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( song of the day :
the way to me - joy )

ahn passed through the revolving doors, sensing an air of awkwardness go around the office's air upon entering. numerous pairs of eyes were on him, but it seemingly wasn't to show respect. the glances they flashed looked as if he shaped-shifted into the incredible hulk or something.

matt harshly pulled him away from the scene, leading them to the office's secluded area. there, he showed him the current pixels inked on his phone's screen to form an image.

he knew it.

he knew this would happen.

it was a stolen shot with him and doyoung at the ramen house last sunday where their faces inched closer towards each other. the image was visibly snapped from a car's tinted windshield.

what made him tinily relieved was doyoung's face being purposely blurred out, so only ahn was shown.

"look, i accept your sexuality, but what the hell is this? why are you hitting it up with an employee?" matt asked, a noticeable hint of urgency in his tone. "this is gonna fuck up our company's reputation big time, ahn. this image was sent to everybody inside the office, and now there are articles surfacing all around south korea. how reckless can you get?"

ahn stared at the picture blankly before continuing his walk towards the elevator. his face remained emotionless.

his secretary chased after him. "are you not gonna do anything about it? do you know how━"

"well what do you want me to do?" matt was shocked by his sudden outburst of anger as they entered the confined platform. "abracadabra all the problems away?"

they both decided to remain silent while waiting to drop off at the 21st floor.

ahn kept thinking of the name kim dongyoung in worry as each second passed by. despite the thankfulness for his face's distortion on screen, he knew people would figure out sooner or later.

he never wanted it to come to that.

i'm ruining his life.

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work today was more frenetic than usual.

jaehyun called haneul in, slightly panicking at the current situation. "ask everyone to take down all the articles and the hate posts. i don't care how. bribe them, threaten them, or act desperate. make sure there aren't online traces anymore by the end of the day."

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..we don't want to have shares with a problematic company..

"fuck," yuta muttered under his breath after reading the email, burying his face in his two hands in stress. this had been the third tie cut by a shareholder, just because of that one rumor.

are they really that shallow?

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"that was the last interviewee for today," the lady told saerom and mark, who were both inside a meeting room. they both stood up from their rolling chairs in huge disbelief. "all the others decided to cancel because of the news."

it was unbelievable how they only got to interview four people.

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"we've been getting prank emails regarding sir ahn," seoyeon told taeyong after a long-suffering sigh, repeatedly rubbing her temples. "even the other teams are getting some too. how do we resolve this?"

"i don't know."

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byul was ready to throw a punch after the news reporters came in like a storm, their dirty shoes messing up the floor she just mopped a few minutes ago.

"talk about consideration."

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the public relations team currently held a meeting.

instead of listening to what they were planning, chae seemed too distracted with scrolling down her phone, seeing the countless posts about ahn's current scandal. "sir ahn's gay? what a waste of good looks."

[ hello : this is what some boomers i encounter with say when they see some gay guy,, they'd be like "oH gOd hE's So hAnDsOmE, bUt hE's GaY? wHaT a WaStE oF lOoKs!" like, lady what is he wasting? he's still handsome even with a guy preference ?? I really don't understand some logics smh ]

"what a waste of a mouth if you say nothing but bullshit," jungwoo spat in annoyance. kiki's voice was too silent for them to hear in between their clamorous argument.

doyoung unconsciously started sweating. am i in the wrong? he thought to himself. he couldn't help but worry about ahn.

suddenly, a soft knock on the room's door was heard. once it opened, they saw the tall figures of sicheng and jace, deferential smiles on their faces.

"can we excuse kim dongyoung for a moment?"

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♤ gabrielle's note

I will never NEVER ⁿᵉᵛᵉʳ search nct ceo on google again 😨🤯😰