[Seunghyun’s POV]

“Woah… what the hell?”

The room looked completely fangirled. Jaejin smiled triumphantly and went to his side of the room, which was completely clean of any Yoseob pictures.

“I couldn’t stand his face in my side of the room so I temporarily used yours, okay?” the side of Jaejin’s lips started to form the beginnings of a vindictive smirk as he pulled out his laptop. “I’ve been doing research.”

“Hyung, if a stranger came they would have thought I’m some super hardcore Beast… to be precise, Yoseob’s fanboy.” Every inch of the walls of my side of the room was covered with big and small and black and white and coloured pictures of the one and only Yang Yoseob. And right smack in the middle of the entire thing was Jay Park’s picture.

The whole thing reminded me of some Korean drama… the ones where the lead guy is out to kill someone for revenge and have pictures of their victims everywhere?

“Apparently,” Jaejin started, clicking furiously on his laptop, “Jay Park doesn’t seem as bad as Jiyeon thinks.”

[Jiyeon’s POV]

“Jaebeom hyung isn’t as bad as you think! He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

I slowly inched away from Yoseob.

“Really, I don’t mean you any harm. I’m sure he doesn’t mean you any harm either, I mean…” Yoseob continued his one-man conversation as I moved away from him.

He’s giving me the creeps.

I’m so changing my bias for Beast.

[Jaejin’s POV]

“He doesn’t seem like the kind of person that would harm anyone, right?”

“But…” Seunghyun retorted, “he is Jiyeon’s nightmare!”

“No he isn’t…” I said thoughtfully. “Her parents are. He just reminds her of her parents.”

“He still had a hand in the abuse!”

“Yah, do you like Jiyeon or what?”

Seunghyun’s mouth opened awkwardly before it clamped shut again. First time I ever saw his useless confidence drain out of him completely before his cheeks turned completely red.

“Ohhhhhh…” an evil smirk formed on my face. “I’m so going to tell Jiyeon everything!”

Seunghyun’s eyes widened before he clambered over and spluttered some nonsense. “N-no, d-don’t!” Seunghyun pleaded, grabbing onto my leg as I tried to shake him off.

“Well then,” I grinned evilly at him. “If you do everything I tell you to do, I won’t tell.”

Seunghyun gulped.

[Jay Park’s POV]

Someone was following me. I turned around and saw a shadow quickly shoot behind a wall.

Nevermind. Not that I have anything bad for them to reveal, anyway. I leaned against the wall, eyes squinted as the rays of sunlight hit me.

I’d come back only after thinking that Jiyeon had forgotten everything, much less to remember who I was.

Guess I was all wrong, then. Not only did she still remember, but she still knew who I was, and still was haunted by the past. I could see it in her eyes everytime I looked at her.

She hadn’t forgotten.

But she didn’t remember, either.

—

He was drunk. Again.

That stupid old man.

I won’t ever call him my father. He doesn’t deserve to be. He’s a worthless beast, and together with the rubbish they call my mother, both of them have the idiotic belief that girls are useless.

I mean, isn’t my mom a girl — a female, too?

Well, all I know is that she’s useless. I thought, even as a mom, she should have some sort of motherly feeling towards her own daughter, right?

Nope. None at all.

“Jaebeom-yah!” that old man yelled again, his voice hoarse from drinking beer all day and shouting at Jiyeon for no apparent reason.

Since I was young and witnessed the kind of abuse they’d done to my little sister, I’d taken it upon myself to be both her parents and her brother.

To lessen what she suffered anyway.

The man wouldn’t take it into his head when I told him to stop, and when I tried to cover her he would just pull me away and continue.

In the end the only thing that worked was when I told him I would ‘finish her off’.

For the first few times he left the both of us alone, and she was spared as I tried to lessen her discomfort but as the days went by she stopped crying when I was around and that man found out something was wrong.

Afterwards he still made me hit her right in front of his eyes. Although I tried to do it with as less force as I could, it was nevertheless torture to her.

Having her most trusted person become her nightmare… torture, right?

“You idiotic girl! Why can’t you do anything correct?”

Jiyeon’s muffled sobbing and pleading continued as I heard the impact of a slap. When I finally reached the room, I saw him pull out a knife from who knows where and slash Jiyeon with it.

When the knife made contact with her skin, I suddenly felt cold as I watched the blood spurt out and a stabbing pain in the heart as I watched helplessly as he continued.

“Appa, stop it already. I don’t want to see blood everywhere,” I tried to say as calm as I could, trying to block out the stammer in my voice. I crossed my arms to look as though nothing much happened, when what I really want to do is to take that very same knife and stab him with it.

