Unconcerned

"Oppa?"

"... Isn't this bad? When was this even taken... I should've realised those b*stards were up to no good," Gun broke out of his pity party with furrowed brows.

"It's okay. Auntie is handling it. It's not like we were doing anything wrong. It'll blow over soon," Yeo Ri waved his worries away, "Still, I'm sorry you got involved, Oppa."

"I'll be fine. If they expose my identity, we can just press charges for breach of privacy." Gun huddled protectively around his precious baby sister, sending glares at their surroundings.

A notification popped out in a timely manner from Hope Entertainment's official SNS page.

[In lieu of recent unverified claims regarding our artist, Miss Lee Yeo Ri, we would like to clarify that those claims are false and any further vexatious articles will be liable to legal action.]

A simple and short response.

Even after seeing the articles written about her dating rumours, Yeo Ri felt that writing a statement over this small thing was unnecessary. She didn't think it was a big deal, and she was such a small artist; barely a celebrity.

Her presence, she believed, was just like a small candle in a sea of bonfires.

Yeo Ri shared the statement on her account perfunctorily.

She went back to the articles, looking through the various photos that the paparazzi had captured. Most of them had been copies and reposts of one of the earliest articles, but a few of them had high quality pictures. Yeo Ri picked and saved the ones that caught her eyes.

Without running it through with her company, she shared the article with the nicest photo and publicly posted:

[lyrnhyr: Can anyone share with me the uncensored photos?]

She waited for a few minutes after posting, and disappointedly put away her phone when no one came out with the original pictures.

At that time, Yeo Ri didn't know her post would become the hottest topic for days.

...

..

.

The PR intern who was monitoring Yeo Ri's online traffic screamed when her post went public, startling everyone who was in the midst of discussing work.

"President! President!" The PR intern, pale as a ghost, hastily called for Park Soo Yeon's attention.

Normally, there was nothing wrong with posting whatever the artist wanted on their own account, as long as it wasn't too controversial, but Yeo Ri was young, and Park Soo Yeon wanted to protect her as much as she could. She had once been a high-profile actress herself, and she knew how dangerous it was to stand out. She didn't want to be controlling, but she had high expectations for Yeo Ri and didn't want her exposed to harsh comments so early in her career.

If they couldn't find fault with her skills or looks, they would definitely find fault with her personality and attitude.

This was why Park Soo Yeon had limited her online presence and didn't let her personalise her account too much. There should be some distance with fans, lest they develop some type of para-social relationship with the inexperienced young actress.

Park Soo Yeon quickly made another call to Yeo Ri.

"Yeo Ri-ah... Did you, perhaps, make that post yourself...?"

"Oh... I did... Was that not allowed?"

"No, it's not that I'm stopping you, but it's just, maybe for things like this, you can ask the company to handle it instead? We've got direct contact with some of the reporters, you see," Park Soo Yeon spoke patiently and gently, as though she was afraid of scaring the young girl. Her tone carried a hint of reproach, but she could not and did not want to sound too controlling.

After all, Yeo Ri was a young girl, and there was nothing she could do to stop a young girl from being herself. If Park Soo Yeon had wanted to completely shut her off from expressing herself, she wouldn't have allowed the younger girl to have the account to begin with.

Park Soo Yeon sighed quietly, "Well, the post will disappear in twenty-four hours anyways, so it's not a big deal. Anyways, I'll ask the photographers to give us the pictures, so try to keep a low profile for now, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am," Yeo Ri politely responded, feeling like a child who had just done somethig wrong, "I won't do it again."

"No, it's—" Park Soo Yeon blurted, "Hm, it's fine, Yeo Ri-ah. It's not your fault the netizens like to blow things out of proportion. Rather, I wish I could let you do as you want more often."

"Um, is it okay if I post more pictures with Oppa?" Yeo Ri asked timidly.

Park Soo Yeon seemed to pinder for a bit before replying, "It's up to Gun if he's willing. Does he have an SNS account?"

Yeo Ri glanced at her brother, and decisively replied, "No." At least, not that she knew of.

"..."

Well, Gun couldn't refute it. He didn't have a personal account, but he did make one...

He'd set it to private, and all of the pictures he had posted were of Yeo Ri. It was a sort of online photo archive that he had made for himself, and he would occasionally add some photos of Yeo Ri that he had either taken himself or saved from other places.

If no one knew that he was behind the account, it would only look as if it was a die-hard fan account.

"That's okay, then. Since he's a normal person, we do value his privacy. It's better that he doesn't have any SNS accounts since it would get easily discovered. It's good enough if his face is hidden. And avoid showing any identifiable traits."

"Yes~" Yeo Ri responded with a smile. With approval from Park Soo Yeon, Yeo Ri was more than happy to be able to show off her amazing brother. Without revealing his identity, of course.

Half an hour later, as the siblings were having a nice meal together, a flurry of messages and media were sent over to Yeo Ri from Park Soo Yeon.

The clear, unedited version of the photo she wanted was attached together with real-time updates of what was going on at Park Soo Yeon's end.

Yeo Ri changed her wallpaper with an unconcerned smile.