“Don’t run,” the manager said as he walked towards him, “I’m not going to do anything to you.”

That only tempted JR to run.

“If you run, I’ll ruin NU’EST,” the manager yelled, making JR stop dead in his tracks and turn around.

The manager grinned and walked the rest of the way towards JR. He stopped right in front of JR barely a few inches between their bodies, and JR took a step back. The manager reached out with his arms towards JR’s face and JR immediately dodged him.

The manager reached in his pocket and took out his phone. After a few clicks, he turned the phone towards JR and showed him.

It was a video of Baekho and Ren making out, clearly taken very recently. Just as JR was about to understand the implications of why the evil manager was showing it to him, the manager showed him another one of Minhyun and Aron.

JR understood the threat. He looked towards the manager pleadingly, as if that would help to soften that cold heart.

“So yeah. Given that I’m not bound to Pledis Entertainment anymore after that Chinese dickhead reported me and I was fired, I have the liberty of posting these videos without being prosecuted. I took these videos the day I realized I was going to be fired, because I knew they would come in handy in case I wanted to blackmail someone.”

JR looked down at the ground, realizing that the manager had him in his hands once again. Just when he had thought to be rid of this problem, there it was, creeping up into his life again, ruining everything.

“I wanted to sell them to allkpop as soon as I was fired, but then I realized that I didn’t really care about ruining NU’EST. I mean I have nothing against Minhyun, Aron, Baekho, or Ren. I don’t have anything against you even.”

The manager raised his arms again towards JR’s face, and this time, JR did not push him away. The manager began caressing JR’s face, making his limbs stiffen and his stomach churn.

“Well, maybe I do have a small grudge against you,” the manager continued, “but it’s not such a big grudge that I would want to ruin you career with it. My grudge is against that ing Chinese attention- Jason, and releasing these videos won’t be enough to get back at him. He’s the one who got me fired.”

The manager removed his hand from JR’s face and crossed his arms, “so then I decided, why not use what I have to get revenge against him?”

JR gulped, dreading what the manager would threaten him to do.

“I want you to accuse him of ually assaulting you and reveal it to the world what he did. I want his career as an idol shattered completely because of this. I want him to be kicked out of NU’EST, and I want everyone to start sending him hate and death threats. I want his life to be ruined. Everyone will hate him, and he won’t make it as an idol again ever. It’s perfect revenge.”

JR felt a lump in his throat, and he had this overwhelming desire to die. If he died, he wouldn’t have to deal with the burden of either ruining the reputation of NU’EST or the reputation of the person he liked. He had this great urge to murder the manager there and then, but he knew he was powerless even if wanted to commit the murder.

“So?” the manager asked, expecting him to make the decision of either betraying his four best friends, ruining the reputation of the group they all worked so hard to establish in the process, or to destroy the future of the boy he liked so much.

JR’s phone suddenly began to ring. It was such a bad time for him to talk to someone. JR reached into his pocket to turn the phone off, when the manager snatched it from him and looked at the caller ID. Jason.

“Look, it’s Chinese head,” the manager spat. “Tell him you’re fine,” the manager demanded as he opened the line and put it on speaker.

“H... Hello,” JR stuttered.

“Little brother, are you okay?” Jason asked.

“I’m just taking a walk. I’ll be right back,” JR said, trying his hardest to sound natural.

“You sound sad,” Jason pointed out with concern. Only then did JR notice that he had been crying. He was so caught up in fear that he could not even notice the tears in his eyes.

“I’m okay,” JR mouthed.

“Little brother, I’m sorry that I didn’t respond to your confession,” Jason continued, “and I’m sorry for stepping on your heart when I was like that with Ren. I was insensitive and I don’t even know what I was thinking.”

JR did not really know how to respond to that. This jealousy he had towards Ren seemed like such a trivial matter to him now, and yet that was what Jason thought was the source of JR’s dejection.

“Little brother?” Jason asked.

“I’m okay hyung, really. Right now, that’s the last thing on my mind.”

“Where are you? I’m trying to find you,” Jason said.

“I’m coming in a bit,” JR said.

“Good, because we need to talk,” Jason said, “and please stop crying, okay? There’s no reason for that.”

Yes there is, JR thought, but didn’t respond, just sniffled.

“Really,” Jason said with a soft chuckle, “stop crying because I want you to be my boyfriend. I decided to accept your heart little brother.”