Bodyguard

Scandal

I was still fast asleep when all of a sudden, I was jolted awake as my body was shaken about. "Seo-yun! Seo-yun, wake up!" My mom cried, her voice shaky and panicky. I quickly sat up and rubbed my eyes in a hurry. "Mom, what is it?" I asked. 

She scrolled through her phone for a moment and then held it up to my face. "This! What is this?" I squinted to fix my blurry morning vision and focus on what was on the phone. When my vision cleared up, my eyes went wide and my heart stopped.

It was an article called, "SCANDAL: Heir to Zeus Hotel Caught with Secret Lover!" 

Below the headline was a picture of Young-do and I kissing on the rooftop. You could tell that the photograph had been taken from very far away, almost like the photographer was hiding behind something. And yet you could still see it was Young-do and I. No mistaking that.

I grabbed my mom's phone away from her hand and scrolled through the article, scanning every single word on the page. It said Young-do had lowered his standards tremendously and that the fate of Zeus Hotel was looking bleak. That he may not be considered the heir anymore. 

I may have taken away Young-do's future. 

I scrolled down to see the comments on the article. One person was defending us, saying that Young-do's dating life was none of their business. Most people were commenting on how they would never go to Zeus Hotel again, how unprofessional Young-do was, and how it seemed impossible for him to have fallen for such an ugly, common girl. 

Ugly, common girl. 

Those words, even though they were written by a random person on the internet, really stung. Maybe because I believed it was true. 

"Seo-yun, what is going on here? Is this really you and Young-do?" I shook myself out of the hate-filled commenting world and looked back at my mom. The phone slowly fell out of my numb hands and onto the bed. I slowly nodded. 

My mother's expression was a mixture of confusion, hurt, and anger. "I didn't know that you two were this close. Are you dating? Why didn't I know about any of this?" She asked, her tone worried. "Mom, it just happened. I haven't been keeping a secret from you. I was going to tell you when you came home, but I must've fallen asleep. I'm sorry..." I felt terrible. 

My mom put a hand on my shoulder. "I believe you, Seo-yun." She growled and curled her fists. "I can't believe these low-lifes have nothing better to do than spy on you young kids and write nasty comments about you two. What business is it of theirs?" She looked back at me. "I had no idea Young-do was the heir of this hotel!" She switched subjects, kind of in the same haze I was. 

All I did was nod. Then sudden, a realization entered my head. 

Who had seen this? Had the kids at school seen it? Had Young-do's father seen it? 

Had Young-do seen it? 

"Mom, I need to go talk to Young-do about this. I need to make sure that he's okay." My mom nodded. "Okay, well you better hurry. You also have school this morning." I nodded, jumping up and running to the bathroom to get ready. 

After washing up and brushing my teeth, I threw on my school uniform and rushed downstairs. As soon as I got off at the elevator, it was like I was a beacon of light. Everyone's gaze turned to focus on me. A man in the corner who had been reading his newspaper was shaking his head, two women in their 20's were gossiping to each other and pointing at me, and an older woman was simply glaring at me and making a "tch, tch, tch" noise. Even the hotel staff was more focused on gossiping about me than doing their jobs.