Chapter 1 - Restart

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“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!! OPPAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!”

“T.O.P-OPPA SARANGHAE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“YOUNGBAE-OPPA!!!!!! PLEASE SIGN THIS!!!!!!!!!”

“G-DRAGON OPPA!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU’RE SO HANDSOME!!!!!!!”

“SEUNGRI-OPPA!!!!!!!!!! KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!”

“DAESUNG-OPPA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

 

Screams of fans. Flashes of cameras. Bunch of letters and gifts. It was like they were gods; the fans seeming like they were paying tributes to the five handsome fellows exiting from the arrival gate at the airport. The five boys smiled to their fans while ordering their bodyguards to take the fans’ presents for them. The bodyguards did what they were told and afterwards, hurriedly guided the boys to their van. Even though they were all inside, the noise was still vague.

“OPPA!!!!!!! OPPA!!!!! OPPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!”

One of the boys with panda-like eyes smiles as he looks at the enormous crowd of fans outside their van.  “Even though we’re already famous, it’s still unbelievable to hear the screaming of fans…”

“Yeah. I almost forgot that I’m a celebrity when we went out the gate,” one of the boys with blonde hair scratched the back of his head. “Those sudden flashes of cameras was shocking!”

“How can you forget about that?!” one of the boys with a very deep voice laughed. “Isn’t all our very expensive accessories not enough for you to call yourself a celebrity?”

“I think, after being locked up for a few months, his brain failed to register him as a celebrity.” one of the boys with a thick mohawk hairstyle said while chuckling.

“Yah! Youngbae-hyung! T.O.P-hyung!”

The mohawk guy laughed. “Hahaha! I’m sorry, Daesung-ah.”

Meanwhile, the fifth boy with the weird ‘right hair is longer than left hair’ hairstyle (also known as ‘seaweed hairstyle’)  in the van has been twiddling with his phone all this time while the rest of his friends were talking to each other. He smiled when he received another reply.

The guy with the panda-like eyes noticed the guy’s sudden smile and sneaked up on him. “Hmm? Jiyong-hyung, what are you doing?”

“W-What the heck?!!” the guy was surprised with the sudden closeness of the other boy’s face to his phone.

“Are you chatting with her again?” the panda boy said this with a smirk on his face.

The guy known as ‘Jiyong’ pushed the panda boy’s face away from him. “It’s none of your business, maknae.”

The panda boy pouted. “Ehh~ you’re no fun, hyung.”

“Don’t worry, Seungri.” the guy with the deep voice turned his whole body to face him. He glanced a bit at Jiyong and then smirked. “I saw it… it’s true.”

“Ooooooooooohhhh~~~!” the four boys teased in unison while looking at him.

“YAH!” ‘Jiyong’ flipped his phone to the other side so his friends won’t be able to see anything. “Don’t you guys know the meaning of ‘PRIVACY’???”

“But Jiyong, you always look at our phones. Why shouldn’t we look at yours?” the mohawk guy stated matter-of-factly.

The panda boy known as ‘Seungri’ laughed out loud. “Ahahahaha!!! You got owned by us, hyung!!” he said and hi-fived the mohawk guy to which the latter received.

‘Jiyong’ was irritated by their team play but instead of getting angry at them, he just sighed.

 

Opening Song: Bad Boy by Mighty Mouth feat. Soya                                                                                                             

 

The black van that the five boys rode in finally stopped near a gray building that seemed to be the tallest out of all the buildings in the area. Just like what happened in the airport, a huge crowd of fans started screaming when the 5 boys stepped out of the vehicle. Bodyguards ran to the sides to control the crowd, providing a way for the boys to walk freely towards the entrance. Their managers urged them to walk faster before closing the door of the van and afterwards, immediately catching up with them to enter the gray building.

-----

At a meat shop…

“CHEERS!!!!!” all of them shouted in unison as they each raised their glasses for a toast.

Daesung gulped down the soju on his glass in one shot. “Phew~! That was good! Best I’ve ever had since last year!!”

