“What is it?” Chen asked.

“Can we go upstairs first?” I looked behind me to make sure I wasn’t maybe being followed. You can call me paranoid if you want, but celebrity reporters were very good with going around unnoticeably.

. His living room was equipped with woodened furniture.  Even the TV was woodened, which was quite abnormal. I still remember the first time I entered the house. I was quite intrigued by it.

I hurried upstairs to Chen’s room but stopped in my steps when I realized neither or Lay were behind me.

“Guys?” I asked.

“We’re coming right up”, Lay answered. I ran to Chen’s room and heard Lay yell something but I ignored it thinking he was talking to Chen and entered Chen’s room. I was welcomed by shocked faces, screams and half or bodies (I wasn’t sure because I closed my eyes as soon as I could) all at once.

“Oops”, I said knowing the three boys in front of me were glaring. I was probably red-faced already. “I’ll let you guys finish.” I closed the door and walked back to yell at Chen and Lay. “YA!”

“WHAT?” Chen yelled back from the kitchen.

“Why didn’t you tell me that Kris, Baek Hyun and Xiu Min were literally in there?”

“I told you”, Lay came up holding a tray. “You didn’t listen.” Chen’s bedroom door opened.

“Go Ji Eun!” Xiu Min yelled.

“I’m sorry”, I bowed eyes closed.

“Knock next time”, Xiu Min said. “You shouldn’t just barge in a guy’s room like that.”

“Chen said I could”, I answered head down.

“Why don’t we just go inside?” Lay said. “Ji Eun has something important to tell us.” I followed them inside.

“Sorry for earlier”, I apologised to Kris and Baek Hyun.

”I saw your eyes wandering a little”, Kris joked. I laughed but then stopped.

“I didn’t”, I said. “I swear.” He smiled and I jumped on Chen’s bed.

“Here are the pancakes you oh so wanted”, Chen entered the room with a big tray carrying a lot of pancakes and put it down on his desk next to the tray Lay had put there. Lay’s tray was carrying drinks. The boys jumped on the plates and cups and started eating like hungry wolves. I smirked and took the last cup. It was hot coco.

“Hit us”, Lay looked at me. I took a deep breath before starting to explain.

“Don’t freak out because I am already freaked enough as it is”, I said. “But I got a call from a reporter a few minutes ago.”

“A reporter?” Baek Hyun repeated.

“From K.I news”, I said. “He said his name was Kang Patrick a-“

“That’s not good”, Xiu Min sighed. “A year ago, he tried to put out an article about… about someone from SME dating a top politician. Hell broke loose at the company for like a week but somehow it didn’t come out.”

“Well he told me someone sent him an email anonymously with pictures and videos of Chen and me.” Chen who was drinking his hot beverage violently coughed.

“What?” He asked.

“He knows my name”, I said. “He asked if I was really Go Ji Eun first before telling me who he was and what he wanted. Then he asked if we were dating and if people around us knew bu…”

“Do you have his number?” Kris asked.

“It was unknown”, I shook my head. “How did he know who I was?”

“He probably figured you went to Chen’s school and found you”, Baek Hyun closed his eyes. “He might have even followed you around.”

“This is bad”, Chen said, “very bad.” He put down his drink and paced back and forth in the room making me nervous.

“Chen”, I called. He wasn’t listening to me. “Chen!” He turned around. “Sit down and relax before you make us all dizzy.” He sat down.

“What to do now?” I asked.

“Well”, Kris got up. “Call Su Ho.”

“You can’t”, Chen refused. “He will kill me.”

“But it’s better if Su Ho knows before the managers”, Kris said.

“No”, Chen shook his head. “It’s worse.”

“I hate to say this”, Lay said. “But Kris is right.”

“Thank you”, Kris answered.

“Fine”, Chen sighed. “I will tell Su Ho and you Ji Eun will go home.”

“Home?” I asked. “We haven’t discusse…”

“We don’t know if you were being followed here”, Xiu Min agreed. “Let’s send you home now.”

“Ok”, I unwillingly got off the bed.

After being dropped off by Xiu Min and Lay, I sluggishly sat down next to Kai in the living room. I greeted Mrs. Kim who was surfing on the main computer before turning to Kai.

“I’m in trouble”, I said.

“How come?” He asked.

“A reporter thinks Chen and I are dating”, I answered.

“Well you did date didn’t you?” He asked indifferently.

“Ya!” I frowned. “My picture might be all over the newspaper tomorrow with another guy. Aren’t you the least bit worried?” He didn’t answer me. I sneered at him and he looked at me. “Don’t look at me.” He smiled before turning to his book again. I silently called him a jerk while cursing my heart for beating at his smile.

