“Mino! Don’t lean yourself on CL’s noona face!” Taehyun rushed to his band mate to save 2NE1’s picture from being ‘profaned’.

“Oops! Sorry noona! My bad!” The boy bowed and apologized to 2NE1’s poster, which was fixed on the wall in a light box, along with the many similar others belonging to each of the YG artists.  “I am such a pabo, I have four walls around here and I choose to lean on the only one entirely filled with posters.”

“Not to mention you picked the best place of them all: exactly on these gorgeous ladies” Seungyoon, the leader, noticed while dusting off the poster like Mino’s back was the filthiest thing on earth.

“Aigoo, I still can’t believe that we have our faces right next to all these legends.” Jinwoo started to walk down the hall, pointing at each of the posters. “Jinusean, Se7en, BIGBANG, 2NE1, PSY, Epik High, Lee Hi, AKMU and of course, look at this! Right here, it writes very clearly: Winner!”

“This is really not one of our best pictures. Mino’s face looks weird.”

“YAAH! Seunhoon-ah! Do you want to get yourself a bruise with that kind of remark?! My face is absolutely perfect. No wonder why we have so many loving fans.” Mino almost flipped his non-existent fabulous hair.

“Hahahaha!” Seunghoon burst into laughter. “Yeah, keep telling yourself that! The reason we have fans should be our music. And if we are talking about good looks, don’t forget that we have our baby-faced Jinwoo right here! Ha ha!”

“And if this wasn’t enough, guess whose poster is going to be hanging right next to ours? IKON’s! Those boys invented the concept of ‘perfect face’. So, we are really sorry Mino, but if someone passes this hallway, your figure won’t be too noticeable.” Taehyun continued Seunghoon’s point.

“HAHA. So funny. I’m still going to get more chicks than you guys, so you are the real losers.”

‘The losers’ had a great time making fun of Mino and laughing their heads off. However, he wasn’t really bothered by his friends’ mockery, as his overflowing confidence and huge ego were big enough to block his hearing when needed. All the laughter was interrupted only when Seungri passed near them and stopped by to say hello.

“Hello there guys! How is it going? You are in a good mood, I see.”

Everybody bowed and saluted as well:

“Anyohaseyo seonbae!  We were just waiting to meet with our manager and while doing that we admired these nice posters.” The leader of Winner explained, leaving out the irrelevant details.

“Aaah, nee, these are really cool. I still remember when we debuted and I was so happy to know that people passed by my handsome picture every day. And now it’s your turn!”

“Nee, seonbae . . .”

“It was so hard back then you know?! We were performing everywhere and our program was hectic. Only after many years of hard work we started to have results. Nowadays is so crazy, you debuted only 6 months ago and you already are extremely famous! You even won on a music show on your very first promotions!”

“Oh, but we did worked hard for it! And we are really thankful to have so many extraordinary fans! And of course our great company which let us . . . “Although it was obvious Seungyoon didn’t finished his sentence, Seungri decided to continue his idea, which was clearly more important.

“But there is plenty more space for improvement! You always need to work and rehearse some more. Only then you will be able to be as good and famous as me, I mean, BIGBANG. I saw your performance for SBS Gayodaejun last week. It was good, but you needed more . . . uhm . . . contact with the camera, you know what I’m saying? You need to act like the camera loves you, like it can’t get enough of you, like you are the most wonderful thing on earth, like it’s about to . . .” While Seungri was blabbering on and on, Winner boys were starting to get a little bit uncomfortable, sensing that their hyung’s lecture was nowhere near ending. Just in time, before anyone could have a mental breakdown, they started to see light at the end of the tunnel. Right behind Seungri, at the other end of the hallway, they got a glimpse of Chaerin noona herself, who seemed to be wandering around looking for somebody. She noticed the small gathering and quickly approached them, waving and saluting everyone:

“Anyong boys! Hello Seungri! I was searching for you everywhere!”

Seungyoon, Taehyun, Jinwoo, Seunghoon and Mino bowed politely to CL, whereas Seungri had no reaction whatsoever. He just went on with his speech:

“It is very important to have a strong relationship with the public, even with the audience watching from home. You should look at the camera as if you are in love with it, this will make you . . .”

