An Idol's Scandal

Chapter 5: Back to Seoul

After the concert, DXD safely landed on Seoul. In the airport, fans were screaming for the names of the members and sincerely welcomed them home. To thank for their patience and concerns, the DXD members, for the first time in a while, stopped in their track and happily bowed to their fans for not giving up on them. 

As soon as they sat on the car, their attitude immediately flipped. The solemn atmosphere has once again returned. All of the members either looked out the window or isolated themselves with earphones and pretended to sleep. When one of them noticed the change in the route they were going through, Minho answered: "JMH entertainment."

"Why's that?" asked Seungkwan.

"I insisted." Minho paused. "Bang PD-nim's also there."

"But why?" Minjun jumped in.

"I have a feeling, a feeling that this is more complicated than we might have thought it is."

"What is more complicated than we might have thought it is?" Hanbin took out his earphones.

"The scandal about Sooyoung stealing Sunoo's necklace." Yoonsu murmured, loud enough for the members to hear. Sunoo winced at that.

It was only a day before Diversi5's MV was released. Kim Heungmin had generously allowed the members of the girl band to rest for an entire day, and so, Sooyoung was back at Sunoo's and her apartment. She was in the mood to cook dinner, and knowing that Sunoo was coming back from his trip to China made her day brighter. She happily hummed the song of their comeback in the kitchen. She was frying the chickens when she heard ding-dong. The doorbell rang. She quickly rushed to the door and opened it. To her surprise, she was greeted with Sunoo with his bruised face.

"Sunoo-sunbaenim, are you alright?"

Subconsciously, she rose her hand to touch his face, but unlike the other days, he only gently brushed her hand away and avoided their eye contact. Sooyoung wondered what happened to him, but she found her answer when she saw the crowd of people behind him. She quickly bowed to all of them and stuttered: "Mr. B-Bang, Mr. Jeon. Please come in and have a seat."

Sooyoung did not understand the situation and why the leaders and the DXD along with the rest of Diversi5 members looked solemn, and perhaps, even awkward in front of her.

When everyone had a seat, Ong Jungwon initiated: "Let's get to the point. Sooyoung," Sooyoung replied with a questioning yes. "I feel like there's still a lot of knots untied, and if I'm not wrong, you're stopping us from untying any of them."

Sooyoung widened her eyes. She looked at the floor and said: "I'm sorry. I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sooyoung, I know you can be honest. Please don't make it any harder for us." Said Minho.

"If you're talking about the necklace, then I stole Sunoo-sunbaenim necklace and wore it for show. That's all there is to it." Sooyoung bit her lip.

Minho said: "Sooyoung, if you can abandon your responsibilities as an idol, fly all the way to China with a staff member that happens to know Chinese to help you book an appointment with a trustworthy doctor, fit the appointment just perfect enough to be right before the concert, and pay for 7 expensive needles, what else can't you do?" 

Sooyoung pressed her hands tightly together at Minho's words.

Silence overtook the room before Kim Heungmin sighed.

"Sooyoung. It's okay." Kim Heungmin reassured the girl with a smile. Sooyoung was hesitant, but the seriousness showed in everyone's expression told her to follow what her boss said.

Before the scandal involving Sunoo and Sooyoung happened, JMH was greatly in debt. Kim Heungmin has invested heavily on Diversi5's debut, and to their amazement, they have achieved a decently large amount of views and support from the K-pop industry. They were highly valued for a rookie band by critics and fans. 

However, on their road to prepare their next album, a staff member was caught releasing private information to other agencies, which made a huge loss to JMH. Their concept ideas, which was deemed to be refreshing and eye-catching, were stolen by greater agencies. Consequently, more than half of the investment Kim Heungmin had for Diversi5 was wasted. The loss was too great.

Kim Heungmin did not have any solution and could not run away from his debt. He dismissed all of his male trainees, who luckily did not sign any contracts with JMH, and announced to the members of Diversi5 that he might have to sell them off to a better company. 

However, the night on the day he made the announcement was their planned-to-be last comeback stage. As a coincidence, a JMH staff member found a luxurious necklace on the floor and thought it was one of a Diversi5 member. When Kim Heungmin received the necklace from his staff member, he knew it was Sunoo's signature necklace. When he was holding it in front of his hand, Sooyoung came in his office, hoped to ask him whether she could continue working at JMH.

