No One’s POV

Several weeks have passed since Erika went out to the movies with Mino and Zico. Many things have happened since then.

Yang Hyun-suk set up a conference to publicly accept Erika into YG Entertainment. He introduced her under the stage name Ivy (sounds like Ivy from Ivy League) since it sounds better than just Erika and E.V.

When the conference was posted on the media Erika became the hot topic of all news sources: after all, she is the first Hispanic person to sign a contract under a Korean label to become an actress in Korea. Some news reports were positive, saying that it is refreshing to know that Korea was now going to be more diverse, and become more . But there were some articles that bad mouthed YG, and proclaimed that he had finally gone out of his mind thinking that someone like Erika could succeed in the Korean entertainment industry. Erika did not let that get to her head though. She stayed strong and continued with what she came to Korea for.

Erika was getting ready to attend her very first press conference with the cast of Seunggi’s drama. She doesn’t know exactly who was cast since she has been disconnected from the world since all she did was train in the YG dungeon.

It was a Monday morning. Erika’s apartment was full, and bustling with activity. The stylist and makeup crew that YG set up for Erika were rushing her to get into a pretty, frilly pink dress that accented her curves; exactly the type of dress Erika’s mother would love to see her in. Erika was sat on a chair under really bright lights as her face was being transformed by makeup. Even though Erika was not used to wearing dresses and makeup she did not complain too much, her only request from her styling team was to not overdo the makeup and to not dress her up in too-revealing clothes. Soon after her hair was curled nicely, she was ushered out the apartment and into the brand new van that YG got just for Erika since she would need a bigger transportation to have her stylist crew with her.

Erika arrived at the venue where the press conference will take place.

“Oh! Erika, you're here! Or, should I call you Ivy instead?” Seunggi greeted Erika.

“Hello!” She greeted him back. “I think it will be easier to call me Ivy, since that is my stage name now.”

“Ok!” Seunggi nodded. “Come, follow me! Let me introduce you to the cast members. Do you know who they are?”

Erika shook her head; she really had no idea. She followed Seunggi into a waiting room.

When Seunggi opened the door everyone in the room stopped talking and turned to see who was at the door. Everyone there already knew who the lead actress is, but no one had ever met her in person; they were all curious to know what kind of person she would be.

Seunggi opened the door completely and greeted everyone with a wide smile and stepped aside to let Erika into view.

Erika stood at the doorway: frozen. Six pairs of eyes on different sides of the room were staring at her. She knew some of the actors from watching dramas; some she knew by name, others just by their face.

A tall, handsome man Erika was a fan of extended his hand, “Hello, I am Kim Jaejoong. It is really nice to finally meet you.” He smiled at her with his signature crooked smile that melts all the fangirls’ hearts. Wow, she is really pretty in person, he thought. I have only seen pictures of her from the press conference from YG. Is she even wearing any makeup, I bet she is. No actress now a-days go to interviews without makeup. Too bad her beauty isn’t natural, but her makeup artist sure did a good job in making it seem so.

Erika shook Jaejoong’s hand as she slightly bowed in respect, “Hello, I am Ivy.” She was not as giddy about meeting her idols anymore. She had gravely lectured herself after the way she acted when she met Zico; she promised herself to keep calm in front of everyone.

Next, Park Yoohwan introduced himself. Most people might know him as JYJ’s Park Yoochun’s younger brother. There were four other actors in the room. Erika knew who Jung Jinyoung and Yu Oh-Seong were, but she did not know Nam Jihyun or Bae Haesun.

After the quick introductions all seven actors followed a security guard and Seunggi who led them to the conference room. The door was opened for them by two other security guards and Erika saw the rows of reporters and photographers ready to get a scoop on the new drama.

Seunggi was the first to walk in soon followed by Jaejoong, Erika, Yoohwan, Nam Jihyun, Jung Jinyoung, Yu Oh-Seong and Bae Haesun in that order. They stood behind their assigned seats along a long table. They all smiled for the cameras until the MC at the podium told them they could take a seat.

Seunggi then started to introduce the type of drama he planned in shooting. He then let the actors introduce themselves and the characters they would be playing, in order starting from Jaejoong.

 “Annyeong haseyo,” Jaejoong bowed. “I am Kim Jaejoong; I will be playing a cop named Baek Jungsik who works alongside Detective Anh Elizabeth.”

“My name is Ivy, and I will be playing the main heroine, Detective Elizabeth, who was adopted into the Anh family when she was a child.”

“I am Park Yoohwan; I am playing the son of the CEO of Hwang Sun Enterprise, Choi Jiseok.”

“I am Nam Jihyun; I will be playing the biological daughter of the Anh family, Anh Sunhee. I am younger than Elizabeth, so our father always compared me to her.”

“I'm Jung Jinyoung; my character is Chief Detective Anh Jaesuk, and I adopted Elizabeth to follow my legacy as a detective.”

“I am Yu Oh-Seong, father of Choi Jiseok, CEO of Hwang Sun Enterprise and enemy of Chief Detective Anh, Choi Mingyu.”

