WAAAH~ NEW SUBSCRIBERS!!! YOU WARM MY HEART SO WELL YOU GUYS..^.^ THANK YOU! I HOPE I DON'T DISAPPOINT..:3

A/N: Oooh~ I'm updating regularly I can't believe it.^.^ But I feel like my story pacing is so off, it's too slow.XD I'm being too detailed again. haha. I'll try harder you guys.T____T Anyhoo thanks again for staying with this story. I promise something juicy on chapter 8 and/or 9.. hikhik~

P.S: Sorry for this boring chapter~ It's all I could come up with for my "in between" chapters..T_____T

Chaerin was sitting outside the main YG conference room next to their manager who’s been on the phone non-stop. They’ve been sitting there for almost a good hour; her small face painted with an eerie expressionless look.

Although security is quite tight at YG HQ on a regular day, today it was heightened for the massive media onslaught.

People who didn’t work for YG were only allowed to stay across the street so the media were camped out over there along with the various fans that frequented the building; handing gifts to staff or when they were lucky the actual artists themselves.

Everything was a blur since that 45 minute drive from the Versace Showroom to the YG Building, about 50 to 60 cameramen were awaiting her arrival and when she got off the black SUV all the flash bulbs as far as they were, it almost blinded her.

“Listen. Don’t say a word until Sajangnim & the PR Department have had their say. They’ll give you a long speech about the responsibility of being famous and all that .”

“You nod and pretend to listen, or you could if you want to; but never show fear, because they’ll swallow you alive. You should expect that they’ll make it hard for you since you’re the leader and the fact that you’re their precious Golden Girl Chaerin, won’t help either.”She remembered her Oppa telling her inside the car.

Jiyong asked the manager for 5 minutes before he left with Chaerin to get a chance to talk to her privately. It was as though she was heading to her execution; so her emotions were muddled up and her stomach was in knots as she sat in silence.

She was photographed that morning wearing a hoodie, shorts & sneakers outside of Jay’s apartment. He was seeing her off as he himself was in casual clothes and his snapback worn backwards. It was so early in the morning so she didn’t expect anyone to see them.

Hopefully given that his popped lip was on the left side of his face, the photogs did not capture it as this would only add to the rumors. She refused to look at more pictures from Yanggaeng’s phone.

“Look Rin, I don’t know how they will handle this one since this is your first major scandal, but I’m confident they will handle it with utmost care especially because you’re a girl.”

“I guarantee Sajangnim will do everything he can that’s best for you; I know cause he’s had a lot of practice with all the times I ed up. And I‘ll make sure he will.” He smiled encouragingly at her, his eyes not shifting from hers.

“I’ll take care of you.” Jiyong took her hand, placed it above his heart and squeezed it; eyes still fixed at her almond shaped ones. You’d think Chaerin would be in tears but she wasn’t.

“Leaders don’t cry.”

She was taught this philosophy by the only person to see her cry other than her boyfriend before Jay, and that person was sitting opposite her. Chaerin gave him a half-smile and nodded gently, she was so grateful for having her Jingyo Oppa with her right now.

The front passenger door swung open and one of the YG managers got in, buckled his seat belt then stopped mid-conversation on the phone to say in his husky voice;

“Sorry Jiyong-ssi we have to go. Everyone’s waiting at HQ.”

“Okay. Remember what I said.” Jiyong turned to Chaerin and signaled a thumbs up at her before getting off the SUV.

That was the memory she chose to think of as she and her manager were called in to enter the conference room after a group of 6 people had exited.

They entered carefully bowing as they went in. For a moment she stood close to the door not knowing how to proceed since the three people left inside didn’t spare them a glance.

This room could be described as a room lined with black walls akin to marble with half of it streaked with a glass-like surface on top. It gleamed with green letters forming words vertically of YG Family artists as well as album & song titles.

It was similar to the walls in the corridors and the lobby with the exception of the toys and Be@bricks that were displayed above white rectangular cubes made of material similar to plastic. Across the room on the other side, two enormous windows can be found as if the wall was removed and replaced with just glass.

All the major decisions or announcements within the company were made here. Like who would be doing promotions at the end half of the year or who’s coming out with the next single or album; so it was weird that Chaerin was inside for the direst of circumstances.

Alone.

“Chaerin, take a seat.” YG, with rolled up papers in his hand, pointed towards the seat at the very end of the glass table that seats 4 on each side, he finally acknowledge their presence.

Chaerin bowed lowly again before complying to sit.

She was sitting right in front of an entire wall made of glass as well. But this one was showing various pictures of YG Family taken over the years at their Annual Year-End Parties forming collages and mosaics in between.

YG was sitting on the other end speaking in hushed tones to a dapper young man in glasses on his left who was typing on a laptop as they spoke. Chaerin immediately recognized him as the head of the PR Department, Yoon Seungjin and to YG’s right she noticed YG’s personal assistant Choi Jihye.

She had this air of an old hag trapped in a tall, gangly woman dressed in power suits all the time. She was here to take minutes of the meeting as per usual.

Her Sunbaes always described her as a female that had everything long in her. She remembered how her Jingyo Oppa & Teddy Oppa vividly described her in turns as such;

“Her hair is long, although it is always tied in an uptight bun or ponytail, that possibly cuts-off her blood circulation, which we doubt is even possible because we think she’s a ing vampire from the 1900’s.” Teddy explained.

“Her creepy fingers seem like Edward Scissor-Hand’s.” Jiyong said while making scissor actions in the air frantically.

