Credits go to hungry- (from  affamé graphic shop), for this amazing poster.

[ Thirty Seven. Scandal ]

After the talk with Donghae ending rather unpleasantly, Dara walked back to Jiyong’s apartment by herself, refusing Donghae’s offer to drive her back to Byul and Dongwook’s place. It did not go unnoticed by her that he was still treating Jiyong as if he was some kind of a monster, refusing to bring up his name and acknowledge the fact that Dara was staying at his place. She could understand that Donghae meant well and said everything because he cared about her. However, she simply could not accept the fact that he was treating her as if he owned her, like an owner to a pet. He thinks that he had planned out the best route for her, yet he never asked her for her own opinion on whether or not she wants this path or not. Nor did it ever crossed his mind that he should respect her right to make her decisions, instead of denying her values and acting as if everything she said or did was too foolish. After all, this was her life she was living, not his. It may be the rebellious streak in her, but Dara hates it when she is told what to do by others. It angers her to the point that she is most likely to defy their expectations and chose the exact opposite of what they want her to do.

Her cell phone signaled a text from Jiyong.

Tablo loves the songs so much that he’s giving it over to Teddy to arrange and wrap up everything by midnight. He’ll be releasing the track list of the mini-album soon. My comeback is earlier than scheduled. I guess that the ring was a successful bribe on my part.

Dara laughed out loud, feeling giddy that her work had received YG’s boss’s recognition and that Jiyong’s comeback was coming soon. The sparkle of the ring, still on her fingers, caught her eyes. She had no idea how she should cope with the flurry of disordered feelings inside, but she has an idea of what she wants after Donghae confronted her. Her feelings for Jiyong is still there. That is not going to change anytime soon. She wants to be around him, even if it is only as a songwriter working on music with him or as a friend. It is unclear to her what Jiyong feels towards her, and what exactly are his intentions. Because of that, there is the possibility that Dara would get hurt, but she decided firmly to accept the risk. If he really wanted to get his revenge by hurting her, so be it. At least she has the courage to go after love this time. She would take the risk than to experience the regret she had years ago again.

Congratulations. I’m taking it that you are going to busy from now on.

Dara replied, and got an almost immediate reply from Jiyong.

We. We are going to be busy from now on. You are going to be right beside me for the entire ride of my comeback, Bonnie sweetheart. Do you think that I will let you go back to be serenaded by your trainee fanboys after all the work is done for my mini-album? No way. By the way, are you sure that you don’t want to feature on R.O.D.? I swear I won’t give the part to someone else this time.

Can he get any cheesier? Dara shook her head in resignation, but the corners of her lips were curved upwards in a sweet smile.

Good to know that you learned your lesson, but I’m positive. I think Chaerin’s strong vocals will suit the style of the song more than mine. Besides, it will pave the way for her comeback, because everyone will be dying to know who’s the mysterious girl featuring on G-Dragon’s mini-album. I’ll take a rain check on your offer to let me feature though.

Track List for G-Dragon’s Mini Album, “Tonight”:
Tonight
R.O.D. (feat. CL)
Eyes, Nose, Lips
Who You?
Bad Boy
In The End (feat. CL)
Somebody to Love
 

True to Dara’s predictions, the moment G-Dragon’s track list for his upcoming mini-album was released, rumors starting to fly around CL, the unknown female artist that featured on two songs. Many of his loyal fans pointed out that in his previous album, he had many other artists featuring in his songs, but this time there was nobody else other than this CL. Media were quick to speculate that this person is G-Dragon’s underground girlfriend, and some die-hard fans retaliated by bashing this girl without knowing who she really is. Pretty soon, CL’s name became the most searched for keyword. The people in charge of marketing and promoting CL’s single were quick to take advantage of the timing to push out CL’s debuting single, “Go Away”, and soon enough it climbed to the top of various musical charts due to the popularity the song received and the curiosity the public had for the artist. Many of the netizens that had been attacking CL for her connection to G-Dragon started to grudgingly admit that the artist had talent and her debut single was very catchy. Some of G-Dragon’s fans have even started rooting for the rumored couple, pointing out that the two were similar in musical styles and therefore very compatible with their idol. There were also some people in G-Dragon’s fan café that were quick to notice the name Sandara Park as the co-writer of almost every song in the mini-album, but most dismissed her as the “female Teddy of YG”, referring to a person who worked closely with G-Dragon on his music and thus could only be involved work-wise but not romantic-wise. Dara did not know what to make of this situation. For one, she was glad that she was not in the line of fire. However, it made her feel something resembling jealousy when seeing everyone discuss about CL and G-Dragon as if they were already a couple. But she kept her emotions in check; after all, it was for work and there was no denying that Chaerin’s featuring really did the song justice. Besides, Dara had been the one that refused to feature on the album even though Jiyong had asked.

“What do you think?”

Dara looked up with a start from the book she was reading. Jiyong was standing in front of her, referring to his hair that was dyed jet black and waiting to hear her opinion. She was the only person accompanying him at the hair salon, with his manager away at the place where Jiyong’s photoshoot for his album cover will take place, overlooking the preparations ahead of time to make sure that everything would be ready when Jiyong arrives. Jiyong had took the initiative in asking her to tag along for every one of his busy schedules, from discussions on the concept of the mini-album to meetings with the director of the music videos. Seungri would show up occasionally, but Choice37, Teddy, and most of his friends at YG could not leave work themselves. Dara wanted to, but was worried that it would affect her work. To her surprise, Tablo agreed to Jiyong’s suggestion, saying that she deserves a break with the outstanding work she handed in and that it was more than okay for her to do her songwriting outside YG headquarters. Teddy was even more ridiculous, and had all but begged on his knees for Dara to keep Jiyong company so that Jiyong won’t get furious at them for not being there to support him in person.

