Choice and Chances

I: Scandal

I

2020:

Three girls seated across each other from a round table; the first girl has a wavy hair, she was using her phone; the second one has short hair and was reading a novel; the last one was wearing white shirt, she was holding a compact cushion to her face level and reapplying a coral lipstick.

The girl with wavy hair was scrolling through her phone screen when a message popped up saying, "Big news! Check Naver asap."

Even before checking Naver she called her friends attention without hesitating. "Hey, big news!" she announced and it got the other girls on their feet, instantly moving closer to her.

"What?" says the girl in white. The wavy haired girl moved the phone a little further so everyone could see. Soon as the Naver page loaded, their eyes immediately spotted the same article. The headline says;

'Breaking: Photos of Lee Je Hoon and Moon Chae Won together revealed, rumors of third party circulating.'

"Wow!" the three young ladies exclaimed at the same time. After reading the article and viewed the photos, they commented;

"It's really them. This is crazy," the short haired girl said.

"Really, Moon Chae Won? She should be ashamed," the girl in white stated.

"She's so done for," the phone owner added.

"But nothing has been confirmed yet," defends the short haired girl.

"Of course they'll cover it."

"But still innocent until proven guilty," again the short haired girl said.

"Whether it's true or not, both of their careers will surely hit rock bottom. This scandal is no joke."

"Right. I knew why I don't really like her since, what a waste for Je Hoon though."

* * *

At 4U Entertainment, not long after the news blew out, Lee Je Hoon barged in to the CEO's office.

"Why didn't you do anything to stop the person who got that photo?" he angrily asked. He can't believe those photos were used against him, them, without a heads up. It's ridiculous.

"You know I would do everything to prevent it from leaking if I knew."

Je Hoon believed what he said. He surely wouldn't risk one of the best and the most popular artist he has. Money to buy the information is nothing compared to losing the company's best asset. This is, after all, a business.

"We will release a statement to deny it but first let me hear the real story," the CEO motioned him to sit on the meeting space at the center of his office.

They sat down a cross each other on the couches, ready to discuss what they have to discuss. It was not going to be a smooth ride but they'll try to salvage what they can. Denying it would not make everyone believe it, some people tend to jump to conclusion right away; accepting it was never an option, though he won't lose everyone but most probably he'll lose ninety percent of his supporters.

Meanwhile at Live Entertainment, the CEO is currently talking to Moon Chae Won's manager. He asked him to call and ask her over, soon as she can. He did just that, quickly dialing Chaewon's number hoping she'd answer immediately as this is an urgent matter.

It took two tries before she finally picked up. On the phone he spoke to her, "Chaewon, where are you? Have you seen the news?" he asked without waiting for her to reply to his first question.