"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dal Gong-Gi!"

Waltzing into the room in a black suit and yellow tie, he looked nothing like the popstar the world was used to. His hair dyed black and combed back straight. Gong-Gi shook the interviewer's hand and took a seat beside her. There had been rumours circulating left, right and centre about his life. Many theories about his relationship with Taeyang had to be debunked. Some mysteries were best left unsolved.

Gong-Gi knew the interviewer from elementary school. Her name was Hoe Hana. He remembered her as the reserved girl in the back of the classroom with pigtails. Hana still had the pigtails and the orchid pin in her hair. He wondered if Hana would bring up the fact they were in the same class. A part of him was sure that she would.

"Welcome to the show. It's an honour to have you here."

"The pleasure is all mine."

"It's funny actually..." Hana giggled, bringing her knees to her chest as her notebook slid off her thighs. Looking up to the audience she said, "Gong-Gi and I actually went to the same school."

"And you haven't changed one bit."

"Now let's get on to the first question." Gong-Gi maintained his laughter. Because of her child-like appearance, he found it difficult to take Hana seriously. He saw a fangirl in front of him. "You and Taeyang had been in the band together for years. It must have hurt when the band split up?"

"It didn't hurt at all," he admitted. "It was a real relief."

"What?" Hana leaned forward. The way she stared at him, made him push himself back against the chair. "Why do you say it's a relief?"

"Because I can lay in bed, eat what I want and be myself again." He hoped that a hole in the ground would devour him and transport him to the beach. Interviews were a drag at the best of times.

"The burning question that everybody wants to know is why did you two break up?"
It was a question Gong-Gi knew was coming, but the content could be twisted either way. "Can you clarify the question?"

"What caused the split up?"

"As in the relationship or the band?"

"Both!"

"It was the right time. We had enough of the music industry, and wanted to go our own separate ways."

"Do you still keep in touch?"

"Occasionally. He used to visit me in jail."

"Wow, I'm surprised. I thought you two would be talking to each other every day. So what was your love life like with somebody twelve years your junior?"
"Satisfactory."

"Oh! Only satisfactory?" Hana tone shifted. Biting her lip, she scolded him. "Did you even love Taeyang?"

"No." Of course he loved Taeyang, but the world didn't need to know that. "Our relationship was strictly business." The audience booed, roaring every curse word under the sun.

"But it was so obvious Taeyang loved you. The camera doesn't lie. You both looked so happy on your wedding day?"

"That was a publicity stunt." Gong-Gi crossed his legs and squeezed his hands, hoping a hole in the ground would swallow him. "That's how I ended up spending 18 months in prison."

"How can you sleep at night, knowing that you've broken his heart?"

"He's young. He'll get over it. He's a strong cookie. Taeyang will have plenty of people to choose from."

Hana gasped. If there was any admiration from her side, it had long since passed. "And your fans will be so disgusted with you?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "They'll find something else to fawn over."

"What kind of example are you setting for your children?" Hana shrieked. She never did have patience, which made him wonder how she got a job in journalism in the first place. "How would you feel if your daughters decided to be pop stars just like you?"

"I forbid it. Women do not belong in the music industry."

The audience glared at him in silence. Taking a good look around the studio, he heard the staff muttering to themselves as he felt the judgement of a thousand eyes pierce through his soul.

"What about your son?" Hana asked.

"What son?"

"Your seven year old son!"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Hana threw a newspaper on his lap. Gong-Gi took a brief look at the little boy on the cover and the pretty girl in the corner then passed it back to Hana. "This is just paper to me."

"You got a fan pregnant, seven years ago. That is your son on the cover!"

"Well, he can do whatever he wants. He'll be strong enough to handle it. My girls are very young. To even think that my daughters would go through the same ordeal that their mother went through pains me. I don't even know why my ex-wife is working for them again, they were horrible to her."

"Your manager, Flo Glitz is all about giving second chances though..."

"She's in on it too."

Hana stood up to slap him. The audience applauded the moment her palm whacked Gong-Gi's cheek.

"Slap me all you want, but it won't take away the truth. Female idols were created by men to please men. They will never be our equals. The music industry is built on misogyny and slavery. Idols are not seen as artists. All music artists under a record label are basically puppets and slaves. We work all day, everyday, including Christmas Day sometimes and we get pittance. The only ones who benefit are the ones at the top."

Gong-Gi continued over the boos.

"Women are basically slut-shamed and fat-shamed for things they have no control over. They are told what to wear and what to eat. Every corner of the industry from your bandmates, the fandom and the people who work under and above you are judging you. You have nowhere to turn to. Nobody to trust. When the cameras roll, we all act like one big happy... it's nothing like that behind closed doors. Men get it bad too, but nothing like women do. This toxic industry is polluting the music world. We need to boycott them all."

Someone in the audience screamed from the top of their lungs, "We're going to burn all your merchandise!"

"Burning all your merchandise won't help. That will destroy the environment. It doesn't hit them where it hurts, because they've already got your money from those items."
"Get off the stage!"

Amidst the boos, Gong-Gi carried on talking. "I suppose the media will cancel me tonight. They'll say I'm sexist, but I suppose it takes one to know one."

The interviewer shook her microphone. Turning towards the camera, she forced her lips to curl into a smile. Her static eyes and slow waves told another story. "Okay, our interview is now terminated."

"That's a funny way to say it."

"All I can say is thank you for your time, and I wish you well in the future. You may leave."

The disappointment in her sunkern eyes was clear. He knew she was creeping for a big scoop on his sex life, the drug binges and the fortune he wasted on alcohol. What happened between the sheets would stay there. It was not the world's business.