Jisoo woke up a few hours later when she felt her stomach rumble. Yeonseok wasn't by her side anymore, and for a split second it panicked her, until she faintly heard people talking. Some people were more precise.
She got out of bed, stepped out of the room to where the sound came. Yeonseok sat at his desk in the library, and two men; Changmin, also another unknown man sitting opposite him talking about something. Jisoo then saw a box of pizza on the kitchen table, and because the hunger was bigger than her curiosity, she sat at the kitchen island to eat a few slices while listening to the conversation of the men in the library.
"Doctor, I think you have to issue clarification right now." She heard the man, who was not Changmin, was talking. "The board demans your cooperation for some explanation because it has put the hospital's name in jeopardy, and they want you to press a charge against this Oh Sehun. Even though we succeed to draw all the pictures in circulation, some people still managed to get their hands on it, and we can't stop them all. People talk, and I'm afraid this will be bad for your wife's reputation in the future."
"We've talked about this, Mr. Lee. I don't owe anyone an explanation, this problem itself is irrelevant to my life. And I'm not going to give some people a satisfaction by issuing any clarification. Their actions are unacceptable, it doesn't mean I need to care about them." Yeonseok insisted.
"But, Doctor, your chair might be threatened. If the board feels this problem is very disturbing, they can inisiate petition to drop you from your position. Even the Congressman Yoo was... "
Jisoo put her hand on her mouth, agaped. It was that bad on the hospital, that people might want to expell him from his office. She was speechless.
"Just do what I said, Mr. Lee, I'll deal with my father. In fact, he is the least of our concern right now. And I don't care about the boards, they can do all they want but nothing would change my decision. You guys, of all people, I wish to be on my side right now."
Jisoo sighed. Changmin now was saying something but she didn't think that she could hear no more, and because her apetites had lost completely, she rose from her seat and returned to her room to take a shower. She spent a good hour under the warm shower, trying to digest all the information she eavesdropped earlier, and all the things happened yesterday.
What would happen to them now? 
She was literally stripped naked on social media. Everyone found out her personal problems, and if the message Jongdae mentioned yesterday was the two videos she received, this meant that they were not the only ones who got the videos.
When she felt very touched by the genuine of Yeonseok's care on her, she did not expect that there was someone out there who hated her so much that they did all this, even dragging innocent people into it. She was trying to list all people who seemingly dislike her, but she failed. For the first time, there was never anyone who openly declared their hate toward her, and secondly, because she had never felt she was doing something that made people really detest her. Except for the fact that she used to date Sehun and then broke up with him, but she refused to believe Sehun's fans would do things that far.
She believed that somebody was trying to frame him to take all the blames into this mess. That sex tape was the ultimate reason that made her sure he was innocent. Sehun would not jeopardize his future only to get people attention on their personal problems. The same reason went for Irene as well because she was at the tape too, so it's just beyond the impossible to believe that she was responsible for this. It must be someone else, one who probably was too desperate and had nothing to lose if they're caught for this action, or probably just being impulsive for a revenge. Someone who might hate her, or Sehun, or both of them. She was trying to figure out who they were.
Yeonseok was sitting at the couch when she finished drying her hair and came out of the room. He rested his legs on the table and leaned his head on the back of the couch, eyes closed. Jisoo climbed to his next, and he opened his eyes when he probably felt the new weight of the couch by his side.
"You're up. I got pizza, go eat. You didn't have anything since last night, did you?" he said in his typical soft tone, his fingers brushed strands of her hair to the back of her ear. 
"I ate two slices, it got me full." she replied timidly. She met his gaze attentively looking at her, and she was considering whether it was the right time to ask. Yeonseok said the talking would do later, she wished the 'later' could mean right now.
"How is the hospital?" she finally sounded her big question.
"It's still running." he replied her nonchalantly.
"I heard your conversation with your, that man, and Changmin."
Yeonseok smiled, "He's my lawyer." he then clicked his tongue knowing that it was useless to keep things from her. "They want me to issue a clarification, but truthfully I even have no idea what to clarify if I really have to."
Jisoo was silent for a moment. "Are you going to sue him?"
"Do you want me to?" he asked her back.
Jisoo shook her head, af anything it would only make things worse. If the hospital really had to press a charge on someone, they had to find out first the real person who's responsible behind the troubles. Sehun's family might not stand still if they discovered that the charge to their son was misdirected.
"Then you believe that he's innocent in this case?" he asked her again, just to be sure that she was not being biased.
"No. Sehun is not that type to do such thing, the last time he vented his anger, he just..." She shrugged, "Exploded. So, no, I'm sure it's not his doing."
