Jiyeon’s jaw fell open, and she stared, stunned, at Jaejoong, “What? Hwayoung…she what?”

Jaejoong smirked, “Pity, I thought she was rather talented. And it’s just bad luck that this had to be announced during Invincible’s debut, don’t you think?”

Jiyeon stumbled backwards, shaking her head in denial. The others looked equally in shock, but JB quickly stepped up, taking Jiyeon by the shoulders gently, “Jiyeon, it’s all right. We can ask your CEO about this later, okay? It’s all right…”

Myungsoo’s eyes flashed dangerously; he almost took a step towards the duo, but Jay grabbed his hand, jerking him back. He shook his head warningly.

Jonghyun was the first to regain his composure. He stepped forward, “Leave, Jaejoong. We’re not interested in what any of you have to say. Just get out before I sock you.”

Jaejoong just laughed, “Rash as always, Jonghyun.” He turned to leave, Myungsoo and Gyuri following behind him.

Junho stepped towards Jay, “Hyung, what are you doing with these people? Those guys are s, why the hell would you-”

“The only here is you, Lee Junho.” Jay replied coolly. He shot JB a cold glare, then turned to leave. Junho stood frozen on the spot, stunned.

Only IU was left in the room. She hesitated, her eyes flickering to Jiyeon and JB; JB was still holding Jiyeon, murmuring comforting words to her. She sighed, “I’m so sorry, Jiyeon, I didn’t think those guys would really…I just…”

“Save it.” Krystal said coldly, “We’re not going to believe any of your crap, you’re one of them. Now get out, or I’ll sock you.”

IU gulped and hurried out of the room.

There was a long silence as the other Invincible members turned to JB and Jiyeon. Krystal bit her lip, not sure of what to say. She felt bad for Jiyeon, but what could she do? Then it struck her, “Let’s go look for that .”

Jonghyun spun around, “What? What ?”

Jessica gave a nod, her expression more icy than ever, “Good idea, sis. I’ll hold him, you can do the bashing.” The two sisters stormed out of the room.

Junho was just as confused as Jonghyun, “Wait, wait, what? Bash who?”

JB glanced at them, “Kim Kwang Soo.”

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

The office door was thrown open, and the six Invincible members stormed into the room. They stopped in surprise; T-ara, JYP and Lee Soo Man were already there, staring Kim Kwang Soo down.

“You stupid fool, why the hell would you do something like that on Invincible’s debut date? Do you have any idea how much you’ve screwed up?” JYP yelled.

Kim Kwang Soo looked unconcerned, “It’s called advertisement. More people will know T-ara because of this, and more people will also check out Invincible. It’s a win-win situation.”

Lee Sooman groaned, marveling at the other CEO’s stupidity, “If that’s the case, then why the hell did you ask your people to hack into the T-ara members’ accounts and make those ridiculous tweets? Now everyone is thinking that Hwayoung was bullied by her members.”

Jiyeon gasped. She hadn’t known that.

“If I didn’t do that, then everyone would think it was our company at fault. I can’t allow the reputation of the company to go down the drain.” Kim Kwang Soo replied, shrugging.

Jonghyun, unable to control his anger, stepped forward, “But you’re destroying T-ara’s reputation! How is that even beneficial?!”

Kim Kwang Soo’s eyes flashed, “Show some respect, you impudent child!”

Jonghyun’s fists clenched, but Sooman held him back, “Enough.” The SM founder shot Kim Kwang Soo a cold glare, “I have half a mind to kick you out of this alliance, but that would be unfair to Jiyeon-sshi. Tread carefully, Kim Kwang Soo. My patience with you is running thin.” He spun around and strode away.

For the first time, Kim Kwang Soo’s face turned red, “Who does he think he is, kicking me out of the alliance? He-”

“Shut up.” JYP interrupted rudely, “I’m inclined to agree with him, so just shut up. The rest of you, let’s go. Leave this fool to think about his mistakes.” He led the way out of the room, and the Invincible and T-ara members followed after him.

Eunjung wrapped an arm around Jiyeon, “That idiot…I can’t believe that old man actually kicked Hwayoung out and made us his bloody scapegoats…”

JYP was listening quietly as the T-ara members spoke amongst themselves. He glanced at the Invincible members, who shifted uncomfortably. He motioned for JB to join him, and whispered to the younger man, “Have things been okay between you and Jiyeon?”

JB stiffened, but gave a nod. JYP hesitated for a moment, then warned, “I don’t want a repeat of what happened, so make sure you tread carefully, all right?”

JB dipped his head, “Yes.”

“All right.” JYP clapped his hands, “The Invincible members did well, and I bet you guys haven’t been getting a whole lot of sleep lately, so I suggest you go back and rest up. You’ve got a press conference to attend tomorrow, and I don’t want the lot of you to turn up all exhausted. The T-ara members should go to their schedules too.”

Hyomin took Jiyeon’s hand, “Just go back and rest well, all right?” She ruffled the maknae’s hair. Jiyeon nodded. She was still in shock after what happened.

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

He sat down next to her, passing her a bottle of water. She smiled gratefully, quickly downing the water. He leaned back casually, “I heard you really like Winter Sonata.”

She glanced at him, raising an eyebrow, “What has that got to do with anything?”

He shrugged, trying to act nonchalant, “Nothing. I was just wondering, cos Jinwoon-hyung mentioned it. Why do you like it, anyway? The acting’s pretty bad, the script and the whole show is melodrama galore.”

