An emergency meeting was held.
The attendees were me, Heavenly Yuah, Moon Suyeon, and Representative Joo.
Representative Joo had been in negotiations with Finesse over film copyright issues, but upon the incident unfolding, he immediately came over here.
This shows that Representative Joo considers this matter to be quite important.
“Exactly, what did we capture?”
Our company’s actors, especially Nana, Heavenly Yuah, and Moon Suyeon, are not the types likely to create any issues.
It’s natural, since they don’t really go outside much.
Especially Heavenly Yuah, who is a bit lackadaisical within the company but tends to be careful in public.
That’s why we first checked the scandal photos, but they seemed somewhat odd.
“This picture, was it recently taken? And in LA?”
“That’s right.”
The photo showed me having a casual chat with Heavenly Yuah at a café.
I vaguely remember the situation.
Was it the day before Moji joined? Feeling suffocated, I briefly went out and stopped by a nearby café.
Unlike Korea, where moving around without disguise is almost impossible due to constant attention, this place was relatively comfortable, so we were moving about leisurely without much thought.
The Finesse set locations always have paparazzi lurking around, but neither Nana nor Heavenly Yuah would have been their primary targets.
Apparently, however, there were a few Korean paparazzi mixed in.
Thus, while the photo itself wasn’t fabricated, there’s still another question.
“Where did everyone else disappear to?”
The problem was the lack of other people in the photo.
It wasn’t just me and Heavenly Yuah alone that day.
We also had our manager and coordinator with us, as even abroad, where a significant Korean population lives, we didn’t want to be alone.
But in this photo, only me and Heavenly Yuah were captured.
It’s unclear whether it was a well-captured angle or digitally edited, but whoever did this is quite skilled.
And one more thing…
The content of the photo itself is somewhat comical; it simply showed the two of us chatting.
Heavenly Yuah was unusually displaying an open smile for the photo, but that’s all there is to it.
If the world has truly become so corrupt that something like this could cause a scandal—well, at the very least, to maintain credibility, we should have been holding hands, right? Not just a chat.
It feels like they threw this out there without much thought.
“And the other case here…”
Moon Suyeon’s scandal was more plausible.
From what the pictures show, it was when I visited a traditional market with her.
Back then, she suggested we pretend to be newlyweds and linked arms.
Although this does seem a bit suspicious too, given how far-fetched the first photo was, this one feels somewhat reasonable.
“Whoa, did I win this round?”
“Win? What kind of winning is this!?”
It seems like they themselves think this as well.
“Better to check first. What do you plan to do about this?”
The meeting’s moderator was Representative Joo.
In this case, Heavenly Yuah, being the party involved, is in a defensive position during the meeting.
Even now, she looks a little uncomfortable and has her head lowered.
“There’s nothing to be done. We’ll have to follow normal procedures.”
“Normal procedures?”
“At this early stage, we are meeting under good terms, so please, give us your support…”
…Wait, what kind of ridiculous farce is this?
Do they think we’ll just accept this flimsy excuse as a scandal acknowledgment?
I might have been deceived.
She isn’t looking awkward at all.
Instead, she seems to be thinking about how to benefit from this opportunity.
So, her previous demeanor of lowering her head must have been…
“…an act?”
Of course. There’s no way someone like Heavenly Yuah would look so weak for something so trivial.
Seems our Heavenly Lord has lost her edge for now.
“Not really, wait. Surely not… Senior Yuah, not really?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Look, you know this company doesn’t function without being aware of something like this.”
“…Well, we might not have known.”
“You hesitated for about three seconds there, didn’t you?”
Damn, is this real?
Yeah, it is kind of suspicious.
How could we not have known about this article when we already had a sense of what the other party might do?
Flame and Heavenly Yuah aren’t that incompetent.
They should have at least known this was coming.
The fact that it happened means they deliberately chose not to stop it.
Judging by their reaction—this ridiculous farce—they were clearly planning it from the start.
“…This photo seems a bit off, too.”
When I thought about it, Moon Suyeon’s photo was also unusual.
This picture was taken quite a long time ago, before Moon Suyeon resumed her album activities.
This implies that whoever took the photo wasn’t an ordinary journalist, but a true paparazzo.
Because if they were after page views, they wouldn’t have held onto this photo for so long.
Also, these types of people usually sell their photos to whoever would pay the most.
The most likely buyers of this photo would obviously have been our company.
“Did anyone from the paparazzi contact you about this?”
“Contact? Not at all.”
“Really? That seems odd.”
It’s almost certain that D-Pictures or someone related to them orchestrated this scandal.
That would mean they were the ones who purchased the photos.
At that time, we weren’t involved with them.
There would be no reason for us to buy someone else’s scandalous photos in a situation where there wasn’t any issue.
