“What is that?” Taeyeon asked, lifting her chin off her cupped palm, eyes wide.

Hyoyeon bit back a smile before asking innocently, “What?”

“On your hand…” Taeyeon replied not missing a beat.

“Oh this,” she asked displaying her hand and the glimmering silver band on her ring finger.

With that all four members present for breakfast at the dorm immediately started talking at once. Sooyoung took hold of her hand.

“A couple ring?” she asked.

“Mmm…” Hyoyeon nodded, not sure she should show how happy she really was around Sooyoung, she and Siwon had been together for close to a year at some point after all.

“Diamond inlays,” Jessica said slipping the ring off her finger, “I am now officially convinced you too are serious,” she sighed.

“Whoa there ice princess,” Sunny said with a laugh, “A ring is what proved they’re serious for you?”

“What? A little heavy petting and a few interviews don’t mean much in our line of work, you know that,” Jessica said matter-of –factly trying the ring on for size.

Hyoyeon smiled, “Sometimes I wonder why we’re friends Sica.”

“It’s my honesty and straight forwardness,” she replied.

The girls laughed.

 “But my goodness this is a beautiful ring,” Jessica sighed turning her hand this way and that so that the seven tiny inlayed diamonds sparkled in the early morning sunlight.

“Give it back before you get too attached,” Sunny said prodding Jessica’s side.

Jessica returned the ring with a feigned pout.

“Isn’t it almost time for you guys to give the word on your break up though…it’s a little strange for you to go around wearing couple rings now, isn’t it?” Sooyoung asked.

The girls turned to her, all apparently eager to hear the answer.

“Well, we won’t wear them out in public… I guess,” she replied after a pause.

“Didn’t you want to go public though…I mean for real?” Sunny said.

Hyoyeon shrugged, “I did but we talked about it…and we’ve already caused enough trouble as it is…it might be better to just lay low for a while,”

Jessica turned her sharp gaze on her, “And just who came up with that line of reasoning?” she asked.

Hyoyeon was about to reply honestly then realising what the question implied replied, “We both did.”

“Really?” Sunny asked.

“Really…”

“You forget who you’re talking too,” Jessica said. “We can tell when you’re not being 100% honest.”

Hyoyeon coloured then shook her head, “I know what you’re thinking but it was actually my decision.”

“What?!” the girls all exclaimed in unison.

“Why?” Sooyoung asked.

 “Honestly, even though everyone seems to be rooting for us, the fact is there’s still a lot of fans complaining about us, who feel disappointed, or upset by the fact that we’re together…and I have no problem with a few antis or detractors,” she replied, “It’s just when that hate is directed at someone…I care about, then it’s a different story.”

They all paused thoughtfully at her last statement. So she’d decided to sacrifice her own wish for a normal public relationship for Siwon’s sake. They exchanged knowing looks. It really was a Hyoyeon like thing to do.

Sunny shoved her playfully diffusing some of the gravity in the room, “Aw.”

“I think you should go for it…forget the antis, forget the media, forget SM,” Sooyoung spoke decisively.

Hyoyeon turned to her, surprised at the determined look on her friend’s face.

Sooyoung cleared , “…All through my relationship with Siwon…I always felt like there was something holding him back. Something keeping him from being 100% with me. For the longest time, even after we broke up I wondered what it was…then I saw him watching you do your solo dance break at SM town in Paris last year…” Sooyoung paused, “And the look in his eyes as he watched you… He’d never look at me like that. Never. Then when those pictures came out in Hot Scandal all the pieces seemed to fit together.”

Hyoyeon listened intently, it felt strange to hear Sooyoung speak so seriously especially about her relationship with Siwon. Even with her fellow members she’d been quite secretive about her relationship with him.

“My point is, his feelings for you are really strong and you shouldn’t let a few negative people force you into pushing your relationship into second place. A secret relationship is like no relationship at all, the romance of it fades and all you’re left with is pretend.”

Hyoyeon nodded, Sooyoung’s last words had really hit home because they echoed her own thoughts perfectly.

Soon after the conversation drifted to a lighter topic, before Junseo came to pick Sunny and her up for the Invincible Youth filming schedule. She considered taking the ring off and leaving it in her jewellery box but with Sooyoung’s advice ringing in her ears she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She wondered what Boom would make of it. His intro on the show usually had him pointing out some achievement that the G6 had made. Did getting a couple ring count as an achievement?

Judging by the feeling of giddy giggle inducing joy she had every time she looked down at the ring, it most definitely felt like an achievement.

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Siwon glanced at the ring on his finger and smiled to himself. He called to mind the image of Hyoyeon’s face when he’d revealed the couple rings to her on their date just two days earlier, sighing contentedly at the memory.

