Note: The main character in this chapter is not any of the girls we know and love, but a character I had to make up for the sake of the plot. If that bothers you (in the end, this is a story about Ryujin and Yuna) then you can skip it. The next chapter will be published as scheduled.

How boring those girls were.

Kye Seok-neul had lost count of how many times he had thought the same thing, but could anyone blame him? It was true. The members of ITZY didn't do anything. They never went out late at night, they didn't go to bars, they didn't go to compromising places, they didn't meet any guys (or girls) when they went out, nothing. His informants inside JYP told him the same thing: no strangers were ever seen leaving their dorms, nor did they keep illicit substances in their dorms.

Nothing, and that for Kye Seok-neul, a Dispatch reporter, meant boredom as hell. He wished he had been assigned to another group, a bigger fish than ITZY. Seok-neul had been involved in the K-Pop industry's biggest scandals, directly or indirectly, and yet the people at the top preferred to put him to watch five nuns instead of giving him a job that was up to his standards. He earned well with the previous jobs, but the several zeros in his bank account were slowly starting to disappear. He managed his money well, but he had to keep a good income coming in.

When he was informed that he would now have to keep an eye on ITZY, the new JYP group, he was disappointed (a new group was not interesting), but he promised himself to get something out of them, some dirt. They had to have it, right? Well, he'd find it, make it public, and make some serious dough.

That hadn't been the case so far. He began his task shortly after the group made their fourth comeback, having to keep up with the massive amount of content they put out. It was so much that he had had to split it with his two assistants. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Games, humor whiter than a silk scarf, the occasional flirtatious moment between two of the members... The same as other groups.

One of the few things that caught their attention was episode number three of the series behind Not Shy. Specifically, it was the moment when the youngest of them all, Yuna, had come close to kissing rapper Ryujin. More than anything else, Seok-neul found the Ryujin girl's reaction interesting. She had almost panicked at the other girl's closeness and her voice had choked as she spoke into the camera. Seok-neul could have sworn she had even blushed, but with the ridiculous amount of makeup she was wearing it was impossible to say for sure.

“That's the reaction I would have if the guy I like approached me like that,” Choe Eun-suk, his only female assistant, had pointed out.

Seok-neul took her word for it and had contacted his informants within the company. Unfortunately, they didn't tell him anything useful: no one had seen either Shin acting weird with the other. No visits to each other's bedroom, nor did they often leave the building together.

Another dead end. He had nothing better to do, though. Paperwork, write up a couple of minor things for the paper.

He asked Eun-suk to watch the videos on ITZY's YouTube channel with him, since she had a better eye reading people than he did.

“Do you notice it?” Eun-suk  askedone day when they finished watching a video of a series called ITZY? ITZY!

“What?” Seok-neul said with a grimace.

“The smile that sticks to the older Shin when she sees the other one,” she said.

Seok-neul replayed the video again, fixing his attention on Ryujin and Yuna's interactions.

“Smile like an idiot,” Seok-neul said.

“Exactly.”

“Do you think...?”

“I don't know,” Eun-suk interrupted. “It's probably just my imagination.”

“You're almost never wrong about these things.”

“It's hard to say, but if I had to pay a little more attention to any one member, it would be these two.”

Seok-neul tapped his fingernail on the table, deliberating.

“It's not like the other three are any more interesting,” he finished. “Okay. Across the street from JYP is a motel. It's horrible, but it'll do for guarding the building. Tell Han-soo to keep an eye on Yeji, Lia and Chaeryeong. We'll keep an eye on the other two.”

Now that Eun-suk had pointed it out, Seok-neul could tell that the two Shin acted very... bubbly with each other. The Yuna girl would show her teeth in a big smile whenever she talked to Ryujin, even if it was some stupid thing they talked about (which there were usually quite a few). Yeah, maybe it was his mind that wanted to think so (the job was boring as hell), but it didn't hurt to try.

---

He spent most of his days in the motel room. It was small and a bit stifling, but it was clean. Still, he didn't sleep there; he wasn't crazy and he didn't need to. The ITZY girls never left the building at night.

How boring they were.