“Don’t overdo it, Daesung. We’ve still got some schedules the day after tomorrow.” T.O.P told him before taking a shot of soju.

Today is Big Bang’s after-party. After having a concert in Japan, the members had decided to hold the after-party here in Korea instead of there in Japan as they said that they missed the food and atmosphere. And yes… they decided to go to a meat shop, rather than a club.

“I know we missed the food and all but… why here, hyung? Shouldn’t we be at the club or something?” the maknae, Seungri, pouted and looked at their leader. He was only heating the meat for his hyungs. He did not eat some of the side dishes to fill his stomach while waiting for the meat to be cooked nor did he drink his glass of soju even if he was already old enough to drink.

On the other hand, G-Dragon was eating and drinking to his stomach’s content. “Geez, Seungri. Just hurry up so we can all eat.”

“WHY THE HECK ARE YOU SO CALM, HYUNG?!!!” Seungri yelled with comical tears. “GIRLS!!! WE NEED GIRLS, HYUNG!!!! This is an after-party!! It’s not just some dinner!!”

“What do you mean by that?” G-Dragon took the cooked meat from the grill and put into the lettuce wrap that he prepared while Seungri was yelling at him. He then stuffed the lettuce wrap inside his mouth. “There are girls in here, Seungri. Look, the managers and stylists are here.” he pointed at the direction behind Seungri.

The maknae turned back to look at the girl staff members. He sulked shortly after taking a good look at all of them. “I’m so sorry but… you know they’re not the ones I meant, hyung.”

Daesung chugged down his glass, not leaving any drop. Then, he wrapped his arm around Seungri, who was just beside him. “Relax, little Seunghyun! It’ll probably be our last dinner before schedules pack up anyway, so just enjoy! Nevermind the ladies!!” he said..

The obviously drunk blonde boy began laughing out loud. It was embarrassing for the rest of the people in the restaurant but they paid him no mind since he got a point.

It was their last dinner as a celebrity.

-----

The next day…

The five boys of Big Bang were summoned by their company president, YG, to his room on the 7^th floor. YG was sitting in his comfy chair with his head rested on his palms while the five boys were in front of him, near the black sofa. The five of them were all talking at the same time. There seem to be some kind of argument between them and their president.

“No, sajangnim! I swear, I was just---“  <----- SR

“The whole thing was an accident, sajangnim. I didn’t---“ <---- YB

“I… couldn’t believe it happened again… I---“ <---- DS

“I’m so sorry, sajangnim.” <----- T.O.P

“Hyung, I…” <---- GD

The boys were trying to say their own reasons in unison that the noise they were making would even make all of YG’s toys in the nearby cabinets move and cover their ears. YG gestured all of them to keep quiet. Their voices faded away when they saw his hand move. He stood up and walked slowly in front of them with his hands behind his back. He moved back and forth, starting from G-Dragon (on the far left) until Seungri (on the far right).

The boys all gulped. They stared at their president as he quietly look at them with that unreadable expression.

“Boys…”

His voice sent a chill down the five boys’ spine. They all stood straight like how a soldier does when eating. Seungri was the most terrified of all, as he was still shaking a bit.

“You do all know that your actions are not favorable to your careers, am I right?” YG asked calmly, but it was very obvious to them that he wasn’t calm at all. “Do you all realize that if you did those things, you all will have to be temporarily suspended AGAIN from the industry?”

“But hyung, all of those things were accidental!” Jiyong bravely told YG. The others looked at him, silently cheering him on trying to calm YG down. “We’re just really sorry. It won’t----“

“’Happen again’…” YG cutted Jiyong’s sentence. “I get it, Jiyong.”

He then moved back to his table where he pulled out some files from his drawer. He piled them up and set them neatly in front of him.

“Hyung… are you going to…?” Jiyong tried to ask but he was cut off yet again.

“I’m going to let Big Bang on a hiatus… AGAIN.”

“WHAAAAT?!!!!” the five boys stood up in shock.

