Chapter 37:

Dara's day went by very slowly. Ever since the announcement of 2NE1’s disbandment and Park Bom not renewing her contract with YG Entertainment, Dara have been working nonstop, taking in as many variety shows and modelling contracts as possible, hoping that these could distract her from thinking about 2NE1.

However, it was not working.

Feeling drained by the day's activities, Dara entered one of the training rooms and sat at a corner. She couldn't help but look around with a sadness that aded her soul. The training room, which had once been the occupied by the 2NE1 members for their performance practices, showcase tests during their trainee days, was nothing but a memory to her now.

The thought of the transition from a Philippines celebrity to a member of 2NE1 brought back a flood of painful memories that she had pushed to the back of her mind and Dara took a shuttering breath.

Memories of how her father gambled her hard earned money away, leaving her family in financial ruin and the despicable act of her father by abandoning her and her family for another woman.

Despite her mother trying to stay strong, Dara could see the sadness and despair that entered her mother’s eyes whenever she wasn't busy doing something. There were times where Dara saw her mother cry when she thought no one was watching and hear the small half-muffled sobs from the room.

Dara was at her wits end back then. In the hope of reviving her lackluster career in the Philippines, she decided to shed her sweet image and posed y for a men’s magazine,

She needed to the money to clear the debts her father created.

Her popularity in the Philippines was declining. Her contract with a TV station wasn’t renewed and there were no offers for her to do movies.

Her siblings were too young to take on the financial burden.

Most importantly, she wanted to see her mother happy.

Although it was a hot topic when the magazine came out, it wasn’t enough to ignite her career in the Philippines.

Instead, it left her cheap and dirty. The public looked down on her, some calling her an adult video star.

2NE1 was a turning point for her. A point of light, hope and miracle.

She managed to clear the debts her father created.

Through 2NE1, not only she managed to gain popularity in the Philippines, she is very much well known around the globe.

Most importantly, her mother is happy and finally starting a new life in Korea.

Dara lowered her gaze and noticed a marking on the floor. She placed her fingers over it, feeling the familiar mark she created by accident during one of 2NE1 dance practices.

The thought of 2NE1 made Dara smiled sadly at the memory of 2NE1 from slaying the music charts and many happy moments when they were together to the toughest moments they experienced together.

Suddenly, Dara felt her eyes tear up.

“Don't cry”, her brain yells at her tear ducts, crying is a sign of weakness.

“Don’t cry!"

She tried desperately to blink them back, but it was no use. Tears keep running down her face.

Unable to control her emotions anymore, Dara then covered with her shaky hand and cried her heart out in the dark training room. It was all she could do to hold back her loudest sobs so as not to create any unnecessary attention and worry.

Ever since the announcement of 2NE1’s disbandment and Park Bom not renewing her contract with YG Entertainment, Seungri spent an inordinate amount of time going from one meeting to another.

He loathed going to these management meetings. He could see the undisguised thirst of power in their eyes. With these people manipulations so controlling and damaging, it was unsurprising that YG entertainment had begun to fail. The company have been making a drastic decline in net profits which inevitably had a negative impact on the company's stock price.

Because of this, it causes the company to focus more on short-term results rather than long-term growth just to attract more investors.

Unfortunately, 2NE1 and Park Bom have been sacrificed in this entertainment business world to ease the investors’ uncertainty in the company.

Finally sitting alone at his desk in his empty office, Seungri exhaled silently. Reports on the financial situation of the company, reports on the full earnings and ranking of top 10 entertainment agencies and countless hate letters from 2NE1 fans laid everywhere on his desk.  

Seungri reached for the reports on the full earnings and ranking of top 10 entertainment agencies unthinkingly,

SM entertainment remained number one as usual. YG and JYP Entertainment still remained number two and three respectively in ranking despite both companies suffering a loss in profits lately.

What caught Seungri’s attention was the ranking of CUBE Entertainment. He had learnt that ex-beast leader, Doo Joon, have been managing the company and the very fact that someone around his age managed to run the company so well that CUBE Entertainment is now one of the big four companies in the Korean entertainment industry is both impressive…..and scary at the same time.

The very thought of a possible shift in the top three rankings of entertainment agencies which have been stably maintained for decades made his stomach churned.

His eyes flicked to the end of the report, noticing that smaller Korean Entertainment companies are starting to get acquired by bigger media companies such as CJ E&M and KaKao, signalling that there will be a growing trend of  change coming to the Korean Entertainment world. 

Seungri choked back the bitter laughter that wanted to rise out of his throat.

He have been desperately trying to understand why President YG has been extensively exploring to extend his business in the fashion and beauty industry and focusing on growing its actor management recently.

Finally, he understood. Times have changed.

YG Entertainment could no longer focus on music alone. In order to be competitive, YG Entertainment need to shift away from basing their entire business model solely on music into more stable income sources through new businesses.

Seungri carefully put the report down and reluctantly picked up one of the 2NE1 hate letters without reading it. The sight of these letters reminded him of the look on the 2NE1’s faces when the final decision on 2NE1’s disbandment was made.

It was stupid for Seungri to think it was entirely his fault.

Well, not entirely.

Not entirely? You could have changed some of it, Seungri. If you could have been more political savvy, 2NE1 or Park Bom might be saved.

He wanted to scream, to beat his fists and rage against the world.

Why is he so weak?

Why?

Tears of anger and frustration leaked from his eyes, but he wiped them off angrily. He have to be strong, any sign of weakness on his part would leave him scrambling to keep up with the political struggle in the company.

With that firm determination in mind, Seungri threw all the hate letters in the bin before he leaves his office.

He had a more pressing concerns that had to be done.

With 2NE1 gone and the lack of trainees performing up to President YG’s expectations, the music department have to survive with the help on the senior singers such as Psy and Jinusean.

Sources:

http://www.kpopstarz.com/articles/266270/20160113/kpop-business.htm

https://www.soompi.com/2016/04/19/how-scandals-affect-stock-prices-of-entertainment-companies/

Dara's life before 2NE1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUXrX8iWEPY

** I seriously dislike the text editor in this website. Its so difficult to standardize my fronts!!**