Chapter 39: Held Down

"Do you think she's going to be okay?" Collins asked. You could tell by the sound of his voice that he is worried.

"It's just a sprain that will heal in a day or two," said the handsome, male Korean doctor who wore a causal blue golf shirt with white chinos and matching white canvas. Anyone who would see him now wouldn't think twice that he is a medical doctor. "If she doesn't strain herself too much, she'll be fine."

"That's good news," said Collins feeling relieved as he turned to look at Christine who sat on the couch, with a foot on a foot supporter in front of her. She looked at him with a stoic look on her face. "Luckily, it's nothing serious."

"I told you I'm fine," said Christine. Collins gave her a look that told her to be quiet. Christine read it and quickly looked up at the ceiling like she hadn't said anything.

"I can recommend a good painkiller to ease off the pain," said the doctor. "She'll be fine. I'll be taking my leave now, that's if everyone else is okay."

"Thank you, doctor," said Lee as she stood up from the other couch she had been sitting on. "The other Toxins are fine. If you ask me, most of them are as tough as nails."

"Are we really?" Daniel who knelt on the floor in front of me, silently asked.

I looked down at him and I found him staring back at me. Honestly, I have no idea.

"Then I'll be taking my leave," said the doctor, displaying a friendly smile.

"I'll escort you out," Lee offered. I clearly noticed her blush in front of him.

"Thanks. Christine," he said as he turned towards her, "I suggest you don't strain yourself for today to see how you'll be tomorrow. So if you've any dance practice today, I suggest you wait it out."

"That won't be hard to do," she said. "Thank you, very much, doctor."

Before the doctor and Lee could turn around to leave the lounge, Daniel and I quickly left our spot at the entrance of the lounge and silently ran down the hall, and entered one of the rooms with the door slightly open to peak in the hall. Mike and Zoey who hid on the other side pretended as if they were approaching the elevator, looking occupied with phones in their hands.

Lee and the doctor soon appeared in the hall, heading for the elevator and bypassing Zoey and Mike who said goodbye as Lee and the doctor entered the elevator. As soon as the doors closed, Daniel and I quietly ran out of the room, while Mike and Zoey also made their way back to the lounge.

As soon as the four of us approached the entrance, there stood Collins. His sudden appearance scared us that we yelled.

"What is your problem?" he asked with his arms folded.

"Nothing," Zoey quickly answered.

"Whatever. I know you guys have been hiding here the whole time."

"We didn't want to interrupt the doctor while he was at work," I said.

"Well, as you can see, Christine is fine."

"You aren't mad at us for last night, are you?" Zoey asked as she played around with her fingers.

Collins sighed. "When I first saw the news, I'll admit, I thought all of you had something to do with the crowd chasing you."

"Really?" Mike also folded his arms as he looked at Collins, not looking happy with that statement.

"You're always known for causing trouble, so don't blame me."

"But you saw it yourself," said Daniel. "Johnny announced to everybody there that we were there."

"I know, you don't have to explain yourselves. Johnny is going to be a problem for you now that he's here. How did he find you guys, anyway? You didn't post anything on social media about you going out for a movie, did you?"

"Of course not," Zoey was quick enough to answer. "He came to the park with G-Dragon."

"He knows G-Dragon?" Collins looked like he couldn't believe it.

"Well, ya. Remember when we were supposed to meet BlackPink and WINNER for song writing and they didn't show? Apparently, they had gone out to a party with GD the night before and that's how they met Johnny."

Collins looked shocked. "Didn't he have this all planned out?"

"When I think about it, it's quite possible," I said.

"Of course, he had it all planned out," said Mike. "This isn't out first rodeo with Johnny, remember?"

"As far as I remember, he was quite a handful," said Collins as he rubbed the back of his head.

"He still is," said Zoey and Daniel at the same time.

"We need to do something about him," I said. "He'll make things difficult for us."

"He already has," Christine pointed out. "He and GD seem like really close friends."

"Not to mention that the others think he isn't such a bad guy," said Daniel.