When Han-soo, Eun-suk and Seok-neul himself were free, they would meet at the motel. Two would stay upstairs, taking turns guarding the building, while another would stay near the car in case any of the girls came out. The three would take turns, and if any of them had work to do, then one would stay in the room and the other near the car.

The first really interesting circumstance for Seok-neul occurred in November. He was in stall 3 (near the car), when he received a call.

“The leader is on the sidewalk,” Han-soo reported.

“Are you sure?” Seok-neul said as he walked around the corner of the block to approach JYP.

“Yes, she's wearing a cap, glasses, and a mouthpiece, but I could make out the colored tips of her hair.”

Han-soo had a good eye. And good binoculars, courtesy of her boss.

“Before her came two more girls. One was considerably taller than the other and had black hair. The other had short hair.”

“That's Ryujin, Han-soo,” Seok-neul turned the corner, seeing the JYP building beyond, across the street. He saw Hwang at the corner facing Gangdong Avenue.

His instinct told him to follow her. He crossed the street and stood at a safe distance. Seok-neul was wearing opaque glasses and a mask, with his trusty camera in his pocket. It was a small but incredibly powerful camera, which he was able to afford thanks to his earnings from when he uncovered a drug problem.

Hwang crossed the avenue, and he imitated her. The girl got to the other side before him, and he had to pick up his pace so as not to lose sight of her. Hwang pulled into the Olympic Park parking lot and sat down on a bench. He took several glances up the street toward Gangdong and Seok-neul had to keep going because he couldn't just stand and stay in her field of vision.

Hwang didn't move from the bench, and Seok-neul held the phone to his ear.

“Where did the others go?” he asked quietly.

“To Gangdong,” Han-soo replied.

“I hope I'm not mistaken,” Seok-neul thought. If the Shins had gone to a restaurant alone, or who knows, to a hotel, he wanted to be there.

His fears were put to rest when two girls got out of a car with tinted windows. One with short hair and one with long hair, the latter taller.

“Are you spying on your girls too, Yejinie?” Seok-neul thought. He smiled under his mouthpiece. Then something was up with Ryujin and Yuna.

Ryujin and Yuna started walking towards the direction where Seok-neul was. He walked towards them, passing by their side. They didn't give him more than a glance. Hwang didn't even look at him. He walked on past the stone bridge and glanced back. Hwang stepped onto the bridge.

Seok-neul retraced his steps, making sure there was foliage between the road and the bridge. He saw through the trees to Hwang, his back to him. He did not know why he had not followed his companions, who went the other way, but he would have his reasons.

Hwang finished crossing the bridge and turned left. Seok-neul followed soon after. Hwang went into a detour that led to an overlook. Seok-neul backed up until the foliage blocked his view of the overlook. He moved closer until he had a good view. Hwang was looking at the bushes near the edge of the overlook. She stuck her hands in a large bush, stood still for a second and then walked back to the main path.

Seok-neul walked back to the bridge and waited. The road was surrounded by trees, which bathed the path where the viewpoint was accessed in shadows, making it difficult to see. Luckily, the bridge was a couple of meters above the path. If Hwang looked to her right, she would see he, but the girl had her head stuck in the other direction.

Why was answered when two figures appeared in the distance. Hwang returned to the lookout almost running, and disappeared from the reporter's view.

“Damn,” Seok-neul muttered.

He backed further into the bridge and waited a minute. Then he passed the turnoff that led to the overlook, slowing his pace a bit. He set his brain to recording as much detail as he could. Ryujin and Yuna were in the background, beyond the circular seating structure, their backs to him. Yeji was nowhere to be seen, which confused Seok-neul greatly. He looked at the large bush he had handled, but at that distance he couldn't make out anything.

He passed the lookout. What intrigued him most was Hwang. Where had she gone?

“The bush,” Seok-neul guessed.

He waited for three minutes before passing in front of the gazebo again. Ryujin and Yuna were sitting inside the circular structure. He couldn't make out their expressions, and the one who was good at reading postures and was Eun-suk, not him.

He made it to the bridge. After a while Ryujin and Yuna came out of the viewing platform and went back the way they had come to it. Yeji came out moments later, which didn't surprise Seok-neul. She came in their direction, so he backed up to the middle of the bridge, leaned against the parapet and pulled out his cell phone. Hwang passed by soon after, and Seok-neul noticed her face. The face cover, glasses, and cap concealed most of it, but let her deeply furrowed brow leak through.

