How to Handle a Dating Scandal
Yeon-woo said he would check and call back, then hung up.
He opened a portal site, tapped over to the entertainment news tab, and found the article sitting right at the top.
Three minutes ago?
It had just gone up.
He clicked through the sensational headline. The photos showed the two of them stepping out of a convenience store in hats and masks. His own face was somewhat unclear, but Seo Ji-eun, following behind him, had been caught under the store lights well enough that her features were reasonably identifiable.
Chrissy, who had cleverly trailed after them, was nowhere in the shots.
As Yeon-woo stared at his phone after hanging up, Chrissy peered over his shoulder.
"Oh? Isn't this from just now — when we stepped out right in front?"
"That's right. Looks like a paparazzo got us."
"Wow. Jay and Nari. You guys were superstars?"
When the offer had first come in, the pay had been solid, and she had been told she would be working with a well-known Korean director and a famous actor, so Chrissy had arrived with expectations. Once she got there, though, the production scale had been smaller than she imagined, and she had tilted her head in quiet confusion. Yeon-woo and Director Park had matched industry rates for the outsourced work, but the shoot itself was running like an indie film, so a foreigner with little prior information on either of them had found the whole thing a little puzzling.
But a paparazzo had latched onto them the moment they stepped out, and an article had gone up almost immediately. To Chrissy, that kind of attention felt every bit as intense as a Hollywood movie star's.
Just then Seo Ji-eun came back in looking rather serious, clearly having heard something from her agency.
"Yeon-woo-yaaa."
"Yeah. I heard too."
Yeon-woo scratched his head, thought for a moment, then spoke again.
"But… isn't this not that big a deal, when you think about it?"
His phone was ringing nonstop. He rejected the unknown numbers pouring in and immediately dialed CEO Kim Ju-seong.
"Yeon-woo. I just received the report."
"Yes, sir. I was already aware a paparazzo had been on us since this morning. We were practicing for Sketch, got hungry for a minute, stepped out front, and I guess that's when they got the shot."
"I see."
Yeon-woo continued as if it were nothing much.
"So here's what I was thinking. In my opinion, right now I should personally…"
After listening to Yeon-woo's explanation, CEO Kim Ju-seong seemed to consider it for a moment before his voice came back through the line.
"Hmm… You're right. Having you handle it that way might actually be cleaner than a simple official company statement. That said, we should get prior consent from Seo Ji-eun's agency as well."
"We're still in the middle of practice and she's right here, so I'll take care of it."
With a final request that Yeon-woo call back if things went in an unexpected direction, CEO Kim Ju-seong ended the call.
"Noona. You heard that conversation just now, right? What do you think?"
"Hmm… I'm fine with anything."
"Then can you get your agency CEO on the line for me? I'll explain."
Seo Ji-eun called her agency head and, once the call connected, handed the phone to Yeon-woo.
"Hello. This is Ryu Yeon-woo."
"Huh? Ryu Yeon-woo? Ah — yes, yes. Hello. This is Yoo Byeong-su, CEO of Saeroum Planning."
Having the call suddenly handed over to Ryu Yeon-woo left CEO Yoo a little flustered. Yeon-woo gave him a brief explanation, and after a moment's thought, CEO Yoo gave his approval.
"Hearing it out, it sounds like a solid idea. As you know, Seo Ji-eun can be a bit scatterbrained, so please make sure she doesn't put her foot in her mouth."
"Yes. Understood."
Yeon-woo hung up and looked at Seo Ji-eun.
"Shall we start?"
"Yeah!"
Yeon-woo immediately posted a notice on his fan café that he would be going live, then fired up Byeolstar Live.
It was only the second time since he had gone camping with Maseok Do during the Master Plan shoot. No — back then he had only appeared on Maseok Do's live, so this was effectively his first time hosting one himself.
He sat in a corner of the recording studio, went live, and viewers flooded in almost instantly.
Questions poured in by the dozen. Some viewers had come after seeing the article, some after the fan café notice, and some had stumbled in by pure chance with no idea anything had even happened.
Yeon-woo just smiled at the chat racing past until a solid number of viewers had gathered, then opened his mouth.
At that same moment, over on YouTube, Lee Cheol-ju — a man who made his living hauling celebrity gossip for views, known as a "wrecker" content farmer — was gathering material for a video on the massive scoop that had dropped that evening.
He had gone into Ryu Yeon-woo's fan café, seen the notice, and immediately started watching the live.
"Hello, I'm actor Ryu Yeon-woo. It's been a while since I've greeted you on Byeolstar Live — good to see you."
The moment Yeon-woo spoke, hearts and messages flooded so fast the chat became completely unreadable.
"I just saw the dating rumor article myself and was pretty surprised. First of all — yes, the man in the photo from the article is me."
"Huh? He's just admitting the guy is him? That easily? Is he going for an open relationship announcement?"
Lee Cheol-ju tilted his head. On screen, Yeon-woo was grinning as he spoke, and the chat — already too fast to read — somehow accelerated even further.
Then Yeon-woo said something that went against every expectation.
"But unfortunately, contrary to what you all might be hoping… the connection from Star Beyond the River didn't carry over into real life. Seo Ji-eun-ssi?"
Yeon-woo looked toward Seo Ji-eun, who was just outside the camera frame. She gave a little hop and bounced brightly into shot.
"Hello! I'm Seo Ji-eun."
She joined naturally, and Yeon-woo smiled as he continued.
"We've both been cast in a new film, and right now we're hard at work practicing our ensemble pieces. This one's a film with music woven through it. Looking forward to it, right?"
