“I apologize for not being able to take down the posts immediately, President. Our PR and legal teams are working double time on tracing where those blog posts and articles online are coming from. If everything doesn’t work, we can always send some your father’s men to fix it. Rest assured that this will be dealt with swiftly and will be gone by this afternoon.” Secretary Kim bows deeply in front of Jeongyeon who is currently busy looking at the malicious articles posted about her and Nayeon on her tablet.

The articles are on hot topic sections and their names have been trending for over an hour now. Her PR and IT teams have tried to lessen the blow by manipulating the search engines but somehow the people are curious about her and Nayeon's relationship. She’s pissed off because she thought the paparazzis have stopped following her every move after she took over the company but she failed to realize that Nayeon is a celebrity and has tons of paparazzis who are always eager for a hot scoop from her. She’s blaming herself for being too comfortable that she made a mistake that caused their names to be dipped in a controversy.

“Just release a statement of her being our company’s latest product line endorser, that should put an end to it. I don’t want you to send threats to these news outlets who are vultures waiting to get fed by exploiting possible scandals. You out of all people should know that I am not like my father, mister Kim. We will deal with this accordingly so ask our legal team to file lawsuits against all those outlets for spreading false information and defamation. Send a basket of chocolates and a flower bouquet to Nayeon’s agency to apologize for putting her in this situation. You can send her agency my apologies and assurance that our company will deal with this issue. Please also reschedule all of my meetings for today, I need to be with my wife. She might’ve read those articles and it will be bad for her to get stressed over nothing.” Jeongyeon dismisses her secretary and gets up from her chair to leave her office with him.

The phone in her suit’s pocket starts ringing and her head throbs the moment she sees that it’s her father who is calling.

“What the were you thinking? Meeting up with that model when you’re a married person with a child on the way?! You’re a disgrace to my name! You better have something good to tell the press and our share holders because they’ve been blowing up my phone nonstop because of your stupidity! What were you thinking meeting up with her?” Her father’s voice angrily echoes on the phone. She can almost imagine her dad turning red with anger, it’s funny but now is not the time to laugh.

“It was not the way it seemed. We just met to discuss about her signing up with us as an endorser. Your friends from the company knows that. I’m sure you know how much buzz she’s getting from her current drama and everything she touches sells well and that’s all that I want for our products. This is not about her and me. We have long been over because of you, remember?” She and her secretary get in the elevator. There’s no one but the two of them so Jeongyeon knows mister Kim can overhear what her father is saying on the phone.

“I may not be the president anymore but remember I can easily take back what I’ve given you! I’ve been allowing you to do whatever you please with the way you manage the company but I won’t allow you to trample on my company’s image! Fix this before I send people over to do the dirty work.” Her father ends the call abruptly. Jeongyeon knows her father meant every word he said and she knows that they only have a few hours left to fix this before her father starts to intervene. She wonders what does her father think their company image is when everyone knows he is the main source of bad publicity for their company with all the underground deals he has made throughout the years. 

Jeongyeon feels a light pat on her shoulder from her secretary. No words are shared between them but the gesture manages to calm her down and assure her that everything’s gonna be okay, somehow.

----------xxx----------

“Mina? Minaya! I got the snacks and watermelon shake you’ve been craving.” Jeongyeon is holding big plastic bags in one hand while her other hand is busy taking off her shoes before she walks inside their unusually quiet house. She’d be lying if she says she’s not scared to be home but she knows she has to face her wife.

She slowly scans the rooms, trying to find where Mina is. When she doesn’t find her downstairs she figures her wife must be sleeping in their bedroom upstairs which somehow gave her a sense of relief.

Maybe she hasn’t seen it yet.

She opens their bedroom door and sees Mina sitting on their bed while looking outside the glass walls. The room is quiet aside from the sound that Jeongyeon makes as she takes a step towards her awfully quiet wife.

“Mina? I got-“

“You’re still seeing her?” Mina tears her gaze away from the calming scenery outside to look at her. Jeongyeon can see the hurt in her wife’s eyes and something inside her feels guilty even when she didn’t do anything wrong.

