Page 16 of When Worlds Collide
I frowned. “Well, that doesn’t sound very discreet of her. I must have missed the point in my firing meeting where the chief operating officer told everyone to blab about it.”
“It wasn’t her – it was TK, that rat.” Becka sneered Trevor Kyle’s abbreviation like it personally offended her, which it probably did.
My frown deepened. The last I’d seen of TK, it was off the back of a very unsubtle warning from the COO about non-disclosures. I was surprised he’d said anything about what happened in that meeting.
“TK is telling people about the conference room?”
“Not exactly.” Becka looked deeply uncomfortable, shifting her gaze to the side, and nibbling the skin around her thumbnail. It was a terrible habit she had when she was nervous, and just then, it was making me nervous, as well.
“Becka, stop cannibalizing yourself and just tell me what’s happened.”
A tight knot was beginning to form in my stomach, and I had a sudden realisation that this was maybe why Jihoon had beenacting so agitated about going into ENT today and yesterday morning.
“Okay, but just to be clear,” Becka started, dropping her hand, “this is brand new information to you? The idol hasn’t told you anything?” Her eyebrows rose as she finally met my eyes.
The knot in my gut tightened and deciding not to comment on her habit of calling Jihoon, ‘the idol’, I replied, “No.”
“Wow, okay,” she pulled a face and paused, seemingly choosing her words. “There’s a video-”
“A FUCKING WHAT?” I exploded, barely noticing the way Becka flinched before she started flapping the hand that wasn’t holding her phone.
“Babes, shut the fuck up,” she hissed at me. “Chill.”
I tried. I really did. I took deep, calming breaths as I moved over to the sofa and flopped down on it, conscious of the way the knot in my stomach had frozen into a ball of ice.
“Continue.” I took a breath. “Please.”
Becka sighed. “I know this sounds bad, but I’ve seen it. It’s not as awful as it sounds. But yeah, there is a video of you and-” Becka caught herself, giving a nervous once over, cocking her head as if listening intently, before turning back to the screen. “And your boyfriend, but it’s not like he’d bent you over the table-”
“Becka! Jesus H Christmas,” I groaned, throwing my head back onto the blessedly well-padded cushions.
“Okay, okay, sorry. But you get the point. It’s tame. Hell, in another life it might even be cute. In the grand scheme of things, it wouldn’t be a big deal. It’s not your fault there’s a video, and you’ve already lost your job over it. Legally, you’re in the clear. But…”
Lifting my head slightly, I opened one eye to look at the screen. Becka was nibbling her nail skin again.
“Becka!” I barked. “Germs!”
“Fuck, yeah. Thanks,” she replied distractedly.
“But?” I prompted her.
“But,” she sighed. “It’s ‘the idol’ of it all.”
A cold realisation swept over me. “Has everyone seen it?”
“Pretty much. But it’s not as bad you think.”
She kept saying that, but it had yet to be ‘not as bad’ as I thought.
“How can it not be as bad as I think?” A laugh unexpectedly crawled up my throat, tinged with hysteria. If anyone shared that footage outside of Pisces…
“You’re not recognisable,” Becka blurted out.
“What?” Snapped back to the conversation and halted from my internal spiralling, I refocused on Becka.
“Yeah, no, I think you’re good. You were never full-frontal to the camera-”
“Whoa, hold on.” I held up a hand. “Just where was this camera? There was no one else in the room with us.”
