Jieun didn’t know what she’d been expecting when she eventually broke the news to YG that she wanted to cancel her contract or at least change the terms so she could end her training period to go home. She honestly hadn’t even been expecting him to still be in the building at three in the morning. But it turns out he had some matters to attend to for BIGBANG’s monthly comeback schedule and some conflicts that had arisen with EXO-Ls threatening to bomb a concert venue.

She might have been expecting him to get angry, or possibly even to disregard her complaints for mere childish complaints before he dismissed her carelessly. He had lots of much more promising trainees under his company after all.

But he actually just leaned back even further in his seat on the sofa—much to the likes of his casual pose during their first face-to-face encounter—and casually suggested, “Let’s feature you in a collaboration project.”

Jieun’s mouth fell open at the unexpected news. Did he misunderstand me? I could I swear I told him that I want to leave the company. He saw her visible confusion and chuckled. “I understand what you’re feeling very well, Son Jieun; I have eyes everywhere in this building, remember?” Jieun hung her head in silent shame; he’d seen all her moments of defeat, embarrassment, wasted efforts, etc. He’d seen all the times she’d broken down crying when she was alone in the practice room and felt like giving up. At this rate, he’d probably even seen her pass up mealtimes to lose enough weight to not get scolded by the YG personal trainer again.

She knew that during the duration of her training period, she hadn’t exactly made the smartest choices for herself, particularly not when it came to her health, and she regretted almost everything she’d done. Even more justification for her to leave the company.

“You know who you reminded me of when I saw you fall and then pick yourself back up, no matter how hard it was for you?” YG asked. “A boy who trained under this very company for three years. When he first joined, all he had were his voice and his guitar. Even then, his vocal technique was bordering atrocious, his composition skills were iffy at best, and his stage presence was awkward. If anyone was a lost cause on his way to becoming an idol performer, it would’ve been him.

“He underwent years of training. He was the one who always left with the most things left to improve on at the monthly evaluations, received the most criticism for lack of improvemen