Project IZ*ONE: Secret Files

The Masked Singer: Part 2

"Is this about last night?" The short-haired girl asks when the two get to her dressing room.

"How'd you know? Don't tell me you were really at the scene of the crime."

"Well, I was, but I wasn't the one who killed the guy. I was trying to protect him from someone." Yuri whispers.

"Uhm, that's not exactly what the public thinks..." Her manager says before taking out her phone and showing it. It was a post of her blurry picture from yesterday, and the comments seemed to be less than friendly.

"That has to be Jo Yuri!" One commenter wrote.

"Yes, I agree! The murder happened near her apartment complex, people reported a singing voice, and Yuri is a mutant whose powers we don't know. It only makes sense!" Another person said. The rest of the comments were some variation of that one, and the numbers only seemed to grow.

"Ugh, people sure do bandwagon fast..." Yuri says while rubbing her temples.

"We tried deleting the speculative posts, but because of the nature of the case, we can't do that unless we confirm that you weren't actually there." The manager says sadly.

"It's fine. Because the picture is too low-quality, I don't think they can arrest me for that. I also don't think the company making a comment will do any good because people already believe what they want to believe. The only way to clear my name and stop people from getting hurt is finding the real culprit as soon as possible." Yuri replies.

"Alright, Yuri-ssi. I hope you know what you're doing. I'll clear your schedule for the rest of the week, but that fansigning event can't be moved."

"Yes, that's no problem. I'll meet up with Yena-unnie after the recording to figure this out." Yuri says with a bow before heading back out towards the stage.

~~~~

Thankfully Yuri managed to finish her performance without any major mistakes, but she was mobbed by paparazzi the second she exited the broadcasting station. Many of them asked if she was connected to the events of last night, and all the hamster could do was pull her hood up and walk forward. She was wondering how they all knew which exit she was going to use until she saw a familiar yellow car parked next to the black private vans. At this point, her relationship with Yena was no secret, and seeing as the cameras have caught her entering that car several times, it made sense that the reporters would camp around it like vultures.

"Yah, what'd I say about bringing the yellow car to fetch me from work?" Yuri asks with a sigh when she gets in.

"That's no way to talk about the Yen-mobile, Yul." The duck replies with a sarcastic laugh before getting a smack on the shoulder from the younger girl.

"If you weren't so cute, I swear. I just can't stay upset with you." The short-haired girl says before moving on to more important matters. "You find anything about the mutant from last night?"

"You mean the masked singer?" Yena asks.

"Isn't that what they were calling me in the comments because they couldn't clearly see my face?" Yuri says, referencing the new nickname she'd seemed to earn from her outfit from the night before.

"Well, funnily enough, this person shares the same name." The older girl says before explaining during their drive back to her apartment.

Apparently, the urban legend of the masked singer began almost a decade ago in Ulsan where a string of deaths had occurred that matched up pretty well with the events happening now in Seoul. A lovely singing voice would echo through alleyways until an unsuspecting victim would get drawn in only to be stabbed and robbed afterwards.