Paparazzi

Two weeks.

Fourteen days, three hundred and thirty-six hours.

That was the exact amount of time since the last time Yoo Jaeyi laid eyes on Woo Seulgi at that damn dinner. And with every passing second, it felt like a rope tightening more and more around the singer’s neck, pulled taut by the absence of that woman.

But Jaeyi could endure it. She’d been enduring it for a long time.

She endured it because she knew exactly what she was doing.

Leaning back against the large brown leather sofa in her private studio, Jaeyi flipped absentmindedly through the latest contract proposal sent to her by a famous cosmetics brand. But she wasn’t paying attention to a single word, not one line of what seemed to be a multimillion-dollar offer. In fact, she didn’t even need to, Kim Hyeon was the one who handled those formalities and details, and Jaeyi trusted her manager completely to do so. That way, her mind remained free to focus on whatever else she considered more interesting, and as always, it was wandering elsewhere at that exact moment.

Or rather, toward someone else.

Seulgi.

The singer took a deep breath, resting her elbow on the armrest and running her hand through her impeccably straight black hair. It was funny everyone thought she was the one always in control, the one who ruled the industry, who knew how to pull the right strings at the right time to keep everything under control, beneath her feet. And, indeed, she was. No one played the game like Yoo Jaeyi. No one else knew how to turn rumors into publicity, crises into acclaim, scandals into gold.

But with Seulgi… ah, with Seulgi, it was different. This wasn’t just a game. Not for Jaeyi.

It was a need.

Obsessed? Maybe.

But who, in their right mind, wouldn’t be?

Three years.

It had been three years since the day the two women met, and still, Jaeyi could swear she could taste Seulgi on her tongue, as if everything they’d lived together had happened just yesterday.

So how could she forget?

She couldn’t. She wouldn’t.

Not when Seulgi was far too perfect to be forgotten.

And she was hers.

Seulgi had always been hers.

Even if the other woman pretended otherwise.

Jaeyi narrowed her eyes, fighting the urge to grab her phone and post some double-edged message, like she’d done so many times before. No, she couldn’t break the pattern now. Not when everything was going exactly as she wanted. Silence. Calculated distance. No lingering looks in public, no cryptic posts. Not yet.

Hyeon had insisted she stop, at least for a while. A brief pause in her public provocations. Let the rumors cool down, let the media focus on some other celebrity, another scandal. And Jaeyi, as much as she hated to admit it, thought her manager was right.

Even if her real reason for this behavior was something else entirely.

More than letting the dust settle, more than letting the media forget about them for a while, what Jaeyi wanted was to see how long Seulgi could endure it.

She wanted to see if the other woman had the nerve to keep going, to keep the distance between them, without even looking at her, feeling her, for real.

Fools were the ones who thought Jaeyi didn’t notice everything. She had caught the glances at the dinner, had seen how Seulgi tried desperately to ignore her and how, every time she failed, her eyes returned hungrily in her direction, as if looking at her was an addiction too hard to shake.

She knew. She had always known.

And that, that mere memory, was enough to make her smile as she mentally reviewed her next move.

Because the game wasn’t over yet.

Not when, the following month, she would release her most intimate album. The most provocative. The one more about the actress than anyone could ever realize — not even her oldest fans — except, of course, for her own muse.

Every lyric, every beat, every melody, was a piece of that turbulent relationship they had built years ago and that Jaeyi had never allowed to die. It was a collection of thinly veiled confessions, of desire wrapped in subtle metaphors and need well hidden in chords.

It was about them.

And no one could stop the avalanche that album would bring.

Rising from the sofa, the singer walked over to the large glass window of the studio, gazing down at the city of Seoul, its lights twinkling like constellations. Her fingers touched the cold glass, but her eyes remained distant.

Seulgi.

She still remembered clearly when everything fell apart between them three years earlier. Seulgi had been so young and so scared, too worried about her own career to care about anything else at the time. The actress hadn’t been ready to face the world by her side. And Jaeyi had accepted it back then — or at least pretended to. But deep down, she knew it had never been a definitive end for them, not after everything they’d lived together, even if briefly. It had all been too intense, too beautiful, to end like that. And she wouldn’t give up on it.

Because Yoo Jaeyi doesn’t give up on what she wants.

And now, she wants Woo Seulgi.

In an obsessive, possessive, and absolute way. Bordering on selfishness.

“You’re coming back to me, princess,” the woman murmured to herself, a small smile curling her lips. “Even if I have to burn the whole world down to make it happen.”

Breaking her out of her thoughts, her phone vibrated on the coffee table. It was Kim Hyeon, probably calling about yet another meeting, another ad campaign.

Jaeyi decided to ignore it for now. And instead, she opened her notes app and typed out another short verse that had come to her mind, to remind her to add it later to a song she hadn’t shown anyone yet, not even her producer. It was still in development, having barely made it past a simple but direct chorus.

"You run, run, and run, but you always end up back home.
And I’m the only one who knows where your true home is.
You’re mine, even when you run,
Even when you deny it,
Even when you lie to yourself.
You’re still mine."

When she finished, she reread it and smiled, satisfied.

Time was passing, the media had already started to forget, everything was becoming calm, too quiet.

But soon, very soon, Seulgi wouldn’t have anywhere else to run.

Jaeyi just needed to wait a little longer.

And then, when the actress least expected it, she’d be the one trapped in the middle of all these memories.

Exactly where Jaeyi was now.

Exactly where Jaeyi wanted her to be. With her.

***

The clock read 11:58 PM on May 9th.