Yeonseok adjusted his seat and straighten his back, and bent on the table to pick up a big envelop.
"My lawyer points out something that maybe, you can help us to figure this out." Putting out the familiar pictures from it, he gave them to Jisoo to take a look. "These pictures were taken in a precise angle that seemed to be on a tree, try to remember if you see any particular strange movement from this side."
Tentatively, she looked at some pictures (thankfully he didn't choose one where Sehun kissed her) he showed her only to have a goose bumps, because she never really took a look into the pictures to realize, that, 
"But there's no tree on Sehun's garden. Even if there was it's not to reach this level of height. Unless this person took it from the window from across the workshop, which also impossible because it was just a one-floor family house." she explained while trying to memorize what trees were there in the garden.
"It's impossible to take it from the roof too." he muttered.
Jisoo thought so hard. She couldn't imagine someone going up a tree and taking their photos from there, it really needed a big extent of dedication, especially self-confidence not to be caught. But what made it even more creepy now was the guess that whether someone might really plan all this carefully, to the extent that they would use drones, instead of a tree to follow their movements and take photos from a certain distance that will not be seen by them. This might apply to videos that record them while in the park. And this person did it quickly, from taking photos to spreading them to many places, it only took about three to four hours. Obviously this person also needed a lot of resources. When she said this to Yeonseok, he tilted his head as if he was trying to see the light on her view, that it finally made sense.
Yeonseok reached for his phone on the table and typed something on it, before he turned to Jisoo after sending a message to whoever he was talking to.
"You know it's time for us to communicate, don't you? Now tell me everything I need to know, start from the beginning. I'm all ears."
Jisoo let out a long breath. She got no idea where to start telling stories. For some time she was silent to find the starting point, then remembered Yeonseok said from the beginning, so she decided to start since Jongin invited her to Danyang.
She told him about all their activities there, she told him about her collaboration speech with Sehun, then their conversation when he accompanied her to Grandma Geunseok's house. She told him how she felt about it. Then she told him about their design project with Kyungsoo, telling him that to make that design model they used Sehun's workshop as a workplace, including the reasons why they worked there. She told him about his girlfriend, which Yeonseok actually knew, and the last, about what happened yesterday at the workshop. She told him everything, without omiting any single thing. In fact, she even told him when she accidentally called Sehun when he was having sex with his girlfriend, and how it had become the reason for her bad mood for days.
"Can I ask you something?" Yeonseok asked tentatively, he scratched his head side when he did that, as if there was doubt whether the question was worthy of questioning. Jisoo just nodded, it wasn't like he needed to ask for her permission only to ask question.
"Out of curiousity, how physical actually you and Sehun got?"
If there were anything she could react now, she was puzzled by the question. She probably would just laugh it off because the question was just so irrelevant. Did she actually needed to answer that?
But the look in his eyes was like someone who desperately needed an answer, so an answer she gave him.
"We just kissed." she said blankly.
Yeonseok widened his eyes, as if he didn't believe what he heard. "Nothing more?"
"I promise you, that scene you saw at the airport, that was the farthest we've been." she claimed, and then she abruptly added before he kept asking for more information. "And I don't feel comfortable talking about it, with you especially."
Yeonseok put his hand on his chest, looking away to the window speechlessly. She couldn't make anything of the gesture, as well as his reaction and was about to change the topic when he spun around to face her again.
"Why would you do that? I mean, I respect him though. Three years of intimate relationship and the farthest thing he got was kissing you, that was a hell of celibacy. It was you or him?"
What kind of answer he actually wanted her to say this time around? She never used the word celibacy to describe her relationship with Sehun before, it was always self-restraint all the time. And did she really need to tell him the reason why she liked to keep it that way? Like, seriously.
"I think it's an inappropriate topic to discuss, I'd choose not to talk about it if you may." she said in an uneasy tone. But no, of course he won't just stop there.
"Did you want to keep it until you get married and save it for your husband?"
Jisoo doubtlessly could feel the redness on her cheeks right now. She had almost thought that his sense of timing in making joke was terrible. He really was. How come he made fun of her when they're supposed to have serious conversation. It was embarrasing enough to talk about the intimacy of her previous relationship, and yet he still thought that it was funny to disconcert her in all seriousness? Feeling that she couldn't keep this any longer, she rose and was about to leave, but Yeonseok reached out and tugged her arm to get down on him. He laid her in between his legs and topped his right with her knees, then he wrapped his arms on her waist, chuckled while apologizing.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It was insensitive of me, I won't ask anymore questions for now." When his chuckled died, there was only a smile lingered on his face, looking at her intensely as if she was that endearing star in the sky. "Your turn." he said afterward, indicating that it was her turn to question him.