“What did you see, Hwang?” the reporter wondered.

He followed the leader back to JYP. Yeji went into the building and he, into the motel.

“Hwang was spying on her companions,” Seok-neul said as he entered the room.

“That's interesting,” Eun-suk said.

Seok-neul told them everything he had seen.

“It doesn't serve as telling information, but now I'm a little more certain that Ryujin and Yuna are up to something. Bad, or at least that's what I think Hwang thinks, because of how worried she looked when she came back here,” Seok-neul said.

“Ryujin and the other one just arrived,” Han-soo said.

“Ryujin and Yuna. Learn their names at once, for God's sake,” Seok-neul blurted out.

Han-soo shrugged his shoulders.

“We've spied on so many groups that I'm getting lazy already.”

“So we're focusing entirely on Ryujin and Yuna?” Eun-suk asked.

Seok-neul took out his iPad and opened the notes app.

“Yes, the others don't matter. I want us to concentrate on Ryujin and Yuna.”

“I hope something good comes out of this,” Eun-suk sighed.

Han-soo grunted in agreement with her.

Seok-neul smiled.

“Patience, I think we've finally found a lighthouse.”

---

The rest of November was hellishly boring. The ITZY's went out very few times, and always together, all five of them. Seok-neul and his team had followed them, but nothing interesting happened. In December, he saw Chaeryeong and Yuna leave the building and not return. He guessed that they had gone to their homes, which he still didn't know where they were. He would have to find out. It wouldn't be too difficult.

Lia, Yeji and Ryujin were left. Han-soo and Eun-suk had gone home for a few days, but Seok-neul asked them to be with him on the eighth and ninth of December.

“Yuna’s birthday on the ninth,” he said. “She will probably invite her friends to a party.”

“That's not very advisable these days,” Han-soo said with a frown.

“No, and if they do we can take pictures of it and leak it over there, to make them look bad,” Seok-neul said.

“It will do little good,” Eun-suk said with a grimace.

“See, if Ryujin, Yeji or Lia don't leave the building tomorrow, you can go home. I won't bother you two for the rest of the month.”

Eun-suk and Han-soo liked the idea.

Seok-neul stayed overnight at the motel on the eighth. He had a feeling, a hunch, that something would happen. Assuming that Ryujin and Yuna might be dating as a couple, and that, if they had any brains, they would hide it, then they would look for any opportunity to see each other alone. Seok-neul was unaware of the movements of the two girls inside the building, as his informants could not keep an eye on what the girls were doing all day.

When he got up, Seok-neul did his push-ups for the day (he exercised because he didn't want to atrophy like so many people who lived in an office) and went to take a shower in the small bathroom of the room. He cursed as he felt the icy water.

Ryujin walked out of JYP. Seok-neul shot out of the room and arrived in time to see her cross Gangdong Avenue. He followed her, naturally. She followed the same route that Hwang followed to the gazebo. Spying her like Hwang, Seok-neul saw her approaching the same big bush that Hwang checked the other time. She stuck her hands in, shook her head and stared at the lake for a while.

Seok-neul found his partners in the room. He told them what he had done.

“Then I guess Hwang did hide there to spy on them,” Seok-neul concluded.

“And she told Ryujin, otherwise it wouldn't make sense for her to check that bush,” Eun-suk said.

“Does the leader know, then?” Han-soo asked.

“Most likely,” Seok-neul said. “She must have told the rest of the group, or maybe the three of them are keeping it a secret. Anyway, our priority is still Ryujin and Yuna. Understood?”

Eun-suk and Han-soo nodded.

---

Seok-neul went down to the street. His assistants were waiting in the car, parked far beyond JYP. Seok-neul was near the entrance of the building. A girl with a white hoodie and white sweater hood on came out of the building around six o'clock in the evening. Seok-neul knew it was Ryujin from several things: her eyes, the lack of hair peeking out from the edges of the hood, and her stature. Having seen her so many times in videos and in person, he was able to recognize her perfectly. Another reporter wouldn’t have recognized her, but Seok-neul would.