"Well, they think he's changed," said Zoey as she shook her head. "But we know better."

"I hope GD finally realises that Johnny isn't such a good influence," I said. "But something tells me he still might not see him that way."

"If he doesn't we'll knock him on the head until he does," said Zoey, sounding tough.

"And that will bring out a lawsuit," Collins looked on warningly at her.

"We won't be hitting any heads, then," Zoey nervously smiled.

"Then what should we do?" Daniel asked.

"Tighten up security wherever you go," Collins replied. "We don't want people knowing much about Johnny at such a time, so we'll have to keep this hidden from the fans as much as possible."

"I sure hope it works. Fans have a very funny way of figuring out that something is wrong."

"Don't worry, you aren't going to be surrounded by many guards. They will just be more alert."

"Good. Ever since he's been here, I've been really uneasy," said Christine.

"You aren't the only one," I said.

"You all better get ready. We've to meet Yang Hyun-suk and the others at the studio," said Collins. He turned to look at Christine. "You better not jump around or do anything silly that will make your ankle get worse."

"Don't worry, I won't," said Christine.

"Sam, keep an eye on her for me, please," Collins said as he looked at me.

"Will do my best," I assured him.

"You've twenty minutes till we leave. You all better get ready."

For those of us who stood at the door of lounge, we moved aside for Collins to pass as he went down the hall to his room. In turn, we entered the lounge. Zoey and I went to sit on either side of Christine, while the boys went to sit on the other couch.

"We really have to do something about Johnny," Zoey complained.

"You heard what Collins said," said Daniel. "Security will be more alert."

"No, I mean the five of us."

We looked at her wondering what she could mean by that. But I guess, we all knew.

"If we do any funny business on our own, we'll only land ourselves into more problems," I said. "Remember what happened when we tried to help you out with Jehan?"

"Even when our plan worked, I'll admit, we did make a mess," said Mike.

"So you're telling me that we aren't going to do anything?" Zoey asked.

"Yes, we aren't," Christine answered. "Mike is right. We did make a mess at the Arts Centre and we had to perform to make up for it."

"You guys are clearly no fun." Zoey folded her arms.

"We can't just do whatever we want, Zoey," I said. "And if you ask me, we were pretty lucky. We would've been sued for damages, you know."

"No wonder Collins says we create trouble," said Daniel. "I almost feel toxic."

"Doesn't matter," I said. "This time around we'll have to wait this one through."

"It's more fun when we do it, but who knows what Johnny has in store for all of us this time around," said Mike. "I don't want to cause any problems."

"Fine," Zoey admitted defeat. "But when push comes to shove, we're doing things our way."

"I hope you don't mean the toxic way," said Christine.

Zoey looked at her and didn't say a word.

"Enough, guys," I said. "We've more important things to worry about. You know: the song. Collins and Yang Hyun-suk will get to listen to it today, and if they don't like it, I don't know what I'll do."

"It's already a hit," said Mike. "I wouldn't mind if I were you."

"I agree," said Zoey. She turned to look at me. "But did you get to talk to Yong-guk yesterday?"

"Yesterday was impossible with what happened. And I forgot to give him a ring today. I sure hope he finished working on it."

Daniel relaxed by leaning further onto the couch he was seated on. "The song will be great and we all know that Yong-guk did a good job on it," he said. "So stop worrying."

We heard the sound of the elevator doors draw open and we heard footsteps. Lee soon appeared in the lounge.

"Your ride is ready downstairs," Lee announced.

"Shouldn't we be taken in separate cars, you know, like each of us gets our own ride?" Zoey asked.

Lee scoffed, "You're unbelievable, Zoey."

"I'm just asking." Zoey shrugged.

"You took long to come up, Lee," Mike said. "Did you have a good chat with the doctor?"

Lee suddenly started to blush but tried to hide it by looking confused. "What do you mean?"

"We saw you make googly eyes at him when he was looking at my ankle," Christine chirped in.

"No, I didn't." This time she's as red as a tomato.

