Krystal leaned back against the wall, yawning as she glanced at her watch. Her dratted manager was late, again. For the seventh time in the week. And it was only Wednesday.

A familiar voice called out, “Hey, Krys! Manager late again?”

Krystal whipped around, only to see the EXO-K boys standing behind her. Kai was standing in front, grinning widely at her. She rolled her eyes, “Duh. As usual. I should just get a car of my own, honestly. Instead of having to stand around and wait all the time.”

Kai slung his arm casually over her shoulder, “Don’t be so mean, Krys. Your manager’s busy with the other members, kay?”

Krystal pushed off the boy’s arm, “Don’t touch me like some ert, Kim Jongin.” She glanced at her watch, before looking up and muttering, “Still not here yet…”

“Hey, Jongin, we’re going! Come on, or we’ll be late!” Suho called.

Kai raised a hand, “Give me a moment.” He turned back to Krystal, the playful grin still on his face, “You’re going to meet the Invincible dudes, right? You guys have some press conference or something. What were you doing here at SME, then? Shouldn’t you have gone straight there with the others?”

“You ask too many questions.” Krystal retorted, “The boss wanted to talk to me about that stupid T-ara fiasco. That Kim Kwang Soo really is an idiot, killing his best group like that. Essentially the boss wants me to “be nice and make friends” with Jiyeon-sshi.”

“Ah. Well, I think Jiyeon seems to be quite a nice person. And it doesn’t hurt to make more friends, right?” Kai smiled, nodding understandingly.

Krystal rolled her eyes, “You think any pretty girl is a nice person.”

“Except you.”

Krystal whacked Kai hard on the arm, and the boy cringed, “Joking, joking. Say hi to JB for me, by the way.”

“How do you know JB?” Krystal looked curious. Kai just shrugged, “Met him before. We practiced dancing together a few times. He’s good. Oh, look, your manager’s here! I’m going, then. See you!” He waved before running off to his own van.

Krystal stared after him for a moment, her lips curving into a smile. Then as her manager came to a halt before her, she quickly clambered into the van. Her manager’s expression was grim, “JYP-sshi wants to speak to all of you first.”

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

The room was deadly quiet when Krystal entered.

JB was standing by the window, staring out, his gaze intense as he fixed upon something in the distance. Jonghyun and Jessica sat on the far ends of the sofa, as far away from each other as was humanly possible, their arms folded and their faces stormy. Junho was speaking quietly to JYP, his expression serious. Jiyeon sat at the farthest end of the room, away from everyone else, her eyes red-rimmed as she held her head in her hands. As Krystal entered, she lifted her hand and tried to force a smile.

JYP looked up as Krystal entered. He clapped his hands together, “Excellent, you’re all here. Now, everyone, come closer, please.” He tapped his table.

“So, I think we all know about the…fiasco that one of us is currently going through.”

Automatically, everyone glanced at Jiyeon. Most of them looked away, as if embarrassed about their reaction, but JB’s eyes remained on her, worried.

“There’ll definitely be questions about that during the press conference. Jiyeon-sshi, all I ask is that you remain calm and maintain your composure. I don’t want to have you breaking down in front of the media. Now, although I think your CEO made a truly ridiculous decision, but I think it would be wrong for us to just reveal all that to the media. Hence we, as in Lee Sooman, Kim Kwang Soo and I, have decided that Jiyeon-sshi will not participate in this press conference.”

There was a long silence, as everyone stared incredulously at JYP. Jonghyun found his voice first, “But that’s suicide! It’ll look like she’s purposefully avoiding the media, and people will think she’ll be guilty for sure.”

“We don’t have a choice.” JYP snapped, “Sooman-sshi and I were all for telling the whole truth to the public but Kim Kwang Soo threatened to pull out if we did, and frankly none of us want that to happen. This is the closest to a compromise we got.”

JB hesitated before speaking, his tone carefully polite, “But Jonghyun is right, people would just think Jiyeon’s guilty of bullying and all that. It would just worsen the situation.”

“At this point, JB, anything would worsen the situation. This is the only thing we can do, given Kim Kwang Soo’s threats and blustering.” He addressed Jiyeon directly, “I’m sorry about this, Jiyeon-sshi, but we all agree that this is for the best.”

Jiyeon swallowed hard, staring down at her hands. Slowly, reluctantly, she forced herself to nod.

