Ask any girl on the street and she would probably tell you that attending the Seoul Entertainment Awards gala dinner would be a dream come true—to be surrounded by all the big names from the entertainment industry that you would otherwise only be able to admire silently from afar. But for Hyejin, the four hour (yes, it was that long) dinner was possibly the most painful four hours that she had ever sat through in her entire life.

There were plenty of speeches delivered, prizes given away, performances put on to entertain the hundreds of guests, but she couldn't focus on anything because she was too uncomfortable with the way people were turning her way and staring at her from time to time as if she were a zoo exhibit. Whenever she caught someone looking this way and then leaning over to whisper something into the ear of the person sitting next to them, she was almost certain that they were talking about her. She even caught a couple of unfriendly and condescending glares sent her way from some of the girl group members who were clearly upset that Ares was supposedly off the shelf.

Thankfully, the people seated at her table were civil enough, some of whom even tried to engage her in polite conversation about the latest music and television trends, none of which she was particularly interested in or had much knowledge of.

"Minho has improved tremendously in his acting, don't you think?" one of the girls at her table said with a bright smile as they watched the clips from this year's most popular dramas play on the big screens. "He'll be giving you a run for your money soon, Ares."

Ares chuckled. "Then maybe I can retire," he joked.

"I don't think Gina will let you retire even if you wanted to," someone else chimed in. "Look at her, she's working overtime." True enough, Gina had just walked over to one of the broadcasting stations managing directors and was now whispering something into his ear rather purposefully. "If only my manager was like Gina, then perhaps I'd be the one whose face is on almost every billboard in Gangnam."

"Lee, I'll give you half my billboards if you'd like," Ares laughed, "and all of Gina."

Hyejin just sat quietly listening to all this chatter and stuffing food into her mouth, her eyes constantly flicking towards the screen of her phone to check on the time. It was passing way too slowly. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Hyunwon sitting stiffly in his seat, hand resting on the stem of his wine glass.

"Ares, could I borrow you for a second?" Gina's voice suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Lowering her voice so that the others round the table wouldn't be able to hear her, she said, "Come and say hello to Mr Kim. He says that the station is planning to start casting for the summer dramas and there might be some roles that he would be keen to offer to you." Smiling at the rest of the guests at the table, she took Ares by the arm and said, "Excuse us for a minute, will you?"

"But..." Ares turned to look at Hyejin with concern.

"Hyejin is a big girl. She'll be fine on her own, isn't that right?" Gina said, patting Hyejin patronisingly on the shoulder. "Let's not keep Mr Kim waiting."Before Ares could protest, Gina had already expertly steered him away from the table and towards where the managing director was seated.

Hyejin sighed, reaching for her wine glass. This will be over soon, she kept telling herself. With Ares gone, everyone else at the table began engaging in their own small talk, promptly treating her as if she was invisible. She stood up and excused herself to go to the bathroom—no one even batted an eyelid.

Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, she stared at her own reflection, wondering who the stranger staring back at her was. It was her face, yet it wasn't at the same time.

Make-up works wonders, she thought to herself, and we haven't even talked about the plastic surgery yet. I wonder what all of them look like underneath... She snuck a sideways glance at the girl who had just exited the toilet stall and was applying even more lipstick to her already blood red lips.

Drying off her hands with a paper towel, Hyejin quickly left the bathroom, half wondering if Ares would already have returned to his seat. When she peeked in through the ballroom doors, she saw him still standing with Gina, smiling politely at something that the managing director of the station was saying. She immediately did a U-turn and decided to hang around at the ballroom reception area instead.

She was looking up and counting the number of crystals on the chandelier when someone called out from behind her.

"So you're the girl who's supposedly going out with Ares?"

The voice belonged to a girl with bangs and long, wavy hair, walking towards her in a bright pink minidress that revealed way too much cleavage. Hyejin recognised her—she was the girl who couldn't keep her hands off Ares at the Alexander McQueen fashion show. Was her name Minji? Or Mina? Or Minjoo? She couldn't remember.

