"Your phone is ringing."

"Don't care."

"This is the third time in five minutes."

"Still don't care."

Naomi giggled a little and sat up, leaving the warm body that was Seunghyun to complain about the loss of heat. "Don't you have a schedule today?" she asked, pushed the covers back to retrieve his protesting phone from his dresser. She eluded his groping hand and taped the screen. "T.O.P's phone, secretary speaking. How may I direct your call?"

Even from the bed, Seunghyun could hear the caller laughing. "Since when did Seunghyun get a secretary?" asked the voice of Choi Dong-Wook. "And in addition, is he still asleep? Wake him up, will you, Miss Secretary? We had lunch plans." He tried to stifle more chuckles, but she could still hear the smile in his voice.

"It's Se7en," she said, turning to the bed and holding out the phone. "You had lunch plans, remember?"

"!" Seunghyun jumped up, instantly awake, and stumbled over the shirt and robe on the floor as he took the phone from Naomi. "Sorry, hyung. I'll be there in ten minutes."

"Yah, keep your shirt on, idiot," Dong-Wook said, chuckling again. "I was calling to let you know I'm running half an hour behind. How about I come by and pick you up? Maybe I can meet your 'secretary'," he added before the ridiculousness of the situation got to him, and he started laughing again. "A secretary, Seunghyun?"

"I have no control over what she chooses to say," Seunghyun replied primly as Naomi threw him a clean shirt and button-down. "Besides, Idiot-Hyung, your name comes up on caller ID, and she's not stupid. If it had been anyone else, she would have just thrown the phone at me first."

"I tried," Naomi protested. "You wouldn't let me get up to get it."

He stuck his tongue out at her as he fastened his jeans. "See you when you get here, hyung."

"Gonna be half an hour," Dong-Wook reminded him before hanging up.

Seunghyun tossed the phone onto the bed and looked at Naomi, who was hooking her bra with her back to him. He walked over and hooked the last two for her. She had tugged on the pajama pants Youngbae had loaned her the night before but had remained on the dresser, neatly folded, and as she dropped her T-shirt on over her head, she turned to face him. "Do you want me to stay here while you're at lunch?"

"I'd like you to come with me, but rumors will fly about who you are, and I don't want you to have to face the questions yet." He kissed her forehead. "Daesung has recording today, but Seungri and Yongbae should be home most of the day. They have dates tonight, I know, but I'll be home by then."

She nodded. "I guess I should make myself presentable to meet Se7en, shouldn't I?"

"Call him Dong-Wook. You don't call me T.O.P after all."

"Well that would be weird calling you that all the time." She smiled and kissed his lips gently. "I'll go get dressed properly since you have half an hour before abandoning me."

He snagged her by the waist and pulled her to him. "I'm leaving you with two of the people I trust most in the world. How am I abandoning you?" Before she could respond, he leaned over and kissed her warmly. "It won't be long, I promise. Then I can take you home or wherever you want. I'm yours as soon as I get back."

"You're mine regardless," she reminded him, placing a hand over his heart. She looked up at him, having to tip her head back far to see him so close. "I love you, Seunghyun." Her head dipped, resting on his chest, and her arms wrapped around his hips. "You and your screwball bandmates. Even Jiyong, in spite of his bad moods."

Twenty minutes later, the door closed and the lock clicked behind Seunghyun as he headed down to meet his friend in the lobby of the building; they had decided a strange woman in T.O.P's company would draw more attention than was wise. Dressed in her own jeans now, Naomi sat on the couch that faced the balcony and their sliding doors to brush her hair and sit quietly until he came back. Her Android lay on the cushion next to her with its case of swirling chromatic fog casting a reflected glare onto the ceiling. The curls and waves which had resulted in sleeping on damp hair lay lightly on her shoulders and refused to be brushed out. The dorm was quiet, and even though she knew Yongbae was in his room on his computer, she had the unsettling impression she had been left alone in this unfamiliar dorm.

It didn't last long.

"What do you think he sees in you?"

