To say that Junmyeon is upset at me would be an understatement, because he ended up ignoring me for three days after I explained to him that I’ve gotten myself a new job without consulting him first. I told him that I forgot to inform him that my job interview has been pushed forward, and I didn’t expect to be accepted so quickly. Which is true, and he finally caved in when I told him I’ll start driving his car to work.

Junmyeon had been nagging me to buy a car or at least use one of his to commute everywhere he can’t drive me to, because he hated that I had to use public transport when he knows I deserve more than that. I never agreed to it because it’s mostly unnecessary for me to drive around when my previous workplaces were so close to my apartment. I also know the truth that Junmyeon’s demand is mostly fueled by his hunger to uphold his image as a rich family’s heir.

But now, seeing that the SM office is a forty-five-minute commute I have to make each morning accompanied by the fact that they strongly urge me to drive my own car to avoid another cabbing stunt like the one I pulled the night I picked Baekhyun up, I decide that it’s probably for the best that I borrow my boyfriend’s car for a while. I’m not ready to buy myself a car just yet.

“I didn’t know you were loaded!” is the first thing Seungwan exclaims when I enter our shared office, eyebrows raised suggestively. Not so surprisingly, Seungwan really is rising popstar Kim Yeri’s manager, and she manages Yeri alongside with another one of SM’s girl group called f(x). She started out as f(x)’s manager first, and after the group plummeted into a long and indefinite hiatus, she gets assigned to be a rookie’s manager instead.

No one ever thought that Kim Yeri is going to be as big as she is now, so Seungwan’s been breaking her back for the past three years managing the two completely different groups, only holding on to SM’s promise of finding f(x) or Yeri a new manager to relief Seungwan of her ridiculous amount of work. Although personally, even if she doesn’t show it, I’m pretty sure Seungwan loves her work and loves the girls way too much to ever let one of them go.

For a few days, she kept going on about how cute Krystal handled a costume mishap in one of their concerts, and I’d threatened to punch her if she doesn’t stop.

“It’s not my car,” I groan, taking a seat as I settle my chocolate croissant and cup of coffee on my desk, “it belongs to my boyfriend. Why is everyone looking at me different now that they see me driving a car?”

“Wow, you have a boyfriend too? You never fail to surprise me, Kim Seyun.” Seungwan replies dramatically, spinning around in her chair dramatically to face my side of the room. She scoots herself closer to my desk, placing her chin on the palm of her hands.

“It’s not like I’m a robot—I’m allowed to have a love life too. Is it against the company rules to date, or something?” I reply gruffly, annoyed that everyone here seems to view me as a y loner I am not thanks to the rumors that had spread regarding my first encounter with Byun Baekhyun.

“Whoa, someone woke up at the wrong side of the bed today. And, to answer your question, fortunately for you, dating is only prohibited when it’s within the company. Also, of course everyone is looking at you differently—your car is a freaking BMW. That’s not what a twenty-four-year-old newly hired publicist usually drive to work,” Seungwan explains, swiveling back into her desk to answer her office landline that just started to ring.

She tells whoever it is on the phone that it’s too early for her to deal with their bull, and snaps her head back to face me with a determined look on her face.

“So, how long have you been dating this boyfriend of yours? Is he cute? Do you have a picture of him?” Seungwan presses, completely neglecting her work, apparently more interested with my love life more than anything.

“I’ve been dating him since high school, but most of it after was long-distance because he went abroad for university. Of course he’s cute, but no, I’m not going to show you a picture of him.” I humor her with my answers, deeming her questions harmless, and I do so as I scroll through my unanswered emails that have accumulated overnight. Besides, she’s the only person who treats me decently after I’ve started working here despite our differences during our first meeting, so she at least deserves my answers.

It’s been only a week since I started working, but I find myself already getting soft.

“Awww,” she complains, unsatisfied with my answer. “But that’s super sweet, though. I wish I had someone who liked me back enough to willingly have a relationship with me.”

“What does that even mean?” I reply absentmindedly, skimming through an email from some journalist who demanded an explanation of why Byun Baekhyun’s hair is now auburn colored when the company hasn’t released any statements of a possible come back. I almost deleted the email, but decides against it in case the idiot tries to reach me on a different platform if I don’t give him the reply he wants.

“That means that I’ve been spending the last three years of my life pining for some girl who doesn’t want me back as much as I want them. I mean, it’s one thing to know that they like you back, but it’s another thing if they don’t want to be as serious as you do. I’d rather they leave me, actually! But…”

Seungwan’s voice melts into the background as I rub my eyes to make sure that I didn’t read the title of the article displayed onto my computer screen wrong, hoping that this is a nightmare and I’ve actually turned off the alarm on my phone a few hours ago instead of getting up and getting into the shower.

“Hey, Yun, are you even listening?” Seungwan snaps her fingers in an annoyed manner, now fully scooting over to my desk, trying to get a glimpse of what I’m looking at the computer screen that made me as distracted as I am.

“Oh ,” Seungwan swears in my stead, “you’ve got to take care of that. Fast. With every single second passing, the number of clicks are going to increase.”

My mind spins. I never thought that that random twitter account tweeting about Byun Baekhyun’s whereabouts would actually do some real damage by selling a few stupid pictures to a journalist. The person actually spotted Byun Baekhyun inside his car that night, and took pictures of it which resulted in journalists publishing articles of him possibly drunk driving.

As if on cue, my phone rings and Mrs. Choi’s name is displayed all over my screen, and I waste no time in answering it.

“Take care of that,” she says in a condescending tone, as if saying that this all has something to do with me.

***

“Are you sure, one hundred percent sure?” I ask for the nth time, frowning at th