"Mina, where are you going? The washroom's the other way," another girl said when she saw the pink minidress head in the opposite direction from where they were supposed to be headed.

Ah, so it's Mina.

Mina ignored her friend and continued heading towards Hyejin, scanning her from head to toe as she walked.

"Did you not hear my question?" Mina asked, a slight frown appearing on her porcelain face. "You're that girl from the salon who seduced Ares, aren't you?"

"Excuse me?"

"Who's she?" Another three girls came out of the ballroom and joined Mina, each of them regarding Hyejin warily.

Mina rolled her eyes. "A nobody who thinks she can make it big by clinging onto Ares. Some girls have no shame."

Hyejin could feel her blood beginning to boil as she listened to the words leaving Mina's lips. From what she remembered of this girl's interactions with Ares, it was an obvious case of the green-eyed monster rearing its ugly head and she was just an innocent victim who was now the butt of Mina's jealousy just because of Gina's elaborate scam. Part of her wanted to give the smug starlet a smack across the cheek, but she clenched her fists and held it in knowing that it would cause even more trouble if any of the reporters caught that on camera.

She turned to walk away, but before she could make a hasty escape, Mina reached out and grabbed hold of her hand.

"Don't you know it's rude to walk away when someone is talking to you?"

"Oh, I didn't realise that anyone was talking to me," Hyejin replied coldly. "Let go of me."

Letting go was never going to happen. All at once, Hyejin found herself being surrounded and herded away from the ballroom towards a staircase landing. She tried to free herself from the girls, but they turned out to be surprisingly stronger than she had expected.

Once the door to the stairwell slammed shut behind them, she was shoved roughly towards the ground, collapsing in a heap as her borrowed designer heels snapped and gave way. She looked up at glared angrily at the three girls, who were now sneering at her pathetic state.

Mina bent over and pressed her index finger against Hyejin's forehead, saying, "Who do you think you are? Some sort of Cinderella? Fairy tales don't exist in this world. I suggest you grow some brains and get out of your daydream as soon as you can, otherwise the only one who will get hurt is you."

"Ares isn't someone that a nobody like you can touch. He and Mina have had a thing going on for ages. Everyone knows that!"

"Oh really?" Hyejin replied stiffly. "Well it's surprising that Ares himself doesn't know that." She took a deep breath and tried to pick herself off the floor, but a sharp kick hit her in the ribs almost immediately.

One of the girls grabbed her by the hair and yanked hard at it. "Stop acting so high and mighty. You're nothing compared to our Mina. Ares is just playing with you because he thinks you're some new and interesting plaything. Soon he'll get bored of you and you'll be back out on the streets. You don't belong in our world."

"Let go!" Hyejin yelled, trying to get the girl to let go of her hair. She could almost feel some strands being ripped off her scalp as it was.

"Are you or are you not going to leave Ares?"

"Who the hell are you to tell me what I should or shouldn't do? If you're that fantastic then why don't you get Ares to go out with you fair and square!"

Mina's face was slowly turning bright red as she bristled with anger. Grabbing hold of Hyejin's face by the chin, she glared at the girl and said, "You whore. You don't deserve to be anywhere near him. Now you'll listen to me while I'm still playing nice and get the hell away from Ares, or else—"

"Or else what? You'll get your entire freaking group of mean girls to beat me up some more? What are you going to do if I tell Ares about this?"

Mina let go of her and took a step back, laughing as if she had just heard the most ridiculous thing on Earth. "You want to tell Ares? In case you didn't know, Lollipop has a reputation for being one of the sweetest girl groups that ever debuted. We're the role models for young girls all over the country. Do you think people will believe you, a fame hungry country bumpkin, or me, the leader of Lollipop? Haven't you already seen what people are saying about you on the internet?"

Ares had reassured her that it was normal to have haters—there would always be those who would be jealous of what she had and what they didn't—but it didn't make her feel much better about their disparaging comments anyhow. They called her a fame hungry money grubber, and there were even nastier terms bandied around like slut, vixen and whore.

