped sharply on it. “Yah, Bae Suzy, open this door right now.” 

There was a short silence. 

“I said open it right now, before I kick it down.” 

The door was unlocked and opened; Suzy stood at the door, glaring resentfully at Myungsoo; and yet, Myungsoo thought he could see a hint of longing in the younger girl’s eyes. He fought back a shudder and forced his way into the room, closing the door behind him. 

Jinwoon was sitting on a chair facing the door, his arms folded and his expression cold. “Myungsoo-sshi.” 

Myungsoo put on his usual cold expression, knowing it was far more distant and frightening than anything Jinwoon could muster. “What’s going on here?” 

Suzy folded her arms too, mimicking Jinwoon. “None of your business. What do you want, Myungsoo?”

“What’s going on here?” Myungsoo repeated, his voice deadly and freezing as he pierced the duo with his dark eyes. 

“You said you wanted no part of this, so I really don’t think you have any right to ask.” Jinwoon replied with a flippant shrug. Myungsoo’s eyes narrowed, taking a threatening step forward. “Are the two of you still trying to screw up Jiyeon and JB’s relationship? Why don’t you just grow up already?” 

Jinwoon stood up, his eyes flashing. “What, do you like losing Jiyeon to a kid like JB? Don’t tell me you’re just going to stand by and not do anything, Kim Myungsoo.” 

“You’re right. I’m not just going to stand by and not do anything. But that just means I’m going to fight for Jiyeon’s heart, fair and square, instead of playing dirty like some sore loser, like the two of you are doing right now.” Myungsoo responded with a sneer, contempt written all over his face. 

“What did you just call me?” Jinwoon demanded, grasping Myungsoo by the collar, but the younger man was having none of it. He shoved Jinwoon back, breaking his grip with a scoff. “Talk to me when you’re ready to be a man, . And you jolly well leave Jiyeon alone, or you’ll have me to answer to.” Without a backward glance, he whirled around, striding out of the door, his eyes still burning with fury at the other two’s low methods.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jiyeon leaned her head against the railing tiredly, fighting the urge to just close her eyes and doze off during this break from filming. Jinwoon was lucky he managed to get off today; he didn’t have any scenes to film today, while Sora-sshi and Jiyeon were nearly half-dead from filming already. That last scene has taken twenty-six tries before they managed to nail it. 

On the bright side, though, the next scene she had was with JB, in the hospital - one of the rare few, now that she rarely had any scenes with JB anymore. She could hardly believe that so much time had passed, that they had almost finished filming Dream High 2 already. She knew that the show wasn’t well-received - what was she saying, the ratings were honestly crap - but she couldn’t help but be glad that she had taken up the show; otherwise, how else would she have met JB? 

Speaking of which, where was JB anyway? She hadn’t seen him anywhere on set today yet; although, granted, he, Seojoon, Hyorin and Ailee had probably been lounging around the set premises while they waited for Jiyeon and Sora to finish filming. 

She sighed, lowering her head, too tired to move anything else. 

Out of the blue, she felt someone sitting down next to her, leaning an arm over her shoulder. She recognised the familiar mint scent immediately, the feel of the arm around her. She leaned back into her boyfriend’s embrace, closing her eyes as she sighed. “We really shouldn’t be doing this in broad daylight, who knows what paparazzi might be waiting around the corner.” 

“You still leaned back, didn’t you?” JB replied, amused. 

Jiyeon just curled deeper into him. “Where have you been the whole day? I was looking for you just now.” 

“I got something for you.” JB answered, and she could almost see the grin on his face as he said that. She got up, blinking sleepily, eyes lighting up in expectation despite her exhaustion. 

JB fished out a small box from his pocket. “Chocolates. It’s scientifically proven, you know. Chocolate makes you happy. And given that you’ve been so tired of late...” 

Jiyeon smiled. “Royce, too. My favourite. Thanks.” She pecked him gently on the lips, taking the box of chocolates from him. 

Just then, they heard their director’s voice. “JB! Jiyeon! Come on, it’s time for filming! Where are the two of you hiding?” 

JB jumped to his feet, holding his hand out to help Jiyeon out. “We better go before he throws a tantrum.” He joked, and they walked back to the set, hand in hand. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey guys, I'm back! Here's the next chapter!

This chapter showed the dynamics of Jinwoon and Suzy more clearly - although Jinwoon is the sunbae and the older one, Suzy is nevertheless the more commanding, arrogant one who tends to take charge; she's also the more determined one, in that she's determined to make JB and Jiyeon break up. In a way she's also the one driving Jinwoon; he has his uncertainties and doubts, but because of the way she reacts to him, it kind of angers him into doing what she wants. Myungsoo, on the other hand, is totally different. He's now seen through Suzy's charms and treats her like scum; and, being the more honourable guy that he is, he still wants to fight for Jiyeon's heart regardless of how futile it might be, and he wants to do it without all the plotting and scheming that Suzy and Jinwoon are engaging in. 

My favourite part was still the last part, though - JB/Jiyeon are just too cute and functional together, but how long can that last with three other people vying for their love? 

I'll try to update asap, so please be patient. And remember guys, comment and subscribe!