Not Your Lover (2PARK✔️)

Step Twenty-Three: Crumpling

dear APRILSKIN cosmetics, i bought your jihoon hair color treatment and i recommend them too. please sponsor me~ (after editing months later, i'd like to say that these hair treatments are actually really nice and made my hair feel like silk despite the dyes. i got blue and red)

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"A passing reporter caught up with the young man who was accused of harassing young Park Jihoon on the street just yesterday, his camera at the ready for a story."

I groan as grainy footage comes up onto the television, my eyes numb from staring at the screen all night long. Kijung stumbles into the living room as the footage rolls, his toddling steps like thunder in the early morning.

"Did you sleep?" He asks through a yawn, collapsing onto the couch beside me.

"No," I reply simply, watching the TV intently.

"Excuse me, but can you tell me what your relationship with that young man is? Why were you shouting on the street?" Minhyun's face dominates the screen as he glares directly into the camera, his angular face sharp enough to cut me already fragile body down. "Is there a reason a fight began between you?"

"He's my ex." It's such a simple answer. It's the truth, and yet the furthest from it he could be. "I saw him for the first time in years today, and he's still upset about the breakup I guess."

Kijung shuffles closer to me on the couch, tugging at the edge of the blanket draped over me. I pass it to him wordlessly, still watching the television with wide eyes and shallow breaths. An unknown amount of trouble has just started up because of this guy. All over again, he's bringing new trouble into Jihoon's life, and now mine.

As if I wasn't bringing myself enough trouble.

"Hyung," Kijung mumbles beside me, yawning once again. "What really happened last night? How come only Euijin got to know?"

"Because Euijin kicked you out before I started talking." Nothing but the truth. "There's not much to know anyway. Just a fight. Jihoon'll get over it."

Kijung scratches at the back of his head before sitting up a bit and looking down at me. "Hyung, I dunno if that's right. Daehwi and I were talking all night, and he kept saying Jihoon Hyung was crying. Like, for hours."

"He tends to do that," I mutter, blinking for the first time in what feels like days. "He'll be fine. We fight all the time, just like any couple."

"But Hyung-"

I stand from the couch, my frozen muscles snapping as I stretch. "Just drop it. You don't know Jihoon like I do, it'll be okay."

"Then why didn't you bother sleeping last night?" Kijung sounds spiteful, trying his hardest to prove a point that can be proven with just half the effort. I already believe him. But I'm trying my hardest to just believe myself right now.

"I said drop it," I grumble, snatching the remote from the coffee table and switching the television off. "I'm gonna take a shower, you should wake the guys up. We have a dance to work on."

"You're the only one who doesn't know anything about it," he points out sarcastically. He's not wrong, my practices dwindling in the last few days due to my trip south, and then the troubles with Jihoon. Between then and now, I've only had two days, while the rest of my group has had four total to learn, practice, and perfect.

"Fine, Kijung. I'm taking a shower."

'Taking a shower' is a loose term to apply to the long while I spend sat on the shower floor. The hot water doesn't feel good hitting my back, but the pain somehow keeps me grounded. The thoughts in my head spin faster than a ride at the circus, dizzying to the point of bringing nausea.