My pictures were everywhere.

News ones, like Tae Yang—or Link—and I getting cozy at the beach, or me being hounded by paparazzi outside of work. Also old ones, like me walking up and down the stage of the Miss Venezuela in an itty bitty bikini.

There were articles about me in every tabloid and in a good number of reputable sources. The comments under every article alluded to how I must have weaseled my way into The Lincoln Choi's life through my body. Except, they painted me as a washed up model wannabe, who was too old and unimportant to date a celebrity like him.

And shit, they were right.

As soon as the scandal exploded, Tae Yang tried to find me. I didn't let him.

I took a leave from work and ensconced myself in my room. I didn't want to talk with him. Not because I didn't know what to say, but because I didn't know how to say what I felt without breaking my own heart even more. I missed him just as much as I wanted to curse at him. I wanted to hold him just as much as I wanted to punch him in his annoyingly pretty face.

But I needed to be by myself first. I needed to hurt on my own.

For days, I just lay in bed, seeing him in my dreams and crying when I was awake because he wasn't there. I shut my phone off to deprive myself of the chance of forgiving him when I wasn't ready.

Mom only talked with me when she dropped by to order me to eat something, but every line of her face was etched by clear displeasure. Just once she told me to face the music. The word triggered a fresh round of tears from me.

One evening, I heard voices outside my door. For a second my heart jolted. If it was Tae Yang, I wasn't ready to face him yet. But Quinta's unmistakable rasp was followed by Dawn's dry tones. I buried my head in my pillow, angry for wishing it were someone else.

"Enough is enough." Though muffled, the words came from Quinta. Hushed conversation sounded for a while, the voices moving away from my door until they faded altogether.

She was probably right, but I didn't think the day I got out of my pajamas, hopped in the shower and returned to society would be any time soon. Even my asshole boss, who should be invested in my prompt return, had told me to take as much time as I needed.

Even in my heartbreak, I'd noted the glee in his voice at seeing my newly found happiness crumble. He was another problem I refused to face.

I pulled my bedsheets up to cover my head and sent a little prayer up. All I wanted was to be alone for a bit. To be forgotten for a few days, for as long as it took me to gather the strength to face the world.

Right then, there was a knock on my door.

My heart thudded in my chest. It wasn't Mom's usual rhythm.

I shook my head, rubbing my nose against the pillow. It didn't matter. Even if Dawn or Quinta wanted to talk, I wasn't in the mood. And if it were someone else...

No. Not possible.

The sound came again. Still no response from me, other than an increased blood pressure.

Then they knocked again. And again.

I sat up, letting the bedsheets fall around me. My hair was in my face and I blew it away, glancing around to see what I could throw at the door. And then it opened. But I had locked it and it didn't have a key—

Tae Yang appeared in the threshold, holding a hairpin. It felt as though our eyes found each other across as stadium full of people as he stepped into my bedroom.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, my voice raspy with disuse.

He looked different now. Like some prince visiting Cinderella in her basement. While he was dressed to the nines in brand clothes that made him look like he was in a pictorial, I was in a ratty nightgown from Target reeking of days without showering.

Tae Yang closed the door and locked it. "We should talk."

The moment he took a step forward, I yelped. "Stop! Stay there."

His eyes were wide as saucers. "What? Why?"

"I haven't showered in days," I admitted, because I had no dignity left.

He had the gall of sitting on my bed with a smile. "I don't care about that."

"Well, I do." I tried to pull the bedsheets against me, but his weight pinned them down. Instead, I settled for hugging a pillow. "And I also don't want to talk."

"I know," Tae Yang said, glancing down at his hands. "You've made that clear. But I still think we should."

I lay back down on my bed, my back turned to him, hoping to make my point.

Instead, he started chuckling. I didn't have to wonder why for long, when I felt his hand on my hip, pulling down my nightgown.

Had I just... flashed him?

Groaning, I buried my face in my pillow. Could I get any more pitiful?

"I miss you," he said, his voice low and sad. I bit my lip hard, preventing it from forming the words me too. "I miss your voice. I miss your eyes and that thing your eyebrow does when you think I'm being stupid."

"My eyebrow doesn't do anything," I said against the pillow.

Tae Yang sighed. "I miss talking on the phone for hours and how you still can't quite pronounce dongsaeng."

I frowned. "I thought I said it just fine."

"But more than that," he said, lowering his voice until it was a whisper on my skin. "I'm sorry."

I let the words hang over us for a moment. My eyes welled as an all out war broke out between my heart and my brain. The former forgave him right away. The latter wanted him to have it.

And I let the latter win.

In a swift move, I sat up and faced him. "You lied to me."

It didn't matter that tears streamed down my face. That I wanted to pull him by the collar of his shirt and kiss him. That I wanted his big hands to wipe away my tears. I pushed his shoulder. The other. I lay my head against his chest and closed my eyes.

He caressed my head, which really sent the tears rolling down my cheeks.

"Can I tell you my story?" Tae Yang asked, his hand going as far down as my neck and back to the crown of my head.

I sniffled. "I already read it all on the internet."

"Not that one. My side of the story between you and I."

"You have a side?" I asked, lifting my head.

What a mistake. That put me right up close with him and I wasn't prepared for the things his eyes did to me, after a week of depriving myself of them. To make matters worse, he fulfilled my wish of wiping my cheeks and just let his hand rest there. Skin against skin. Sending tingles down my entire body.

He lowered his hand, but I didn't mourn the loss for long. Tae Yang laced his fingers with mine.

Bienvenida a casa, a voice in my mind said.

