Five seconds.

All it took for him to walk away was five seconds.

Everything I had worked for, everything I had built came crashing down in five seconds.

I couldn’t even blink.

I stared blankly into space with my mind drifting off in the unknown. 

I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t say anything back. I was dumbfounded to the point of paralysis.

Not even Momo could make a peep.

Park Jin Young come into the room. This time it wasn’t in his usual aura that was seen on television. He didn’t look like the guy that laughed along the jokes of his plastic pants from the past.

He was calm. I had expected someone to start an outburst of anger in the hallway.

That would’ve been a lot less scary. His relaxed demeanor was when people should be more scared of.

“The other members will be arriving in a few hours,” he said. “They would be on their way to the airport by now.”

The both of us didn’t say anything. We made our way back to where we had sat with out heads down.

“Take a seat both of you.”

We waited for his order. That was when we actually sat down.

“I can’t say I am too delighted with this ongoing scandal,” he said as he took his sunglasses off.

I suddenly broke into a surge of apologies. “I’m sorry, PD-nim. I’m really, really sorry.”

Momo said the same.

He crossed his legs. He didn’t say that he accepted our apology or rejected our apology.

“Do you know how everyone found out?”

We shook our heads. Neither of us had known. All we had were speculations.

He grabbed his phone from the inside pocket of his blazer and flicked through the screen.

He gave it to us and we were startled from what we saw.

“Someone had spotted two women in Paris that had a striking resemblance to Twice’s Momo and Mina. These two women were caught displaying their affection for each other on the sidewalk at Champs Élysées. The photo had been circulating around the web for a while until it was recently confirmed by another person. This person had another photo of the two women, clearer this time. And it proved the previous picture to really be you because you both wore the same thing.”

Paris.

I was the one who initiated that kiss.

I was the one who felt too comfortable with the liberal atmosphere in the European city.

I was the one too carefree.

It was all my fault. It was really my fault.

Tears started running down my face. Momo ran her hand up and down my back.

“It’s not that I disapprove of this relationship,” PD-nim said. “I am truly happy that you both have found each other. But…”

But what? I thought. His opinion didn’t matter because it was the public’s opinion that did?

“…You need to understand that we are in the business of entertaining audiences. And when the audience isn’t pleased with something, we will need to do something to change it.”

“PD-nim, what are you trying to say?” Momo asked.

“What I’m trying to say that the Korean public isn’t happy about your relationship.”

“What?” I yelled, weeping. “But we aren’t in the 1920s anymore! How could they be so close-minded about this? Don’t they want us to be happy?”

“That’s the thing, Mina,” he said. “The majority isn’t open with the idea of two women dating. Two women, two men—they aren’t buying it. We should keep in mind that we live in a conservative so