A Nightmare Come True (Ryeji)

YEJI 2

"They have proof." The sharp voice of her manager cut through Yeji's skin like a knife.

"What!?" Yeji's eyes widened.

"Apparently someone's come out as an eye witness, Yeji." Her manger thrust a phone in her face, not that she could make out what was on the screen in time before they pulled it away again. "What the hell were you doing that night anyway?"

"I wasn't doing anything, I swear, I- I was in the dorms." Yeji stuttered, suddenly questioning everything, her heart hammering in her chest.

"This is bad news, Yeji. The story's everywhere. It's trending on multiple sights."

Suddenly all the words Yeji wanted to say, to defend herself with, stuck in the back of her throat. She was left standing silently like a little girl who was being scolded by her parents for breaking her sister's toy.

Her manger sighed and their hand that was holding the phone dropped to their side. "I will tell JYP your statement is the same and we'll see where we can go from there, but for now don't post anything online, stay off Bubble and just lay low for a bit. We don't need any more attention on this, ok?"

Yeji nodded but was still speechless. Even when she was told she could leave she couldn't look her manager in the eye, head hanging as she went back to her room to pack. She could barely wrap her head around what was going on, someone was lying on social media just to spite her? Was that really what had happened? Or was it a misunderstanding? But now there was a witness, were they also lying? Surely the news had no solid proof of anything? Was there a whole group of people scheming against her?

She was desperately tempted to see what everyone online was saying about it, but knew it would only hurt her more. So she turned off her phone and tried, in vain, to push all the pointless questions to the back of her mind and get her bags ready for their flight home. Maybe once they were back everything would make more sense.

Except as she packed, the confusion and guilt started to eat her up inside. So much so that she hardly noticed when there was a knocking at her door before it was pushed open to reveal a panicked Ryujin quickly making her way inside.

"Unnie, what is all this?" She said gripping her phone. "Are you-"

"I don't know. I... I didn't do it. I promise." Yeji turned away, embarrassed, "I would never do something like that because it hurts the group and I wouldn't do that to you guys." She mumbled, trailing off.

Ryujin's eyes softened with concern. "I know, I was just asking if you were ok?"

Yeji stilled, contemplating the question. "I'm fine. I mean, it's not true is it? So I shouldn't get all worked up about it really."

Ryujin huffed and walked over, placing a hand on Yeji's shoulder. "You're allowed to be annoyed at people making up stories about you, though."

"I'm not annoyed." Yeji replied, finally turning to face her friend. "I'm just confused as to why someone would do that. All this time I've tried so hard not to do anything wrong and then this just comes out of nowhere. Maybe I'm not..."

"Unnie, you're perfect." Ryujin said, carefully brushing one of Yeji's hairs that was out of place to the correct side of her parting. "Someone's probably just jealous that you'll always be better and more successful than them and they can't do anything to stop it."

"Ryujin-ah! You can't say that." Yeji chided, playfully hitting her arm, though Ryujin merely shrugged.

"In life, most people can be mean; but jealous people can be cruel, especially if their stories are anonymous. But it's ok, because your side has the benefit of being the truth. In a few days this whole thing will have died down, trust me."