She rolled her eyes, “I like it cos it’s a sweet love story where the main couple ends up together. What’s wrong with that?”

“What, so you like all the shows where the main couple ends up together?” He chuckled. She gave a curt nod, “And that’s why I don’t really like Dream High, 1 or 2.”

His head whipped around and he stared at her. She mentally scolded herself. Did she really just say that?

“The main couple did end up together in Dream High 1, didn’t they? Samdong and Hyemi.” He remarked. But she shook her head, “No! Definitely not! Jinguk and Hyemi should have ended up together! He was there for her, right from the start! They’re totally the main couple!”

He chuckled, when he saw how animated she became. Then he cleared his throat, “And Dream High 2?”

There was a long silence. And she admitted, “I think JB and Rian should end up together.”

He leaned over and kissed her.

Jiyeon jerked awake with a gasp. She stared upwards at the ceiling, blinking rapidly as she tried to clear his head.

“Are you all right?”

Jiyeon shot to her feet, her eyes wide, “What…”

JB stared at her, “Did I startle you? Sorry, I just…were you having a nightmare?”

Jiyeon bit her lip, “No, I just…I didn’t ….Yeah. Just a nightmare. Nothing much.”

JB frowned, “You should go back to sleep, it’s three in the morning.”

Jiyeon sat down on her bed, “What about you, then? What are you doing awake at this time?”

JB lifted the paper in his hands, “I was working on a song…” He glanced down at it, “I was afraid I’d lose the inspiration, so I wanted to finish it as soon as possible.”

Jiyeon raised an eyebrow, “Can I hear it?”

There was a pause. He spoke quickly, “I don’t think that’ll be for the best.” And before she could say another word, he hurried out of the room.

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

Jessica lay in her bed, her breathing even as she thought about the events of today. She was the leader of Invincible, the one who was supposed to lead her team to victory, to help her teammates cope, to be the strong, firm one when others were in doubt. And yet she had kept silent as those Obsidian s bullied Jiyeon, kept silent as Jaejoong taunted her. She hadn’t even been able to keep her composure in front of her teammates, led alone protect them.

She bit back a sigh. Kim Jaejoong. He obviously wanted to start an all-out war with them, clearly. He wanted to bring Invincible down, because it was related to SM, because it had Kim Jonghyun, and because it had her. He’d sworn to ruin her, after all.

“Unnie, are you thinking about that guy again?” Krystal’s voice broke into her thoughts.

Jessica glanced at her sister, lying on her bed across the room, “You’re still awake, Krystal?”

Krystal snorted, “Obviously. And don’t try to change the subject, okay? Stop thinking about that bastard, he’s nothing but a jerk. We can crush him. He deserves it, after what he did to you.”

Jessica turned away, facing the wall.

“I don’t get why you’re being so mean to Jonghyun-oppa, you know. He’s a nice guy, and he just wants to help.” Krystal remarked.

Jessica sighed for real this time, “You don’t understand, Krystal. It’s not that simple.”

Krystal muttered, “Like you’re making it any less complicated…”

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

Jaejoong leaned back in his armchair, “So, we’ve gotten our first good look at Invincible. They’re strong, all right, but obviously nothing that we can’t deal with. Of course, we should get rid of them as soon as possible so that we can go back to focusing on our own careers. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to speed up the process?”

There was a lengthy silence. Then Myungsoo spoke, “I have an idea.” Jaejoong glanced at him and nodded, “Make it fast, then.”

“Wait.” IU interrupted, “Do we really have to do this? Trying to ruin them? Why can’t we just compete fairly?”

Jay spoke for the first time, his tone cold, “Don’t be a fool, IU-sshi. We ruin them. That’s why we were formed, anyway.”

IU sank back into her seat.

Jaejoong looked at Myungsoo, “How long will it take?”

“Two weeks? A month? Probably shorter.” Myungsoo smirked. Jaejoong nodded, “Very well. I have a plan as well, involving the dear leader of our enemies.”

“I’ve heard about your history with Jessica-sshi.” Jay’s face wore a cold smile. Jaejoong grinned, “But of course.”

IU had to force the groan back into her. This was not going well at all. 

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Hey guys, I'm back! KKS is an idiot...and everyone thinks so XD. Who else agrees? 

In any case, there's another Jiyeon dream/flashback; should be pretty obvious by now who the 'him' is. We're getting closer and closer to the mystery...also, Jaesica and Jongsica; Jessica is obviously deeply affect by Jaejoong. She's actually quite a responsible person, and she hates to show weakness, which is unfortunate because she always shows weakness before Jaejoong. And Krystal's caring for her unnie ><

Can anyone guess what Myungsoo's plan is? It was actually suggested by one of the readers, Kyuna9. So here's to you, Kyuna9, this is your contribution, and I'm writing it in! Hint: it's a mean plan. Really mean. 

Next update hopefully by end of next week, so please anticipate it! And remember, comment and subscribe! 

Also, please support my new stories, More than Meets the Eye, http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/271872/more-than-meets-the-eye-jiyeon-exo-kai-luhan-jjcouple-kaistal-luyoon, ft. JJCouple, Luyoon and Kaistal. The other story is a collection of oneshots, http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/259461/oneshot-collection-love-in-korean-pop-infinite-tara-myungzy-myungyeon-exo-jjcouple-exoshidae, I write about JJCouple, Myungyeon, Myungzy, Kaistal and others. Please check them out and support them! Thanks!