chapter 1

"And this week's winner is... Infinite! Congratulations!"

The fans started cheering as the Show Champion MC handed the trophy and the mic over, and their maknae began their long thank-you speech for the list of people they had memorized for years. Sunggyu bowed to one of the girl groups beside them, turning around to finish his greetings only to face the very girl he'd been trying to avoid. 

She smiled in his direction and he immediately turned away to face the audience again. That blinding grin, stretching from ear to ear, had been off-putting to him before, but now looking at it was just too painful to bear. It was a little rude of him to ignore her, sure, but he knew that any attempt at a polite exchange would have likely ended in a poor choice of words on his part, something that could definitely not happen on national broadcast. As she filed off the stage with the rest of A Pink he fended off the urge to glance at her, instead choosing to move to the other side of the stage.

She had told him once that love was when one person glanced at the other when they thought the other didn't notice. He hoped to God that no matter how difficult it was to resist stealing a look, he could fall a little out of love with her every time.

“What’s happening between you and Sunggyu-ssi?” Chorong asked her lowly on the way back to the A Pink dorm. She and the leader had chosen to sit in the back seat of the van, and the other members were already dozing off, trying to get as much sleep as they could in between their activities.

She grimaced at the older girl’s accusatory tone and thought back to when she had given Howon the thumbs up on stage. “You mean Hoya? We’re just friends, you know that.”

“Sunggyu sunbae-nim. He was avoiding you during their encore, didn’t you notice?”

“No,” she said slowly, “no, I didn’t.” And truthfully, she hadn’t really. Whenever they were on camera, idols were trained to put each other at a distance. To fans, boy and girl groups only knew each other in passing, politely acknowledging each other when necessary, and for the most part that was the reality. But even Howon – one of her best friends – was relegated to the same level of acquaintanceship when they were on stage. 

“He doesn’t have a reason to avoid you, does he?” She hadn’t told the leader about their meetings; Chorong didn’t even know that she had been taking monthly excursions to the river. But she supposed that, yes, he could be avoiding her to throw off suspicion of whatever they had between each other, although it seemed like all his effort was doing was garnering more.

“We’re not even friends,” she answered, which was true. They had already established they weren’t, as they walked along the river at night, ironically like two lovers meeting in secret. The leader eyed her suspiciously before nodding and closing her eyes to get some sleep as well.

Still, the fact that Chorong had noticed didn’t settle quite well in the pit of her stomach. It wasn’t like she was doing anything wrong, really; she wasn’t dating, just meeting with a person she knew in her spare time – which was entirely normal – and they were secretive about it enough to not be caught. Well, she was, at least; apparently he wasn’t, based on what Chorong had noticed.

Eunji stared down at the screen of her phone, thumb hovering over the send button. She had never texted him casually before, only calling on him when she needed company, but for some unknown reason she felt compelled to ask him, to clear her head. Their comeback this time around for Remember had been exhausting and she didn't really have time to lie in the grass by the river anymore, but strangely, she missed their comfortable silence. With that in mind, she hardened her resolve and brought her finger down. 

e: if you're ignoring me, you could be less obvious about it

The reply came just moments later – Infinite was probably also on their way back to the dorm.

s: what are you talking abt?

She furrowed her brow. Maybe Chorong had been too paranoid, reading into things in fear of A Pink’s image being tarnished by a scandal. He was more professional than she'd assumed.

e: nvm

e: let's have a drink together when this is over

s: call

Looking back, she should have known that they wouldn't be having another drink together in a long, long while.

The tension in the air was stifling as he let himself into the Woollim conference room. He and CEO Lee Jungyeop had always had an easy-going relationship, but tonight he was meeting his boss for a different reason. He didn't dare to say anything, instead bowing and keeping his eyes trained on the carpeting. 

"Have a seat," the older man's voice ra