Work Text:
“Hoyoon-hyung is involved in a scandal?”
“This can’t be right.”
“Ah… This looks really bad.”
“We shouldn’t wake him up. He’ll try to tackle it immediately.”
“I’ll check in with our manager… and the CEO.”
“Keep Seo Hoyoon away from all electronics. Say we’re training too much today to do anything else.”
“It isn’t true, but these photos look so incriminating!”
“We’ll keep hyung busy while things blow over…”
Lim Hyunsoo sighed, raking her fingers through her hair. She woke up to a phone call. At first, she thought it was because she missed a deadline.
It was much worse than that.
“When did those bastards take this?”
It looked so convincing. She shouldn’t have been smiling so much, even if she were drunk off her ass.
If it were just one time, it would have been easy to blow over. But fuck, how long had Seo Hoyoon been under surveillance?
There were tens of photos, most of them spanning different days. Lim Hyunsoo got too loose in her affections.
“Seo Hoyoon is a blackmailer; he isn’t seducing his way to the top. The fuck is this article trying to say?”
The idea that Seo Hoyoon would seduce her, of all people, was humorous. As if Lim Hoyoon would go for someone so young, let alone a man.
The photos didn’t lie, though. It was her and Seo Hoyoon drinking or eating across the city. They met up in public places, and now that was biting them in the butt.
“Shit, he’s going to die from stress.”
It was nearly impossible to get rid of a rumor that suggested that a celebrity had a sponsor. Having photographic evidence made it worse.
Suspecting an idol of having three sponsors was enough to blow up a career in less than a day.
Joo Wooseong knew he should be more upset than he actually was
He just… The article wasn’t completely wrong. He couldn’t argue with everything it said. Yes, he favored Seo Hoyoon. He was being blackmailed at first, and then, well, they kind of became friends. Regrettably.
He suspected that there might be rumors he was Seo Hoyoon’s boyfriend, but he never expected the press to think he was a sponsor.
“I could spin it.”
Joo Wooseong could easily disregard the rumors by saying that he wasn’t Seo Hoyoon’s sponsor. They were boyfriends! Obviously… Haha.
Most of the photos were of when he and Seo Hoyoon were out as civilians. Behind the scene footage was shown as backup evidence.
The most damning photo was of Seo Hoyoon being pinned against a wall by Joo Wooseong, who was joking about how they first met. Seo Hoyoon repeated it a week later, trying to convince him of another favor.
It looked bad. They were both grinning like fools. Their cheeks were red, their gazes locked.
He sighed loudly, staring at his phone screen. He scrolled through the photos over and over again.
If it were just rumors that he was sponsoring Seo Hoyoon, he could dismiss the rumors by coming out as being boyfriends. It would still be looked down upon, as they were idols, but it was a better scandal than a sponsorship.
But there were two other people who were thought to be Seo Hoyoon’s sponsors.
Joo Wooseong’s phone screen was taken over by a phone call. It was his manager. Again.
“Damn it.” He rubbed his face, sighing. He couldn’t avoid this any longer.
Kim Heeyoung turned off her phone. She was not going to see anymore bullshit today.
She had been awake for more than 28 hours. She didn’t expect to finally finish editing an episode, only to discover that her name was going to be pulled into the latest idol scandal.
Seo Hoyoon. He was there, as he always was. This time, he wasn’t pulling the strings. This was an attack against him. And her. And two others who were close to him.
She took one glance at the photos and knew it was going to be hard to dispel the thoughts that she was a sponsor.
Being too casual with Seo Hoyoon felt natural.
She offered him smokes. He declined, yet looked like he wanted one. Kim Heeyoung felt like she found a kindred soul.
This was going to be a mess to clean up.
Seeing as Seo Hoyoon hadn’t reached out to her, but Lim Hyunsoo and Joo Wooseong agreed to meet up to get their stories straight, meant that Seo Hoyoon was either silenced by higher-ups or hadn’t been made aware of the situation. There were no other options.
A burning cigarette in hand, Kim Heeyoung stood up.
She was going to be meeting the other two ‘sponsors’ soon. They were coming to her place because their addresses were public knowledge.
She opened the door to her fridge. There was fuck all to eat. They wouldn’t expect anything fancy, right?
“Are we really agreeing to this?”
“Seo Hoyoon hasn’t made contact. He doesn’t get to have a say.”
“There’s too much evidence. Might as well burn the world down.”
“He’s going to be so pissed off.”
“No leverage he has over us can be as bad as this.”
“That…”
“You two have been through a lot, huh?”
Ending practice should have been a good thing. A last hurrah before showering and settling down.
He shouldn’t have finally gotten access to his phone, only to see something ridiculous.
The other members of the Dawn watched him carefully. Kim Sunghyun held a blanket up, as if he was going to tackle Seo Hoyoon in it to prevent him from going on a rampage.
[Seo Hoyoon’s Suspected Sponsors Deny Claims: They’re In A Polyamorous Relationship]
“These motherfuckers…” Seo Hoyoon was vibrating in… anger?
His face was red, too. He was going to combust. His body must have been trembling, because his phone screen was shaking too much. It made it hard to read the article.
"Hyung seems more embarrassed than upset... Has he ever been in a relationship?"