“They are thinking of adding long hair extensions on one side. Do you think it would look cool?” Jiyong added, observing Dara’s expression. To his disappointment, he could tell from Dara’s silence and the look in her eyes that she did not appreciate his new hairstyle. “Is it really that bad?”

“You look good,” Dara said sincerely. There was nothing Jiyong could not pull off. She bet that he would look handsome with cornrows or completely bald. “I am not used to seeing you with black hair, I guess. I liked the reddish color you had before better, that’s all. It was a nice color.”

Jiyong wailed dramatically after he heard Dara’s words, stamping his foot on the granite floor like a kid throwing a fit. “Tae Hyun noona, did you hear that? She said she liked the red better! What am I going to do?”

The assistants at the hair salon giggled at this adorable reaction from the famous celebrity while Tae Hyun, Jiyong’s hairstylist, chuckled good-naturedly. “I will dye it back to that color after your comeback if you want.”

“But during my entire comeback, Dara will think I’m ugly!” Jiyong pouted, looking as if he was about to cry.

“I did not say that!” Dara protested, and then added teasingly, “You’re saying this as if you were good-looking to begin with…” Jiyong looked so dumbfounded at this statement that Dara burst into laughter.

“Stop it, you two. You have to leave for the photoshoot soon so I have to get started on the hair extensions.” Tae Hyun clucked as she continued on with her work to attach the long seaweed-like hair extensions on Jiyong’s hair, the latter sulking crossly in his seat. On the way to his photoshoot, Jiyong did not let go of the topic of his hair, whining incessantly to Dara how she was not allowed to abandon him for the young trainees if they had better hairstyles than he did for their comeback. Dara, failing to convince him that his new hairstyle was not that bad, gave up and told him sarcastically that she would decide on whether or not to join iKON and Winner’s fan café solely based on how good their hairstyles were. Upon reaching their destination, Dara practically ran out of car with Jiyong close at her heels, not stopping his non-stop rant even when he was in the middle of getting ready for the photoshoot.

“What do you mean you will join their fan cafes? Did you join mine?” Jiyong shot at her in accusation while he got his make-up done. A staff member held up a leopard-print jacket for him to see, and Jiyong gave his nod of consent before he turned his attention back to Dara.

“Why would I join yours?” Dara was not paying him much attention as she curiously went through racks and racks of clothes in the other side of the room. After numerous meetings, it had been finalized that the concept for “Tonight” would be westernized and natural, a contrast from the previous flamboyant images G-Dragon had experimented with in the past that aimed for bursts of bright colors and dizzy mixtures of patterns. With that in mind, the items on the hangers were mostly neutral shades of black, white, tan, emerald, and brown. Everything was Bohemian-inspired, hippie style from the light shade of denim pants to tan suede jackets lined with fur. On the long table beside the racks of clothing were endless accessories laid out. She has never seen so many leather and beaded bracelets in one place, let alone hats of different sizes and materials. Dara picked up a floral neckerchief on one hand and a pair of leather cowboy boots in the other. “This is impressive. Where did they get all of this?”

“Some were found by my stylist, others are from my personal collection. I’d buy some items I like while traveling. You can wear the wide brimmed black hat if you want. I think it suits you.” Jiyong answered her brusquely, and Dara eagerly tried it out immediately as she checked her reflection in the mirror. She has a thing for hats, but she mostly own baseball caps and beanies. This black hat looked good on her, and she liked it immediately. After checking the brand though, Dara had an inner struggle on whether or not to buy an exact same one. It was from an expensive designer brand but she supposes that with her income from writing G-Dragon’s songs, she can afford it. She deserves a present for herself after the hard work she did. “Back to the topic of my fan café. You seriously did not join mine?”

“Seriously. Did you join yours?” Dara picked up a long vintage necklace with feathers dangling from the golden chains and leather hands, admiring it in her hands.

“I look at the posts occasionally. It is amusing and nice to see what my fans write about me.” Jiyong shrugged. “I also look at what haters say sometimes, to see if any of those criticism can help me improve. Most of them are irrational and lack any substance, so I ignore those kinds of comments, but some views are worth thinking about.” Dara was taken aback at his response. It was her first time hearing such a thing from celebrities. She has worked with stars that straight-out refuse to acknowledge anything negative netizens have to say about themselves, and she had assumed that Jiyong, being so confident about himself, would do the same. It had never occurred to her that someone would be willing to go through the swamps of malicious comments aimed at themselves to check if there were anything they could improve on. Although Jiyong seems bloated with arrogance sometimes, he had that hard-working and humble side to him.

Dara seated herself in an inconspicuous corner after multiple staff members got Jiyong ready for the photoshoot. With a notepad and pen on her lap, Dara would look up once in a while to see Jiyong posing like a professional in front of the camera. He never smiled, his face the epitome of coolness with a tinge of fierceness. The photographer loved it, yelling compliments as he snapped shots quicker than he could speak. After capturing fifty shots or so, Jiyong would walk off the set to get ready in a new outfit with different make-up and style. He made sure to come by Dara’s side every time, checking to see what she was doing and making small talk, before returning back to work. Finally, with one more concept left, Jiyong’s manager and he were in front of the computer screen to look over the pictures taken so far to see if there was any need to extend the photoshoot when Jiyong’s eyes caught Seungri’s message popping up on the screen of his phone.

Whatever you do, don’t look at the news online.

His mouth set in a grim line, Jiyong’s first thought went to his upcoming mini-album. It must be something bad that has to do with his music, or else Seungri would not tell him this. But it made him burning with puzzlement because nothing but the track listing has been released. He could not possibly be pegged with plagiarism before the music was out. His curiosity getting the best of him, Jiyong typed “G-Dragon” into the search engine, and multitudes of headlines shot up, none containing his