At this point both guys were roaring with laughter as they continued to describe the elusive assistant. She barely shows her face within YG walls she’s always at her desk or wherever YG was. Chaerin had just begun her training at YG so she hasn’t gotten a chance to get a good look at her; she assumed she was just anti-social.

“She scares me half of the ing time because she spies on everyone here and the other half cause she might stab herself with her chin. Probably the reason why her long nose is always up in the air matching her stuck-up behavior.” Teddy said in between snickers.

“Not to mention her having twice as much neck as a normal person that helps when she acts like a Meer Cat at the slightest loud noise; with the hopes of it being one of us.” Jiyong added mockingly craning his neck. He was now holding his stomach because he was having trouble breathing by now as they all laughed.

Chaerin contained her smile as she recollected this memory unknowingly since it was all she could muster. Her head was vacant because she didn’t know what else to think after the built up anxiety of waiting for an hour to be spoken to.

It felt like a murder inquisition Chaerin thought.

YG was looking straight at her now over his hands while he held his fingers together inquisitively covering his mouth. It was as though he had x-ray vision scanning her up and down and this went on for about a minute. He cleared his throat before finally speaking;

“We all know why you’re here, yes?”

Chaerin nodded. Everyone in the room could feel the intense mood, so did Chaerin but her demeanor was firm and impassive, steely even. The two stared at each other intently before YG broke the silence yet again;

“I assume Jiyong has already oriented you on how this goes. You come in, we lecture you on how disappointed we are of what you’ve and we give you instructions on what to do next which is refuting the whole scandal.” YG said crossing his legs and reclining on his chair. He then signaled towards the suited man on his left.

For a brief second Chaerin’s eyes widened with surprise at how intuitive her boss was; he simply knows all of his kids too well. Catching herself she retrieved her deadpan look and watched the man as he walked towards her.

“But this is an entirely different situation. We can’t exactly deny this one.” YG pronounced with his own stone face apparent.

The PR Director handed her a blue folder and to her horror she was looking at blown up pictures of herself and Jay linked in a kiss. What a skillful photographer this one was, as it was only a very quick peck they shared.

“! I'm ing screwed.”

Chaerin screamed inside her head, this is the first time actually felt panic.

“I’ll save the lecture for later but for now we have to figure out what you want to do. Your album comes out in 3 weeks and this could either be a PR disaster or a Marketing Triumph. We came up with several back stories but none of them were even remotely believable.”

“So how are we going to handle this Chaerin?” YG asked her curtly, his fingers still entwined together.

Chaerin swallowed, she didn’t know the answer to her Sajangnim’s question for she had no idea how to fix this. She and Minji were still technically under a Dating Ban unless the 3 Test Rule applied but hiding this relationship from YG himself didn’t earn her any brownie points.

She stared at the pictures for a while, there was no denying these; it was broad daylight. And that kiss, it was all documented. But the answer was in fact right in front of her, Chaerin thought.

“We have to announce the relationship formally. Let the public know that we’re together” She said resolute, looking up, directly into YG’s eyes. It was only logical and she felt that it would be a relief, she and Jay wouldn't need to hide.

YG shifted in his seat, for the first time Chaerin saw YG break character; the character of the merciless and indifferent CEO, a hint of the caring Papa YG inched himself through obliviously.

“No. As I understand it you two have only been dating for 3 months. We’re only going to do that unless you really love him. And if I ask you now, do you?” Chaerin was surprised by the question, she felt uncomfortable both at the fact that it was her boss that first asked her this question and that she never thought she would even be asked it.

“We’ll just say you guys are dating; nothing exclusive.” YG said firmly anticipating Chaerin’s protest; she almost forgot Jiyong’s strict instructions of nodding and not saying anything unless extremely necessary.

“You’ll go out on dates and be seen in public in the daytime only. However keep in mind this will be minimal contact. Meaning no sneaking around together and skinship will be kept at a bare minimum, so no make-out sessions when people are around.” Yoon Seungjin verbalized as he was reading off a piece of paper; pen in hand, checking things off his list.

“Basically you’ll date publicly but we will control what the public sees and when they see you together. We might even have to bump up your album launch to next week without making it seem like we're taking advantage of this scandal. We want this to turn into good publicity for your album and the company. But we definitely don’t want it to overshadow your music. That’s our priority.” Chaerin nodded in agreement to the stipulations. He was right; they need to look at things logically.

“You mean as of right now we’re going to announce this?” Chaerin asked wondering if her decision was even warranted.

“No. We’ll let this simmer down for a bit first, for 1 or 2 days and decline to comment. But we’ll subtly hint at it in the succeeding days. Then we’ll announce it. Officially, when the timing is right. We don't want to seem too eager.” The Director of PR replied with a smirk.

“Okay, I understand.” She conceded, as long things go as planned it won’t be a major hit for YG Family, 2NE1 or herself.

“All right, I’ll set things up. If you all would excuse me. Sir?” Seungjin bowed and excused himself as he left the room carrying his laptop and to what Chaerin saw, three smartphones.

YG waited for him to leave the room before he spoke again;

“Good. All we need is to do is get Park Jaebeom to agree and we’re golden. Now for that lecture;”

The rest of the meeting continued with a drawn out sermon by YG to Chaerin, as Jiyong foretold her. She guiltily listened to him voicing out how he was let down by the 2NE1 leader for knowing better and she knew she did. Most of it was either chilling whispers of her repeating history or shouts of her being assigned leader for a reason. This was the first time she had been scolded  by him this much.

One thing was for sure; for Yang Hyunsuk his Golden Boy and Girl were too similar for his liking.