Lee Residence
9.00 p.m.

"… We're in deep …" Junho said in disbelief, staring blankly into his computer. Chansung who was sitting behind him on the bed sighed in frustration. They finally realized that Junho had lost his phone at the end of the school, and apparently to a bad hand. When they logged in into their blog later that night, the blog, or more like the reactions already went rampage. The post with the most views and reactions was the one with the video of Minsun and Wooyoung bickering. Following that post were more pictures of Minsun and Joongki at Gongmun High together, obviously tipped by someone from the same school. Chansung and Junho managed to delete all the post which might harm Minsun, but her video and pictures  already went viral. It was uploaded on video streaming sites and featured on similar high school gossip blogs which usually feature famous teenagers like Joongki. Even the message board of their school were filled with discussions regarding Minsun. The whole Minsun shenanigan was such a big deal considering Taecyeon's large fanbase, and they heard that it started to get popular within Minsun's school as well.

All their effort in hiding Taecyeon and Minsun's  breakup had come to waste now. Minsun would gain so much antis, Taecyeon would too, and the girls will start bothering them both now. Song Joongki seemed like he had many fan girls as well just by looking at the hot reactions on the pictures of Minsun and him together, which put Minsun under a dire situation.

"Ugh! We shouldn't have kept those videos!" Junho grabbed his hair.

"Junho, look!" Chansung left the bed and ran to the computer when they saw a new post on their school message board. It was a picture of her and Joongki, in a dangerously close approximity. The picture was a link shared from Gongmun High's message board.

"Who is he really?" Junho asked, more likely to himself.





Miryung Public Library
9.00 a.m.

The low scorer had gathered in the morning, determined to have a fulfilling weekend by spending it with studying. Junsu and Munhwa were there as well, ready to assist Wooyoung, Chansung and Junho. The senior smiled as he made his way towards the occupied desk, watching the basketball players already into their books even before he and Munhwa arrived.

"Studying hard, boys?" Junsu smiled and took a seat. Wooyoung carefully eyed Munhwa who was tailing behind Junsu with a smile on her face, but she never looked his way once, even when she took a seat that was directly across him. The rest were chatting lightly while Wooyoung pretended to be focusing in his studying, but he couldn't help feeling guiltier by the day since Munhwa got mad at him for the way he treated Minsun a few days ago.

"Hey, wanna have some candy?" Wooyoung whispered, with a couple of wrapped candies in his fist, ready to hand them to Munhwa as a peace offering. However, the girl pretended that he wasn't there at all and continued with whatever she was doing. Wooyoung cleared his throat as he timidly backed off, hanging his head in shame. Not long after, he looked up again when he heard Chansung and Junho mumbled curses under their breath at somebody's appearance. Turn out, it was Minsun. He briefly looked at the gossipy duo in wonder before he diverted his attention back at Minsun. She headed towards their desk with a wide smile on her face, something that Wooyoung had even forgotten the last time she looked like that. He looked down in embarrassment as Minsun walked closer. The three seats across him were already taken, and there was only the middle seat left in his row.  

"Hi, guys!" Minsun greeted cheerfully. It was rare for her to be that cheerful.

"Hey, Minsun! What are you doing here?" Chansung asked, faking pleasure to see her there when he was actually breaking into cold sweat. They haven't told anyone about Junho losing their phone and their blog going array, and they felt most guilty to Minsun. This morning they just checked a new post about her and Joongki and it was already a hit. Minsun just smiled innocently, oblivious of the situation she was in.

"Well, since you guys were so determined to study today, I thought might as well have a great tutor with us today," Junsu explained, and they looked at Wooyoung. Wooyoung quickly averted his eyes and focused on his books again. Junsu told Minsun to take her seat, because the only seat left was between Wooyoung and Chansung, and it could be awkward for Minsun with what had happened between Wooyoung and her last time. Junho almost got up to give up his seat to Minsun, knowing that it might be awkward to be seated with Wooyoung, but Minsun quickly stopped him and took the middle seat.

"I need to go to the toilet!" Chansung suddenly said and abruptly left the group. He pulled on Junho's arm on the way, dragging him along. The rest looked at them weird, especially Junsu who was taken aback at Chansung's sudden behavior.

"W-wha… Don't you think they look weird?" Junsu asked Munhwa who was sitting beside him. Munhwa shrugged.

"Those two were always up to something together," she casually said.

"Really? Together?" Junsu asked again, his mind began to wander off track but he quickly shook it off.

On the other hand, Wooyoung brushed off Chansung and Junho's weird moment just now and took the chance to secretly looked at Minsun, when everyone else was not paying attention. He secretly offered his fist towards Minsun under the table, which caused her to look at him in wonder. Wooyoung pretended like he was into his studying when he suddenly cleared his throat.

"Do you want some candies?" He asked in a whisper, slowly opening his fist, revealing the strawberry flavored candies in his palm as a peace offering. Minsun slightly smiled. Munhwa noticed their little interaction, and began to watch them quietly out of curiosity.

"Don't you have chocolate instead? I like chocolate better than candies." Minsun replied in her usual straight, boring, monotone voice.

