Lost child

19. The truth untold

Author's note:
I'm deeply sorry for the long wait, I experienced a big writer's block mainly because of this chapter. My mind was divided between letting the characters talk about their painful experience and their feelings in public or keeping such details private.

I am a firm believer that celebrities don't owe explanations to their fans. They can choose to share or on the contrary not disclose information about their private life and personal feelings. In my opinion, big agencies in real life situations would probably want the artists to lay low and avoid to share details. They would most likely just wait for the scandal to pass and take legal actions if necessary. From what I've seen (but I might be wrong), Koreans are not very receptive about celebrities sharing too much private issues, especially sensitive ones.

But at the same time, I really wanted to include this chapter. I appreciate when public figures open up about personal feelings to which I can relate to and deeply empathize with. I recently read About grief by Ron Marasco (thank you IU and Suga for the book recommandation) and it's refreshing and helpful to see people talk about sensitive subjects and normalize this discussion.

In the end, I decided to give you the option to consider this chapter valid for the story or not. If you don't feel comfortable with the characters talking in details about their private issues in public, don't consider the interview as part of this story. I usually don't proceed like this, until now I've always stuck with my choices as a fanfiction writer but this time it felt more right to let you choose. 

Warning: a lot of sensitive and potentially triggering issues will be discussed in this chapter. You can skip if it's too much for you. 

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Jungkook and Jieun watched the press conference, hands clasped together, looking from time to time at the comments online. The journalists went crazy with the questions and the flashes. In the few hours following the press conference, the level of shock of their fans and the country increased as the news began to spread everywhere : from workplaces, family chats, kpop fansites and all the medias to even the rural villages.

Everyone in the country, the international kpop fans were horrified about what happened with the child abduction and fake death part. Afterwards, the news reached international press and more people expressed their ashtonishment and then their support to IU and Jungkook. They were trending on Twitter and on several news outlets abroad: articles in English, Spanish, Chinese, French, Italian, Arabic, Russian, Malay, Tagalog, Thai, Indonesian and so many languages were published everywhere around the world.

But when the shock passed, the reactions became mixed. The majority of fans were understanding, even cheered on him and Jieun, though they were a bit confused by the whole drama. What exactly happened ? Why did her managers commit that atrocious crime? When did it happen? How come nobody knew Jungkook and Jieun were dating years ago nor suspected they had a child? What did she look like? People were desperately searching for informations about the child, about Jieun and Jungkook's past, about her managers.  

Then there was the category of people who were disappointed he was getting married and had a secret child. Some knetizens and international fans already began to criticize them. IU and BTS's good reputation was now ruined by this scandal: they were no longer "pure", "angelic", "honest", instead the new adjectives some former male and female fans used were "liar", "playboy", "slut", "two-faced", "hypocritical ". Some were calling this scandal "a betrayal to years of fan's trust and devotion" to IU and Jungkook.  

Many fans thought Jungkook and IU would love them less now that they had a family to focus on. Some fans were heartbroken or angry that Jungkook couldn't be theirs alone (as if he was a property, though the " Idol concept " was mostly to blame in creating delusional fan-idol relationship).