CHAPTER 16

"Do you think I really don't know what you're up to?"

"Follow me," She said and pulled me out of the game room. She let go of my hand when we were outside. She walked towards the cafe across the road and I followed. We went inside the cafe, she took a seat and I sat down before her.

"I'm sorry," Eunsoo apologized before I could say something, I gaped at her, I did not expect an apology to come first.

But then I realized how different she looked, she no longer had the alert and meticulous look, she looked sad and worn out.

"I'm sorry Alanna, I know I gave you and Yeonjun a hard time. And my apologies won't do much to recover what I have done, but I hope you know that I never enjoyed doing those things to you guys," She sighed, and I remained quiet. I didn't know what to feel, should I be angry and lash out at her for putting us through all that? Part of me wanted to, but I knew acting out of anger never solves anything.

"You violated my personal life and spaces, sabotage my relationship, and threatened me. You know I won't be forgiving you just like this," I finally said, Eunsoo's face didn't change at all, she was expecting it.

"Why did you do it?" I asked.

"I need the money," She replied softly, she looked ashamed of what she just said. I didn't know if I should mention that I knew about her mom being in the hospital.

"Who were the two girls exactly?"

"There were my high school classmates, they are obsessed with Yeonjun," She replied.

"I figured. Why do you take up their offer?"

"They said they'll give me a good amount of money if I can get the information they want," She explained, she looked embarrassed.

As much as I hated the thought of being empathic with my stalker, I could understand why she was desperate enough to earn money like this, if I put myself in her shoes, I'd do the same for my mom.

"How do you know I followed you?" She sighed.

"I'm ashamed to say this but I know pretty well how you and Yeonjun meet. You guys will never meet THAT publicly," She said, indicating the night Yeonjun picked me up.

"Why are you like this?" She looked at me with questioning eyes.

"I mean, why do you suddenly decide to tell me all this?"

She didn't answer my question right away, she fidgeted a bit in her seat and looked down at her hand. The skeptical part of me wanted to believe she was just doing it as she knew we had the upper hand and she can go down easily. But, a small part of me wanted to listen to her and try to understand her.

"I'm sick of this life, I know how ridiculous it is to play a good person after all that damage I caused, but I'm suffering as well. If apologizing and explaining things would at least help you guys get closure, I want to do that."

Whenever my father had a chat with me, he would tell me to always forgive but never to forget the reason why I forgave.

"Eunsoo, I can't guarantee that all of the hard feelings I have for you would go away, I think you know that too. But if you really meant all of the things you have just said, I don't find any reason not to forgive you."

"Thank you," I noticed her eyes were getting wet, but I ignored it considering she was already embarrassed enough.

"You stalk others too?" I tried to pretend I didn't already know the answers.

"I thought you saw me that day, you and your friend were terrible at hiding," Damn... she was good.

She continued, "That day you saw me, I was hired by the guy I took pictures of. You know, just a push before his new project."

"Wow... they do that?" I gaped, and I realized how little I knew of the entertainment industry.

"Even bad publicity is still publicity," She shrugged.

"I have to go now, thank you again for being understanding, and again, I'm sorry for what I did," She said and stood up.

Eunsoo out a piece of paper before me, "It's not much, but I think it will help you guys." She smiled and walked out.

I read the paper and it was the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the two girls I saw earlier.

Let's put an end to this.

*

"Baby, are you ok? What happened?" Yeonjun walked up to me as soon as I arrived at the company.

"Yes, I'm fine, no need to worry. I have something really important. Can you take me to your managers?"

"Sure," He held my hand and took me to the elevator.

As the elevator closed, Yeonjun suddenly cornered me against the wall and before I could react, he kissed me. I put my arms around his neck, pulling him close as I moved my lips with his.

"What was that for?" I was breathless when we pulled away and my cheeks were warming up from his sudden movement.

"I missed you," He replied and steal another peck, which only made me blush even more.

"You are really cute, you know that?" He laughed when I just glared at him, this man and his effect on me.

I couldn't be more glad when the elevator door opened, I rushed out from the box and walk towards the first room I saw.

"The door next to it," Yeonjun said behind me.

Still flustered about what happened, I took a deep breath, trying to seem like I did not just have a make-out session with my boyfriend, and thinking about it, I blushed all over again.

I can feel Yeonjun's amusement even though he was behind me, he sneaked a hand on my waist and leaned down, "Are you going in? Or do you want to continue what we were doing? I prefer the latter."

I squealed a bit and quickly knocked on the door before he could try to do something, I nudged him with my elbow when he laughed.

I opened the door and found the managers, Kai and Soobin inside the room.

We took a seat and I started explaining my encounter with Eunsoo, and the two girls with all the details. After I finished, I added.

"I don't know about you guys, but I could understand Eunsoo's desperation to do what she did. The other two girls, not so much."

The managers remained silent for a while and said, "According to our company policy, we will have to sue them for invading our artists' privacy. I know Alanna, you might forgive the girl for what she did, but we will have to still sue her. But we can request to hide her identity if you want?"

I looked at Yeonjun for his opinion and he was quick to reply, "I don't mind the last one either, thank you for looking out for us."

*