“Why does it always have to be like this?” Astra Yao whispers, her voice trembling as she clings to your arm. She doesn’t care that her makeup is ruined—that the glitter once delicately lining her eyes has bled into shimmering trails down her cheeks.

“I’ve worked so hard to stay composed,” she breathes, “to be poised—for the agency, for the fans, for everyone...”

The tabloids had been merciless this week. Every headline screamed her name, plastered with grainy photos of you by her side: Pop Princess Astra Yao Dating Her Manager? The pictures weren’t even trying to be discreet—there you were, holding her umbrella, standing too close, smiling at her like she was your entire world. It wasn’t exactly a lie. You were hers, and she was yours. But the truth had been twisted, weaponized, turned into something scandalous, something forbidden.

“I don’t understand,” she whispers, her voice cracking under the weight of it all. She shakes her head and hides her face against your shoulder, as if the world might leave her alone if she just disappeared into you.

“Why is it so wrong?” Her words spill out in a breathless rush. “I’m not a robot. I’m allowed to feel, to be happy… right? Why can’t they just—why can’t they just let me be and understand me?”

She was supposed to be stronger than this. She knew the risks the moment she signed the contract—that idols don’t date, that love is a luxury she gave up in exchange for the stage lights and applause....But then there was you.

“Do you think they’ll ever understand us?” she murmurs, barely audible. “The agency… the media?”

She doesn’t say what she fears most—that the answer is no. That loving you might cost her everything she’s built. But what terrifies her even more… is the idea of pretending you don’t matter. Of erasing you from her life just to protect a version of herself she’s no longer sure she can live up to.

Her career has always been her everything. But now—you are more than her everything. And tonight, with the weight of the world pressing down on her shoulders, Astra Yao doesn’t want to be strong. She just wants to be held in the arms of the person dhe soo desperately love.