By the next morning, the news of Jaeho’s scuffle with the three young men had started to die down, the top trending article being Irene’s visit to the hospital. Having nothing else to do, Jaeho scrolled down to the comments, discovering that more and more people were starting to mellow out. The majority of the comments seemed negative, but now there seemed to be at least one positive or neutral comment for every ten negative ones, which was definitely a step up from before. After a few back-and-forths between his lawyer, around midday just after his lunch, he posted a screenshot of a hand-written statement on his Instagram:

               ‘First of all, let me apologize for disappointing everyone. It was never my intention to inflict harm onto Red Velvet, Irene, or Reveluvs; during these past few months, I have been reflecting upon myself a lot and wondering if what I was doing was OK. In the end, I selfishly decided to continue without considering how this would hurt the fans. I was always cautious about the amount of secrecy that we had, but we ultimately both decided that we would wait until we were both ready. Evidently, that wasn’t what happened, and I’m sorry it had to be in this sudden fashion that everyone found out.

               ‘Following Irene’s footsteps, I have decided not to make my account private because I want to have an open communication with her fans. As a fan of Red Velvet myself, I only wish for the best for the group. Right now, if I made my account private, it would appear cowardly and self-serving, and that’s not the image I want to associate with the man Irene of Red Velvet chose to date.

               ‘I have turned off DMs because my inbox would be flooded with them otherwise; I have a normal daytime job too, but if there are any questions or anything you are interested in, please ask them in the comments below. In addition, please keep the comments civil, as I have already hired a private investigator to track down malicious commenters. Thank you!’

               The last statement was a white lie, as he hadn’t personally hired the investigator; however, his lawyer told him that it was OK to put the statement in the letter to the Red Velvet fandom since the effect was the same, with SM as well as the lawyer himself doing him a favor and doing investigations in his free time.

               One topic Jaeho made sure to avoid was the incident that sent him to the hospital; in his eyes, focusing too much on himself and his troubles, valid as they were, would paint him as a self-centered man.

               This was his intention, but as Jaeho soon found out, there was no way to appease everyone. As the comments rolled in, he noticed a conspiracy theory of sorts starting in a chain of comments, alleging that he was the one who instigated the fight before the camera even started recording anything, and that the trio’s retaliation against him was just. He noticed that there weren’t very many of these absurd comments, perhaps due to the warning in the second-to-last sentence of his statement, but there were still no shortage of hateful comments.

               People calling him a coward for not doing a video-letter like Irene, people accusing him of being short-tempered for even responding to the trio’s agitating comments, people claiming that he was being jaded due to his recent gain in attention from the public, … the list grew on. Jaeho spent most of the day answering questions that appeared in the comments section, regardless of if they were being hostile or not. Later that day, he noticed another news article coming out about this, commending his efforts in addressing his fans.

               If that wasn’t enough to brighten his mood, one comment that appeared underneath his post caught his eye. A simple question by the one with the username ‘renebaebae’, asking:

‘Am I not allowed to DM you either?’

               Jaeho nearly laughed out loud upon reading that. The replies to the comment started piling up, and not two hours after she posted the comment with Jaeho’s reply being ‘Sorry, no exceptions :<’, a short news article was released about the quick interaction.

               It’s been less than a week since Jaeho started being in the eye of the public, so it still came as a surprise to him that such trivial matters were news-worthy things to write about. However, now that he considered it, he was one of the people who consumed such news; being a student of economics, he knew more than anyone that if a demand existed, companies were sure to satisfy that demand regardless of the trivialness of the product.

               Irene was unable to visit him at the hospital that day, but when he exchanged greetings with his nurses, learned that they had a conversation the day prior about the couple. Jaeho, honestly having been blown away at the quality of service he had been receiving (not that he had any prior experience; his expectations derived from what he had seen and heard online and in dramas), earnestly thanked the nurses for supporting them.

               He was released the following day, exactly one week since the dating news broke, escorted by his bodyguard back to his apartment.

               “Hey, I have something a bit weird to ask you,” Jaeho said as the two men stepped into his apartment.

               “Sure,” the burly man replied.

               “Do you … mind going out and buying groceries for me?”