"Ooooh!" Zoey, Christine and I cooed at her.

"Can you guys stop doing that!" Lee snapped.

"Admit it, Lee," said Zoey. "If Mike could notice that you were giving the doctor the eye, then who could argue with him?"

"I wasn't giving him the eye."

"I'll admit that the doctor is pretty handsome," I said. "You and him will look great together."

"Oh, stop it, all of you!" Lee looked like she was about to lose it.

Collins soon came in the lounge. "What's going on here?"

"Your Toxins are at it, again!" Lee said as she turned to look at Collins.

"Is that why you're as red as a tomato?" Collins looked on clueless.

"I'm going to my room," she quickly stormed out. Collins looked on and he turned to look at us as soon as she left.

"What did you guys do?" Collins asked.

The five of us all started to talk at random, saying that we didn't know why she left and that we didn't do anything. A look of confusion soon over Collins and he soon raised his hand to indicate that we should all stop talking.

"I don't want to hear it," he said. "You really do love to cause trouble, don't you?"

Again, we all started to talk randomly, disagreeing with Collins over what he said.

He rolled his eyes. "I'm going to get my tablet. I'm not going to get anything if I continue listening to you."

He also walked out of the lounge and for a few seconds, silence fell upon us as we started to look at each other.

"Okay, we really are toxic," I said. "Look at how we drove both Collins and Lee away."

"We were just playing with them and you know it," said Mike with a smile on his face.

"If you ask me that was kind of fun," Zoey pointed out.

"But if we keep on doing that, they will get even more upset," I said. I turned to look at Christine. "How's your foot? Do you need help standing up?"

"No, I'm good," said Christine. She put her foot on the foot stand on to the floor, then she slowly tried to stand on her own. She did so with little effort. "I'll manage." She smiled brightly.

"Let's go get ready, guys," I said as I stood up. "We only have a few minutes till we leave."

We started to make our way out of the room. And with Christine, she walked at a steady pace.

In ten minutes, we were already downstairs in the cars arranged for us. The five of us Toxins, Lee and Collins were in one car while the security detail were in two other cars behind us. Collins wasn't joking when he said they will work on security. Hopefully, it won't be too obvious to the fans or the paparazzi, especially the paparazzi.

"Do you think Johnny will have a chance to get near us?" Daniel asked as he looked out the window, watching the people and the buildings as the car drove through town.

"He would," Zoey answered, sitting in front of me. "It's Johnny we're talking about."

"We just have to be careful with who we let in whenever we go," said Collins who sat in the front passenger seat. "We also had to alert security at YG just to be safe."

"This time if he does do anything funny, please try and not do anything stupid," said Lee as she looked at each one of us.

"Who? Us?" Zoey asked. "What makes you think we would do that?"

"I think we all know what I'm talking about. When things like this happen, you all take it personal and want to do things yourself to get rid of the problem."

The five of us didn't say a thing. It's exactly what we had been talking about a few minutes ago back at the hotel.

"Lee's right," said Collins. "The issue with Jehan wasn't supposed to happen, but it did because we didn't take a whiff of what's going on. We let it slide, but this time around, I don't want any of your silly plans taking course. Is that clear?"

The five of us exchanged looks. Lee and Collins are really on to us now. They don't have to worry, though. We already decided not to do anything about it.

"Yes, very clear," I said. The rest all joined in agreement.

"Good, the less trouble you get into, the better."

"But, what if-?" Zoey started to ask, but Collins and Lee weren't going to hear it.

"No," they both said at the same time.

"Okay," she said as she quickly looked out of the window.

We soon arrived at YG Studios and we met WINNER in one of the recording rooms.

"Hey, Toxins," greeted Mino immediately we walked through the door.

"Hey, Mino!" Zoey greeted him with such glee. As soon as she realised that we were all looking at her, she couldn't help but blush.

"So how was your outdoor movie last night?" Seunghoon asked as he came towards us. He couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when he laid his eyes on me.

