SHINING DIAMOND | SEVENTEEN

19

✧·ﾟ: *✧·ﾟ:*

Stella tried not to look at her phone, tried to not look at all the comments under her posts and what everyone was saying about her online. Maybe the whole rumour between her and vernon was bad, worse than she was expecting it to be. Of course people were slut shaming her, of course people would make comments about her relationship with her other members and claiming how much of an attention seeker she was when it came to her 'male' members. 

She was usually pretty well at staying away online when she was receiving hate, learning from her lesson from last time when things got a little too bad. But maybe it was her low self esteem after her break up and wanting to self sabotage her own emotions. She was convinced she was a bad person and that she deserved all this hate she was getting. 

Vernon noticed Stella scrolling through her phone, biting her lip and rapidly bouncing her leg up and down while they were waiting for their flight back to Korea. 

He goes over to sit next to her and grabs her phone off of her to see what she was looking at. Of course it was all the hate comments online targeted at her. 

Vernon sighs but not at her "please don't waste your time on this" 

"apparently i'm an attention whore for my members" Stella mutters jokingly under her breath, but each comment was a sharp pain in her chest, especially when it came from people who claimed to be their 'fans'. 

"you do love attention from us but that doesn't make you a whore just because you're the only girl member among us. No one says anything if one of us is desperate for your attention. People have been saying these things about you since our debut" Vernon states to her, wanting to say more, to be of more comfort towards her. 

"I know but that doesn't mean it hurts any less" Stella says to him playing with her fingers and avoiding his gaze 

"I know that but i don't want this to get to you so much, because they don't know you. these people who are saying these things and sending you hate, they're not your fans or our fans at all, they're just jealous and projecting that hate to you cause they think its easy" Vernon says looking at her and hoping that she would look back at him, but he didn't know if he would be able to take it if he saw tears in her eyes

"I know i shouldn't let it get to me but how could i not when i see carats saying things that it would be better if i wasn't a part of the group or that i am the reason for any bad thing happening and that its automatically my fault-" Stella says feeling her eyes sting and Vernon cuts her off, which was a rare thing for him since he has always allowed her to finish what she is saying but he was too angry at the present situation 

"and they say that because you're a girl, see? no logic whatsoever. it's stem from jealousy because they think we belong to them and owe them something, please Stella don't let stuff like that get to your head, and please don't call people like that carats" Vernon says angrily and now Stella looks back at him 

"why are you so mad?" Stella asks softly at him, and she had tears in her eyes which indefinably pulls at Vernon's heart and felt this urge to hold her and never let her go, but he retains himself, despite how difficult it was 

Vernon shakes his head "Stella I... I'm not mad at you, i'm mad at people for saying things like that about you cause its so stupid. none of it is true and you don't deserve any of it, i rather them all take it out on me then have a single thing said about you" 

Stella's eyes glisten at this and she felt like she was going to burst into tears as her voice cracks as she says to him "you don't mean that" 

"of course i mean that, i'm kinda offended that you would assume that i didn't" Vernon says now kind of flustered from her reaction and starts blushing even more when Stella rests her head on his shoulder