She never knew that it was going to turn out like this.  How can she, the baddest female that Seoul city ever had, become a ball of mush just by hearing his sweet melodic voice call her name.  “Chaerin-ah,” he had whispered in her ears. 

Chaerin was trying to take a nap in the studio after having had a long night recording and practicing for their world tour concert that was coming up soon. 

She wasn’t expecting to be woken up by his smooth tenor voice. “Chaerin-ah,” he called again to her.  “Wake-up! You should go back to your place and get some rest.”

Without opening her eyes, she laid there and contemplated about just staying there pretending to sleep and listen as he kept calling out to her. “I know you can hear me…” He trailed on. Chaerin started to feel a presence over her, which she knew was her oppa, who was slowly moving closer to her.  As she lay on her side, she felt his breath dance across her ears as he whispered close to her ears now, “I know you’re up sleepy head. YG’s princess shouldn’t be sleeping on a couch like this, but in a royal bed, curtains and all.”  She couldn’t help but give herself away by smiling at his absurd comment. 

“I’m not YG’s princess,” she groggily protested.   When Chaerin opened her eyes, she was greeted by her Youngbae oppa, only a few inches from her face, eye smile and all.  Out of embarrassment of their close proximity, Chaerin shot straight up, hoping that the heat that she was feeling wasn’t physically showing on her cheeks.  But she knew things in these situations never go her way. She shifted in her seat as the uncomfortable silence filled the room.

“Um, I’ll just go now. You know..uh.. sleep in a bed as you were suggesting.” Chaerin stuttered as she  got up from the couch stiffly, away from her oppa, who had been following her every movement with his eyes. She opened the door hastily and shut it after she had exited.  She leaned her back up against the door to collect herself for a bit and let out a long sigh that she didn’t realize she had been holding in. 

On the other side of the door, Youngbae released a little chuckle at her sudden disappearance, “So cute,” he whispered to himself before going back to work.

--

Chaerin was lying on her bed in her apartment, unable to sleep as the recent encounter with Youngbae kept flooding her head.  The close proximity of his face to hers and how her heart was racing in response was replaying over and over in her head.  Or how his eyes turned into those moon-shaped slits as he smiled his bright smile at her. 

That smile of his was always something she had admired about him.  She remembers the first day she met him so many years ago, that was the first thing that she had really noticed about him, his radiant smile.

Chaerin had been training at YG for only a few short months, but the progress that she had made was definitely attention grabbing to all the YG staff.  She had become the new mysterious, yet very talented trainee.  Because of her independent personality, she never socialized much with the other trainees unless she had to, which happened to be today. 

At the end of the month, every YG trainee had to go through the evaluations that were held.  Because of Chaerin’s recent acceptance to YG, this was going to be her first evaluation and seeing the other trainees of YG as well. 

As she entered the dance room, there were already YG staff members that lined the studio walls with a clipboard, waiting to critique them.  Chaerin took a deep breath, a bit nervous, as this was her first evaluation. She had heard a few horror stories from other trainees about their own experiences.  As Chaerin scanned the room, she recognized a few familiar faces and hurriedly walked over to them.

“Hey Minji, Dara, and Bom,” she pleasantly greeted them as they did the same back.

“Are you ready for your first evaluation?” Bom, the veteran among them had asked her.

“Yeah, I think so,” Chaerin answered back.  Just then, in walked YG sajangnim himself surrounded by his intimidating aura which went unnoticed by no one. “On second thought, maybe not,” Chaerin said turning back to them.

The youngest one, Minzy, stood up from her stretches and put a hand on Chaerin’s back to comfort her, “You’ll be fine unnie. I’ve seen you practicing like a mad woman.” They both laughed together. Chaerin was thankful that she had met these three girls who had helped ease her nerves.

After stretching and warming up, each of the trainees including Chaerin and her friends were up to perform in front of the YG staff audience.  For her first evaluation as an YG trainee, Chaerin didn’t want to leave anything out.  She showed her skills of dancing, her improved singing, and of course her most treasured skill; her powerful rap. During her rap, she saw the different reactions from each of the staff and the surprised looks on their faces as she was spitting out her rhymes.  YG did his infamous head nodding and smirk, which came upon his face whenever he was pleased with a performance. She even saw her ideal man Teddy bobbing his head.  Chaerin was very pleased that she had noticed that.  It made her feel so excited inside.

Before she knew it, the evaluations were done and all the pent up anxiousness she had were gone.  Chaerin was packing her bag that she had brought with her along with the other girls when she saw two guys approaching them from the corner of her eyes.  She had recognized them as two of guys from the already formed boy group of trainees that was set to debut soon. One had on a black beanie that covered his brown hair and the other had his hair in cornrows with a bandana wrapped around his head.  They both wore their white long tees over their baggy blue jeans.  Chaerin couldn’t help but think that they really were ‘hip-hop style’. 

“Hi! You’re Chaerin, right?” The one with the beanie asked her. “I’m Kwon Jiyong and this is Dong Youngbae,” Jiyong said as he motioned his hand to Youngbae before he put out his hand for her to shake, which she took.  Chaerin then put out her hand to the guy named Youngbae to shake, which he was hesitant to take up, but he eventually complied.

“Nice to meet you two,” she greeted back.

“We just wanted to say that your rap was SICK!” The guy Jiyong exclaimed as his hands moved animatedly as Youngbae faintly smiled and nodded his head in agreement. “We’ve been training here for a while and we’ve never seen a trainee, let alone a girl, no offense, bust out rhymes the way you did. Let along at their first evaluation!” 

Chaerin was trying hard to hold in her glee as she was praised by her sunbaes.  “Thank you.  It was nothing really,” she humbly replied, laughing off the compliment. 

“But really, you were amazing though.  I can’t wait to hear more from you.” Jiyong said.  “Well, it was nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you guys too.” As the two walked away, Youngbae, who was a bit shyer, turned around to give her one more look and flashed her a smile.  His eyes had disappeared into crescents and his pearly whites could be seen through his wide grin.  Chaerin felt a slight flip in her stomach and she also, in turn smiled back at him. 

Thinking back to their first meeting had her chuckling inside; at the bold Jiyong and the bashful Youngbae.  They weren’t anymore different now than they were back then, except for that she got to know the both of them much better and they became the best of friends. But yes, these were still the same to her,‘Other than I think I’m developing feelings for one of them’. She admitted to herself. 

--

Chaerin arrived at the YG building a little earlier than planned and walked the familiar halls towards Teddy’s studio.  She and the other 2ne1 girls were finally putting the finishes touches on their long awaited album that will be released before their world tour concerts. 

CL approached the automatic door which slid open for