"I think you all know how that went," I said, rolling my eyes and closing the door behind me as I was last to enter the room. "Didn't you see what happened at the end of the movie?"

"Oh, we saw it." Seunghoon couldn't help but ask, "Was it really Johnny who announced to the audience that you were there?"

"The very same person whom we said made our life a living hell back home," said Daniel.

"Could it be that he didn't mean any harm?" Jinwoo who was seated on the couch at the other end of the room, asked.

"Don't even try and bail him out of this," said Zoey as she wagged her index finger. "He's been doing things like this whenever he gets near us."

"Sorry," said Jinwoo as he nervously chuckled. "You all look angry just talking about the incident."

"We are," said Mike. "He caused Christine to sprain her ankle."

"You sprained your ankle?" Jinwoo asked as he quickly stood up from his seat.

"It's nothing to worry about," she said, sounding nervous. I could tell that she's blushing.

"You look okay," said Seungyoon as he also stood up from the couch he was sitting on with Jinwoo. "It isn't serious, is it?"

"No, but she can't risk herself with strenuous activity," I answered. "That being said, you better go take a seat, Christine." I came to stand next to her.

"Sure," she started to make her way to the couch with Seunghoon and Mino stepping aside for her to pass.

"Are sure you're okay?" Jinwoo asked as she approached the couch.

"I'm fine, seriously," she said. "Like Sam said, if I don't strain myself, I'll be fine. Probably by tomorrow."

She sat on the couch and Jinwoo sat next to her, but not too close. I wanted to say something cute about the two of them, but I controlled myself as I remembered that I'm not supposed to.

"Where are the BlackPink members?" Zoey asked as she walked to the middle of the room. "I expected them to be here."

"They were here early in the morning, but they had to meet with the manager as they've to start working an upcoming album soon," Seunghoon answered.

"Ah, I see. So we wait then."

"We were waiting on you, the managers and Bang Yong-guk," said Mino. "So how was it working with him?"

"Awesome," Mike and I responded at the same time.

"The man lives up to his reputation as a producer," said Daniel.

"I can't wait to hear the track. I know it will be a good one."

"It's the managers I'm worried about," I said.

"Don't think about it, Sam," said Seunghoon as he came to stand next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, drawing me closer. He felt so warm, surprisingly. "Since you guys worked on it, I'm sure it will be great."

"Please keep telling her that," said Zoey. "She's been so negative since morning."

Seunghoon held my head with both of his hands. "Don't worry," he said. "You've told the right person to help."

"Please stop holding my head like that," I said as I looked up at him, giving him a look that I'll kick him if he didn't stop.

"As you wish, sweetie," he dropped his hands from my head.

The rest of us who were standing went to join those sitting on the couch. We, Toxins started to tell the WINNER members the full details of what happened at the park.

"Must have been awful that you had to run like that," said Mino. "Who knows what would've happened if the fans really did manage to catch you."

"Did anyone of you know what happened to G-Dragon?" Seungyoon asked.

"Who cares?" Zoey asked as she folded her arms and looked the other way.

"Some of us do," Seungyoon nervously chuckled.

"Then you should be asking him not us."

"Wow, someone is mad," said Jinwoo as he looked at Zoey, wanting to laugh, but trying his best not to.

"I don't blame her," said Daniel. "We all are. And it's like he didn't care that Johnny was acting like a complete snob last night. He just let him be."

"We should've knocked him down when we had the chance," said Zoey, raising a fist in the air.

"We would still have attracted attention, you know?" I pointed out. "I'm just disappointed with him. I felt he should've done something to keep Johnny in check."

"So, I'm guessing that none of you even bothered to check up on him?" Seungyoon asked.

"Nope," the five of us responded at the same time.

"I hope he got trampled on by the crowd," said Zoey.

"Zoey!" Christine and I looked at Zoey. She might be upset, but wishing ill on others is going a little too far.

"Sorry," she apologised. "But talking about him is getting on my nerves."

