Lisa sighed and mumbled all the way back to Seoul. She had had the most amazing time in New York City. The Michael Kors fashion show had been amazing, and she had met so many fashion insiders there too. She spent time with Jisoo and Rosé and they had explored and eaten good food there. And most of all, her date with Jungkook had been perfect. She had only wished it could have lasted longer.
"Don't look so down, Lali," her unnie said to her on the plane ride back. "He's coming back to Seoul soon, isn't he?"
"No, not for another 6 weeks or so..."
"Oh..." Jisoo said, scratching her head, not expecting that he would be out of the country for so long... "Well, I'll keep you company instead. We'll go eat some good Korean food when we get back."
She smiled at Jisoo's kind words. Her unnie always looked out for her.
"Thanks, Jisoo-unnie. You always know what to say to make me feel better."
They did just that and Jisoo even accompanied Lisa on a shopping trip, even though Jisoo hated shopping with Lisa and her insatiable need to buy anything cute that she came across. But the oldest member's company was exactly what she needed to put her in a brighter mood.
That night and the next few nights after, Lisa didn't get a chance to speak to Jungkook on the phone or via video call. With the time difference, whenever she went to bed, he was just starting his day or in the middle of a schedule.
They were both also pretty terrible at replying quickly these days too. It was unintentional but sometimes they wouldn't text back for several hours.
Lisa checked her phone, and sure enough, no reply from Jungkook to her earlier text that she had seen his performance on Good Morning America.
However, just as she was getting into bed, her phone rang.
Her face lit up at seeing the caller ID. She quickly hopped into bed and pulled her duvet over her to get comfortable.
"Jungkookie~" she sang into the reciever.
"Laaaaalisa," he sang back, rolling the 'L' on his tongue.
"Are you okay? It must be serious if you're calling your girlfriend all of a sudden after ignoring her for so long."
"Ah you know it's not like that!"
She smiled and stopped her teasing. "Yeah I know, it's been busy, huh?"
His defeated sigh made her frown. He really did sound so worn out and exhausted. "Yeah, touring is hard on top of promotions."
"Are you sleeping enough?"
"I feel like that's all I do. Just sleep, eat and perform."
She hummed. "Well make sure to stay healthy. Drink lots of water and take vitamins!"
"Yes, ma'am."
"You wanna' hear a funny story?"
"Always," was his automatic response.
She retold him an anecdote that had happened to her recently involving a language misunderstanding, black bean noodles and a market vendor. Her retelling was spiced up with her trademark exaggeration and expressive storytelling skills. He was laughing hard by the end of it and Lisa felt herself becoming lighter hearing the sound again.
"Thanks, I needed to feel that second-hand embarrassment to make myself feel better about my own situation," he teased.
"Ya! What sort of gratitude is that!?"
He sniggered. "But thank you really, Lisa. You always know."
She blushed at his words. He may be right, but she was just being herself and the only person she knew how to be, and that was someone who brought light into other people's lives.
"Anyway, what's new in your life, Lalisa Manoban?"
"You know, this and that. We're back to having quite a light schedule. It's not stressful."
"That's good, and you're taking care of yourself?"
"Yes, yes, you're sounding like my mother."
"Well, your mother is a wise woman."
He had met her mom when she visited Korea a couple of times now. Her mom treated Jungkook like her own, easily taking him under her wing, showering him with affection and food, just like how she was with her members.
The line went silent for a while before she heard his deep sigh. She could imagine him roughly running his hands through his hair and messing it up.
"How do people manage long-distance relationships? This is so hard."
She sighed back also. It was true. Their relationship had changed with the both of them being on tour and their schedules never aligning. "I don't know. I always knew it would be hard but the reality is worse."
His voice thousands of miles away could never compare to his hands around her waist and his face buried into her hair, his scent enveloping her as they cuddled in bed.
He sang her a lullaby that night before she went to sleep. It was Lisa's lullaby - a beautiful, slow version of Euphoria, where she felt each lyric sang by Jungkook was specially written for her.

-&-

A week after her phone call with Jungkook and they talked even less than before. He had called her for ten minutes yesterday but then had to rush off as his manager had been calling him. The texts were even sparser and were normally check-ins to ensure everything was okay with the other person. His concerns voiced the other week about their long-distance relationship were completely valid and something Lisa also felt acutely. She didn't even want to voice them to herself for fear of manifesting an unfortunate destiny, but she could hardly call this a healthy relationship either. It didn't even feel like they were dating half of the time anymore. Of course, when they did manage to meet up or when they had time to have a proper chat over the phone, it felt natural again, like they hadn't even spent time apart, but it was so rare nowadays, and she was starting to lose the memories of how that felt.
That morning, Lisa chose to practice her own choreography in an empty dance room, putting in her headphones and trying to distract herself with what she knew best. Her body moved on instinct alone, not caring if the dance was particularly good. She just needed to forget reality for a while, and this was undoubtably the best way to do it. Plus, it would tire her body out enough that she should fall asleep as soon as she hit the pillow tonight, which was a rare occurrence for her these days. 
