Fatescript

"Damage Control"

                              🌸🌸🌸

A soft hum of the AC was the only sound in the room.

Jisoo sat in her office, head leaning back against the high-backed chair, eyes closed. Her desk was spotless—papers filed, reports complete—but her mind was anything
but - Silent. She wasn't asleep, just drifting in thought, lost in the vast emptiness that had taken residence inside her.

It had been a week since the dinner incident.

A week since she stormed off, refusing to let anyone reason with her.

A week of pretending everything was normal when it clearly wasn’t.

And every day since, she'd buried herself in work. She didn’t eat in the lunch hall anymore—her food came to her office now. She barely responded to Sooyaa’s attempts to check on her. She even started leaving early, avoiding Taehyung, Hwa-jin, and anything that came with them.

Her phone had buzzed the day after the dinner.

It was her younger brother, Min-ho.

She had called him first—couldn’t sleep until she did. Just hearing his voice made something in her chest loosen.

“Everything’s fine, noona,” he had said, too quickly.

She smiled sadly. “Min-ho… don’t lie to me.”

He sighed after a pause. “Fine. There were some ajummas—neighbors, you know how nosy they can be. They’ve been bothering eomma.”

Jisoo’s stomach twisted. “What did they say?”

“They kept asking her if you’re really dating that Taehyung guy. His name’s all over the internet,” he muttered.

“And?”

“She said no, of course. But they were… persistent. Acting like they knew better. You know how people are.”

Jisoo hadn’t replied. She just sat there with the phone pressed to her ear, chest tight.

“Noona,” Min-ho had added gently, “we’re okay. Really. Eomma told them off, don’t worry. Appa’s just annoyed because he doesn't like his name popping up anywhere, but no one's mad at you.”

But that didn’t matter.

Jisoo had always tried to keep her family away from the noise. The world she lived in—sharp suits, silent wars in boardrooms, curated power—it wasn’t a place for warm hands and family dinners.

And now, despite her efforts, they were being dragged into it. Because of one stupid rumor.

One man.

Taehyung.

The name alone made her sigh, head still tilted back.

She felt nothing towards him. Not hate. Not attraction. Just… fatigue.

A hollow tiredness that came from constantly cleaning up messes she didn’t make.

Her phone buzzed softly on the desk.

She didn’t open her eyes. Didn’t move.

Let them talk, she thought bitterly. Let them assume.

This life—so carefully built—suddenly felt too tight, too scripted.

And yet, here she was. Still playing her part.

The steady hum of the ceiling light buzzed louder in her ears the longer she sat there, her chair creaking softly as she shifted upright. Her eyes, dull with exhaustion and frustration, slowly opened as she stared at her spotless desk.