"Let's change the topic then," said Mino. "I want to know how your time with BAP was, especially with Bang Yong-guk."

"I thought you would never ask," said Zoey as she excitedly turned to look at Mino who sat next to her. Before she could utter a word, she noticed that a lot of us were looking at her with perplexed looks. Just a minute ago, she looked like she was about to punch the wall. Now she looked cheerful.

"Sam and Mike can tell you," she said, as she let out a funny laugh. It's so unlike her. There could only be one reason for this, and some of us aren't going to point it out just yet.

Mike went on to tell the others about it, and a few of us chirped in here and there. In what felt like an hour of chatting and goofing around, the door flew open and the BlackPink members came in.

"Hey, guys," said Lisa. "We aren't late, are we?"

"If the managers aren't here, then it's obvious that we aren't late," said Rosé.

"Welcome, BlackPink," Mino greeted them. "Take a seat while we wait."

"Ah, you guys better tell us what went on last night," said Jennie who quickly rushed over to take a seat next to Daniel. "I saw the video of the crowd chasing you guys at the park."

"Zoey is better off telling you than anyone of us," Daniel pointed out. "She'll at least express how we all feel."

"I thought I saw Johnny in the video and GD," said Jisoo as the rest of the BlackPink members came to join us.

"Ya, they were there," said Christine. "And the funny part is they weren't invited. Johnny is the person who caused the fans to run after us."

"I see," said Rosé "You must have been irritated by that, huh?"

"Very much," Mike answered. "We still are. Christine sprained her ankle because of him."

"Are you okay, Christine?" Jennie asked.

"She's fine, it's just a little sprain," Jinwoo answered on her behalf.

"I'm worried about GD," said Seungyoon. "Did he make it out of there in one piece?"

"If anything happened to him, we would've known about it already," I said.

"True," said Lisa. "You don't mind if I try and call him, will you?"

"I guess," I turned to look at Zoey who already had her head turned to look elsewhere. "Zoey is way more upset than we are, though."

"She can call him," said Zoey. "I'll be fine. I won't do anything stupid."

Lisa pulled out her phone from her fancy blue purse and called G-Dragon. She even made sure to put the phone on loud speaker for everyone to hear.

His phone on the other end started to ring. We all waited in silence for what felt like a minute when Zoey said:

"Something must have happened to him. Why isn't he picking up?"

Then came a cracking sound and GD's voice came up, loud and clear:

"Hello, Lisa."

"Oppa!" Lisa greeted him with enthusiasm. "How are you today? I heard you had a crazy time last night. Are you okay?"

G-Dragon laughed a little. I couldn't help but feel there's something different with his voice.

"I'm fine. Just trying to catch up on sleep. After what happened at the park, I went out somewhere with a friend to have fun."

The five of us Toxins gave each other looks. He's obviously talking about Johnny.

"I'm glad you aren't hurt," said Lisa. "You should be more careful when you go to such places."

GD chuckled. "Thanks, I will. You take care. Oh, wait, aren't you supposed to meet with the others for the album and listen to the new song right now?"

"Yep. Just waiting on the managers and Bang Yong-guk to show up."

"Alright, greetings to everyone."

"I'll pass on the message. Thanks, you take care. Bye."

Lisa quickly cut the call. Zoey suddenly burst out saying:

"Wow, that's so typical of him. He even went to have fun with Johnny after the stunt he pulled?!"

"I'm glad you didn't burst out like that when Lisa was talking to him," said Mino as he nervously chuckled.

"Like she said, she wasn't going to do anything stupid," said Mike. "Until now."

"Hey!" Zoey gave Mike a look.

"Oh, no, not here," I said. "Can we've your wrestling match later?"

"I would like to see them fight," said Mino.

"Trust me, you don't want to," said Daniel.

There came a knock at the door. We told the person to come in. It's Lee, and she came in with someone: Bang Yong-guk.

"Yong-guk, you're here!" Zoey exclaimed as she shot up from her seat and went straight for him.

"Hey, Zoey," Yong-guk nervously greeted her, stepping back a little so that he wouldn't bump into her.

