chapter 2

Sunggyu and Eunji both remained quiet as they sat in the car on the way back their respective dorms. A Pink’s CEO needed to stay at the Woollim office to work out some small details after the two companies had made the official announcement, and had asked Infinite’s manager to take her home, since they were both heading to the same place, anyway. The silence was deafening, but with the manager driving up front, neither of the idols felt comfortable saying anything. Sunggyu tinkered with his phone for a bit, unsure if he should send one of their messages, before he decided that the quiet inside the car was too awkward.

s: are you going to tell your members the truth?

Eunji looked up suddenly after her notification tone rang. He raised his chin in her direction before she reached for the lit screen, bright in contrast to the darkness in the car; he watched as her eyes squinted at the screen – she hadn’t had time to put in her contacts – before she quickly typed out a reply.

e: can’t risk the company being shot down for media play

This was true. The last thing they needed in a situation like this for the whole thing to be revealed as a lie. Still, something couldn’t sit quite right in the back of his mind. He didn’t want to lie to the other members, but if it was for the sake of the group, then so be it.

s: what about howon?

Her eyes immediately hardened and she turned to look out the window and watch the buildings going by, as the night sky became lighter and lighter. The sun had already begun to rise when she finally replied.

e: what about him?

He entered the apartment as quietly as possible, careful to muffle the sound of the door closing behind him. It was barely dawn and the members were all sleeping in, considering that they didn’t have schedules that morning. They needed all the rest they could get.

Sunggyu rounded the corner to head to the kitchen to find Howon standing there, hands shoved into his pockets and face drawn. A sense of deja vu washed over him when he saw the hollowness in ’s eyes. “Is it true?”

He couldn’t bring himself to lie, not when Howon was in this state, but it seemed that she and him had yet to recover from their fallout, and she wasn’t keen on Howon knowing the truth. Of course he would respect her decision. It was her, after all. “The companies are confirming it.”

Both of them knew that wasn’t what Howon had asked, but it was what mattered in the grand scheme of things. Howon bowed his head and stared intensely at the hardwood floors with something like regret. “Take care of her, hyung.”

It was hard to think of Jung Eunji as someone that needed to be taken care of, especially when she had already erected all those walls to protect herself, but Sunggyu murmured in agreement anyway.

The A Pink van was eerily silent as the girls headed on their way to record for that week’s Show Champion. Eunji had arrived home to find Chorong open the door with the most furious expression she’d had in years. She wasn’t surprised, of course – her scandal was putting A Pink’s reputation and popularity in jeopardy. Their four years of hard work was going to be compromised by her thoughtless actions. Online, people were probably already commenting how A Pink was a group of hypocritical who acted innocent but secretly spent their time seducing male idols backstage. When the other girls had woken up and received the news from their manager, their treatment towards her had been the same – cold, angry. They knew how much was at stake. It wasn’t like she didn’t. But she’d done something seriously wrong, and it was going to affect all of them.

Quietly, they filed out of the car one by one, and she got out last, accompanied by the manager. She was just focused on getting inside and pulling herself together long enough to hit the high notes during their recording. What she hadn’t expected, was this.

“! Liar!”

“Don’t touch our oppa!”

“You don’t deserve him!”

At least a dozen Infinite fangirls were waiting for her outside the building, shouting rude comments as the manager tried to shield her from view. Infinite wasn’t even promoting anymore – of course the fangirls were there to just make her life a living hell. It was the last thing she needed, but it wasn’t surprising when she considered it.

“Ignore them,” the manager muttered as he pushed her along.

But even then, she couldn’t ignore the fact that the number of Pink Panda fans at the recording was less than usual, that the cheers when she sang were noticeably quieter than before. Backstage, some idols congratulated her while others whispered not-so-softly when they thought she was out of earshot. Even the stylists and coordis treaded quietly around her. It was much harder for her to paste her perfected smile on her face, and watching the practice rehearsal it had been obvious she was grimacing trying to get her way through the song.

And all this, for a relationship that didn’t even exist.

“Today’s special guests are the one and only A Pink!”

It was another one of many radio shows that the group was appearing on for their promotions. After the general greetings, Eunji mostly stayed quiet, although she was usually the loudest one of the bunch when it