"I was touched. I was speechless because of her kindness. It felt wrong denying her request." Kim Heungmin explained. "And so, I gave her the necklace and told her it was a gift for her kindness. She only received it when I said I'd only let her stay if she accepts it. If she knew I had such intention, she would have not received it. The necklace... Was our only way."

The people in the room nodded sadly. Sunoo had his eyes widened, his pupils shrunk.

"No. Even if she knew it was Sunoo's and your intention, she would have still accepted it. Out of kindness, that is." Said Jeongyoon. She smirked when she saw Sooyoung jumped a bit.

"How are you so sure?" Kim Heungmin questioned.

"What... do you mean?" Minjun had a bit of a headache at the revelation, already. As soon as he thought there is a possibility of there was more than just that much, his head starts to spin a bit.

"Because she had a crush on Sunoo way before we debuted, right Sooyoung?" Everyone looked at Sooyoung. The people in the room had their eyes fixated on her. "There's no reason she would have not to recognize it as Sunoo's signature necklace."

Sooyoung shook her head violently as she weakly retorted: "No, really, that's not true..."

Jeongyoon smirked before saying: "Sunoo, kiss her."

Sunoo suddenly jumped in his seat. However, he was not alone. Sooyoung also jumped quite a bit. Not only were her cheeks, but from her neck to her entire face showed a burning crimson color.

"..."

"..."

"..."

As she received the stares from everyone, including that of Sunoo's, Sooyoung didn't know where to look and could only cover her face in deep embarrassment.

"You knew. You knew my intention from the start." Kim Heungmin pursed his lips.

"As they all say, the quietest person is the most secretive person." Jeongyoon sighed.

"How come she told you but never told us anything?" S.H. pouted.

"She didn't tell anyone." All of the idols were left dumbfounded. "I trained with her for seven years and I'm also the leader of Diversi5. Shouldn't I at least know this much about my members?"

The meeting they had with each other lasted for an hour. Even though relief washed over everyone's face, the awkwardness still sustained in the room. Ong Jungwon along with the other DXD members excused themselves back to their home and so did Kim Heungmin and Diveresi5.

The clarification about the scandals allowed the leaders to compromise a solution. Ong Jungwon dismissed his original intention of revealing this information to the presses and told Kim Heungmin that they should continue with the method. Kim Heungmin bowed to him and simply said a tearful 'thank you'. Ong Jungwon only patted him and told him: "It doesn't matter. You didn't have any wrong intentions in the first place, it's just the way the world works. If you don't mind, how about a dinner between UOI and JMH someday?"

When everyone left, Sooyoung removed Sunoo's necklace from her neck and returned it to him.

"Since everything's clear, you should wear it. This way, I won't be bothering you in the future."

Sunoo raised his head when he heard it. His heart clenched again when he looked at the necklace on his hand. He should have wanted this at the outcome. He longed for this, but, it seemed wrong. He never knew the necklace felt this heavy on him.

"I'm sorry." Sunoo mewed.

Sooyoung stopped in her track. "It's not your fault. And I'm not hurt or anything."

"How can you not be hurt when I've treated you that way? Sooyoung, I'm genuinely sorry." Sunoo pulled her hand, attempted to make her look at him. Sooyoung reluctantly looked at him.

"I accept your apology, so can you please let me, me go?" Sooyoung tried to distance herself from Sunoo. She was afraid Sunoo would hear the wild thumps in her chest.

"No." Sunoo pulled her closer, but Sooyoung persisted to break free.

"It really doesn't matter. You don't need to make up anything for me."

"Of course, I have to!"

"Okay, okay sure, I-I don't mind. Just let me go, I need to go to the kitchen."

"Don't lie. Stop lying. Don't run away from me." Sunoo pulled her closer into an embrace, locked her right in his arms.

"No, I actually mean I need to go to the kitchen!" Sooyoung tried to push him away from her, but his arms locked her waist completely to his.

"And why is that? Aren't you just trying to avoid the topic?"

"It's because the fried chicken wings are going to-"

Wee woo wee woo! The alarm set up. Water sprayed from the ceiling onto their faces and made Sunoo mentally facepalmed.

"-burn." Sooyoung sighed.

He buried his face into the crook of Sooyoung's neck out of embarrassment. As for Sooyoung, she was too exhausted from arguing with him to even feel embarrassed when he did that.