A/N: Hi, everyone! Again, sorry that school's been killing me lately. Thanks for being patient and waiting for this! :)

Also, I'm sorry this update took me a bit longer than usual. I mean, I normally update on Saturday nights, but I was so lost with this chapter that I spent the whole day just staring blankly at my computer. So yeah, that's why I'm updating on Sunday morning instead. Writer's block is horrible T.T

So yeah, this isn't much, but I hope still managed to do myself some justice.

It was silent for a long, long time. Yunho continued to look so anxiously at me the whole time, as though willing me to speak with his eyes. But I just couldn’t.

“O-oppa,” I finally managed to stutter out in the end. “P-please tell me you’re not going to s-stay in your company?”

I don’t know what Yunho had been expecting me to say, but it probably wasn’t what I had just said, judging from the look on his face. Yunho turned to look nervously back at the door, then back to me again.

“Let’s go to my room… I’d really rather not talk about this here…”

“No!” I said firmly, suddenly coming back to my senses. I can't just let Yunho do this! “We’re talking about this right here, right now! Spill it, oppa! What the hell has been going on with you?!”

Yunho sighed and turned around to lock the door behind him.

“I’d prefer if you leave that unlocked,” I told the leader stiffly.

“And I’d rather not be interrupted,” Yunho shot back at me evenly.

“Well, maybe it’ll be a good thing if Junsu oppa or someone else bursts in on us,” I retorted sharply. “That way they’ll get to hear about this madness, too! As they very well should be doing so in the first place, anyway!”

“It’s not madness,” Yunho protested, leaning back against the door and rubbing his temples tiredly.

“What else can you call you wanting to stay behind other than madness?” I said impatiently. “It’s just pure and utter madness, oppa, I’m telling you! After how you’ve been treated by your company since the beginning? After how they’ve basically ostracized you from the other staff and your other idol friends when you filed the lawsuit? After whatever the hell your president said to you that night? Oppa, how can you be so- so- so stupid to want to remain behind after all those things?!”

“I thought you said it was up to us to decide what path we wanted to take! Why are you so mad now if I choose to stay?” Yunho shot at me.

“I’m mad with you staying behind because you’re only doing that because your goddamn president goddamn threatened you!” I shouted angrily at him.

Yunho’s face tightened and, even though he quickly looked away from me, I saw the pain and fear in his eyes.

I immediately felt bad for shouting at him. Sure, he was being unreasonable and unbearable recently, but it’s not without good reason. The effect of what their president said to him, whatever it was, is that bad.

“Are you going to admit it yet, oppa?” I asked quietly. “Are you going to tell me already that your president threatened you?” No response, so I continued, “You told me a while ago that you’ll tell me what happened when you had dinner with Lee Soo Man… just please tell me what he said to you, Yunho oppa? We’ll fix it, whatever it is…”

To my surprise, Yunho shut his eyes and quickly shook his head. “We can’t. We can’t fix it. There’s no other way around it…” He opened his eyes again. He tried to look strong and calm, but who the hell was he trying to fool with that look? It was obvious to me how miserable and desperate he really felt.

“You can’t know that, oppa. Don’t underestimate what I and your group members are willing to do just to help you,” I chided him gently.

“I’m not underestimating you guys. It’s never about that,” Yunho quickly denied. Then, he paused, before continuing quietly, “It’s just that Lee Soo Man is that powerful…”

He crossed the room and sat down on my bed, his head on his hands. I frowned and walked over to him, kneeling in front of him.

“Please just tell me, oppa,” I all but quietly begged him. “I know you’re afraid of whatever harm your president promised to do to you if you continue to go against him, but-“

“It’s not myself I’m afraid for!” Yunho immediately butted in, looking up at me. “I don’t care what he does to me!”

That made me pause for a bit.

“Who did Lee Soo Man threaten to harm, then?”

