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06 || cheater

Jeongyeon woke up the next morning with bleary eyes, a headache, and a heavy heart. She stretched and rolled over only to be met with another pale face. She held back a shriek of terror before realizing that it was just Nayeon.

Jeongyeon snuggled deeper under the covers and towards her unnie, burying her face into her neck.

What time is it?

"It's eight in the morning, Jeongie. How are you feeling?"

The younger looked up into Nayeon's big eyes, returning her cheeky grin. "Much better, unnie. I'm sorry for being such a baby last night. I'm also sorry for throwing up on the floor. It wasn't intentional. Well, it was intentionally not on the carpet but-, you get what I mean."

Nayeon wrapped her arms around Jeongyeon, hugging her tightly.

"I'm glad you're feeling better now. Last night was kinda scary. I haven't seen you cry in a long time, and never that hard. Don't apologize for crying, we all do it. And you should probably apologize to Jihyo about the vomit. She was the one who cleaned it up."

Jeongyeon looked up at Nayeon and smiled. "Thank you, Nayeon-unnie. You and Jihyo are the best."

"Glad to hear."

The pair looked across the room to see Jihyo leaning against the doorway. She straightened up before heading over and climbing under the blankets next to Jeongyeon.

"Thank you for cleaning up my mess last night, Hyo."

Their leader smiled. "Don't sweat it, it's not like you're sick all the time. Do you feel well enough to tell us the whole story?"

Jeongyeon nodded, before launching into the sequence of events that unfolded after she left the recording studio yesterday morning.

"I don't get it." Nayeon frowned. "What happened between you and this Jimin guy to create such stress and anxiety?"

Jihyo glanced at Jeongyeon nervously.

Realizing she was raising a touchy subject, the eldest quickly retracted her words. "You don't have to talk about it. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or-"

"Jimin and I dated for almost a year. Back at KAHS. You'd left a couple months earlier because you were a smarty-pants that no longer needed to attend school, and JYP wanted you to prepare more for 6MIX."

Nayeon stopped excusing herself, and Jihyo motioned for Jeongyeon to continue.

"The first six months were okay, but after a while we began arguing. A lot of the time we didn't even have a legitimate reason to be fighting. I was stressed over the upcoming exams and 6MIX, and he was getting bored of our relationship since we couldn't go out and do anything anymore."

"Then what happened?" The older girl squeezed Jeongyeon's hands under the covers.

"Exams finally came around. We had different schedules since he was more than a year older than me. I finished my final exam early and was satisfied enough with my answers to leave after I checked it a few times. I called Jimin, but he wasn't picking up, so I went looking for him."

"Did you find him?"

"Sure did. I wish I hadn't, though. I was searching the music department, trying to find him, when I heard some noises. It sounded like someone was in pain, so I walked up to the room the sound was coming and looked through the glass panel. That was another mistake. Guess who was in there."

"He fucking cheated, didn't he?" Nayeon's forehead creased as her eyebrows knotted together in rage.

"Yep. He was kissing some bimbo on the piano, and they were touching each other inappropriately. If I had gotten there a minute later, they probably would've been fucking."

"So then what?" Nayeon was fully wrapped up in the story. Jihyo just smiled. Her favourite part of the narrative was coming up. Jimin may have been her brother, but she also knew right from wrong. And Jeongyeon definitely put things right. For herself, anyway.

"She exploded, and it was fucking amazing. I came around the corner to see her dragging Jimin out of the room by his ear, with the most pissed expression on her face." Jihyo smiled at the memory.

"I yelled at him for a bit, and cried for a while, too." Jeongyeon grimaced. "Then things started to get even messier."

Jihyo interrupted again.

"You would've been so proud, Nayeon! She bitch-slapped him across the face. Hard. She threw some punches too. He wasn't prepared, and I shit you not, I died of laughter."

The eldest cracked up laughing. "Please say that isn't the end of the story!"

"Oh, it isn't." Their leader smirked. "Care to tell Nayeon-unnie about that scar on the side of Jimin's face, Jeongie?"

Jeongyeon flushed crimson, and she buried her face under the covers.

"I shoved him against the lockers and left him a little... uh..." She fought to keep her muffled voice steady.

Jihyo rolled her eyes at Jeongyeon's indirectness. "She scratched him. Dragged her nail down the side of his face, hard enough to draw blood. Then shit hit the fan."

Nayeon gaped.

"Yikes, remind me to never get on your bad side. You know, violence isn't the best way to solve your problems, Jeongie. Even if the guy in question is an asshole"

Jeongyeon frowned. "I know. But if it helps to ease your conscience, Jimin fought back after that. We kinda just ended up brawling on the floor like two lame-ass middle schoolers. He won, though."

"He actually had the nerve to call her a slut in the midst of that mess. Like, excuse me, dear brother, but you were the one who'd been whoring around for the last three months. Not Jeongyeon" Jihyo spoke furiously.

"Three months?!" Nayeon's eyes widened.

"Yup. Three whole months." Jeongyeon said dejectedly, swallowing hard around the lump of sadness in her throat.

"Did you guys get in trouble?"

"I did the bitchiest thing possible and played the victim card. Saying that he started the fight, and that I was just defending myself. Jimin tried to argue, but he'd already been in a fight before, so no one believed him. He got suspended for a week, then had a month's detention for good measure. I just got a warning because it was my first fight, and all the teachers at that school were misogynistic assholes who would never suspect a girl of starting a brawl."

She fought to keep the welling tears from flowing down her face. Needless to say, the lead vocal failed.

"This is ridiculous. Why am I crying? This happened, what, seven, eightish, years ago? I'm over it!" She sat up and angrily wiped the salty water streaming down her cheeks.

"But you aren't. Well you were. But now you have to find a way to actually overcome that experience. Not just by moving on." Nayeon rubbed Jeongyeon's back. "It's okay to cry. There's nothing wrong with showing vulnerability to those you trust. Like us, hopefully."

Jeongyeon cracked a smile. "Thanks, unnie."

Jihyo joined Nayeon in wrapping her arms around their friend. "We're here for you. Not just Nayeon and I, but the rest of the TWICE members will support you."

"Again, thank you so much for being so kind, Nayeon, Jihyo. Speaking of the other girls, where are they? They didn't come back last night, did they?" Jeongyeon nudged her leader.

Jihyo froze.

"Shit."

She ran out of the room, quickly followed by her two friends.

"Where are you going, Jihyo?!"

The leader shoved her feet into some shoes, before flinging open the door.

"To save Mina and Itzy from the other members!"