You stared at Jinyoung’s name on your phone, but you were unable to answer or ignore.

What would you say? What could you say? A picture was worth a thousand words. Who took those damn pictures?! Why were you not aware?!

There were a gazillion things running through your mind at that moment, so much that your mind went blank. In the same exact way a computer catches a virus and one window pops up after another and then another and another and it keeps going on and on and on to the point it can’t take it anymore and freezes and you get the blue screen of death.

That was your mind right now, a blue screen of death that couldn’t even move its thumb.

53 Missed calls.

You secretly let out a sigh of relief.

But your heart jumped again when you saw the phone lit up.

Almighty Seunghyun Calling...

You swiped the screen to answer, but before you could say anything, his bass voice came through the receiver.

“Come down, I’m outside your dad’s where I dropped you off. I need you to hurry before the reporters comes. They’re already at your aunt’s.”

--

As soon as you closed the door into Seunghyun’s Maserati GranCabrio, your body flew back as his tires screeched as he raced away just as cars and vans of reporters pulled into the entrance of the apartment. They saw his car leave and reversed out and began to chase your car.

“Seatbelt!” Seunghyun shouted as he began to weave through the traffic, passing up and going in between cars with the reporters following close behind.

Your hands trembled as you clicked in the buckle; not sure if it was from his driving or if within the last 15 minutes your whole life had been shooken up.

Your left hand clutched onto your seat as your right hand held onto the handle for dear life.

You saw the traffic light up ahead turned yellow as the backlight of cars in front of yours flashed red broke to stop, but Seunghyun didn’t seem to be slow down at all.

“S-S-Seunghyun….” You muttered, leaning back into the chair, bracing yourself as the car in front of you quickly became much closer.

“SEUNGHYUN BREA--!!” You couldn’t finish your sentence before your whole body was whipped to the right then full forced to the left as Seunghyun took the sharpest right.

With your eyes still closed, you had to reassure yourself that there was no loud crash, no sharp pain, no one screaming or crying.

The only thing you heard was the smooth sound of the engine and the steady speed of the car.

“I know how much you want to hold my hand… but you’re hurting me.” You felt Seunghyung’s tensed hands within yours.

“I can’t really shift like this.” You felt your hands jerk as he shifted gears.

You finally peeled your eyes open and looked down at your hand strangling his.

You could feel his skin under your nails.

You quickly let go.

“We're good. We lost them.”

You turned around to search and make sure there was no one following you guys with cameras in their hands.

You sighed in relief.

Then you started to punch the crap out of Seunghyun.

“Ow ow ow!”

“You stupid!!! Do you know how dangerous that was?! How close we were to dying!!”

“Ow ow ow ow!”

“We could've died!!! Diedddd!!! My young life flashed before my eyes!!!”

You kept beating him.

“Ya! Driving!” He purposely swerved the car left and right.

You stopped but kept your fist raised in the air.

“Pfft. Young…” TOP snickered.

You swung it down one last time at his arm and he pretended to swerve again.

“And beautiful.” You flicked your hair

--

You guys pulled into a dark secluded hillside area overlooking the city lights.

TOP turned off the engine and tilted his head back on the headrest with his eyes closed.

You two sat in silence for a moment.

Without opening his eyes, he spoke lowly, “Nora… I have a huge favor to ask of you.”

Not lifting his head, he turned slightly to face you and the white moonlight highlighted his high cheekbones and chiseled jawline.

You remained quiet.

“I need you to pretend like you're my girlfriend.”

What.

“Uh. What.”

“The guy from the club is suing. He's claiming all sorts of injuries. The police have the camera footage.”

“Then they could see that you barely touched him when you saved me from his grimey !!” You huffed.

He sat up and turned his whole body to you, “If we say you're not my girlfriend, then the court will look at it as battery. They would say I could've just stopped him in other ways, if we were just friends. The public will think of me as a violent angry person. My image, my career, everything that I worked so hard for, will take a blow. BUT IF I was saving my girlfriend from a ert, they'll look upon it in a brighter light. Just a boyfriend protecting his girlfriend. It's all on camera… But it could go one way or another.”

Just as if Jinyoung was listening, your phone lit up.

And once again, you couldn't pick up.

TOP stared at your phone.

His fingers dugged into his knee.

“It'll only be for a couple of months, then we could ‘break up.’ You and your boyfriend could still see each other...” Simply saying the word, your boyfriend left a bitter aftertaste on his tongue.

“Just… just keep a low profile. I know, I know. It’s a lot to ask but-”

“I'll do it.”

He stared at you wide eyed in disbelief because he thought you’d need more convincing or want more time to think it over.

“It’s fine. We’re in this mess because you helped me. How could I not help?” You gave him a reassuring smile.

“...And technically he's not my boyfriend…”

The corner of his lips curled up.

“But I'll still have to talk to him. Do you mind dropping me off there on the way home?”

Seunghyun’s smile dropped as soon as it appeared.

--

“Are you serious right now? You’re joking right? You can’t pretend that she’s your girlfriend! CEO-nim won’t allow it. He’s already pissed because we’ve lost millions of dollars in the last few hours because of this scandal.”

“Daesung, if don’t do this, the public will tear her into pieces. You know that. You know how malicious they are. They like to bring the weak ones down, because misery loves in company. They want to believe that she’s some and they’ll make her out to be one. She’ll be abused verbally and probably physically. She’s innocent in all this. I can’t just stand around and do nothing, especially if I am the reason why she’s going to get hurt. If I say that she’s my girlfriend, at least I could protect her for the time being.”

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter