Pandora's Heart | d.cx ✓

CHAPTER 3

Pandora walked out of the kitchen once they were back at their dorms, while her band mates were sitting in front of the TV even though they were busy with their cellphones. No one had talked about the issue again that evening, seeing that Pandora seemed to get pretty emotional every time someone started it.

She threw herself on one of the empty couches, and was somehow feeling guilty for not practicing that evening. Even though she was tired, she was going to force herself.

There was a light knock on the door, then it was opened. The manager walked inside with a disappointed face, and all of the girls could guess what was going on.

'How could you do that?' he put his hands on his waist after asking the question. His eyes were focused on Pandora.

'What?' Pandora sat up in the couch she had slumped in. 'You know I said the truth. And everyone knows it.'

'What you did is not right and you're going to get a lot of hate and bring a lot of hate on your group as well. You already know it's important for an idol to watch how they speak but you went on to ignore that.'

'So because I'm an idol I should just shut my mouth and pretend I'm okay with everything?'

'Pandora,' Nikita decided to speak up, turning to her. 'We all have different feelings and views about some things that happen in life, but it doesn't mean we should try to impose how we feel on others. People voted for TNT, and even though you don't think their song was best, it doesn't matter. Majority believed TNT was the best, so respect the majority.'

'Exactly.' The manager agreed with Nikita 100%, nodding to her words. It wasn't anything new, Nikita and the manager usually agreed because they were both mature.

'Fine.' Pandora gave up. She didn't agree with what they were saying, but sometimes she also had to lay down her ego and listen to the people who probably had better judgment than her.

'Great. So tomorrow morning, the company and you will have to issue a public apology over your emotional outburst.' The manager informed her.

She felt like rolling her eyes, but instead she nodded with a flat lipped look.

...

'What's this?' Chengxin asked Jiaqi as he looked at the large basket of goodies on their dining table. There was cookies, chocolate as well as other assorted food for those with a sweet tooth. It seemed to have just come in, because when Chengxin was having his breakfast, it wasn't there.

'It's an apology from Blue Moon Entertainment.' Jiaqi replied as he ate his breakfast. He was the only one on the table since everyone else had finished eating their breakfast.

'Oh Apogee's company?'

Jiaqi nodded. 'Poor guys. I think Pandora just got emotional and failed to control her emotions. She's just new to this stuff anyway.'

'She's too emotional. But after losing several more times, she's going to get used to it.' Chengxin opened the transparent wrapper on the goodies and grabbed a muffin from the bunch.

'They even published a public apology and Pandora made a personal video apologizing on her personal Weibo, Tweeter and Instagram. It's gone viral.' Jiaqi chuckled.

'Really?' Chengxin placed the muffin on the table. He was suddenly feeling curious to check it out. He could hardly believe that Pandora could apologize, she had quite an attitude both on-screen and apparently off-screen, according to some people.

He checked Pandora's page and clicked on the video, then watched it with a humorous smile. Everything seemed insincere and memorized. Perhaps a regular person would be fooled, but Chengxin prided himself on being able to read emotions very well. 'This is so fake.'

'Obviously. Let's not pretend like anyone would be happy losing an award.' Jiaqi put his spoon in his bowl and got up from his seat.

The manager walked into the dining room and greeted Jiaqi, then immediately turned to Chengxin. 'Let's go.'

'Right.' Chengxin agreed and waved at Jiaqi. 'See you later. I'm going for that Sprite Collaboration Showcase.'

Jiaqi nodded in response and Chengxin left with his manager. He took the back seat of the van before it started to drive off. Chengxin had been chosen among his bandmates to sponsor Sprite. He was really excited for such a big deal, but now it was something that had become rather common.

The journey was quite long, but that wasn't something Chengxin could complain about either. He had also learned to get used to this. The car door was opened for him and he stepped out, and there were so many fans waiting excitedly.

He smiled to himself but stopped when he felt drizzles, then looked up into the graying sky. The drizzles were probably there to stay, yet the entire showcase was going to be outside in the open. Even so, the organizers didn't seem to show any desire to cancel or change the venue.

'Please get him a raincoat.' The manager instructed one of the staff on the site. But before the particular staff member could leave, two people were already approaching Chengxin with a blue translucent raincoat.

While Chengxin received the raincoat from one of the individuals, his vision suddenly got clouded as he felt something wet and thick get thrown at him.

'Chengxin!' his manager's voice sounded.

'Hey! Get back here!' another voice was heard while Chengxin tried to process what had just happened.

He wiped the substance from his eyes and opened them, and all he saw was the two staff members who had brought the raincoat running away and a bucket that lied at his feet which probably contained the substance. The manager started to furiously wipe Chengxin's face, and some of the thick substance was off his face.

'What is this?' Chengxin asked the manager as he looked at the cloth that had been used to wipe the substance off his face. It hadn't really come off and he needed to change, but at least it wasn't running all over his face anymore.

'Cake batter.' the manager replied in an irritated tone, opening the van door for Chengxin. 'Get in.'

Chengxin didn't hesitate, he immediately climbed into the car and continued to wipe himself. He didn't understand what was going on, and why it had just happened on that day of all days. He had never seemed to get any hate before in his career, so this was something very new.

The manager shut the door, but Chengxin could still hear him talking outside.

'What is wrong with your staff members!? Why would they do that!?' the manager complained angrily.

'Apparently they're not staff members, they're two Apogee fans who pretended to be staff members.' the man replied.

Chengxin did not expect that, but it surely made sense why they would want to do that and exactly the night after the awards where Pandora overreacted.

'So you don't know your own staff, that's why two complete strangers were able pretend to be one of you.' he went on.

'I'm so sorry sir.' The man apologized once more. 'Well we caught them, and they've admitted that they did it because TNT didn't deserve to win the awards because Pandora said so. They're just childish fans and it won't happen again.'

'Fine. But this conference is off today. It's not safe for Chengxin, you'll have to reschedule.'

Chengxin wanted to say he was fine, but he knew there was no way he could convince his manager. So he decided to keep quiet.

Once the manager had talked to the man, he got into the back of the van angrily, sitting next to Chengxin.

'Are you okay?' he asked him as he put on his seatbelt. 'Sorry about that.'

'Oh it's fine, it's just cake batter.' Chengxin assured him. 'I just need to get a shower.'

'This is all Pandora's fault.' the manager tatted.