Page 103 of Wish Upon a K-Star

“Both.” Ana is the one who answers, a small frown on her pretty face.

“Because I loved you,” Jeongho spits out.

It’s enough to have Ana hunching away from him. I find her hand with mine. She squeezes hard enough to rub bone against bone.

“I did everything for you. I knew you were special the moment I saw your introduction inCiPro. I made dozens of accounts to vote for you. I sent you gifts. I even tried to protect you from anyone who wanted to hurt you.” He scowls at me now.

“You mean me?” I ask.

“You tried to sabotage Ana inCiPro; you were jealous of her!” I want to protest, but I’m too scared that it will set him off further. Instead, I take a small step away, pulling Ana with me. I’m still gripping my award and I lift it slightly. It’s heavy enough to use as a weapon if I have to.

“I started HyeriTopAnti to make sure you were punished for what you did to Ana on the show. But it wasn’t enough. People were forgetting. So, I leaked the story about the bullying to make sure they remembered.”

“You didn’t need to do that. I’m not in competition with Ana, I’m not even an idol anymore.”

Anger twists his features as he flings the curling iron at us. It slams into the dressing room door, denting the metal. I barely manage to pull Ana out of the way, dropping my award with a loud clatter.

“Because you still needed to pay! You don’t deserve your career after the way you treated Ana. I was going to make sure no one forgot what a bully you were, but you got in my way at the midsummer festival.”

“The midsummer festival?” I say, confused. “Wait, was that you backstage? You were the one who stole Ana’s flower pin? What were you going to do, plant it in my dressing room?” When I see his eyes flare, I know I’m right. I’m realizing how deep his delusions run. I glance toward the door. We can’t be in here. We need to get help.

But Ana leans into me; it feels like she’s too overcome to run. I don’t know if I’ll be able to drag her with me fast enough to escape Jeongho.

He’s returned to the tray of tools now, his fingers running over the straightening iron. “I thought that by leaking the video of you and Moonster it would be just as bad. And it worked, Ana got the role in the drama over you.”

I close my eyes. Of course the video leak was Jeongho. He was there that night, he had access. And apparently, he hates my guts. I suspected it the first moment I met him, but I talked myself out of it because I thought I was being paranoid.

“But then Moonster took pity on you and let you leech off his popularity in that stupid marriage show. And now people have forgotten all over again!” His bright eyes move to Ana. “You noticed, right? All the things I did for you?”

She shakes her head, a sob escaping. “I never asked for you to hurt people for me. I never asked for you to start bullying rumors or any of that.” There’s a frustrated pain in her voice that sounds so familiar to me. It’s a feeling that’s lived deep inside me for over a year too.

“If you love Ana so much, why did you steal those prescription bottles?” I ask. “Why did you give them to the police?”

“I wanted a keepsake. Sometimes I just want to touch something Ana has touched.” His gaze fills with longing. “You don’t even want it anymore. And the others in the Kim Ana forum sometimes like to buy your things from me. They love you almost as much as I do.”

I shudder at the infatuation I see on his face. Then it falls into a disturbed frown. “And then I saw the pills. And I realized my perfect princess took illegal drugs. I didn’twantto give one of the bottles to the police, but I needed to teach you a lesson. Why couldn’t you have stayed beautiful and perfect like you promised?” His eyes are wild, but also hazy like he’s not looking at Ana, but some illusion he wishes she was.

“I-I’m sorry,” she stutters, still quietly crying. She’s shaking beside me, and I wrap an arm around her shoulders.

“It’s not wrong to need help,” I say, pulling her closer to the door inch by careful inch. If I can just get it open, then we can at least get the attention of someone in the hallway. We can get help. “There’s a lot of stress and anxiety in this industry. It doesn’t make her less worthy.”

It was the wrong thing to say. Jeongho’s eyes sharpen, no longer glazed over. “No, she enticed me on purpose. She promised to be our nation’s princess, and she broke that promise!”

His hand grips a pair of shears, knocking the cart over in the process.

“Don’t,” I blurt out. “You love her. You can’t hurt her.”

“I do love you, Ana. And you broke my heart. So, now I have to punish you for it.” He grips the scissors tighter as he lunges forward.

Minseok is getting antsy. Where is Hyeri? She hasn’t come back since she accepted her award.

His fingers tap on the table impatiently as he checks his watch again. Usually he doesn’t wear one, but this was sent to his stylist by a designer, requesting he wear it to the awards show. An unofficial kind of sponsorship that he’s gotten used to. And he is grateful for it right now. Because it would be too obvious for him to check his phone. If a wayward wide shot were shown at the wrong time, avid fans might be able to zoom in and claim that WDB’s Moonster was fooling around on his phone during the show instead of paying attention to his sunbaes.

Hyeri has been gone for almost twenty minutes now. That’s too long. She’d never let her anger at Minseok make her look unprofessional.

The music for the commercial break starts, and he pushes back from the table. He mutters an excuse about the bathroom and hurries off.

Is she really just hiding somewhere because she doesn’t want to see him? Or is something wrong?

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