               “Of course, just tell me what to buy,” was the prompt answer, something which frankly shocked Jaeho. He felt a little self-conscious about doing so, but after his previous experience at that grocery store near his residence, he wasn’t about to risk going there again, even if he did have a bodyguard. He wondered if this was what it was like to have trauma: just the thought of going back to that place made Jaeho feel anxious, unsettled, feel as if something bad were about to happen to him. Even so, Jaeho still felt a little bad treating the person hired as a bodyguard to become his errand boy, but the sincere, hasty reply offput him a little.

               “Oh,” Jaeho answered, furrowing his eyebrows, “Sorry for making you do this, I just don’t feel comfortable going back to that place, even if you went with me to protect me … I’m not trying to say that I doubt your abilities as a bodyguard, but it just makes me a little anxious, going back there … uh—”

               “No worries, something like this is well within the bounds of the expectations for my job,” he replied with a warm smile. Hearing that, and seeing the bodyguard’s reaction, made him feel a little better.

               “Thanks, Kangdae,” Jaeho said, running to his bedroom to get some paper. After quickly drafting a shopping list, Jaeho handed him the list along with some cash and sent the man on his way; while he waited, Jaeho went to the lobby of his apartment building and emptied his mailbox, which he noticed was much fuller than usual.

               Given what had happened to him, how public the incident was, and Jaeho not being home for the past few days, he didn’t think twice about this and headed back to his residence, his hands full with envelopes.

               The first few he opened were from various law firms and media companies, reaching out to him and asking for his service and/or a public statement. He had no trouble tossing these aside; what he did have trouble disregarding were the next few envelopes, of which had his address handwritten on the envelope’s back. These, he didn’t open.

               Was it from any of his college friends or coworkers? But who, among them, sent letters? Maybe they wanted to avoid sending messages via the internet … but for what purpose? Being discrete? If so, then what was contained inside these letters?

               The more he thought about it, the more another thought became apparent to him: maybe this was hate mail? At first, Jaeho immediately discarded this idea; after all, how could people have discovered his address in less than a week of his relationship with Irene being public? But the more he thought about it, the more he found himself distancing himself from the letters, electing to wait for his bodyguard.

               When he arrived back at the apartment complex, Jaeho buzzed Kangdae in and waited for him to return, carrying the groceries in his two large hands, before consulting him about this.

               “Hey—oh, I didn’t even think about that, I should’ve gone down to help you with those,” Jaeho said, noticing how full Kangdae’s hands were.

               “Don’t worry about it, it was nothing,” he replied, not showing a hint of being out of breath.

               “I wanted to consult you about something: I got some letters from what seemed like people who are hostile towards me and wanted your advice since I thought you would know better than I.”

               Kangdae laughed, a deep, resonating baritone sound filling the apartment. “You are a strange one, Mr. Song. How would I know better? I thought the reason why I was hired was because you were having troubles recently with your fans.”

               “Well, this is my first time having troubles with the public since I’ve never had to deal with them before today.”

               “Ah, so you’re an up-and-coming artist?” Upon retrospection, Jaeho could see why his words could be taken this way. Kangdae, whom evidently was under the impression that Jaeho was some kind of public figure or entertainer or the like, was probably used to being around these kinds of high-profile people, making it understandable how this was his first assumption upon hearing Jaeho’s words.

               “No, sorry I didn’t explain that well,” Jaeho replied, “I’m just an ordinary South Korean citizen who happens to be dating a member of Red Velvet, a popular girl group.”

               “Ah, is that so?” he replied, his surprised piqued. “I see, so that’s why you asked me that question; when I first saw you as my next client, and then again in that news article of you, my first thought was that you must have been an artist or model or something. That makes sense,” he said, “Regarding your question though, I hate to say this but all sorts of people get these kinds of letters; you might think yourself as relatively insignificant and not worth other people’s time, but some of these people connect their lives so closely to their idols that doing this kind of stuff defines their lives. Especially given how famous your girlfriend is, I wouldn’t put it past people to send you hate letters and worse.”

               “Hm, I see…” Jaeho considered his options for a bit before promptly declaring, “Let’s eat first, I’m pretty hungry. How do you like Jajangmyeon?”

               Kangdae reached out a hand, stopping Jaeho in his tracks. “Don’t be ridiculous, I’ll do the cooking. You still need rest, Mr. Song.”

