Chapter 9

The next day.

After a much needed day off which was provided by the weekend, it was time for everyone to go back to school.

The first few lectures were peaceful for everyone. Almost everyone in school was maintaining distance from V4, although the whispers didn't stop. Their first free period arrived, and everyone was off in search of a little bit of privacy.

Ga eul was strangely quiet after her last encounter with the casanova. Although the other girls had noticed, they didn't comment on it, thinking she would let them know if something was bothering her when she was ready.

She left for the art studio as soon as the bell for the free period rang. Thinking that some painting would lift up her spirits. While hoping she would not come across a certain Casanova, she set up a canvas board.

The art studio of Shinhwa was a large hall filled with various supplies for all types of visual arts and pieces belonging to all art forms. It was the ideal workplace for any artist.

Unbeknownst to her, the same Casanova she was hoping to avoid, was in the pottery section of the studio when she arrived, and noticed her entrance prominently. Thankful that she didn't notice him, he continued with his preparation of clay for moulding.

Picking up a bottle of yellow ocher acrylic colour, she dipped a round brush after wetting its bristles in it. Putting a small amount of colour in a small bowl in front of her, she placed the lid back on the bottle before putting both round brush and bottle in her hands aside. Next, taking a bowl of water in her hands, she picked up a wash brush from a wide range of brushes in front of her. Dipping the wash brush in the water, she dribbled water into the colour bowl and kept stirring till the colour was nearly transparent, and the mixture was runny. Dipping the wash brush in the mixture, she started moving the brush across the canvas evenly. Starting with a wash of yellow ocher in the background, she was soon lost in the world of colours.

Yi jung finished with his ceramic piece, and set it carefully on a shelf for drying. Yi jung thought about going away unnoticed, but something made him stop, and he went towards the painting section of the art studio. There he found Ga eul lost in the canvas in front of her. Although he was not even sure why, he roamed close enough for her to feel his presence before calling out to her.

"Ga eul ssi."

She looked up, surprised to find him there, and acknowledged him with "Yi Jung ssi '' and a nod of her head, although she desperately wanted to ignore his presence. Cursing her luck, she went back to her brush strokes, leaving him standing there.

Growing uncomfortable with nothing to do, he looked around and commented, "I didn't know you were a painter, Ga eul ssi." Although he did.

She looked up, saying "There are many things you don't know about me, Yi Jung ssi." Before putting the canvas board aside, out of anyone's way, for drying. Without any effort to continue conversation, she bid him adieu and walked out of the room, leaving a bewildered Yi Jung standing alone.

Going towards the canvas board to see her work, he saw a painting of smiling little girls within a glen of trees surrounding would have painted a pretty picture, were it not for their bound bodies in the spindly clutches of the tree branches. On closer inspection, he found a face of a woman formed with the same branches of trees.

Astonished with the quality of her work and perplexed by thinking what it could all mean, he muttered underneath his breath, "How am I supposed to know anything about you, if you won't even let me ask questions Ga eul?"

On the same day.

After discussing with F4, Jun pyo was busy trying to think of ways to make Jan di apologise, while the girl in question was heading towards the pool. As she went towards the changing rooms to change her outfit for swimming, she was greeted with a blow on her head from behind that almost knocked her out. Managing to stable herself, she turned around, to see herself surrounded by nearly a dozen masked men, a few of whom had wooden staffs, also known as bō in their hands. Regaining her balance, she took a fighting stance, and attacked before her attackers could.

Thrusting her left hand in front of the eyes of the guy nearest to her, she punched him in the stomach, causing him to stumble backwards. Sensing another guy attacking, she used an axe kick, hitting him precisely on the neck with enough force to push him backwards but not enough to cause serious damage. Knocking another one out with a kick to his head, she turned. Seeing another guy with a bō about to attack her, she ducked, making him miss his target. Catching one end of the staff which he attacked her with, she folded her arm around it and thrusted forward, making him lose his grip on the bō and his balance. She blocked a blow from another guy using a staff in her hands, which managed to break it in the middle.

