Mr. Ong received calls left and right, his expression getting dimmer as more and more people came to his office to fix the mess that Azure was currently facing. People around him loudly spoke to their phones, not leaving him any space and time to properly think.
"No, those aren't true!"
"Yes, we're working on it."
"The CEO is not available to talk."
"No, the members of EVE are currently unavailable. You can talk with our representatives instead."
"We care about our artists very much. We give them top-notch quality care!"
"Please take down your article! We already had an agreement that you wouldn't expose it to the public!"
Employees' voices rang in his office, and Mr. Ong felt his blood pressure rising.
He clenched his fists and pursed his lips together to keep his anger at bay.
"You!" he exclaimed to one of the interns. "Jay. Someone, fetch me, Jay!"
The intern shakily nodded as he left the CEO's room.
In the meantime, Mr. Ong went to his Navel account to see how the public was reacting to the issue.
- Did you see the ID card at the corner? Kim Sua of Y University? She's insane! She needs to be checked into an asylum.
- The article is so well-made. I don't see any loopholes. The author is anonymous, though, so I feel like Azure has been keeping this from us for a while now. What a bunch of dickheads.
- Kim Sua? Oh, my goodness. I know her. She's in my class! I always thought she was weird, but dang, she was actually like this.
- I dug in and found that she's a Marketing major. People at Y University should watch out.
- If I were Azure, I would send the police to the school right now and have her investigated. This is not normal behavior!
- What is their manager doing? Why is he neglecting EVE?
Mr. Ong smirked once he saw that particular comment. However, his smile quickly dropped when he saw it didn't have any likes and that the user was being martyred by real fans of EVE.
- Don't come for Jay, please. He's one of the best managers out there! We should blame Azure instead for keeping this from us.
- Yeah! Companies are the worst. Jay is doing his best to protect the boys.
- Why do I feel like Azure will blame him, though? I really don't want the boys to go through such trauma. I still haven't forgotten the fact that they hired a manager who had a massive foot fetish for EVE when they just debuted.
- Let's see them try to fire Jay. We're going to send multiple trucks in front of the company.
- We, Grandmas for June, agree. We are all in this together.
- And while we're on that, we should demand that they investigate this Sua girl, too.
- Yes please! Let's start a trend! #AzureTreatEVEBetter
- #AzureTreatEVEBetter
The hashtag quickly rose to the top of the trends, and Mr. Ong felt that his condition wasn't just normal hypertension any more. He might actually be getting an aneurysm.
Just then, the shaky intern entered the room, and in a meek voice, he spoke.
"Umm, I'm sorry, sir. I couldn't find Jay—"
"Shut up," Mr. Ong said with contempt, his voice merely a whisper. The usual smile he had on his face was replaced with a weary frown as he continued massaging his aching head.
"Sorry, sir. What was that?"
"Shut up!" Mr. Ong repeated, standing from his seat.
The employees' eyes widened.
He was standing, but it still appeared like he was sitting.
However, that wasn't the most important thing.
Mr. Ong was actually standing! He never stood.
"Shut up. Shut up. ALL OF YOU SHUT UP!" he screamed, his voice resonating throughout the office.
The employees speaking on the phones quickly turned silent, and even the janitor, who was merely mopping, also stopped when he heard Mr. Ong's loud scream.
Mr. Ong breathed heavily, already looking out of it.
It seemed like he finally snapped, and his eyes showed that his temper had been burned away.
Then, after a while, his breathing finally evened out. However, there was still a fiery glint in his eyes.
"Call the police," he calmly said after a while.
"Sir?" the intern meekly asked.
Mr. Ong glared at him, which caused him to step back.
"But what about Mr. Jay?"
"Let him be," Mr. Ong impatiently said. "Just—just call the police," he exasperatedly asked.
"And have them investigate Kim Sua."
***
Jay and the members of EVE stopped talking when they heard what seemed to be a scream.
Jisung's eyebrows raised in surprise.
"Was that a tractor?"
"Might be," Jay said, already calm after June's reassurance. "They're doing some kind of construction next door."
They shrugged and went back to their conversations.
"How sure are you that Azure is going to initiate the investigation on Kim Sua?" Jay asked.
"A hundred—wait, nothing is a hundred percent in this world. Around ninety percent?" June chimed.
"There's still a ten percent chance—"
"Don't you believe in me?" June asked, looking into Jay's eyes.
Jay was taken back to the time when he doubted June because of his rich background. From that day on, he vowed to always believe in June, so he quickly shut his mouth and didn't inquire further.
If June said so, then he had no reason not to believe it.
"I think the real question is—are they going to find Kim Sua?" Jaeyong asked.
"From your stories, she seems to be quite stealthy. Once she sees the article, wouldn't she have fled already?"
The other members nodded in agreement, seeing it as a potential issue, too.
However, June still remained calm, even checking his nails for any dirt.
"Don't tell me you have something for this, too," Zeth groaned, already feeling overwhelmed by June's ingenuity.
"Then, I'm not going to speak anymore," June said.
The other members shook their heads in disbelief. Akira even gave him a slow applause.
"What do you have this time?" he inquired.
"It's not me," June said.
"But I have quite a pretty person helping us."
"I'm sure she wouldn't let Kim Sua escape."
