03. The Scandal

The incessant ring of his nuisance of a phone pierced through his ears first thing. Through the delirium of his sleep, he had assumed that there was something disturbing out of his dream but as it persisted, it broke through his sleep and he groaned, reaching out for the horrid object that dared to put him out of his blissful drift of unconsciousness. Beside him, Haeson laid with her arms splayed out like an eagle. Taeho frowned and pushed her arm off from his torso. The sunlight was annoyingly seeping freely into the room thanks to the white curtains. As soon as he peeked his eyes open, the pounding against his temple became more prominent. This must be one of the worst hangovers he must have had, thanks to the fact that his alarm won't stop ringing. Which was strange because he never recalled having set an alarm the night before. But he was drunk so he figured he must have done anything, though he was not the kind of person who would perform weird antics when drunk. He was more of a silent, withdrawn drunk and he seldom got in trouble at all.

He had half the wit to throw his phone across the room or end it life for good when thankfully, he had the sensibility to glance at the screen. He stared at the incoming call format of the scream in confusion and blankly stared at the caller ID.

Giseok.

He watched as the phone rang and the caller ID disappeared as the call went to being a missed call. A wide array of notifications popped up as his home screen came back, several missed calls from Giseok, another from his secretary and yet another from Haeson's PR team. Taeho frowned, did they end up in a sex scandal after all? The home screen disappeared with yet another incoming call.

Giseok.

"Shut it the fuck up, Taeho" Haeson's grouchy voice came from beside him and a slap came down on his bare back. Taeho winced and sighed, closing his eyes. He can't lose his temper first thing in the morning. He took calculated breaths, hoping the pounding his head would simply go away. Guess pounding at the night results to pounding in the morning as well. He was getting old. He pressed the receive button and brought the phone to his ear.

"Hmm?"

"Dude, i fucked up."

"Hmmm. Hang up."

"No, no, no. Lee Taeho, listen to me. I fucked up last night."

"Did you finally ask Mirae to marry you? You lying punk."

"What? Mirae and I broke up last week. This is about you. You're on the internet."

"If it's the pap shots of Haeson and me, it was totally planned, don't worry. Now let me sleep. Okay bye."

"NO NO! Don't hang up–"

"Just say it, I feel like a nail is drilling into my skull."

"You remember when you gave me those school yearbooks from highschool you gave me to throw away, because you didn't trust that you could do it? Because it was precious to you. And I joked that I would keep it as blackmail material when you get rich and forget me?"

"Yeah, but you threw that junk away."

"..."

"..."

Taeho shot up, groaning when his brain reeled back with dizziness.

"You threw that away, right?"

"I didn't and it's on the internet now. You're #1 trending on all SNS."

"Jang Giseok," Taeho sighed, rubbing his palm over his face, "You must be joking."

"Listen, i was fucking drunk, I didn't know what i was doing until this morning when i saw that my post had six hundred thousand retweets. I didn't even know I posted that shit."

"Uh, Taeho?" Haeson called beside him and when Taeho turned, she was fully awake and on her phone, "Why are you trending on Tiktok? And also Instagram? Wait, facebook too? That's old people's SNS?"

Taeho sighed, and ran a hand through his bed hair, ruffling it up. He spoke into the phone, "What did you post?"

"Your old picture…" Well, that's not too bad, "...and the things you wrote at the back of the yearbook."

Wait? What did he even write at the back of the yearbook? More importantly, which yearbook was it?

As though Giseok read his mind, he spoke up.

"It's her yearbook. The one you were supposed to give to her in the last year of school."

Fuck, a big fuck. The fuck of all fucks.

He turned and grabbed Haeson's phone, glad that she was already on twitter. He clicked on the search bar and pressed on the first suggestion, and then began to scroll. There were so many retweets of Giseok's posts and people sharing the pictures themselves. He skimmed through the comments.

'Phoenix Tech's Lee Taeho is a total softie! Look at his old picture, he looked so cute! #leetaehohighschool.'

'Daebak, who knew a tech company CEO was a poet too. So cheesy! Totally straight out of a drama!'

'This is clearly a publicity stunt. Disgusting how far people will go for a 1hr viral moment. They should stick to their jobs. #cancelphoenix'

'Lollll can't wait to see what Jung Haeson has to say about this. I wouldn't want my fiance going viral for a love letter to his old ex just after their engagement.'

'I sell feet pics. DM me @oldhen69.'

'Wasn't he just caught cheating on his girlfriend before his engagement? Men are scums.'

'He is literally only known for his engagement to Haeson Unni, idek why he's going viral lol.'

Taeho quietly and silently stared at the phone as Haeson gently slipped it out of his grip. He knew which yearbook it was now. He wasn't even sure how he forgot in the first place. Maybe he has come so far from that moment on that it hadn't even occurred to him that he would recall it. After all, he had left that life behind for a reason, he came to Seoul for a reason, he worked to reach where he is for a particular reason. Along the way, he saw no reason to keep clinging to the past that didn't treat him well. He knew that better things await for him in the future but of course he didn't think it would come back to him in this way. He didn't think she would come back to haunt him again, or rather the fool he once was back then. He tried so hard to leave that life behind him but it seems as though he would have to burn it down before it gets him.

"I am gonna call my secretary," He mumbled to no one in particular.