Forget Me Not

Chapter 9: London Bridge is falling down

Aishi wakes up to her phone ringing. "Kimmy? Is everything alright?" she says groggily, half asleep. As she listens to Kimmy, her pupils dilate and her eyes open widely. She sits up straight on her bed, her posture alert but she is barely listening to the panicked voice of Kimmy.

"Photos leaked. Joshua is trending. Your faces are visible. Scandal. Future. Prospects." and the words just blur themselves like a foggy night's vision.

"Where's Joshua?'' She manages to speak. She is still in her hotel room. Last night, after their kiss by the Han river, they both wanted to do more. The sweet confession of love has broken the forts they have built to put lust at bay. They wanted to kiss each other more deeply, touch each other more hungrily, want each other more brazenly. Just as she was about to suggest taking it to her hotel, they heard a camera click somewhere. They turned around to see if they were being watched, but couldn't find anyone. They didn't think much of it after, but it sure did kill the mood. The fear of being exposed, and losing it all in a moment of heat, clutched at them. Joshua dropped her back to the hotel and made plans to meet again for lunch the next day.

"He is with the PR team trying to do some firefighting. Can you come down to the company building? And, please wear something inconspicuous."

Aishi picks up her phone to scroll through it, but she does not have any notifications. It isn't weird considering the fact that she is not famous and most of her friends and family don't follow Korean media. In fact most Koreans don't follow the tabloids unless they are fans themselves. She checked her work email, no emails from her team or the clients. "It's not that bad, yet." She thought.

She searched up Joshua's name on the internet and it sure was trending in Seoul. There it was, a grainy photograph of two people kissing. Her face is not recognizable, neither is Joshua's, but the fans have already put together their detective reports based on his clothes, his branded hat, and his physical build. There was another photo that started trending, Joshua sitting with some girl and having coffee together, their picture from the airport! She didn't think anyone managed to get that. But, with a larger scandal breaking in, the international fans started "contributing" as well. It's only a matter of time someone digs into the staff's social media post from the Frankfurt team dinner and they piece one and one together. They will find her socials, her LinkedIn profile, they will plaster her face all across tabloids, and she will lose the Korean project.

She calmed herself down, panicking and spiralling down is never helpful. She quickly showers and puts on a grey hoodie, black cargo pants, and a baseball hat. She walks in hurried steps to meet Kimmy and finds him waiting for her at the building entrance. He hurries her into the nearest conference room and says, "This is bad. It's the worst scandal so far. Mostly because it's not a false allegation. It is true. Your alibis point towards the fact that you two were, in fact, kissing each other."

"Wait a minute! Alibi? Are we some common criminals?" Aishi purses her lips, trying to stay graceful.

"Let's not get into semantics now. You know what I mean. But, we have found a way. We are going to release a statement that Joshua was going on a run and was confronted by a passionate fan. She believed in the whole fanservice thing and was delusional. So, she kissed him and that's what the photograph is. We spoke with the original owners of the photos and paid them off to agree with our story. It will be a regular Sasaeng experience and there will be some public sympathy for Josh. Nobody knows who you are and your face is not clear, so your identity will remain a secret."

Aishi can't believe her ears, she is fuming with anger at this point. She is very close to screaming, but she composes herself. She looks up at Kimmy, with her eyes wide with anger,

"A Sasaeng? A stalker? A sexual offender? This is what you are portraying me as? I don't know what Joshua thinks about our encounter, but I wasn't the only one who wants this relationship, he does too. At least I thought he did. Does he know about this? Did he agree to this? Where is he? I want to meet him."

"Calm down for god's sake Aishi, you are practically announcing to everyone that we are cleaning up your mess. I like you a lot, I really do. I also think you are a good person and deserve to be with the one you love. But, you are not good for Josh. Do you know how many times he almost outed your snaps? He smiles at his phone while getting his hair and makeup done, he misses practices waiting for your texts, he rescheduled a PR shoot to go on a date with you yesterday. These kinds of sacrifices are not great in this industry. Fame is very short lived and his lucky stars aligned when the last album became a hit. And this scandal, this would destroy him. And it would destroy you too. I know this project is very prestigious for you, it's the fucking Korean military for god's sake! And any other path we take, we'll risk outing your identity. Please, just sign a Non-Disclosure and leave the country."

Up until this point, Aishi was on the verge of getting convinced that this is a good idea and Kimmy just wants the best for the both of them. The mention of an NDA pissed her off, he only cared about Josh. He thinks she will be some lady scorned and walk to the nearest broadcast station and reveal all about their love affair. It hurt her more than the scandal, more than painting her as a creep, more than making it seem like she seduced Josh and brought about his downfall.

She has an incredulous look on her face when she asks Kimmy, "An NDA? You want me to sign an NDA? And say what? That I never met Joshua? That I never fell in love with him? Does he know about this?"

"It was his idea", says Kimmy.

She stands up, takes one look at Kimmy, and speaks in a tone that is dangerously low, almost a whisper,

"Fuck you Kimmy! I will sign any paper just to get you out of my face."