"Even if Ares believes you, he won't do anything about it. We belong to the same management agency. He needs to protect the company's image, as well as his own."

One of the girls gave Hyejin another kick, this time to the stomach, making her cry out loud in pain.

The door leading to the stairwell opened a crack and the girl standing watch outside hissed loudly to her friends, "Someone's coming."

"What?" Mina frowned. "Don't let anyone come in here. Just make something up," she said to her friend, but before the other girl had enough time to react, the door to the stairwell had already been roughly pushed open.

Hyunwon was standing at the open doorway, surveying the scene with a look of icy coldness emanating from his eyes. He glanced down at Hyejin, who was still sitting on the floor clutching onto her stomach, and then his gaze flickered back up towards Mina, the lead perpetrator.

Mina flashed him a sweet smile, looking as if nothing had happened whatsoever. She turned towards Hyejin and placed a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder, saying, "If you're not used to wearing such high heels then you should be more careful. You could have gotten yourself seriously hurt by tripping on the stairs." She looked at Hyunwon and said, "We were on our way to the washroom when Yuri thought she heard something in the stairwell so we came over to take a look. The poor dear tripped on the steps. Thank goodness we found her."

Hyejin stared at Mina in disbelief. The girl was lying through her teeth, yet she seemed to calm about it that even Hyejin herself could have believed she was telling the truth. Was this how Lollipop earned their reputation for being one of the best role models for young girls across the nation? If only everyone knew that all of it was just an act.

Hyunwon ignored Mina and pushed past her, squatting down in front of Hyejin instead. "Are you alright?" he asked, his tone mixed with tinges of concern and irritation. Placing one arm around her shoulder and one hand on her elbow, he slowly helped her back up to her feet. The wince of pain that emerged from her lips as she stood upright didn't go unnoticed, neither did the way she was still clutching onto the side of her waist.

As he helped the limping girl slowly make her way back towards the door, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, turning back to look at Mina and her cronies.

"Your manager is going to be hearing from me," he said coldly.

"What? But we didn't do anything! We were just trying to help..." Mina's voice trailed off when she saw the flash of anger appear in Hyunwon's eyes. She immediately lowered her head, knowing that he had already seen through everything. The other girls looked worried—they all knew who Hyunwon was and what he was capable of in this industry. If he could make stars, he could also break stars.

"What are we going to do, Mina?" They tugged at their leader's arm as they watched Hyunwon slowly walk away with Hyejin.

"I don't know, don't ask me!" she replied angrily, scowling at her own bad luck.

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"Where are we going?" Hyejin asked when she noticed that Hyunwon wasn't leading her back to the ballroom. Not that she wanted to go back to the ballroom in this state. Her right heel was broken, her hair was a mess and the dull throb at her right waist area was making her feel slightly sick.

"Wait here," he said, sitting her down at the sofa in front of the hotel lifts.

When he returned, he came carrying her clutch along with his own jacket. He quickly slipped the jacket across her shoulders, saying, "Come on, I'm taking you home."

"What about the dinner? I mean, I should tell Ares... Are you sure you can just leave like that? What about Kara?"

"I hate these dinners anyway. You can text Ares later," Hyunwon said brusquely. When he went back into the ballroom to pick up their things, he had seen Ares still busy speaking management, having not even noticed that Hyejin was gone for a little too long. It made his blood boil. If Ares was going to bring Hyejin here as his partner, knowing that she was completely unfamiliar with the industry, then the least he could do was to look after her while she was here.

"Hyunwon, where are you going?" Kara's voice came floating from a distance. She was walking quickly towards them, a slight frown appearing across her forehead when she saw Hyejin together with Hyunwon, wearing his jacket across her shoulders. "Why did you just leave like that?"

"Just go back in, Kara," Hyunwon said in exasperation. "If anyone asks, tell them I wasn't feeling well." He held open the lift door and turned to Hyejin, gesturing for her to hurry up and get in.