He got into the car with his team and they waited for Ryujin to start. They followed her at a safe distance, blending in with the Seoul traffic. They almost lost her a couple of times, but managed to keep track of her among the hundreds of cars coming and going.

The only thing Seok-neul knew was that Yuna's house was in Suwon. This was confirmed by the route Ryujin took. The girl went through several streets until she stopped in front of a one-story house. They stopped at the street entrance, and Seok-neul got out of the car to look around the corner.

A figure approached the entrance to the front yard of the house. Ryujin removed her hood, revealing her platinum hair. Yuna held out her arms, but Ryujin stopped her with a gesture. Seok-neul took out his camera with alacrity and took a picture without flash. He did it in the nick of time, as a few seconds later the two girls entered the house.

Seok-neul returned to the car.

“The white house is Yuna's, indeed,” he said. “Obviously we can't see what's going on there, but we can deduce: neither Hwang nor Lia came with Ryujin. Chaeryeong might be inside already, but she is supposedly in Yongin.”

“So...?”

“Maybe it's just Ryujin and Yuna. Alone. What could it mean?”

“That they like to be together, as we already know,” Eun-suk said. “It doesn't mean this is a waste of time, but...”

“We're still gathering information,” Seok-neul replied. “When we have enough to come up with a good hypothesis, we will start the hunting phase. Trust me.”

The car was silent.

“Well,” Han-soo said.

“Let's stay till ten o'clock,” Seok-neul said. “I'll go buy some food. It's on me, it's my gift to you for deciding to come with me.”

---

Ryujin stayed the night at Yuna's house, or so Seok-neul assumed. It became ten o'clock at night and the rapper didn't return to her car at any time, so they decided to get the hell out of there. Seok-neul stayed at the motel, giving the car to his assistants.

Ryujin returned to JYP the next day in the afternoon. Seok-neul's back ached from sitting in front of the window. Han-soo came to drop off his cart and left again. Seok-neul thought Ryujin would stay the rest of the day in the building, but was surprised when the girl came out as the Sun was beginning to set. He followed her and almost lost her, but managed to keep the rapper's car in his field of vision. She arrived at a house in Gangnam district, and Seok-neul knew that this was Ryujin's house.

He had the location of Ryujin's house and Yuna's house. Unfortunately, his assistants were on vacation, and he knew they didn't want any hassle. He himself wanted to go to his comfortable apartment, but if he did so he would have the worry that he might miss something important.

He was becoming more and more convinced that Ryujin and Yuna were a couple. That Ryujin had stayed the night at Yuna's house said something about their relationship. However, he still wasn't sure. He had the photo he had taken of them: in it Ryujin's platinum hair could be made out, but he was wearing a mouthpiece, just like Yuna.

More was missing.

---

Watching Ryujin while the rapper was at home was complicated. Seok-neul ruled out watching Yuna (she had no car or license because she was underage) and had gone with Ryujin. The girl didn't leave the house at any time.

How boring she was.

It was complicated because he couldn't just park and stay inside the car all day. The neighbors or Ryujin herself could see it and call the police. He wasn't doing anything illegal, but it was a nuisance to have the police on him. Therefore, Seok-neul had decided to hang around the area from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., walking back and forth, with his car parked in a nearby parking lot.

He decided to follow the same routine until December 23, where he would go to his apartment and forget about the damn ITZY group for a few days.

---

On the 20th Ryujin showed signs of life, and quite noticeable ones at that. Seeing her come out dressed in street clothes, Seok-neul almost ran to her car. He did not follow her directly. Seok-neul went to the avenue and waited for Ryujin's car to pass by. It was a black car with tinted windows, whose license plate had already been memorized. The rapper did not disappoint him: her car passed by the avenue in no time. Seok-neul had a pretty good idea where she would go.

“Can't resist love, huh, Shin?” Seok-neul thought, amused with the situation.

---

“Bingo,” Seok-neul said, tapping the steering wheel triumphantly.

Yuna got into Ryujin's car, which didn't start right away. Seok-neul wondered if they were kissing.

The first stop was the Seoul Arts Center. Seok-neul didn't think it was a romantic place, and he had to give Ryujin a point: she wasn't such an idiot as to take her to a place where