“Sajangnim! Let’s think this thru!” Taeyang suggested.

“Yeah!” Seungri seconded. “What about that commercial I planned out just for the five of us?!”

YG and the four boys all stopped what they’re doing and looked at the maknae with their eyebrows up high. G-Dragon’s jaw even went down. So the maknae had done something very useful. “You were serious about that?” he asked.

“Of course I was!” Seungri exclaimed. “Do you think I was only kidding?”

The Big Bang boys all looked at each other.  “Well…”

“Enough of that. It’s too late.” YG reached for a pen from the pencil holder near the telephone and began writing some stuff on the papers that he had just pulled from his drawer earlier. “Go back home and rethink things. If you’re all lucky, you can come up with a good reason for me to forgive your inappropriate behaviors.”

“But sajangnim…!” Seungri tried to step in and argue again but G-Dragon stopped him, shaking his head.

It was no use even if he didn’t stop him anyway. Seungri’s argument won’t change YG’s decision when it comes to these kinds of matters. They knew exactly what they did but, the only thing they could do right now is reflect. Seungri sighed heavily and looked down gloomily. He and the rest all walked towards the door with G-Dragon behind them.

G-Dragon was about to close the door when YG called him. “Oh, I almost forgot. Jiyong!”

He stopped immediately and entered the room. “Y-Yes, hyung?”

“Call Dongwook for me. Tell him that I need to have a word with him.” YG ordered, not looking up at him as he was busy flipping the papers.

He was disappointed at what he said and looked down gloomily like what Seungri did. “Okay, hyung.” He said and finally closed the door.

-----

After the five boys had their “most awful sermon session ever”, they all went towards the rooftop of the building. G-Dragon was standing near the fence, looking at the horizon, T.O.P and Taeyang were sitting nearby, doing nothing and Daesung and Seungri were both sitting on the ground, the latter sulking.

“We should do something about this.” Seungri said, breaking the thick silence.

That was very good… well, sarcastically speaking, that was so magnificent – it earned the poor maknae four pairs of glares with just that.

“You heard sajangnim. There’s no way we can just go back there and apologize.” Daesung remarked.

“Yeah. It’ll take more than a mere apology to get us back our schedules.” T.O.P added.

Seungri sighed deeply and went back to sulking. “I’m so sorry… it’s… it’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have gotten a scandal like that--”

“It’s fine, Seungri.” G-Dragon interrupted him. He turned his back to face his group mates. “It’s all OUR fault. All of us made a mistake.”

All of them bowed their heads in shame. Silence engulfed them for a few minutes before getting destroyed by Taeyang.

“So what do we do now? I don’t know about you guys but, I’m against having another hiatus.” Taeyang stated as he stood up from where he was sitting.

Daesung agreed, standing up as well. “I also don’t want to! I don’t like being kept in like that anymore!”

Seungri stood up for the sake of following his hyungs while T.O.P only looked at G-Dragon.

“Then…” G-Dragon kept his silence for a while before giving answer. He smiled. “Let’s go to the recording studio and make some songs.”

-----

“The recording room is closed?! Why?!” G-Dragon exclaimed.

As stated earlier, the five boys went inside the YG building into the recording studio to work on some songs – hoping their hardwork will become some form of payment to YG for their mistakes. However, it seems like they are unable to even get a paper to write lyrics on.

“Well, technically, it’s not ‘closed’ but… sajangnim told me to forbid you guys from entering here.” Teddy said, blocking the door to the recording studio. “Especially you, GD.”

“That’s just ridiculous!” T.O.P yelled.

Teddy shook his head. “I’m sorry, guys. Maybe you should just rest until your hiatus goes off--“

Before Teddy could even finish, G-Dragon walked off, followed by the others.

-----

It’s definitely unfair for the Big Bang boys. It’s unfair because not only were they forbidden in the recording studio, there were even forbidden to practice anything regarding their activities – to the point that they’re not allowed to even mum about it. It’s also really unfair that they’re in a hiatus and they can’t even try and improve their craft to impress their company president… well, since they got a lot of time in their hands, they figured practicing was much better than reflecting.

