Chapter 7 – Who shot the first bullet? Part 2

“CORE CONTENTS MEDIA TO MAKE A MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE 30^TH”

That headline gave every single fan of T-ARA goosebumps.

Rumours were harshly circulating in the internet that Hwayoung was made an outcast and ostracized, constantly bullied.

Jiyeon read the headline and panicked a little bit. She browsed through Nate but after reading the bullying rumours, she quickly shut off the laptop. Of course she wonders what is the big announcement but she acted like she didn’t care. Instead, Jiyeon opened her iPhone’s diary.

July 28^th, Saturday

As usual,my stupid self is feeling guilty for Hwayoung but I don’t want to feel this. She deserves this, freaking backstabber.

Jiyeon locked her phone and sighed, resting her head on her pillow.

After the Twitter havoc, Jiyeon had a sleepless night and constantly feeling guilty to her best friend. Her hands yearned to dial her best friend’s number and ask her how she’s doing and make up with her but suddenly all that she heard in the locker room back in Budokan rehearsal, she terminated that feeling in her heart.

Her head turned to her dressing table, next to her and found a standing picture of her with Hwayoung on their graduation day early this year. She stared at it for awhile but later she threw away the picture and PPANG!! the glass frame broke into pieces.

Jiyeon panicked and quickly went to rescue the picture.

“I’m sorry...” She wiped the glass off her picture with her best friend, Hwayoung.

Not knowing wether she’s crying because the frame is broken or the broken relationship she’s having with Hwayoung now. Even without knowing her exact reason, she continue to caress the picture. She put the picture under her pillow and swallowed two tablets of sleeping pills before forcing herself to sleep, only having the thought of her best friend.

The next morning, she got a text from IU, demanding to know what’s going on in T-ARA now. It’s the morning of July 29^th. Jiyeon knows that rumours of ostrasizing and bullying are spreading but by the tone of IU’s text, she quickly switched on her laptop and browse through Nate.

‘Proofs’ of T-ARA bullying Hwayoung are made into .gifs and quickly spreading quicker than a cheetah and putting Hurricane Katrina on a hold due to T-ARA Typhoon hitting Korea now.

Jiyeon’s frown got worse by every articles. There are at least 10 in a row of T-ARA’s proof articles and with every article, Jiyeon’s mouth got wider. None of this is true! She pulled her hair and slapped her laptop. Dissatisfied, yes this is what she’s feeling now.

Where does all of this baseless rumours coming from?! She continued browsing and with every minute, T-ARA got an almost staggering 12 millions views on their stupid baseless rumoured articles.

Soyeon has a habit of browsing through the internet every morning before she goes to work because she needs to keep up with T-ARA news, expecially now after her younger members childish acts on Twitter last two nights.

Soyeon’s eyes widen over the tons and loads of T-ARA articles popping every time she refreshes the entertainment homepage, Nate.

“Oh my God...”Soyoen slapped her forehead.

“This is not happening....” Soyeon murmured to herself.

Suddenly her phone rang, and she quickly answered. It’s from Hyomin.

“Unnie... unnieee...” Hyomin was crying uncontrollably on the. Soyeon figured Hyomin is reading the flooding rumours on Nate now.

“They even made proof...” Hyomin continues crying. Soyeon can only catch a few words of Hyomin was saying. Clearly, Hyomin is very upset.

“Hyomin ah, Hyomin ah..” Soyeon cut her off and Hyomin tried to calm her sobbing.

“Calm down.. stop crying.. and listen to me. Everything is going to be alright. We’ll be alright..” Soyeon consoled her sister.

Soyeon felt that Hyomin was nodding on the other side by hearing her continued sobbing.

She hung up and switched off her laptop.

She needs to do something.

“Ssajang-nim?” Soyeon called CEO Kim Kwang Soo.

“You need to do something..” Soyeon began detoriating. She was getting very weary and emotional.

“I am, this 30^th. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything..” CEO said and hung up on her.

July 30^th 2012

“Hwayoung to leave T-ARA”

This news quickly climbed up to be number one in all entertainment homepage. Comments were flooding the the comment boards and even caused Nate to halt their homepage for 32 seconds.

This news shook the KPop world.

Soyeon woke up that morning after hearing her phone rang. She had 25 missed calls from her members and one coordi unnie.

Soyeon face fell after seeing the missed calls. Did something happened? She quickly looked at her calendar and it clearly, never been anymore clearer, her eyes read JULY 30^TH.

She called her members again but none answered. At her very last effort, she called her coordi unnie while waiting for her laptop to finish loading.

“Unnie ah, what happened?” Soyeon panicked.

The coordi unnie stayed silent for a moment as if hesitating.

“You need to read the news, Soyeon ah..” the coordi unnie said but by the time she said that, Soyeon eyes were glued to one particular headline.

Her phone fell to the ground and her eyes were building tears of sadness and anger.

Her heart thumped harder than usual.

Is this all her fault?

She asked for the CEO’s help but she didn’t get it her way.

“Did I shot the bullet?” Soyeon murmured and continue staring at the headline, unable to move.