JB’s fist clenched.

JYP nodded, his expression becoming relieved. He leaned back, “Excellent. Well then, your manager should be waiting for you downstairs. Go ahead.”

Five of them went to the door; Jiyeon hesitated, wondering if she should follow, or just stay here. JYP waved a hand, “Go with them. Just make sure you’re not seen by those pesky reporters.”

Jiyeon bowed her head, murmuring a soft goodbye before following her members out.

As they headed down the stairs, Krystal paused to wait for Jiyeon. She hesitated for a moment, not sure of what to say. Krystal had never been a particularly expressive person. Straightforward, yes, but straightforward and expressive were two very different things. She wasn’t like Kai, who could easily say what he was thinking or be done with it.

But Jiyeon seemed to understand, “It’s all right. I’m fine.”

“The hell you are.” Jonghyun interrupted, but his expression was sympathetic, “Your CEO’s really screwed you up bad, kiddo.”

Jessica elbowed him, but he dodged out of the way, “Don’t worry about it, though. It’ll all die down once another scandal comes out and, well, you know what the industry’s like. Another scandal will come out fast.”

Jiyeon tried to smile, but it was a pale, wan one.

Jonghyun shot into the seat next to the manager, sticking his tongue out at Jessica, who grumbled as she got into the back seat with Krystal and Junho. That left JB and Jiyeon at the very back of the van, and they clambered in quickly. JB held out his hand to help Jiyeon onto the van; Jiyeon took it silently and sat down next to JB.

They sat in silence for a few moments as the van started. Jessica and Krystal started whispering to each other, and Jiyeon heard the words “Taeyeon” and “ost recording”.

Junho took a Japanese dictionary out and began flipping through it; Jiyeon was impressed at the older artist’s dedication and willingness to learn. She’d never met someone who actually learned a language by reading a dictionary.

Jonghyun, on the other hand, was watching a video on iPad. It looked like TVXQ’s Mirotic music video, but Jiyeon wasn’t too sure.

JB was stiff next to her; he stared out of the window, trying to affect nonchalance, but Jiyeon could still feel how tense he was.

As they neared the building, Jonghyun whistled, “Holy crap…”

Jiyeon glanced out of the window, and her eyes widened in shock, her breathing immediately becoming harsher. JB looked out of the window, and his eyes flickered back to her almost at once.

The building was literally surrounded by reporters and fans. There was pushing, yelling, screaming and a lot more as the van got close. JB could see several posters demanding T-ara’s immediate disbandment; others were declaring their support for T-ara.

Jiyeon’s face had turned pale, and she held her head low, her arms wrapped around herself as if fearful of the commotion outside.

JB hesitated for a moment. Then he lay a hand on her shoulder, silently, comfortingly. The van entered the parking lot, and the other members got out. The manager waved them on, “You guys go ahead first. I’ll stay here with Jiyeon, just in case.”

Four of them got off the van, JB stayed seated beside Jiyeon. He poked his head out of the window, “Can you guys give us a moment? I’ll join you guys in a bit.”

All of them shot him puzzled looks, but they moved on without questioning him. The manager opened his mouth to ask, but JB gave him a meaningful look, and he shrugged, turning away to give the duo their privacy.

“We’ll try and handle things for you, so don’t worry too much, all right?” JB tried to inject as much comfort into his voice as he could.

Jiyeon straightened up, trying to put on a tough front as she opened .

“Don’t.”

Jiyeon looked startled at the sudden vehemence in his tone, “What?”

“Don’t try to act like you’re all right when you’re not. Stop trying to be so tough.” JB’s voice was angry, his eyes flashing, “I’m sick of seeing you put on a smile when you don’t mean it. If you want to, then just cry. You think bottling everything up and putting on a fake front makes anything better?”

Jiyeon was speechless. She stared at him, unable to say anything, not knowing what to say in the first place. JB’s fists clenched angrily, and he stormed out of the van, slamming the door behind him.

“Wait!”

JB turned, his expression chilly as he faced her. Jiyeon hesitated awkwardly, biting her lip, still unsure of what to say.

JB’s expression turned even colder. He spun around, and strode away.

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

Jessica stopped abruptly at the sight of him.

Kim Jaejoong noticed her at once. He gave a smile, a cold, cruel smirk, one that she didn’t recognize. He moved towards her, but Jonghyun stepped in front of her almost at once, “Walk away, you jerk.”