G-Dragon decided to talk to YG again about this unfair setup so he went to his room on the 7^th floor. The others were on the rooftop, waiting for him to come back.

“Hyun Suk-hyung, I know everything we did was totally wrong--”

“Yes, it really was.” YG said straightly.

“--but you shouldn’t restrain us from doing our craft! We’re not allowed in the recording studio or on the dance studio or pretty much this whole building except your office!” G-Dragon’s tone seem like he was already beginning to get angry.

YG looked up at G-Dragon. He rested his chin on the back of his hand and told him, “Jiyong, tell me the truth… Are you satisfied with your performances?”

G-Dragon was taken aback by his question. “Um… I need a little improvements on some parts, I admit, but… yeah.”

“Then, are the OTHERS satisfied with THEIR performances?” YG interrogated.

G-Dragon was still confused but he answered anyway, “There are some things they have to change but, since everything is going well, then yeah. I guess so.”

“Jiyong, you’re the leader. You should’ve noticed something.”

G-Dragon can’t see where his president is getting at. “What are you trying to say, hyung?”

YG sighed heavily and stood up. He walked towards his big window and gazed at the city. “To tell you the truth Jiyong, I’m not quite settled with this.”

G-Dragon cocked his eyebrow in confusion. “With what, hyung?”

“I saw your performances at the last concert.” YG straightly pointed out. “You were there, singing and dancing perfectly with little mistakes… T.O.P was rapping perfectly…” he paused and walked behind G-Dragon, near to where the cabinet full of toys were. “…Youngbae was ‘hyper-dancing’ as usual with his ‘take-off-shirt’ stint… Daesung’s singing was impressive… and Seungri…” he paused again and touched his forehead. He sighed, “…he’s perfect as he is but… all of you… all of you need to take another break.”

G-Dragon was speechless. His eyebrows skyrocketed to the highest level with each of their names being called and graded. What’s more speechless was his ‘second father’ getting really talkative all of a sudden.

“Jiyong… Big Bang’s homework… is to get an inspiration.” YG declared, waking G-Dragon from his surprised state.

“What?! Are you serious, hyung?!” G-Dragon baffled. “At this point of our career? ‘Inspiration’?!”

“Oh don’t worry, son. It’s just an advice.” YG went back to his seat by the desk. “If you don’t want, then you can just go back and be restrained from practicing until this hiatus is lifted.”

“Well… we can’t do that!” G-Dragon shouted, standing up from his seat. “We love what we’re doing! We don’t need inspirations!”

“Says the one who composed almost all of Big Bang’s songs due to ‘some inspiration’.” YG stated. G-Dragon was taken aback yet again. “Look Jiyong, this is for yours and the others’ sake. An inspiration will definitely get you somewhere farther.”

“But why now?! Why now when all of us are already doing pretty well?!”

Instead of YG, another person answered G-Dragon. “Because this is a very important stage when it comes to music, Jiyong,” that person said, opening the door to enter the room.

G-Dragon turned back and was surprised to see a familiar face. “Dongwook-hyung?!”

Dongwook, or as he’s known in the celebrity world as ‘Se7en’, smiled and sat in the sofa beside G-Dragon.

“Geez, Dongwook-ah… you stole my lines.” YG sweatdropped. “That was such a very epic statement and you stole it from me.”

Se7en laughed heartily. “Hahaha! I’m sorry, sajangnim.”

“Dongwook-hyung… what are you doing here?” G-Dragon asked, getting everyone back to the original topic.

Se7en gestured G-Dragon to sit down, which the latter complied but still with a confused expression. The former put his arms around G-Dragon and exhaled. “You see GD, musicians like us need a very good inspiration.”

“I get that but--!”

Se7en shushed him with his index finger. “Let me finish, dongsaeng.” G-Dragon got more confused. “Sajangnim and I monitored all your performances in the recent concerts. It was… disappointing, to be honest.”