The boys were giving Chaerin awkward looks and even making alarmed gestures, pleading her to help them make Seungri stop. Their noona quickly understood the situation and came to the rescue:

“Uhm, Seungri . . . I said hi!”

“Visual contact it’s not easy, not everybody can do it the proper way. What you need to do is make sure you are on camera as long as you can. Always continue to . . .”

“Seungri? . . . I know you can hear me. You are just 3 feet away, for God’s sake! You can’t even say hi?”

Without even looking at her, he slightly nodded with a superior gesture that was barely noticeable, and continued explaining to the boys his complex technique:

“As I was saying, keep your position where they can film you. It doesn’t matter if you are in the background, even during others’ member parts, just lean yourselves behind them and look charmingly at the camera . . .”

Chaerin gasped, always surprised by Seungri’s infinite source of insolence. She excused herself to the boys for taking her so long to resolve the matter, as she was starting to get annoyed as well:

“Seungri you are starting to get on everybody’s nerves ESSPECIALLY MINE. We understood the idea, you can stop now. I need to talk something with you so could you stop ignoring me and come  . . .”

“This is the most important thing! If you stay a long time on camera, people will only then start to recognize your face! This is the most efficient method to make yourselves famous in short time and I can guarantee is also going to make you . . . AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUCH”

CL had already heard enough so she had to resort to more drastic solutions. Without any hesitation, she started pulling Seungri by his ear, dragging him away from the boys, who were shocked, yet amused by this scene.

“AUUU, AUUUCH, AUU, AUCH  . . . “

“Bye, bye guys! I am sorry for your hyung, but he sometimes has no idea when he is supposed to stop. Excuse us but I have some business with him. Keep up the great work!”

“YAAAAAA, AUUUCH . . . YOU ARE WALKING TO FAST I CAN’T KEEP UP!  . . .  AUUUCH IT HURTS I AM A MUSICIAN I NEED MY EAR TO MAKE A LIVINNGG . . . AUUUUUCH . . .”

The screams slowly faded away as CL and Seungri faded away in the distance, leaving Winner dumbfounded, alone in the hallway, as they were initially, before they had the pleasure to meet with these two.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­__________________________________________________

“You know, when I chose this job, I thought it would be so much more fun than this.” Taeyang racked a hand through his blonde Mohawk in frustration and complained to his friends.

Daesung was short to reply:

“Actually, this career kind of chose you before you had any idea, you poor and talented good-looking singer and songwriter that you are. But anyway, what is the matter my fellow friend?”

“Uhg, nothing . . .  just trying to wrap up a song that I’ve been working on from a long time. Every time I think I finished and I like the final result, I listen again later and end up changing the beat, or the register or even the entire thing, all over again. And it all seemed so easy at first, when in fact even just a little detail can cause a hell of a headache. And I am always so busy that I don’t have all the time I’d like to spend working and composing. Add my personal life to this equation and you’ll get a perfect chaos.”

“I know so well what you are talking about.” Daesung tried to console him. “I got to travel regularly to Japan, just think about all the time I spend on the damn plain. Also, this week I have to record  like 3 TV-shows. At least I don’t have any more love issues to complain about. The only good thing that happened since Yuri left me. . .”

“Technically, you weren’t even together, you can’t be dump by somebody if you aren’t at all involved romantically.” Seunghyun casually said, with his eyes glued to his phone, silently sitting on a sofa in a corner. This is all he’s been doing today: intensely staring at the little device, with a concentrated expression on his face. He occasionally hits the screen with one finger, then holds it still in mid-air, while waiting eagerly for something extraordinary to happen that would uncover the mysteries of this peculiar object called cell phone. One could even believe he magically cleared his schedule for today in order to do this complex activity.

“You are just being mean; you can’t possibly know what was between me and Yuri! It was special. Go back to your phone and just continue struggling to unlock the screen or whatever it is you are doing.”

“For your information, I discovered this a long time ago. I can unlock my phone like a pro since, like, two hours ago.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever. You never cared about phones before, I can’t understand why you now want to understand how they work.” Daesung huffed, bored by the lame conversation.

“I just want to learn how to send a message. Texting is so cool these days.”

Youngbae rather stayed uninvolved in this ‘interesting’ conversation, so he grabbed the remote control, intending to change the subject:

“Let’s just watch some TV. I need a break.”