Monday was a school day I was not excited for at all which. Later during the day my apprehension was proven to be right. Everything had gone wrong from when I woke up to when I got to school, and it got worse during school hours when I realised my “friends” were zoning me out.

“Hi!” I greeted them, but the only people who answered me were Tao and Se Hun. Lu Han discreetly held eye contact before continuing to ignore me. Alice and Lime pretended I didn’t exist and honestly, I was hurt that Lime had chosen Alice’s side, but pretended like it didn’t matter to me. I simply sat next to Tao and did my best not to feel like I was hated.

“It’s going to be fine”, he said. I believed him, but I shouldn’t have. By lunch time, the girls and Lu Han ditched me. Se Hun and Tao who had stayed by my side looked over it.

“This is really going out of control”, Se Hun said. “I don’t know what to do anymore. I tried talking to them but they d…”

“It’s okay”, I said. “Lime is your girlfriend so you should go to her. I don’t want her to hate me too.”

“Are you sure you’re going to be fine?” Se Hun asked. I nodded and he left after hugging me.

“Ji Eun”, Tao said when we reached the hallway.

“Zitao”, I called. Tao frowned.

“You haven’t called me by my full name in forever”, he said.

“I’m telling you to go too”, I said. “I’m not going to make you chose whose side to be on.”

“But I’m already on your side”, he smiled.

“Just go”, I smiled. “I don’t want you to be hated by Alice too because of me.”

“It’s sad”, he said. “It’s really sad that she doesn’t realise how good of a friend you are.”

 “She will get over it soon”, I said. “I know she will.”

“Well I’m not going to lunch”, he said. “I have a date with my dentist. I’ll see you later.”  

I waved goodbye and headed towards the cafeteria. Chen was not present either as he had to film for a variety show so I had basically no one to sit next to except Kai. Unfortunately Kai had picked today to sit with his classmates. I served myself something I could eat quickly and sat down at an empty table. I felt miserable. This was the first time in my entire life that I was sitting alone during lunch at school. 

The students who spent their time gossiping about me where staring and talking and I felt humiliated. Rumour had probably already spread about me and my friends fighting. I quickly ate and stood up to leave, but just then my cellphone rang. I looked at the screen and then around the lunchroom. Kai was currently looking at me as I picked up the phone.

“Why are you in such a hurry?” He asked.

“People are talking about me”, I responded. I walked to the buffet and gave them the tray back.

“Why?”

“Because I’m by myself, why else?”

“Join me”, he offered. I shook my head. “My friends won’t bite. I promise.” I looked at his table. They were 3 boys and 4 girls all incredibly intimidating.

“Don’t expect me to say a word”, I said as I walked to his table and ended up contradicting my word when I greeted his friends.  For people that looked so scary they were everything but. They were nice but more quiet than my friends.

I decided to sit down at the only empty chair in between two of the girls but Kai made a gesture to his lap instead, making my eyes go wide. I saw his friends look at me with shock written all over their faces which made me hesitate to sit down on Kai’s lap but he made the decision for me as he gently pulled me down himself and wrapped his arms around me. I was happy he openly displayed affection but embarrassed at how public it was. Kai continued to talk to his friends and I felt dumb just quietly sitting there on his lap like I was some sort of accessory but Kai seemed unfazed. 

I tried to get his attention with no success because he was way more occupied with listening to his friends talk about some college in Australia. I know I was behaving rudely but I really wanted him to notice me, so I sighed and sighed and sighed some more until he finally turned towards me. When our eyes met, I sighed again.

“Are you purposely trying to piss me off?” He sounded annoyed. I exaggerated my pouting. “Go Ji Eun, is there something you want to say?” I shook my head because of the tone he had spoken in. “Aren’t you going to tell me?”

“Fine”, I answered. “I’m sad.”

“Because of your friends?”

I nodded.

“They’re choosing sides”, I explained. “Tao is siding with me but still…” I felt like crying out and being comforted just from the gentle gaze Kai gave me. “I’m hurt.”

“Do you want me to put some sense into them?” He asked. “You know how good I am with words.”

“Please don’t”, I laughed.

“See, now you’re laughing”, he smiled. “I made you laugh.” Once my laughter ended, I realised I wasn’t sad anymore.

“Thank you. I really needed someone to talk to.” I stood up facing him. “I think I’ll go back to class. See you later?” 

Kai held my hand and pulled me down towards him. He startlingly kissed me. My eyes were wide open at first but then I closed them for a few seconds and the kiss ended. Kai smiled and put back a strand of my hair behind my ear. 

“I’ll wait for you after school,” he said. 

I was too shocked at public display of affection to say anything so I only nodded before turning around. I was so blank in the head leaving the lunchroom took longer than usual. I walked to 4D’s main room still in shock and sat down on my chair. Kai had kissed me in front of the entire school. 

