“You’re team has been aware of the situation for a month now, you need to act quickly or we’re going to have to take care of the situation.”

“We understand sir. We’re doing our best to contain the situation.”

Ahn Yongsu, head of management loosened his tie and ran his free hand through his already messy hair. This was the fifth time upper management had called him asking about how he and his management team were trying to deal with the latest scandal involving one of SM entertainment’s most high ranked groups.

“Well your best just isn’t good enough,” the voice on the other side of the line barked.

Yongsu cringed, “We’ll get it done sir. We already have a list of candidates ready. Once we’ve informed Siwon of the situation…”

“Wait! Wait! Wait! What do you mean you haven’t informed him? We only barely managed to keep the media from going into a frenzy with this information and he still doesn’t know?”

“Well we keep a very tight leash on the flow in unnecessary informat-”

“He’s the one who instigates most of the impromptu fan service events and he doesn’t know the ruckus he caused with his latest stunt?”

“The fans love it, sir. It would be hard for him or any of them to gauge how people who don’t follow the current trends would feel about their stage events and behaviour…”

Kim Taeguk, the public relations director at SM entertainment snorted on the other end of the line and laughed humourlessly,“We have half a million dollars worth of investments with internationally ranked companies all linked to Siwon’s public image and you’re talking to me about how the fans love it?”

“I’m sorry sir I just meant-”

“You can’t let your idols run the show Mr. Ahn. Do you know how much money and effort we’ve put into rearing Siwon? We weren’t going to stop at an idol, he’s our biggest cash cow right now. People are starting to take him seriously as an actor and endorsement model.”

“I know sir.”

“If you know it, act like you do,” Mr. Kim sighed, “Hey, I’m getting just as much heat for this. I’m head of PR. I should have stepped in much earlier but I wanted to give you guys down at the managerial level  a chance to sort it out.”

“Thank you for that sir.”

Mr. Kim’s voice softened, “Siwon’s a good kid. Hard working but he’s also a little too eager to please the fans. The rumours going round about his…personal tastes-”

“I assure you it’s only fan service sir.”

“I know that, heck my team and I are the ones who coined the term back when we worked in Japan. In any case the rumours are putting two of our contracts at risk, the AmorePacific contract for one features a lovers concept we can't have that messed up with some baseless rumours and there’s also a new drama in line, the producers called in with some concerns today.”

“But we’re in the 21^st century now…people don’t care about-”

Mr. Kim cut in impatiently, “Yes, yes and everyone is all about gay pride. Listen, I couldn’t care less if he was gay. But if he was he just wouldn’t sell. That angle may work on the rare occasion in Western countries but this is Korea. Got it?”

“Yes sir.”

Mr. Kim hung up and Yongsu set his phone down on the table. He exhaled loudly. Upper management was always on his back about something or other. He knew where they were coming from. Scandals at least the ones that weren’t engineered by the company always meant reduced revenue and cancelled contracts. On the other hand, idols were people too though. They dated, got into trouble, hung out with the wrong crowd. They were all kids in the end.

The fans had loved the post performance water show but he had to admit Siwon and Eunhyuk had taken the fan service a little too far but there was no reason to make such a to do over it.

“We should have raised the age limit,” he sighed.

The censorship commissions were always making complaints about the idol performances but a major problem had arisen because of the low age restriction at the last Super Show performance, children ages nine and up had been allowed in to the show, obviously accompanied by their parents. Their parents had filed reports, reports that had then been taken to the various censorship commissions who had then leaked the information of the parent's dissatisfaction to the media.

Two of the biggest gossip magazines had recently launched new campaigns against the top stars in Korea in the last few years, taking on American style paparazzi tactics in sourcing their information and the public was eating it up. Super Junior was as big as it came and even though there was no real scandalous material on the group, after the complaints from the parents were launched, the gossip magazines had decided to just declare them “bad influences to the youth” a title which in Korea was just as bad as being a certified drug addict.