"Tsk, why are you so difficult?" Wooyoung complained, side-eyeing her in annoyance. He kept the strawberry candies back in his pocket, and then pulled out purple wrapped chocolate pieces from the other pocket. He shoved it towards her, and she received them happily.

"Thank you," Minsun smiled, wide and sincere at him. He blushed a little as he looked down timidly, pretending like he was still studying to mutter,

"I'm sorry,"

"It's okay," Minsun muttered back.

Munhwa smiled at their childish, yet innocent make-up session. All's well end's well she guessed.





"I can't do this. I can't face her knowing that back there someone else is sabotaging her life because of us." Chansung said in frustration. He and Junho both stood in a rather quiet corner of the library, in between rows of book shelves, whispering their little discussion.

"I know, but what do we do? Do you want me to talk to her about this?"

Chansung sighed. "Should we? Or should we wait until we have at least a way to make things quiet down or something?"

". I really should find the one who mess with Gossip Boy! How dare he," Junho paused, "or she, did that to our precious gossip blog!"

"Gossip Boy, huh?"

Junho and Chansung abruptly turned around to see a guy standing at the other end of the row, smiling smugly at them. They weren't familiar with each other, but Chansung and Junho recognized his face.

"So you guys are the one who posted up that picture of me and Minsun, huh?"

The two bloggers perked up at his mention of the picture, and immediately confirmed his identity.

Song Joongki, the guy from Minsun's school.

"It wasn't us! It was-"

"It's okay." He calmly cut them off with a smirk across his lips. "I appreciate the publicity. In fact, I would love it if you guys could do me a favor by spreading rumors about me and her dating. Make it strong, overwhelming even that she couldn't stand it and surrender herself to me." He said, leaning against the book shelf as he picked up a random book and casually flipping over the pages.

"What?" Chansung asked in disbelief. "We don't do those kind of things. What are you trying to do to her?"

"Oh? You don't?" Joongki looked up from his book, ignoring Chansung's latter question. He chuckled a bit, staring sarcastically all over them, "But I thought you guys were after controversies and sensational material? Do you know who I am? Do you know how influential I could get over a person?"

"I don't care who you are but Minsun is our good friend. We don't just put up anything on the blog to get readers." Junho calmly replied, sensing negative vibe from Joongki despite his clean cut image and branded attire.

"Really? That's too bad then. I thought you guys could really do great things for me. How about a bargain? You help me, and I'll invite you guys to my private party. You get to meet famous people, and cover lots of interesting scandals."

"I'm sorry, but we're not interested," Chansung coldly replied.

Joongki shrugged. "No need to rush with your answer. You're welcomed anytime with the offer, though." He winked and then left.

"The hell?!" Chansung looked at Junho who just shook his head, not knowing what was going on.

"We have to do something. I don't trust him. We can't let people keep posting stuffs about him and Minsun." Junho said worriedly. Chansung nodded in agreement.





"Minsun, we need to talk." Junho said first thing after they returned to the desk.

"What is it?" Minsun looked at them both in wonder, without a slight hint or suspicion about what had happened to Gossip Boy, or her.

"It's about the Gossip Boy blog. Have you seen the recent entries?" Junho asked.

Minsun shook her head, but she started to feel the bad air staining the atmosphere.

"Ah, so you guys are with Minsun here?"

A sudden interruption sent all of them to look up up to see Joongki standing at the end of the desk, winking at Minsun.

"W-what are you doing here?!" Minsun asked, looking all jittery and unpleased at his presence. She felt like he was an embarrassment in front of her precious friends, and she didn't want them to misunderstand or anything.

"No need to get worked up. I'm just dropping by to say 'hi'. Too bad I have an appointment to attend shortly. If I knew that you guys were studying here earlier, I could have joined."

"No thanks. You're not welcomed whenever." Minsun replied straight away. Wooyoung looked at her weird. She seemed very rude and defensive, and he could see that she hated that guy from her expression and manner. Wooyoung never saw her do that, not even when they first talked to each other.

Joongki went on by introducing himself to the rest of the guys while keeping his eyes glued on Minsun. Minsun couldn't describe with words how much she hated him especially the smug smile h eoften wore across his handsome face.

"By the way, I'm Song Joongki. I go to the same school with Minsun. Just so you guys know, I am very interested in her, and I'll do anything to make her mine." He finally looked away from Minsun who was looking at him with full of hate.

"See you guys again next time." He smiled at the rest of the guys and casually waved goodbye.

Minsun looked down to hide her face that was red with anger and embarrassment.

"Minsun, what's going on? Are you okay?" Munhwa asked worriedly.

"Minsun, we're sorry." Chansung said in regret. Minsun looked up.

"No, I'm sorry to have you guys see that."

"No, Minsun, listen to us. From now on, things will only get worse for you, and I swear, if there's anything I could do to make it better, I would."

"What are you guys talking about?" Munhwa asked.

Junho and Chansung looked at each other, and then nodded before they began explaining about what happened to Gossip Boy.





