The door swung open, and she was instantly met with the smell of booze and low hanging smoke. She grimaced slightly, the meeting of this old friend both shocking her and making her senses tingle with longing. began to salivate with the temptation of the mixed substances floating about in the room, but she forced herself to ignore all of that and focus on her mission at hand.

It was then that she spotted the striped light blue collared shirt hunched over the bar drinking a particularly large glass of iced whiskey. In an instant she was by his side, tugging at his sleeve.

“JaeHwan, we need to talk.”

He glanced at her for a split second, his eyes glazed over in his haze of booze.

“Go away.” He said, turning back to his drink.

Raelyn grabbed his arm. “We need to talk now.”

“I said go away!” He yanked his arm away, the force of his body causing him to stumble out of his chair. She reached out and snatched him up before he could fall to the floor, flinging his arm around her neck and standing him up.

“Oh Raelyn! Hey!” Cristian called, walking over to her as he cleaned out a glass. “What can I get you? The usual?”

“Just a room in the back.” She replied.

In just a few minutes, she was sitting JaeHwan down on one of the couches in a private room. The television was playing a rough instrumental of Gee in the corner, two of the mics sitting on the table ready to be used, as well as a small menu of songs.

“Leave me alone!” JaeHwan whined, discomfort apparent on his face. His breath more or less punched Raelyn in the face, reeking of hard liquor and second day breath, burning Raelyn’s nostrils and causing her to retreat.

“Ugh, gross….” She cursed underneath her breath.

He pushed himself up into sitting position on the sofa, allowing Raelyn a good look at him. He tugged at the collar of his shirt to catch his breath, the wrinkles pressed and pleated into the fabric causing her to suspect a second day wearing, her suspicions only being confirmed by the shadow of stubble on his chin and the shine of oils in his hair.

After a second, she took a deep breath. “JaeHwan, look-”

“I said go away!”

Before he could turn away from her, she caught him by the sleeve of his shirt and yanked him around.

“No, you’re not going to turn a blind eye on this. You’re going to look at me when I speak to you.” He yanked his arm away and paused to glare at her before opening his mouth, but before he could say anything, she took a deep breath. “I’m going to tell him everything.”

He was taken aback, his eyes becoming wide. “Tell who?”

“Don’t play dumb.” She said. “You know who I’m talking about.”

He stared at her for a long moment, but then scoffed and shook his head.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“I’m tired of lying, JaeHwan. All of this… it’s too much. I can’t do it anymore; it’s not fair. Not to him, not to me - not to anyone.” She said. “We talked about this months ago, and you agreed to tell everyone what happened. But you haven’t - you haven’t done a single thing. So I’m going to tell him about what happened between you and I.”

She attempted to turn and walk out of the room, but before she could reach the door he let out a scoff.

“Why don’t you tell him everything then?”

This stopped Raelyn in her tracks. She turned around to face him.

“That’s what I’m going to do.”

He let out a loud, drunken laugh before looking up at her with his intoxicated eyes.

“Go right ahead then.” He said. “Tell him about all of the clubs you went to. All of the booze, and all of the drugs that you got addicted to. Oh and, uh, don’t forget about all of the men you’ve crawled into bed with.”

She felt the world stop, the sound waves pulsing in her ear drums as her stomach fought against the lining of her skin to hop out and run away.

“How do you know about that…?”

“A little birdie told me.” He said. “A little birdie that has been serving me my drinks all night.” There was a scoff as he stood up from his seat. “You know, there are two great things about bartenders: they’re great gossipers, and they see everything. Especially wasted little girls who walk in by themselves and walk out with a different guy every night.”

He began to approach on her, making her take a step back.

“So go ahead. Tell my brother everything.” JaeHwan continued. “Tell him about how you would wake up wasted on your front lawn, or in your bathtub. About those nights you would get jumped in the alleyways after making your purchase of the illegal narcotics you would shoot up. Go ahead and tell him about Park Chan Tae, the construction worker, or Shin Man Kyo, the noodle shop owners son, or Shin Chan Eun, the real estate agent, or his brother, Shin Chan Sung, or Dan Adams, the tourist from the UK.”

Raelyn shook her head, doing her best to gulp down her nerves in her tight throat. “If you think that changes anything, then you’re wrong.” She defended. “I’ve been clean for over a year.”

