Even after having the time of his life the night before, the morning wasn’t one of pleasantries for Jae. He and the rest of ASTRAL sat in the office of the director of Starise Entertainment. It was clear he was furious. 

“How could you let this happen,” Director Kim raged, almost like he might break something, or someone.

The idols all stayed silent. For them it was best to remain quiet and endure instead of feeding into his anger.

“And with the Astor family?”

They continued to sit there awkwardly.

“WHAT ABOUT THIS,” his face made an expression they hadn’t seen before.

He threw a large stack of papers that slid off the desk onto the floor. They were photos from the night Jae had taken Lexi on a date. Someone had been following them and had captured more photos than he could count. Even the most intimate moments where it was just the two of them.

He remained silent as the gears turned. He needed to figure out who was behind this.

“Are you and this, –this American dating,” he stuttered. “You shouldn’t be dating and focusing on your career.”

The silence grew heavy.

“If you think your fans will accept this, you are mistaken,” Director Kim said before finally storming out of the office.

The group let out a sigh of relief. They had strict guidelines from the management company. They had an image to uphold. They all knew that this lifestyle was lonely, but even they craved connection.

Jae stood up from his chair, his demeanor gloomy.

Rin said, grabbing his arm, “It will be okay.” 

He let go when he saw the look in Jae's eyes. He was furious. Usually he brushed this sort of stuff off. The members knew this situation was about to spiral out of control.

As he pushed out the door his mind was plagued with unyielding thoughts.

He unbuttoned the collar of his shirt. He felt suffocated and didn’t understand why he couldn’t live his life happily. He’d always done what everyone else wanted. He maintained the expectations of being a perfect doll for his fans, never allowed to eat what he wanted, wear what he wanted, or date who he wanted. For the first time in his life he wanted something. Someone. Someone who made his chest hurt in a good way. He didn’t want to do as he was told. He wanted to follow his heart.

                                                                    * * *

Lexi poured herself a cup of coffee, trying desperately to ignore the tabloids fanned across the counter, each one boldly speculating about her and Jae’s love life. She should have known that something like this would happen. He was Korea’s sweetheart afterall. The sensational headlines and photos of her with Jae on their date seemed unavoidable.

Suddenly, Lexi was met by a sharp knock at the door. Lexi paused, mid-sip. Whoever was knocking did so rather aggressively. Matteo looked up, his eyes narrowing as he approached the door cautiously. They weren’t expecting any visitors. 

He opened it just slightly, enough to recognize the people before him. The tension immediately vanished as Hana pushed past him, Seo trailing behind her.

“Nice to see you, too,” Matteo said dryly, closing the door behind them. “We love nothing more than unexpected visitors.” 

He paused before shutting the door. Matteo peeped out into the hall a second time. He thought he had seen someone out there but he must have been mistaken. He shut the door quickly, locking the bolt without hesitation. You can never be too careful these days. 

Seo rushed over to Lexi, clearly unsettled. Is he angry about something?

“What the hell is this?” he snapped, pointing at one of the tabloid headlines: “ASTRAL’s Lead Singer Secretly Dating Foreign Billionaire Alexandra Astor?!”

Lexi rolled her eyes, “Oh great, another angry guest.”

She sighed, placing her mug on the marble countertop. “Good morning to you too, Seo,” she said, clearly annoyed.

Each of Seo’s steps were laced with irritation. He threw the tabloid down dramatically on her coffee table. 

“You realize how messy this situation could get right? Jae’s fans are intense, dangerous even! Did you see how they trashed the last girl they thought he was dating?”

“Geez, Seo! For the love of God, calm yourself down. It’s not like this is her fault nor did she write the article,” Hana defended Lexi. 

She was right. None of them had expected this. She pondered how they even got these photos from the night Lexi and Jae ditched the body guards. No one could have known where they were. There had to be multiple people following them.

“Who knew being your friend would be so adventurous,” She teased, “Oh my! They even have a picture of us, Seo and Matteo!” She laughed, pointing to a picture of the four of them from the concert. The title read “Billionaires flock together.”