chapter 13 : blackpink in the area

"Wow, the food here is really good!" she exclaimed as she shoved more food down . The girl with raven hair in front of her just laughed, "Yah slow down! No one's going to take your food away." 

"So do you guys like ever see...the YG artists?" she sounded hopeful. "Sometimes, if we're lucky. But of course only the ones who have been here the longest could talk to them. People like...Jang Hanna, or maybe One? You know because they trained together. We're the commoners and they're the royalties. That's basically how things work here."

The girl nodded in understanding. She could fully figure out where this came from because all of the previous companies she had trained in were like that. "But I heard that Jennie and B.I. are dating. Is that true?" she popped the question to which the sunbae trainee gasped. "How did you hear that rumour? I'm pretty sure it's just amongst us trainees. A newbie like you shouldn't know things like that yet."

"Oh please, it's all over the fansites. Ever since Blackpink debuted, most fans were busy playing matchmaker for iKon and Blackpink because they're about the same age," she shrugged.

Hayi stopped in her tracks. She hid behind the wall separating her from the trainees as she pulled her hoodie over her head. 

"Well, that's what we think too but Hanna sunbae won't tell us a thing. What a show-off, really. Just because she knew them and the fans know her, she thinks she's all that great," she rolled her eyes. "Jennie and B.I. seems legit close. Maybe it's because they're both the same age, and they both rap, and they both have amazing leadership skills. Jennie's really the female version of him. They're like the perfect match."

Hayi gritted her teeth as the last sentence rang in her mind again and again. She had never thought of Jennie as the female version of B.I. but when that trainee put it in that way, it was somewhat true. Those two had more similarities than she thought. Maybe it was because of the fact that they would always fight the moment they see each other that Hayi couldn't somewhat see it. She sighed heavily as she turned around to go back to the practice room because her appettite suddenly disappeared.

Chanwoo scrolled down his phone, not caring a word of what Junhoe said. The latter, baffled and angered, marched towards Chanwoo with his two hands on his hip. "YAH JUNG CHANWOO! I'm talking to you!"

Chanwoo moved his gaze towards Junhoe before resuming whatever business he was doing on his phone. "WAH! THIS KID HAS REALLY GROWN, HUH? WHERE DID THE INNOCENT CHANWOO GO?" Jinhwan shook his head at Junhoe being Junhoe. He was about to refute when Donghyuk already intercepted, "Thought you figured out by now that Devil Chanwoo is not just some nickname given by our fans for fun."

"Forget this! I am never talking to you again, Jung Chanwoo!" Junhoe scoffed as he walked away to grab his water bottle. 

"JENNIE NOONA AND HANBIN HYUNG ARE DATING?!?" Chanwoo automatically stood up as his eyes bulged at the caption of the fan cafe post. The rest gaped at the unbelievable news. Junhoe immediately rushed for Chanwoo's phone, "What?! What the hell are you talking about?" But before he could grab the phone, Chanwoo had already swiftly moved the phone out of the latter's reach. "I thought you don't want to talk to me," he smirked as Junhoe sighed heavily multiple times, trying to calm down his already boiling nerves. 

"What's up?!" Hanbin pushed the door open as he and Bobby walked in with happy moods. The rest of the gang just looked at Hanbin who was feeling weirded out by the attention. "What's up with you and Jennie?" Yunhyeong just threw it out there since he knew everyone was curious of that. 

"What's with me and Jennie?" he asked back because literally, he had no idea what was going on. "Somewhere on the site is saying that you're dating her," Jinhwan explained as Bobby bursted out laughing. "Oh come on, am I the only one who found this funny? These two are like cats and dogs! If they don't yell at each other, they're probably busy blackmailing each other in the future."

"My bad. It's not anything legit. Apparently the fans paired us with the Blackpink noonas. Must be the whole shipping thing, I guess," everyone breathed out a sigh of relief as Bobby casually asked. "Oh yeah? Who are you paired up with?"

"No one. Well since there are only four of them, so I guess some of us got lucky not to be linked with the noonas," Chanwoo shrugged. It wasn't like he hated them, but he found that they could be scary at times. Maybe not Rose or Lisa, but most definitely Jisoo and Jennie. Even a devil like him would never dare to mess with the noonas. "There's a lot of BobbyxJisoo ship going on here."

That earned a lot of snickers and teases. "Wait, what? What about me?" Yunhyeong walked towards Chanwoo, not believing his ears. "What about you, hyung? It's obvious that the two are better off together," Chanwoo spontaneously commented as he showed Yunhyeong the proof of the posts roaming around the internet. "Unfair! If this is on the basis of same-aged friends, then it should have been me and Jisoo! I mean we obviously make better visual than Kim Bap over there."

Bobby stammered, "Y-yah! You think I want to be paired up with her? You can take her anyday, bro." 

"Look at this, there's Junhoe and Lisa, Donghyuk and Rose, but why not me? Jinhwan hyung, aren't you mad you're not included?" Yunhyeong asked because in his mind, ships equal popularity. He could handle any scandal over no scandal at all. It felt like his importance was being forgotten slowly.

"Count me out. Like Chanwoo said, we're the lucky ones. If Suhyun finds out, I'd be dead meat. Mark my words, seriously," he muttered.

"Totally. Hayi should never hear about this. Understand, Chanwoo?" Hanbin warned.

"Never hear about what?" Hayi blinked innocently. "The door was open," she showed behind her as the others seemed shocked as if they were seeing a ghost.