“Then go ahead and tell him about New Years.” The expression he left on her face left her completely vulnerable. “About how you were all mine with just a verse.” He smirked. “I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the gray….”

He had her backed into a wall by this point, towering over her.

“Tell him about the way you moaned when I caressed the inside of your thighs.”

“Stop it....”

“When I stripped that cute little black dress from your body.”

“Stop it.”

“The way you screamed out his big brother’s name when his tongue-”

“STOP IT!”

A forceful shove sent JaeHwan sailing onto his . Raelyn stared down at him, her body quivering but her sharp gaze never faltering.

“You’re a pig.”

A maniac laugh that protruded from JaeHwan filled the room.

“If I’m a pig, then you’re nothing but the mud that I wallow in.”

The insult sent shots through her heart, her clenched teeth doing their best to hold her back from pouncing on him.

“This changes nothing.” She spat. “He deserves the truth.”

“He won’t want anything to do with you.” JaeHwan hissed. “My brother is a nun. Do you think his heart can take it? He catches me drinking in the house, and he doesn’t talk to me.” He scoffed. “He’ll hate you.”

Raelyn shook her head. “I don’t care.”

“You’re such a liar.”

“Who’s the real liar here?”

The question threw JaeHwan off, causing a snarl to curl up on his lip. Raelyn turned her back on him and started towards the door, being stopped by the loud laugh that came from behind her.

“Fine. Go ahead and tell him.” He cried. “He already hates me - I have nothing to lose. But at least after this is all over, you can share some of the hatred. You can be lonely like I have been my whole life.”

Everything in Raelyn told her to just walk out the door, but instead she lingered for a second too long.

“What the hell are you talking about.” She scoffed. “You know, I knew you were a liar, but I didn’t know you were a whiney, ungrateful as well.”

“What the are you talking about.”

She whipped her head around on him. “I mean you have Lucca,. Or does that fact that she’s giving her heart over to you not mean a damn thing?”

“Of course it does.”

Raelyn scoffed. “You don’t know the kind of bull that she’s been through. She doesn’t deserve to be taken advantage of like this.”

“Don’t try to talk to me like you know a single damn thing about me.” He spat back at her. “Lucca is the only woman that I have ever been able to trust, the only woman that I know for a fact won’t run off and leave me for someone else. The only woman that I have even contemplated on giving in and being able to love properly. But do you think that, after this, she’ll want a single damn thing to do with me?”

Raelyn was stunned and unable to move at everything. The expression on his face that had been one of anger just a minute earlier was now one of fear and vulnerability. His breath was heavy as he did his best to catch it, his eyes not once leaving the blank spot on the ground in front of him. Raelyn searched her brain for something, anything to say, but couldn’t seem to find anything.

After a moment, JaeHwan swallowed the mixture of saliva and phlegm that had built up in the back of his throat.

“He says the same thing about you, you know.” For a moment Raelyn couldn’t tell if he was speaking to her or not, but then his eyes met hers, his eyebrows knit and his eyes sad. “He comes home on cloud nine every night, and the only thing he can talk about is how wonderful you are. You’ve been the only stable woman in his life. His mother left him when he was two, and even when his of a grandmother took him away, she ended up dying a few short years later. Can you imagine how torn he’s going to be when you tell him that his first girlfriend slept with his older brother?”

Raelyn fell to her knees, her breath leaving her. She shook her head in disbelief, her heart falling to pieces, unable to say anything.

“And you want to know what the best part about this whole ordeal is? The reason why he hates me?” JaeHwan continued. “He blames me for everything. Every goddamn thing that our parents did, he blames me for. He says that I didn’t try hard enough, that I didn’t fight back hard enough.” He brought his hand to his face as his shook his head. “He doesn’t understand that I love him more than anything in the world. Even when I try, I can never win. Because how are you supposed to mend things with your brother when all he does is blame you for all of the bull that your ty family has caused?”

JaeHan had his head cradled in his hands, his voice exposing that he was near a break down. Raelyn was weak-willed - she knew this. And despite having been on the verge of strangling him not ten minutes before, seeing him in this state right now melted everything he had said to her away.

