Bobby squinted his eyes, trying to block the blinding flashes of cameras directed on him. He tried to focus on the host’s questions but there were just too many people around him.  For the first time in his life, he felt claustrophobic. He wished his brothers were with him.

One might have thought that Bobby had an uncomfortable expression because this was his first guerilla interview without the rest of iKON, or perhaps because more people came than anticipated. But in truth, Bobby was nervous about answering the questions directed to him considering how personal his new album was.

Bobby released his second solo album a week ago and it had been topping local and international charts. “Reasons and Romance”, his album title was like a snippet of his own personal relationships and everyone was just curious of who he was writing the songs for.

Everyday, numerous theories who the girl was come out and as days go by, it was starting to get out of hand. Over the years, his lyricism has greatly improved and so people focused too much on it. All of a sudden he was, well at least according to the news, on his way to marry his secret girlfriend.

Last week it was a model. Yesterday it was an actress he had a CF with. And this morning, it was an idol group member who he lent his coat to when they filmed something outside in a cold night.

And all of those rumors had lead him to this situation. Here he was in Hongdae, surrounded by people who were equally curious about his lovelife.

“The lyrics are made with the combination of past experiences and my imagination. Life in my song ‘Free Fall’, I likened falling for someone with the feeling of recklessly jumping off a plane without parachute one. I tell you, I may look brave but I’m not going to do that so that’s where my imagination comes in. The important thing about music is that I am able to share my thoughts to my fans and if they are able to relate to the lyrics and feel the emotions that I felt, then I’m a successful artist.” He ended his answer with his bright eye smile as people clap around him. 

Bobby realized that he’d been holding his breath until the host wrapped up the interview and asked everyone to listen to Bobby’s newest album. Bobby returned to his car feeling more relieved that day had finally ended.

——-

Bobby spent the entire day in bed. He never felt more relieved to have such a luxury when he was technically in the middle of promoting his new album. Even the members or their managers didn’t disturb him— they knew how much he needed that break. 

He didn’t do much. He slept longer than usual. He rolled around in bed for an hour doing particularly nothing until he decided to play a few rounds of games in his computer.

When his character in the game died, he realized that it was past lunch time. Too lazy to cook, he decided to just go for food delivery. He his phone (which he turned off after his schedule last night) to order but all of a sudden, he received about 50 messages. He knew that it wasn’t a good sign. 

He opened his manager’s message which contains links to several Naver articles. Bobby wasn’t the type to go searching his name online but these days, the number of articles about him were exponentially increasing. But this time, it’s beyond what he expected.

There were at least 20 links so Bobby just went ahead to go to Naver and see how bad it is. His face was on the front page. And so was Lisa’s.

“iKON’s Bobby “Reasons and Romance” written for Blackpink’s Lisa?”

“Dispatch: Bobby and Lisa caught on a date?”

There were at least 50 articles about him and Lisa. He didn’t even know that it was possible for their names to occupy that top 5 most searched topic spots. 

He scanned through his unread messages and there were several messages from Yang Hyun Seok himself yet Bobby ignored it. He knew he needed to call the only person who mattered first.

“Oppa! What are we going to do?” Lisa said as soon as she answered the call. Bob