It was a mixture of the censorship boards wanting to finally make their complaints stick and the gossip magazines wanting to make money. Siwon was the perfect scapegoat, even though all of Super Junior participated in fan service in one form or another, he was often seen as the leader of the group when it came to giving the fans what they wanted and he was by far one of the most popular idols around at the moment.

Yongsu picked up his phone. After only two rings the call was answered.

“Hey Sunwoo, Mr. Kim called…yeah he’s not happy. You need to talk to Siwon about what we discussed.”

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well it seems Siwon is already taking care of things himself. I can’t be sure but…I think he’s interested in someone.”

“Someone? Who?”

“Would you believe… Hyoyeon?”

Yongsu’s eyes widened in surprise, “What?”

“Yeah I’m not sure of the details but it seems to me like there’s something going on.”

“Confirm it first. And if there isn’t. Make sure there is something going on, she'd be a better choice than some of the candidates we had lined up. I’ll send Mr. Park down there tomorrow.”

“ Hot Scandal’s Park Hansoo?”

“The very same.”

“But that guy’s trouble. He’s the one that broke the story on-”

“I know who he is Sunwoo. But he’s the ring leader of the reporters trying to break the story on SM idols being bad influences by promoting gay lifestyles,” Yongsu rolled his eyes at the ridiculous claim, “His proof is the fan service at the last show so let’s give him something else to talk about.”

“Are you sure about this? I mean it could end badly for Hyoyeon, the fans won’t be pleased,” Sunwoo replied.

“It’ll blow over. We’ll just do the same as we did with JH and SK, they’ll break up after a few months. We’ll give Hyoyeon some more coverage to recover her image. End of story.”

“…Okay. I’ll take care of it.”

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 Hyoyeon ran through her lines for the script for the umpteenth time since she’d arrived on the set. It was just two lines but the words seemed to jumble up every time she said them out loud, not to mention the fact that she was supposed to say them in as cute a manner as possible was making her even more nervous. Aegyo, at least the intentional kind, was not her forte.

“We’ll start in five minutes everyone,” the set co-ordinator announced throwing a look in her direction.

“I can do this. I’m Kim Hyoyeon. Dancing queen. Mood maker. And now actress!” she murmured to herself.

She felt an arm around her shoulder. A warm hand gave her shoulder an encouraging squeeze.

“You can do this,” Siwon kept his voice low so that only she could hear.

“I can do this,” she agreed with a decisive nod.

“Just follow my lead okay,” he said.

She looked up at Siwon to see him looking intently at her. She smiled tentatively and focused her attention back on the set. Somehow his words and the look in his eyes just then only made her even more anxious. Following Siwon’s lead usually meant going above and beyond what was expected and given that this was a romantic concept she really didn’t want to consider what that would involve.

It had been three days since they’d officially rekindled their friendship and it was going great. Siwon had jumped head fast back into friend mode and even though she was more reserved and cautious he hadn’t tried to push her into being best friends with him immediately. They’d gone on the Jeju day trip together, accompanied of course by Sunwoo and a few other staff members who had also taken an interest in taking the chance to tour the Island.

It was nice being friends again she had to admit. Well, there were some exceptions, like when he’d insisted on holding her hand as they had made their way to the bottom of Jeobang Falls during the day trip or when he’d let his arm rest casually over her shoulder as they’d watched the sunset at Yongduam Rock and when he’d held her close so he could take a selca of the two of them at the falls. But all in all, it had been a great day. They’d eaten all sorts of delicious food, they’d laughed and played and just had fun, just like the old days back in Beijing. Making new memories.

Hyoyeon paid special attention as her parts of the CF was explained by the director. All she had to do was walk a few steps, turn and smile and then shield her face from the sun, the next shot would be somewhat similar but after turning she’d speak her first lines, “I don’t need to hide from the sun because I have sun protection all day with AmorePacific Summer Fruit!” The third shot would feature her, running down the beach toward the shore to Siwon, them playing around in the water and a hug. The fourth and final shot would be a close up with Siwon holding her close and then her final lines “Don’t let the sun get in the way of your special days.”  The extra shots showing her applying the cream would be done back in Seoul in front of a green screen.

