“Would you like a cup of coffee? Tea, maybe? Have you had breakfast yet?”

“No, thank you.” Seulgi declined Kyungchul’s offers, doing her best to overshadow her impatience. “I’m fine.”

“Well, this shouldn’t take long.” A soft wave of relief took over her as she visibly eased herself backwards into her seat.

“Assuming you haven’t done anything against your contract, that is.” He continued, shattering the relief zone she had been in a second ago. “Speaking of which, is there anything you’d like to share? Speak now or forever hold your peace,” he mockingly warned, whether out of sadism or as a genuine attempt on trying to calm her down, she couldn’t tell.

With a tentative smile and a hesitant shake of head, Seulgi remained quiet.

Truth is, she couldn’t even tell whether she had really done anything against her contract. The whole “dating” itself was not the real issue, they had always said, but once it affects your public image, which is pretty much in every case, then yes, it was a problem.

There had always been a tasteless inside joke between the trainees that dating someone would be like committing a crime; it’s against the law, but you’re still free to do it as long as you don’t get caught. “The industry is full of criminals, then.”

But, oh, wait.

We’re not even dating. He said so himself.

Stupid .

Mino didn’t pride himself on many things, if he were to be completely honest with himself.

That was nothing new, though.

To begin with, he had never been the best student, certainly not the worst either, but not the one that would come home in full excitement just to show his mother how well he had done in a test.

That wasn’t the case when it came to his job ― not when it involved him doing what he liked to do, at least. It also didn’t mean that he didn’t acknowledge his achievements or everything that he had to go through to get where he currently was, because hell, it hadn’t been easy.

But sometimes, for a short, senseless moment, he would question himself on whether choosing a path that had brought him so much public attention had been worth it. What if he had never left the underground scene?

“YG? Are you ing serious? Do you know what that means?! That your ugly face is going to get more famous than mine once you debut!” He remembered the sound of Jihoon’s laughter vividly, but above all, he remembered his ambiguous words.

“Joking aside, just make sure to keep yourself sane, alright? Money won’t be a problem anymore, I’m quite certain, but being under a big company is far from being a walk in the park.” Mino had snorted back then, almost sure that Jihoon had been referring to the survival program.

He had dismissed his friend’s concern, fully knowing that the latter had always been overdramatic when it came to certain things. Money won’t be a problem anymore, he said, so what could possibly be the disadvantage of debuting under a big company? Jihoon should know better than most that, in some cases, money was the only real issue when it came to being part of the industry. He may work like a dog for most of his life, but if he’s being well paid, he couldn’t complain.

He was well aware that many people, idols included, were not as fortunate as he was.

Fame, then? Isn’t that what they all craved for in the first place? Isn’t that what truly paid the bills?

How much is too much?

If someone were to take the blame for his headache, it would be Seulgi and her damned flawed logics.

If it wasn’t for her, he would be worrying himself over important things, and not wondering whether their situation would be easier if it wasn’t for their respective positions and whatnot.

It would be easier, wouldn’t it? Perhaps if one of them was relatively unknown in the public eye ― he found himself taking such role in that hypothetical case ―, at least half of the burden would go away. Perhaps she wouldn’t label them as star-crossed lovers or anything that made their relationship hold such a scandalous and forbidden meaning.

But then again, if it wasn’t for WINNER, YG or even his luck, perhaps he would have been in Block B now. That had been the initial plan, after all. The rules would have remained the same.

Hypothetically or not, the headache would still be there.

Because he still would want to be involved in this mess that is being in love with that complicated little―

Oh, God, no, shut up.

It wasn’t love, no, not at all.

But it was pretty damn close.

Love. It was quite possibly the main source of inspiration when it came to music.

Mino wasn’t particularly fond of the subject, it was a tad bit overdone, but he was an artist above all, so that wouldn’t stop him from showing enthusiasm while singing about heartbreak, emptiness and all that.

That’s his ― their ― job, wasn’t it? Create an image and maintain it. Do what he’s told to do. His own opinion didn’t really matter at the end of the day.

He’s become someone he used to mock once.

But still, what bothered him the most about everything was that he had only come to such realization after he met Seulgi.

He despised the way she behaved, how she constantly worried about what could happen or not, how everything had to be so calculated, how she couldn’t bring herself to trust in her own group mates when it came to him, everything. He despised everything about her.

Because she was above him. She was right about it all.

People like her lasted in the industry for a reason. Perhaps she didn’t even realize it, but she valued her job more than anything. More than she valued him. More than he valued his own job.

Would she risk all those years of training under that cursed company of hers just because of him? No way. She was far too smart for that. And if he were to ignore his selfish nature, he didn’t want her to.

Not even in his wildest dreams, because it seemed that not even his subconscious could develop a better version of her. It’s not that he lacked imagination, quite the contrary, but even with all her flaws and damned logics, she was perfect to him.

And perfection can’t be improved, can it?

, I miss you.

His thumb cowardly hovered over his cellphone’s screen. How many messages he had sent her in the past weeks, he wondered. Not an amount that made him an obsessed psychopath, but still enough to make it clear that he was embarrassingly desperate.

Not that she seemed to care, because after their last troubled encounter, it’s like she had vanished into thin air. Or probably just erased him from her life, as if he was a sketch gone wrong.

Good for her.

He tried to convince himself that he should make a right decision for once and follow suit. Who knows, he mused, perhaps after this, they could still be friends.

It didn’t sit right with him, but if it meant not losing contact with her, a sacrifice or two would have to be made. He could still treasure whatever feelings he had and make her his muse.

Someday he would write a corny song about a heartless girl in his life.

It would be dark and sarcastic, and the two of them would be the only ones who get the inside jokes and puns, and she would laugh alongside him as they have a drink, telling themselves that they were never meant to be in the first place.

“Oh, Minho, we were so silly back then, weren’t we?” she would say, all smiles, probably dating some actor or maybe a former EXO member then, and he would agree with her and lie through his teeth.

That was by far the best scenario he had in mind.

Or else he would write an egocentric song where he could play the role of an and say how she would never find someone better than him. In the worst case, he would probably never hear the end of it, because that meant she would never talk to him again, which brought him back to his current reality.

I miss you so much.

“A blind item, you say…?”

“For lack of a better term, yes, you can call it that.” Kyungchul nodded his head while adjusting his glasses, “The reason we’re extremely cautious when it comes to these things is because there’s always a grain of…sabotage behind them, and if there’s someone out there trying to damage your image, well,” he shot a glance towards her brother, reminding her that he was still there, “that’s when we get in.”

“You can get rid of it?” Seulgi quietly questioned, refraining herself from sounding too interested.

“Yes, but it’s not as easy as it sounds, of course. As much as we got an insider, it would still cost a lot to get fully rid of something like this…It’s nearly impossible to not bring up other people into this case as well.”

“The other three, you mean? They would be affected by this, too?”

“Of course.” He grinned far too nicely to not be mocking. “You’re a group, aren’t you?”

“And…” She began, even though she didn’t really want to hear the answer to what she was about to ask, “May I ask what is this blind item about and how am I involved in it?”

Kyungchul chuckled, much to her discomfort, “Why don’t you take a guess?”

Seulgi forced a smiled since she couldn’t even manage to let out a fake giggle or anything of the sort, “I’m not really good at these.”

“Come on now, blind items are all about guessing.”

“So there is no palpable proof that this blind item is about me?”

“Do you have any close friends, Seulgi?” He changed the subject, seemingly not caring whether he