Peninsula: Starting with the nation's first love, the white moonlight

In mid-November, the ginkgo trees lining the roads on campus had turned golden yellow, and golden fallen leaves covered the entire tree-lined path.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, the bell rang on time to signal the end of get out of class. Just as Li Luran was about to leave, a curly-haired boy wearing a gray hoodie rushed over and grabbed Li Luran's shoulder.

"Let go, you two are grown men, stop pulling and tugging."

Li Luran slapped his hand away in disgust, but there wasn't much aversion in her tone.

His name is Park Ji-hoon, a native of Seoul, and one of Lee Lu-ran's few friends on the Korean Peninsula.

It's quite dramatic how the two became good friends.

During a general education class, Park Ji-hoon was secretly watching a girl group's music video by himself. However, he didn't put his headphones on properly, and then tragedy struck. The professor's face darkened when he heard about it.

Fortunately, Li Luran, who was sitting next to him, reacted quickly and explained to the professor that it was his phone alarm, thus helping him out of the predicament.

From then on, Park Ji-hoon unilaterally declared that Lee Lu-ran was his best brother in college.

"Lu Ran, how's the matter I asked you to handle?"

Park Ji-hoon followed Lee Lu-ran out of the teaching building, looking at him expectantly.

"What is it?" Li Luran asked, feigning ignorance.

"An autograph! IU's autograph!"

Park Ji-hoon was so anxious he was practically jumping up and down. "You've been interning at LOEN for half a month! Isn't this a perfect opportunity to get a signed CD of Ji-eun-unna? It's a piece of cake!"

Lee Luran sighed and looked helplessly at Park Ji-hoon.

This guy is similar to his childhood friend, also a K-pop fanatic. Li Luran just doesn't understand, do these guys have nothing better to do all day?

"Park Jihoon, I'm just a lowly intern, to put it bluntly, a menial worker. I've barely even seen IU a few times. Where am I supposed to get your autograph? Wait for her in the parking garage?"

This isn't Li Luran lying; IU's current schedule is terrifyingly packed.

She occasionally returns to the company, always accompanied by four or five assistants and agents.

He was just an intern doing odd jobs in the corner, and he had only seen him a few times from afar.

"Ugh..." Park Jihoon scratched his head in disappointment. "I thought that since my brother infiltrated the ranks, I could benefit from it too."

However, his disappointment lasted for less than three seconds.

The next second, he suddenly stopped and narcissistically flicked his bangs.

"But it's okay."

"If I pass my audition at SM Entertainment next month, I'll be a trainee too. Maybe then I can even get IU's autograph from backstage!"

"Lu Ran, I'll put in a good word for you, maybe you'll even get a promotion and a raise!"

Li Luran's lips twitched slightly.

Although this guy is indeed quite handsome, and could be considered a good-looking guy among college students, he would seem rather ordinary in the entertainment industry.

But he has a strange confidence in himself, firmly believing that he is a hidden gem of SM Entertainment.

"You still have to go for an interview?" Li Luran bluntly retorted. "Didn't you fail to even pass the first round of auditions at JYP last month?"

"That's because JYP has no vision!"

Park Ji-hoon retorted confidently, "With my looks, I could definitely become a trainee at SM! They would definitely see the huge commercial value behind my face!"

"Lu Ran, it's a promise, you have to come with me to SM's open auditions next month!"

"I'm busy," Li Luran said curtly.

"No way! If you don't go, I'll die at your doorstep!" Park Ji-hoon grabbed him and started acting like a scoundrel.

"Okay, okay, we'll talk about it later."

Li Luran gave a perfunctory reply and quickened his pace to leave the teaching building.

After leaving school, Li Luran didn't go straight to the company. Instead, she went to a nearby coffee shop to organize the reports she would need later.

He had barely sat down when his phone started vibrating incessantly.

It wasn't a phone call, but a barrage of voice messages on WeChat.