Only an hour into her session though, Lisa's manager interrupted her. 
"Sajangnim wants to see you, Lisa," he said. He used a gentle tone, probably to not worry her about the message he was delivering. It could never be good news if YG himself wanted to see her. She frowned and nodded.
"Let me just clean myself up a bit."
"Sure, I'll wait outside to take you upstairs."
Lisa made sure she looked composed and professional in the mirrors, but inside she was already overthinking. She ran a shaky hand through her bangs, ensuring they were neat. She couldn't remember the last time she had been called to Sajangnim's office by herself - it had probably been when she was a trainee though. She was already thinking of the worst-case scenarios - what if it was something to do with her family? Or her visa? Or maybe she hadn't been performing very well recently... 
However, in her mind, she knew that it could be none of those things - her family would have contacted her mobile, her visa was secure for the next few years at least, and she knew all her performances with Blackpink had been amazing. So what could it possibly be?
Her manager escorted her to the fifth floor, which was unusual as wasn't the President's office on the seventh floor? He stopped in front of one of the conference rooms, where he politely knocked on the door and opened it for her.
Lisa bowed upon entrance as her manager closed the door and left, evidently not needing to be in the meeting.
When she rose, she was surprised to find three people already sitting around the table - YG Sajangnim, a middle-aged man who looked vaguely familiar and... Jungkook.
Her eyes widened when they fell on him. He was supposed to be in America and had not been scheduled to return to Seoul until after BTS's North American tour ended, which was at least a few weeks away. She still couldn't comprehend why he was here, but a thick sense of dread curled itself inside of her, knowing they were both here together with her CEO. Had he been called all the way back from America for this meeting to be told their relationship had been found out and her CEO wanted to put a stop to it?
"Lisa, please have a seat," her Sajangnim said patiently, gesturing to the seat next to Jungkook and across the table from him and the other figure. She shook herself out of her sabotaging thoughts and hurried to her seat, bowing to the occupants in the room as she did so.
"This is Bang Si-Hyuk, the CEO of BigHit."
She bowed particularly low to the third man in the room. He smiled back at her kindly but she was too nervous and confused to smile back.
Shakily, she took the chair next to Jungkook. Through the introductions, he had been quiet and reserved. He also looked as nervous as she felt, but he did raise his eyes to hers and offer her a small but reassuring smile that relieved a little of the butterflies in her stomach.
"You don't need to look so nervous, the two of you," Sajangnim said with a light chuckle, evidently trying to lighten the mood a bit. "You're not in trouble."
"We're... not?" Jungkook said in disbelief.
"No, you're not," Bang PD said. "We obviously know about your relationship-"
"I'm just mad that you never told me or your managers, Lisa." Sajangnim's words surprised her, and she couldn't help but let out an undignified "Eh?"
"We'll get to how I found out in a bit, but knowing that Si-Hyuk knew about the two of you before me... that hurt a bit."
"Ah..." Lisa was shocked that he was reacting so mildly to the news of her dating, and even making light jokes like this. All she could say was a half-hearted, "I'm sorry."
"Now you must be wondering why we gathered you both here. Especially you Jungkook, who flew all the way back for this mysterious meeting."
So even Jungkook didn't know what this was about. It must have been a shock for him too to have been dragged to YG's building as soon as he stepped off the plane and for Lisa to walk into the conference room on top of that.
Bang PD continued, "We wanted to make sure we had this conversation together, in person, and sooner rather than later. The celebrity news outlet, Dispatch, has found out about the two of you."
Both Lisa and Jungkook's eyes' widened in disbelief and fear.
"Oh no," she exhaled. Any relief she felt at her Sajangnim finding out about her dating but not reacting angrily to it fizzled out. This was possibly worse, as the public finding out about dating news was a surefire way to end anyone's careers. Jungkook's hand instinctively reached for hers under the table and gave it a firm squeeze.
"They have a photo of the two of you together in New York."
YG slid a tablet across the table. The photo shown was taken in the dark and the shots were grainy. However, there were two unmistakable figures in front of that fountain in Central Park. They flipped past the photos, creating a shot-by-shot sequence of Jungkook taking photos of her, of them posing for a photo together on self-timer and finally of Jungkook embracing and kissing her.
All the photos were low-quality and zoomed in. However, any fan would be able to tell it was them just by the lines of their bodies and the occasional photo where parts of their faces were lit up by the lamps in the park.
"These are you, aren't they? Taken in September in Central Park."
Lisa nodded her head, her eyes not being able to look at her Sajangnim in the eye. She was biting at her lower lip in nervousness and she could feel Jungkook at her side also tense and probably angry at being photographed unknowingly.
"Dispatch reached out to the both of us a couple of days ago. BigHit have a contract with them and YG are on generally good terms with them," Bang PD explained. "Out of honour for that, they didn't release the photos right away."
"Right..." Jungkook said, still not convinced. "But if these were taken in September, why now? Why didn't they contact you sooner?"