               “Call me Jaeho, please,” Jaeho responded, “But I’m really OK. Cooking is really relaxing for me, and I’ve actually had the itch to cook since I haven’t been able to these past few days.” While there was truth to his statement, it wasn’t the complete truth. Honestly, Jaeho would have liked to rest and let dinner come to him, but forcing his guest (even if his guest was his bodyguard) to make his meal for him just seemed too rude. Plus, Jaeho wanted to find some way to thank him; he wasn’t paying for Kangdae’s services, so Jaeho figured the least he could do was to thank him in other ways.

               The two argued at length about dinner: the bodyguard insisted that being fed wasn’t in his contract, but Jaeho argued that he felt bad for making him spend so much time at home doing nothing. The bodyguard shot back with his comfort in staying at home, Jaeho replying that he already made his serving and that he might as well eat it. In the end, the bodyguard gave in and agreed to eat with him.

               After the meal, Jaeho and Kangdae opened the letters with the handwritten address on the back to confirm their suspicions: they were death threats, sent directly to his apartment by crazed fans who had somehow discovered the location of his apartment. After Kangdae left, Jaeho immediately contacted his lawyer regarding these letters.

               Jaeho spent the rest of the night talking to his lawyer, but before they could release a public statement regarding his agreement to aid the police in their investigations into them, another piece of news about him broke the headlines.

‘[BREAKING!] An Ex-Girlfriend of Song Jaeho, Boyfriend of Red Velvet’s Irene, Comes Out With A Shocking Confession!’

               Just seeing the headline made his head spin, hastily trying to recall any experiences he had with his exes that stood out. There was no way he would do something uncouth, would he…? Despite how clueless about relationships he was, he still had the social wherewithal to understand what was acceptable and what was not. Maybe he did something when he was drunk…? But he remembered that he made it a point to never get anything more than tipsy when around his girlfriend, both so that he could always remain vigilant in protecting her and so that he wouldn’t do questionable things in a drunken stupor, leaving him scratching his head.

               As he read the article, things started to fall together: it was an attempt to take advantage of the situation for clout. The ex in question, after all, was an up-and-coming model, and Jaeho knew that being known to the public was important for a beginner like her. Even if this flopped, this ploy for attention, should it be successful, would benefit her regardless if the response was positive or negative.

               In the article, his ex-girlfriend alleged that he was an extremely controlling boyfriend, bringing up several ‘pieces of evidence’ via screenshots of their shared texts from however many years ago. She used this to verify one of the already existing theories, that Jaeho had somehow managed to blackmail Irene or is otherwise threatening her into ‘good behavior’, claiming that doing something like this would be the exact kind of thing he would do.

               Frankly, Jaeho wanted to just sweep this case under the rug as just another netizen who left a crazy conspiracy theory in the comments about her own ‘moment of clarity’ in which she discovered the truths of the universe. However, he knew it wasn’t going to be that simple; his lawyer had sent him an email pressing him to release a public statement.

               Irene, in addition, had coupled her good morning text with sentiments of her concern and frustration.

‘Good morning~’

‘Did you see the news? I can’t believe some people would do that. Do you need any help with replying or anything? Do you need me to say anything?’

               Jaeho quickly responded.

‘Good morning! It’s almost becoming a routine, texting each other about startling news that’s been released while asleep, huh? ^^’

‘I’ll be fine, though. I can handle this on my own; plus, if you respond, it’ll seem like I’m just forcing you to respond the way I want while trying to avoid direct confrontation.’

               As Jaeho performed his morning ritual, Irene sent him a cheeky reply that went unnoticed until he had started making breakfast.

‘Maybe you should control me ;)’

               Jaeho nearly burst out laughing, having learned to control these urges recently due to the subsequent pain that would usually follow if he exercised his jaw muscles as such. The next text message that quickly followed filled the void of confusion that he was left with from that text message.

‘Sorry, that was Yerim. Good luck!’

               He shook his head. He should’ve known, but he would be lying if he didn’t seriously consider the offer. Jaeho was a bit hesitant to be assertive, or at least proactively assertive, but as a guy, it felt a little embarrassing to know that Irene was working the hardest in terms of the progression of their relationship. He knew that this was part of the consequence of his sudden amnesia and got hints that Irene was taking charge because she felt like she wanted to reciprocate, but this knowledge didn’t alleviate any of the embarrassment.