No answer. Then, I realized who would be the one person that could cause Yunho to freak out if that person is threatened with harm.

“Jaejoong oppa?” I breathed out sharply. “It’s Jaejoong oppa, isn’t it? Your president is trying to blackmail you through Jaejoong oppa?”

Yunho let out a shaky breath, before nodding ever so slowly.

“What does he have on Jaejoong oppa? What is Lee Soo Man threatening to do exactly to Jaejoong oppa?” I pressed on worriedly.

“I-it’s not to Jaejoong directly,” Yunho mumbled. “It’s to both of us. It would ruin both of us. But again, it’s for Jaejoong I’m worried about…”

“What does he have on you two, then?”

Yunho looked silently at me for a bit, then said seriously, “You know how Korea doesn’t really approve of homouality?”

“Ye-es…” I slowly, not sure where Yunho was going with this.

“Lee Soo Man has quite a few pictures of me and Jaejoong… doing couple-y stuff… erm, and he even has a few of us actually, uhm, doing it, if you know what I mean…”

I stared at Yunho, my eyes so big that they were probably the size of saucers at this point.

No bloody way!

“What the hell?” I stuttered out in complete shock. “He has pictures of you doing- doing- that?! How the hell did he even get those anyway?!” I demanded. That was just sick!

“They were from the security cameras in SM,” Yunho sighed. “So, we can’t countersue him or anything for that. He’s perfectly within his rights to look through the security cameras of his own company. It’s not like he went through our private stuff to procure those…”

“Why the hell were you and Jaejoong oppa doing it in the premises of your company, anyway?” I asked exasperatedly. “I mean, what, did you completely forget that there would of course be security cameras all over the building?”

“We weren’t really thinking clearly. As a matter of fact, I don’t think we were even thinking at all,” Yunho admitted sheepishly, his cheeks starting to turn red.

I rolled my eyes at him. “And let me guess, you also just couldn’t wait ‘til you get back to the privacy of your dorms?”

“That happened many years ago, when we were younger and still very new as a couple. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other,” Yunho said defensively.

“You still can’t keep your hands off each other now,” I said disparagingly.  Given that I’ve already been with them for months, I’ve had more run-ins with the couple making out and hearing their noises at night to last me a lifetime.

“I can’t help it,” Yunho just shrugged. “Jaejoong always looks delectable. Especially when he wears jeans that makes his backside look simply-“

“Alright, alright! I get the idea!” I said loudly before Yunho could say something that would scar me for life. Geez, Yunho could be such a horndog sometimes! “You and Jaejoong oppa are incorrigible,” I muttered, rolling my eyes again.

“Yeah, and I bet you and Changmin will be a lot worse than me and Jaejoong,” Yunho muttered in an undertone in Korean.

I tilted my head in confusion. “What did you say, oppa?”

“Nothing, nothing,” Yunho said airily. “Let’s just go back to what we were talking about…” Then, he frowned as he remembered again the topic of our discussion.

Yunho let out a big sigh. “Regardless of us not being careful enough in the past, the fact is that Lee Soo Man does have those pictures and he will release them to the public if I don’t act according to his wants. And I wouldn’t be able to stand Jaejoong having to deal with the ‘consequences’ of that. He’ll be ostracized and insulted! I can’t let that happen!” The wild, desperate look was back in Yunho’s eyes.

We were silent for a while, both us thinking of the implications of Yunho’s words. Things would really get bad for him and Jaejoong if the public knew that Yunjae was real. Sure, lots of fans would feel like their dreams had finally come true, but there would also be lots of people who would be against the relationship. Given how anti-homouality the majority of Korea’s society is, it wouldn’t do well for Yunho’s and Jaejoong’s careers, not to mention their actual safety, if the word got out that they were together.

But then…

“But don’t you think that Jaejoong oppa would still rather that than to be separated from you?” I asked quietly after a while.

Yunho’s eyes snapped up to meet mine. “No, he can’t! He’ll get hurt!” Yunho said, immediately panicked.

