From Past To Present, I Still Love You 108 The Aftermath

By the time the gala finished, the news had spread all over, even reaching international grounds.

For a country with high bullying rates, many people were enraged by Jaeun's actions. The fact that a golden spoon was using their powers to silence their victims was inhumane. n.o.body wanted to stand and watch another rich person get away with their actions.

Included in the viral post was Jaeun ordering students to physically abuse victims, forcing young girls into washroom stalls and tormenting them with her groupies, group chats including the victims made for the purpose of cyber bullying them, and recordings of conversations of her s.l.u.t-shaming young girls for falling for her brother.

Seeing this injustice made pet.i.tions rampage among the readers to kick her out of university. Even the council couldn't s.h.i.+eld the Moon group. The amount of pressure from the internet outweighed the amount of money they obtained from donations.

The reason for wanting to kick her out was due to the unfortunate fact that Jaeun would not be punished for her actions. Minors in Korea, no matter how severe their actions are, are protected under the Youth Act. All actions committed when they are under the age nineteen are protected by the government and erased when they are adults. Therefore, by law, justice could not be served.

Laws like this were controversial. Jaeun's case only elevated the citizen's anger that had been piling up. She was their target.

Seeing all the chaos ensue, it was clear Ji-ho did a really good job exposing the Moon siblings. He not only gathered the evidence but also manipulated the blog website and algorithms to garner attention to this post.

It wasn't as hard as he expected it to be.

Many students who held grudges against the Moon siblings kept evidence in case of future events such as today. In fact, after Jaeun's bullying came to light, more videos were released by others. Everyone had evidence in their hands, big or small, to contribute to the pool. Victims also came forward talking about how terrible the two siblings were, playing with them until they broke down. One of the girls even had their family's business bankrupt by the Moon Group and was forced to pay debts through prost.i.tution. The amount of suffering brought to others was sickening.

Just as expected, the next day, the Moon siblings did not appear at school. They were completely silent and many a.s.sumed that the two had dropped out.

To think the Queen and King fell in only a day, it was frightening.

Since they had a high status, it was most likely they would move to a university overseas where n.o.body would recognize them. It was the usual method for rich kids who'd gotten in trouble.

But there was a chance Jaemin would stay in university considering that the hate was mainly garnered towards Jaeun.

According to a few comments on the internet, he was manipulated and used as a chess piece. Some even sympathized with him saying he had no choice in front of his sister. Therefore, fan girls prayed for him to stay, s.h.i.+elding him from the hate comments.

For the Moon group overall, the media explosion including their two members was too large for them to prevent. Everything blasted so quickly, blowing up in their faces without time for them to retaliate. Therefore, their best bet was to let it settle down and to pay companies to stop posting articles.

Also, they made sure that the two siblings were to stay out of the public eye for a few weeks.

Eventually, it was bound for everyone to forget about this incident. This was how the world worked. In the end, there would be a new scandal would pop up, was.h.i.+ng away all the Moon sibling's sins. They just had to wait for that moment.

---

Yoona sat at her cla.s.sroom desk, taking a sip out of her water. All the students were buzzing due to the news that exploded last night. She calmly sat in the middle of the chaos minding her own business. Nothing coming out of their mouths was new to her for she took part in their fall.

But it was quite nice seeing the aftermath of their hard work.

She let out a yawn. Her body was still exhausted from the gala. Revenge was too much work.

Speaking of the gala, she gently touched her lips. Everything about Minhyun felt like a dream. Did the kiss really happened? Had their relations.h.i.+p progressed that much in a single night. The fact that the apartment was empty the next morning did not help with her disbelief.
She knew he would be gone due to his busy schedule but having him by her side for so many hours, suddenly to have been returned back to normal, brought her loneliness. She missed him... A lot.
Now that the Moon Group was starting to fall apart, maybe it was time to put more focus on her own happiness. Her relations.h.i.+p with Minhyun.

"Yoona?"

Surprised to hear her name, Yoona's trail of thought broke and she looked up to see a group of familiar faces.

They were close cla.s.smates that had acted as if she never existed after the first anniversary betrayal.

She pursed her lips. "What is it?"

One of the boys stepped up. With his gelled hair and cla.s.sic cardigan, she automatically recognized him to be Wonho. He was her partner during the third year marketing project. She was quite close to him and they would study often.

"The others and I wanted to say that we were really sorry. While Jaeun was bullying you, we were only bystanders watching you get hurt. It was wrong of us to act this way and we should've s.h.i.+elded you."

"Yeah. We did something terrible and i'm sorry," Annabelle said. She was another person she'd studied with before. "But now since Jaeun is finished, I'm glad you won't be suffering anymore."

"Yeah. Now that she's not in the school, I think it's safe to say that life is going to be much better. The Tyrant is gone."

"Exactly!" Annabelle said. Then she let out a giggle. "I didn't even like her. Always being arrogant because she thought she was all that and SO pretty. Personally, I always thought you were much prettier Yoona."

Although Yoona wanted to smile, her lips were heavy. Having the courage to apologize to her was great, she appreciated the actions, but it seemed as if it was too late. All the damage had already been done. Why were they only saying this after Jaeun was gone?

Eunha, Lucas, and Minhyun were the only ones that truly stayed by her side.

Those were her true friends, not these people. They didn't bother to spare her a glance while she was hara.s.sed.

"Ah, I see... I forgive you guys," Yoona answered. Thinking in their shoes, she understood that they were scared of Jaeun. "That's great! Let's-" She quickly interrupted them. "But I don't want to be friends anymore. Let's just end things on a positive note."
After suffering, she realized that there was no point in being friends with these types of people. In the end, if she was in trouble again, they would leave her in the dark. It was inevitable.
The others were shocked to hear her answer. The Yoona they knew would forgive automatically. What changed?

"W-we understand." The situation was incomprehensible.

"Good," Yoona said with a bright smile. "Now please leave. I don't want to be distracted during cla.s.s."

Everyone had a.s.sumed that Yoona would return to being the angel that they knew her for. But seeing her react this way made them realize that they were too late. The damage has been done.

Regret filled their hearts and they walked away defeated.