Chapter 283: Conspiracy (4)

Seo Yi-Seo looked strangely at Kang Ra-Eun, who had come back home late at night.

“Did something happen, Ra-Eun? You look exhausted.”

Ra-Eun had come back at this late hour after leaving in the morning, so it was understandable that she would be exhausted. However, Ra-Eun was not fatigued because of a long day. After all, she often worked busier days when she had shoots scheduled.

“Just... Not really.”

The sudden event at the cramped space at the end of her date with Je-Woon had put her head... no, her entire body in jumbles.

“Oh, right. I’ll give you this.”

Ra-Eun handed Yi-Seo a small gift box.

“What is it?”

Ra-Eun said as she gave Yi-Seo the prize that she had won in the mask festival, “A trophy.”

“A trophy? What in the world were you doing outside?”

“A bunch of things.”

Ra-Eun did not want to go into the details out of embarrassment.

***

Kim Han-Gyo had been using every single connection that he had to spread information about the masked woman as far as possible. The factions that had been hostile to him had been defaming him by saying that he had created the ‘masked woman’ persona, so he had reporters publish as many articles as possible so that people knew this fact.

Han-Gyo had thought that he had successfully made it into a hot topic, but that had only been for a few days. His final card to play had been buried by nothing but a dating scandal. Team Leader Park Eun-Soo sighed softly as he read the story plastered on the front page of today’s newspaper.

[Top actress Kang Ra-Eun, in a relationship with popular Bex group member Je-Woon?]

Eun-Soo held in his deep sigh for Han-Gyo’s sake. The reporters who had been frantically trying to find out the identity of the masked woman just a few days ago were now completely on the Ra-Eun & Je-Woon dating scandal train.

There was a certain conspiracy regarding dating scandals being leaked on purpose so that the public would be too distracted to notice whenever the government tried to push ahead with something in secret. Han-Gyo had fallen victim to that very conspiracy.

Ra-Eun and Je-Woon were both top stars that represented Korea. Not only were they starring in the same production, photos of them enjoying a date in private had also been taken.

“There’s no way it wouldn’t garner attention,” Eun-Soo remarked.

The chief secretary stared at him and put his index finger on his lips, telling him to be quiet. Han-Gyo also knew this fact very well. The entire country was going mad with the dating scandal between the two celebrities. The article that was planned to be released today was not even on the front page of popular articles. It could not even be seen on the top rankings of search results.

“Why now...!”

Han-Gyo trembled in rage with both hands clenched. The chief secretary frantically tried to calm him down as he was on the verge of exploding.

“C-Congressman. You don’t have to worry too much. Y-You know how scandals are. They burn hot for a little and then fizzle out soon after.”

Han-Gyo also obviously knew that, but he could not understand why a dating scandal between the two celebrities had been released now of all times.

“As if it was done on purpose...”

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His enemies who had created the persona of the masked woman may have leaked the dating scandal of Ra-Eun and Je-Woon on purpose, and their goal had obviously been to bury Han-Gyo’s claims. It was difficult to explain this situation any other way. Of course, it could just be a coincidence, but...

“Coincidences of excessively perfect timing can only be called inevitability.”

That was how Han-Gyo saw this incident. He once again took a look at the scandalous article between Ra-Eun and Je-Woon, who were secretly enjoying their date. The thing that bothered Han-Gyo most was the fact that the news agency that first reported the scandal was where Reporter Ahn Su-Jin worked. Could this also be a coincidence?

‘No, there’s no way.’

Others thought that Han-Gyo was thinking too deeply into it, but he did not think so at all. There was no way that his intuition was wrong. There were three photos included in the article. One was of the two of them watching a musical that Tae-Chan starred in, another was of them coming out of a restaurant after having a meal together, and the last one was of them intimately enjoying the mask festival that had been held in an amusement park.

Among these three photos, Han-Gyo’s attention was mainly focused on the third photo, where Ra-Eun’s face was completely covered due to the mask. Her appearance in a mask felt awfully familiar.

“Team Leader Park,” Han-Gyo called out to Eun-Soo.

“Yes, Congressman.”

“Do you consider yourself to have good eyes?”

“I do not believe they are bad.”

“Is that so? Then take a look at this photo.”

Han-Gyo showed Eun-Soo the photo of Ra-Eun in a mask.

“What do you think?”