               While Irene reprimanded her group’s youngest for sending the text, Jaeho finished his breakfast and sort things out with his lawyer. Since he was still working from home, he had all the time he needed to his personal needs, which at the moment was addressing his ex’s allegations. After talking over with his lawyer, he posted a statement on his Instagram account, this time in video form.

               “This post is about the news article that was released this morning.

               “It is true that I dated the woman before. We dated for a few months before ending it rather abruptly. It is also true that back then, I was younger and more immature and didn’t know as much about women and relationships. Right now, I am trying my best to take all the lessons I learned from being together with her and apply them to make sure Irene is always satisfied in our relationship. Honestly, I am grateful for her, even if things didn’t end on the best terms with us. But all of that is part of life, and things can’t always be perfect.

               “I don’t know if I can convince people with words that the allegations are untrue, so instead I will do it with actions. I still have a bit of respect for you from our time together, even if it ended like that, so I’m giving you a chance. If you apologize, I won’t sue for defamation; you know that what you said was disingenuous, and I understand that to an up-and-coming model, becoming recognized is everything, but your public reputation is also important. I haven’t told anyone about how we broke up because I understood that I was also at fault and because it’s a private matter, but if you continue, then you’re going to be forcing my hand.

               “Thank you everyone for listening to my message,” Jaeho concluded with a bow.

               There were multiple reasons why he chose to state his message rather than write it. The first was responding to the criticisms that he was being a coward and not getting in front of the camera like Irene. However, he knew that there would always be people he could never satisfy, but the gesture was to the few that he could by recording his message. The second, and more important, reason was because he wanted to make sure everyone could see his sincerity in his eyes. It was still staged to a degree since he more or less memorized what he was going to say, electing not to read off something off-camera, but that didn’t change his feelings regarding the issue. He was sure people would realize that his words were scripted to a degree but hoped they could see how genuine he was.

               He also decided to delay the public statement about the death threats, instead proceeding with efforts to act against the threats out of the public’s eye. The recent news would surely drown out a public statement like that, not to mention that the statement would seem like an attempted diversion away from the issue at hand.

               When he finally got around to scanning through the comments after he finished with work for the day, he noticed that the amount of positive responses increased: perhaps it was also that Jaeho had gotten better at mentally parsing out the negative comments, but he was noticing a lot more encouraging and forgiving comments, praising his sincerity and maturity.

               But Jaeho wasn’t as naïve so as to believe that things would be resolved in a single day, and certainly didn’t expect it to escalate when another of his exes made a follow-up statement that again topped the headlines of news websites. In the statement, she backed up the first woman, claiming that Jaeho is not a sincere person and wouldn’t be surprised if he was just acting in that video statement.

               This time, the news broke towards the evening, a few hours before Irene started a live broadcast on her Instagram account. Naturally, Jaeho joined the broadcast as soon as he noticed it had started.

               “Oh, more people are joining,” Irene, who was laying comfortably on her bed in a homey set of white pajamas, noted. “Hello, everyone! You were surprised to see me, right? Especially all that’s been going on … I wanted to talk to you guys, even though my company advised me against doing this,” she admitted, smiling a bit. Jaeho typed a simple greeting, and almost immediately, Irene’s eyes lit up. “Oh, is that Jaeho? Hi!”

               Jaeho broke out into a smile at the excited greeting from his girlfriend and replied with a simple ‘hello ^_^’. The comment section immediately blew up, but still seemed notably negative. “Guys, please don’t say those kinds of things about Jaeho,” she said as she redirected her gaze into the camera, “You know, actually, Jaheo helped me a lot.”

