"Someone stop her!" Someone shrieked from the Cafeteria and all the attention went to Minjung running down the halls to the elevators.
Mark noticed her run before Hyerim did and stepped right in front of her with his back towards to Cafeteria.
"It's my turn to protect you," He whispered before Minjung's knife deeply pierced his side. Wincing, he looked at Hyerim and smiled to himself before he fell to the ground unconscious.
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Once Mark fell, I couldn't hear anything. My ears rang, and everything fell into silence. I dropped down and shook him but no matter how much I yelled at him, he didn't wake up.
"Wasn't hurting me enough?" I yelled at Minjung who just stood there blankly with the bloody knife still in hand. "You had to stab him?!" I stood up and pushed her to the wall. She ended up scratching her face with the knife.
"Let me go!" She tried to push me away, but I kept her pinned to the wall. She began weeping. "He's bleeding a lot!" I turned my attention to him.
I sat back down next to him and held onto his wound. It took mere seconds for people to gather around him and a couple minutes to get him down to the waiting ambulance. I wanted to get in the ambulance too, but I was held back by Jiwoo-unnie who said I needed to stay behind to give a witness statement.
"But he could be dying! I was supposed to get stabbed. Me!" I said in the least eloquent way.
"That's why you need to give the statement. It's to answer why she tried to stab anyone to in the first place." Jiwoo said.
"Because she hates me for supposedly taking what's hers when she never had any of it in the first place!" I yelled in anger. "I kept quiet about it because I pitied her and her selfish efforts, but now I'm not the only victim."
"Come on, we're going to the hospital. I'll try to get PD-nim to stall the statement as long as possible." Jiwoo grabbed her keys from the reception desk, and we headed to the garage. Just as I got into my seat, Jiwoo-unnie started the engine, but immediately stomped on the break. My arm hit the glove box from the impulse.
Jiwoo-unnie pulled down her window and yelled, "Get the hell out of the way."
"Take me with you." A quivering voice spoke. I looked up and saw Minjung standing right in front of the car.
"Are you crazy?" Jiwoo-unnie yelled back.
"I won't do anything, okay? Please. I just want to see him and no one's letting me go," Minjung cried. "He wasn't supposed to get hurt, and I want to apologize."
"We're not taking the perpetrator to the victim," Jiwoo-unnie responded.
"We're wasting time. I'm not going to move so either you take me or you run me over," Minjung looked at me. "I just want to apologize and that's it."
"Let her in," I told Jiwoo-unnie.
"But...." Jiwoo-unnie hesitated.
"It's either we spend all night here arguing with her or taking her to the hospital and letting the security there handle it," I said. "She's right. We're just wasting time right now."
Jiwoo reluctantly opened the back door, and Minjung rushed inside.
"Thank you," She whimpered.
The car ride to the hospital was awkward and quiet. I quietly passed Minjung a tissue box to wipe her tears and the blood on her face. She silently took it without a word.
When we arrived, we each went our separate ways. Minjung disappeared somewhere in the crowd, Jiwoo went to alert security about Minjung, and I went towards the emergency center of the hospital where Kim-Manager and the other members were waiting.
Everyone sat in with their head hung low in front of the operation room. It was extremely quiet, and no one really wanted to say anything.
"He just went in," Kim-Manager greeted me offering his seat. "A nurse just popped out saying that it didn't look too bad... or at least nothing life-threatening."
"Jiwoo-unnie is in the lobby talking to the receptionist about security," I told him. Then I leaned in to whisper, "Minjung came with us. We had no choice but to bring her so Jiwoo-unnie is alerting the hospital about it." He nodded and went out to go meet her.
"Here, you must be cold." Junior placed his jacket over my legs as I sat down. I thanked him.
"Thank you Junior-oppa," I responded.
"I decided to go by Jinyoung now. I already discussed it with JYP," he corrected. "When Minjung said my name, I felt like I was hiding a part of myself by using a stage name. I thought it was only right to use my real name."
