Joon’s POV

The next morning, I woke up around eight in the morning. The others were all sleeping like pigs. But I was surprised to see Mir there on the floor. I had assumed that he had slept with Yuri after he went to talk to her while the guys were playing video games. They had turned the volume up so loud I couldn’t sleep.

I crept out of bed slowly, careful not to make any sudden sounds that’ll wake the boys up and walked over to my sister’s room from the adjoining bathroom. She was in bed, of course.

I walked over to her and got in bed. She turned around and grabbed my T-shirt. I was startled. Does this mean she was awake?

I saw her shoulders quaking and realized she was crying. I made her look up. Hot tears were flowing down her cheek like a flood. Alarmed, I hugged her. “What’s the matter, Yuri ah?” I asked her.

She shook her head.

“Did Mir make you cry?”

She didn’t say anything.

I her hair and let her cry but I was bemused. Why is she crying? What happened? Was it over something she and Mir talked about last night? Did he hurt her? Was he being harsh on her?

Why is she crying?

“Mir and I had a fight,” she said in a small voice once her sobs died down. “It was terrible.” She sniffed. “I feel bad. I told him I couldn’t even be his friend because I don’t want to hurt him or to give him false hopes.”

I nodded sympathetically. “Oh, Yuri,” I sighed. I didn’t know what to say to make her feel better. “It’ll be fine, okay? Don’t worry about it.”

“I love him,” she sobbed.

“I know.”

“I hate myself.”

“I don’t hate you.”

“Oppa!”

“What?” I pulled away to see her face. She looked angry at me through her tears. “I don’t hate you. I love you. Mir loves you and he is an idiot. Of course you can’t be his friend without giving him false hope. What you did was really selfless, you know. You shouldn’t feel bad. This is what is best for the both of you.”

“What if I don’t want that?”

“Then you wouldn’t have told him that, right?” I pointed out.

She nodded slowly.

I kissed her forehead. “Aigoo, the two of you somehow always managed to break my heart like this,” I muttered while her hair. “Shhh, it’s not your fault. Don’t blame yourself.”

“Do you think it’s better if I just concentrate on liking Kikwang since I’m going to be living with him?” she asked me innocently.

“Erm.” I shifted my position uncomfortably. “Well, I don’t know,” I admitted. “I mean, this sort of sound like you’re already giving up.”

She sighed. “I’ve been searching through all the files last night when Mir left the room,” she said. “I looked through all of them. Not a single thing.” She sighed again, looking really discouraged. “And that’s all the files Kikwang and I can find. There are no more files.”

I couldn’t believe this. My sister, the fighter, is really giving up? That doesn’t sound like her at all. She usually would not rest until she knew the truth.

But then again, it’s been over two months and she still wasn’t able to find anything about this whole marriage deal. And she’s gone through all the files. Knowing her, she wouldn’t have missed anything, covering every crook and cranny.

“What can I do?” she grumbled when she noticed the look that I was giving to her. “I’ve looked everywhere and I’m certainly not going to ask Appa the reason why. He won’t tell me,” she pointed out.

True.

“Say something.”

I shrugged, feeling just as helpless. Maybe the best thing for her is to give up and just accept the fact that she is getting married to Kikwang, after all. So I reluctantly nodded. “I just hope this is good,” I told her.

She gave me a weird look. “I hope so.”

MBLAQ’s debut was coming up, so were Yuri’s exams. In fact, it fell on the same day. I was sad that she couldn’t be there to support us when we debut but her exams are more important, after all.

So in the morning, since I had to be at J.Tune early, I walked inside my sister’s room. She was sitting up in bed, rubbing her eyes. I laughed as I watched her pouting cutely because she had to wake up early. I kissed her on the cheek. “Good luck with your exams.”

“Good luck with your debut,” she replied. “I hope that all goes well. I’ll always be supporting you. Hwaiting!” She did a hwaiting pose which I thought was extremely cute. She smiled at me.

I smiled back and she hugged me.

Few hours later, we had debuted. The fans loved us — but they loved Mir and me more. Well, I’m not surprised that they like me.

I am good-looking and the hottest among the group. After so many dances for the screaming fans, and after Bi-sunbae gave a speech about how hard the five of us trained for this day, MBLAQ and I were finally able to go backstage and take a rest.

We were all grinning from ear to ear.

“The fans love us!” G.O gushed as we went back into our room at J.Tune. “Can you believe it?”

“Yah, hyung, can you put on the television?” Cheon Doong begged. “I’m bored.”

Mir sat down next to him tiredly. “Same.”

Seungho, being the closest to the remote, turned the television on to the entertainment channel. A reporter was standing outside the building we were in now. All of us looked at each other and grinned. She was helping us by promoting us!