Throwing the pieces of staff away, she did a backflip to avoid getting hit by attacks of masked men in front of her. Unbeknownst to her, one of the men opened a bottle of chloroform and emptied it on a handkerchief. Doing a low sweeping kick to disbalance her, he tried to get closer, but she managed to jump over his leg, maintaining her balance. Although she had managed to knock out more than half of them, she was surrounded by the rest. Making her stumble backwards by feigning a kick yet hitting her with a punch, one of the attackers managed to get her close enough to the guy who had a chloroformed handkerchief. The last thing she knew was the sensation of falling backwards before her vision went black.

Gu Jun Pyo was pacing in the F4 lounge anxiously, when a few masked men brought an unconscious Jan di inside. The other members of F4 were busy elsewhere, making him the only current member of the F4 present. Placing her on the couch, they turned to see his furious expression.

"Why is she unconscious?" He thundered. "Did I say you are to bring her here unconscious?" He asked, anger clear in his voice.

"N-no sirr" one of them managed to Sutter.

"Then why is she unconscious?" He repeated, making his displeasure clear.

"S-s-sir, sh-she attacked us when she saw all us, we had to use chloroform to make her unconscious," he answered, not daring to admit they had attacked her first, after all his orders were clear, they had to bring her in the F4 lounge, conscious and unharmed.

"Leave, before I fire all of you," he said in cold fury.

He tried to distract himself, waiting for her to wake up. He was watching the surveillance system when she woke up. Looking around for any dangers, she sighed in relief when she found none. Getting up, she saw someone sitting on a beanbag near the TV screen. Calling out to that person to ask for her whereabouts, she went near them, and was shocked to see Gu Jun Pyo himself.

"You! What are you doing here? Where are we?" She shouted.

Turning to see her conscious, he turned his face into a mask of indifference, saying "Oh, you are awake then. Are you going to apologise now?" He asked, still looking at the TV screen.

"What?" She replied, dumbfounded.

"Apologise? You know the meaning of apology, don't you dry cleaner? Expressing that you're sorry for something," he explained as though she were a child, managing to turn her confusion into anger.

"Where the hell I am and why the hell are you here?" She asked, gritting her teeth.

Finally, he turned to face her. "Well, you seem quite dumb as well. You are in F4's lounge of course," He answered as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, before continuing, "and you were brought here by my men on my orders. To apologise."

Losing whatever control she had on her temper, she shouted, "Apologise? For what? Being attacked? Drugged? And becoming unconscious? Or for getting kidnapped?"

He looked at her before saying, "Don't be so obtuse, commoner, apologise for going against me and attacking me of course!"

"What the? When the hell did I attack you? You spoiled nutcase!" She exclaimed.

"Do you have weak memory as well? A few days ago! With the ice cream of course," he replied, surprised by her reaction towards him, he continued, "I do not want to escalate anything that might create familial tensions among any of us. So I am giving you an opportunity to apologise. Consider yourself lucky, commoner, I'm feeling generous, so I've decided to forgive you once you apologise," he finished self righteously.

She didn't know if she should be astonished or not at this. Trying to get a grip over her fury, she replied, "So you can torture your next victim? Whole school is not after my blood because Navya took stance against your stupid red card and being a Song she has enough standing to challenge you, or what? I might have been the next Lee Min Ha of this school? Listen carefully Gu Jun pyo, I'm not going to apologise for standing up to your bullying no matter what you do!" She finished with a tyrannical huff and stormed out of the lounge, leaving him shocked by her behavior.

Meanwhile, somewhere else in Shinhwa high school.

Ha Jae kyung was in search of a dance studio. Dance was her solace during stress, and the past few days had been more than stressful for her. She soon found it and went inside to find it strangely empty. Shrugging it off as an odd occurrence, she turned on the lights and went towards the music system to see what collections were available. As soon as she reached the music collection, the lights went off and before she could do anything, she found herself pinned to a wall with strong arms on both sides of herself. Looking up, she saw the face she was trying to avoid at all costs. Her expression turned into one of fury, matching his already cold one, and she asked, "What is the meaning of this, Song Woo bin?" With burning anger clear in her eyes.

"I could ask you the same thing Ha Jae kyung, what are you doing here?" He countered in a voice colder than ice. If her fury was like a burning inferno, he was her exact opposite, he was a bone chilling glacier.

