Ham Eunjung stared at the television set in disbelief, her eyes wide in shock.

There was a sudden crash around. Eunjung spun around, startled. She stuttered, “Ji…Jiyeon-ah.”

Jiyeon’s lips trembled as she stared at the television screen, “What…what is this..?” She staggered, and Hyomin, standing behind her, barely managed to catch her in time. Hyomin led Jiyeon to the sofa, where she collapsed, her eyes still fixed on the television screen.

“What’s going on?” Soyeon asked. She, Boram, Qri and Hwayoung exited their rooms, having heard the din, and were staring at the television set in equal disbelief.

“Shut it.” Hyomin hissed. Eunjung rushed for the control and switched the television set off, but the damage was done. Jiyeon turn to her members, her eyes wide and teary, her hands shaking, “This…This isn’t true, is it? Myungsoo…he can’t be cheating on me.”

The other Tara members were at a loss. They stood around her, silent, glancing uneasily at each other.

“No. No this can’t be true. I don’t believe this. This is a lie.”

Hyomin rubbed Jiyeon’s back. She bit her lip as her gaze met Soyeon’s. The older member shook her head, “I…I’ll get you a hot chocolate, all right, Jiyeon?” She and Qri turned to the kitchen.

Jiyeon tried to stop her hands from trembling, but they wouldn’t. Hyomin opened to speak, but nothing would come out. She had no idea what to say, what to do to comfort her precious maknae.

All of a sudden, Jiyeon bolted, charging out of the door. Hyomin gave a yelp as she was thrown back; she leapt to her feet and made for the door, but Boram interrupted, “Let’s give her some time alone.”

Eunjung spun and glared at Boram, “Are you kidding me? Let her go out there alone? What if she gets into trouble or something?”

“She’s grown up. We can’t be expected to chase after her all the time, and she needs some time alone to figure everything out, anyway. Let’s give her an hour; if she doesn’t come back, then we’ll go after her.” Boram answered. Although she spoke quietly, softly, but the authority, the steel in her voice was obvious. After a moment’s hesitation, Hyomin nodded. She closed the door and sat down on the sofa, folding her arms tightly, “I can’t believe this. That ­bastard. How could he do something like this? Cheating on Jiyeon with that girl Suzy. And that ! How dare they?!” Hyomin raged, seething.

“Watch your language.” Soyeon warned as she sat down a few mugs of hot chocolate, “Drink up. I saved some for Jiyeon too, she can have it when she comes back.”

Slowly, the members of Tara settled down around the coffee table, till only Eunjung was left standing. After a minute, Eunjung strode purposefully to the door.

Qri looked up, “Unnie! Where are you going?”

“I’m going to get justice for our Jiyeon.”

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

JB sighed as his phone rang again. He glanced at the caller ID and picked up, demanding impatiently, “Yah, JR! What do you want, you’ve called me fifteen times in the past five minutes!”

“Where are you? I’m hungry…” JR whined into the phone, “Can you hurry up and come back?”

“I told you, I’m out for a walk!” JB answered before hanging up and putting the phone on silent. He sighed again, and continued on his walk, enjoying the quiet morning.

Unfortunately, the quiet morning was interrupted only a few moments later, as a woman dashed out of a building, and charged right at JB. JB barely had time to blink before the woman crashed into him with the force of a truck; both of them went down with a loud thud.

JB winced as his back hit the ground. Like the gentleman he was, he immediately turned to the lady, “Are you all right?”

And then he froze. He stared, stunned, at the weeping figure of Park Jiyeon, on the floor beside him.

Jiyeon was crying her eyes out, the tears streaming from her face like a leaking faucet. There was a few minutes of silence as JB stared at Jiyeon, not knowing what to do. After a while, Jiyeon calmed down a little. JB hesitated, then brought out a hankerchief and handed it to his co-actress. She grabbed it and used it to wipe her tears, letting out a muffled, “Thank you.”

She looked up for the first time, and seemed startled to see JB in front of her. JB gave an uneasy smile, “Uh…hi?”

Jiyeon immediately got to her feet, wiping away all remnants of her tears. JB got to his feet as well, saying awkwardly, “You don’t have to be so…it’s not like I’ll tell the press or anything.”

There was a pause. Then Jiyeon looked up at him with bloodshot eyes and asked softly, “What are you doing here?”

“I…I was just out for a walk. JR and I…we kinda live nearby…I didn’t realize Tara lived in this area too.” JB answered. He bit his lip, wondering whether he should ask her what was wrong. After a moment, he decided against it and asked instead, “Um…would you like to come over for a visit?”

“Female idols aren’t supposed to visit…” Jiyeon belted out the automatic answer before hesitating, her voice trailing off. Then, in a quieter voice, she answered, “I’d love to.”

JB took her hand. Jiyeon stiffened at the sudden contact, but she realised that JB was just trying to comfort her in a more subtle way, and she didn’t resist as he led the way.

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

“JR. I’m back.”

JR leapt to his feet at the voice of his hyung, ready to shout for him to cook some food. Then he froze, startled, “You…Aren’t you Tara’s Jiyeon? What…what are you doing here?”

JB glanced at him sharply, “I met her outside and invited her in.”

“Oh.” JR turned and sat back down uneasily. Hyper as he may be, he had definitely noticed her red-rimmed eyes. He grabbed his computer and began to surf the internet again, waiting for a more explicit explanation from JB.

“C’mon.” JB led her to the kitchen and pulled a chair out for her, “Do you want something to eat? Ramen or something?”

“…Can I have a hot drink please?”

“Sure.” JB went out to the living room, “Yah, JR, I’ll cook some ramen for you, all right? You’re hungry, right?”