Jaejoong arched an eyebrow, his expression still coolly unconcerned, even slightly amused, “I haven’t even said anything yet, you know.”

“Just scram. We don’t want to talk to you.” Jonghyun’s voice was icier than they had ever heard before. Krystal wondered what his face was like; it must have been intimidating, for Jaejoong stepped back automatically, his arrogant façade fading for a moment.

“Where’s Park Jiyeon?” Another, similar voice interrupted suddenly, his tone sharp. Kim Myungsoo emerged from around the corner, his eyes flickering to each member of Invincible questioningly, “Where is she?”

IU also appeared, looking worried as she stared at them, panicky, “Where’s Jiyeon? Is she alright?”

“Jiyeon’s fine. She’s not coming.” Jessica mustered her best Ice Princess look and glared coldly at them.

“JB’s here.” Krystal murmured.

They turned to look at JB, and Junho whistled. JB’s expression was cold, unlike his usual easygoing self. Kim Jaejoong made way for him, and JB shoved past Myungsoo.

“Why you disrespectful little-” Myungsoo grabbed JB by the collar, then stopped abruptly, startled by the hardness in JB’s eyes, “Get your ing hands off me or I’ll sock you.”

Wordlessly, Myungsoo let go of JB. He strode past.

Junho whistled again, and as he walked past the Obsidian members he gave them a smug smile.

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

The press conference was a horror show. There was absolutely no organization, no order at all. Reporters were shouting questions together, so loudly that the Invincible members couldn’t hear a single one of them.

After nearly ten minutes, one of the reporters finally managed to gain the upper hand, “Is Park Jiyeon not attending today’s press conference?”

“Is this because of T-ara’s scandal?”

“Was it true that Ryu Hwayoung was kicked out of T-ara because they bullied her?”

A backup dancer accused Park Jiyeon of slapping Ryu Hwayoung, is this true?”

“Is Park Jiyeon avoiding the media on purpose because she’s guilty?”

The questions flooded Invincible, one after another, overwhelming them. After five minutes of this, Jessica finally lost her patience, grabbing the mic, “I’m sorry, but we are here to discuss Invincible’s debut, and not T-ara’s scandal.”

There was a moment of silence. Then the questions started again.

“Have you been instructed to say nothing on this issue by Lee Sooman CEO?”

“Is this proof? Are your CEOs admitting that bullying did take place?”

“So why didn’t Park Jiyeon come to the press conference today?”

Jessica rolled her eyes in exasperation. Just as she was about to speak again, a hand grabbed the mic from her roughly. She turned to look at JB in surprise.

The younger idol stood up, his expression pleading, “As my leader has said we did not come here to discuss T-ara’s scandal, but the debut of Invincible, so can we all please stop talking about this?”

The reporters just continued asking questions as if JB had not spoken.

“Enough!”

All of a sudden the room was quieted as everyone stared at the rookie singer who dared to shout at a roomful of reporters.

JB’s expression had changed to unmistakable anger, and s could hear the strain in his voice as he spoke, “You want a statement from one of us? Fine. I don’t believe that Jiyeon would have done a thing like this. Jiyeon’s not the kind of person to bully her members. That story about her slapping Hwayoung is utter bull. I believe in Park Jiyeon. I know her, and I know that she would never treat a member that way. Satisfied?”

And without waiting for a response he dropped the mic and stormed right out of the room. 

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

Next chapter up! 

Wow it's been pretty long since I updated this story...I hope my subscribers didn't abandon it...

In any case, here's the next chapter. Finally getting closer to the mystery between JB and Jiyeon...JB's actually been under a lot of strain as he prepares for his debut/comeback(JJProject) and tries to handle the tension between him and Jiyeon. And so he essentially cracked in this chapter, yelling at Jiyeon and then at the press. But he stood up for Jiyeon! And that's the most important thing XD

A little bit of Kaistal at the start, too. Kai's a happy-go-lucky guy in this story, and he's actually one of Krystal's best friends. Krystal acts a little mean to him, but she really trusts him and likes him too. And there was Jongsica again, with Jonghyun protecting Jessica from Jaejoong as usual. Hmm...what did happen between Jaejoong and Jessia??? Wait for the next update to find out!

And remember guys, comment and subscribe!