If this was fate or just bad luck, I leave it for you to decide, but it so happened that on that large screen framed on the wall, at that exact moment, on that exact channel, exactly when Taeyang turned it on, a rather ironic image was being displayed: none other than Korea’s one and only female idol group, SNSD, were now live on national TV, as guests for a show. Youngbae didn’t even realize what they were watching when Daesung started to wail and yammer  in dispair:

“I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS! LOOK! THAT’S YURI! THIS IS A SIGN! THIS IS FATE!” The poor guy got down on his knees and worshiped the images displayed on the wide screen. “Look at her! I SWEAR SHE LOOKS RIGHT INTO MY EYES! THIS IS A SIGN”

“What sign? Are you completely crazy? It’s just a talk show, Dae.”  Taeyang tried to calm his pitiful friend. “She is part of one of the most successful Kpop groups ever, she is always on TV! Look, they even say they are going to have a comeback, you should expect to see her a lot these days.”

“WHAT? A comeback?! This means they are going to attend a lot of music shows, right? HYUNGS, WHEN ARE WE HAVING A COMEBACK? HOW ABOUT NOW?”

Although Daesung was dead serious, his two hyungs couldn’t help chuckling, hearing his desperate proposal.

“This is the PERFECT PLAN! We just tell Jiyong to quickly write some of his brilliant songs, bunch them up together in an album and then we sing them at various music shows. Well, particularly at those where SNSD will participate as well, but these are details. I CAN FINALLY MEET YURI AGAIN! OH YASS!”

“What a wonderful idea. And you know what would impress her? A special Daesung solo on the album. Hahaha! You got it? Solo?  HAHA! . . .”  T.O.P lost it and started laughing uncontrollably hearing his own tart pun.

“Haha, very funny." Dae didn't even bother with the oldest acid humour. He went on with his preposition: "Now that I think of it, it doesn’t need to be an album, you know? That's too complicated. Even a single would do it, right?”

“Yeah, of course! Something like: ’YU RI SINGLE NOW’. Best song title ever! HA HA HA HA . . .” Seunghyun wiped a little tear from the corner of his eye. “No, really, I am sorry to break your dreams, but you’re kind of delusional. And even if you meet her again, what are you going to say? She broke it off, don’t become a stalker, just leave the girl alone. . .”

 “Ahem” Youngbae cleared his throat. “What T.O.P is trying to say is that we think Yuri needs some space. As the cliche goes, time is the best medicine. You know, just leave things to settle for a while and maybe you'll stard understanding what happened. After some time, you might  meet again and realize  it wasn’t at all as you thought . . .”

“OK. I will live it like this for some time. But then I am going to be with my precious Yuri again, with or without a spontaneous comeback . . .”

"HAH like that will ever happen to us. Don't you know we have a reputation to keep? Bigbang takes their time with comeback breaks!" Seunghyun had a last laugh upon this subject.

Taeyang shortly sighed. “Great. I am glad we worked that out. Now let’s watch something else. Here, Daesung, you chose.” Just as he passed the remote to his friend, Youngbae’s phone beeped, announcing a new message. He quickly checked it and was surprised to find out that it was sent by none other than Seunghyun himself, who was once again concentrated on his phone.

“What the actual F!? Hyung, why would you sent me an empty message?”

“Did I? Wait, I REALLY DID. HAHA I FINALLY DID IT”

“?!”

T.O.P victoriously shook his phone above his head, showing it off proudly to his confused friends.

“I was trying to figure out how to send an SMS all day! I finally did it!”

“Uhm . . . Congrats?”

“Thank you!” He nodded cockily. “Now I just need to discover how I can actually write something and then send it” and so he went back to his intense activity just like before.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­__________________________________________________________

“AUCH! CHINCHA, it hurts! PLEASE! Stop it!”

After pulling him throughout the hallway, and dragging him inside an empty room, Chaerin eventually let go. Seungri immediately covered his red, injured ear, which was throbbing in pain.

“What the heck was this for?!”

“You're seriously asking why? How about for totally ignoring me and pretending that you haven’t heard a thing I said. You're an !”

“Oh that . . ." He grined shrewdly. "I’m sorry I did that to you. But you know, I was having a really important conversation over there.”

