Peninsula: Aiming for a Grand Slam

Liu Zhimin looked at her phone; the Naver Sports page was still open.

The scoreboard showed 6-2, 6-0.

She dragged the progress bar back a bit.

In the screen,

Chen Jixian is being interviewed:

「资格赛第一轮，6-2和6-0。今天决赛，也是6-2和6-0。」

"Systematic tennis and individual tennis, it seems there's not much difference?"

She chuckled.

Those eyes, with slightly upturned corners, reflected only a figure speaking with their head tilted to the side.

She bit her lower lip, trying to suppress the corners of her mouth, but couldn't.

The corners of her mouth were curved upwards, carrying a hint of smugness and a softness that she hadn't had time to hide.

My ears are getting a little hot again.

Ningning walked over from the side and happened to see her expression.

She paused for a moment, the words she was about to say stopped abruptly, and then she remembered why she had come there.

"...Unnie, you've gone to Korean pop."

……

……

Liu Zhimin's reputation has recently started to improve.

A few days ago, screenshots of Liu Zhimin's expressions during a live tennis match went viral.

When she smiled, her eyes crinkled, and her whole face seemed to glow.

Someone made it into a GIF and even thoughtfully added captions:

Even the most outspoken can have their day.

The comments section was filled with jokes and banter.

There are still people who criticize her.

But many people say she is "straightforward" and "says what she means".

Especially her sarcastic remarks—

"If tennis is so noble, why can't he even support himself?"

"Before looking down on popularity, take a look at yourself first. Do you make a living from popularity?"

It exposed the inexplicable sense of superiority held by some people.

This also confirms his reputation as a straightforward and outspoken person.

Some people dug up her past with her "mouth senior".

As a result, people immediately spoke up for her:

"She always talks faster than she thinks."

Why hold a grudge against a young person for saying the wrong thing only once?

"She's a very outspoken person. Could her past 'dark history' have been taken out of context?"

The wind direction is changing.

A casual fan posted a thread on an anonymous forum with a very simple title:

"Do you think Karina's support for J.Chen this time is genuine or just for show?"

The post had hundreds of comments, but the three most upvoted were:

"She doesn't need to. Before the final, everyone favored Kim Sung-joon. If J.Chen loses, she'll be held accountable anyway. If she really wants to ride the wave of popularity, wouldn't it be better to wait until she wins?"

"No, she's just a hopeless romantic."

"If I had J.Chen's face, I could swindle all her money."

at the same time,

Bae Joo-hyun's fans began to stir.

On Irene's fan site, someone cautiously mentioned:

"Karina's reputation has improved a lot recently, all thanks to J.Chen's efforts to whitewash her."

What made Pei's fans even more uneasy was that some people were discussing it privately:

"Irene unnie might be resuming activities. At this time, Karina jumped out to side with J.Chen and stole all the limelight."

"J.Chen is Irene's junior colleague. She took care of everything, from delivering meals and picking him up to meeting up with him. Wasn't it Irene who did it first? Now, it's all Karina's credit."

"Didn't she criticize our unnie right after her accident?"

"Yeah! So that's how they cleared their name?"

"They're still using Xiao Chen to whitewash their image!"

Someone took a screenshot and uploaded it to Liu Zhimin's fan site.

The flames of war began to burn.

A big fan of Liu Zhimin posted a thread:

"Irene's fans like to say that others are just trying to ride on her coattails, but their unnies are genuinely loyal?"

"What were you Irene doing when J.Chen was petitioned by 200,000 people to get out of South Korea?"

"When he got into trouble and was condemned as a thug by the entire internet, your unnies just disappeared without a trace."

"Sure enough, as people get older, they become more cunning."

The second post immediately follows below the first one.

The wording is even sharper:

"After he made a comeback and tens of thousands of people lined up to apologize to him, suddenly some news about 'using a fake account to buy a photo card' popped up?"

"If the parties involved don't expose it themselves, how can outsiders know? Aren't you just taking advantage of J.Chen's high public favorability to whitewash your bully?"

"By the way, I heard that your unnie is going to resume activities ahead of schedule?"

"What a coincidence, he just made a comeback and she's making her comeback now."

"Where were you unnies when he was going through his toughest time?"

Pei's fans' counterattack came almost instantly.

One prominent fan spoke in an even colder tone, but every sentence precisely hit the logical flaws:

"Since you've organized Irene's timeline, we'll also organize Karina's for you."

"J.Chen played in Korea for a week. When did your Karina interact with him?"

