Park Ha’s POV

            “My next visit might be after two days..” Yoochun says as I walk him to the door.

I nod.

            “I decided to sign up for a new drama.”

‘Rooftop Prince’ ended more than a month ago.

            “Chincha? Rom-com again?”

            “No...Mellow drama...”

            “Ah...Who’s the leading lady?”

Yoochun smiles teasingly.

            “A very beautiful woman...”

I pout.

            “Yoon Eun Hye sunbaenim.”

            “Is that true? Wow....”

            “I’ll attend Jaejoong hyung’s birthday party tomorrow night...I wish I could bring you there...”

I know how risky that will be. His sasaengs might see us and I don’t want that to happen.

            “I still wish to live...just greet Jaejoong sshi for me..” I say.

            “Okay. Goodnight.” He gives me a peck on the cheek before he steps away.

I wave at him. A person appears from the shadows. My smile fades.

            “Myung Hee….”

            “Park Ha….You are dating Park Yoochun?”

I secretly gasp some air.

_____________________________________________________________________

Jaejoong’s POV

            “Are you out of your mind?! Athena....Why on earth did you?!”  Our manager reacts when I confirm his guess. He immediately got it when he saw me get in a car with Athena on the set last night.

            “Do I still need to have a reason to date whom I like?”

            “It’s not that you are on a dating ban...I mean, look at Yoochun and Junsu...they are dating non-showbiz girls and it is much better....but Athena the actress, do you know what did you get yourself into? It’s TROUBLE...”

            “We’re both singles so I’m not seeing anything wrong with that.”

            “Don’t you even think about your career? Once people find out about this....especially your fans...”

            “I know what I’m doing. Don’t worry..”

He sighs. I know that he’s just concern about me. JYJ’s new management is fair enough and they don’t meddle with their artist’s personal lives so I don’t have any problem with that. It’s just that he’s worried of what might happen once this got out.

            “Hyungnim....let’s just enjoy the party...Today is Jaejoong hyung’s birthday.” Junsu says to him.

            “Don’t mind about things that isn’t happening yet...let’s relax.” Yoochun adds.

Our manager decided to let it go.

            “Okay...okay...” he says.

Yoochun and Junsu give me a nod.

I take a deep breath and go back inside to entertain my guests. Athena and I are happy now so I don’t want to even think of those kinds of things.

_____________________________________________________________________

No Min Woo’s POV

I’m watching Athena accepting an award. In her winner’s speech, she thanked her late mother and dedicated the award to her. Her eyes sparkle with tears she’s controlling.

            “Min Woo…” my manager calls.

            “Hm…”

            “Min Woo, you’ve got to read this.”

            “What?” I ask without any interest. My eyes didn’t leave the TV screen

            “Read this.” He puts the tabloid in my lap.

            “Can’t you see I’m watching?”

            “It’s about Athena.” He says.

I blink and turn to the tabloid. I read the article he points at.

Top star ‘A’ is dating a member ‘J’ of a popular idol group for some time now according to an insider. The pair did a great job of keeping their relationship underwraps. ‘A’ was recently on a scandal with an actor too while ‘J’ is considered to have one of the most beautiful voices in the pop world.  He’s a flower boy with a bright future in acting. The two met by working together last year leading to the said relationship. The reason for the two to be mum about it is still unknown. ‘A’ is a true whistle blower when it comes to her hook ups. Does this mean she’s serious this time or ‘J’ is too afraid to make it public because of his idol status?

I grit my teeth and shove it back to him. The blind item obviously reveals the two involved parties without dropping their names. During the time that we were filming the movie, I found out that Kim Jaejoong is courting Athena but it never gives any hints of them being on an actual relationship. There was no indication that Athena accepted him officially. Also, she didn’t thank him nor mention that man’s name at all in her speech a few moments ago. 

I feel annoyed even though I don’t know if this blind item is saying the truth. I’m getting uneasy and my mood is off thus, I have no way of confirming this news yet. I have to wait until the movie promotion date comes in order to see Athena.

_____________________________________________________________________

Jaejoong’s POV

Junsu, Yoochun, and I are quietly sitting in the office. A copy of a tabloid is lying on the table in front of us.

            “We will still look into this matter…that’s all we can say for now..Bye.” our manager is busy answering calls from the press. We just found out that a blind item appears in a tabloid today and the clues given immediately points at us. Everyone immediately guesses that ‘J’ on that article is either me or Yoochun.

Our manager stares at me and sigh as he answers another phone call.

            “Yes, I’m JYJ’s manager. We can’t give any answer yet. We have to check Yoochun and Jaejoong first for that. Yes….okay, bye.”

He turns off his phone after that. He also unplugged the office phone to avoid another call.

He turns to us.

            “The CEO says that we should just be quiet regarding the matter for now. The public hasn’t been clear to it yet so there’s still a chance that they could come up with other personalities to match these clues with.” He says.

            “How about Athena? Is there any news in her part?” I ask. I tried calling her but couldn’t reach her. She’s still overseas because of the Asian Film Awards so I don’t know if she already knows this.

            “Serendipity says ‘no comment’.”

I close my eyes for a moment.

            “This is what I’m saying…..you can’t get involved with Athena without getting into trouble.”

