Pop Star || Yoongi x Reader

51. Who's More Desperate

"I have no idea," Monica answers your question. Her tone is cool, but you can sense that she is waiting to see what is going on.

DK approaches you with utmost glee. It does not match his situation at all. Losing his company and your songs should be having the opposite effect.

"Y/N, my favourite girl!"

"Please don't call me that," you keep the rudeness out of your voice as much as you can since you're on the street and in the company of each others' lawyers.

"AH but you are! The gem of all my artists!"

You grimace.

"Well? Aren't you going to congratulate me?" he sneers.

"For what?"

"My promotion! It's more of a horizontal shift in responsibilities really. I'm the new Executive Director of Prakriti Foundation."

The declaration hits you with the force of a punch. You want to drive your fist into his artificially whitened teeth in response.

"Ah," you begin instead, "so you are still going to live off my money..."

That wipes the smirk off his face. But only temporarily.

"Well, take good care of it, DK," you pat him lightly on the shoulder. Anger radiates from your whole body, and he senses it.

His attention is drawn away by the appearance of Anika behind you. He moves towards her.

"You. You're fired."

"Excuse me?" she gives him a dirty look.

"Everyone else too. Everyone's fired," he adds after watching the disbelieving look at Anika's face, "you think you can use my own bylaws against me?" He laughs.

"Well, you could. But you were too late, Anika. The company you're the CFO of doesn't exist as of last week." He glances back at you, and then at Anika again.

"Did you both sign some deal or something? Ah, Y/N. I should have told you. Ribbon's assets were all sold along with the company. Whatever thing you've signed - it's null and void."

He almost walks away, but stops once again and turns to you.

"Also - give my regards to your mother, Y/N," he winks.

No. This bastard.

You glance at Monica in confusion. Null and void?

The way she is glaring at DK must mean that he is right. He already sold everything.

So you were back where you started. It was all gone. No. It was worse. It was way worse because he'd got one over you again. You saw red like you never normally did.

He needed to fucking die right now.

You make a move in his direction but Monica grips your arm firmly. She shakes her head. Not now. But your brain has gone full Hulk. All you want to do is smash.

DK gives a final laugh and walks into the building you just walked out of, with his gang in tow.

"Please Monica let me beat that bastard up, just this once. Nothing else seems to stick on him."

"Y/N, that is exactly what he wants - that you lose control and do something irrational!"

You want to scream at her, at everyone. Irrational? IRRATIONAL? A horribly frustrating feeling of powerlessness overcomes you.

"How did we fuck this up, Monica?"

You don't yell, but the anger nonetheless seeps through your tone. As calm as death, you continue, "Call Mrs. L/N. Ask her how did this happen," you don't trust yourself to talk decently to your Mom so you ask Monica to do it instead. Of course, the question applies to Monica as well. How did this happen? Without so much as a backwards look, you get into the Porsche and slam the door.

Lily is about to follow you but Monica stops her.

"Let her go and cool off."

She nods, though in her heart she doesn't want to leave you alone.

"How did we miss this, ma'am?" she asks tentatively once your car is gone. She doesn't have a legal background, and her main job for the past few weeks has been to keep you on schedule. That gave her barely any time or reason to keep track of the issues with Ribbon.

Monica finds frustration seeping into her usually calm head. DK had been under her personal watch. How the hell did he find a buyer - and actually end up selling the company right under her nose? She had good contacts in the law firm that represented Ribbon. But then, the people with him today weren't part of his usual legal team. He must have hired another firm personally. Sharks, who specialised in legal yet unethical deals. They would cost him at least double the usual fee. She never expected him to go this far.

"Honestly, Lily," Monica rubs her forehead, "I now believe he is far more desperate than I previously thought. And clearly more desperate than we are."

"Meaning...?" Lily asks.
"It means that I need to stop underestimating him. And it means that Y/N needs to realise that with or without those album rights, she already has an upper hand over DK."

"She's way bigger now as compared to him, isn't she?" Lily adds.

"There's no comparison anymore, Lily. She's in demand - new album, tours, promotions, and even the old songs - people know them as her music - irrespective of ownership. And seriously, the last thing she is short of is money," she mutters the last phrase in a low voice. "And still she lets DK get to her. Maybe it's because he hurt her so much back then...It's hard to think straight around people you were once close to. But today - in the real sense - he is the one who's desperate. The man's entire lifestyle depends on what he's earning through her music. Those fancy lawyers you saw - do you think he can really afford them? It's costing him everything. She's in a much better place," Monica sighs.

"And she's a much better person than he is," Lily remarks. Character counts for something, not just your relative success.

"Ah, I feel like a fool today," Monica grumbles. "Let's go, Lily. I'll keep feeling like one if I don't do something about this..."