Hyejin wasn't sure how she was supposed to react to all this, but the moment she saw that twitch in Hyunwon's brows she immediately knew that he was in one of his no-negotiation moods. She slowly got up to her feet and hobbled towards the lift, although the pain in her side and her broken shoe made her move like a snail.

"If you're not feeling well then I can't stay at the dinner without you, can I? What would people think of me? You can't just leave like that, Hyunwon. This is our first public appearance together since the news about our relationship hit the press! Why don't you wait for me, I'll just go back and grab my things and we can—"

The rest of the words remained stuck in Kara's throat when she saw Hyunwon march over towards Hyejin, evidently impatient with how long she was taking to move from the sofa to the lift. In one swift motion, he lifted her up into his arms and carried her into the lift, ignoring the shock in her eyes.

"What are you doing?" Kara exclaimed.

Hyunwon didn't even bother to reply. He quickly ordered Hyejin to hit the lift button for basement two and the lift doors closed, leaving a stunned Kara behind.

"Is it really alright for you to leave like this? Kara didn't look like she was too happy," Hyejin said timidly when they were both sat in Hyunwon's car and the latter started the engine. "I can just take a cab home. There's no need to trouble you to—"

"What did they do to you?" Hyunwon interjected.

Hyejin hesitated for a moment, thinking about what Mina had said to her back in the stairwell. One thing had struck her particularly hard, and that was that no one would believe what she said over Mina, even if she was speaking the truth. There was no point in telling anyone the truth, because all it would do would be to create more trouble for Ares and that wasn't what she wanted. The reason why she had agreed to this charade was to help her friend, not to add to his worries.

"Nothing," she said quietly. "I tripped and fell."

Hyunwon tightened his grip on the steering wheel and then he abruptly swerved to one side, pulling to a stop by the Han river. Surprised by the sudden braking, Hyejin's body lurched forwards, held back only by the safety belt that Hyunwon had helped her fasten earlier.

Slamming his palm angrily against the wheel, he turned to her and shouted, "You tripped and fell? Really? Do you take me for a three-year-old?"

Hyejin felt herself shrinking in her seat and the tears began to well up in her eyes. She could feel Hyunwon's anger radiating towards her, but she didn't even know why he was so mad in the first place. She hadn't done anything wrong.

Seeing the tears begin to trickle down her cheeks, Hyunwon sighed in exasperation. He killed the engine and stepped out of the car, slamming the door hard behind him. Standing by the river, he tried to clear his mind and let the anger within him slowly simmer away.

After a couple of minutes, Hyejin wiped the tears away from her eyes and got out of the car, walking slowly over to where he was standing.

"I've been in this business long enough to know what goes on behind the scenes," Hyunwon said, his gaze resting upon the gentle waves of the river. "It's not just Mina and those girls from Lollipop. There are plenty of others who behave exactly the same way—showing one persona to the public and showing a completely different side when they think no one's watching. Everything that you see on television, all of it is just one big show. If you can't even understand that and learn how to protect yourself, then maybe you don't belong in this world."

"I know," Hyejin replied, staring down at her bare feet. She had left her broken heels in the car and the gravel felt cold beneath her feet.

She never wanted to be part of this glitzy world in the first place. She felt uncomfortable in these clothes, in those heels; she felt uncomfortable being around all those people with their shallow talk and dazzling smiles. But she had made a decision to help Ares, and she knew that she would have to stick to her decision until the very end.

As the two of them stood there side by side just looking at the river and the city lights in front of them, many thoughts were running through both their minds.

Out of the corner of his eye, Hyunwon could see Hyejin standing there with the cold, night wind gently blowing through her loose strands of hair. She looked calmer now, and there was a tiny spark of determination in her eyes; it was the same determination that he had seen back when she had dared to challenge him in his office when she first arrived at the Cutting Edge.

She would never be like Mina, or Kara, or any of the girls that graced the covers of magazines, but there was something about her that was special, even if he couldn't yet place his finger on what that was.

If Ares dragged her into this whirlpool but couldn't protect her, then he would have to.

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