Manager hyung voices out. After that I heard the door opens. I open my eyes and found out that he left the room.

            “Yoochun, I’m sorry for getting you into this.” I say.

            “Don’t mind it hyung. I’m okay with it, I just don’t know if I’m helping or what.” He replies.

            “What do you plan on doing now hyung?” Junsu asks.

            “Athena and I should talk about this first…”

Actually, Athena and I never talked about this before. It’s not we plan to keep it a secret from all but we are just plain happy being together without thinking this aspect. I’m not afraid to admit that Athena is indeed my girlfriend because I love her but I’m thinking about her side. She’d been under a lot of awful things recently and just starting to smile and be happy again. I don’t want her to get hurt.

_____________________________________________________________________

Park Ha’s POV

I pack up my bag and go out of the locker room.

            “Park Ha noona…”

            “Oh, Myungsoo ah…”

            “Let’s go together.”

            “Why, aren’t you going with Baekhyun and Lee Joon?”

            “I’ll meet a friend. He lives around your neighbourhood.”

            “Ah…”

            “Wait for me, I’ll just change clothes.”

            “Alright. I’ll wait for you at the counter near the door.”

He nods and goes to the locker room. I walk towards the counter. The other restaurant crews are starting to go home too. Two waitresses stand next to me as they also wait for somebody.

            “Who do you think Athena is dating, Yoochun or Jaejoong?” I hear one of them says.

          “I’m dying of curiosity too! I couldn’t believe at first that it’s one of JYJ until I read the actual article yesterday.”

I swallow hard. My hands start shaking and I try to stop it by making fists. An article came out yesterday and Yoochun is one of the main guess for that though I know that it’s Kim Jaejoong. Yoochun called me right away and told me that we couldn’t see each other for the time being because of this.

            “Let’s see if there’s any update on that.” The woman starts browsing the net from her phone.

            “Omo!” she gasps.

            “What? What? Why?!” the other one says so she looks at it.

            “Oh My God! That’s really Kim Jaejoong and Athena right?”

            “So the dating part is real and it’s with Kim Jaejoong?”

My heart beats rises. It seems like some evidence picture of Jaejoong and Athena are on the net.

            “Park Ha noona, let’s go.”

I’m not moving from my spot.

            “Park Ha noona, are you okay?” Myungsoo asks.

            “Uh….yes…let’s go.”

_____________________________________________________________________

Athena’s POV

I step my foot in Seoul airport. Blinding camera flashes is the first thing that greets me. The security and our staffs immediately lead the way. I look down and walk despite the media people making it hard for us to go easily.

            “Miss Athena, congratulations on winning an award!”

I look up for a moment.

            “Thank you.” I answer and turn my eyes on the floor again.

            “Athena sshi, what can you say about the recent scandal you got in?”

            “Can you give a statement about your recent dating status?”

            “Athena sshi, is it true that you and Kim Jaejoong are dating?”

What? Did they find out?

            “Please let us through…” Ms. Go says to them.

They continue to follows us all the way to the van.

            “Athena sshi..”

            “Athena sshi…”

            “Athena…Athena…”

It’s so noisy that I couldn’t understand what they are saying anymore. Can’t I get at least a day rest? I just got back here in Korea but the media just don’t give me a break. What’s happening this time?

I was able to enter the van and we’re now on the move.

            “What’s happening?” I ask Ms. Go.

            “I got a call from the agency last night. A blind item came out yesterday about you and a JYJ member dating secretly.” She answers.

            “And you didn’t mention anything to me?”

            “You were receiving an award when I got that call. I don’t want you to think about the scandal so I didn’t tell you.”

I chose not to say anything and look outside the window instead.

            “And one more thing…”

I look back at her.

            “These photos spread the net early this day.”

I gaze at her tablet. Two pictures are there. The first one is Jaejoong and I sitting together. I remember this from a fan’s wedding that we had attended. The other one shows Jaejoong’s holding me by the arm while opening his car’s door. It was taken from the parking lot of the same wedding event.

I sigh and decide to turn on my phone. I forgot to charge it so the battery is running low. Some messages come in. Jaejoong sent me messages.

Athena, call me once you read this.

I called but your phone is off. Let’s talk…

I type and send a message.

            Just got back to Seoul. I heard about the news from the media earlier in the airport.

            My phone is running out of battery so I can’t call you back now.

            I have a movie press conference to attend so I’ll talk to you after that.

His reply comes right away.

I’m glad you’re finally back.

Congratulations for winning! I’m so proud of you.  :)

I type my answer.

            Thank you. I’ll call you as soon as it ends. We’ll talk.

He sends back again.

Take your mind off the news for now and attend the presscon with a smile.

I’ll wait for your call after that.

‘Love you. ;)

_____________________________________________________________________

[Next Chapter Preview]

Jaejoong’s POV

I look at the TV screen.

            “What can you say about the blind item that came out of M tabloid yesterday?”

            “I don’t know…I can’t give you an answer for that since I haven’t read the article you were talking about.” She says.

Another one asks.

            “Ms. Athena, everybody in here wants to know the truth behind the spreading dating rumor between you and JYJ’s Kim Jaejoong. Is this true?”

I hold my breath and focus at Athena’s face.

            “No. There’s no truth in that.” She calmly answers.

My mind goes blank with what I heard.