“Now, the famous Rain had just announced that he had been training five boys to be the next new thing,” the lady was announcing. She droned on and on about what Rain had just told everyone.

Cheon Doong scoffed and laid back down on his seat. “We already know all this,” he replied as the commercial played.

“Well, at least we’re being promoted,” G.O pointed out. “After all those hard work, it finally pays off.”

I glanced at the clock. “Yuri would be done her exams now,” I mused.

“Ask her for me how it went,” Seungho said.

I looked at him. “You’ve got your phone and you have her number. You text her.”

Everyone whipped their phones out and began to ask her how she did. Well, everyone except for Mir who had gone exceptionally quiet. I knew why.

“Eh, Mir, why don’t you text her too?” Cheon Doong asked.

He shrugged, focusing his eyes on the television. “Shhh, I’m watching,” he muttered.

Seungho raised an eyebrow as he put his phone away. “Mir, you’re watching the commercials?” he questioned.

“It’s educational,” he said defensively just as the reporter came back.

“Change!” I said.

Just as Seungho was about the change, the reporter had now changed to a different building — she was now at Cube Entertainment.

“And now, it just so happens that a new band is out as well,” she was saying.

Mir froze. “Stop!” he said sharply and we all turned to listen.

“BEAST has debuted the same day as MBLAQ,” she said. She said a lot more stuff before they showed their faces and waved to the camera.

Mir clenched his fist at the sight of Kikwang smiling happily at the camera. “Why that little . . .” he mumbled darkly under his breath.

G.O frowned, squiting his eyes as his face went nearer to the screen. “Hang on — guys, focus on the crowd behind them,” he said, pointing to the television. He turned to us, his eyes wide with astonishment. “Look at the crowd behind BEAST, at the left corner.”

We squinted our eyes. It was hard to see because the camera had zoomed in on their faces, blurring out the faces of the fans behind.

“What are we supposed to see?” Mir asked. “I don’t see what you see.”

“Wait until the camera isn’t zoomed up on them,” he told us.

So we waited.

When it finally went back to its original focus, we looked again — and gasped.

With the crowds, at the left corner of the screen, was Yuri, cheering for BEAST.

I felt numbed, not believing what I was seeing.

She chose BEAST over us, MBLAQ?

But we’ve known her the longest. We’ve been friends with her longer than BEAST has! She lived with us. I’m her brother! She used to date Mir! Damnit, how could she have gone for their debut and not come to ours?! How could she have betrayed us like that?!

I looked at everyone’s faces and I knew that they were thinking the same thing I was thinking.

Yuri betrayed us.

“Turn it off,” Mir said tonelessly. “Turn the damn TV off before I smash it into pieces already!”

G.O turned it off.

The room was filled with silence as we all thought about what we saw just now.

“There must be a reason for this,” Seungho finally spoke up after ten good minutes of silence. “I mean, obviously, she would have wanted her to come but something must have happened to make her go there and support them instead, right?”

I wanted to believe him. I really did.

Mir stood up and walked over to the television. “Hyung, did you see her?” he snapped. He pointed to the blank screen where we just saw her just now. “She looked so ing happy!” he yelled and we flinched. “She’s falling for him! And she told me she wouldn’t!”

“Mir —” G.O started to say.

But Mir cut him off. “Don’t tell me that I was imagining it because you all saw it for yourself,” he snapped.

Bi-sunbae came in. “What’s with the shouts?” he asked.

We didn’t want him to know so we just shook our heads. Then he told us we can go home. Mir left without another word. Seungho, G.O and Cheon Doong sighed while I just silently packed my stuff before I drove back to my own house.

I was going to go ask Yuri about what I saw just now. How can she betray me like that?

Once I reached home, as soon as I came through the front door, Appa came out, smiling.

“My son is now famous!” he gushed and I rolled my eyes. He hugged me. “I’m so proud of you. Please continue to make me proud.”

I fought back an eye-roll. I didn’t do this for him. I did this for myself. “Where’s Yuri?” I asked, trying to keep my temper. “Has she returned from school yet?”

He faltered. “Ah, about that,” he said.

I already know where she is, I thought bitterly.

“You see, I’ve got some business to do in Japan that will take about three months,” Appa said, “and since you’ve just debuted, you’ll be now really busy. So I’ve arranged it all and I got a yes.”

I frowned. “Yes for?”

He beamed, positively happy with whatever he got a yes for. “Yuri is now living with BEAST, under the careful eye of her god-brother Doo Joon and would be able to get to know her fiancé, Kikwang better!”

I gaped at him.

Yuri’s living with BEAST?

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Uh oh! D:

Sorry for the late update. Had a busy weekend :/