She tried to push him away, "That's none of your business." She replied in the same tone, when he didn't budge.

He narrowed his eyes at her, "Stay away from me and my family Ha Jae kyung."

Her eyes flashed towards his in fury, "I have no interest in associating with you. And I'm not the one who pinned you down. Besides, who I associate myself with is none of your business, Song Woo bin."

His eyes flashed with hurt but it was gone in a second. "It is when the person concerned is my cousin. And I stopped having interest in what you do or who you associate with long ago."

It was clear his last sentence hurt her, but she managed to mask her emotions, giving nothing away. Using her heel to hit him on the backside of his knee, she managed to loosen his grip on her hands and pushed him away. "I hate you Song Woo bin. Besides, you don't control her. And please, stop acting like you care or you are concerned. Navya can take care of herself, besides she doesn't need protection from me. As for you caring? No one is going to fall for that," she said with narrowed eyes.

Looking at her, he replied, "It's not I who is acting. And, I don't feel anything besides hate for you either." Before storming off, angry yet a little bit confused.

She slumped down on the ground, once he was out of eyesight. Her heart full of conflicting emotions.

Around Same time, the music room, Shinhwa High School.

Wandering around in the hallways of Shinhwa, Navya came across a music room, which was well equipped with a variety of instruments. Entering inside, she picked up an acoustic guitar, and sat down on the couch, lightly strumming the strings of the guitar with her fingers. Looking around for a plectrum and guitar tuner, she made sure the guitar was properly tuned and started playing a song, along with humming its lyrics to herself, soon losing herself in rhythm, she was lost to her surroundings.

The sound of guitar chords managed to wake up Yoon Ji hoo, who was sleeping between the couch and wall. He decided to ignore it for the sake of his sleep, but soon the sound of the chords turned into an unknown, yet beautiful tune which was accompanied by an equally melodious voice. Although the language of lyrics was unfamiliar to him, the music was soothing.

To his great regret, he soon recognized the ending notes of the song, and thought about getting up. But before he could, another strumming pattern fell on his ears, recognizing the rhythm, he concluded currently famous song 'because I'm stupid' was being played, although it seemed experimental on the basis of sound.

Unable to tamp down his curiosity regarding the identities of the guitarist and vocalist, he got up, and turned towards the musician. To his shock, Song Navya, Woo bin's cousin, was playing the guitar, with eyes closed in concentration, and earphones plugged in her ears, probably listening to the song she was playing, lost in her own world and unaware of anything around herself. Looking around to see if anyone else was there, he found no one. She was the guitarist and vocalist of that unknown song apparently. He went towards her, and cleared his throat.

She looked up, startled. Her thoughts turned from confusion to annoyance then distrust before settling on confusion again. She opened her mouth and closed it again, as if to say something, but thought better of it, staring at him in confusion instead.

"Um, try B minor instead of A minor for that song, maybe it would sound better?" He said, trying to fill up awkward silence.

She just nodded, and turned her attention back towards the guitar in her hands, using B minor chord at the beginning of the sequence instead of A minor. She looked up to see him standing in front of her when she successfully figured out the chords of the song.

"Thank you," she said, with a bright smile. He just smiled in return, but didn't move from his place.

Feeling uncomfortable with him looming around, she asked, "Um why don't you sit down?"

"No, I'm fine," he replied.

"Um, when did you get here by the way?" She asked, looking at him, while strumming random patterns on guitar in her hands.

"I was sleeping here, you disturbed my nap," he said, with a neutral expression.

She was having a hard time figuring out if he was joking or not. Finally deciding he must be kidding, she replied with an uncomfortable chuckle, "I didn't realise anyone was here when I came in," and focused on her guitar again.

He just nodded, before starting with, "That song-" and thinking better of it, stopped abruptly.

She looked up again, "Huh?"

He shook his head, saying nothing, before saying, "That song you were playing before… which language it was in?" Feeling a little bit uncomfortable, but curiosity getting the better of him.

"It was in Marathi," she replied with a smile, "it's a language in India."

He nodded again, and turned to leave. Looking back again before exiting the door, he saw her focused on guitar again. Thinking she had a pretty smile, he went away with a smile on his own face, probably to find another place for taking a nap.