Chapter 325 (1/2)

“You look like you’re doing good today,” Gangha spoke as he raised his thumb.

“That’s true. I didn’t get a single NG today. Looks like I’m on a roll.”

Chaerim lightly clenched her fist before loosening it. She was definitely more at ease with this shoot. She had just enough tension in her body. She had the confidence to finish today’s shoot without making a mistake.

“Uhm, Chaerim. Can I get Dayoon-noona’s number?”

She was wondering why he kept talking to her since morning, but it turned out to be this. Chaerim frowned.

“I do want to tell you, but she hates things like that. You know what happened right? A fan of hers came to her house and caused a fuss. After that incident, Dayoon-unni is not good around men.”

Of course, that was a lie. There indeed was a stalker incident, but the reason she said that Dayoon was not good around men was to end this conversation.

“I guess that can’t be helped after she experienced such a thing.”

“I’ll tell her for now. But do you like her?”

“I just wanted to meet her and have a talk or something. She’s my type.”

“What are you going to do if your president found out?”

“You know how this works. I will act in a way so that I don’t get found out. The other groups date each other like that, you know? I mean, it’s not like we can go out with an ordinary person. You know what happened to the senior that dated an ordinary person, right?”

“I do.”

It was quite a famous event, so she naturally knew about it. The man involved belonged to a 4-person boy band that was quite popular, but the group was dissolved thanks to him dating. There was a problem with idols dating in itself, but the bigger problem was that the girl’s identity was exposed and she was attacked by extreme fans. It became a controversial issue immediately and consequently led to the dissolution of the group. The group tried to make a comeback with the three remaining people, but they failed and disappeared without a sound.

“In other words, we can only date other idols. We can protect each other’s privacy and secrets that way.”

Gangha approached her close and lowered his voice.

“You don’t have anyone you’re dating?”

“Me? I don’t.”

“Don’t lie to me. Really?”

“I said I don’t. What about you?”

“Me? I dated once but we went back to being good colleagues.”

“That’s amazing. Aren’t you scared? Your contract should state that you’re forbidden from dating.”

“You just have to be careful not to get found out. If you don’t have a boyfriend, what about me? I’m quite popular, you know?”

“Alright, you can stop fantasizing.”

“We’ve only known each other’s faces for four years. This drama is the first time that we actually talked to each other, isn’t it? We just greeted each other politely before.”

“What happened before is not important, what’s important is now.”

Gangha reached out and grabbed her hand. Chaerim frowned and pulled her hand away.

“What a cold reaction.”

“If you want someone to date, look for someone else. How about Yu-ri? She seems to like you.”

“Oh? Didn’t you know? I’m going out with her right now.”

“What?”

“So you didn’t know that. I thought Yu-ri told you already. Weren’t you two close even though you act cold towards each other?”

“Close? We’re more like enemies.”

“Really? Then you two should be friends.”

“Not happening.”

“Geez, I don’t get how women’s friendship works. But hey, you don’t have experience dating, right?”

“What are you on about so suddenly?”

“My intuition.”

“You think I’ve never dated even once?”

Gangha pondered for a while before shaking his head.

“No. There’s no way someone like you would have never dated anyone. So date me. Please? I’ll let you have fun.”

“I thought you were dating Yu-ri.”

“Hey, do you date to get married? I date to enjoy myself. A girl for marriage has to be good and kind, and a girl for dating has to be hot and sexy. I know you know that.”

“Forget it. Look for someone else.”

“Alright, alright. Tell me if you change your mind later. I’m always ready to switch,” Gangha spoke with a smile.

Chaerim thought of her unnis as Gangha walked away. They talked about this topic a lot when they were still trainees. I will date a male idol or date an actor once I become famous. The talk between girls full of dreams was fun, but now, they no longer even talked to each other that much. They always got into a fight whenever they talked about something, so they just didn’t talk at all.

‘We’ll end up like The Five.’

‘We’re the eternal, The Five.’ That was their greeting comment. Yet, such an idol group became strangers in just one day. Chaerim thought that the unfair contract wasn’t the full story. If all of the members were dissatisfied with the contract, they would’ve all left the company, not split up into two-three like that. It was obvious that the disharmony between members was the reason and the unfair contract was just the trigger.

The contract Chaerim signed with Yellow Star couldn’t be considered entirely fair either. In the news as well as various magazines, they talked about how Blue profited hundreds of millions to billions of won, but the money that appeared in her bank account was less than 10 million won. And that only happened recently. The expenses required to create albums were also on the members. She thought that that was natural, but from the recent news, it seemed that that wasn’t the case. The unnis recently started calling a lot of people, and from what she heard, they talked about contract deposits and whatnot. Perhaps Blue will follow a similar path to The Five in the very near future.

“I should do well.”

This drama was a foundation for her of sorts. This drama would enable her to live as the actor Chaerim and not as the idol Chaerim. Since there were talks about movies as well, she would be able to receive the interest of the public as long as this drama went well even if Blue was dissolved.

‘Me, no longer an idol huh.’

She never imagined two years ago that she would be thinking about such things now, but she now had to think about it since it might become a reality. She couldn’t stay as a child forever. What would happen if she stopped being an idol and became an ordinary actress? After she thought about that, she was reminded of the dating matter that Gangha talked about.

Dating, huh. She went to practice starting in elementary school, and she did the same in middle school as well. She never missed school or anything, but since she never hung out with her friends after school, she never got close to anyone either. The same went for dating as well. Now that she thought about it, she was very obsessed with training. She had thought about dating someone and walking around hand in hand. When people paid too much attention to her to the point that she had stressed-induced gastritis, she imagined what ordinary life would be like whenever she slept. However, she soon realized that she liked her current self better than her ordinary self.

Despite that, she wanted to try dating. The idols she met during work were very cool, but for some reason, she never felt affection towards them. It was fun to play with them, but she never wanted to be alone with them. There were a couple of idols who indirectly expressed that they wanted to date her, but she refused back then because of the notion that she had to have meticulous self-control.