Jay pulled the members to an empty conference hall as the entire Azure Entertainment building went to flames with the release of a single article.
Akira raised his hand, but Jay quickly shut him down.
"No, Akira. The new Banana phone is still in the works. We're going through more serious matters here!" Jay exclaimed, pacing back and forth in nervousness.
"Oh, you're talking about this article then," Jisung said, showing the article that Jenny had posted.
June smirked as he saw the chaos that Jenny had caused online. She was working for a relatively small paparazzi company, but even then, they still had more than a hundred thousand followers on Navel.
Only being posted half an hour ago, it had already garnered over fifty thousand reactions from fans and non-fans alike. Even people who didn't like EVE were intrigued by the creepy news.
As June scrolled through the article, he couldn't help but applaud Jenny's choice of words.
Although it wasn't obvious, it seemed like his cousin had some talent for writing, too.
It appeared like Minjun actually had some competition!
In the article, evidence of the break-in, the unfortunate incident in the fan sign, and the photo of Sua's room were all included. So, it became more convincing than the article that Minjun had posted.
"As far as I know, only people within the company have the details for the two incidents. What if this reflects back to me? Other departments are already under fire for the damage caused by the article. A lot of them are trying to take it down. Goodness, I'm going to get fired," Jay muttered.
"You wouldn't," June said, a small smirk playing on his lips.
"What do you mean?" Jay asked, looking at him with a small frown.
The other members also turned to him with curious gazes. The room was silent for a moment, all of them seemingly analyzing June's body language.
Then, a small gasp escaped from Jay's lips as he pointed at June with shaky fingers.
"Don't tell me—you're the one behind all of this?" he asked.
June observed their faces and felt it was no use keeping all of this from them, especially since everything was now in plan.
"And if I say yes?" June asked, spinning around his chair.
The room turned silent once again before Jaeyong broke it.
"You're insane," he whispered. "Who did you even commission to do this kind of work? From what I know, the company had paid the media not to talk about these incidents."
June smirked and finally stopped spinning his chair.
"Azure might have turned a blind eye to this situation, but I wasn't going to sit back and let it continue. From the start, it was already obvious that the company cared a lot about its reputation. That's not a surprise. Almost all companies do."
"However, Azure is at an all-time low for keeping this under the dark when their artists are already in danger. We could have been more blatant about this, but I was thinking of Jay over here," he continued. "I believe he'll have the short end of the string if we retaliate against the company."
"So, you took matters into your own hands and gathered all of this evidence?" Jisung asked.
"Exactly," June smirked. "But that's not all. We already have the evidence, but that's just the first step. We need exposure, and that's where our partnership with the paparazzi site comes in."
"But won't the company try to shut down any media coverage?" Ren asked.
"They'll certainly try," June said. "Actually, they already have—as per Jaeyong's statement just a few moments ago. See, our company's good at keeping the media quiet with their deep pockets, but there's always someone willing to take a risk for the truth," he smirked, thinking about his cousin.
Jenny was also crooked and definitely didn't have the right principles, but she owed him, so June got her to agree to the plan.
The team exchanged curious glances, waiting for June to reveal more.
"So, what's the plan? How is this going to stop the stalker when her identity hasn't even been revealed? At this point, this just shows Azure's incompetence in handling their artists," Jay said, biting his lips in nervousness.
June brought out his phone and clicked on one of the photos that Jenny had posted. Then, he placed it down on the table, gesturing toward the screen.
"Take a close look at this photo," June said. "See anything interesting?"
The members studied the photo intently, noticing a subtle detail on the bedside table in the background.
"Is that…an ID card?" Casper asked with furrowed eyebrows.
"Bingo," June smirked, now playing with a stress ball he found inside one of the tables. From his members' point of view, he appeared like a crazy genius who was painting the bigger picture of his plans.
"I made sure to plant that little gem when I raided her room. It's a small touch, but it's enough to pique the public's curiosity," June continued.
"But why not just reveal her identity outright?" Akira asked.
June shook his head while clicking his tongue.
"Because that, in itself, would be tasteless. Besides, it's more effective in this way. A hidden clue like this is bound to get people talking, and once the public starts digging, there's no telling what they'll find."
The members started seeing June's painting. Casper leaned against his chair with crossed arms, feeling like they were truly in the presence of a genius.
"So…we're counting on the public to do our dirty work for us?" Jaeyong asked, already seeing the light at the end of the tunnel
June nodded.
"You could say that. But make no mistake, we're the ones pulling the strings. We're painting the bigger picture here, and when it all comes together, Kim Sua and Azure wouldn't know what would hit them."
"Omo," Jisung whispered, slapping Akira, who was right by his side. "That's awesome."
June's smirk widened as he leaned back against his seat, gazing confidently into the distance.
"And that's why Azure wouldn't be able to touch you either," he said, pertaining to Jay.
"Because at the end of the day, there's one scary thing that people could never escape…"
"...and that is, people, themselves."
"The public will always be our worst enemy."
