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Ares awoke after the anaesthesia wore off, just like the doctor said he would, and the press conference went ahead later in the evening as scheduled even though he was still looking a little pale and groggy. It wasn't anything that Gina and a couple of skilful strokes from the makeup artist couldn't fix.

When Ares and Hyejin entered the waiting room behind Gina, Hyunwon and Ryu were already there. He glanced up from his magazine when he heard the door open, frowning slightly when he saw how Ares was holding on to Hyejin's hand and shooting daggers at him with his eyes.

"Where's Kara?" Gina asked, looking around the room and seeing on one else around.

"Gina, I've had quite enough of all this. Do you know how much negative publicity all this is going to bring to the Cutting Edge? Ever since the photos hit the tabloids and the websites my phone has been ringing off the hook! Hyunwon's reputation is going to be fed to the dogs, and that's going to deal some serious damage to my business," Ryu exclaimed in exasperation, walking up to the petite manager. For once he wasn't pleased with the media attention, and for good reason.

"Your dear creative director should have thought about that," Gina shot Hyunwon an accusatory glare, "before he decided to show up at Ares's front door to pick a fight over a girl." Reaching into her handbag, she pulled out several sheets of paper and handed a different one to each person present. "Practice your statements again. We've got fifteen minutes till the start of the press conference—where is Kara?"

Right on cue, the door to the waiting room swung open and Kara walked in, dressed in a chic lightning blue dress with a pair of Chanel shades covering her eyes.

"There you are!" Gina said. "Perfect, now we're all ready."

Kara removed her shades, scanning the faces in the room and reserving her most unimpressed look for Hyejin. She walked over and sat down beside Hyunwon, while her manager began engaging in a conversation with Gina about how they were going to approach this press conference. To everyone's surprise, she appeared perfectly calm about all of this, which was unexpected given that she had supposedly been kicking and screaming the day before when she first heard of the news from her manager.

"So this is how it's going to be?" she said, glancing sideways at the man sitting beside her.

"We've been through this many times, Seorin. It was over between us a long time ago," Hyunwon replied stoically.

"Because of her?" Kara pointed a scornful finger at Hyejin. "If you were going to dump me then I would have hoped that you'd have better taste than that. But who am I to say anything now? You already went ahead and declared your love for her in front of the cameras. Did you even think about how I would feel after I found out?"

"You never cared much for how I felt every time you declared something in front of the cameras either."

Pursing her red lips together in displeasure, Kara remained silent, given that she had no way of refuting that.

The tension in the room was palpable as the four leading characters in this drama sat there in silence just staring at one another. Ares never let go of Hyejin's hand, and she didn't make an effort to break free either, not after what had happened to Ares this morning. When he had awoken, he had smiled so brightly when he saw her sitting by his bedside that she felt her heart aching because of what she had been planning to do to him. None of this was Ares's fault—none of this was any of their fault—it was just that circumstances had somehow landed them in this situation.

"It's time," Gina declared when the clock hit seven, and she began shooing all of them out of the waiting room and into the conference room.

The moment they stepped foot into the room, the camera flashes began going off in a frenzy, blinding Hyejin and making her take a couple of steps back. Bumping against the chest of someone behind her, she turned to look around, finding Hyunwon standing there with a look of concern in his eyes. He looked like he was about to say something, but before the words could leave his lips, Ares had already wrapped his arm around Hyejin's shoulders and led her away.

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