"Well, you're rather jumpy today," said Lee as she looked at Zoey with an eyebrow raised.

"You should've seen her when we were talking about G-Dragon just now," said Seungyoon. "She looked like she would punch someone."

"Hi, Yong-guk," I said as I stood up from my seat and also approached. "For a second there I thought you weren't coming."

"I wouldn't want to miss this day for the world," he said with a smile.

I felt someone quickly rush up to me standing by my side. And in the process, pushing me a little. I held my ground so that I wouldn't find myself falling over.

"Hello," Seunghoon greeted Yong-guk in Korean. I raised an eyebrow as I realised that he had his arm around my neck. I didn't want to admit what I'm seeing, but it couldn't be helped. Was he trying to mark his territory when he didn't have one?

Yong-guk greeted him back and by the look on his face, he didn't seem intimidated by Seunghoon at all.

Everyone else came over to greet Yong-guk. Lee told us to settle down for the managers and the music producer assigned to help with our album will be arriving any time soon. We did likewise. And members from both Blackpink and WINNER couldn't help but ask Bang Yong-guk some questions about the song.

"The song is going to be great, right?" Jisoo asked.

"I just want to ask how you were able to come up with your amazing songs," said Mino.

"One at a time, people," I told them. I sat in between Yong-guk and Seunghoon, and boy did it feel uncomfortable.

Yong-guk chuckled. "I don't mind at all," he said.

"You don't have to worry about him," said Seunghoon as he leaned in a little closer on my shoulder. "He can take care of himself."

I rolled my eyes at him and he gave me that cute boyish smile. I couldn't hold my laugh.

"Do you've the track with you?" Lisa asked. "Maybe we can listen to it a little before the managers get here."

"Not when I'm around," said Lee who stood in the corner of the room. For a minute there we forgot that she is still around.

"Oh, we didn't know you were still around," said Rosé as she nervously chuckled.

"Well, I've been told to watch over you," said Lee. "You might do something funny like you were about to just now."

"No we weren't," said Zoey and Christine at the same time.

Lee gave them a look that made them stare at the floor. The managers better get here soon. I could tell just how anxious everyone is that they can't wait to hear the song.

"They will be here soon, so I don't understand why you're impatient," said Lee.

"I agree," said Yong-guk. "Let's all just wait."

"They better be," said Jinwoo. "My ears are just itching to listen."

We didn't have to wait any further as there came a knock at the door and Lee told whoever was there to come in. The two managers and a man who I think is the producer, walked into the room. We all stood up and bowed our heads.

"Sit down everyone," Yang Hyun-suk instructed and we did likewise. "I see everyone is here. I'm also happy to welcome our visitor, Bang Yong-guk."

Bang Yong-guk stood up from his seat and bowed to the managers and the producer. He also thanked them for inviting him to the studio. Yang Hyun-suk also introduced the man who stood beside Collins as the producer who will help out with the album.

"Okay, without further ado, we can dive right to what we came here to do," said Yang Hyun-suk. He started to make his way to the console and the music booth.

When we stood up to follow the manager and the producer, I couldn't help but stay still while the rest went on ahead. I didn't even realise that Bang Yong-guk still stood beside me until he spoke.

"Hey, you're nervous?" he asked.

I turned to look at him, surprised that he's beside me. "Kind of," I said. "What if its not-?"

He held my shoulders to turn me so I could look at him. I didn't expect him to be so close, and looking at him, straight on like this made me blush.

"Don't you trust me, Sam?" he asked.

I didn't expect him to ask such a question and I am left speechless. I cleared my throat to say:

"Yes, I do."

He smiled at me and dropped his hands from my shoulders. He quickly held my hand.

"Come on, let's go," he said as he dragged me along to join the others.

His warm hand around mine assured me that I shouldn't worry about what's going to happen with the song. Even if the managers weren't going to like it, it's going to be okay.

I found myself smiling at him. I couldn't have found any better way to calm my thoughts.