"Uh,,,,," was all she got as a response from almost all them. "Chanwoo," she narrowed her eyes at the younger who was frozen in his spot. "Hanbin hyung and Jennie noona are dating!" he blurted. Hanbin's eyes widened as he gave Chanwoo a warning look. He precisely told not to tell and now he just made everything worse. 

"What he meant to say is they're in some stupid rumour put up by fans who wished Hanbin here would end his solo life," Jinwhan quickly cleared the whole situation. "Of course, they didn't know he has you."

"Yeah, it's nothing Hayi-yah. Just some stupid rumour," Bobby patted the latter who was now frozen in her spot. Her face showed no expression and that scared Hanbin even more. He would rather have her kick Chanwoo in the leg or laugh at the absurd news but no, there was nothing. Instead, she her heels and walked out of the room, leaving everyone in silence.

Jennie carefully applied another coating of black nail polish to her nail as Hayi scrolled through her phone. It had not even been a few days after she heard about the rumour from Chanwoo but now it was getting bigger and bigger. Not number-one-most-searched kind of big, but still, it was a rumour of two idols from the same company. She could not help but to come across something about the rumour. And it was driving her nuts.

"Yah, you okay?" Jennie asked. She was done with her manicure session and was letting for the nail polish to dry.

"Yeah, why you'd ask that?" Hayi brushed off her question like it was nothing but the same-aged friend knew her better than that.

"Sure and Kim Hanbin is not a jealous brat," Jennie quipped to refute Hayi. The latter then narrowed her eyes but then she just went back to scrolling her phone.

Jennie was not giving up. She knew that Hayi had something going on and it couldn't be Hanbin because she didn't hear anything like that from Soohyun. It was Hayi that invited her to have a girl-to-girl manicure session, claiming that Jennie was too busy nowadays that they couldn't even see each other. But then all Hayi did was stare at her phone like she was going to lit it on fire.

So, the last resort Jennie went for was to snatch the phone away from Hayi. 

"YAH!"

Jennie stood up and tried to block Hayi away as she scrolled down whatever was on Hayi's phone. "Lee Hayi!" she gasped. "Don't tell me you're actually..."

"Ah what? I'm what?" Hayi furrowed her eyebrows.

"You're jealous? Of this stupid rumour? Rumour of Hanbin and...me?" Jennie was still in shock. Her eyes were widened as she saw her friend slumped back onto her bed. "Ha ha, make fun of me, go ahead," Hayi knew it was too late to deny anything.

"What? My pleasure. So should I start from the part where you get jealous or should I start from the part where you get jealous?"

Hayi grabbed a pillow and threw it at the latter. The two of them bursted out laughing, realizing how ridiculous the scene was. 

"Ah I don't even know why I give a damn. I mean it's not like Dispatch released it or something. I bet not even President Yang knows about this. That's how unknown this rumour is," Hayi confessed.

"Ouch, okay I know it's not that known, but no need to go for details," Jennie muttered. "And secondly, to defend my case, this happens to everybody. I mean I legit thought there was something going on between Dara unnie and Jiyong oppa before I joined the company. And there might have been but I don't know that, so why bother," she shrugged. "My point is, Hanbin is going to get linked up with so many other people than me in the future but I guess that's the risk you guys took. You are idols dating in secret."

"I hate it when you're right," Hayi grinned.

"I know, I hate it too. It's so not me to be honest," Jennie agreed and the two girls laughed again.

"So I guess I'm forgiven?" he sheepishly grinned as he handed her a canned coffee. "You didn't do anything wrong," she blurted to which he giddily agreed. "Right? It was Chanwoo's fault. Aish, I told him not to go on the cafe so much. He just likes it when he knows what the fans know. But don't worry, I, as the leader, have scolded him enough and he has learnt his lesson. But if you feel dissatisfied, you have my permission to teach him more lesson because that kid certainly could use some more."

Hayi laughed at how ridiculous her boyfriend was being. But then she just leaned against his shoulder, sending a jolt of shock down Kim Hanbin's spine. It was like there was a shock of electricity transmitted from Hayi. His eyes widened but then just a glance at her made him smile. 

"Hanbin-ah, let's promise that we'll be there for each other always," she spoke up. "Huh? Why the sudden?" he was curious.

"Just because. Even if we break up or fight like crazy because of something, let's promise that we'll be there for each other when the other needs somebody on their side."
"You're scaring me, Lee Hayi," he looked at her, worried.

She lifted her head away from his shoulder to meet his eyes. "You know I just realize how scary one rumour could be. Even if I know the truth, even if I know I can trust you and Jennie, I still can't help from feeling insecure. Like even if I did move on from this rumour, there's going to be a hundred more in the future. And we might fight, and we might split up, but I don't want to not have you by my side." Hayi chuckled, "Or am I just too greedy to not want to let you go?"

Hanbin put his arm around her and pulled her close. "I promise that whatever happens, I will always be on Lee Hayi's side, period." Hayi chuckled again because those words actually make her feel relieved. "And Hayi, I won't let you go, no matter what."

He held her hand and kissed it lightly. She closed her eyes and leaned back against his shoulder as she indulged into the serenity and comfort that surrounded the air. God, what did I do to deserve someone like Kim Hanbin?

a/n: I thought blackpink has to come in somewhere lol xD winner's comeback was legit good! really really! haha anyways, an update for you guys before ikon's comeback. i'm hyped for the comeback, who isn't?!