Scandalous

“You can hear rumors. But you can't know them.” 

- Jay Ashner
 

Seungyeon didn’t want to listen to the hurtful truth. She wasn’t confident she could take it. Frankly put, she was barely holding herself together right now. It was like her whole world was spinning, like a carousel ride she never agreed upon taking and she just wanted to get off now, hoping she would feel solid ground under her feet again.

Her heart was racing like crazy, violently hammering against her chest. It was as if she could hear her own blood rushing through her veins. She felt lightheaded yet her body was as heavy as lead to her.

But that wasn’t the worst. A sharp pain was suddenly piercing through her curved stomach, causing her to hold her breath. She had to close her eyes, trying not to groan out loudly in pain. Her hands automatically flew to her belly as if they could help protect what was dearest to her.

This could not be happening. It just wasn’t real.

As weird as it sounded, but once she felt the pain, she managed to completely forget about what even brought her into her current position. Everything that remained on her mind was fear for her unborn child. Her mother instinct eventually kicked in. It was too strong to even let her think about anything else but the welfare of her baby.

Later on Seungyeon couldn’t even remember how she ended up laying on the living room couch again with Jonghyun cowering beside her, looking like he wanted to die of guilt.

For some reason Yonghwa and Jungshin Oppa and even her youngest sister were there with her when she woke up. It was only then when it dawned to her that Jonghyun must have gone to let them in earlier, before she had the chance to take a look at the terrible headlines which were covering the news portals now.

Jungyeon was sobbing and Jungshin was quietly talking to her as if he wanted to calm her but it didn’t look like he was succeeding at all. That’s when a sudden fear creeped up her weakened body. She remembered the terrible pain from before again and her hand anxiously d for her stomach. She felt too scared to even breathe.

“The baby is save.” Jonghyun told her, gently laying his hand onto hers as if he wanted to reassure her that everything was going to be alright.

It were only four little words but they meant the world to her. She sighed in tremendous relief.

Then she eventually recalled who brought her into her current state in first place and she pulled her hand back from her husband. She couldn’t look at him just yet. Instead she let her gaze wander through the living room.

Minhuyk was thanking the agency doctor, probably for coming to their house so quickly to check on her. Yonghwa was on the phone, possibly with Shinhye or the company. He looked worried but also a little relieved. Jungyeon was still crying heartbreakingly when their eyes met.

“Unni” She muttered.

Seungyeon gave her a sign to come closer and her youngest sister plopped down right next to her.

“Are you still in pain?” She asked, mustering her from head to toe.

Seungyeon slowly shook her head to let her know she was doing alright now.

Jungyeon as well as Jonghyun looked a little eased but still very upset.

“Unni, you have to listen to brother-in-law before judging. It’s not like the articles make him look like. You have to let him explain first. Don’t get upset. Please think of the baby.” Jungyeon begged her sister to not think or act rashly.

Seungyeon closed her eyes and sighed. She knew that what her sister said was only logical. But why was it so hard to behave considerate?

It made sense to give her husband the benefit of the doubt and she would want that for herself too if they ever were in switched positions. However, the pictures were still tormenting her mind. The headlines kept replaying in her head as if a news anchor was reading them to her all over again. They were painful and came as an extremely unexpected shock to her.  This whole scandal had hit her while she had no chance to protect or even prepare herself beforehand and she wasn’t sure if she could take any more disappointment tonight.

Seungyeon felt like a coward. Still, she gathered all of her remaining strength to sit up on the sofa. When she finally looked at Jonghyun she noticed how pale his face was. He looked like he was going to be sick and it seemed as if he was afraid to even meet her eyes.

“I’m listening.” She said with thin voice. It was hard to hold back her tears. Her husband nodded silently, slowly looking up to her. His eyes were reddened and heavy with worry. She realised that watching her faint like this must have left him shaken. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to feel sorry for him. She was still too angry for that.

“The first thing you have to know is that I am definitely not having an affair. I will tell you the rest slowly. But the most important thing is that you know that I have and always will be a loyal husband to you.” He told her and Seungyeon couldn’t detect any lies in his body language, which helped her ease a little. “I know the articles paint a different picture. But what really happened was completely taken out of context there.”

Jonghyun took a deep breath. “It’s true that I went to the hotel lobby. I met with a drama director who’s thinking of casting me for a movie that will be filmed at the start of next year. He is from Japan and was staying in the hotel at that time so it was just convenient to talk about it there.” He explained and Seungyeon even remembered him telling her about this earlier last week. However, it still didn’t clarify why he headed out of the hotel with a woman.

“I wonder how one can begin a story with meeting a movie director and end it with another woman in his car.” She said quietly.

“Yeobo” He said and she winced at the word.

“Please, hold back your judgement until I finish.” Jonghyun pleaded with her. He sounded somewhat exhausted and under different circumstances she would have really felt sorry for him by now. He gave Jungyeon a quick side glance, who slightly nodded to make him continue. Her sister looked terrible as well, Seungyeon though. It made her wonder what her own appearance was like at the moment. Probably even worse than theirs...

“The director and I had a really good talk and we came to the conclusion that we didn’t need to meet up again because I wanted to star in his film.” Jonghyun began to speak again. “Only