101 Ways to Pretend│Taegyu

Chapter 5

"I told you to stop leaving fan mail on my desk."

Taehyun sat down in his chair, eyeing the bright blue envelope that lay on top of his table. He was sick of getting teddy bears and flowers from people who had never cared about him before the whole scandal occurred, and most of the time it was just people who did it for the publicity anyway. Taehyun would say he hated those kinds of people, but his situation wasn't any different from theirs. Publicity was what mattered most in this industry, no matter how talented or hardworking you were. It was publicity that got him into this mess in the first place.

"I think you should have a look at that one though..." Kai responded, biting his fingernail in worry. Taehyun raised his eyebrow at the anxiety of the other, wondering what on earth lay in that envelope to make Kai of all people worry like that. The Kai he knew was a menace, a hindrance and the walking epitome of annoyance, so this was definitely a new look on him.

He hesitantly opened the envelope, and two photographs fell out. Taehyun's questioning face morphed into one of pure uneasiness as he saw what those two photographs were.

One was from the first night at the penthouse with Beomgyu, and the other one was them in the car park from a few days ago. The location of the photos didn't make Taehyun worry though, since they would never be able to fully shake off the prying eyes of the press.

No, what made Taehyun worried was the fact that his face was scratched off in both of those photos. What made him worry was the back of the photos which read:

HE'S MINE.

--

Beomgyu picked up his microphone to answer yet another question.

He was at the press conference for his comeback movie, along with the director and the female lead. He was nervous, but he missed the adrenaline of press conferences like this, and maybe he kind of missed the spotlight too.

"We'll take one final question before wrapping up," the director flashed a smile, nodding to the reporters before putting her microphone down.

Kim Hyewon was... a fan favourite to say the least. The director was widely known for her hit movies, dubbed the best 'cinematographer' of the generation and a killer when it came to romance. His fanbase was overjoyed when he announced that he was working with her since she was also known for 'thrusting actors to the stars'. Publicity, once again.

Every actor she had ever worked with spoke nothing but praise of her, never having any complaints about the way she worked or her manner on set. She treated her actors like they were 'gods', but:

Beomgyu begged to differ. Yes, he absolutely loved filming the movie since it had brought much praise for his comeback, but there were downsides to filming with her too. He had dodged far too many unsolicited advances, far too many 'one more drink's and a concerning amount of unwanted physical closeness whenever he was around her. Her presence had always made him uneasy, and the way she looked at him with such lust in her eyes made him sick to his stomach.

However, he had kept quiet about most of it, knowing that it would hurt him more than her if he said anything.

"Excuse me, Mr Choi?" the reporter asked, snapping Beomgyu out of his daze.

"Ah, sorry I kind of zoned out for a bit, what was your question again?"

"Your relationship with Kang Taehyun has been quite the buzz lately, what's your favourite thing about him?"

Beomgyu paused. How was he going to answer that? He hadn't known the other long enough to have a convincing answer, and he was at a loss. Sure the anchor was good looking, but he didn't know enough about Taehyun's personality to say something that no one else would notice.

Hyewon leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to," she placed her hand on his thigh, and Beomgyu tensed up at the touch. Her grip only tightened when he tried to shift away, and Beomgyu was feeling more and more uncomfortable every passing second.

"Are there any more questions? I don't think Mr Choi here is comfortable with answe-" she said into the mic, but Beomgyu quickly cut her off.

"No it's okay, I'll answer. My favourite thing about him would probably be his smile- he has really sharp canines y'know? I find it very cute."

Beomgyu internally rejoiced when he saw Hyewon's face drop slightly at his answer.

--

Later that evening, Taehyun walked into his dressing room. Only to see Beomgyu sitting in his seat.

"What the hell are you doing here?"