The Cutting Edge

040

The next morning, Hyejin opened her bleary eyes and stared straight up at her ceiling in a slight daze.

Was it all a dream?

She ran her fingers across her lips, and a tiny smile appeared across her face as she recalled every little detail from the night before. From the moment Hyunwon leaned in and kissed her, everything that happened after that became a huge blur. She remembered them walking round the garden a couple of times, with him tucking her hand into his pocket along with his own—it had been surreal, holding his hand as they walked. Even when they finally decided that it was time to say goodnight, she hadn't wanted to let go.

"Oh my goodness that was so embarrassing!" she squealed, pulling up her covers and burying her face under them. Did she actually confess so blatantly to him? Twice?

"You have no pride whatsoever, Song Hyejin," she mumbled.

"Hyejin! Hyejin come out here right now!" her father was shouting from outside.

Lifting her covers a notch, she peered at the clock on her bedside table. It was only seven in the morning—her alarm hadn't even gone off yet. Picking herself out of bed, she made her way out of her bedroom in her Winnie the Pooh pyjamas, wondering why her father was calling for her so early in the morning.

She found him standing by the living room window, lifting up the curtain and peeping at whatever was going on outside.

"What's going on?" she yawned. Even before getting close to the window she could already hear the commotion that was coming from downstairs. Walking over to her father's side, she poked her head over his shoulder to find out what exactly he was looking at.

To her horror, the area directly in front of her block was packed full of bobbing heads, some touting huge cameras and others carrying placards. Was there some sort of protest going on right now?

"She's there!" one of the teenage girls carrying a cardboard placard spotted her in the window and shouted out, pointing a finger in her direction.

Almost immediately, a tomato came flying towards them, landing with a splat against the glass windowpane.

Hyejin's father quickly let go of the curtain, obscuring them from view.

"What is going on, Hyejin? Why are all these people protesting outside our house? And those signs—some of them have your name on it and the words that accompany them..." The wrinkles on his forehead deepened as he frowned, thinking of the insulting language that he had seen on some of those placards.

Hyejin dashed into her room to grab her phone, frantically dialling Gina's number. A half-asleep voice answered on the other end of the line, slurring into the receiver. After a tiring day yesterday and a little too many glasses of wine last night, she wasn't all too pleased with the morning disturbance.

"This had better be important."

"There are reporters and protestors everywhere!" Hyejin exclaimed. "Someone just threw a freaking tomato at my window."

"Relax. They aren't banging down your door are they? I've made arrangements to have security block them from entering the building."

"What am I supposed to do now?"

"Just stay indoors and don't go running out. And don't say anything to any of the paparazzi. You might also want to stay away from Kara's rabid fans. They probably want to strangle you right now, so it might not just be tomatoes they have with them. I expect Kara's manager would have prepared a statement in response to your accusations from yesterday, so just sit tight and turn on the TV."