It seems they recently purchased this photo, but why didn’t they contact us during such a long period of time?
Especially considering someone like Heavenly Yuah would have bitten her teeth together trying to buy it back.
“Paparazzi, and they targeted Senior Suyeon so precisely… could it be…?”
Could it really be…?
“Suyeon Senior?”
“Why?”
“Did you receive any contact from the paparazzi?”
“Uh? Ah… no?”
“Why the stuttering? You seem vulnerable.”
“What? It’s outrageous. Are you implying I received a contact from the paparazzi and ignored it?”
,…
Seriously.
Just by how her pupils are moving, it’s obvious she knows something.
Somehow, Suyeon was aware of this photo.
“Could this be a staged drama?”
“Nah, not to that extent.”
“Really?”
“Actually, I did receive a contact when I was with Moon Enter. They’d taken some pictures, but since Moon Enter disappeared, they must have tried contacting me.”
“You?”
“Yeah, the company’s uncertain situation. Lots of things were unsettled back then.”
True. It’s common knowledge that our company takes a tough stance against the press.
But when an artist personally requests, the company sometimes has to buy these things, even if it’s reluctant.
Looks like Moon Suyeon had the paparazzi test our waters.
“But you refused to buy it.”
“C’mon, did I have the money to buy that? I was broke.”
“You could have told the company…”
“I would have, then.”
“Yeah, obviously.”
“And why should I do that?”
“…”
At least, it doesn’t seem like she actively contacted the paparazzi, so that’s a relief.
If it had come to that, it would’ve been quite alarming.
Moon Suyeon strongly refusing to buy the photos, the paparazzi then found D-Pictures, and the scandal subsequently broke out in this way.
Oh man, my head hurts. At this point, this isn’t just staged drama—it’s something else entirely.
Representative Joo, who had been watching us deal with the situation, summed it up.
He looks so exhausted, as if he aged a few years in just a few minutes.
Although it’s not my fault, I still feel a bit sorry.
“Alright, since we understand what happened, let’s set the policy. Deny it outright.”
“Alright.”
“What?! We’re denying this?”
“Why not?”
“What should we do then? This isn’t a single incident—it’s double.”
“Well, we could just admit mine.”
“No, it’s mine. Clearly, I look more convincing.”
“Real or not, this is absolutely not a scandal. Don’t pull this kind of stunt in the future.”
The two of them, who seemed somewhat deflated, were told that there’s absolutely no scandal.
Right, this isn’t real.
If we became bastards once, it’s already bad. Having it happen twice would double it.
The moon goddess’s side still occasionally refers to me as “that guy,” but I’d rather it didn’t turn into a nationwide nickname.
“Che.”
“A waste.”
After I strongly denied it, the two of them reluctantly followed along.
They both seemed worried about pushing too hard and causing unintended consequences.
At least they do have some conscience.
“Anyway, why did this have to happen so coincidentally? This is too clumsy.”
“Total lack of creativity. The dual nature makes it seem even less true. No sense?”
Indeed, while complaining that this wasn’t a single but a double scandal.
“Is everything okay with this?”
“I think we’ll be fine. It doesn’t seem like it’ll blow up too much.”
“Alright, thank you.”
We pushed the two complainers aside and I turned to Representative Joo to inquire.
Is it possible to resolve this scandal?
Although both Heavenly Yuah and Moon Suyeon want to admit it, denying the scandal shouldn’t be an issue.
He reassured us that it won’t cause much of a stir with just this.
Indeed, the evidence photos were too weak to fuel any real scandal.
“Still, they played their cards pretty smart.”
Objectively speaking, scandals involving the main actors in a production can actually help with box office success.
Some fans might dislike it, but it spreads awareness of the production.
Even I would be curious about a project where the male and female leads are rumored to have chemistry.
It’s likely D-Pictures knew this, which is why they created this scandal during production.
If it had happened just before the premiere, it would have been detrimental to their own cause.
So why did they do it?
Clearly, they were hoping for some disruption on the production side.
Whether the scandal was true or not, the three of us being on set together would cause some disturbances.
If it were true, we’d be uneasy, and if not, we would distance ourselves from each other, leading to more disruptions.
In a way, this was their plan to unsettle our production site.
“Seems like we’ll need something more definitive.”
“True, crossed arms alone feels too mild.”
Well, on our side, things are slightly differently chaotic.
What were they thinking, trying to turn this into a reality by using this as a pretext?
“To reiterate, we will absolutely not recognize any scandal under any circumstances. Remember that.”
Given the chance, these women might secretly conduct some strange interviews.
If they suddenly say, “Oh, remember that time?” and reveal it was real, I’d be the only fool.
They seem disappointed but are nodding their heads, showing no intention of adding anything peculiar.
It was a close call, where a single unexpected attack nearly sent us falling into the abyss.