“I am Bae Haesun, and I am playing the wife of Chief Detective Anh and mother of Anh Sunhee, Anh Jung-ah.”

After all the actors introduced their characters the reporters kept asking questions to them. All the questions asked had to be related to the drama, but Erika was not so lucky. Most of the question she was receiving sounded as if they were about the drama when in reality they targeted her directly.

One courageous reporter asked, “What is your relationship with Lee Seunggi? How much did you pay to get into such a successful company as YG?” not even bothering to cover up his question.

Everyone went quiet. They all looked between Erika, Seunggi and the reporter.

“Uhh… I'm sorry but that kind of question is not allowed,” Seunggi was the first to react. Not even the MC could react fast enough.

“So you are not denying that there is something between Ivy and you?” The reporter prodded.

“Your words are disrespectful to both Ivy and me. If you will, please stick to the questions allowed.”

After that, the conference went by fast and finished leaving all the reporters to go prepared to write their headlines.

The actors headed back to the waiting room to get their things.

Jaejoong was the first to approach Erika, “Ivy, are you ok?”

“Yes, I'm fine, thank you,” Erika nodded with a smile on her face. In truth, she felt that her knees would give out at any moment. She did not expect to have to face such questions from the very start. But she did not show her emotions; she did not want to worry anybody. She was the best at putting a happy front in front of others after all.

Jaejoong saw her smile, don’t be a fool, I can see right through that smile, Ivy. I know that smile too well; I once was attacked by reporters too. But he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable and try to pry a confession out of her. He nodded and headed out the waiting room and left.

Erika was sitting down in a chair to the far left of the room looking down at her phone when she felt someone sit down in the chair beside hers.

“Don’t worry about what happened today,” Seunggi spoke up as he looked at Erika with concern.

Erika looked up at Seunggi with an unreadable expression and simply nodded.

“Erika, are you ready? We should get going,” Kwon manager came into the room. “You have a photoshoot scheduled.”

Erika and Seunggi both stood up and said their goodbyes.

Erika was numb. She got into the van. All the crew was there already. They were quiet. They had all heard about the interview but did not know how to comfort Erika.

Erika was actually ecstatic to find out that she will be working with Kim Jaejoong of JYJ and Park Yoohwan and the elite actors Jung Jinyoung and Yu Oh-Seong, but she was also very nervous. Not only about the incident just now, but also, Erika found out that Seunggi did not tell her all the details to the drama. His drama was not a romantic melodrama; on the contrary, it was an action drama. She then realized the reason why Hwang Ssabunim made her run up and down the stair for the last 2 months. Even though Erika is now going to be very occupied with her drama schedule she was ordered to go to the gym during her own time and work out to build up her stamina.

Erika had met up with Seunggi three weeks ago to go get her outfits for the drama tailored, and so know she had to go to the photoshoot to get the photos for the drama promotions.

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News about the incident during the press conference spread like wild fire that afternoon of the conference. There were headlines like:

Rookie Actress Ivy in a Relationship with Lee Seunggi

YG New Actress Ivy in a Dating Scandal even before her Career Starts

Ivy under Fire for Allegedly Paying her Way into YG Entertainment

Ivy’s Reputation Torn to Pieces Before it is Built

YG Bought by Foreigner Actress Ivy?

Of course, YG prepared on their side to defend Ivy soon after being reported to by Erika’s Manager. After a week the commotion started to die down. But not before Erika read some of the comments on some websites. Erika usually did not have time during the day, but when she would go back to her house she would log onto her Instagram and see the post of some fan sites she had been following. There were some people who knew who she was on Instagram, but overall she was secretly living the life of a normal fangirl online, since she took off all the posts that had her face in them before she even moved to Korea.

Erika scrolled through her feed and saw several comments on someone’s post about the topic:

I knew there was something fishy about her.

How dare she bring down YG and Seunggi oppa? Who does this bi*** think she is?

SHE SHOULD JUST GO DIE! SHE DOESN’T DESERVE TO BE SO CLOSE TO OUR OPPAS!!

JUST GO DIE LIKE A ROTTEN RAT IN A SEWER SOMEWHERE IN THE ARTIC SO NOONE KNOWS YOU DIED! Oh wait, NOBODY CARES!

Maybe we should give her a chance to prove herself innocent. What if she is actually really cool?

We shouldn’t bash her too much, after all, it was denied by YG. We should at least trust YG.

Are you *NG KIDDING ME? YG is just covering this SH*T up like he did for GD and Bom! How can we trust this is not like then?

I trust YG enough to believe Ivy is innocent. If we don’t believe in her then we cannot be YG Stans, because she is now part of the YG Family.

And so the comments went on. Erika was just glad that there were at least 1 or 2 people supporting her.

But, nothing really mattered because she soon had to move on to start the promotions for the drama. She also had to attend to an MT set up by Seunggi to help the teamwork between the leading actors and actresses. Erika instantly got close to Bae Haesun who would be playing as Erika’s adoptive mother. Jaejoong and Yoohwan were already relatively close so they would spend more time getting to know other actors. Erika thought things would be a bit awkward between her and other actors, but they were really accepting and took in Erika as if they had known each other for years. The MT only lasted for 2 nights and 3 days, but it was very fun even if there were some exhausting moments, and it was enough to lift up her spirit.

