Jaebeom found out that his long-time crush Jennie finally got a boyfriend. He wanted to confess to her but he just couldn’t find the right timing. When she frequented the music department in their university, he felt a little hope that perhaps, she was there to see him. But during one of his late night sessions in the studio, he saw her getting inside the studio next to his. He knew fully well whose studio it was. Kim Hanbin—the guy who won song competition in their university, and now, the guy who won the heart of the girl he liked. It made him so down that Jackson and the rest of the gang had to drag his sorry to a party and just to dance and drink his sorrows away. 

He was having fun with his friends when Kang Seulgi, his longtime rival appeared in his line of sight. It didn’t help that she was friends with his friends’ girlfriends. Much to his dismay, they had to cross paths with each other a lot. 

Whenever they cross paths, the atmosphere suddenly becomes heavy. Their friends tease them and just brush it off as “” but it’s never that. Im Jaebeom would rather spend the rest of his life a celibate than be stuck in a same room as Seulgi. What he felt towards her was hatred and nothing else.

It wasn’t that Jaebeom held grudges towards people. His mom would always remind him not to hate on anyone but he even made a PowerPoint presentation why Kang Seulgi should be an exception.

It all started in grade school. Jaebeom was the popular kid that everyone loved. He just came from the States and for everyone in class, that was cool. He even ranked #1 in class despite entering the semester late. He was an all-rounder, which made people in school love him more and he loved being #1. That changed when a certain girl named Kang Seulgi entered his life in 3rd grade. She was the new girl from Berlin and the focus shifted to her. All of a sudden, he was not the coolest kid anymore. It didn’t help that when the semester ended, Seulgi became #1.

It wasn’t like his parents would pressure him to be constantly on the top. But remembering his life in the States—where he was the only Korean in town, and he had only known a few English words then—he knew that being #1 meant protection from being bullied. So, he worked twice harder and began an unspoken rivalry with the Berlin princess.

It went on throughout high school and they both thought that it would end when they go to university, considering that they wanted to pursue different things—music for him and arts for her. But they were both nominated for university student council president, and Seulgi won (by 3 points, because his friends are whipped for their girlfriends who were Seulgi’s BFFs), the tension between them had been reignited.

With recent lost and with his crush getting a boyfriend who wasn’t him, Jaebeom’s wounds had been fresh. He would usually stay in his studio on Friday nights but Jackson managed to convince him to “drink away his sorrows”. The latter forgot to tell him that (1) it was Seulgi’s victory party they were coming to, (2) it was in Kang Seulgi ’s house.

Seeing that his archnemesis already saw him, he couldn’t back out and leave. He gulped down his beer out of frustration. 

His friend Jackson handed him another bottle seeing his beer bottle empty. Im Jaebeom knew he was a lightweight but here he was chugging in his fifth bottle of beer. 

He was already dizzy after finishing his forth, but his long-time rival, Kang Seulgi, had laughed at his face, calling him “weakling” when he refused the fifth bottle of beer from his friend, Jackson.