Anhedonia

We're Going To Conduct

"Dinner's on the table."

"Where the hell are you going at this hour?" Jayvee eyed his wife from head to toe while Rosie was putting a make on her left cheek to cover the bruise.

"We're going to Liam's house, we have dinner with the squad." Rosie said nonchalantly, she grabbed her purse and made her way to the door without looking back to Jayvee which made the latter annoyed. He caught up with her and grabbed her arm. "What the hell?!"

"I'm talking to you, you should look at me!"

"Let me go!" Rosie shouted, shrugging off Jayvee's tight grip that she was sure would leave another bruise. She was scared to death but she needed to stay strong and stood on her ground after leaving the house tonight.

"You're not going to that f*****g dinner!" Jayvee growled, pulling back Rosie and pushed her on their bed. "No one is going to leave this house!"

"What is your problem? I did everything you wanted me to do! You can't stop us from going now!" Rosie shouted back, holding back her tears and stood up again, making her way to the door and shoved Jayvee, knocking him to the floor. As soon as she got out of their room, she opened the door next to their room and picked up the kid and ran downstairs.

Jayvee shook his head furiously to shrug off his dizziness because he accidentally hit his head on the edge of the bed. "Rosie!" He grumbled as he stood up and ran after his wife. He caught them outside and was heading to the gate. He grabbed Rosie's arm once again, lifted his hand and was about to hit the woman.

"No! Don't hurt my mommy!" The four year old kid cried loudly out of fear.

"I said you're not—."

Jayvee stopped when a car honked outside loudly and Liam, along with Seul-ki, got out of the car in a rush and if they could break the gate, they would've done it upon seeing Jayvee was about to hurt their friend.

"Open this goddamn gate, I will f*****g kill you!" Liam shouted, while Seul-ki didn't wait for Jayvee to open it as he climbed the gate and jumped off.

"You son of a b***h!" Seul-ki landed on his feet then ran quickly towards Jayvee, tackling him on the ground and sat on top of him, throwing punches left and right.

Rosie could only cry while hugging her son tightly and when Liam broke the gate, he immediately grabbed his best friend and wrapped them both. "Are you okay?" He asked, he's trembling in anger and wanted to kill Jayvee but he couldn't leave the woman and not in front of Rosie's son. "My God, Rosie. You should've told me that he's treating you like this!" He shouted, not because he's mad at Rosie, but because he's worried sick at her.

"I'm s-sorry." The woman can't even speak straight as she was so traumatized for what is going on and worried for her son as well.

Jayvee has been treating her like s**t after she gave birth to Akiro. He was hurting her physically and emotionally. But she never told anyone about this because she was hoping that one day, he will change and he will be back to the old Jayvee four years ago.

Akiro is now four years old, the kid grew up seeing how his parents always fight in front of him with the things he couldn't understand. At his young age, he couldn't do anything every time Rosie would cry every night after Jayvee hurt her physically.

Jayvee is still an idol, but not like before that he was the most famous idol, his marriage affected his career because some of his fans couldn't accept that he's already married, some stayed and still support him but that's that. Until Rosie got pregnant after two months of their marriage and his career failed even more. He barely gets some projects, even his company started to focus on their other talents and that's when Jayvee started to lash out everything at Rosie.

There's no day that will pass by that they would argue, Rosie stops from teaching at SNU because that's what Jayvee wants since she was carrying their child. When she gave birth, she wanted to go back to her work but Jayvee still didn't let her. There's also some circumstances that Jayvee won't let her go out to meet her friends until he's not letting her go out anymore.

Year later, Rosie needed to buy some necessities for Akiro and she met Liam at the grocery store. She lied of course, she didn't tell him what's going on with her, but that's also the day where Liam invited Rosie to their squad dinner.

"Seul-ki, that's enough." Liam said when he saw that Jayvee was not responding anymore while lying on the ground, his face covered with his own blood and from Seul-ki's knuckles after hitting him mercilessly.

Seul-ki heaved from the ground and approached them. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help it." He apologized, taking the kid from Rosie's hands.

"Let's go." Liam guided Rosie out of the gate but she stopped when she's about to get in the car.

"Is he okay?" Rosie asked worriedly while looking at unconscious Jayvee.

"Who cares?!" Liam spat, pulling Rosie to get inside his car. "I will ask someone to take all of your things tomorrow, you're going to stay in my house from now on."

"But—."

"I'm still mad that you lied to me when I asked you last week if you're okay, now shut the hell up, Rosie." Liam started the engine and drove away from the place, leaving Jayvee alone.

--

"Oh my God, what happened to you?!" Hayley exclaimed when she saw Rosie entering their house. Her bruise is now more visible because the makeup she put to cover it got removed after crying real hard all throughout their way to Liam's house.