The chill in the voice made Naomi shiver, dread coiling in her stomach and making her queasy. She looked up to see Jiyong bundled up in a hoodie and scarf with a leash dangling from one hand. Gaho[1] - the beloved Sharpei companion of the leader - was sniffing her bare toes on the carpet. He jerked back and looked at her as she began to shake. Feeling like her legs were going to collapse, she got up, carefully placing her feet around Gaho, and faced Jiyong with eyes liquid with hurt and sparks of anger. "Why do you hate me so much?" she asked, and both were startled to hear how steady her voice was. "What have I done to make you so angry? I haven't harmed you or Seunghyun or any of the other members. I'm not trying to do anything. I'm in love with Seunghyun, and he's in love with me. I wouldn't do anything that would hurt a hair on his head, let alone anything to discredit the group. So why do you have me so much?" The words broke into a half-choked sob. A tear rippled down her cheek and dripped off her chin.

Jiyong opened his mouth to reply, but the voice that answered belonged to Seungri. "Because he's been in love with Seunghyun since we debuted." The maknae leaned on the entrance to the kitchen onto the living room with one arm dangling at his side. His eyes were veiled and empty, as if he was talking about a tragedy that happened a long time ago to a faceless stranger, but when he spoke again, he sounded like his throat had swollen shut. "And he hates you because he was a coward and never confessed, and now he's too late because Hyung is in love with you." His empty gaze moved to Jiyong, transforming into such a look of betrayal that his leader might have stabbed him in the back.

It was then that Naomi - through her fast-falling tears - saw the empty bottle of maesil ju[2] dangling from his limp fingers. He was already drunk, and it was barely breaking noon. She wondered if this was how he prepared for a long night out with a fan.

"And in his misery," continued Seungri, not slurring but not speaking as crisply as the night before, "Jiyong-hyung doesn't see the love right in front of him all the time."

Jiyong shifted, eyes flashing confusion and diluted anger. Though he was staring at Seungri, his icy words were directed to the trembling teacher. "Look at what you've done," he said venomously. "Get out, before you cause any more trouble. That bull about not hurting us was almost believable, but I don't want to hear it again. Don't come back, because when Seunghyun sees what you've made Seungri do, he'll never want to see you again."[3]

She didn't need telling twice. Abandoning her comb and hairbrush on the sofa cushions, Naomi made a half-blind beeline for the door from behind which issued the experimenting notes of a piano keyboard. She knocked, rattling the doorknob as she missed the wood by her tears. The piano stopped with an abrupt discord of too many pressed keys, and Youngbae opened the door a moment later. He was dressed in jeans worn almost white with age and a white wife-beater a size too big.

"Naomi-"

"Take me home?" she choked. "Please… take me home, Youngbae-oppa." She couldn't see between the tears that no longer heeded her attempts to stop crying and the stinging they brought to her eyes.

"What did-"

"I just want to go home. Please, will you drive me?"

Youngbae looked at her helplessly. She was a sorry sight in her crumpled jeans and second-day T-shirt, with eyes red and puffy. "Okay," he said gently as if she'd break if he spoke too loudly; she looked cracked to quivering smithereens as it was. "Let me get my shoes and a hoodie. Sit down and collect yourself, okay?"

When he pulled the black Mercedes CLS into the parking spaces to the side of the apartment building, Youngbae locked the doors and shut off the engine before turning to his passenger. She had been silent nearly the entire drive, which had been lengthened by lunch hour traffic. "Will you tell me what happened to upset you?" he asked, and he set a hand on her shoulder, which no longer shook but that felt small and brittle under his fingers.

She looked up, pale. She looked like she was about to be ill, and he heard a voice in his head whispering, "Part of her gave up today." He tugged her gently as close as the center console would allow and let her flop slightly into his shoulder.

"I hurt Seungri somehow," she mumbled in English, but he could understand her fine[4]. "I don't know how, but I did. After I said I wouldn't do anything to any of you. It's my fault…"

"Naomi Taylor," Youngbae said sharply in English, making her jump. "What are you talking about?"

"N-Nothing," she stammered and squirmed slightly. "I should get inside before someone sees us and gets you in trouble."

Reluctantly he nodded, kissed her temple, and released her. "I'll call you tomorrow, okay? To check on you."

"Okay," she said dully and opened the door. "Thank you for the ride," she added mechanically and forced a smile that looked brittle. "I guess I'll see you."

After the door had shut behind her with a soft chuck, he restarted the car and swung back into traffic. Whatever had upset their pet teacher, Youngbae was sure it had something to do with Jiyong.