"I think that is a good decision," I told him. "For the record, I think Jinyoung is a better name than Junior."
"So Hyerim-ah, what exactly happened?" JB spoke up.
"Mark and I were heading down for dinner then Minjung came out of nowhere with a knife," I explained. "Before I knew it, Mark was standing in front of me and Minjung ran into him."
"She's a freaking psychopath if you ask me," Jackson added on.
"It's all my fault. If Mark didn't get involved with me, he wouldn't have gotten in the crossfire," I sighed.
"No one blames you," Yugyeom added on. "Regardlessly, Minjung has shown an over-attachment to Mark."
"You know how the Red Carpet party being strictly company members only this year right? I heard it was safety measures against Minjung. Her own uncle can't trust her," Bambam included.
I had forgotten to let Sungjae know about the change. I thought I should let him know as soon as possible, but I didn't want to leave the operation room, just in case Mark was released in my absence. I pulled out my phone and decided to text Sungjae instead. As rude as it felt to me, I thought urgency was more important than how it was told.
[Me]: Hey Sungjae-oppa. I'm really sorry to say, but JYP decided to make the Red Carpet party exclusive to company members only this year, so I'm not allowed to invite you anymore. I'm really sorry.
I put my phone away and tried not to think about anything. The only thing on my mind was how to fight back Minjung, Hyuna, and now... Sohyun.
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Sungjae left Hyerim's text on read in disbelief. He really thought he had a chance to be alone with Hyerim now, but it seemed like a cosmic force was preventing it from happening.
"Hey Sungjae, where are you?" Eunkwang called him as soon as he entered the dorms.
"I'm in the kitchen," Sungjae responded back. Eunkwang made his way to him and sat right in front of the maknae.
"Hyunseung-sunbae's been looking for you. It seemed rather important," Eunkwang cautiously mentioned.
"You know I lost my respects for that hyung," Sungjae rolled his eyes. "He brought Hyerim to a party full of alcohol and left her in a room alone."
"Yeah, I get it. But I wouldn't be mentioning it if it didn't seem important enough. He sounded really serious," Eunkwang mentioned.
"Where is he?" Sungjae asked.
As instructed, Sungjae went downstairs to the cafe where Hyunseung and he spied on Hyuna. Once he entered the cafe, he walked over to private room 2, as Eunkwang-hyung said to. He opened the door to find Hyunseung sitting in a chair with his eyes closed.
"I thought you wouldn't show up," Hyunseung said, his eyes still closed. Sungjae took the seat in front of him.
"I wasn't going to, so make this quick. If you called me over for something stupid, I'm leaving," Sungjae warned.
After opening his eyes, Hyunseung pulled out a medium-sized brown box and placed it on the table in front of Sungjae, along with a couple thick envelopes.
"Take these," Hyunseung said. "It's my parting gift."
"Parting? Are you going somewhere?" Sungjae opened up the box to find several recording devices inside. "What's this?"
"You might laugh, but I care about Hyerim. I messed up every time I was with her from introducing her to Hyuna to thinking it was a good idea to bring her to a party. I want to make things right," Hyunseung sighed. "I know Hyuna is making -- and really forging -- evidence to defame Hyerim. She wants to publicly humiliate her because I chose Hyerim over Hyuna for a project that was never followed through. So I spied on her and met with every single person Hyuna met who was fabricating evidence and got them to testify against her. Each recording is labeled with the person's name and what they did to assist Hyuna."
"But why are you giving this to me?" Sungjae asked.
"Last year, I got Irene to confess that she teamed up with Hyuna to cause Hyerim's accident and got Peniel to record it. Peniel sent the recording to Hyerim, but it seems like she deleted it saying that she didn't want to ruin their careers. If I give these to her, she's just going to reject them...because she doesn't trust me and she has every reason not to. I need you to convince her to use these. I'll send more every time Hyuna fabricates something." Hyunseung explained. "The envelopes contain lawsuits that Hyerim could file against Hyuna and whoever she is working with. My lawyer is ready to take over the case as soon as she decides to, so he prepared the papers ahead of time."
