Luckily, I didn't have too many schedules today. The morning was spent in class, barely being able to pay attention to the teacher as my mind kept spiralling back to what happened earlier. It was as if everyone had known already, as if each whisper, each laugh, each stare was all directed my way.

Like the very event that caused the collapse of someone's world was nothing but a small detail to scroll past for everyone else.

But there was no way they could've known it was me, right? There weren't any more photos, right?

Rushing to the practice room afterwards, I quickly pulled out my phone and took a few deep breaths, trying to mentally prepare myself. Chen's words echoed in my mind, and I knew he was right, but it wasn't like I could just stay in the dark. There was no avoiding this. I had to know.

My phone was still left on the internet page that I had opened in the elevator. The website loaded agonizingly slowly, but once it did, I wasn't surprised to find the article of our scandal on the first page, front and center.

The loud sound of my heart pounding filled the tiny room when I opened the article. My phone screen was filled with a large photo of us hugging as the article loaded, but scrolling down revealed a few other pictures of us walking on the street, holding hands. What shocked me the most though, was that there was also a picture of us on that rollercoaster, from an entirely different date. How long has the owner of these pictures been following us? For how long has this person known? 

Luckily, you couldn't see my face too clearly in any of them, thanks to the snapback that I was wearing.

"On Friday, June 23rd, EXO's Chen was spotted on the streets of Myeongdong with a mysterious girl. It is speculated that they've been dating for a while now. They were first spotted a couple of weeks ago, exploring the streets of Seoul at night, then in other various locations. Despite their attempts at effective covers, they were still recognized. An industry insider apparently revealed that the mystery girl is currently a trainee in SM Entertainment, preparing for her debut with the upcoming girl group. SM has not yet commented on their relationship, however, they have stated that EXO's schedules and world tour will carry on as planned."

At the bottom of the page began the series of comments. I didn't quite know what to expect, but judging by the reactions of the CEO and Chen, I wouldn't be finding anything good there.

Promise me you won't do it, Rachel. 

I sighed.

I'm sorry, Chen.

I scrolled down.

"How can Chen even consider someone like her?" 
"Wow she's ugly keke"
"Nothing special."
"But she hasn't even gotten plastic surgery yet" 

I wanted to stop reading them but I couldn't. The comments were popping up uncontrollably, and this article was already the most-commented one. Things were being blown out of control.

"Bringing down EXO's reputation."
"Get in line, girl"
"Chen, what the hell were you thinking?"
"Bet he was too nice to reject her." 

One of the most popular comments particularly caught my attention. 

"I heard she was street-casted by the CEO himself, in America. You would think she possesses some outstanding visuals, but she's not even pretty. She's just a new trainee and isn't too special or talented, so I'm not sure why she was picked. She calls herself Chen's number one fan, but look, she's the one ruining his career. Here's what she looks like."

This girl's words felt like a slap in the face. It stung; all the comments did. How could people insult someone they didn't know at all so harshly? How could they have such bitter feelings towards someone they'll never get to know? How could they feel that way about something that has nothing to do with them?

It was difficult to read the next lines with my eyes clouding up and hands shaking, perhaps protecting me from the words on the screen.
What was really eating at me though, was how she could possibly know all this information about me—that I was a trainee, and even how I became one. She also had a picture of me that she attached to her comment. I recognized it immediately, but thankfully it only showed a blurry side profile, so my face wasn't too clear.

Though it was still much more visible than the photos the article used.

I felt the panic rising in me, a wave of nausea threatening to wash over as I struggled to stay calm. There were already several replies to this comment, and it was soon rising to the top of the page, as the top comment. 

"Wow, it's so obvious that they have no talent whenever they're picked based on their looks only."
"A foreigner? Bet she doesn't even know or respect the ways of our country." 
"He's dating a TRAINEE? What the hell was he thinking..." 
"Wow, she made the biggest mistake of her career and she hasn't even debuted yet keke" 
"Definitely not worth his time."
"Career just went down the drain and it hasn't even started yet keke"

I tapped on the username of the person who posted the comment about me being a trainee. How could she possibly know? The stillness in the room was suffocating with only the sound of the blood rushing through my ears, the feeling of my heart thumping violently in my chest. Her profile finally loaded, and judging from the amount of EXO pictures, I could tell she was definitely a huge fan.

Especially a huge fan of Chen. 

I scanned the profile quickly, looking for anything that would give me a clue to how she could possibly know me or know about me. Was she one of the girls in my class at school?

I went back to the top of her profile and found her display picture. I quickly gave it a tap and that expanded the icon, filling the screen and making it clearer. It looked like a picture of a slim wrist wearing a gold bracelet, one that had the words "EXO", and "We are one" engraved beside each other. For some reason, it looked strangely familiar, as if I'd seen it somewhere before. That couldn't be EXO's official bracelet though, or I'd have remembered Chen wearing one.

Then maybe it's—

See this? It's a bracelet that I got from my friend's sister's boyfriend's cousin, who's a friend of one of EXO's managers. It's the only one in the world and it's very special since all of the members have worn it at some point. 

Those words suddenly popped into my head. I remembered that the EXO fan girl who always sat behind me on the bus once showed me a bracelet like that, so no wonder it looked very familiar. She'd said it was her most prized possession or something. But she'd said it was the only one in the whole world. Clearly it's not, if this girl had it on her profile too—

Unless...

Hey y'all, sorry for not updating in a while >.< 
Disclaimer: These are just some of my thoughts on how a real dating scandal would turn out, and how netizens might comment. Of course not everyone's going to react like this (I'm not trying to imply they would!) but this is just for the purposes of this fic~