𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐘𝐨𝐮 - 𝒋𝒆𝒏𝒌𝒂𝒊.

i'll apologize, but just listen

Jongin just finished his take when one of his manager came to him with a serious face, a phone on his hand.

"It's Mr. Park's secretary," he told Jongin, giving him his cellphone. "She wants to speak to you."

Jongin only managed to let out a small sigh before he put the phone on his ear.

"This is Kai speaking," he said to the person on the other line. "I assume you're calling because of another 'task' he assigned to me, isn't it?"

"Yes," a woman's voice answered him, firmly. "This time, though, he wants me to tell it to you by phone— just in case you don't check you e-mails again."

"What does he want this time?" Jongin asked, nodding shortly to the trainees that bowed to him before they left the room.

Instead of answering his question, the secretary asked instead, "Is there anything left in your schedule today?"

He heard the sound of papers being shuffled before she said again, "Aside from the uh- shooting for the survival show. And your manager already told me it's done for the day."

Jongin frowned. "Well technically no. But it's already dinner time, I actually planned to visit my members-"

"I'm sorry, Kai-ssi. I'm afraid you need to cancel that," the secretary said before he finished his sentence. "Mr. Park wants you to go on a date with Krystal-ssi today. Not tomorrow, not any time later— but today."

"And he insists too," she added, when she didn't hear any response coming from him. "The general public's interest on the two of you and your relationship is still pretty high, but we must admit it died down a bit since there's no recent news about it other than the pictures from the dinner with your family."

Jongin clicked his tongue, annoyed at the man's attempt to control him. "Do I really have to?" he asked, even though he knew the answer was obvious.

"If you're thinking of refusing his order, Mr. Park said that you should remember what he told you yesterday," the secretary said, not really answering his question directly.

Jongin sensed that she didn't even know what the man meant, but she said it nonetheless.

"Just so you know, someone came to me yesterday, saying that they have a proof of a scandal that involves you."

His throat took a hard gulp from just thinking about that word. Scandal.

As he never even think that he would be involved in one, since his life was mostly about pursuing his career and passionately doing what he loved; scandal would be the furthest word ever to describe him. Not to mention he felt like he was a great judge of character, thus making him stays away from problematic people as best as he could.

However...

'-no,' he thought to himself. 'My daughter's existence is a blessing. She's definitely not a scandal— hell, she's far from that.'

Although some people might think that way.

"Sir, I swear, I didn't do anything wrong-" he remembered saying that in his defense.

But Mr. Park cut him, unbothered by his attempt to explain himself.

"Say whatever you want, Kai-ssi, but just do what's needed to be done with this plan. Follow what I said. No more talking back. And certainly I don't want any bad press— not when your group is about to make a comeback."

He couldn't help but agree with the last part, though. Whoever that unknown caller is, if they really have something against him and spill it to the wrong person...