"When he was being attacked online, your outspoken Karina didn't come out to speak up for him, did she?"

"Isn't she supposed to 'speak her mind if she can't stand it'? Where was Karina's 'speaking her mind' when J.Chen was being criticized the most?"

Pei's fans are still putting in a lot of effort:

"Karina really knows how to pick her timing."

"J.Chen turned the tables, and she stepped forward to become regent."

"Watching the game live, with comments in the chat expressing concern for his ankle, and a lovestruck smile on his face, and then 'coincidentally' being screenshotted. If this isn't scheming, what is?"

"People who used to criticize their seniors are now putting on a secret crush face. Isn't it because J.Chen's popularity has skyrocketed and they're jumping out to ride on his coattails?"

"After piggybacking on 'workplace resonance' to gain favor, and after gaining favor, they're piggybacking on scandals—Karina is the real vampire."

Then,

Another fan of Pei added a paragraph:

"Speaking of the truth—Irene has never used him in public."

"He never posted photos when delivering food, never said a word about picking people up or dropping them off, and even the story about meeting up with Xiao Ka was found on a forum."

"If she really wanted to ride the wave of popularity, wouldn't it have been better for her to go directly to the finals?"

"But she didn't go; she didn't want to take away the stage that belonged to Xiao Chen."

"Don't you all know who's protecting him and who's using him to whitewash their own image?"

Pei's fans have a well-reasoned argument.

The willow powder suffered repeated defeats.

Driven by extreme emotions, a fan of Liu typed out a line of text:

"Your unnie really knows how to go the same way."

"If it's on the way, we might end up in the same bed?"

Immediately afterwards, Pei's fans also tore away the last shred of decorum:

"And what about your Karina?"

"If a female idol works as a fan site admin for a minor, what will she want to do after that?"

The comment sections on both sides fell silent simultaneously.

Liu Fen realized she had stirred up a hornet's nest—they were pushing the relationship between Bae Joo-hyun and Chen Jixian in an ambiguous direction.

Pei's fans didn't hold back either, immediately using the same logic to drag Liu Zhimin into the mess as well.

Both sides are exerting force in the same direction: to prove that the other's idol has an unusual level of concern for a seventeen-year-old high school student.

then,

armistice!

We can't fight anymore!

If this continues, no matter which side wins, the label of "harassing minors" will never be washed away.

Liu's fans deleted the posts very quickly.

Pei's fans also began cleaning up their comments.

No one declared a ceasefire, but the gunfire simply stopped.

……

……

Seoul.

SM Entertainment.

Bae Joo-hyun sat on the sofa, her phone displaying the long post from Yoo Jimin's fans.

The agent came over:

"The company has taken note."

Bae Joo-hyun didn't look up.

"Should we issue a statement?" the agent asked.

"Need not."

My phone vibrated.

It was a message from Chen Jixian.

We won.

She turned off the screen.

A few seconds later, he unlocked it again and typed three words.

"I saw it."

SM.

Another lounge.

Ningning tossed her phone onto the sofa: "I knew something bad was going to happen."

Liu Zhimin sat next to her, her knees bent and her chin resting on them.

Her comment section has been completely flooded with comments.

There weren't many people criticizing her, but there was a lot of mockery.

When Liu Zhimin ended her live stream, the screen was filled with tennis emojis, which were screenshotted by someone.

Her insincere remark was also edited out and highlighted separately:

The original quote was: "It's common knowledge that sudden stops on hard surfaces put a lot of stress on the joints."

The caption reads: "Karina is teaching a course on sports medicine. Lesson one: How to tell if someone you like is injured."

Comments below:

Lesson Two: How to use common sense as a pretext.

"You can argue all you want, Karina's eyes don't lie."

"Honestly, she even noticed him rubbing his ankle, but I didn't even notice when my boyfriend fell."

She scrolled through a few messages and then locked her phone.

The base of her ears was still red.

Fans tried their best to control the comments, but it was only a drop in the ocean compared to the vast number of bystanders.

Gisele walked by, glanced down at her, and then looked at the phone on the ground.

She said calmly, "You had the same expression on your face when you said the milk tea was too sweet last time."

Liu Zhimin buried her face half an inch deeper into her knees and said in a muffled voice:

"……roll."

Giselle walked away with her coffee, but a sentence drifted back:

"Remember to turn off the comments section next time you stream."

Ningning didn't say a word, but she thought to herself: Giselle knows everything, she's just too lazy to say it.

From the very beginning, there was only one person in this room who didn't know.