“Oppa, you can’t presume to speak for what Jaejoong oppa may or may not want, even if you are together,” I said sternly.

Yunho shook his head vehemently. “I’m doing this to protect him!” he insisted.

“I know that, oppa,” I conceded. But still, I held firm. “But this affects Jaejoong oppa, too! He should have a say in it, at the very least!”

Yunho just frowned and look down at his lap. I sighed, knowing how protective Yunho could be about Jaejoong.

“Put it this way, oppa,” I said, giving him a small shake so that he’ll look back at me. “What would you do if the situation was reversed?”

“What do you mean?”

“If it was Jaejoong oppa that had to separate from yourself and your group to keep your relationship a secret from the public and protect you from the reaction that the public would have, won’t you also be insisting that you’ll take it over being separated from him?” I asked seriously.

“I’d… I’d rather stay with him, too,” Yunho finally conceded after a full minute.

But just when I was about to think I’ve made some process with him, Yunho suddenly rubbed his face roughly and groaned.

“What’s wrong, oppa?” I asked, dreading what might come out of his mouth. What else could also be wrong?

“It’s not just Jaejoong, though…” Yunho muttered despondently.

“Not just Jaejoong oppa? Who else did Lee Soo Man threaten to harm if you left the company? Yoochun oppa?”

I mean, Yoochun was the most vocal against SM. I wouldn’t be surprised if the management wanted his image ruined completely. But Yunho just shook his head.

“Junsu oppa, then?”

Again, Yunho shook his head.

Unexplainable fear and dread suddenly filled me. “Not Changmin?” I asked hurriedly, alarmed.

To both my confusion and immense relief, Yunho still shook his head.

“Who, then?” I asked, getting quite frustrated. Why won’t Yunho just tell me?

“Well, Lee Soo Man did say that he would destroy them and crush our group, but the other one I’m referring to is not part of our group-“ Yunho began, but I cut him off.

“Crush your group? Like what he’s doing to JYJ in my time? That’s practically like an admission that that’s what his future self is doing to JYJ, isn’t it? It just goes to show that he's really not above committing such atrocities,” I started to rant and ramble.

“Yes,” Yunho nodded. “Our group will be destroyed and our careers will end, that’s the main gist of what he was trying to tell me of what would happen if we continue with that lawsuit.”

“And we all know that won’t happen,” I said firmly. “The careers of JYJ in my time are doing well, and if Lee Soo Man hadn’t succeeded in crushing the three of them, how much more would he succeed in crushing all five of you, right? So, please. Please, please, please, don’t let that bother you, oppa. You know as well as I do that you don’t have to fear that everything you’ve worked hard for will go to waste if you go against your company. Don’t let Lee Soo Man’s threat of destroying your group keep you from joining the others in leaving the company.”

Yunho just shook his head again. “That’s not what I meant when there’s something thing else other than hiding my relationship with Jaejoong that’s forcing me to stay in the company.”

“Oh yeah, who is that person you were talking about? I’m sorry, I got distracted…”

Yunho let out another big sigh. “My father…”

“Your father?” I repeated blankly.

What the hell could Lee Soo Man possibly do to Yunho’s father? It’s not like he was involved with SM, too, right?

As if sensing my thoughts, Yunho began to explain, “You know that my father’s a lawyer, right?”

I nodded. Yes, his father had been most displeased when Yunho became an artist instead of being a prosecutor and following his footsteps.

“Well, he owns a law firm with several other old friends and colleagues. The problem is that their company’s going bankrupt…”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I frowned, though I still couldn’t see how this tied-up with the lawsuit issue and SM.

“Yeah, I just found out about it very recently. Apparently their company’s trying to keep it quiet, so as not to ward off potential investors that are needed to keep them afloat. I don't think even my mother and my sister knows,” Yunho told me. Then, he sighed and looked