A/N: 69 heh. Also forgot to post but it's okay I'm here now.
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Three Days Later, Monday, New Year's Eve, Jimin
I miss her. I realized that she would be leaving in a couple of days and I had desperately wanted to spend time with her on New Year's. The other members weren't allowed to use their phones around me, so I couldn't even sneak in a call to Riti.
BigHit had refused to relent and announce the relationship. We had just decided on a waiting game, and Baek Hee's company had not bothered to respond. We weren't sure why, until we saw another Dispatch article online. "New celebrity couple to be revealed on December 31st."
The whole company had been watching with bated breath, and a collective disappointment filled the air when we'd seen the news. Nobody was angry or upset with anyone anymore. We simply waited. The PR managers were getting ready with counterplans and ways to contain the damage. In some corner of my head I was hoping that instead of "Baek Hee and Jimin", the couple reveal would be "Baek Hee and Jihun", especially since her company had not even reached out to us once we'd missed the deadline they had set us... but there was little time to ponder.
The members and I, instead of sitting around for the calamity to hit, were practically ordered to go have New Year's Eve "celebrations" outside. We'd driven to a location we had rented out just for us and our managers, and catered some good Korean food we ate in silence.
As the day wore on, we tried to play games, sing songs, film some Bangtan bombs, but the mood was terrible. And then, it began.
First, Sejin's phone rang, and then the marketing director's, who was present as well. And then, surprisingly, Taehyung's phone rang, and the three of them listened to the other side carefully. I groaned and buried my head into Hobi's shoulder, who patted my head to comfort me. Almost theatrically, all three of them stood up at once in shock. "What? What did you say?" The other managers who had phones and were checking the news cycle immediately let out little gasps, sighs, and I definitely heard one of the interns shriek. But the whole room fell silent once more, until Taehyung hung up his phone and burst into laughter, which the management joined in on slowly.
"What? What what?" Hobi murmured, mirroring our confusion. His manager stood up and read the headline: "Dispatch confirms Jennie from BLACKPINK and Kai from Exo to be dating."
I shot up straight in my seat. "Kai?!"
"And that's it! We're in the clear!" Sejin roared with laughter. Hoseok hugged me, and all the other members followed suite until we were a big pile of giggles in around me.
"Wait but why? Why didn't they keep their word about releasing the pictures?" Namjoon asked.
The marketing director shrugged. "The time to do it would have been today. They've missed the most publicity they could have gotten out of it."
I stood up and walked up to her. "Director... I need to call Kai, right? He's my friend and I need my phone."
She sighed. "You can get it back once we're at the company."
I shook my head. "No, now. Can I borrow one of your phones to call him?" She pushed me away.
Sejin walked up to me and handed me his phone with a laugh. "Here, call your Kai. Go hurry."
"Manager..." I said, my eyes moist. He could tell about my feelings for Riti?
"Apparently you're good at hiding relationships from me, but not feelings." He whispered to me.
I took his phone and ran out of the room as the noisier of the members cheered me on. I laughed and dialed a number I'd memorized now. Sorry Kai, I'll definitely call you next. But first...
Riti's voice answered, "H-Hello?"
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Two Days Ago, Saturday, Baek Hee
I arrived at the board meeting first, because my voice mattered the least here. I was a puppet here, being used to improve the publicity of my group, and in turn, the company. A bunch of imbeciles. Today was the deadline of BigHit's announcement we had put forward. Did they really think the company would willingly announce a relationship that was already over?
The humiliation made me want to spit on the face of CEO. I resented Jimin for continuing with his agenda too. We had no feelings for each other, I'd pushed him away, but he wanted to be someone noble. What bulls**t. This industry had turned me into a monster and I didn't even have the satisfaction of being hated by the people I'd wronged. Including that girl, Riti. I remember the look on her face when I'd last seen her and it pissed me off.
The room filled with people, nobody bothered to greet me. Kahn arrived too, and he threw me a glare before sitting down right next to me for some reason. I smirked. He had the lowest opinion of me, and it was worsened after this whole affair came to light. No worries, I hated him too. But I was in the mood to surprise him a little.
He whispered to me, "If people were a little more ruthless you would've gotten your due by now. We'd not be sitting here ruining other people right now."
Oh? So he knew.
"What can I say, Kahn? The same good people who ruined you are ruining me. Maybe there's still some hope left in the world." I whispered back.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
I ignored him and stood up once everyone had assembled, and slammed my hand on the table. "Director!" I exclaimed, with tears pooling in my eyes. "I'm being blackmailed!"
They looked at me with confusion.
"I got a message about stopping the blackmail to BigHit because they have pictures of me... cheating on Jimin."
The CEO stood up in shock and murmurs spread around the table. "What?! With whom?"
I pleaded him with big teary eyes. "Jihun."
Chaos unfolded, and the directors' murmurs became shouting and arguing. Within minutes, Jihun, who was practicing in the studio nearby, was brought in, looking clueless. We shared a look, and I internally apologized for what I was doing.
"It's true!" I cried. "Ask Jihun, he received the ominous message too. They told us that if we continue bullying their oppa, they would release photos they have of us together. What if the press finds out that I was cheating on Jimin?"
"Photos? What photos?!"
I pulled out a printed out photograph of Jihun and I kissing... and then another, and another. "These were photos they had, and they threatened that they had pictures of us nude. But they didn't send those."
Jihun looked up at me in shock. That man had hardly ever laid a finger on me. The possibility of having pictures of us sleeping together, was thus, nil.
I looked at him with intention. Trust me trust me trust me trust me. "Right, Jihun?"
He blinked a couple of times before answering, "Yes."
A man who doesn't play games with me.
I just about stopped myself from smiling and breaking character in front of the board. I didn't know what love was or if I was even capable of it, but I knew then that the man in front of me loved me. He held my grudges for me, followed me blindly, listened to my every whim. And I was thankful for it. I didn't know if the move I was making meant the two of us couldn't be together like he'd wanted, but without thinking about his happiness or his future, Jihun had come to support right away.
I turned to face the CEO and clasped my hands together. "Please don't punish us, but tell us what we need to do. I don't want these threats to affect our careers."
"Are you kidding? You should be thrown out of the company!"
"Why didn't you tell us!"
"You whore!"
Surprisingly, Kahn stepped between me and the rest of the table.
"Shut up, you morons. Stop focusing on what happened and let's focus on what we can do. These two have been doing a good job hiding their relationship so I don't think there's any reason to chastise them."
"But now we can't release the photos with Jimin in case his crazy fans retaliate!"
Kahn tsk'd, "That's a real pity, but it seems like all we can do is hope that they don't release the images. We should stay silent too. It's best if the matter is forgotten. We have other ways of making money around here."
Kahn looked serious, but when he turned around to look at me, I saw a little smirk playing at his lips, and I nodded in acknowledgement. There is still good and fairness if people can preserve it.
Riti was just as manipulative as us, if she had played her cards this well. I had to turn away from the board to cover up my smile. Winning over people takes the most manipulation of all—isn't that right, Riti?