“The truth is in your heart, we're dead and gone”

[Woo Bin]

I let Yi Jung led me away, as I looked at him, still surprised at his reaction.

He was laughing, really merrily, a little … too merrily.

Then it stopped, the laughter stopped.

The air became quiet again as he too, stopped in his tracks, staring ahead.

I looked to see what he was staring at.

It was a magazine…. But the magazine wasn’t what grabbed his attention; it was the picture and captions on the front.

To be more precise, it was their picture, Yi Jung and Ga Eul’s.

The captions on the magazine read -  “ Break-up OFFICIAL! “ “Playboy turned over a new leaf, cheated by girl” “Girl leaves Potter for another F4 member”

I turned to look at Yi Jung, his face had turned a darker tone, his fist balled up and he looked as if he was ready to murder someone.

And it did seems like he had the intention as I saw him change his focus on a knife at a nearby stall.

Before I could shout “Stop”, he had already grabbed the knife and demanded the magazine stall owner to tell him where he got the magazine from.

I froze in complete shock. I  - a mafia boss, was used to seeing knife-fighting scenes almost everyday but I wasn’t used to seeing my best friend wielding a knife.

In the twenty plus years I know him, I had never seen him so violent – yes, he was a crybaby at times, soft at heart but the nastiest thing I had saw him do was break a girl heart. And in all of my memories, he would never, and I mean never hurt or threaten someone with violence.

He isn’t Goo Jun Pyo, he is So Yi Jung, one of the last person I would associate with violence.

And because of his actions, he shocked me so much, that I was standing, frozen to the ground, and for once in my life, I actually didn’t know how to react to a violent situation.

And for once in my life, I was shocked because I was seeing someone’s violent side.

I wasn’t one to be shocked, but, So Yi Jung, the one whom I thought I understood the most, had shocked me.

[So Yi Jung]

I could hear Woo Bin shouting after me as I held on to the butcher knife in one hand, as I rushed to the location that the stallholder had provided me with.

I could also hear the stallholders shouting after me, telling me to return the knife, put down the knife, and some saying that they will call the police.

But none of those really registered in my mind as the words on the magazine remained fixed, and I only know that I had one thing to do – to clear Ga Eul’s name, I wasn’t going to allow some nameless magazine to defame her.

And I was going to let the world know, if anyone wants to hurt her, they would still have to get through me.

Somehow, I had also forgotten about the power of money, the power of rich people like me, how I could use money to clear things for Ga Eul, the easy way…. Because right then, I just wanted the magazine article to disappeared right there and then, the faster way.

Upon reaching the magazine distributor area, I marched right in and demanded to know how to reach the source of the article.

I saw how the people cowered in fear as I swung the knife around.

I hadn’t realized then that it was my first time swinging a knife like that, but how experienced I had seemed. I had probably subtlety picked that up from being around Woo Bin too much but that didn’t matter. Nothing mattered then except her.

When I finally got the people to get me to the person who wrote the article, Woo Bin had caught up on me. It seems like he did read my mind, after all.

But it annoyed me that he was actually trying to stop me.

[Woo Bin]

After Yi Jung left the scene, I soon regained my composure and paid the stall holders to calm them down before contacting my people to help locate the source of the magazine before I rushed down there myself.

But before rushing off, I made a decision; I decided to call the person who had the most influence on Yi Jung.

“No, Yi Jung, stop… don’t…. it would not do any good to threaten people with violence. Listen to me, I would know better…” I tried to advice Yi Jung while attempting to grab the swinging knife in his hand.

“Stop, Woo Bin, stop… you won’t understand..  let me settle this by myself okay, I want to be able to, at least, protect the girl that I love, do you know?” Yi Jung reasoned, as he swung the knife away from me and hid it behind him.