They had spent most of the afternoon on their picnic blanket enjoying the warm weather, snacking on the foods they’d brought along, talking and laughing. A few fans had spotted them and they’d taken a few photos with them and signed autographs. Later in the evening as the family and tourist groups began to leave he had led her up to the Kwanghallu pergola and under the twinkling amber lights of the pergola’s lanterns he’d pulled out the couple rings he’d bought.

“Seven diamonds?” Hyoyeon asked twirling the ring on her finger delicately.

He smiled, “One diamond for each year we spent apart, one for each year…” he paused and tilted her head up so that her eyes met his, “One diamond for each year I’ve loved you.”

“Love…” she repeated, her eyes welling up.

He laughed wiping away the stray tear that rolled down her cheek, “Hey, don’t go crying on me…”

“I’m not crying…I mean I’m not crying because I’m sad…I’m crying because I’m happy,” she smiled, “I love you too.”

He coloured slightly at the memory. It had been the first time he’d told her he loved her and even though he hadn’t intended to say the famous three words, they had somehow managed to tumble out. He felt warmth spread in his chest as he remembered her reply to his confession.

Was it normal to be this happy over three tiny little words? he wondered a half smile lighting his features.

And to think this was how it was going to be from now on. To make it even better Hyoyeon had sent him a text earlier that morning to tell him she’d worn her ring while filming Invincible Youth much to the excitement of the MCs and the other G6 members.

She had seemed quite decisive about the fact that they shouldn’t wear the rings in public or during their schedules but she’d gone ahead and worn hers anyway. He could only imagine it meant that she, like him, was ready to seriously carry on with their relationship in public even after SM told them to quit, which was likely some time soon.

He cast a glance at Sunwoo who was busy talking with the photographer of the phone advert he and three other Super Junior members were shooting that day. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably, even thinking about the upheaval their decision to remain in a public relationship would cause gave him goose bumps but he had made up his mind. This was it.

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Mr. Park twirled his pen impatiently in his hand before setting it down on the open newspaper on his desk. While he sat around waiting for leads on the SM executives, his fellow reporters were out making headlines with news about Hyoyeon and Siwon’s couple rings.

“Couple rings?” he snorted.

Weren’t they laying the act on a little too thick?

 His mind then went back to that night he’d caught them in flagrante delicto on the roof of their hotel in Jeju. They hadn’t been acting back then, not by a long shot. He’d been around celebrities long enough to know when they were faking and the kisses the two had exchanged had been anything but fake. They probably were really together.

How lucky could SM get? To have an actual couple ready at their beck and call to draw media attention just when they needed it? It made him wonder if karma was as fair as it was made out to be.

He shook his head and drew his attention back to the matter at hand. He had been waiting for nearly a week for a call from Sunwoo with some concrete proof about the SM execs and their suspected slush fund operation but no such call had come through.

He had talked big but the reality was that all he had to go on was his own speculation and even though Hot Scandal, much like any tabloid magazine, didn’t much care for actual proof when it came to publishing its stories, the editor had been wary of publishing a piece that involved high ranking politicians, a high profile but so far media blocked court case and the movers and shakers of the country’s biggest entertainment agency.

He sighed heavily.

He should have seen this coming though. Sunwoo much like all other company workers he knew was like a drone programmed to protect the hive that was SM, it had been futile to try to turn him against the company. He considered his options. He could try to convince his editor to run the story without proper corroboration from Sunwoo or he could try to get himself back in the headlines some other way. He could also pawn off his story to some other magazine, one that had an editor who was willing to take a chance running the story. And he did still have those pictures on his hard drive...

Now that he thought about it the possibilities were endless.

He smiled. He was definitely going to go with option D. All the above.

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ONE WEEK LATER

“Okay everyone, disconnect your external landlines and put your mobiles on silent.” Kim Taeguk yelled over the din of ringing telephones and loudly talking PR department workers.

In an instant there was the loud shuffle of receivers being set down and phone lines being disconnected. Some semblance of peace was at last restored to the office. Disconcerted faces looked up at him from desks strewn with papers and other stationery.

He called to one of his assistants, “What’s the status on Hot Scandal?”

His assistant shifted uncomfortably, “Well, we managed to get them to agree to print a retraction but they’re not pulling the magazine from the shelves. It also seems the report has been published in varying forms by three other tabloid magazines and one formal news outlet has put up their own copy on their online edition…”

Taeguk clenched his fists, then after taking a deep breath replied, “Then make sure those other publications print retractions,” he turned away from his assistant and faced the other workers, raising his voice so all would hear, “I want this gone, people, I want this ridiculous news story gone! Three hours, that’s what I’m giving you.”