Eun-Soo had an idea of what Han-Gyo was about to ask him.

“Doesn’t she look similar to the masked woman who had come to rescue Reporter Ahn?”

The type of mask was completely different from what the masked woman had worn at the time, but her appearance as a whole felt somewhat familiar. Just then, the chief secretary sighed deeply and dissuaded Han-Gyo.

“Congressman. You really should stop suspecting Miss Kang Ra-Eun...”

It was too far of a stretch to match Ra-Eun with the masked woman with just a rough guess. But more importantly, Han-Gyo was mentally unstable at the moment. The chief secretary believed that Han-Gyo would be unable to make sound decisions at this time.

“Alright, you should get going too, Team Leader Park. You must have a lot to do. The weather is great today, so please make sure to get some fresh air, Congressman. I will help you.”

Eun-Soo was made to leave Han-Gyo’s study without being able to give Han-Gyo his answer. Eun-Soo got into his car and searched up the photo that Han-Gyo had shown him. He took a very close look at Ra-Eun in a mask. He had also thought at first that Han-Gyo was making groundless claims out of his mental instability, but the more that he looked at the photo...

‘I’m not sure why it keeps reminding me of that night.’

He was referring to the night that the masked woman and her men suddenly appeared back when they had kidnapped Reporter Ahn. Eun-Soo was a veteran who had experienced all sorts of things in life, and was fairly confident in practical combat. However, his opponent had forced him back in a battle, and it had been a woman, no less. If it was actually revealed that the masked woman was Kang Ra-Eun...

‘No, that’s impossible.’

He turned off his smartphone display and gripped the steering wheel to focus on driving.

***

The dating scandal article had happened to be released on the day that Ra-Eun and Je-Woon had a shoot together. They had reunited on the set together.

Je-Woon spoke first as soon as he saw her, “I’m sorry, Ra-Eun.”

“Huh? Why, sunbae?”

“Because the dating scandal is my fault. This never would’ve happened if I didn’t invite you to go see that musical...”

Compared to how dejected Je-Woon was while believing that it had been his fault, Ra-Eun was relatively carefree.

“It;s okay, sunbae. Rather, a dating scandal like this would give more attention to our film, wouldn’t it?”

Just Like a Melodrama Protagonist

was the perfect opportunity for the public to enjoy watching the two people who had been involved in the dating scandal actually acting like a couple, albeit just as a performance.

The public had not reacted to Ra-Eun and Je-Woon’s dating scandal only in a bad way. Rather, there were even fans who were hoping for them to actually end up together. Neither of them had been involved in negative gossip and had very clean images both inside and outside the entertainment industry. Hence, they had many fans cheering for them.

The dating scandal aside, there was something more important to do.

“I think our agencies have been discussing with each other.”

Like Je-Woon had mentioned, his agency and Ra-Eun’s GNF were taking quick measures to resolve this situation.

“I heard that we’ll be releasing each of our statements soon.”

There would be no issues in resolving the situation since they weren’t dating in the first place. The statements that each agency would release contained nothing but the truth.

Je-Woon lifelessly shook his head and said, “I can’t believe a reporter was on our tail... How did they even know that we would be attending the musical?”

The musical, restaurant, cafe, and even the amusement park... The reporter had tailed them as if they knew their exact date course.

“It’s not like anyone leaked it.”

Ra-Eun’s shoulders lightly flinched. There had indeed been an informant, but there was no way that Je-Woon would expect it to be Ra-Eun. He thought that there was no way for an actress to have a reporter write a dating scandal about herself, especially if that actress was Ra-Eun, someone who he knew very well who didn’t like to be put together with male celebrities as lovers.

“Could Tae-Chan have leaked it to one of his reporter acquaintances?”

It was more than possible, since the reporter had tailed them from the musical right until the end of their date.

Ra-Eun asked while laughing awkwardly, “Have you asked him about it?”

“No, but I should. I didn’t contact him yesterday since he said that he was going to an afterparty with the other musical performers.”

Je-Woon shot up from his seat and quickly walked out of the waiting room. Anyone could tell that he was upset, even from his back. The makeup artist in charge of Ra-Eun resumed her work.

“I guess today’s a bad day to get on Je-Woon’s bad side.”

Ra-Eun only laughed in response as well as apologized to the innocent Tae-Chan in her mind.