“Okay, Yi Jung, I know.. I will let you do it.. but first.. give me the knife, I know you don’t want to hurt me and I don’t want to hurt you too but if you continue threatening people with the knife, I am going to hit you and get it from you. And you should know that I always win in a physical fights again my opponents.” I said calmly as I stared Yi Jung in the eyes, challenging him.

[Ga Eul]

When I received Woo Bin’s call, I was shocked.

Fancy threatening to butcher innocent people!

Was he such a beast before I met him or did he change without me knowing?

I don’t know… and it seems like I was about to find out, as I cautiously opened the door to the magazine agency’s office, to see Yi Jung shouting at Woo Bin as he swung the knife around like a mad man.

“No, I would not pass you the butcher knife, not until this editor promise to clarify everything in another article and apologize to Ga Eul openly and I want a paper agreement on it!” Yi Jung shouted as he swung the knife at a man cowering at a desk nearby then at a magazine on the table.

I walked by Yi Jung’s back towards the magazine on the table, and read the front cover – it was about a break-up.

It seems like after two years, the media had finally found out or that they had finally found something interesting about our relationship to write about – as I saw a photo of Ji Hoo and me on the front cover too.

[Woo Bin]

“Yi-“ I  was going to say something but stopped when I saw Ga Eul walked into the office.

Yi Jung seems to have noticed as he lowered his butcher knife and turned around to see what I was looking at.

“Ga Eul? What are you doing here?” Yi Jung looked at the magazine that had caught Ga Eul attention before he grabbed it.

“AH! Don’t look at that. Don’t worry, I will make sure they removed all that okay.” I watched Yi Jung’s eyes soften as he look at the object of his affection.

[Ga Eul]

I look at the man in front of me… he was talking to me so softly, like I was a young kid, was this the Yi Jung I know?

Where did he go?

Then I looked around the office, at the mess this Yi Jung had created, suddenly I felt like I had to be responsible… to clear up this mess he had created.

I grabbed the knife on his hand and threw it on the ground before I turned to face him.

[Yi Jung]

I felt the stinging pain on my cheek as Ga Eul glared at me, her eyes glistening with tears.

She had just given me a slap…. A slap I had not expected. Is this what I get for defending her? I stare back at her, with equally tear-filled eyes.

“So Yi Jung! Do you understand what is the meaning of a break up? It means that you” and I felt a finger jabbing me on my chest, “and me”, and she pointed at herself, “go our separate ways.”

“That means going back to our separate world, we were, no we are from two separate worlds anyway. And that means that what happens to me should not be any concern to you, do you understand? And in the same way, I would not care about what happen to you too. Is that clear, So Yi Jung? Goodbye.”

[Ga Eul]

I gulped as I ended my speech before marching out of the office, shivering.

I didn’t know where the courage came from, to confront like this, to acknowledge our break-up like this. Perhaps it was because I didn’t want any innocent people to suffer anymore.

Perhaps it is because I didn’t want to suffer in this never-ending circle of hurtful relationship with Yi Jung anymore.

Or perhaps it is because I do not want him to suffer anymore. I want him to let go, to forget about me, to move on.

I was right; we belong to two different worlds anyway.

I let my tears flow freely as I walked away from the office, convincing myself it was okay to be weak after being so strong for a confrontation.

 A confrontation, that I hoped could put Yi Jung back in his own world, back with the flow of nature.

And there goes the day I had planned for nature.

[Woo Bin]

I watched as Ga Eul marched out of the office, after her confrontation with Yi Jung.

Had she always been that straightforward and brave? But then, I noticed… noticed that she was shivering as she marched out of the room.

I look back at Yi Jung, to see if he saw it, if he saw her being weak because of him.

But he was too absorbed in his own grief, as always, a grief that seems to be beyond comfort. And all I could do was watch him slide to the ground, crying like a baby.

End of Chapter 9

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A/N: ah! Finally some drama in this draggy story but I hope it's not too out of place...... and not too over-dramatic xD By the way, thanks for all the subscriptions and comments, highly appreciated, makes me so much more motivated to write~~  ^_^