               She resituated herself on the bed, sitting up properly and bringing the camera to eye level. “I’m going to be honest here, I hope that’s ok with you all. When I saw the comments and the news about Jaeho blackmailing me, I thought it was actually really ironic. I mean, the main reason why I didn’t want to reveal my relationship with him to the public is because he isn’t used to being in the spotlight, and I thought it was unfair of me to just him in if he wasn’t ready. Sometimes, I feel like I’m actually the one who’s blackmailing him, because—” she stopped herself, but Jaeho immediately knew what Irene was referring to: the morning they woke up in bed together. To this day, Jaeho could remember the proposal she offered, the promise she made in return for giving her a chance, and Jaeho could comfortably say that she’s paid back in spades. However, this again made him wonder: would his sudden amnesia ever be known to the public? “—actually, what I’m about to say isn’t my secret to share. I know I said I was going to be honest, but it’s also not nice to share other’s secrets for them, don’t you think?” She paused briefly to read the comments. “Yeah, it is Jaeho’s secret. But please don’t pressure him into revealing it, it’s a hard thing to explain, really. Also, no inappropriate things, ok? I’m not going to tell you, even if someone guesses correctly. Although I don’t think anyone will because it’s so strange.”

               Jaeho was surprised at how calmly she dealt with the surge of erse comments, ranging from simple comments like ‘erectile dysfunction?’ to more detailed ones like ‘does he have insecurity about his size?’ From the way Irene was reacting to the comments, one might have thought that they were talking about something innocent, or playing some prank on her; once again, Jaeho admired the professionalism the idol demonstrated in spite of the current circumstances.

               “But anyway, what was I saying?” she paused for a brief moment before continuing, “Oh yeah! Sometimes, it feels like I’m the one blackmailing him because…” she trailed off, looking for the right phrasing, “I guess I’ll just say that I gave him a really tough offer that most people wouldn’t accept, and he took it with no questions asked because of how warm-hearted of a person he is. I hope you all get to know him one day, I think you’ll all really like him. ‘If I thought of my ideal type before meeting Jaeho, would he be him?’” Irene thought a bit about the inquiry posted in the comments before responding, “I think a little bit. Oh wait, he’s here, isn’t he?” she said, laughing, “Sorry, I don’t mean it like that!” she hastily said, giggling, Jaeho typing a chaste ‘I’m listening…’ “You’re listening? Ok, listen well, Jaeho and everyone else, OK? So when I thought of my ideal type, it was just purely theoretical; there were some things that I wanted but didn’t know I wanted until Jaeho showed it to me. For example, I thought I would be ok with being the one who cooked in my future relationship, but Jaeho’s so good at cooking that I changed my mind about it.” Irene paused again to read the comments. “’You want to have his cooking?’ Jaeho, what do you think?” she asked, chuckling again. Jaeho, also having an eye on the comments appreciated the amount of parsing out the negative comments she was doing, which ranged anywhere from ‘you two should break up’ to ‘how is the ?’ to simple insults like ‘’. “Are you willing to cook for,” she briefly checked the viewer count, “a few thousand people?”

               She stopped talking, during which Jaeho quickly posted a quick ‘You can count on me 😤’. “I can count on you?” she read, laughing out loud again, “Sounds good! Everyone, make sure to keep Jaeho accountable, ok? The next time Red Velvet makes a comeback, Jaeho will be in charge of snacks. Let’s all thank Jaeho,” she said setting her phone upright before kneeling on her bed. “Thank you,” she said, bowing on the soft mattress. The comments were simultaneously blowing up, but with only intermittent ‘thank you’s. From what Jaeho could see, most comments were still largely negative, either questioning Irene’s sanity in deciding to do a live broadcast in this current situation, reprimanding her for not working on herself, criticizing Jaeho and Irene for talking to each other, complaining that Jaeho’s presence was taking Irene’s attention away from her fans and demanded him to leave, or any number of other issues. Still, Jaeho was pleasantly surprised to see that there wasn’t a single moment in time in which there wasn’t at least one ‘thank you’ visible in the chat.

               In response, he posted another comment. ‘I was sort of joking at first, but now that there’s this much support, I have no choice, do I? 😁What do you all like to eat?’.

               He made sure to post the comment after Irene retrieved her phone, and after Irene read the comment out loud, many suggestions followed. “Tteokbokki, macrons, kimbap, coffee, burgers … wow, there’s a lot of suggestions here. Also, to those who are still upset at Jaeho, all I ask is for everyone to give him one more chance and judge him after you meet him at his food truck. I hope then you can all learn how great of a person he is.”

