idol no love | jakehoon

twenty-three. knuckles solution

Jake might as well throw Park Jeongwoo out from a moving car than tolerate this tense, suffocating atmosphere any longer.

He glanced at Sunghoon, and then his annoying cousin in the backseat with a busted lip. They oddly looked familiar now that they were together—Jake swallowed the bitter realisation that he must've been stupid to not recognise their similarities. It wasn't a blatant and obvious similarity, but there were some.

"What is it? Found out we kinda look alike?"

He had been caught. Jake puffed his cheeks and snorted, "yeah, right. One can see who got the better looking genes."

To which, Sunghoon smirked and held Jake's hand. Jeongwoo's egotistical smirk fell, and he looked down at their linked fingers with a scowl.

"Mmph! You didn't take a good look," Jeongwoo crossed his arms and sat back.

"I don't need to," said Jake, smugly.

Jeongwoo scoffed unbelievingly. He opened his mouth, perhaps to make another snide remark when he was bolted to the left and hit his head on the window. "Ow!" Rubbing his head, he glared at the man behind the wheels feigning ignorance.

Sunghoon drove them to a pretty country house beside a hillock. The house looked fairly deserted if it weren't for Yeji who looked anxious to greet them in the porch. Jake pinched his eyebrows. Just what was going on?

"Oppa," began Yeji, fear written all over her face.

Jake glanced at Sunghoon to get a better understanding of the situation and found him stone-cold impassive. Oh. He retreated regrettably.

When Yeji saw Jeongwoo, the look on her face changed. She went from frightened to an accusing glare.

Sunghoon opened the front door, ushering them in. "Make yourself at home," he said to Jake, whilst he gave a domineering silence to the rest.

Jake had only managed to access the interior of the house and realised it was near-to desertion when the heavy grunt of a man who had met the fist of Park Sunghoon snapped him back to his senses.

Park Jeongwoo was on his knees, hands over the right sight of his cheek when he was yanked up by the collar by Sunghoon and given another blow to his left cheek. "Sunghoon!" Jake grabbed the idol and pulled him back while Yeji simply sighed.

"Wa-what's going on?"

Sunghoon swats his jacket. He didn't look angry, just, much to Jake's dismay, aloof. He walked over the wincing Jeongwoo and sat down on the couch. "Yeji, do us the honour of explaining everything. And careful not to leave out anything." He said it so casually, Jake grew even more fearful.

Yeji was long-faced, unhappy that she had been chosen to speak and that too, in such a domineering manner. It felt like an order, which technically, it was but coming from her brother, Yeji couldn't help but feel upset.

With a dreadful sigh, she began, "I was there at the afterparty, the night where it all happened. I didn't tell anyone I was coming back to Seoul, not even my family so safe to say, I sneaked in. That was when I saw this motherfucker and his bunch playing around in the backroom with the drinks. They bribed a waiter to mix the drinks with some substance in the backroom. They bribed a waiter to mix the substance in a few drinks to their private suite when 'the VVIPs arrive'. It looked bad so I kept a close watch and caught," she fixed her eyes on Jake, "you taking one of the drinks. I didn't know whether I should keep my eyes on you or follow the waiter. When I saw you entered the restroom and Jeongwoo followed, I sneaked away and by some fortunate luck, saw my brother taking the same drink.

"So I decided to follow my brother instead. He was out of it when I took him to a private room. When I came out, this motherfucker saw me and started chasing me. Jake was held by some of his lackeys. I barely managed to get away but I couldn't return to the room because of this motherfucker. And when I saw the news the next morning, I realised I was accidentally part of a sicko's petty scheme so I hid out of fear, and guilt, until now."

Yeji's end was met with a sinister laugh from the 'sicko/motherfucker', the culprit behind the entire mess.

They let him laugh for a while until Jake asked the laughing-bruised Jeongwoo. "Why did you do it?"

"Like she said, because I'm a petty sicko. You're a stranger to our family so you wouldn't know, Jake; how messed up we are. The perfect Park Sunghoon, good-looking, talented and successful, the cause of my misery since birth. We all know the feeling of being compared to someone, their achievements, our misery. But none of you know the feeling of being abandoned since birth because of someone, much less someone more well-off and from the same familiar.

"I've always hated your boyfriend, Jake. And it didn't made things any better when I learned he had downed my one million dollars just like that. And then there was you, a complete stranger who committed the same mistake. You see, my perfect cousin has only two flaws, according to my insufferable parents—stubborness and sexual preference—so you were like a gift from God. I would be an idiot if I didn't make use of the golden opportunity, so I did."

Jeongwoo leaned his back on the couch, looking absolutely proud of himself. "Fortunately, Yeji had done me a favour of already booking a room. All she had to do next, was keep quiet. My little cousin has many secrets so it was very easy to keep her silent." He beamed.

Jake took one step, and the next followed ultimately. Before he could collect all the information, he found himself punching the life out of Park Jeonwoo. Sunghoon's previous assualt had hindered the lad weak, so Jake had it easy throwing blows after blows with little to no fight from the other party.

He wasn't stopped. Instead, he ended only after sating his anger.

Behind the bruises and blood, Jeongwoo still managed to find amusement as his chest shook and he snickered languidly.

"I have a suspicion that you're the sort of bastard who fears his parents most," said Jake, instantly  putting an end to the laughter. Gone was the amusement in Park Jeongwoo, now replaced with a threatening glare.

"Don't you dare-"

"Sorry, but I've already made up my mind. And it just so happened that I'm a lot more stubborn than your cousin. I'm not changing anything." Saying so, Jake averted his eyes on Yeji. Much like her brother, she was stone-faced and didn't really seem too troubled by her actions. She was only afraid of her brother.

Jake mentally sighed. This family sure was fucked up.

"You did what you thought was good for your brother," he simply said. Yet, it was enough to ease the girl by a ton as Jake noticed a gradual shift in her face, but it was barely noticeable. If Jake hadn't had experience through Sunghoon, he too, would have missed it.

Speaking of the idol, he got up and wrapped his arm around Jake. To Jeongwoo, he says, "you'll be hearing from my lawyer, and aunt and uncle." And to Yeji, "Do you want a ride?"

The girl shook her head, "Mom's picking me up in a few minutes."

"Then I guess I should leave before that." He snaked his arms around Jake's waist, pulling the latter along at the mention of the woman who birthed him.

"Wait!" Yeji stopped them as they left the house. She stared at Jake. "Thank you."

Jake couldn't help but smile; so Sunghoon's efforts weren't a waste. He nodded at her.