BEHIND THE SCENES

chapter 1: small girl, big dreams

Kim Chungha. News reporter at KNJ News for around two years. Had been getting promoted every so often to her competency. Another amazing senior Jieun looked up to. Kind and helpful towards Jieun. Also, Hoseok's ex-girlfriend.

"Me," Hoseok said flirtatiously. "I just missed you, that's why."

Chungha rolled her eyes as she turned to leave.

That was how things were between Hoseok and Chungha ever since Jieun had gotten to know them. Based on what she had heard from other seniors, the two had begun dating eight years ago, and broke up four year later. Chungha had initiated the break up back then and the two had continued being friends after, but Hoseok made his lingering feelings for her evident at all times. Meanwhile, Chungha always seemed rather indifferent towards his advances.

Jieun didn't know the reason, and she was frankly quite curious about when and why they broke up, but thought it might be rather rude to poke her nose into their private lives. She barely knew them through the past half a year after all. Nevertheless, it was rather entertaining for Jieun to watch, to be quite honest - like a drama unfolding before her very eyes. After all, Jieun did not have much action going on in her own love life. This was all she had.

"Wait-" Hoseok laughed as he grabbed onto Chungha's arm before she could leave. "I'm kidding, it's actually something serious."

Chungha raised her eyebrows and folded her arms. "What?"

"Oh, our Jieun-ssi over here is having a slump-" Hoseok explained quickly as Jieun buried her face in her hands. "I tried pep-talking her a little, maybe you could try giving her some advice too...?"

"Ah-" Chungha let out a nervous laugh as she glanced at Jieun uneasily. "You sure you want my advice?"

"Yeah-" Jieun nodded earnestly. "Of course!"

"The hard truth?"

"Mmhmm."

"Well..." Chungha pursed her lips, thinking deeply. "There's one thing- just one thing, that I'm sure all of us news reporters can agree on."

Jieun raised her eyebrows out of curiosity. "What is it?"

Chungha glanced at Hoseok. "You tell her."

"Huh?" Hoseok raised his eyebrows in confusion. "How would I know-"

"Tsk-" Chungha clucked her tongue agitatedly. "Don't you remember what gave us our biggest promotion a few months ago?"

Hoseok thought for a while, before letting out an awkward chuckle as he ruffled up his hair. "I really can't remember."

"You're useless." Chungha shook her head as she turned back to Jieun. "Jieun-ssi, to be honest, what the company cares the most about is... viewership ratings. The higher the viewership rating, the more money the company earns. So basically, what you need to do is to get your hands on some juicy news, and report it before anyone else does. That's how you can gain favour from bujang-nim and the higher-ups quickly."

"Oh?" Jieun's eyes lit up. "Like?"

"Like..." Chungha pursed her lips. "A few months ago, Hoseok-oppa and I got our biggest raise yet. You wanna know how we did it?"

Jieun's eyes widened as she listened attentively to Chungha. "Tell me!"

"We had insider news that two celebrities were dating-" Chungha said softly. "Jeon Jungkook and Jennie Kim - a k-pop idol and an actress. Got them on camera and were the first ones to cover their dating news. The broadcast video we uploaded to our YouTube channel garnered more than 5 million views in a day! The thing is that both of them weren't even that huge back then, imagine how many more views we could have garnered if both of them were superstars."