Taeguk stormed into his office, heart racing a mile a minute. He’d underestimated that beady eyed excuse for a journalist and now he was paying the price. Somehow Mr. Park had managed to convince four media houses in addition to Hot Scandal to publish his story uncovering the ongoing court case involving some of SM entertainments board executives. To make it worse the published reports had then gone on to expose the PR department’s hand in setting up its top idols for scandals to help divert media attention from the court case along with two more somewhat more scandalous photos of Siwon and Hyoyeon from their little roof top rendezvous back in Jeju.

He slammed his fist angrily onto his desk, wincing at the pain that shot through his arm.

He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, the tenth time in as many minutes. He let it ring. He already knew who it was, upper management calling to ask him how he’d managed to let things get so out of hand, how he’d managed, despite his nearly unlimited resources, to let some two bit reporter publish the biggest story of the year, heck maybe even the decade.

If there was one thing he’d learned in all his years in PR, it was that bad news, scandalous news, damaging news always found its way out to the public one way or another and this was proof positive. The main problem was how he could engineer the reaction so that SM came out unscathed by public criticism. But that would be impossible. Which front should he start his PR campaign from? The older generation was reading the report from the slush fund angle while the younger generation was concerned with Hyoyeon and Siwon’s relationship, confused over the implication that their relationship was engineered and the contradictory intimacy of the newly published pictures. In the end everyone was in some way affected by the report.

Three hours? He’d given his team three hours to clean up a viral news report. He chuckled dryly. They were a good team but they weren’t that good. No one was that good. Taking control had become impossible as soon as the magazines had hit the shelves and the article had gone live on the web.

What was going to happen to SM? He wondered.

He leaned his head back in his chair and closed his eyes, his phone vibrated again. He pulled the phone out of his pocket and glanced down idly at the phone, nearly jumping out of his chair in shock.

The caller ID read “Lee Sooman(President)”.

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“It’s a mad house over here too,” Hyoyeon pressed her mobile phone closer to her ear.

“I’m sorry all this is happening,” Siwon said.

“You have nothing to apologise for…”

“If I hadn’t…” Siwon began.

“You mean if we hadn’t…” she corrected, “Besides, this is much bigger than the two of us isn’t it?”

“Pawns in a game right?” Siwon said, his tone disgusted.

“Oblivious pawns…” Hyoyeon repeated, using the wording that Mr. Park had used in his article.

For all his faults, Mr. Park had surprisingly painted she and Siwon in a positive light in his article.

“…I believe, and this may come as a welcome relief for many, that SM choosing the two lovebirds you have all come to know and love over these past months to cover up the matters I have described above was merely coincidental. The two are indeed, by my estimation at least, in a relationship, a real and visceral and judging by the pictures below, very very passionate relationship. I would like to think of them not as accomplices in a grand scheme to help protect the reputation of a company with corrupt leadership but more like oblivious pawns in a game that they could not help but be into…”

“Isn’t it just mad though? That all this was happening right under our noses but none of us knew?” Hyoyeon asked.

“Sungmin and Yesung did mention that they thought it was odd how big a deal was being made over the fan service at Super Show 4, Sungmin even joked that it might be a cover for something bigger but we all laughed it off…” he chuckled, “I guess I’ll start taking those two more seriously.”

She laughed too and glanced down at the ring on her finger, it was strange. Even in this time of uncertainty, with all their schedules cancelled, with reporters lined up outside their building, with everyone else worrying and apprehensive about the future she could still smile and laugh and joke.

And all because of this one person.

“You know it’s weird…” she said.

“What?” he asked.

“Well, we’re possibly facing the dissolution of the company at worst and a major fall in popularity at best…but somehow I just don’t feel that worried,” she replied.

“I feel the same way,” she could feel his smile through his voice, “ I woke up this morning to like a million missed calls from the members, from my parents-”

“Gulp!” Hyoyeon teased.

Siwon’s parents were conservative to say the least. She’d had a hard enough time answering her own mother’s phone call and an even harder time answering some pretty difficult and awkward questions about her relationship with Siwon. She couldn't imagine how his conversation with his parents had been.

“Yeah, gulp is right!” he laughed, “So there’s all these missed calls and I head over to the dorm and everyone is in a panic, Sunwoo and the other managers look like they’re about to cry, telling us our schedules are cancelled and the only thing I’m thinking is ‘I wonder what Hyo is doing right now?’”

Hyoyeon smiled, a warm utterly delicious feeling flowing through her, “…Me too.”

“Is it too soon to tell you I love you again?” his voice was low.

“It definitely is not,” she replied without missing a beat.

“I love you.”