Before I was able to calmly process what had happened, my phone rang. The caller ID showed Chen.

“Y-yes?” I said.

“Ji Eun ah”, Su Ho was the one who spoke.

“Isn’t this Chen’s phone?”  I asked.

“Listen”, he said. “An article was released exactly an minutes ago about you and Chen on Naver.”

“What?” I was definitely out of my daze from what happened earlier.

“Your picture and family name is out there”, he said. “I want you to stay at school under protection until we get there, okay?” Su Ho hung up before I could say another word. 

The rest of the day kept going worse. I was left in the dark about what was going to happen and students kept walking past our classroom to peek in and look at me. It didn’t take long before a few students peeped inside the classroom and they were eying me.

“Is that her?” A guy asked.

“Yeah”, another girl answered. “It’s Go Ji Eun alright.”

“I can’t believe she dated Chen oppa”, another girl whined.

“And now she’s dating Kai oppa”, another one said. “What did she do in her prior life to deserve all this luck?” Having enough of them, I stood up.

“Ya!” I said. “You bunch of freshmen who don’t have any respect to your sunbae. I suggest you get out of my sight before I make you clean this room.” They quickly ran away and I sat back down. “Idiots.”

School ended at around 4 and I quickly arranged my backpack to leave the building when I remembered Su Ho’s words. Instead of leaving, I sat on a bench in the school’s front lawn until I saw two men in black suits entering and decided to get up and walk away when I saw them they heading towards me.

“Are you Go Ji Eun?” They asked. I looked around to see if someone would come to my side if things went wrong, but the other students were nowhere to be seen.

“Y-yes”, I answered. “What do you want from me?”

“We’re from SME”, the slimmer one asked. “We’ve been assigned to pick you up.”

“What?” I asked. Was that what Su Ho meant by “until we get here”?

“If you could please follow us”, he said. The other took my backpack and they both lead me outside the front gate where I was welcomed by reporters. Yes, reporters were trying to take pictures of me like I was some celebrity and I didn’t like it.

“Miss Go!” They yelled. “Are you going to meet Chen?”

“How did you and Chen meet?” The questions grew and so did the camera flashes until I was put in the backseat of a car and everything got quiet.

The car drove and I was completely gone during the ride. I kept seeing the camera flashes and hearing the questions over and over in my head. It wasn’t until the car stopped and I got out, that I one up. I had been driven to SM entertainment.

I was lead inside the building and then into an elevator that stopped on the 3rd floor. There, I entered an office that already had 6 people inside. Out of all 6 of them, I recognized 5. They were Exo’s three managers, Su Ho and Chen himself. The last one was a man that seemed to be around the 50-60 years of age or maybe it was more.

“Here she is”, the unknown man said. He walked to me and shook hands with me. I then bowed and greeted him. “Go Ji Eun, I’m Lee So Man.”

“Lee So M-” I gasped. It was the Ceo himself! I bowed again.

“Yes”, he went back to his seat. “I hope the reporters didn’t scare you.” I shook my head. “The reason I called you here to this meeting is to find a solution to the dating rumours. Both Chen and Su Ho told me that you’re in a relationship right now with a boy named Kai.” I nodded. “Now that you’ve confirmed it, I would like your permission to release this information to the press and ease the situation.”

“Of course”, I agreed.

“The reporters have released pictures and a video footage of you two engaging uh… in some intimate uh… and physical… uh you know”, Lee So Man continued.  “Therefore the full statement that will be released is that the two of you used to date before Exo’s debut, but you naturally ended things and now you’re in a relationship with someone else and you two are merely friends that frequent the same school. Is that a statement you can stick to if a reporter asks you questions?” I nodded. “Splendid. When the statement will be released reporters will be following you for a while but they will let you be soon enough. I’m asking you to please endure it as much as you can for everyone’s sake.”

“I wil-” I was interrupted when the door violently opened. Everyone turned to see what was going on.

“You can’t ju-” Kris entered the room but everyone was focused on someone else. It was a girl. My eyes came across her doll like face and perfect body that was complimented by a beautiful peach colored no-strap dress.

“Krystal?” Su Ho asked. “I thought I told you to wait until I introduced her to you!”

“My curiosity got the best of me”, she said while gazing at me. She wore a foxlike smirk on the corner of her lips. Her piercing eyes seized me from head to toe and I uncomfortably felt self-conscious. 

“I just had to see the girl that has both Chen and Kai grasped in the palm of her hands with my own eyes.” 

My heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t because she mentioned Kai’s name, but it was because it just sunk in my head that Krystal of girl group Fx was my rival.