The YG cafeteria was known for its food. Everyone who hadn’t ever eaten there wanted to eat there, even after short meetings. Over the years they had lowered the contents of salt for health reasons yet the flavor remained memorable.

Between training and meetings every single person who worked in YG ate there. They had their set areas.

“I hear the director really wants to work with Sandara, but Jiyong wanted to work with him first.” One of the stylists opened the lid of her drink, speaking in an animated manner.

“Oh yes, is that why he was able to convince the director to change the concept for the shoot?” The same new staff member leaned into the conversation.

“That and I hear he had a crush on the actress-model that he was shooting with and they did away with her.” Another one of the new make up artists giggled at her own antics. “Can’t have her creating problems.”

“Shhhhh! Hana, this is how rumors get started.” Pony, a seasoned make up artist at the company, gently slapped the younger’s arm.

“Omo, does sunbae have a crush though?”

“Of course not! He’s happily married to a gorgeous kind hearted woman. If a man cheats on that kind of woman, he is heartless.” Pony replied firmly.

“Just look at this though, I took so many pictures of her..and of them.” Hana showed him his phone and scrolled down. “This one of them laughing at something, them talking about the director’s instructions, one of her blowing us a kiss! His eyes look so intense, and she just seems so into it.”

“Woah, can I have some of those? She is just so pretty.” He gazed at the pictures in awe.

Pony hit the back of their heads simultaneously. She disapproved of gossip in the workplace, even if it was all playful banter. Things always got started that way.

“Kids, quit it out.”

They giggled at her as they huddled close together.

“Hey, what was your name again?” Hana exchanged phones with him so they could send each other pictures from the shoot.

“Oh! I’m Dongwook. Yes, like the singer and the actor.” He answered before she could ask.

“It’s nice to meet you and have you on the team, Dongwook.” She bowed her head.

“The pleasure is all mine.”

--------------------------------------------

Idol life is difficult, especially when started young. Those who decide to enter into it have to realize that they no longer have privacy, freedom, or room for mistakes. Everything they do is scrutinized down to the last detail and the smallest slip up could send them spiraling down. The simplest of things became hard to accomplish, especially when it came to socializing amongst people with a shared interest in the spotlight.

Dating and relationships are the most difficult.

Jiyong and Sandara understood that the best, and they were probably some of the few people that understood just how hateful people could get towards a couple of two popular artists. They dated in secret for a long time, broke up, and eventually were drawn to each other yet again. Scandals made it worse. It pushed them further apart when they were away and made them grow afraid. Ultimately, the scandals were the thing that made Sandara decide that she wanted to become public about them and Jiyong realize how much he wanted to fight for her to be his forever.

Ever since they announced their engagements, the scandals had mostly died down. There were occasional things here and there about people suspecting a fight, but they never paid attention. The whole situation had become stable enough to the point that they could live comfortably with the media at their side.

One fear remained though. Sandara loved, respected, and trusted Jiyong, but she didn’t know what she would do if any old (or new) scandals were to surface. She was jealous and she knew she was the type of woman to claim what was hers. His old “playboy” title had died but it was still a relevant part of their history. He had never actually slept around but he had played with women’s feelings many times over. The scandals had never failed to hurt her and produced a wound that was never one hundred percent healed. She herself was in a few as a retaliation, but she knew doing it hurt her more.

Over the years her fear had died down to a lull and even though it returned with the sudden hormonal imbalance brought upon by her pregnancy, she remained faithful and trusting. He was her treasure and her heart belonged to him.

With that in place the couple knew they would need that strength to hold them together as they tackled parenthood. It wasn't just them anymore and they were discovering their parenting styles. The pregnancy has its few rough spots just like any other couple experiences. Now with their first few trials, one of the bigger ones stated right at them: the two month mark vaccinations.

Your parents never tell you how difficult t is to deal with a fussy baby. They joke about it, but it's like they choose not to remember. They never tell you how to deal with a fussy baby that doesn't want to eat and has a slight fever either. Jiyong’s parents always made it seem like it was a breeze to have a kid and that it was easy to take care of them. And no one had told them it was EXTREMELY hard to deal with a hungry, feverish, fussy baby on almost no sleep. Sandara was about to have a complete meltdown.

“Jiyong, she won't stop squirming,” She gently bounced Youngmi in her arms and blew cool air on her forehead. “S-shhhh please baby girl. Mommy is tired.”

Jiyong looked up from his notebook and quickly set it down. “I changed her just earlier. She’s in fresh cool clothes, a new diaper…” He scooted over.

“I just tried to feed her and she’ll start and stop, and it’s hurting me too much, I just had to pull her away.” Sandara whined softly and kept trying to rock the baby in her arms. “I tried singing to her, doing silly dances, rubbing her legs gently….nothing is working.”

He took the folder that was lying on his bedside table and started to look through the sheets to see what else they could try. Youngmi kept squirming and whining in Sandara’s arms.

“Lets try and give her a lukewarm bath. How is her fever?” He stood and took the baby to set her on the bed.

“I’ll go get the water set to the right temperature. Bring her over, okay?” She fixed her hair and pinched her nose lightly. “I won’t take long.”

He watched her leave, hoping she was all right. Earlier he got a notification he needed to finish one of iKon’s songs and he had to brainstorm a line to fix up. Youngmi had been fine as he started and he told Dara to let him know if she needed help. He didn’t realize that she would be stubborn and try to solve it on her own.

He walked over with Youngmi securely in a blanket, crying by then. “Here we go, I can give her a bat