2
JISOO'S POV
I woke up on my couch.
There was a blanket over me that I didn't put there. A glass of water on the coffee table that I knew for sure I didn't pour. And the slow, nauseating return of last night arriving in pieces ㅡ the bar, the drinks, Minjae's voice saying my name like it was barely worth the effort, the cab…
I sat up too fast.
Hold up.
What happened?
The room spun and I pressed my fingers to my eyes and waited for it to settle and the first coherent thought I had was: how did I get on the couch?
The realization slammed into me like a pail of cold water. Kang Minjae had brought me home. He had been in this apartment, my safe space.
My stomach churned as I grabbed my phone off the counter.
The notifications made my stomach drop. Not ten. Not even thirty. The kind of numbers that meant something had happened when I was unconscious. I tapped quickly, going through the top notifications.
Oh god.
It wasn't even good quality. Just grainy pictures taken from a hidden corner of the street, clearly shot in a hurry. But they were clear enough. Kang Minjae and I. Walking into my apartment at 2am. His hand was wrapped around my waist, my head slightly down.
My mouth went dry.
That…that wasn't what it looked like. The captions had soared and were climbing fast to sixty thousand likes.
Oh god.
RIVAL IDOLS KANG MINJAE AND HAN JISOO MAY SECRETLY BE SEEING EACH OTHER? ㅡ IS THERE MORE TO THIS RIVALRY THAT WE DON'T KNOW ABOUT?
No. I stared at the screen. No…no…no.
My phone rang and my fingers trembled when I saw my Manager's name flash across the screen.
I almost let it ring out but instead, I took a shaky breath and placed the phone to my ear.
"Hello?" My voice cracked.
"Seriously?!" He blew up immediately. "You breached a contract and snuck out yesterday?! Do you know what kind of trouble this is?! Do you understand the gravity of the situation?!"
My eyes were squeezed shut and my chest felt like something had plunged a blade through it. "I swear, I can explainㅡ"
"Don't. Just don't. Come to the company now and we will discuss what to do. Don't text or call anyone. Find a way to ignore the press."
Then the line went dead.
***********
I changed in record time, throwing on a simple shirt and pants with my cap pulled low before sneaking out, escaping the stream of paparazzi who had been waiting for me to come out.
Fuck.
I wanted fame. But not like this. Definitely not with Kang Minjae's name plastered with mine across every entertainment headline.
Sungho was already looking for reasons to kick me out of the group and I had given him the perfect reason to do it earlier than he wanted.
Conduct breach. Sneaking out. Drinking. Getting photographed with a rival Idol going into my apartment at 2am.
My career was already over.
The company's building lobby was quiet when I rushed in. Way too quietly the manager met me at the elevator and said nothing, which was somehow worse than anything he could have said, and he led me down to the conference hall.
Where I would be formally kicked out and cussed at.
I walked in, ready for anything. But I stopped.
Both companies' legal teams were sitting there. Two sets of executives. Laptops open, phones out, a wall monitor displaying live analytics in real time. And Minjae, already seated at the far side of the fable, jaw right, eyes forward, and not looking at me.
Why was his company here? LUMEN in GOLDEN LUXE? The two companies didn't exactly have a pretty history. But then, this was about their idol too.
My gaze slid to the screen that got everyone like this and my breath hitched at the statistics.
AURORA's search traffic had multiplied overnight. My individual name was trending in five different countries. Both groups' streaming numbers had spiked simultaneously.
Sungho was standing with his back to me, hands clasped behind him as he watched the monitor closely.
I sat down slowly, my jaw slack.
Slowly, I looked at Minjae. He was staring at the table, one hand flat against the surface but something about his expression told me he had been here long enough to have already gone through his own version of hell as of this morning. He looked just as I did about the whole thing.
Finally, he glanced over.
The look he gave me was very clear ㅡ This is all your fault.
My breath hitched and I looked away as the legal team started talking.
And somewhere between the words "publicity opportunity" and "mutually beneficial agreement", I realized with a creeping horror that they didn't want to fire me.
No…they…needed me. My gaze darted back to the monitor and a feeling of dread filled me.
The sound of a document being dropped on the table startled me and I looked up to see Sungho nodding to it.
"What is this?"
He smirked, refusing to answer for a second. "What do you think?"
I stared at the document for a second. Yesterday, that clause said something very different. Yesterday, I was twelve months away from losing my only source of income. And Sungho looked like he had made up his mind.
The CEO of LUMEN stepped forward, adjusting his suit. "This isn't going the way you both expected, yes?"
I wanted to laugh or cry, telling him this wasn't in any way planned but I held back, refusing to say anything before they confirmed it.
Sungho nodded at Kang Minjae and me. "Okay, boys. What I need is publicity. What we need is traction and you're getting it. Both of you."
I waited for the drop and it was there after a second.
He clapped his hands together, that god-damned smirk still pulling at his lips. "Let's make a deal, boys."