“Yeah, yeah sure . . .”

“What is it that you wanted to talk about, anyway?” Seungri’s pain started to gradually fade away, and he was now curious about the reason why CL came to search for him in the first place.

“Aha! So you were actually listening to me!” She let a short playful sigh out, while her mood was obviously rapidly improving. Her lips arched into a smile and she reached out for Seungri’s hand, grabbing and holding it tightly. “There’s nothing in particular, I just wanted to spend some precious time with my boyfriend.” Their fingers intertwined.

“Ssshhhh! Don’t say it out loud when we are in the YG building. Somebody might hear you!”

“I knew you were going to say that. I don’t even know why we keep it a secret anymore. And we are the only ones in the room, there is no one here who may be listening.”

 “We don’t keep it a secret, it’s just that we don’t mention it to anybody else, yet.” He gently caressed her hand. ”And you know it happened so fast and unexpected it even took us by surprise. How do you think the others are going to react then? Also, if we tell anybody, sajang-nim will shortly find out as well. We should leave it like this some more time. Besides, this is a private matter, between me and you, isn’t it?”  Saying the last words in a deep, low voice, he cunningly took a bold step forward, getting very close to Chaerin, making her hands press against his chest, felling the warmth of his body.

“It is beetwen us, of course. It's been already 4 months! I feel the urge to tell someone.  Just  BIGBANG and 2NE1, they are our closest friends, aren’t they? I want to be able to act natural with you at least when we are with them.”

“Soon, babe, I promise. It’s so sweet of you that you think this way. You wanted to spend some time with your boyfriend. You just can’t get enough of me, right?”

“Oh, don’t worry, your ego is so big that I don’t even need that much time to fell satiated instantly.”

“That’s perfect then, I can go back to my discussion with Winner, I still had a lot to explain them about  . . .” He intended to part away, but CL's fingers quickly grasped his shirt and pulled him back.

"Don’t. Even. Think about it. You’re not going anywhere.”

She dragged him even closely.

“You’re right.I am not.”

His lips instantly found the fastest way to reach and overlap with hers. Chaerin's left hand was still holding tight on to his shirt while the other one sneaked up, around his neck. His arms embraced her waist.

“OH. MY. GOD. I AM SO SORRY.”

Appearing out of nowhere, just 3 feet away from them, a frozen, awestruck Jinwoo was standing in the middle of the room, as shocked and perplexed as never. The couple immediately parted away and gaped at the confused boy, speechlessly.

“I am really sorry! I swear I never saw anything! I just got here! I was just searching for the bathroom, I didn’t know there was someone here, I’ m sorry! I’m just going to leave.” The boy spoke fast and left straight away, just as quickly as he got in. But he reappeared only a few seconds after, running sideways while covering his eyes, heading towards the other part of the room.

“I took the wrong exit, that was actually a cupboard, not a door. I can never find the right way, I am always lost. I am sorry again, I promise this time I’m leaving for good. I am so sorry.”

He rushed outside again, this time for real. CL and Seungri looked like they were hit by a storm, flabbergasted, yet quite amused as well.

“I never knew he . . . When did he even got in . . . Did he just get into a cupboa – ”

“That’s right. He entered a cupboard. A real freaking cupboard.” Seungri finished the sentence for her. After a short moment, they both broke into laughter thinking about his terrified face as he was running around the room, from one corner to the other.

“Oh my goodness, poor boy, he was so disoriented he didn’t even know what to do. Do you think he heard anything? Maybe he will tell the others.”

“That boy just literally entered a wardrobe, I don’t think we need to panic over him. I can invent the stupidest excuse and he would still believe me: like I was warming your lips or something. And even if he thinks he saw something, who would believe him? We hate each other, remember? We put on quite a show trying to act like real enemies and I am sure people buy it.”

“Oh, of course, I hate you so much, especially when you’re warming my lips. . . “They both chuckled. “ But still, just go and check on him. Poor guy! He must be felling so confused.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll  go right now, he couldn’t have gotten too far. I'll most probably find him right in the first cupboard down  the hall.”

“Ha, ha, ha! Seungri, don’t be mean. Although that can’t be too far from the truth.” CL smiled and gave her boyfriend a peck. “See you later!”