Where did she begin? Because indeed, she had a lot. She tried to swallow again as she was selecting which questions to ask first, before then she sticked on one that she truly wished to hear. 
"Are you still mad about the pictures?" she questioned a moment later.
Yeonseok tilted his head, thinking, then clicked his tongue after a few seconds. "It's not that I'm mad, well, I was for a split moment. It's just that seeing my lady was involved in an intimate contact with someone else, just, it hurt my pride." 
She looked down as she heard that. There was a big guilt she expected to take place because she knew she'd hurt him, of course he would feel hurt. Even if Jisoo didn't have any feelings for him, she would still feel hurt if this happened to her. Because this marriage more or less had tied her the feeling of possessiveness. At the very least, she would feel betrayed.
But apart from the guilt, Jisoo was enamoured by the way he used the words 'my lady' instead of 'you' or just 'my wife', it somewhat bore a deeper feeling of possession, and she couldn't help to feel moved by the reference itself.
"I"m sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, or cause any trouble for you." to say this was unnerving, because she couldn't look at his eyes nor raised her head for feeling too much guilt. And he was so forgiving that she couldn't handle his kindness sometimes, because she just wasn't worth it.
"I believe you, you know." He moved closer to tighten his circling arms around her waist and put his chin on her shoulder. "Even if you say the sky is green, I will still believe you. You might keep some secrets from me for some reason, which I believe for the sake of my feelings, but you're not a liar."
"How do you know?" she asked.
"Your dad said so."
Her tears fell just like that as her dad was mentioned. It was her weak spot, everything that was related to her dad. She knew he loved her that much, of course he would mentioned nice things about her. And she did kept many things secret from him too for the thoughts that it would be better if he remained oblivous, because sometimes truth could hurt you. And she didn't want to hurt her dad, it was also the same reason why she kept things secret from Yeonseok. He was too nice, she didn't want to hurt him.
Even though what happened was the other way around.
"Why are you so nice to me?"
He needed a longer time to answer this question alone, as if like he was composing the right words to describe how he felt about it. His hand on the side of her face, wiping her tears, his gaze never once left her eyes.
"Because it's the only two things I could give you, apart of my confidence." He wetted his lips and chewed it before he continued, "You two were practically head over heels for each other, while I am that third person who breaks you apart. And it was so hard to figure you out because you never open your heart, and I have nothing. Apart of being nice and confident, I have nothing to fight for you."
"He's my first love." she contended.
"Well, you have me now. It's time to let him go and be by my side." His voice grew softer the longer he spoke, as if he was trying to convince a small kid that eating too much ice was only okay when you took it once in a while. But maybe it was also the same tone that made her fall for him, the same convincing tone that probably would make her believe even when he said the sky is green.
"But, what if..." 
"Look at me." Yeonseok cut her in between words and put his hand on her cheek to face him. She sniffed and raised her eyes to meet his gaze. "No but, no if. No more excuses." he dictated.
One last question.
"But how?"
"I'll show you how."
And that way, he lifted his chin to kiss her. She closed her eyes as his parted lips touched hers, tasting the sweet scent of him as he moved slowly, but steadily on her lips. And there were butterflies rushed through her veins to her whole body and they bursted on her brain as, unlike before, the kiss was deepened. It started from small kisses to something much more intimate. It was something that aroused her endearment to his touch. She let him guide her, as he lifted her knees and she adjusted her seat on his lap, settling her legs in between his body. She circled her arms to his neck, rhyming the movement of his kiss.
Was a kiss supposed to feel like this? Compared to the kiss he shared with her before, or all the kiss she had in her entire life, this one was beyond her expectation. Like boom, it sparked the fireworks inside her. And his hand trailing her thighs, to her back, and to her neck was nothing helpful. She never felt the over-rushed excitement that made her want it to never end. She wanted to stay like this forever.
And that the only thing that broke them apart was their need to breathe. He was panting when he looked at her with this familiar look, it was just the same look Sehun gave her everytime he kissed her. That look which was telling her that he loved her, but this time Yeonseok particularly wanted to show her that he was too, worth to love.
"Don't worry when I fight with you. You worry when I stop, because it means there's nothing left for us to fight for." he said then.
When she was listening to him, completely and attentively, she was not only listening to his words, but also his feeling of what was being conveyed. His whole feeling, not only part of them. 
And she believed in him.
*