The grin slid of Jihoon’s face, replaced with something softer.
“She’s excited to see me. It’s been so long. She hasn’t left the house for two weeks, which has been hard for her. She used to visit her friends every day, but she says it’s worth it to see me.”
He dragged a hand along the back of his neck, looking away from the camera, unable to disguise the faint pink creeping up his cheeks.
He had been isolating for this visit aswell, to ensure there was absolutely no risk to his Grandma. They’d both tested negative this morning, so Jihoon was finally driving from Seoul to Busan,where she lived with her son and daughter-in-law – Jihoon’s parents.
“It’s such a long drive,” I said lightly. He was going by himself, and maybe it was silly, but I couldn’t help worrying.
He nodded. “Yes, but it’s safer than flying. And there will be no press in the car with me.”
He grinned, but it was more like a grimace.
“Are they still camped outside the dorm?”
Jihoon snorted. “Yes. They have no idea about the secret entrance. They must think we never leave.”
It was simple, but kind of ingenious. On the opposite side of the building was a door that opened into a small, gated garden which led out into a narrow alley. It looked like a private residence; it even had a house number on the gate. But the apartment was empty, and the residents of the dorm regularly came and went through that little door.
They couldn’t always use it – they had to go out the front to keep up appearances – but for sneaking out, it was a brilliant sleight of hand
Recently, it had become necessary, as the press had grown more vitriolic since the photos of us in the rain, and at the Christmas ball, had been released.
Reactions had varied across the board. There didn’t seem to be any middle ground.
There was a huge, and vocal, group of people – fans and non-fans alike – who supported Jihoon’s right to privacy. His right to be in a relationship.
In a way, the rain photos had validated my belief that people would be more supportive of their idols dating than was commonly believed.
Unfortunately, there was an equally loud group who saw it as a betrayal. It wasn’t just that he was — or had been — in a relationship, that had quickly become the accepted narrative, it was that he hadn’t told everyone.
There was a part of me, small and dark and twisty, that was furious at their sense of ownership over him. Over all celebrities. It was an argument I would never win, and one that left me exhausted.
Watching him move around his room, it was impossible not to feel the weight of it, and I wondered, not for the first time, how he carried it.
What was more worrying though was that some had come to the conclusion the reason Jihoon wasn’t addressing the rumours was because we’d broken up, and therefore he was heartbroken.
His current, and noticeable absence from social media was being used to spin the narrative into a frenzy.
The hashtagJusticeforJoonhad trended for a while, along with some very angry posts about finding the person who hurt him.
There were several video edits that had gone viral. People had pieced together clips from the press conference where he’d been outright asked if he was in a relationship. They’d edited the footage and used his words, twisting the narrative into something sad and defeated.
GVibes had such a vast backlog of footage, from fancams at award shows, airports, backstage at concerts, to their many, many variety show appearances and lives. There was no shortage of footage of times where Jihoon looked less than cheerful, even during events where he’d been positively gleeful every other second than the one they’d managed to capture.
These clips were rearranged, visually manipulated and paired with sad backing tracks. Add in some creative lighting, and the overall impression was that he was heartbroken.
Watching the edits, even I could concede it was a compelling argument.
On the one hand, it had provided an unintended boon to his profile, resulting in a surge of renewed interest towards his solo projects, but on the other hand, it had resulted in a lot of online hate towards the mystery girl. Me.
Almost overnight, I had become a sort of bogeyman, the very embodiment of heartbreak and malicious female intent.
Theories were wild; going anywhere from the idea that I was a gold-digging whore, to a spoiledchaebolprincess. A villain in every scenario.
One particularly imaginative theory was that I had been in a love triangle between Jihoon and Woojin, which would explain their alleged rivalry last year. A rivalry that had been so well-hidden that not even Jihoon or Woojin had been aware of it.
But the real problem was that Jihoon wasn’t addressing any of it, and his silence was being seen as a confirmation.