"This is going to sound lame no matter how much I say it." He ran his free hand through his hair. He bit his lip, making me want to do it for him. "Every relationship I've been in, or even every blind date my parents set me up with, has revolved around that one fact."

I murmured. "Yeah, well. You are THESUN."

His lips twitched. I pursed mine.

"With you it was different." He sighed, rubbing his thumb across the back of my hand. "You really had no idea who I was, which is how you got to know who I really am."

My chin trembled. "Did I? Did I really get to know you, without knowing such a big part of what makes you you?"

That stunned him speechless for a moment. The silence only made my chest tighten. But then so did his hand.

"Yes," he said, with surprising firmness. "You did. You got to know the true me, not the persona I have to assume for my job. No glitter, no spotlights, no Link. Just good old Tae Yang."

"You still should've told me." I lowered my face because I could no longer make out his face through the wall of tears in my eyes. "I feel like such a fool."

Tae Yang pulled me against him and kissed the top of my head. "I'm sorry for hurting you. I'm sorry I didn't protect you better."

"You should be." I sniffled against his previously clean shirt, inhaling his scent through my nose. Soap on skin, no fancy perfume, just enough to set butterflies in my stomach. I grabbed fistfuls of his shirt. "They're dragging me through the mud, and that doesn't even hurt as much as knowing you weren't honest with me."

I heard his throat work down a big gulp before he asked, "Will you never trust me again?"

"I don't know," I said, holding back a sob.

He let his forehead fall in the crook of my neck and shoulder. "Will you let me work to earn your trust again?"

I squeezed my hands tighter around the fabric of his shirt. "I'm scared."

"Of me?"

I lifted my face.

His eyes, usually so sharp and bright, were sad and wet. And I hated it.

I wanted to see him be his usual self, confident in his skin, with a quick quip at the tip of his tongue, a tilt of his lips, a spark in his eyes. And I wanted to be the reason for the warmth in his eyes, the flush in his skin.

I shook my head. No, I wasn't scared of him. I was scared of not having him in my life.

"No, I'm scared of them," I said instead.

Them were the paparazzi. The keyboard warriors. His angry fans.

Tae Yang bit his lip. "I wish I could promise you'll be safe from them, but..."

"You're not safe from them either," I said.

Not every article about him or the band had been full of praise.

He'd been criticized for saying in an interview that he didn't like sushi or any raw meat, for voicing political views on a morning show, for missing a concert because he'd been sick, for having dated an actress. The band was criticized for having a few songs with a religious message, but also for showing too much skin in concerts. The public praised him for having served in the Marine Corps, but condemned him for having postponed his mandatory service several times. He was criticized for having said, years ago, that he hated love songs, and for now releasing one as a solo act.

Dating him, there would be no hiding from the public. My business would be splashed all over the news, unless I stopped becoming news. Which would only happen if I broke up with him.

All through the conversation, Tae Yang hadn't let go of my hand once. I pulled mine away and hugged my knees to my chest.

"Ten years ago, I joined the Miss Venezuela hoping to change my life." I rested my chin on one knee, eyes down because I couldn't face him. "Mom and I didn't have much money, but I was pretty and I knew it. I thought if I became a celebrity, I'd hit it big and all our problems would go away.

"But I didn't hit it big." I sighed, closing my eyes. "I didn't win the pageant and after that, every offer I got required less and less clothes. And even though I didn't take them, all people did was point at me as though I had."

The old hurt came back like an arrow to the chest.

"Now the whole internet is rubbing it on my face, saying I must have seduced you because there's no way someone like me could be with you."

"I'll sue them," Tae Yang said, a growl in his voice. "I have the means and the patience to make them regret it."

I gave him a little smile. It died just as soon as it was formed.

"That experience was just a little taste of the bad side of the celebrity life." My voice shook as I asked, "Is that how dating you is going to be?"

Tae Yang sucked air like I'd punched him in the stomach. His eyes blinked rapidly, one hand hovering mid air towards me.

"Is that... are you breaking up with me?"

I bit my lip hard enough to taste copper.

And froze.

Tae Yang stood up.

He moved away just a step. The extra distance felt like a chasm separating my heart in two pieces.

I pushed the bed sheets away and crashed against him, wrapping my arms tight around him.

Sobbing, I said, "But I don't want to. I want them all to go away but I want you to stay."

He grabbed onto my arms, voice choked as he said, "I can't give you both. I can only give you me."

I squeezed harder.

"That might not be enough," he whispered. "But if it is, I hope we can navigate the rest together."

I wanted that. I really wanted that.

Tae Yang coerced my arms open with a caress and turned around, still in their circle. He palmed the side of my face, thumb running across my lips.

"I won't make empty promises," he said, swallowing thick. "I'm not all-mighty. I'm just a dongsaeng in love with his noona, desperately hoping she gives him another chance."

A fat tear rolled down from my eye onto his hand. "You're in love?"

The corners of his lips went up. "Like the lead of some drama. Truly, madly, besotted."

I sniffled. "Even though I haven't showered in days?"

Tae Yang kissed my forehead.

"And even though I'm still mad at you?"

He kissed my nose.

As my knees grew weaker, he wrapped his arms tight around me.

"Also, even though I have nothing to offer you?"

Tae Yang looked deep into my eyes and shook his head. "What can possibly be better than yourself?"

My lower lip pushed up. "Cállate."

Even without knowing the word, he got the meaning and shut up. By kissing me.

SONG OF THE DAY: Savage Garden - Truly Madly Deeply

finally, the truth is out