“Easy,” Siwon said.

“You don’t have any lines,” she replied.

He stuck his tongue out cheekily in reply.

The first two shots were surprisingly easy, she only had three retakes for her lines and the first retake was only because a cloud obstructed the sun midway through the shot and they'd had to redo it. She was doing well.

“Okay next is the ‘frolicking’ shot. Just have fun, splash around in the shallows, tease each other, laugh and smile. Look like a happy couple. Got it?” the director asked.

Hyoyeon and Siwon both nodded.

“Action!” the director yelled a few minutes later.

The ran hand in hand a little ways down toward the water before Siwon stopped and let go of her hand.

“Catch me if you can!” he said with a wink.

She reached forward for him but he backtracked out of reach. She reached forward again and this time caught the edge of his shirt.

“Now it’s my turn,” he said.

It took Hyoyeon just a second to realise what he meant and she, just like he did, backtracked down the beach further towards the water.

“Good work,” the director called. “I like the teasing.”

“This reminds me of China,” Siwon said playfully pulling her towards him when he finally caught her.

His hand held hers firmly, and when his fingers intertwined with hers, warm and reassuring it seemed like everyone on set disappeared. And it was just the two of them. A flash of images showing all the stuff they’d done together back then came to her. Trips and dates she thought she’d forgotten.

Hyoyeon smiled brightly and looked up at him, “Golden Beach?”

Siwon nodded all the while leading her in toward the water.

Hyoyeon laughed as she recalled the trip. Hangeng, Siwon and she had snuck out of their dorms, bought bus tickets to Qinhuangdao city and only called their manager to tell him where they were after they arrived. They’d spent the day at the beach, swimming, trying their hand at surfing, dancing, had lunch with an amazing and kind expat family being treated to their first taste of homemade Korean food in two months.

“Great work kids!” the director called again but his voice was a distant whisper. “More splashing,” his instructions filtered through only slightly, giving them some direction but not really directing their actions.

As they waded through the shallows, splashing water on each other, pulling each other close and then separating to splash around again it didn’t feel like they were acting. She was really having fun.

“Cut!” the directors voice boomed through the set.

Siwon splashed one last spray of water at her before they got out of the water.

“I still won that round,” she laughed.

“No way!” he shook his head in mock defiance, “I totally owned that round.”

They were whisked off to hair and makeup. Her hair was only slightly blow-dried and her natural look makeup touched up only a little before they went back on-set for the final shot. The close up.

Hyoyeon wasn’t sure if it was the feel good buzz running through her after they’d done the last shot so well and she’d been praised for her great acting by both the director and a number of staff members who had been watching from the side lines or if it was the rush of happy memories from when she and Siwon had been together but when the final scene came on and she delivered her last lines she didn’t stiffen up when he hugged her close to him. She didn’t pull away when she saw his head tilt to the side and she didn’t push him away when she felt his breath on her lips. For some reason, she couldn’t explain she closed her eyes and leaned closer to him. Their lips touched for only a moment, it was hardly a kiss but the feel of his soft warm lips brushing against hers made her heart flutter and stirred up a swirl of butterflies in her belly.

Sunwoo watched from the sidelines, beside him Park Hansoo of Hot Scandal was clicking away almost frantically on his camera probably thinking of the title to his next bit of juicy gossip. Scandals about idols being bad influences were one thing but scandals about celebrities in relationships well, that was an entirely different ball game.

 Hyoyeon and Siwon remained in a close embrace, their arms around each other, their eyes focused only on each other and if there had been a doubt in Sunwoo’s mind that there was something between the two of them, it was completely erased as he watched them. Either that or they were very very very good actors.