"That bastard did that to her!" Liam growled while glaring at the door as if Jayvee was standing there.

"Oh Rosie." Juhyun sighed deeply, she encircled her arms around Rosie and pulled her down and hugged her tightly. "I'm so sorry, we didn't have any idea that you've going through this."

"It's o-okay." Rosie mumbled, biting her lower lip to stop it from quivering as her tears threatened her to fall again.

"Fortunately, we arrived before Jayvee could hurt her. He didn't even care if their son would see him!" Liam growled again, he's still trembling in anger that his bloodshot eyes slowly filling with tears.

"How long has he been doing this?" Hayley asked, but she's rubbing her husband's back to calm him down, she could understand why Liam was so mad right now. Because Rosie isn't just a best friend for him, she was like his older sister.

"A-after I gave birth to Akiro."

"That long?! Akiro is now four, how did you tolerate him that long?!"

"Liam, calm down." Juhyun rebuked, nudging her head at the kid in Seul-ki's arm to tell him that the kid could hear him.

"I'm so f*****g mad right now, Juhyun. I saw with my own two eyes how he was going to hurt Rosie if we didn't arrive!"

"I understand your anger, but please. Rosie is already had a night rough, let just take her to the room so she could rest, even Akiro." Juhyun's voice was always calm and it somehow helps Liam to understand his best friend's feelings right now.

Liam heaved deeply and he pulled Rosie gently, wrapping her into a tight hug. "I'm sorry, I just can't believe that he could do that to you and you hide it to us."

"I'm s-sorry too." Rosie said, burying her face onto Liam's neck and starting crying again.

"You should rest, let's talk again tomorrow." Liam kissed her head and nodded at his wife. Hayley and Juhyun took Rosie and Akiro upstairs while Seul-ki and Liam went to the kitchen.

"I'm going to file a case against him and a restraining order so he couldn't get near them." Liam said as soon as they got inside the kitchen.

Seul-ki grabbed two glasses and rummaged to the cupboard, pulling out a bottle of whiskey. "I can't believe that Rosie didn't say anything about this."

"Yeah, if she only told us sooner, she wouldn't have to suffer like this." Liam sighed deflatedly, it's as if his heart was broken for his best friend. He couldn't believe that Rosie had put up with it for so long. "It's Jerry's fault."

"Seriously? You're going to blame the person that wasn't even here for so long?"

"No, I just want to blame him for no reason because he forgot about us." Liam pouted.

Ever since Jerry left, they haven't heard from him, even with his best friend, Hayley, he hasn't talked to her anymore. At first, they get so mad. but as the years pass by, they understand his situation. He wanted to move on and he could only do it fully by cutting the communication between him and the people that will remind him of Rosie.

"He didn't, he just needed more time to heal himself." Seul-ki said, giving the other glass to Liam.

A kid made her way to the kitchen straight to the refrigerator, taking out the carton of milk and she took a glass before sitting next to her Dad.

"I heard that aunt Rosie is here." Akisha said, not even looking at the elder.

"Yeah, Akiro and aunt Rosie will stay here for the meantime."

"I've been telling you about that guy hurting Aunt Rosie since before but you're not listening." Akisha shrugged her shoulders as she drank her milk.

"Because I thought that you were just trying to make a fuss because Jerry and Rosie didn't end up together." Liam chuckled, ruffling his daughter's hair.

"I have seen Akiro with bruises every time we'll meet at school and whenever I will ask him who did those, he would just say 'Daddy.'

"Oh my god, so Jayvee was also hurting his son?!" Seul-ki blurted out.

"Who else will be his Daddy? It's not like Uncle Jerry impregnating aunt Rosie that one time they did it here before the wedding." Akisha said, which made the two guys drop their jaws from what they heard from a 9 year old kid. "I'm going to sleep, I'll just greet aunt Rosie tomorrow." She added as she finished her milk and kissed her Dad on his lips then Seul-ki's cheeks. "Goodnight gentlemen."

Akisha has already left the kitchen five minutes ago but the two are still staring at the door where she exited.

"What the hell, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Liam asked after she recovered from his dazedness.

"It's not possible, Rosie got pregnant after their honeym— holy f**k!" Seul-ki exclaimed, hitting the countertop as he realized something. "Is that the reason why Jayvee suddenly changed his treatment towards Rosie?!"

"Probably, but we can't just assume that early. Unless.." Liam paused, the corner of his lips tugged upwards as he smirked while staring at Seul-ki. "We're going to conduct a DNA test."

"How can we do that if Jerry was nowhere to be found?"

"Then we're going to find that jerk!" Liam exclaimed, as if he just discovered the greatest idea in his whole existence.

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