Page 186

You did nothing wrong.

Your friend Becka reached out to me recently with a very specific request, and of course I agreed immediately! I can see others have already gone to the mat for you, and I’m sorry I’m late!

I’ve attached a copy of the piece I’m going to upload to my site later today. It isn’t much, but if another voice defending you makes a difference, you have mine.

Kaiya, we don’t know each other well, but I want you to remember you have a friend in me. Not just because we’ve both been ripped apart by the media for daring to love who we love – although that does create certain bonds, haha! – but because you’re a good person. I knew that when you wrote that article about me, and I was certain of it after we went for dinner.

Let’s do that again, okay?

Kaiya – you are more than what they write about you.

Take care, and speak soon.

-Harlow.

It took me longer than normal to read the email because I kept having to stop to wipe my eyes. It wasn’t that it was a particularly sentimental email. It wasn’t even that Becka had reached out to Harlow, and Harlow had agreed. It was that this was another person who seemed to think well enough about me to put their name in the fire next to mine.

When scandal broke, whatever the scandal was, there was always the expectation of being toxic by association. It happened all the time. Seeing people come to my defence was unexpected, and humbling.

But it hadn’t just been for me.

More, and more there had been pushback in the community for Jihoon. For his right to have a relationship without public outcry. For everyone in his position to live normal lives, without the assumption that they belonged to the ‘people who made them famous’.

That buying an album did not mean you purchased the person.

Would any of it stick in the long term? Would it change anything?

I doubted it.

The second email was a wholly different animal. I read the notice with complicated emotions. Nothing he said surprised me, and even after reading it twice, I still couldn’t decide how I felt. Or, perhaps more correctly, how I should feel.

There was a part of me – small, and a little dark – that was wryly amused, because of all the big scandals I’d been involved in since my life diverted to LA, all those years ago, nothing had ever been as dramatic as the movies would make us believe. Sometimes, things didn’t blow over, or blow up. They kind of simmered, or deflated. Not with a bang, but with a quiet legal notice. And I found I was fine with that.

Dear Ms Thompson,

I write to you with what I suspect will be my final update regarding the French proceedings arising from the events of July 17th.

I assume you are now aware that Madame Park has been formally sentenced in the Republic of Korea to eighteen months imprisonment, suspended. I have been advised by the legal team I have been liaising with that protective measures concerning the members of GVibes – the ‘restraining order’ – are also in place.

Following the conclusion of the Korean prosecution, I have conferred with the French prosecution regarding the outstanding investigation here.

It falls on me to advise you, Ms Thompson, that it is not currently the French Prosecution’s intention to seek Madame Park’s return to France for the purpose of a separate trial.

I understand that Madame Park’s sentence in Korea was taken into consideration for this decision, as well as the not-insubstantial international cooperation it would represent, for the limited benefit of prosecuting the French matter separately.

I want to assure you, Ms Thompson, that simply because it does not serve the French Prosecution to currently pursue this matter does not mean the charges have been dropped. It simply means transporting Madame Park internationally to prosecute her again would achieve little more than what the current Korean prosecution already has.

Ms Thompson, as I said in my prior correspondence, you should not take this to mean that France does not find your complaint without merit. This decision also does not mean that Madame Park’s conduct towards you was anything less than abhorrent.

If future circumstances should change, the position to prosecute may be reconsidered.

Barring such change, however, I believe this brings my involvement to its natural conclusion.

It was a pleasure to have met you, and though I do hope you will not require my services in the future, please be assured I would be more than happy to assist.

Kind regards,

Monsieur Lallouche