The studio was silent, except for the soft clinking of ice in the glass Jaeyi held between her fingers. Her eyes were fixed on the large monitor in front of her, where her marketing team anxiously monitored social media activity.

Hyeon, as always, stood beside her, impeccable, arms crossed and brow furrowed, concerned with every detail, as if the outcome depended entirely on her. In a way, it did. But only up to a certain point.

The rest... the rest was up to Jaeyi.

“Are you sure about this, Jae?” the manager asked for the third time that night, her voice low and controlled. “Dropping this announcement now, out of nowhere, after months of silence... It’ll cause a big impact, but it might also raise questions about the timing. And we know the official date marking your 10 years in the industry has already passed. A celebration should’ve been announced and even launched earlier. The fans will find it odd, you know that.”

Jaeyi smiled, without taking her eyes off the screen.

“That’s exactly what I want and expect, unnie.”

Her voice sounded soft, almost lazy, but there was a weight hidden between the lines.

She knew it wasn’t typical for an artist of her caliber to make such a major announcement without any prior warning. She knew everyone thought the chance for a grand celebration of her 10-year career had already passed. But that was where the beauty of it lay.

Surprise.

Impact.

Absolute control of the narrative.

“I want them restless, Hyeon. I want them to wonder why. I want them to speculate. The media will lose their minds trying to figure it out. And the fans... well, they’ll think they’re receiving an unexpected gift,” she murmured, swirling the glass slowly. “But it’s not for them.”

She leaned forward, watching as the countdown hit midnight.

12:00 AM.

And with one synchronized click, the major social media platforms exploded with the news: Press conference confirmed for May 11th. Yoo Jaeyi to release her third full album in celebration of her 10-year career.

The trending topics started climbing within minutes. Comments, articles, wild theories. It was like watching a fire ignite from a carefully lit spark.

Kim Hyeon analyzed the charts as she spoke:

“We’re already at number one on X, on TheQoo… YouTube traffic has jumped about 120% just on searches for your name.”

Jaeyi glanced over the notifications calmly. It was fascinating how a single move was enough to bring an entire country to its knees, waiting for her next step.

But she wasn’t done yet.

“Drop the fifth track from the album at three in the morning,” the woman ordered bluntly.

Everyone around exchanged tense looks, but no one dared to question her. Hyeon, however, took a deep breath.

“Jaeyi… are you sure? Don’t you think it’d be better to hold it all and release the full album at once?”

But the singer merely tilted her head, a small smile curving her lips.

“No. People need something to chew on before the feast. Let’s keep them awake, addicted, starving for more.”

And deep down, she was hoping that a certain someone would already be listening to that song — even if that person pretended to ignore everything about her, Jaeyi knew that the mere name of that single would make her shiver.

Because, well, it was something just between the two of them.

Something that now an entire country would be privy to.

***

It was 3:04 AM.

And the world was on fire.

The track "Princess" had been released just four minutes ago, and its numbers were already breaking records that even the company's analysts hadn’t expected. Hashtags flooded social media. Excited comments about the sound, the captivating rhythm, and above all, the lyrics — so intimate, so raw, filled with emotion, and with that undeniable hint of sensuality that only Yoo Jaeyi knew how to deliver were everywhere.

The fans were ecstatic. The media, in a total frenzy.

But what truly mattered was a different perspective on the song.

Or rather, one specific person’s perspective.

With her phone in hand, she swiped down to the notification bar. No specific message yet. But it didn’t make a difference.

She knew Seulgi too well not to know the impact that particular track would have on the other woman.

"You run, run, and run, but you always end up coming home.
And I’m the only one who knows where your real home is.
You’re mine, even when you run,
Even when you deny,
Even when you lie to yourself. You’re still mine.
My lost princess,
Who, at the end of the day, always comes back to the castle."

Jaeyi smiled, wetting her lips, her eyes still glued to her phone as she watched the trending topics multiply nonstop.

And this was just a taste.

Just a glimpse of what was truly coming tomorrow.

Turning to her manager, who was watching everything unfold with her usual mix of admiration and concern, the singer spoke.

“Tomorrow’s going to be loud,” she said casually, as if commenting on the weather. “I want the press conference to be flawless. No evasive questions, but no obvious answers either. I want them to keep guessing.”

The singer paused, looking at her phone again, the charts, the comments, everything.

“I want the entire country to lose sleep.”

‘I want her to lose sleep.’ she thought.

Listening to her client, Hyeon nodded, already used to the singer’s thirst for absolute control. She knew there was no use suggesting caution at this point; Yoo Jaeyi never played small.

When she was finally alone in the studio, the soft glow from the large monitor on the wall illuminating her face, Jaeyi slowly ran her fingers across her phone screen, watching the numbers climb nonstop.

But it wasn’t really the numbers that made her smile like that.

It was the silent certainty that somewhere in the city, one specific someone was listening to that track. That by now, Seulgi had already understood the message.

She locked the screen, setting the phone aside.

The whole world was talking about Yoo Jaeyi.

And the next day, when the full album dropped, the whole world would be talking about them.

Because of the recent rumors, people would only need to put two and two together to start seeing the picture. But, in truth, there was only one person who would be able to understand the depth of each of those 16 tracks, to understand why they had really been written.

The singer knew that, sooner or later, Seulgi wouldn’t be able to ignore it anymore.

And with that thrilling thought, Jaeyi smiled to herself, closing her eyes for a brief moment.

The countdown to May 11th had begun.

And she could hardly wait to watch everything unfold from the front row after this move of hers.