               The live broadcast didn’t last much longer after, with Irene spending most of the time answering questions from fans; despite everything, Jaeho went to bed more satisfied and content than he had been in the past week. The next morning, while preparing to visit his workplace to pick up some equipment he needed for work, he read a news article about the Instagram Live, praising the idol for being open and communicative with fans where other idols would be more closed off and private. Jaeho felt a surge of pride from reading it, so when he entered his company’s building, he was blind-sided.

               His bodyguard rode in the taxi with him, but Jaeho instructed him to remain a few steps behind him, invisible to the layman. He didn’t want to give others the impression that he had developed an ego from all the publicity and hired a bodyguard due to his ‘popularity’, if you could even call it that. Jaeho understood the importance of the bodyguard being close to his client, however, so he was hesitant to make the request; however, the bodyguard happily complied, simply making a joke that he hoped he wouldn’t be reported for stalking. Jaeho hadn’t observed the agility of the hulking man, fortunately, so he was almost more surprised at it than the fact that he got attacked.

               When Jaeho entered the building, he still had a few bandages; it was this combined with his notoriety in his company as being the infamous troublemaker, making a bad image for himself and the company on the news with his dating scandal, that drew a lot of heads. Try as he might, Jaeho could not completely acclimate to it, and after taking a break from having to deal with it, was blind-sided by the sudden attention. When he realized he was making note of it, he cleared his mind and made an active effort to ignore his surroundings, focusing solely on his destination: the elevator.

               This ended up being a major mistake.

               Not long after he zoned out, a blur caught his peripheral vision. Before he could even turn his head to see the target, his bodyguard, who seemingly just teleported to Jaeho’s side, was holding the would-be attacker: a slightly built, neatly dressed, well combed man in a suit, his wild demeanor serving as a direct contrast to his actions.

               “You don’t deserve to be here!” the man who attempted to attack him yelled, struggling against Jaeho’s bodyguard. “What is this? You even have a bodyguard? Do you think that’s enough? If you care about this company at all, then just quit!”

               “Sir, please calm down,” Jaeho’s bodyguard calmly said, barely having any trouble holding the crazed man back. Jaeho just stood there, frozen. He didn’t even see the man approaching him, how could his bodyguard have interrupted him so quickly? He didn’t know whether to be impressed or scared and just thanked his lucky stars that this man wasn’t carrying a weapon of any kind.

               “You’re making a bad name for us, didn’t you know?” the man continued yelling, having already drawn everyone’s attention. “Why do you even need any more money? You’re dating Red Velvet’s Irene! Just live off her money!”

               “Could someone please call this building’s security?” Jaeho’s bodyguard, again, calmly asked.

               “You don’t deserve to date her! What makes you think you have the right? Didn’t you say you were a Red Velvet fan? You’re just wasting her time! She’s in the prime of her career, and you’re just a distraction!”

               It was almost humorous to Jaeho because nearly everything this man said was something that he himself had thought. Interestingly, it was only with the help of Irene herself that he was able to clear these misconceptions that he had built in his head: that he was wasting Irene’s time, that he didn’t deserve her, even that he’s giving his company bad publicity and should quit.

               When the building’s security arrived and escorted the man out of the building, Jaeho continued on to his cubicle, a bit rattled at the encounter.

               “You are surprisingly agile,” Jaeho commented to his bodyguard as they rode the elevator up to his floor, “I swear, I didn’t even see that man approach me and you already had him restrained.”

               He simply answered with a nod. “Just doing my job.”

               After that incident, a short while after he returned back to his apartment, he received another email from his manager stating that he received word of what happened and delayed Jaeho’s return to the office building indefinitely, allowing him to work from home until he was comfortable returning.

               Everything was strangely well timed, too, because the concert Irene insisted Jaeho not go to—which she later got removed from—happened not too long afterwards, two weeks after the news of Irene’s dating scandal broke. Jaeho had already started to notice a decline in malicious comments but wasn’t really sure what it meant. At first, it seemed like the amount of positive comments increased, but when Jaeho considered that the amount of comments underneath relevant news articles detailing the couple’s now public-facing relationship, he realized that it could be the case that the amount of negative comments just decreased. His interest was sparked, being someone who essentially worked with numbers all day, and after doing some analysis comparing two of the first few articles about the news and two of the most recent articles about it, he found that his conjecture was true. How much of it was because of the sensationalist phrasing of the news articles was up for debate and frankly, Jaeho wasn’t so invested that he was willing to do any additional research.