“Jaebeom, you prince… not like this useless piece of that can’t do anything!” He smiled awkwardly at me, then walked over and gave me a pat on the head. A look of disgust immediately appeared on my face though it disappeared as he looked down at me.

“Finish her for me, will you?”

“Sure, appa.”

For the first time in many days, he actually left the room. I glanced at the whimpering girl crouched in the corner of the room.

Out of sheer frustration, I walked over and slapped Jiyeon. “How many times have I told you not to let him do that?” Then, realizing what I just did, the anger suddenly disappeared and filled with guilt. Since when… since when did I resort to violence?

No. This can’t go on.

I spotted the door and walking towards it, reached out a hand and twisted the doorknob. It was usually locked, but…

Today, it wasn’t locked. I pushed at the door and it opened with a small creaking noise. By now, Jiyeon was staring at me with teary eyes.

“Out,” I tried to look as stern as I could. She didn’t budge. I went over, half-pulled and half-carried her to her freedom.

“Get out.”

—

The can that I was kicking around hit the wall opposite and skidded back, lightly grazing my shoes. I raised my foot and smashed the can and it flattened with a satisfying, crunching metal sound.

“Jiyeon-yah…” I gazed at the clouds, something Jiyeon used to do when she was little. The clouds probably meant to her another world, one that she longed to be in…

“I’m sorry…”

[Jaejin’s POV]

“He apologized… to the air?” I said incredulously.

“You’re deaf,” Seunghyun muttered irritably. “He apologized to a Jiyeon that wasn’t there.”

“But why?”

“He probably felt sorry for whatever he did.” Seunghyun muttered dispassionately.

“It could be that he was sorry for whatever he couldn’t do,” Minhwan added i.

“That makes sense. Not. You mean all the abuse he didn’t do to her?” Seunghyun retorted. Minhwan’s face immediately fell.

“Well, Minari’s story kind of makes sense, right?” Hongki butted in. “It could turn out the way in dramas, where Jaebeom was actually trying to help her.”

“By giving her more abuse? You probably watched and acted too much,” Seunghyun rebutted. Hongki sent him a cold glare and Seunghyun suddenly became much smaller and quiet. Suddenly Hongki threw an arm over to Seunghyun’s shoulders and pulled the younger boy closer to him, successfully locking him into a headlock while Hongki used his other hand, and balling it into a fist, rubbed it painfully into Seunghyun’s head. Jonghun watched Seunghyun shriek out in pain when he turned to me and spoke up.

“Yah, our Jjijil Jaejin’s so quiet. What do you think?”

Somehow the matter that I had kept between Seunghyun and me became a group matter. It’s actually better this way, because more questions could change how we look into this matter.

I sound so serious.

“Well…” I started. “Hongki and Minhwan’s story could be true, but Seunghyun could be correct too.”

“And Jaebeom doesn’t seem like the kind of person to do this…” Hongki added on. “That time we filmed Idol Army with 2PM during Jaebeom’s time, he was actually quite nice.”

“He wasn’t nice to me,” Minhwan added with a frown on his face.

“Surely you don’t still feel offended about that no-response game you played with him?” Hongki said as he reached out the hand that was torturing Seunghyun to headlock the maknae. “It’s only a game, maknae. He apologized to you after the entire thing…”

“At least I beat him in arm wrestling,” Minhwan replied proudly as he tried to wriggle out of Hongki’s grasp.

“He was stupid for trying to battle against a drummer.” Seunghyun’s added, his voice muffled as Hongki’s headlock managed to keep his face in Hongki’s clothes.

“Yah, you are biased!”

“Let’s try to look from an outsider’s point of view. Although we do need a biased point of view to give us more opinions…” Jonghun said in his I’m-the-leader-and-that’s-it voice. “And Hongki, would you kindly let go of the two maknaes?”

“You’re so rude! I’m older than you!”

“By five days.”

Hongki looked slightly insulted as he let go of the two maknaes.

“Looking from an outsider’s point of view, I think… Jaebeom was sorry for both the things he did and didn’t do. I think he actually didn’t want Jiyeon to suffer.” I said quietly.

There was an awkward silence when we all heard some movement at the door. All five heads turned towards the door, and all of us saw someone’s long hair whip out of sight.

Jiyeon.

Part 9/10 of afrhxgd's late Christmas present New Year's present :D

A/N: OMG, I think my shoulders died.

So, what's your impression of Jay Park now? O.O

This has got to be the longest update evaaaaaa... So, enjoy :D (to make up for the one-week absence ._.)

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