Chapter 5
Dongwon isn't an important person to (Y/n) like he was last month before she knew that he's having an affair behind her back, but she's still with him only because he helps her financially. She walks into the living room and sees her boyfriend laying on the brown couch watching tv, in the middle of her clutter. (Y/n) sighs heavily and places her stuff on the floor.
"Oh, you're here?" she asks him, acting surprised. He glances at her and goes back to watching. She places her brown jacket on the table and goes to her room. Leaning on the wall with despair, she takes her phone out from her pocket and looks down at it while pressing Dahuin's contact to call her. She puts the phone to her ear and hears Dahuin's little voice, making her calm down.
"Hello, Unnie!"
"Oh, yes. Hello Dahuin..."
"Is anything wrong? Why did you call?"
"Yeah... you need to do some explaining about the changes you added..."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Don't play dumb. The report that's going viral right now isn't the one I wrote last night, Dahuin,"
"Oh, I did that."
"Why?!"
"(Y/n), if we posted your story that had no tack, no proof, no excitement to it, we would've barely earned ₩ 10,000, so I had to add more drama and pictures—"
(10,000 KRW = approximately 8 USD)
"Exactly, I told you specifically not to use those pictures because I promised that guy, I wouldn't post them anywhere. Now you're disrespecting his right to privacy—"
"Who cares! Privacy, my foot. He's a celebrity so he's used to this kind of stuff. Give it a week and everybody is going to forget about it,"
"My reputation with famous people is going to be tainted now because of what you did,"
"You didn't even have a reputation, to begin with, ~"
(Y/n) sighs, accepting what happened and realizing that there is no point in arguing. "Fine, I guess it's my fault for taking the pictures in the first place." I don't want to fight with Dahuin. (Y/n) hangs up and goes to her bed to take a nap.
9:04 pm
When she wakes up, she finds that her boyfriend had ordered her dinner but already left. She walks over to the pitch-dark living room, switches the table lamp on, and sits on the floor close to the coffee table. She opens the plastic bowl, revealing the black bean noodles in it, which have cooled down already. But (Y/n) doesn't care, she picks up her chopsticks and digs in. Once she's done with her meal, she stretches her arms out and goes to her room. She takes her blue chemise off along with her skirt, and while putting her grey sweater on, (Y/n) spots her phone on the floor next to her mattress. She rushes over to it and picks it up, remembering her sour argument with Dahuin earlier. On the screen, she sees that she has 2 missed calls from an unknown number so she decides to call back, but they don't pick up. Well, I guess it was a wrong number... whatever.
12:05 pm
As (Y/n) discusses her new research with her coworkers, she starts to think about her friend, who hasn't shown up to work today, which worries her. She shrugs it off when she notices an assistant approaching her and her research group.
"Hello, sorry for interrupting. But Ms. (L/n) you have a meeting in an hour," she states, turning to (Y/n)
"Oh? Okay, but with who?" she asks her curiously.
"Sorry, I don't know exactly. I couldn't really see their face..." (Y/n) nods and continues working.
1:17 pm
(Y/n) takes a look at the clock as she waits in the meeting room. I think it's going to be the person who called me last night. I just hope this is worth my lunch break... Finally, she hears a knock on the door and she immediately stands up from her seat.
"Come in!" she tells the person behind the door. The white door slowly opens and reveals the person who she had least expected to meet at the moment; Hwang Hyunjin. He's wearing all black and just like the other day, he's wearing a black mask, and a black cap with his hair tied in a ponytail.
Despite her shock, she bows slightly, "Please sit." she says signaling to the chair on the other side of the table. I'm scared I know exactly what he's here for. They both sit in awkward silence for a few seconds. Then (Y/n) breaks the silence by saying, "I know what you're about to say, just let me explain the whole situation first,"
"Yes, go ahead,"
"So, you saw me delete your pictures that night, right?" she sighs. "but I was a little drunk, so I forgot that I had sent them to my coworker and she saw them—but I told her not to use them, I swear. But since we had nothing else to write about, we decided that we'd write about you in a nightclub—nothing more than that, but when we were done with it, she changed it and added the pictures last minute without my permission and I didn't find out until it was viral!" she looks at him for an answer, or whatever she was expecting and he sighs, looking devastated. He rolls his eyes and says,
"Okay look, I don't care what happened, but you took the pictures so you are responsible for whatever—"
"Excuse me, Mr. Hwang, but actually, it's your responsibility that you were in a nightclub in the first place." (Y/n) states in the same tone. What the hell? Does he think it's okay to do whatever he wants and expect us to not talk about it? Seriously, why blame me?
The same way (Y/n) is starting to get irritated by him, Hyunjin is also beginning to lose his nerves. He was going through enough career inconveniences which led to some shady activity in some nightclub, and now this selfish reporter is bringing down his reputation—not only his but the whole group's.
"I understand that, but that still doesn't allow you to invade my privacy." Okay, I agree here but I can't really say that... An awkward moment of silence passes and (Y/n) says,
"Well then, what do you want me to do about it? Even if I take the report down, it won't make a difference, and it might actually backfire."
"Can you make the rumors die down, then?" he asks.
"I'm not going to benefit anything by doing that, so either pay me or find someone else."
"It's okay, I'll give you all the money you want; just fix it." He responds. Is he showing off his money now?
"Okay, but don't expect me to do this all myself since you know about your own problem more than me," She says, causing him to sigh in frustration.
"Fine, I'll give you all the information you need, but don't make anything public before we confirm it," He replies. 'We'? who else is he referring to? "Deal?" he asks
"Deal." What type of problem have I put myself into this time? (Y/n) sighs as she gets up from her chair along with Mr. Hwang, and then looks at him when he asks,
"So, when are you planning to start Ms. ...?"
"Ms. (Y/n) (L/n). Please call me Reporter (L/n), and yes, I'll start working on it as soon as possible," She introduces herself. He nods and as they walk to the door, she starts to speak again stopping in her steps, "oh, also..." she pulls out her business card and hands it to him, "here's my business card, please make sure to call me so that we can get started," He takes the card and slightly bows. She opens the door and they both get out, going back to their business. As (Y/n) walks back to the research group, she holds her head exhaustedly and exhales. Here comes another wave of obstacles, (Y/n) ... when will I ever get a break where I can actually get my shit together? Oh god...
↪ Looks like (Y/n) will be working with Hyunjin now... unless there are going to be any plot twists, you never know ;)
↪ Saranghae to anyone who's reading this !!
-Koko ♡
