Protection||Jay

chapter eleven

"and the voice sounded really scary too!" hana added, retelling the events that occurred the night before to eunbi and andrew at work.

she sighed and slumped in her chair, "i feel so bad."

"poor guy," eunbi frowned.

"but why'd he need to block your number? he also didn't have to respond to you like that when you said hey," andrew mentioned.

"enough with the way he responded to me. i mean i don't think i would have even smiled back if i was getting tons of hurtful comments and notes," hana replied, "you two should've seen them!"

"they were all saying how he let them down and disappointed them. they said how they really respected jay for putting his career first despite having so many girls around him, but they lost that respect because he's not prioritizing his career. like what does that even mean?!" she exclaimed.

"how do you lose respect for someone because they get into a relationship .." eunbi questioned.

"exactly! and i don't know much about the kpop world or whatever, but shouldn't a true fan be happy for jay if he was actually in a relationship? what kind of bs is—"

"hi, welcome to passion café," hana smiled, standing up to face the customer who walked in, "what can i do for you?"

"wow that was one quick switch," andrew chuckled, getting in position to make the order.

"hi," the female greeted back, "i'm actually here for seo hana. she works here right?"

"uh yes .. that's me," hana replied, skeptically looking at the woman.

"can i ask, when is your break?" the woman asked.

"um in about half an hour," hana answered, "is something wrong?"

"not quite, but do you mind chatting with me and a few others when you go on your break? it'll only take a few minutes," the woman stated, "we can also stay here and chat if you don't want to leave the café."

hana turned and looked at eunbi and andrew who shrugged as they were also confused, while hana turned back around and smiled, "well if it's only for a few minutes, i suppose so. sure."

"perfect," the woman smiled, "thank you."

"um of course," hana replied, watching the woman walk to a table and take out her phone to call someone.

"are you looking for another job or something? is this some kind of job interview?" eunbi asked.

"no no," hana shook her head, "i'm confused too."

"well i guess we'll see in thirty minutes," andrew spoke.
—
right before hana was about to clock out for her break, she saw two male figures walk in and take a seat at the table with the lady from before, spotting one of the male's to be jay.

"oh boy," she muttered under her breath.

"what's wrong?" eunbi asked.

"i think i know what this is about," hana replied, "promise me you'll call the cops if something happens?"

"cops? hana, what'd you get yourself into?" andrew asked.

hana sighed and patted his shoulder before hesitantly walking towards the table of three.

"um .." she began.

"oh! you must be hana right? i'm bang sihyuk, ceo of bighit entertainment," the male spoke, "please take a seat."

hana took a seat next to jay, facing the male and woman who looked at them carefully.

"since you're on your break, i don't want to take too much time out of it, so i'll make this quick. there's a rumor about jay going around," the male began, "do you know of it?"

"yes sir," hana nodded.

"thankfully the pictures were taken at an angle where your face isn't visible, but our team was able to figure it out."

"dating rumors are dangerous to the industry. they threaten careers and affect the health of our artists, so we try our best to clear them up, but we of course need to know the truth," the ceo explained.

"now we've already asked jay separately, but we need to hear an answer from you. are you in any sort of relationship with jay?"

hana's eyes widened, "no sir. not in that way. we're only friends. we're not even friends. we're sort of like acquaintances, but like we're close to being friends but—"

"i'll just stop talking now," she mumbled, making the male and female laugh.

"ms. seo, you sound like a nice young lady and we mean no threat or harm. so you're denying your relationship with jay?"

"yes sir, because there is no romantic relationship going on between us," hana nodded.

"well that's something .. jay told us that there was."

hana's eyes widened as she looked at jay who kept his attention on the two older figures in front of them.

"sir i—"

hana paused due to the fact that she was speechless.

"i'll ask you two again. are the two of you dating?" the man asked.

hana was going to be quick to reply, however, right before she was going to open her mouth, jay placed his hand on top of hers and gave it a tight squeeze under the table.

she quickly glanced at jay before sighing, "sir with a—"

"hana!" jay suddenly exclaimed, startling the two older figures and hana.

he stood up and looked at hana with an upset face before continuing, "i get that you're trying to protect me, but they want the truth."

"jay i—"

"hey hey," the woman began, "it's okay. there's no need to— you two can solve this later together, right pd-nim?"

"oh right," the male nodded with a smile, "we'll figure out a way to break it to the media. thank you for cooperating with us."

"jay do you need to .."

"can i?" jay asked, receiving a nod.