In the span of a few minutes, Yeo Ri had once again become the center of attention.
Yeo Ri had only gone to change out of her costume but in that short period of time, Yoo Hyun Bin's SNS post had gone viral. Within those few minutes, her name once again climbed up the trending list without her doing anything at all.
[anonymouse: Who is that? So pretty TT TT]
[404Error: Isn't that the VitaQua girl? I saw her just now. In the commercial. keke I'm craving for some VitaQua but they're always sold out keke]
[HyunBinIsMyVitamin: What is this? Is she going out with my Hyun Bin-oppa?]
[Troll2222: Person upstairs, are you drunk? She's probably half his age]
[MyWeaknessIsLove: Love transcends age! What's a little age gap!]
[MyIDisMovieLover: So she's really a new actress? #DoOrDieMovie]
[qwerty123: Who is she, seriously? I need to know!!! For research!!!]
[ILickPicturesOfPrettyPeople: aaaaaaaa TT TT am I the only one having a heart attack? Why are these two people so beautiful TT TT life is unfair~~~~]
[kpopstan202: Tagging all the people in Hope Ent! Can't we at least get a name? *grovelling* #VitaQuaGirl]
[qwerty123: Begging Hope Ent to drop her name at least!!! Begging!!!!!!!! #VitaQuaGirl]
...
..
.
In another place.
Heo Woo Seung had been in a meeting with a few people when he had gotten an alert from Head Secretary Kwon's son, Kwon Tae Yang.
He had left the younger Kwon in charge of Yeo Ri, and if anything came up regarding his daughter, Kwon Tae Yang was to report the matter to him immediately.
'Miss Yeo Ri's name appeared in the search engines again. Shall I call the PR team?', the message wrote.
Heo Woo Seung gripped his phone tightly as he excused himself. He walked to a secluded corner before finally calling Secretary Kwon to ask for the details.
"What is going on? Yeo Ri is getting her name searched again?"
"Yes, sir. Some well-known actor posted a selfie with her on his account, and the netizens are going crazy. There's already some people in the comments who leaked bits of her info. What actions should I take?"
Heo Woo Seung frowned grimly. "First, make sure nothing about her past makes it to the surface. I'm talking complete cleanup. We can't expect to hide her forever given how fast things can spread, but make sure to protect her as much as you can."
"Yes, sir," Secretary Kwon replied succinctly before ending the call.
Heo Woo Seung closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly.
"Just what are you trying to do, Yeo Ri-ah...?"
Back at Yeo Ri's side, Park Soo Yeon was busily scrolling through the comments of Yoo Hyun Bin's post on her husband's phone while she contacted her company's PR department on hers.
"—What? It's already been taken care of? What do you mean?"
Park Soo Yeon furrowed her brows. She knew that Yeo Ri did not want her information to go public, so in order to please the girl, she had immediately called for damage control the moment she realised that Yeo Ri was going viral again. But, as it turns out, she and her team were one step too slow.
There was already someone else looking out for Yeo Ri.
By the time her employees were starting to get to work, most of the comments containing Yeo Ri's details were already taken down.
[NunaMarryMe: What the? Hope Ent is seriously bent on hiding this girl!]
[Whistleblower: [Repost] Her name is Lee Yeo Ri. I went to the same middle school and even back then, she was really popular. This post I wrote on a forum has her yearbook picture (link) cr: StanCheonsa]
[kpopstan303: [Repost] Her name is Lee Yeo Ri... ... ...]
[xOxO: [Repost] ... ... .... ]
[asdfghjkl: Dammit! Someone's taking down the posts. The links are dead OTL Hope Ent, why are you making things hard for us TT TT]
"Hm?"
The moment Yeo Ri came out, she could feel the strange atmosphere in the air.
"Yeo Ri-ah," Park Soo Yeon walked to her side, intending to ask her about this new party who was actively trying to keep her info hidden. Park Soo Yeon suddenly felt curious about the girl. Could it be that those people who claimed to be her grandparents were the ones behind this? It was not a farfetched idea considering their pedigree. A prestigious family with generations of doctors ought to have enough power to pull it off, she supposed.
"I don't think this is a good time for you to be out and about. Do you have anywhere else to go after this? If not, then Auntie will take you home," Park Soo Yeon spoke as she passed her husband's phone to the younger girl, motioning her to look at the comments section.
Yeo Ri accepted it quizzically, but upon scrolling through the first few comments, her eyes widened in shock. She whipped her head to stare at Mrs. Choi incredulously, "How is it so quick?" She asked helplessly. She knew that she was bound to catch some attention after taking a photo with a famous celebrity, but to think that the netizens would react so quickly...
Yeo Ri was feeling rather baffled.
It was not as if she could ask the culprit to take it down either, seeing as the man had already gone off to his next schedule. And, again, it would be too rude of her to ask him so considering that she was the one who agreed to take the picture in the first place.
"But what's strange is that any posts relating to your identity is quickly deleted or taken down... is it your family's doing?" Park Soo Yeon probed.
"..." Yeo Ri did not know how to answer her. The person who was most concerned about her leaked information... aside from herself, there was only one other person: Heo Woo Seung.
To be able to act so swiftly and silently, it was definitely his work.
"I don't know," Yeo Ri smiled half-heartedly in response.
"Oh," Park Soo Yeon copied her smile. This girl, she was definitely hiding something. Park Soo Yeon narrowed her eyes suspiciously for a split second. But... since the girl was refusing to divulge her secrets, she could only dismiss it. She did not want to invade on the girl's privacy; she might run away from her instead, when all she wanted was for the girl to sign with her company.
Smiling somewhat helplessly, Park Soo Yeon changed the subject. "Alright, then. Shall we go home?"