episode 4

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After the elimination of Ash-B and Ahn Soomin and the arrival of Jiyoon, the girls all settled back into the stage room where San E would then announce the producers for the next two tracks. They all sat in the chairs they picked, with Yubin casually sitting with one leg over the other, awaiting San E's arrival. Only a few minutes later, he arrived. The tension and excitement in the room was palpable and San E vocalized it.

"Are you guys excited to find out who the next producers are?" He asks his audience of female rappers.

There were moans and groans, 'yes' and 'no' being passed around.

San E put on a serious face, essentially instilling a bit of fear into the contestants before smiling again. Yubin laughs at this because she recalls that he used to do this all the time at the company.

"The producers for the next two tracks are.... drum roll please!" He said, making every one laugh.

'Seriously, just say it already!!! The excitement is killing me', Yubin thought.

"The producers are Jay Park and Cha Cha Malone from AOMG." San E finally announces, relieving the tension between the girls.

Yubin, however, still feels the tension, not from the competition and the moment now, but the fact that one of the producers is Jaebum, someone who is an old and former acquaintance of hers. They had departed on no-speaking terms after his scandals and all of the drama surrounding him and his leave from 2PM. This will be the first time she would interact with him since then because he had been spending most of his time in the US and filming Show Me The Money 4. Sure, she'd bumped into him a couple of times, but they chose to ignore each other because of the circumstances. And now, she was being forced to confront that issue that was never really resolved between them (not that it was their drama, she just happened to be on the opposing side).

So, while everybody was expressing their excitement and joy as the producers came out, she just sat there , arms crossed and a blank look on her face. San E was explaining the rules for the first mission as the two producers took the seats next to him. All the while, Yubin's resting face came on and she couldn't help but just stare at the man in front of her. She didn't know if she was waiting for him to notice her but she definitely did not notice the girls quiet down and stare at her. It was only when Sua snapped her out of her trance with her "Unnie, what are you doing?". She looked to Sua and mumbled that she wasn't doing anything before looking back to the front and finding Jaebum's eyes fixated on her. The somewhat uncomfortable eye contact continued until San E noticed the tension between the two and decided to interrupt, not getting the message that the two were not on good terms.

"So, Jay, any familiar faces?" San E asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

San E knew that Jay Park used to work under JYP but he had no idea what had transpired in terms of Jay Park and 2PM back then. He just thought that every one who worked under JYP and left, left on good terms because the company was good and their main focus was the artists and not the fame and money.

Jaebum didn't answer for a while, often looking to Cha Cha and smiling before he finally opened his mouth. 

"One familiar face." He says, eyes locked on Yubin's figure.

She had never felt this amount of pressure and discomfort before, but now, being gazed at by her former acquaintance's eyes, she knew that this whole conversation was going to be ing weird and awkward. All of the girls at this point were staring at her, wondering what in the world is happening, where did all of these bad vibes come from? Yubin wanted to look away but her bad girl persona resisted and kept her glaring eye contact with Jaebum until San E once again interrupts.

"And do entertain us who that one familiar face is." He says.

Jaebum throws his signature smirk at San E and Yubin wants to scoff loudly but resists and scrunches her nose in aggravation instead.

"You know who I'm talking about. JYP Nation, what's good, Yubin?" And he finally says her name.

She doesn't know why, but it felt as if she had been holding her breathe this whole time. The weird and uncomfortable eye contact with Jaebum and the intense vibe that was coming from them was something that made her so nervous that her fingers were shaking a little bit. She is relieved that he somehow doesn't say her name or mention her in a hostile way despite the way they departed so long ago.

"Oh, is there a past between you and Yubin unnie?" Sua asks, not knowing the depth of her question.

Yubin almost spits in surpise and Jaebum's mouth is open in surprise. Cha Cha is laughing, but he knows that the question was serious and the tension between the two was going to get even worse from here. When Jaebum laughs, there is a fear that Yubin feels.

"Not really. We just worked under the same company for a while. She was my sunbae." He explains to the other girls.

'Okay, good. Nothing about the scandals or the drama or anything. Of course he doesn't want to bring that up. It's a stain in his past,' Yubin thinks.

Cha Cha wants to make a comment but San E beats him to it.

"But when we were on Show Me The Money 4, you said she was your goddess?" He questions, side eye-ing Cha Cha and smirking at the same time. Jaebum's mouth drops.

For the first time in a long time, Yubin wants to run and hide. The rest of the girls looked at her as if she had ed him (that's a story for another day). They were sending her looks that questioned her and she wanted to cower but her self conscious wouldn't let her. She had to be confident and she had to be the bad that every one thought she was, so she spoke up.

"Ah yeah, back then, all of the 2PM guys would joke and call me their goddess." She explained, trying to calm the situation that stupid San E got them in.

Jaebum nervously laughs, not wanting to talk about the conversation he had with San E on Show Me The Money 4 about Yubin, so he just goes along with it. He knows that the rest of the guys called her a goddess too, so it was a good excuse.

"Yeah, Yubin was our tan and foreign goddess back then." He commented, going along with Yubin's statement and not wanting to delve into their past.

"But you said —" San E starts but Cha Cha cuts him off by saying "Ok, every one, let's get started" and eye-ing San E, practically telling him not to bring anything up with the rest of the contestants here.

They explained that there were two tracks and each contestant must choose which track they want to compete for. After having picked their respective tracks, they get into groups where they will write a rap for the song and perform it in front of Jay Park and an audience. Yubin was put in a group with Kasper and Truedy. Kasper, she thought, was an adorable girl. She didn't like Truedy much because of her personality and the fact that she acts like she's African when she's not. She made it seem like she was at first, which Yubin thought was cool (having a mixed contestant) but after finding out that she was just 'cosplaying' black culture, she didn't pay much attention to her because she knew that the fans, the netizens would be the ones attacking. For now, they have to work together and Yubin had to disregard her dislike for Truedy for this mission (however, her face will probably be filled with mean expressions, that's just how she is).

The girls were dismissed to go to their respective rooms to write their raps and get the groove of it. Yubin was getting up to walk away when she noticed that Jaebum was still sitting down and looking at her. She turned a little bit to make eye contact but turned away when his eyes bore into hers. When she noticed Truedy and Kasper leaving the room, she decided to fast-walk out, making sure that she was nowhere near Jaebum's sight. Jaebum also got up and followed San E and Cha Cha to a different room where they would watch the girls write their raps and wait for them to finish.

w/ yubin

The first thing Yubin did when she arrived in the room with Truedy and Kasper was jump on the couch and sprawl her body in the most comfortable position she could get herself in. Kasper and Truedy sat on the opposite love chairs so she had the couch to herself. She decided to lay down for a little bit, taking advantage of the big space she was granted. Yubin almost dozed off until Kasper shook her shoulder.

"Are you tired unnie?" She asked.

Yubin got up and rubbed her eyes, careful not to mess up her makeup, and yawned.

"Yeah, sorry about that guys. I've been very busy and I've only been getting at most 2 hours of sleep a day." She explained.

Truedy furrowed her brows at this. "Unnie, don't mess up because you're tired, ok?"

The way she said this made Kasper and Yubin look at each other. Yubin's lip twitched upwards in annoyance.

"I definitely won't mess up, so let's get started." Yubin declares.

They each take a piece of paper and a pencil while listening to the beat, choosing who gets which part. After they assigned the parts and their raps were half-way written, Kasper breaks the silence in the room.

"Yubin unnie, I have a question." She starts.

Yubin looks up from her paper, dark circles still evident even through her makeup. She raises an eyebrow. 

"W