ACT II | SCENE VI

❝NEWS❞

YOONGI HAD EVERY intention to ignore it, but the incessant ringing made it impossible. if the sound had been coming from his alarm, it might not have bothered him so much. but it came from his phone, buzzing repeatedly on the smooth black oak nightstand.

eyes peeling open slightly, he checked the time through hooded gaze. there was still half an hour before he had to be up. groaning, he kicked his legs in annoyance before reaching for the phone that had refused to stop ringing.

not bothering to check the caller id, he swiped his thumb over the answer button, resting the phone on the side of his face. "hello?" his voice came out hoarse and groggy, the sleep that still tugged on his eyelids deepening it. "min yoongi!" his best friend's yell had his face contorting in a wince. "are you up?" kim seokjin questioned, an impatient note in his voice. "thanks to you." yoongi muttered irritably.

"have you seen the news?" seokjin continued, ignoring the irritation his friend was not afraid to show. "i haven't seen anything except the god, hypnos, asking me to end this call and go back to sleep." yoongi responded, eyes shutting.

"yoongi, your face is everywhere right now." seokjin informed him, still blatantly ignoring his annoyance. "what do you mean?" yoongi's brain was too fogged by sleep to easily process what his friend was talking about. the older man sighed in exasperation. "i'll be over at your place soon. your name is number three on the search engines, and it'll probably be number one by the time i get to your apartment. but you can just remain clueless for now."

yoongi's brows pulled together, the skin between them wrinkling. "hyung, what are you talking about?" he asked in confusion. "you'll find out pretty soon." seokjin answered evasively. yoongi rolled his eyes in response. "you just woke me up to get me flummoxed first thing in the morning, huh?"

"i'll see you soon." again, seokjin ignored his complaints, ending the call before yoongi could reply.

grunting in annoyance, he dropped the phone back on the nightstand. settling back into the bed, he hoped to be able to get more sleep before he absolutely had to be up. seokjin's words became a topic for later consideration after he was fully awake.

he was just succumbing to sleep when the sound of his phone ringing cut through the air. letting out another grunt in frustration, he snatched the phone off the nightstand, swiping the answer button aggressively. "what?!" he snapped as soon as the phone was against his ear.

"hyung, i know you'd still be asleep at this time but—" jeongguk's timid voice started only to be cut off by an irritated yoongi. "then why the hell did you call?"

"well, it's just that you're trending everywhere right now, hyung. there's a video too." jeongguk explained meekly. seokjin had said practically the same thing. it wasn't that often, but his name popped up around blogs and social media for one reason or the other from time to time. he was getting used to it. but it seemed his friends were making a big deal out of this one. "what video?" yoongi queried, now curious.

"um, a video of you, a woman, and a little girl who's supposed to be your daughter."

yoongi's eyes snapped open and he shot off the bed in an instant. the fingers of sleep that had fervently caressed him only seconds ago recoiled and suddenly he was wide awake. "what?" he hissed. "it's everywhere, hyung. and there are people commenting that they personally witnessed her call you her father. everyone is talking about it and it's not pretty." jeongguk expatiated.

a distant ringing in yoongi's ears became louder with each passing second. he didn't speak and he could no longer tell if jeongguk still was. what he had only momentarily feared had actually become a reality. the previous day's events replaying in his head, he let out a breath of disbelief. it could only be that.

the grocery store debacle with choi haneul.

"jeongguk," he mumbled almost inaudibly. "yes, hyung?" jeongguk answered, concern trickling into his voice. "i'm going to hang up now." yoongi's voice was even and emotionless. "hyung, are you alright?" he asked softly. "i'm fine. i'll talk you later." yoongi ended the phone call, still in a daze.

for a moment, he just stared blankly at nothing in particular, his mind completely empty. snapping out of his daze, he unlocked his phone, searching his name and clicking on the first result.

taking a deep breath in a useless bid to prepare himself for what was to come, he forced himself to look at his phone screen. the title of the article instantly caught his eye and his features contorted in the image of frustration.

president of lune corp. and one of korea's top bachelors, min yoongi, secretly a father?

placing a hand over his face, yoongi rubbed at his temples. the slow hum of an incoming headache was making itself known, thrumming steadily with every second that went by like an acoustic guitar rising in volume. running his hand through his tousled hair, he continued reading the article.

the name, min yoongi, is a staple in the korean tech world. he is famous for being one of the youngest to ever rise to success without an established chaebol background. with the nationwide success of his social networking site, orbit, he secured his place and his company, lune, in the tech world.

he is particularly famous with the ladies. the successful businessman is one of the most sought after bachelors in korea, yet he doesn't appear to have much of a dating life. not even a single report about his relationships, past or present, has ever surfaced. and it seemed as though he had never been romantically involved with anyone, or at least anyone who was unlikely to keep it hush.

being a very private person, the only detail that is known about his personal life is that he and model, kim seokjin (popularly known by the mononym, jin), are longtime best friends. and for years, min yoongi has been scandal free. but that seems to have changed.

last night, a video surfaced on the internet with a caption claiming that min yoongi had a daughter he kept hidden from the rest of the world. and the video appears to provide solid proof of the credibility of that statement.

in the one minute clip, the child can be seen with her face pressed against the window of his car. she can clearly be heard pleading with him to let her in and not leave without her. next to her, a woman, whom witnesses assume to either be her mother or nanny, tries to convince her that he will return for her. soon after, min yoongi seems to acquiesce, smiling at the child before she is settled into his car.

witnesses claim to have seen the trio together in the grocery store outside of which the incident recorded had occurred. there are also reports that they were spotted some time later going into taeyang hospital.

this is the first time he would be involved in a scandal of any sort. and he appears to have launched on a grand scale. there has been no statement made by min yoongi or his team at the moment.

you can watch the video below and tell us your thoughts.

he skipped over the video, eyes skimming over the comments on the post. there were hundreds of them and he couldn't bring himself to actually read any. tossing the phone to the side, yoongi pinched the bridge of his nose. this was far worse than he could imagine.

how the hell was he supposed to clean up this mess?

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