"You said it was a parting gift..." Sungjae repeated.
"I promised Kikwang that when I'm over my obsession... I'll leave Beast." Hyunseung looked away from Sungjae. "I'm not over it, but I can't drag them down with me. The box also contains a footage of me blackmailing JYP and Hyerim's manager. If Hyerim ends up using that, I will be severely involved in the case, and it would be selfish of me to take my members with me. I already messed up with Hyerim... I can't with the members, at least not anymore."
Sungjae carefully placed the lid back on the box and said, "I can't do that, hyung. Also knowing Hyerim, she probably won't do it."
"That's why you need to convince her. She'll listen to you," Hyunseung replied. "Her lifelong dream was to sing for others. The reason why she never went against Hyuna was because she didn't want to be the reason why Hyuna can't do what she loves. But involving her with me, I blocked her career, and she's having a hard time. I can't keep watching her getting hurt and not fighting back. You can't tell her these are from me, but you have to get her to use them."
"Hyung..." Sungjae suddenly felt bad for the sunbae he lost his respects for, but if they had anything in common, it was their concern for Hyerim. "I'll try to convince her. What if she still rejects the idea of suing them?"
"Then I'll take them to the police. I won't be able to sue them, but I should be able to deny any of Hyuna's claims," Hyunseung concluded. "But I'm serious. It's about time Hyerim acts against her demons."
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The surgery felt like forever. Some of the members drifted asleep while others were anxiously waiting. I found myself nibbling on the side of my fingertips, planning worst-case scenarios in my head.
Finally, the doctor stepped out, and the ten of us (including the managers) crowded him at once.
"Doctor, I thought it was just a minor injury, why did the surgery take so long?" Kim-Manager asked.
"It seemed small at first, but it turns out the wound cut pretty deeply into his intestine and the outside lining of his stomach. It was a critical spot, so mending it without hurting any other tissues took some time," the doctor explained. "He's yet to regain consciousness, but is stable and being transported to one of the VIP rooms. In about fifteen minutes, you can meet him there. Have his guardians been notified?"
"Yes, we called them, and they are going to catch the first possible flight out to Korea," Jinyoung explained.
"Further details of the recovery will be discussed once the patient has woken up, but I doubt that there will be after-effects of the injury." The doctor took off his mask and gloves.
We all thanked the doctor for his hard work, and a few of us fell back into the seats, our legs giving out due to nervousness.
After a few minutes to calm down, Kim-manager spoke up, "As much as we all want to wait for Mark to wake up, we have to handle this professionally. First, Hyerim, you will go back to the company with Jiwoo to give your statement to the police. I understand that you might want to stay here, but there are already a lot of reporters out there, so we need to be careful." He held onto Jiwoo's hand. "She'll take you safely to the garage, so leave as soon as you can."
"Okay," I responded reluctantly.
"As for you boys, half of you should go back to the dorms with Jiwoo, too. We've been here for hours, and you guys haven't properly slept in weeks. Half of you will rest up, change into fresh clothes, and wash yourselves up. The other half will stay here with me and then we can switch every four hours," He commanded the boys.
"Yugyeom, BamBam, and I will go first," Youngjae suggested. "The hyungs will probably provide more support than we will."
"I think that sounds good," BamBam responded.
"Let's go, Hyerim-ah," Yugyeom said trying to give me a comforting smile.
The five of us started to head to the garage, actively avoiding the reporters who had to be detained by the hospital security. We all got into the car, and Jiwoo started driving towards the entertainment.
"Hyerim-ah, don't forget to go straight to the CEO's room, not JYP's room," Jiwoo reminded me once more.
"Did you find her?" I asked.
"Unfortunately, no," Jiwoo sighed. "But the security said they won't ever leave the hospital room unattended."
"Who's her?" Yugyeom cautiously questioned.
"Min--" Jiwoo started and I cut her off.