               “Hey, I found out something interesting,” Jaeho said in his video call with Irene the night before the concert.

               “Hm? What’s that?” she said, looking up to look at the camera. All these months have passed, all those in-person meetings occurred, all these video calls happened, and Jaeho still found himself completely enamored at the simple beauty Irene exuded in the simplest of clothing. Did Irene look best in elaborate dresses and full makeup or simple pajamas and light makeup? It was a tough call.

               “So I’m not sure if you have been looking at comments, but I’ve noticed that there seemed to be more positive comments, but then I noticed that the comments seemed to be less in number. So I went back and compared the numbers and saw that it was true; at first, I thought that maybe people were starting to accept us, but after figuring this out, I hypothesized that maybe the people with negative comments were just losing interest. So I collected some data using the first two articles about the news and the two most recent news about us and judged by eye the amount of negative and positive comments for the 100 most recent and scaled it up to the amount of comments per article, and it turns out that the number of positive comments seemed to increase a little, but that can just be misrepresentation of data. I didn’t have the wherewithal to do appropriate adjustments to find the statistical optimum, so I’m not sure how accurate my findings are, but it seemed that my hypothesis was generally correct and that the people with criticisms are gradually disappearing. I’m not really sure what this means, if the freshness of the news faded or these people are genuinely turning around, but I think we have some hope for the latter.”

               During Jaeho’s entire tirade, Irene was just watching Jaeho speak with a big smile on her face. Jaeho rarely talked about his job and often times complained about it to her, but it was times like these, when he went on impassioned rants about something relating to his work, that made Irene really admire her boyfriend. Drive was an important part of the human experience, to Irene, and to see it thriving inside Jaeho was refreshing—and also extremely endearing and somehow adorable. “What I got out of that is that there are less negative comments, and the cause might be because people are being more accepting of our relationship,” Irene admitted.

               Jaeho chuckled briefly. “Yeah, that’s the gist of it,” he replied.

               This was the motivation that Irene needed to do what she did the following day: write a handwritten letter to the fans, talking about her dedication to her job and maturing, about her commitment to her fans and to Red Velvet, and wishing all the concert-goers well and to cheer on her colleagues.

               Unfortunately, the words fell on deaf ears for some as when she talked to her members the next day, she learned that during the Red Velvet performances, although it wasn’t nearly as bad as the Black Ocean SNSD experienced in their earlier years, there was a noticeable dip in luminosity and excitement levels when the four ladies took the stage. Irene barely had time to process her frustration, however, as that afternoon, Instagram blew up with nearly every single SM artist posting the same picture of Irene, when she was performing on stage for Red Velvet’s latest comeback, captioned with varying messages of support for the idol all accompanied by one hashtag.

               As she scrolled through all the posts, tears began to brim her eyes, a twisting sort of pain at her chest, but somehow not all too uncomfortable.

               ‘When similar news came out about me, I was extremely cautious and scared. I felt really apologetic and worried that my fans would be disappointed in me. Luckily, or maybe it was from my own hard work, people chose to react well. Seeing that made me really happy but also somehow more apologetic; I wasn’t sure if I deserved such kindness.

               ‘If everyone is willing to forgive me, then please also forgive Irene. She deserves it more than me; she’s kind, hard-working, but most importantly, she’s also a human being. She also gets lonely, and despite not having met Jaeho yet, I’m sure he is an amazing guy if our Joohyun chose him. #WeSupportYouBaeJoohyun’

               That was Heechul’s message, with the next picture being one they took the last time they filmed together for a variety show.

               ‘I have had the honor of meeting Jaeho once in person before, and it disappointed me to see so many people who don’t even know him attacking him for no reason. He was extremely kind and polite and also seemed very mature. I’m sure Red Velvet fans have noticed, but recently, Irene has been brighter and more energetic, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it happened while she was dating Jaeho. Almost every time I get the chance to talk to Joohyun, she tells me about Jaeho and how awesome of a person he is, and how lucky she is to have him.