Later on that night, Wooyoung visited a cyber cafe to look at the school message board since Chansung told him that he had deleted most recent posts about Minsun on Gossip Boy. At the moment, Gossip Boy was safe from any scandalous posts on Minsun since the duo changed the password, but other blogs and the school forum were full of Minsun's scandals, of her playing the basketball members and threw them away for Joongki. Wooyoung's small eyes widened to see the ridiculously rapid entries of Minsun and Joongki, it kept popping out one after another, even if it was only the slightest stuff that didn't make sense like how Joongki and Minsun wore shoes of the same brand. He backtracked the entries until he found the video of Minsun and him bickering. He clenched his fists tightly.

"I really need to find this motherer."




Minsun sighed as she carelessly pushed down her laptop screen. She couldn't even watch the video until the end. It was the worst moment in her life. She hurt Wooyoung and all the basketball members saw it; it was also the moment she thought she might lose Gohee forever.  Minsun left her desk and limply walked towards her bed. All the things she saw on the internet, the nasty comments people made about her, everything about it made her sick.

She lied down and stared blankly outside the window.

She never thought that it was so scary. It was so scary to let the whole world know of her weakness, her gravest mistake that she would like to bury deep in the pit of earth. Sometimes she had thoughts like running away from her past, from the reality, but now, people and the whole world will always see her in her worst state, forever judging her from what they saw. Tears streamed down her face as she looked into the large mirror of her dressing table across her bed.

"Seo Minsun… You are so ugly." She told herself.





Miryung High Gym
6.50 p.m.

By the time the sky had turned orange with random streaks of purple, the gym was usually void of any soul, but there were two boys sitting in the middle of the large hall, staring into nothing. They were still clad in their training suit and still smelled like sweat, but those didn't bother them more than the matter that had been boggling their mind since the last few days.

"They even wrote what Joongki and Minsun ate for lunch today, even though they weren't eating together." Chansung said, staring hopelessly into his phone. He just checked out Gossip Boy, and there were at least five new tips about Joongki and Minsun since lunch hour, but of course, they ignored those tips.

Junho sighed, raking his hair behind.

"That weirdo Joongki guy sent me an invitation to his party this Friday." Chansung showed Junho his phone screen, which showed the e-mail that Joongki personally sent to him.

"What's the point… We need the one who stole my phone, not this stupid par-" Junho sudddenly straightened his back and snatched Chansung's phone from its owner to read carefully the content of the mail.

"This is it!" Junho said, leaving Chansung wondering in confusion.

"What is it?"

"Let's go to this party!"

"What? Are you changing your mind?"

"We might find the one who kept posting about Joongki and Minsun."

"You think?" Chansung doubted the possibility.

"Looking at how fast and detailed those entries are, the poster must have been someone really close to Joongki, someone from Gongmun High who probably did those in Joongki's favor. If he's that close to Joongki, don't you think he will be there at the party as well?"

"Junho, you have a point, but it doesn't make sense for someone from Gongmun to have your phone. Do you really think that's possible?"

"Even if he wasn't the one who stole my phone, there is a possibility to find the guy who kept sending tips on Minsun, right? I mean, for events like these, this guy must be busy snatching pictures, nosing into everybody else's business. Like how we usually do!"

Chansung gave another thought on Junho's theory, and later thought that there might be a way to find that kind of person at the party. After all, only gossipy boys know how other gossip boys or girls behave, right?

"You're right. We should take chance. In fact we will try anything if it could help bring us closer to the culprit! We'll definitely make this craziness stop." Chansung said passionately.

"Let's do this!"





Miryung High
Saturday, 1.30 p.m.

Taecyeon had been hearing strange rumors this morning. The girls and boys had been talking about something in a hush-hush manner, and it was even stranger since they kept looking at him. When he straight away asked them about what they were talking about, everybody seemed to try to avoid the topic. He stared at an empty spot in the class; Junsu's seat, of which rarely left unoccupied by its owner, but he couldn't help but worry when he heard Junsu's name floating by their whisperings.

There will be a basketball match this Monday but Coach Cho was letting the boys rest on the weekend. Since he had no practice, Taecyeon was about to go straight home, but turned around, and decided that he gave Junsu a visit. He had been trying to call him but none of his calls went through.

Being the introvert he was, Taecyeon avoided people's peering eyes by going through the back gate, which was close to the gym. He somberly passed by the gate while thinking if anything happened to Junsu, only to get shocked when somebody gave him a firm grip on his arm from behind. Taecyeon abruptly turned around, releasing his hand away from the firm grip on instict, but paused in an instant when he saw the face underneath a droopy black hood.

"Khun?!" Taecyeon blurted out of surprise, more so since Nichkhun was dressed so shabbily, like he was going undercover, and even more at the fact that he seemed like he skipped school that day, which was just impossible for a committed president of the student body he was.

"Why do you look like that? Did you skip school?" Taecyeon asked, his heart beating fast for some reason.

"Taec, I need your help," Khun weakly said. He looked so desperate and scattered.

"What?" Taecyeon stared at Khun in disbelief, frowning at his unlikely request.