“This is why I went home early. I knew you’d see those stupid writings. Yes. I’ve met up with Nayeon but it’s only to discuss a contract. She will be a model for our phone and personal computer release this year.” Jeongyeon tries to explain.

“You discussed a contract by hugging each other? Is that how you seal the deal now?” The words from Mina’s lips are poisonous but Jeongyeon doesn’t let it get to her. She gets where her wife’s frustration is coming from. She plans on making peace with her wife and not get on a heated argument. 

“Mina, please-“

“I get that our marriage doesn’t revolve around love but for Christ’s sake, Jeongyeon! You’re going to have a child soon. And where did the “protecting our image” go? The articles about you cheating on me while I’m a huge balloon is embarrassing! Add the fact that our child might see those kind of writings about us when she grows up makes me want to slap your face!” Jeongyeon sees the way Mina balled her hand into a fist which makes her gulp. This is not good.

“Please calm down. I wasn’t even cheating. Those paparazzis have to make a living by blowing things out of proportion. You know we’ve severed our ties before we decided to have a baby. I know I should’ve told you about our meeting so we could avoid any confusion like what we’re having now but I didn’t think it was important. I didn’t think that me seeing her again was a big deal. Yes we hugged but it’s for old time’s sake and the two of us have been friends before we even became a thing. I’m sorry Minari but please believe me. Don’t get upset, our baby might feel sad too.” Jeongyeon tries to walk closer to her wife but Mina stops her by raising a hand to signal her to stop. 

“I don’t even want to see you right now Jeongyeon. Can you leave?”

“But this is my house-“

“Then I’ll leave!” Mina gets up from their bed to move towards their walk-in closet but Jeongyeon is quick to stop her.

“Okay! Okay, fine. I’ll leave. I’ll stay at the hotel so you can calm down. Just- just don’t be upset anymore, okay? You have our baby to think about, Mina.” Jeongyeon gets a bag and goes in to their shared walk-in closet to pack for at least two days, just until Mina calms down.

“Why are you packing a lot? You’re gonna go to her aren’t you? You’re gonna take this opportunity to be with her? Do you want a vacation? Is that why it's easy for you to just pack up and leave?” Jeongyeon didn’t even noticed her wife following her inside the closet as she’s busy stuffing random clothes in her duffel bag.

“You’re the one who asked me to leave, what do you mean? I’m just packing extras in case you don’t want to see me yet. I don't want you to be upset.” Jeongyeon scratches at her head with frustration. She doesn’t know what Mina wants her to do.

“You know what, stay in the house. You are pissing me off Yoo Jeongyeon.” Mina grabs the bag from Jeongyeon's hand and stuffs everything back in its original place.

“Don’t get mad. I know it’s just the hormones pumping anger through your veins but please don’t get mad anymore. Try to calm down. It’s bad for our baby. Let’s just eat your snacks and watch some TV, please?” Jeongyeon hugs Mina from behind, trying her best to mask the frustration she's feeling by using a softer tone to not irritate her wife.

“You better clear those reports. I don’t want our child seeing anything like that when she grows up and searches for our names!” Mina finally relents and drags Jeongyeon towards the couch in their bedroom.

“I promise it will be gone in a few hours. Mister Kim is working on it when I left the company. Don’t worry too much okay?” Jeongyeon gently makes Mina sit on the couch as she grabs a blanket from one of the drawers.

“Do you think it will be okay for me to call your parents and apologize? The headlines aren’t true but I feel like I still owe them an apology but a call doesn’t seem enough. How about we join them for dinner later? You haven’t seen them for a month.” Jeongyeon says as soon as she sits right next to Mina.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I want to assure them that we’re okay. That you’re okay. We’re okay, right?” Jeongyeon massages Mina’s swelling hands as she speaks.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Mina….”

“You have to work for it, Yoo. I’ll give mom a call after the movie. Now come cuddle before you piss me off some more.”

“Yes ma’am.” Jeongyeon chuckles when she sees Mina with her round belly acting like a child who wants to get cuddled. She wraps an arm around Mina while her other arm fixes the fleece blanket on Mina’s bel