Fan Service [Chan]

Chapter 7

He led me through a series of tunnels that were primarily meant for medical assistance or emergencies. I assumed the Celtics must have used this too when they needed to leave quickly.

Water dripped from my hair and onto the floor, leading a trail all the way back to my section. He gave me a look of pity every so often, but I tried to offer him reassuring smiles that I would be fine.

He took me to Felix's dressing room where he said that I could wait for the show to end.

"Is there anything I can get you?" he asked as he stood awkwardly in the doorway.

"Nope. I'll just wait here, thanks."

He nodded and headed back through the tunnel.

I eyed a hairdryer on the counter and clicked it on to attempt to dry myself a bit. I didn't want to get his things all wet. My hair dried pretty easily and the braids remained intact for the most part. My outfit was not so easily dried off, though since the fabric was thick.

I held the hair dryer close to the denim and nearly burnt myself trying to get rid of the wet spots on my top.

"Did someone throw water on you or are you just happy to see me?" Chan smirked from the doorway as he saw the dampness on my skirt. I jumped as I hadn't heard him approaching and hadn't expected the show to end so soon. That seemed to make him even prouder of himself than the immature joke.

I side-eyed him in disgust and continued drying off.

Felix rushed in and pushed past Chan with a worried expression. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. It's just some water," I told him.

"Not the water. I heard some of the things they shouted at you. I'm really sorry," he apologized. "I should've come to get you once I saw the news hit Twitter."

I turned the hair dryer off and set it on the counter. My heart stopped, and I looked between he and Chan. "What news?"

Chan pushed his tongue in his cheek and crossed his arms uncomfortably. Felix had clearly hoped he'd explain but was left to do so himself as Chan stared at the ground, refusing to make eye contact.

"Can we sit?"

This could not be good.

I nodded and sat on Felix's sofa. He went to his backpack and retrieved my phone.

"Before I give this back to you, don't freak out, okay? We have a plan."

"Okay..." I trailed off slowly. What could be so bad?

I was the type of person who cleared notifications every second. The red numerical icons stressed me out, so I usually responded to everything right away.

When I unlocked my phone, I felt overwhelmed immediately. I had hundreds of emails and thousands of Twitter and Instagram notifications. My TikTok had so many that it just said 99+. My family and friends had clearly been calling and texting all day.

Whatever Felix had to tell me was clearly the cause of all of this.

I opened my texts first. As I scrolled through, I noticed there was one single question being asked in nearly every message.

Is it true?

I looked up at Felix for any indication of what they were referring to, but his face didn't give anything away. I braced myself and took a deep breath before opening Twitter.

Pictures of me were everywhere. Pictures of me holding Chan's hand and hiding my face, photos of me outside of the hotel, pictures of me from today's concert, even ones from yesterday before the show when people had been making fun of me.

Some tweets were praising my look, others said I was a whore just trying to get ahead. Some called me pretty, some said I needed facial reconstruction. Some people said I was lucky, others wondered if I'd been forced into something. Some wondered if I'd forced Chan.

I was being canceled and doxed and hadn't even done anything. Hell, I had even offered to leave.

"How did they find out who I was?" I managed to ask.

"Your boots," Chan answered before Felix had the chance.

"Can't we just explain that we were just grabbing a drink?" I stood up and paced back and forth. "I don't understand what everyone's so worked up over."

"People think we're dating," Chan replied again. His voice was softer than I would've expected and almost apologetic.

"Well, we're not," I snapped.

"No shit," he answered...mean Chan had returned.

"Wait, is that why everyone's dressed like me?"

"Apparently they thought it would get my attention," he gave a small laugh as he took in my outfit. As his eyes hovered over my skirt, I pulled it down more. When they reached the top of the corset I pulled it up, suddenly feeling very exposed.

"What can we do?" I asked.

"Wait for it to die down. People won't be interested in you forever," he suggested as he looked in the hallway, seeming to find something more interesting.

"That doesn't fix my reputation though, does it? I have clients that will stop working with me if they think I'm going to drag them down with me."

"What do you do?" Felix asked with a warmness in his eyes.

"Social media branding."

"Then brand yourself better and fix it," Chan snapped.

"I've never worked on this scale before!" I shouted. "I handle brunch cafes and coffee shops and little boutiques in Boston. Not major scandals because a K-pop idol insisted I have a drink with him even though I told him I didn't want to!"

The frustration was wearing on me. I didn't want Chan to see me cry, so I turned back to Felix.

"You said you had a solution. What is it?"

Felix took a deep breath. "You're both not going to like it."

Anything was better than nothing. "Tell me?" I sighed and sat back down.

"Chan, you hate the fan service evenings, right?"

"Obviously," he mumbled as he stared into the hallway.

"Ella, you need to fix your reputation, right? Be seen as a sweet person very capable of being worked with?"

"Right."

"I think you two should date. Publicly."