“What?! But we’ve---“

“You’ve been practicing hard, I know. But do you know that there were a lot of very important people that attended your concerts and noticed that you guys weren’t so… I don’t know… emotionally active?”

“What are you talking about, hyung?!” G-Dragon baffled and removed Se7en’s arm from his shoulder and adjusted himself to the side.

“Look… those very important people’s perspective cannot be ignored, Ji.”

“So what do you want us to do during the hiatus? Fall in love?!”

Se7en got taken aback by that. He looked at YG and he had the same expression too. He contemplated on G-Dragon’s statement and nodded in agreement. “Well… that may actually work…”

“This is getting ridiculous.”

G-Dragon stood up and was prepared to exit the room when YG said something again. “Even if I’m your president, I can’t do anything about their decisions, Jiyong! You do something or not, you’re still gonna get the hiatus!”

He stopped in his tracks. He turned his head sideways, only looking back at YG and Se7en with his peripheral vision. He sighed, then he exited the room.

-----

G-Dragon went up to the rooftop to talk to his group mates. He told them what their most trusted president and their senior had revealed to him, about the ‘very important people’ that somehow “controlled” their president into getting them in a hiatus and the most ridiculous (in G-Dragon’s words) topic about getting them to fall in love as an inspiration. All of them have mixed reactions. Daesung was bewildered by the sheer ridiculousness, Seungri was trying to understand everything by nodding his head a couple of times, T.O.P didn’t say much and Taeyang seem have to shrugged everything off as if he didn’t hear a thing.

“I’m sorry but, falling in love at a time like this is just stupid.” Taeyang commented.

“I’ve already tried that line but… hyung didn’t listen.” G-Dragon said, looking pissed remembering that scene.

“Who the heck are those ‘very important people’ that they were talking about?” Daesung asked. “And why would sajangnim be afraid of those people?”

G-Dragon shook his head. “I don’t know.”

All of them drowned in silence afterwards.

-----

Meanwhile, back at YG’s room…

“Dammnit!!” YG cursed, slamming his hand on the table. “It’s all because of that stupid old man!! That idiot never fails to make me angry!!”

Se7en was surprised by the sudden outburst but remained his composure a few seconds after. “Relax, sajangnim. If you let him get to you like this, you’ll just lose.”

“I---“ YG was supposed to reply back but was cut off by the telephone ringing. He looked at Se7en and the latter just shrugged his shoulders. YG sighed deeply before answering the phone. “Yes?”

“You’ve done it,  right, dongsaeng?” the person on the other phone asked.

YG sighed deeply again. “Yes, I did. I’m sure you’re jumping in joy right now.”

“Wow, how’d you know that?”

“Just get straight to the point. How long am I going to keep my boys from destroying you?”

The person on the other line laughed. “Ahahahahahaha! Very funny as always, dongsaeng. Just keep them in your watch for two months--"

“TWO MONTHS?!” YG shouted, shocking Se7en again. Se7en certainly didn’t miss seeing his president’s annoyed face.

“--and you’ll be able to let them promote again. That’s very fast for a hiatus, you know.”

“But two months… are you kidding me… I won’t be able to promote ANYONE in two months!!” YG shouted, getting more and more angry by the second.

“That, I’m afraid, is your own problem. You’re not one of the richest Korean CEOs out there if you didn’t have any backup strategies, right?”

‘Godammnit…’ YG thought to himself, gritting his teeth in annoyance.

“Cheer up. Two months will be over before you know it.”

YG hung up and slammed the phone. He threw himself to his chair which swirled around and made him face the back. He massaged his temples while thinking about what he’d have to do next.

 

Preview for next episode:

Seungri: How are you girls doing? My name is Lee Seunghyun. Call me, Seungri-oppa, neh~~? *winks* Okay~ what'll happen in the next episode is a secret but you'll definitely enjoy it because you're gonna see me again~ Ahahaha!! Look forward to it, okay? Araseo? Okay. Next episode's title is: Solution.