Page 24

People love to claim I’m a brat who doesn’t deserve to be a celebrity. And the worst part of it, is, sometimes I worry they’re right. What if I’m only here because of my famous brother?

But this time it’s not just the fact that I’m in a scandal that upsets me. It’s who the scandal is with. Of course it had to be Moon Minseok. Someone who can grate on my nerves just by being mentioned in the same sentence as me.

My phone buzzes with an incoming call. From my mother.

I don’t want to answer it. But when I ignore her calls, my mom gets pissed. Once she called the CEO of my company looking for me. It was so embarrassing.

I answer. “Ye, Eomeoni?”

“Hyeri! What are you doing?” Her voice is high and angry.

“Eomma, please.” I rub at my temples, a headache immediately brewing.

“People arejuststarting to forget your past mistakes and now you’re ruining it all again! We’ve worked too hard for you to mess everything up.”

Mistakes. Mess. That’s how she sees me. She hasn’t even asked me if I’m okay. Or made sure I wasn’t actually hurt in the incident.

I tell myself that I should know better by now, but it still hurts. She’s never once told me something isn’t my fault. Even when the media publishes blatant lies.

I take a full deep breath. “Nothing happened. The video makes it look worse than it was.”

“Well, that doesn’t matter now, does it? Because the articles are out there. How could you let yourself get filmed hitting someone?”

I almost laugh. She’s not actually mad that I hit someone, which would perhaps be valid. But that I did it in a place where I could get caught.

“Don’t you care about why it happened?” I ask, laying my head back and closing my eyes.

“I care about what this is going to do for your already-tarnished image. What if it loses you the role inIdol Academy?”

I squirm because I know I have to tell her. But I really, really don’t want to. “Well, you don’t have to worry about that now, because I didn’t get it.”

Her voice gets low. “Are you telling me you lost the role?”

“There was no guarantee I was getting it—” I start to say.

“Oh, don’t give me empty excuses, Hyeri.” Mom cuts me off. “That’s what people say when they’re not trying hard enough.”

“Sorry, Eomma,” I say. It’s almost an automatic reaction at this point. “But there will be other dramas.”

“I already told half my friends about this role! Do you know how embarrassing it will be when I have to tell them I lied?” Her voice is so loud and shrill I have to pull the phone away from my ear. I’m sure Hongjoo hears it.

“I’m sorry, Eomma,” I say again quietly. I don’t have anything else I can say.

“Fine. We’ll just find a way to recover. I’ve talked to one of your managers, told them that I think you should release a public apology for your actions.”

“What about Minseok?” I blurt out. “He’s the one who hit the confetti gun. Are you calling his manager to tell him to apologize?”

“Minseok is not my child. And as far as I’m concerned, he would never have hit it if you hadn’t pushed him. There’s no reason for you to have acted that way with a senior idol. And one as big as Moonster! You need to fix this, Hyeri. You can’t let all our hard work go to waste.”

“Yes, Mother.” I barely have the words out before she hangs up. I let my hand drop into my lap but keep my head laid back, breathing slowly through gritted teeth. I count my inhales, relaxing myself slowly by zones until my jaw no longer clenches. Until I no longer want to throw my phone.

“Hyeri-ya?” Hongjoo says softly, and I flinch.

Then I slouch again. It’s not like she hasn’t seen all this before. “Did my mom call you?”

“She did.”

“Do you think I should apologize?”