JR beamed, “Thanks, hyung!”

JB grinned. He returned to the kitchen, quickly whipping up a hot chocolate for Jiyeon and started preparing JR’s ramen. Jiyeon watched him quietly before asking, “Do you cook very often?”

JB gave a small laugh, “I don’t really have much choice. JR refuses to learn how to cook, and since I’m the hyung, I usually end up cooking for him. I got a lot of tips from Sunye-noona and Suzy-noona, anyway.”

Jiyeon stiffened at the mention of Suzy’s name, but JB didn’t notice it. Softly, she asked, “Are you close to them?”

“Well…I guess I’m actually closer to Jia-noona and Sunye-noona. Suzy’s…not around that often. I don’t know why. Maybe she has a busier schedule?”

Jiyeon had begun to cry again without realizing it, her tears wetting the tablecloth. JB turned to glance at her, and was startled to see her tears. Hurriedly, he brought her a tissue to wipe her face and watched her worriedly. After a moment, Jiyeon spoke, “If you keep staring at me, the ramen is going to burn.”

JB yelped and rushed back to the ramen; Jiyeon couldn’t help but laugh in spite of herself.

After a few minutes, JB called, “Yah, your ramen is ready.”

JR rushed into the kitchen, “Omo! Thanks so much, hyung.” He grabbed the ramen and was about to seat himself at the table when he noticed Jiyeon’s presence. He hesitated, “I’ll…just…take this to the living room.” He made to leave, when Jiyeon quickly got up, “It’s all right, you can eat here.”

JR hesitated, glancing at his hyung. JB nodded and JR seated himself awkwardly, “Well…uh…thanks…?”

Jiyeon managed a smile. JB murmured, “Let’s go to my room.”

The duo left for JB’s room. As Jiyeon entered, she was surprised by how neat and orderly his room was. Everything was stacked nicely and carefully arranged. What surprised her most, however, was a collection of CDs in the corner. Inspecting them carefully, she noticed CDs from all the JYPE artistes, as well as TVXQ and Tara CDs. She glanced at JB, “This is…?”

JB actually blushed, “Oh. You found my collection. It’s sort of…my way of supporting my sunbaes, I guess. It’s not much, but still.”

“No wonder they say JYP Entertainment is a family.” Jiyeon mused, “And the Tara and TVXQ CDs?”

“I’m a fan.” JB admitted, “A big fan of your music.”

Jiyeon smiled, a real smile this time, “Thanks. I can’t wait for your debut either.”

They sat down on JB’s bed, facing each other. Hesitantly, JB raised a question, “Are you feeling better now?”

Jiyeon nodded, “I’m feeling a lot better. Thanks to you.”

They sat in silence for a while before Jiyeon spoke again, “Thank you. For not asking me why I was crying.”

“I wanted to ask. But I thought it would just make you feel worse.” JB answered softly. Jiyeon sighed, “You know that I was dating Kim Myungsoo? From Infinite?”

JB felt his heart plummet as he heard those words. Then, immediately, he berated himself. Why in the world would he feel disappointed that she was dating Myungsoo, anyway? It’s not like it was any of his business. Then he noticed something, “Why use the past tense? Are you no longer dating him?”

“There was a report. He was left leaving a hotel with Bae Suzy late last night.”

There was a long silence as the news sunk in. JB let out a breath, “God. I’m so sorry.”

“What for? It’s not your fault.” Jiyeon smiled bitterly, “I tried to call him. But he just told me that he was going for his concert and hung up. He didn’t even hear me out. He doesn’t give a damn about me anymore.”

And she broke down into tears again.

Instinctively, JB reached forward and wrapped his arms around her. He could feel her head lean against his shoulder, wetting his clothes with her tears, but he didn’t care. Softly, he murmured, “Cry. Just cry it all out. Then stand up and forget about this. Stand up and overcome this.”

Jiyeon’s arms reached around him, and she cried her heart out. 

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

Here's the next chapter, guys! Hope you guys liked it :)

So, JJ Couple has progressed by leaps and bounds in this chapter. JB really has no experience with girls, so he's really nervous and awkward around Jiyeon, and has no idea what to do to make her feel better. And yet, he still manages to comfort her, simply because he's not pushy or demanding to know what happened to her, and instead just quietly standing beside her and helping her. Did anyone else like the JJ Project interaction? I thought it was cute. JR depends a lot on his hyung, and seems quite immature in comparison, but in the not-so-distant future, it'll be him helping JB deal with his problems XD.

Jiyeon is a lot weaker and more vulnerable in this chapter, which is the main reason why she let down her defences and allowed JB to come in. She's still in shock after finding out about Myungsoo's betrayal, but she appreciates JB's efforts to make her feel better, especially after Myungsoo brushed her off so coldly over the phone. It's like a direct comparison between the two; Myungsoo is her boyfriend, but he treats her coldly and ignores her, while JB is practically a stranger, yet is more than willing to lend a helping hand. That, combined with her current vulnerability, is why she let down her walls and let JB in.

Myungsoo seems like quite an , doesn't he? The truth is that he does genuinely love Jiyeon, except she's been there so long, he's starting to take her for granted. He doesn't appreciate the fact that she's there, and he thinks that whatever he does, she'll still stand by him. And the truth is that he really screwed up, because now Jiyeon knows his little secret, and there's no way she's just gonna accept it and pretend nothing happened. 

Jinwoon hasn't appeared much in the story, but I promise he'll appear soon.

On a sidenote, is anyone eager to see Eunjung's revenge? Heh. Unnie to the rescue!!!

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