They sat in silence for a long while, the sound of Gee restarting for the upteenth time on the karaoke system. After a while, she forced down her strong urges to cry with a swallow and cleared .

“I understand what will happen… I understand that we - all of us - will lose everything that we’ve grown attached to.” She explained. “But we need to face the consequences for our actions. I’m still going to confess.”

JaeHwan refused to allow Raelyn to see his face, keeping his pained expression hidden behind his hands.

“But,” She continued, “I’ll keep it a secret for a little longer.”

He sat in shock for a moment, but then turned and met her gaze.

“I know you’re in pain… and I know you’re relationship is strained with your brother. But I also know that you guys have been doing a lot better recently than when I first met you. I know that you guys are trying to work things out.”

She stood up and started towards the door, but then stopped in her tracks. After a moment, she turned and looked back towards JaeHwan.

“Don’t let this get to your head though. I’m not doing this for you.”

Without another word, she stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her. As she stepped out into the dark hallway, everything that had just happened came rushing back to her, causing her to have to lean up again the door so she didn’t fall over.

She sat there for another good minute, fighting the urge to throw up. After letting out a breath, she finally recomposed herself and turned down the hallway, only to be met with a large wall in her path.

She let out a light squeak, her heart racing from the shock. She then looked up at the towering object to find that it was a man. Upon further inspection, she found that she recognized the face.

“Han SangHyuk.” Her eyes were wide, her breath leaving her almost immediately. He was leaning up against the wall, his arms crossed, his eyes staring down at her sternly, and she knew that he had heard everything.

She did her best the fight the sickness she felt in her stomach and let out a smile. “Wh-what are you doing here? Aren’t you a little young to be-”

“Cut the crap, Raelyn.” His criticizing tone turned her face white. “I followed you here on a mere hunch, and boy am I glad that I did.”

Raelyn felt all the strength in her body begin to wear away. Her legs began to shake, and it took all she had in herself to stay standing.

“You had better start explaining.”

Raelyn swallowed. “Alright... alright. But not here.”

She led him through the hazy room and out the door, both of them taking in a gasp of fresh air as if it were to save their lives. They were in complete silence until they reached the other side of the building where her car was parked in the parking lot before she began speaking. She explained the situation from beginning to end, even throwing in her own backstory with Lucca, and her parents, and the drugs, and the men.

It was a good while before she finished the story. Eventually, they had climbed up onto the hood of the car to rest their feet. Vehicles were driving around them and out of the parking lot by the time she was finished. By then, she was both physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted.

“So…” She said. “Now you know everything.”

“So how does TaekWoon come into play.”

She raised an eyebrow at him curiously, “How do you know about TaekWoon-ssi?”

“Just answer the question.”

She stared at him for a moment before exhaling. “He was there the night it happened. I don’t know how or why JaeHwan didn’t know he was there, but he was, and he knows everything.” She reached up and brushed her bangs out of her face. “I guess JaeHwan found a way to keep his mouth shut about it, or something. Hell, I don’t know.”

Hyuk couldn’t help but smirk slightly. “You don’t know Leo-Hyung.”

Raelyn scoffed. “It’s hard to get to know a guy when he hates you.”

“It’s not like that. He’s just a really secretive and quiet person.” Hyuk replied. “Once you get to know him, he opens up and is actually really caring of others.”

Raelyn grinned and shook her head. “If you say so.”

They sat in silence for another long while before Hyuk turned to her

“I’m sorry things turned out this way.”

Raelyn smiled slightly. “Yeah, me too.” She sat there for another minute before letting out a sigh. “Well, it’s getting late. I should probably head back home.”

“Yeah, same here. HakYeon’s going to kill me.” They hopped off the hood of the car. As Raelyn moved around to the driver’s side of the car, Hyuk called out to her. “You know that I can’t keep this from Lucca, right?”

She stared over at him in shock for a moment before nodding. “I know. I didn’t expect you to.” She stared down at the ground for a moment before forcing a grin over to him. “Have a good night, SangHyuk.”

“You too.”

She hopped into her car and, with another nod to Hyuk, began to pull out. Hyuk only watched as the car drove off down the road and disappeared into the distance, leaving him alone in the parking lot filled with empty cars. He only continued to stand still, taking in a few more breaths of fresh air before he turned away and started on his way back home.