As soon as all the tailored outfits were in for the actors, the first episode was shot. Erika was sporting a detective outfit, Jaejoong was cop, and Yoohwan was in a classy suit.

The first shooting consisted of many NGs, mainly coming from Erika. She had practiced and memorized her lines, but her acting was not very impressive according to the director. Seunggi was standing behind the monitor, checking everything being shot.

“CUT!!” the director shouted for the umpteenth time that day. “Ivy, how many times do I have to tell you? Have more emotion in your acting; you look like you are just reading off a paper.”

Erika simply nodded and started from the beginning. She felt like she was making too many mistakes. Jaejoong rolled over the hood of a car with his gun out once again. He felt like his ribs were going to give in if he had to roll over that car again.

Erika was so frustrated that she was making so many mistakes and causing everyone to have to go through the same part repeatedly. She was at the point where she felt that if the drama failed it would be because of her. Erika mustered up all her emotions into the line she was supposed to say. Finally, the director did not cut her off.

Once the shooting was over for the day it was past midnight. The director called Erika over and showed her the clips of herself. In the first clips she was very stiff, even she could tell. By the last clips she had become more relaxed and the director concluded that he was being very strict on her because he had heard that she was an exceptional actress. He has great expectations for Erika and encouraged her to not be afraid of the camera.

Erika had a full schedule for that whole week. She had to be on set at different times of the day and often times had to sleep in the van and ate only triangular bimbap from the closest convenience store, because the director was waiting for the right lighting to shoot the scenes. Erika is not the type to complain so she quietly complied with the schedule.

Soon after the shooting of the first episode the production team put out the first teasers to the drama. Many people were looking forward to see what Lee Seunggi would offer them through this drama, but there were also who did not care and just posted complaints about how the lead is not even Asian. Seunggi took notice that there was a noteworthy of malignant comments to Erika and asked her not to read anything into them. He knew the risk he was taking in recruiting her out of blue, and that some people were going to be reluctant to accept her, but he still wanted to try it out; it was simply a project he had been working out since before he enlisted into the military. And in order to balance out the fact that Erika was not the typical actress he casted several elite actors.

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(Somewhere Else in Seoul)

The room’s lights were dimmed just enough to be able to see where things were. Zico was slumped on his working chair, in front of the music controls. He had one arm over his face to cover up the rest of the light from his view.

He had been in his recording studio for two days trying to focus on composing a new track for Block-B’s comeback album but he couldn’t concentrate. Ever since the movie night with Mino and Erika he could not stop thinking about her.

She is so dumb. Hahahaha!! Zico thought about how silly Erika had acted at the movie theatre and started to laugh out loud.

“Yah! Have you gone crazy now?” Taeil walked into the room and flipped the lights completely on.

“I think you need to rest, hyung. You are starting to go delusional,” P.O added as he walked in right behind Taeil.

Zico was startle by their entrance that he almost fell back on his chair. His hair was ruffled in all directions and he looked at his band members with wide eyes, “Yah!! Knock before you come in!!”

“We did,” Kyung put up his hands, palms facing Zico in defense. “You didn’t respond. You were too busy daydreaming! Hahahaha! ”

Zico threw a balled up paper at Kyung and hit him square in the face since he was too busy laughing.

“Ooh! Uri hyung was daydreaming…,” P.O said in his low voice pointing at Zico as he tried to poke his sides.

“Yah! Stop it,” Zico said half-heartedly.

“What? Is it a girl?” Taeil innocently asked as he sat down on the couch in the room.

“Ah! Hyung, you know I don’t have time for that,” Zico defended himself.

P.O started to snoop around the papers thrown around the control table as Kyung took a seat on a chair beside Zico. P.O found something interesting in one of the papers and headed to sit beside Taeil.

“Hyung, hyung,” P.O whispered to Taeil. “Look at this,” he snickered.

Zico suspiciously looked at P.O who was having a mini laugh-attack next to a now snickering Taeil.

“I thought you were daydreaming about a girl, but it turns out you have a different taste, Zico,” Taeil snickered as he handed the paper to Zico. P.O was not rolling on the floor laughing holding his stomach.

“Yah!! Pyo Jihoon, where did you get this from?” Zico looked from the paper to P.O.

The paper had some scribbles and some scratched out lyrics, but what Taeil was talking about was the little sketch on one of the sides of the paper. It was a caricature of what looked like a boy with an oversized hoodie and pants. He had a surgical mask that was hanging from one of his ears and revealed his face. The “boy” was smiling shyly as he looked down. The hood was over his head so his hair was covered, which is why it looked like a boy when in reality it was a girl. Zico had drawn it without realizing it until he had finished. But he knew that he was not interested in Erika, he simply found her interesting and different.

“Whatever, I'm getting back to work,” Zico announced as he immersed himself into composing, blocking everything else out.

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