I remembered the days before we’d broken up. Hyejin and Tae had been photographed having dinner together. It had been framed in a bullshit way that made them look like they’d been on a date. It had been the perfect storm. Tae’s reputation as the playboy of K-Pop, and Hyejin’s supposed relationship with Jihoon. It had turned a simple group dinner into an explosion of cheating rumours.
It was the event I’d long considered the catalyst.
“Not just the photos,” he said quietly. “The company hid a lot. She was getting attacked by netizens because they believed she was using our ‘secret love’ as publicity.” He said the words as if they tasted bad. “As if she, or I, or any of us ever have any say in such matters.”
I scoffed. I felt like I said it all the time – women in the public eye almost always came out worse in these situations. It never mattered if the rumours were true or not.
He continued. “After we…” he took a breath. “After the breakup, the company wanted us to date. I know it sounds bad, but I talked about it with Minjae. I did not want to do it. But he said it would be another way to… to protect you.”
My head shot up as my eyes locked on his. “Protect me? How?”
He nodded. “We thought we could make everyone believe Hyejin was the girl in the photos that Hana had already leaked.”
I flinched at the memory. The way I’d been erased from the only evidence that I had existed with him. It still hurt.
I took a steadying breath.
“But Hana would still know,” I pointed out.
“Yes, but the world would believe the story, and Park Hana only cared that it was you. She said it herself. People would hunt you, because they’d think you were an outsider who only wanted money and fame. Hyejin had those things, and the fans already believed we were dating. There would be no reason for her to expose what she had, because you were already gone.”
He made a noise in his throat, not quite a laugh, but something like it.
“We believed she would not care if I dated Lee Hyejin. We were right.”
My gut twisted, and I swallowed to rid myself of the sour taste on my tongue.
The thing was, I didn’t even think it was personal for Hana. I didn’t think she had any negative feelings towards me, in particular. I think that she was just so calculated, that to her, I was collateral damage.
“You went to all that trouble,” I said bitterly, “why not tell ENT and implicate Hana?”
“I couldn’t tell the company.” Jihoon shook his head. “I was scared Park Hana might go… what’s the saying? Explode?”
I thought for a second. “Nuclear?”
“Yes. Nuclear. I worried she would release the photos of you if we went after her again, or if she found out about the plan to date Lee Hyejin before we went to the press. Not because she cared about Hyejin, but because she would figure out I was protecting you. Hiding you behind Hyejin.”
I bit my lip to hide my expression. It was not kind, or elegant. It was targeted, and I understood. But that didn’t mean I had to like it.
“It had to be a surprise for everyone. The world already believed Hyejin and I were a couple. They would believe this, and then it would be too late for Hana, because it would be easy to argue the photos of you were altered. Who would believe they weren’t Hyejin?”
I wasn’t sure I agreed. It seemed like Jihoon had banked a lot on fake dating Lee Hyejin as a way to undermine Hana’s leverage. I understood the logic, but those photos of me still existed. She didn’t need the whole world to believe it. She only needed enough people to be loud about it.
“Okay,” I said slowly, “what about Hyejin? How did she feel about this plan?”
He shook his head, his hair falling across his face, obscuring it.
“She was happy to do it. She was exhausted from all the hate. She had offered to leave her group.”
My eyes collided with his as my mouth fell open.
“She was going to leave PrettyYOUngthings?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “It was bad. The company had to pull some of their performances. They were worried because of the threats.”
“Fuck,” I drew out the word, incredulity clearing my head enough to view the mess objectively.
“Did that stop after you… after you went public?”