               ‘Right now, Irene is hurting. You all saw her apology letter yesterday, right? I hope everyone can find it in their hearts to forgive her. She’s a warm-hearted, deeply passionate, hard-working junior that I treasure a lot, and seeing her saddened these days really hurts me too. #WeSupportYouBaeJoohyun’

               That was Taeyeon’s message, the next picture being one they took backstage at one of the SM concerts the previous year.

               She had noticed this happening while she was resting after lunch and by the time she read them all, she was a complete mess. When she saw what Jaeho posted, she just started openly sobbing.

               ‘Irene … Bae Joohyun, the most perfect woman in the world. When I first met her, and even before then, that’s what I thought of her. Never would I have dared to even imagine being able to talk to her, much less be her friend or even her boyfriend. It was like a far-away dream; like other Red Velvet fans, I could name her as my ideal woman without much issue but never even imagined having a chance with her. She’s an idol, she’s too busy, there are so many other more deserving men … why would she choose me?

               ‘To this day, I still have a few of these insecurities. I am a Red Velvet fan, and the last thing I want to do is to impinge on the group’s growth. Does someone as busy as Irene, the leader of Red Velvet, with one of the most endorsements out of all idols, need a boyfriend? Could she afford to have one? Actually, was I worth it? Didn’t she deserve someone better?

               ‘It was with her help that I rid myself of these thoughts. I rely on Joohyun for so much and I feel bad about it, both as a normal South Korean citizen and a man, but I am also extremely thankful for her. As some of you may know, I’ve had a few not-so-ideal relationships in the past and thought that maybe someone like me didn’t deserve a girlfriend. Joohyun also helped me with these negative thoughts.

               ‘I could probably write a whole book on all of her good points. She’s caring, she’s funny, she’s easy to talk to, she’s adorable, she’s hard-working, she’s passionate, she’s strong, she’s beautiful … is there a single positive characteristic that she doesn’t have? When I contrasted myself to her, I realized how big the gap between us was. Again, it was Joohyun who helped me bridge this gap and get over that insecurity.

               ‘When I see comments saying that I don’t deserve her, the thing is, I think that they’re right. Despite how much Joohyun’s helped me, I still have a hard time believing that someone like me deserves a woman like her, who is even more perfect in person than a simple fan like me could ever imagine. I also think that it’s fine to think that because it means I will always be striving to be deserving of her love and support and will always work hard to make her happy: as a Red Velvet fan and as her boyfriend.

               ‘I still have much to improve about myself, but I will hold myself accountable, and I hope you all will too. I love you Bae Joohyun #WeSupportYouBaeJoohyun’

               “You idiot…” she muttered to herself, carefully wiping the tears off her face. “It’s m-me who doesn’t deserve you, what are you t-talking about…” she was speaking into the void, as no one else was in the Red Velvet dorm at the time, but she couldn’t help it. “You idiot, what are you going to do now that I’m like this?”

               There were three different types of crying: the kind in which sadness overwhelmed you, the kind in which frustration seizes your body, and the euphoric relieving kind that seems to cleanse your body. This time, it was definitely the latter; all her bottled up emotions that built up over the past weeks, all her frustration and guilt and sadness and disappointment and concern spilled out all at once, her bodily fluids staining tissue after tissue.

               Reading the comments of the post only aided in the building sensation of relief, like a tension that was growing in her body was finally released after two weeks. It was overrun with people expressing their apologies and forgiveness, and reading the news article that was released shortly after Instagram exploded, Irene confirmed that this wasn’t a phenomenon that was unique to Jaeho’s post: almost everyone’s opinion seemed to be turning around.

               Irene sighed and laid down in her bed. She had her fair share of experience regarding public outcry against her, but seeing this one resolve as it did felt especially satisfying, especially since the topic matter would potentially be relevant to her for the rest of her life. Now, Irene felt, she had nothing else to worry about: Jaeho’s amnesia, their parents, the future … these were all things she could think about later. At that moment, all Irene wanted was to rest.

Finally, things calm down for the couple ... right? But there's still two chapters left ... what else could there be? Well, there's Jaeho amnesia ... how will they go about solving that? What are your thoughts?

If you liked the chapter or the story so far, please make sure to subscribe to get notified immediately when the next chapter drops, upvote and comment with your thoughts! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and thank you so much as always for reading!