It felt like something very wrong was going to happen . As if there was a ticking time bomb in the room and I had to find it before it blew up.
I did not understand why CEO of our agency was nice to me again . And the members and our manager - nobody was shouting at me . As if all of their hate had dissolved.
But I knew that it was too good to be true .
The CEO kept praising me saying that how public opinion had drastically changed towards me . He even wanted me to do an interview and talk about women breaking glass roof and empowerment and such .
" This is the perfect time to release an album !," he grabbed my hand excitedly ," I have talked with a producer , you know Rex , right ?He has agreed to write a song for you . I want the album out as soon as possible ."
" Atleast we should release a song first ," Rain offered , seemingly not upset at all that I had arrived half a day late for the meeting ," Let's start the shooting from tomorrow. Can you see to it that we can start recording for the song within two days ?"
I was expecting a paper of dismissal though . I had long known that agency wanted to drop a troublemaker idol like myself . And after the announcement of Liam's engagement CEO had grown less fond of me .
But people around me kept smiling today . I waited and waited for the bad news to come but it did not .
Eventually I got up to go to the restroom . I felt suffocated. I could not exactly point out where it would go wrong , but somewhere it would.
I knew it . Nothing in my life for the past few days had been simply optimistic. I stood infront of the mirror in the restroom for a while . I looked different.
The one I used to be was long gone. I could not longer look at the mirror and smile like I used to be . I doubted that even if I tried , I could do it like before .
" Hey , are you alright?"
I looked up to see Summer had walked in on me .
She was wearing a pink blouse and blue jeans today . The colour gave her dark skin a soft glow that was complemented by her silver earrings.
I mastered up a smile at the friend I had not seen for a while ," I am alright ."
" I know that you are just out of hospital," she looked guilty ," But now we have to push harder for the album and also there is the court case ."
" Well , it's better than to have no work at all ," I shrugged .
She noded ," I thought that you hated working again . You looked so uncomfortable back there ."
" I -what ?," I laughed out ," Where do you get the idea ?"
" Autumn," she pursed her lips ," You.....you are stressed .. I mean it's obvious that you will be stressed but this - the whole time you looked like you wanted to run away from the meeting . I-I thought that you were feeling sick , so I followed you here ."
" I keep thinking....that something will go wrong again ," I choked on my words .
" Oh honey ," she wrapped her arms around me ," You are just anxious."
"Yeah ,I don't want to mess things up again ," my voice trembled ," Then I won't even have the face to ask for your forgiveness."
" It is just that you have been through somethings recently," she said ," Why don't you go home for today , I will talk with the producer and get back to you the next morning."
" Thank you so much ," I felt guilty to do this . But things were not good at home . I also kept thinking about Liam and how he was doing now .
" Let's get a song arranged as soon as possible," I noded .
" Hmm , Rain can see to it ."
It has been barely three hours since I had dropped by the agency but now I had to get back to the house again.
" Rex already has few songs prepared and I had put Linda up for the choreography last night , she should be sending you girls the dance routines , why don't you look over it ?," the CEO told me ," As for the shooting , we will get to it in two days ."
Most of the time , I would be over the moon thinking about a song release but now I felt suffocated. Things that used to give me so much peace and happiness, now they felt like chains .
The people cheered at me as I got into the van . I smiled and bowed to them. Jasper had already left for his part time work .
The poor guy could not now work at random place , after his face had been revealed like this .
I heard that my brother had started working in food delivery services - where he could wear a helmet . But I had the feeling that it was more about his obsession with bikes .
I was not really paying attention at people's faces . But a voice made me froze .
I stared directly into the soft gaze of a monster.
Seymore .
He stood there .
Even with the mask and cap, I could recognise the man who had practically raised me since I was thirteen years old.
He was calling my name. The crowd and the security team put a barrier between us .
He looked heartbroken. I could see the despair in his eyes - the man who had been my father figure for a long time .
But he was also the man who forced me to undress in a bathroom for a pregnancy test .
" Let's just go ," I tore my gaze away from him.
He did not deserve to look me in the eye . He did not deserve to see my pain , fear or anything.
He would be just a nameless face to me .
That was all I could give him ....nothing more , Nothing less