"Just a person I know. Don't worry about it too much," I tried to ease his curiosity.
The reporters were also crowded in front of the entertainment, so we needed to be escorted inside by the security team. Two policewomen were ready to take me to the CEO's room as soon as I entered the building.
I've only been to the CEO's office once to introduce myself along with other trainees. No one really saw him around the entertainment because he was mainly in charge of finance and business related exchanges, unlike JYP PD-nim who took care of the social exchanges along with music business.
I sat down across from the CEO and the policewomen sat adjacently from me.
"Could you describe precisely what happened earlier tonight, Ms. Song?" The older policewoman, Mrs. Cha, asked. "The more details, the better."
I explained as thoroughly as I can about what happened right before and during the accident.
"I didn't see Minjung running down the hall. I only saw Mark standing right in front of me, and it took me a bit to realize that he had been stabbed," I concluded.
"Do you know why Ms. Lee would attack Mr. Tuan?" The younger policewoman, Ms. Ki, questioned.
"I think..." I took a deep sigh because it would be the first time I would be admitting this to someone else who wasn't involved. "I have to believe that Minjung was not aiming for Mark, but rather was going for me. Mark simply got caught in the crossfire trying to protect me."
"Why do you believe that?" Ms. Ki, who was clearly fascinated by this investigation, followed up.
"Because Minjung has been physically and verbally assaulted me more than once," I bravely confessed.
"Could you explain what you mean?" Ms. Cha wrote down my words. "Do you mean she pushed you around and call you names or..?"
"No, I mean she actually endangered my life several times," I replied.
"Can you name some of the things she did?" Ms. Ki asked.
"She was involved in an accident that caused a huge damage to my spine, and constantly targeted it. I was almost paralyzed because of her, and she has injured my ankle as well. Every time we speak, she threatens to take away everything I have," I briefly summarized.
"Have you known her for a while?" Ms. Cha asked. "I mean long enough at least for her to have some kind of grudge against you?"
"I have never met Minjung before she joined the entertainment," I honestly answered.
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Once Minjung arrived at the hospital, she made sure she wasn't going to be seen by anyone. She began panicking, not very sure what she was going to do. Knowing Hyerim and her manager, there was no way she was going to be able to see Mark, but right now, she's wasn't too confident if she can ever see him again.
All she ever wanted was to be his friend and maybe something more; however, she would have settled for friendship. But seeing that Hyerim had that changed Minjung, almost to a point where she couldn't even recognize herself. It took her friends ignoring her to realize that.
She originally had no intention of going to the extreme of stabbing Hyerim. But she was all anyone talked about at the entertainment anymore, and Minjung felt a strain of anger. But she now realized that her actions caused the people she cared about damage too.
Before she could do anything else, Minjung knew she had to change first.
Minjung got into a taxi to Cube Entertainment from the hospital. As soon as she arrived, she demanded that the receptionist called Hyuna over.
"If you would like to see one of our artists, please write your name and reason here," The reception carefully followed her normal procedure, but Minjung simply ignored her words.
She jumped over the small barricade next to the receptionist that can only open with a Cube ID. There were a few people in Cube's lobby, but because it was late at night, no one really paid attention to her yet.
"Security!" The receptionist yelled.
Minjung ran towards the elevator before she even saw a glimpse of the security team. She knew which floor Hyuna usually was in, so immediately began heading over there. She arrived at the 6th floor and walked towards the storage room which led to a secret room Hyuna and Hyunseung used to hang out at.
As expected, Hyuna was there casually watching the television.
"I don't remember calling you here," Hyuna sneered, not even looking at Minjung. "I saw something about Got7's Mark rushed to the hospital for an injury. Did you do that?"
"I fucking hate you," Minjung sounded rather calm.
"I never told you to hurt him." Hyuna sipped on her wine placed nicely on a side table next to her seat. "And I told you more than enough times that we had a schedule. You're the one who got so desperate."
