𝑴𝒊𝒏-𝒆 || Min Ho x Reader

✧˖° 2 | 03

When I woke up, it wasn't to warm rays of sunlight streaming through my window or the birds chirping outside. It was to the irritating, incessant vibrating of my phone every half a second.

Buzz.
Buzz.
Buzz.

Still half-asleep, I reached for it on my bedside counter, squinting against the blinding brightness of the screen. Notifications were flooding in so fast I couldn't read them all from the lock screen.

Goodness, I thought with a yawn. What could possibly be that important on a Saturday morning?

A message from Kitty. A text from Yuri. Multiple missed calls from my mother.

Furry 😽: "Hey, are you okay??"
Rich bitch: "__ WTF is this."
Euniceee: "OMG??"
Julianus: "__ this is insane"
Furry 😽: "You have to see this. *link*"

My pulse instantly quickened. The last time I woke up to my phone like this, a picture of Min Ho carrying me had been circulating every major social media platform. A tight feeling starting to build in my chest, I clicked on Kitty's link.

It was much worse.

Everywhere I looked, my face, next to Min Ho's, stared back at me, plastered under dramatic headlines. "Is Min Ho Just a Stepping Stone?" "Min Ho and __: Another PR Stunt!" "Everything you need to know behind __ Drama." "Leaked audio from Eunha l/n and daughter's phone call! Must see!"

What the hell? I thought, a panic beginning to rise in my throat. I couldn't recall doing anything cancel-worthy in the past year!

Furiously, I tapped on the last article. My mother's voice played in a scratchy audio.

"How's Min Ho? The two of you still playing the part his parents and I told you to?"

To my absolute horror, I heard my own voice answering. "He's fine."

"I'm so glad I forced you two into a PR relationship," said my phone. "Remember how much you used to complain about fake dating him?"

Shock shook my from head to toe. It was last night's call, word for word for word.

"Mom—"

"Whatever. What matters is the public thinking that you're in love. We need them on our side right now—especially with the divorce."

It's not word for word at all! I realized at that moment, my anger boiling. The entire part of me defending our relationship had been cut out, meaning the version circulating wasn't the real one. They'd edited it on purpose to twist the story into something else.

And this manipulated audio had been anonymously leaked to the press.

"So, you're leveraging my relationship to your advantage?" my voice said.

There was a clear cut between my line and my mother's. "...like an asset. A very public one... This whole divorce can't become a spectacle. Keep the focus where it belongs."

"Holy—" my voice cracked, and I ripped my blanket off. I got to my feet and paced back and forth, replaying the audio over and over again while reading comments.

"He deserves someone who actually loves him," one comment said. "He's in the wrong, too," another user replied. "They're just in it for the fame... it was all fake... they're using each other... Moon and __ Empires threatened..."

The media had exploded. Every word was like a brutal punch to the gut. But no one knew the whole truth. Not even close. Because that wasn't how the call had gone down at all.