"The photos were taken by a junior intern at Dispatch Style. It took a while for their superiors to pay attention to the photos and their significance."
"So, does this mean they're going to release the photos and expose us?" Lisa asked in a small voice.
"We don't know yet," Bang PD answered gravely. "Both of our lawyers are in discussions with Dispatch now. We will obviously try to do everything we can to prevent the photos from leaking and have the Dispatch intern sign an NDA. However, the main reason we called you both here is to prepare you both for the possibility that these talks fail, the photos get released and your relationship is exposed to the public."
Lisa couldn't tell if she was relieved or scared, or both, having heard that their lawyers were working hard on the case but may still lose to Dispatch.
"So you're not going to tell us to... break up or anything?" Jungkook asked uncertainly, voicing the concern that the both of them had as soon as they had walked through the door.
Bang PD assured them that he would never ask that of them; however, YG Sajangnim was more reluctant to offer his assurances at first.
"To be honest, I was thinking about it. Lisa, you're still technically on a dating ban, and Blackpink are doing really well at the moment. I didn't want anything getting in the way of your success... However, I think you're both responsible young people and you're old enough to be experiencing this."
A small exhalation escaped the both of them. They turned to each other but neither could feel enough relief yet to smile at each other.
"So what do we do if the photos are released?"
For the next hour, the four of them sat around the conference table discussing the possible eventuality of Lisa and Jungkook's relationship being exposed. The couple were surprised to learn that their companies wouldn't try to deny the fact the two of them were dating if the photos were released. In fact, the plan was for both YG and BigHit to release separate and joint statements, admitting to the truth. They would then have the couple do a short press conference to clear any uncertainty before Jungkook left to resume his schedule in America. Whilst Lisa and Jungkook both wanted to keep the specifics of their relationship as secret as possible, the two CEOs disagreed. Although they knew that the relationship between two members of their most successful bands would bring its own bad press, with many fans most likely leaving the fandom, they both couldn't pass up a business opportunity when it presented itself. The dating news would lead to a dip in business for the first few days, mostly affecting YG's stock market price. However, they were certain that business would bounce back quickly, with the public and the media's curiosity over the couple winning out in the end. Therefore, they both saw this as a chance to feed off the publicity they would inevitably receive, with two members from the biggest idol groups of the moment dating. The two CEOs speculated that an Instagram post of the couple would garner millions of likes, a paparazzi picture of the couple on a date would sell for billions of won, and companies would come clamouring for the chance of having the two of them endorse their products together. Even hinting at a possible collaboration would surely create an international buzz that would garner huge amounts of revenue for the two entertainment companies. 
"I-I mean, it kind of sounds like you're wanting to release the photo yourselves to be honest," Lisa blurted out truthfully, after listening in horror to the two CEOs plans to capitalise on her relationship with Jungkook. 
Jungkook nodded in agreement, his face and voice barely masking his own anger. "You've obviously both thought this through a lot. How do we know you won't?"
Bang PD laughed abashedly and waved his hands to dismiss the idea. "Ah, we probably sounded too hawkish, Yang-ssi," he said, addressing YG. "Don't worry, kids, the photo not being released is our best plan and the ideal outcome we want."
YG agreed with a quick nod of his head. "We just needed a well thought-out contingency plan for if things do go awry, one that would have assured that our businesses wouldn't be impacted negatively upon the release of the photos. But as Bang-ssi said, we ideally don't want any dating news about you guys released at all. We're both well aware that BTS and Blackpink can do well enough without exposing your private lives. I hope that reassures you."
Jungkook and Lisa glanced at each other in confirmation before they both gave minute nods of agreement.
"Fine," Jungkook said, for even though he couldn't trust the words of a stranger, he knew he could at least have confidence that whatever Bang PD said was the truth. "So when do we find out whether the talks have worked? Are we just going to wake up one day with our phones blowing up and the pictures all over the internet?"
Even the thought made unpleasant shivers run down his spine.
"We should know by the end of the day," YG said. "It's a delicate matter but I have every confidence that our lawyers know what they're doing. After all, don't think you're the first or last idols to have their private lives threatened by Dispatch. We've managed to keep the majority of them well hidden from the public so far."
Both Lisa and Jungkook were almost curious enough to ask about those other idols and what sort of dirty secrets had been almost exposed by Dispatch, but at this point in their meeting, they were both too emotionally drained to want to get into it.
When the meeting was over, Bang PD insisted that he get Jungkook back to his hotel as soon as possible, where he would be staying in secret. No one had found out that he had flown back to Seoul so his boss was eager to keep his presence under wraps. Lisa managed to sneak in a quick peck to his lips that he had craved the entire time of the meeting's duration. It was just a shame that now they were finally in the same city after weeks apart, they still couldn't be together. And on top of that, they both knew that the rest of the day was going to be the longest wait for them to hear the outcome. They couldn't even comfort each other while they waited to hear potentially the worst news of their relationship and of their careers...