"You're a monster, you know that?" Minjung gritted her teeth. "I should have never listened to your ideas and plans. Hell, I should have never taken that job at their showcase."
"Neither Irene nor I forced you to go there to turn the lights off. You said you would do it because you wanted to," Hyuna laughed to herself. "And it's not my fault that you've changed so much. You did it to yourself. You're the monster." She got up and walked towards Minjung.
"You're the one who planted all those ideas in my head. I never wanted it to get this bad," Minjung attempted to protest.
"Your little fucking petty jealousy got us this far." Hyuna shoved Minjung's shoulder. "You couldn't handle that Hyerim had Mark's undivided attention so you asked me to help you defame her." She shoved Minjung's other shoulder. "You could have been his friend if you were simply nice to him, but your spoiled little ass wanted more than that." She grabbed Minjung's face, heavily pressing on Minjung's injury on her cheek. Minjung began screaming in pain. "So suck it up and deal it with." Hyuna let her go.
But Hyuna didn't know that Minjung's scream was loud enough to be heard from outside. Hyunseung, who was coincidentally coming there to confront Hyuna, rushed inside upon hearing the scream. Minjung, who was cradling her cheek, was on the floor as her legs gave in from the pain. Hyunseung came to aid her.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Hyunseung yelled at Hyuna while helping Minjung up.
"What's it matter to you anyway?" Hyuna continued sipping her wine, but this time one-shotted the rest of the bottle. "You don't even know I'm doing this all for you."
"You keep talking about trying to get me back," Hyunseung retaliated. "But if you're the one that left me, remember?"
"A small mistake," Hyuna crackled. "You were drunk that night, so what?"
"I also endangered your life," Hyunseung growled. "And I don't regret what happened to us." Hyunseung helped Minjung rest herself against the wall and approached Hyuna. "You already knew my father was dying. But you thought it would distract me from doing a unit with you and my overall performance, so you asked my mother to keep it from me. Did you think I wasn't going to find out?"
"Did she tattle tale on me?" Hyuna hysterically laughed. "I was doing what was best for you. Look at how popular you are now."
"I would exchange all of this for a moment next to my father's bed. He was crying for me Hyuna, and you prevented me from seeing him off one last time," Hyunseung felt more sadness than anger at this point. "So if you're wondering why I am happy with the way I left things is because you took my father away from me. I meant it when I threw the glass cup at you."
Hyuna couldn't think of a good enough comeback to his words.
"So stop all this madness so I can at least remember you as a human, not a demon." Hyunseung turned his attention towards Minjung and helped her up. He was leading her towards the exit until glass hit the back of his head.
"I can't believe Hyerim completely manipulate you," Hyuna's voice trembled. "I will see to the end of her."
"It's not her that changed me. It's always been you. I was just too blind to admit it," Hyunseung proceeded to take Minjung outside and away from the secret room.
He took her to Cube's infirmary where the nurse stitched up her cut.
"Thank you," Minjung cautiously whispered.
"I need to ask you a couple questions, and your responses will change things, so answer them wisely," Hyunseung calmly said. Minjung nodded. "Do you regret the things you've done?"
"I'm beginning to," Minjung answered.
"Are you going to still scheme against Hyerim?" He followed.
Minjung hesitated for a bit, but then answered, "If it is going to cost my friends, no. I don't want to scheme against her anymore."
"Are you willing to help me fight against Hyuna and atone for your actions?" He concluded.
"Yes." Minjung felt a tear trickle down her face. "I would like to have my old life back."
Author's Note: hello y'all. It's been a while and I apologize. I didn't realize that I didn't update this month and rushed to finish this chapter as soon as possible. I currently have two other novels under works right now which is why I kind of took a break from this one for a bit. I actually had a lot more leading up to the ending, but I thought I was stalling so decided that it's about time Hyerim stands up for herself. There will hopefully be a lot more drama happening and secret motives the characters have been hiding, so look forward to it! I can't wait for Got7's comeback in March. I'll see you soon!