"Well, figures."
Lee Cheol-ju had thought this was a massive scoop, but the lightning-fast response — going live and snuffing it out — left him with no angle for a clickbait YouTube video. Disappointing. Still, even if it wasn't a dating scandal, the situation itself was entertaining, so he started planning how to edit it for upload and kept his eyes on the screen.
On camera, Yeon-woo used practiced rhetoric to smoothly redirect all the attention on himself and Seo Ji-eun into anticipation for the film. And watching the way he worked the chat, his skill at herding people was anything but ordinary.
Then he said something in English toward the off-camera space. A moment later, a middle-aged white woman with blonde hair stepped into the phone frame.
"This is Chrissy Monroe, the music director for our film."
"Hello, everyone."
"The photo that briefly set the internet on fire was taken when Director Chrissy said she wanted to try Korean triangle kimbap and cup ramyeon, so we ducked into a convenience store for a minute."
Yeon-woo turned the camera to show the table where the triangle kimbap and cup ramyeon they had just been eating were still sitting.
"We showed her the combo of bibimbap-flavor triangle kimbap and spicy ramyeon. What Korean food should we introduce next?"
At Yeon-woo's question, the chat's reactions shifted naturally — from the dating rumor, to the new film, and then to Korean food. When he asked what Korean dishes they should introduce to a foreigner, the chat was instantly plastered with food suggestions.
"Samgyeopsal's great. Oh — and zee32 just said budae-jjigae, that's a good one too."
Yeon-woo began reading comments and chatting with the viewers at an easy, natural pace.
"Whoa. The way he works that chat window could put internet streamers out of business."
The live had started as a dating-rumor clarification, but that was over almost as soon as it began.
"Since we happened to go live like this, how about we take some time to talk with the viewers who loved Star Beyond the River?"
After introducing the film's staff to build credibility, Yeon-woo smoothly shifted the topic to Star Beyond the River, whose special episode had aired just last weekend.
Oh Ju-gwan was in a mood to float away. He had landed a big one today.
"Those T-News bastards. Showing up out of nowhere this afternoon and hanging around the whole time. Heh heh. Scoops fall from the sky. I've already claimed Ryu Yeon-woo."
A reporter for Star Enter News, Oh Ju-gwan had been staking out Ryu Yeon-woo's movements for days, waiting with stubborn patience. Today he had quickly transmitted the exclusive photos of Ryu Yeon-woo and Seo Ji-eun, and the article was already live.
His piece had rocketed to number one on the portal entertainment rankings in no time. Buoyed by his own achievement, he walked into the office with a swagger in his step.
The elevator opened. He stepped into the newsroom — late as it was — and found several staff already clustered around a monitor.
Heh heh. What are they all gathered around looking at? Hit number one within five minutes of the article going up — of course they'd be jealous.
Grinning ear to ear, Oh Ju-gwan strolled over.
"Hey, why hasn't anyone gone home? What are you all crowded around for?"
A colleague he was usually in a mild rivalry with glanced back and smirked.
"Story material's pouring out. Who can go home?"
"Haha. Pouring out? Dating-rumor news is a first-to-report market. The first one takes everything."
"Hmm? The dating rumor already got buried, buddy."
Oh Ju-gwan frowned at the colleague who had been getting under his skin lately.
I finally land a big one after a long dry spell, and he says it already got buried? Even if he's jealous, that's just petty.
Still scowling, Oh Ju-gwan approached the other reporters gathered around the screen. The ones watching the monitor started scribbling things down.
"Ohh, so Son Jin-uk's cameo was because he just happened to stop by that day in a coffee truck to cheer them on? That's gold."
Curious what they were watching so intently, Oh Ju-gwan peered at the monitor — and his eyes went wide at the sight of Ryu Yeon-woo and Seo Ji-eun mid-live stream.
"What? Did the two of them confirm it while I was driving back?"
"Huh? Team Leader Oh. That issue got buried thirty minutes ago. They say they were just practicing ensemble pieces for a film shoot."
His colleagues barely glanced at him. They were too busy turning the endless behind-the-scenes stories gushing from Ryu Yeon-woo's live into articles.
He hurriedly pulled out his phone and checked the portal entertainment page — but the emergency exclusive he had filed was long gone from the rankings, buried under a flood of other articles.
The dating rumor was wrapped up that quickly. Having gone live anyway, they spent about an hour chatting with fans before ending the broadcast.
"So which one did you enjoy the most?"
"Hmm. Maybe Your Name?"
While Seo Ji-eun chatted away, asking Chrissy all sorts of things, the conversation turned to Korean films and dramas. Interest lit in Yeon-woo's eyes at Chrissy's answer.
"If it's Your Name, that's Jin-uk hyung's project."
"Huh? You're right. It is."
Seo Ji-eun chimed in and turned to Chrissy.
"Chrissy. Did you know Jay is super close with the lead from Your Name? They're basically brothers."
"Really? Oh my gosh."
Seo Ji-eun pulled up her phone, searched online, and started showing photos — from the legendary three-shot of Yeon-woo, Son Jin-uk, and Jin Yu-han on Star Beyond the River all the way back to his debut work, Summer's Closet.
"Jay. You look different now. Of course, you were already incredibly good-looking from the first time I saw you, but now there's this… halo behind you…"
"Haha. Jin-uk hyung's star power is no joke."
Yeon-woo scratched his head, then grinned as if a fun idea had just occurred to him.
"Chrissy. Do you know what bunsik is? It's Korean street food — things like tteokbokki and odeng."
"Tteobokki?"
Chrissy tilted her head at the sudden question.