Li Luran opened WeChat, and Zhang Kai's profile picture kept flashing. This guy had sent seven or eight voice messages, each lasting more than fifty seconds.

Li Luran turned the volume down and put the phone to her ear.

"Li Luran! You beast! You traitor!"

"You actually went to LOEN as an intern? Do you even know what kind of place that is?! You kept this from me for almost half a month!"

"You little brat, are you always secretly staring at pretty female celebrities? I'm telling you, you have to get me an autographed photo of IU! No, two! I want to show them off to my friends!"

Hearing Zhang Kai's envious roar, Li Luran couldn't help but laugh out loud and casually sent him a voice message in return:

"You should think about how to get your uncle to let you out, instead of thinking about these trivial things all day long."

"I have to go to work now, talk to you later!"

Li Luran enjoys her current life, which is peaceful yet a little busy.

The blond little guy from New Zealand became a memory, and his first love in the elevator was locked away in his heart.

Li Luran thought he could probably spend his four years of university life peacefully like this, until...

"Buzzing..."

His phone vibrated again, this time a message from the planning department's work group. He glanced at it; it was from Lao Pu:

"@Everyone, all members of the Planning Department, Group A, please note: At 3:30 PM, everyone assemble in Recording Studio 2 on the third floor."

Li Luran frowned slightly. The planning department usually held meetings in the conference room on the second floor. Why did they suddenly have to gather in the recording studio?

Immediately afterwards, Lao Pu tagged Li Luran separately in the group chat.

"@Li Luran, Luran, have you arrived at the company yet? Hurry up and come over, the work this afternoon is a bit special."

Li Luran's intuition told him that something was amiss.

He finished his iced Americano in one gulp, packed his backpack, and quickly walked out of the coffee shop toward the LOEN building.

3:25 PM, LOEN Building, third floor.

The recording studio on the third floor is divided into an outer control room and an inner recording studio. Li Luran pushed open the door of recording studio number two. At this moment, the control room was already crowded with people.

Not only were there Park and his team, but also several mixing engineers from the production department, and Lee Ji-eun's manager.

Lee Ji-eun, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and headphones, stood expressionless in front of the microphone.

This was the first time Li Luran had ever seen such a large-scale event since joining the company.

When Lao Pu saw Li Luran, he quickly pulled him to an empty seat next to the control panel. "Luran, you're finally here! Sit down and put on your headphones."

"What's going on, senior?" Li Luran asked in a low voice.

Old Pu leaned close to Li Luran's ear and whispered:

"I don't know either!"

"This afternoon, Ji-eun suddenly came to the planning department with her manager, saying that she felt her performance in the last few concerts was not right and insisted on re-recording several versions of 'Good Day' to find the feeling."

"Actually, recording songs doesn't really have much to do with our planning department. She should have contacted the production department. But just now, Ji-eun's manager came over specifically and insisted that everyone in our planning department be there, even you, the intern, had to be there."

Old Park looked at Li Luran suspiciously, "You're pretty close to Zhi'en, aren't you?"

Li Luran shook his head and did not answer Lao Pu.

However, he knew very well that he and Lee Ji-eun were not close at all. They had never even spoken a word to each other. Rather than being familiar, it was more likely that Lee Ji-eun had ulterior motives for calling him over.

He thought about it for a long time, and could only think of one possibility: that she had overheard what he said to Lao Pu that day.

Li Luran slowly raised his head, and Li Zhien also raised her head at that very moment.

Eyes facing each other.

From her eyes, Li Luran could see Li Zhi'en's pride and confidence, as well as a hint of provocation.

"Dear teachers, I am ready."

Lee Ji-eun spoke into the microphone, her voice not loud, but full of confidence.

"Okay, okay, Ji-eun, don't force yourself. Let's go through the original tune first."

As the accompaniment began to play softly, Li Luran put on his monitoring headphones.

He could tell from the provocative look in Lee Ji-eun's eyes that today's performance was definitely a deliberate attempt by Lee Ji-eun to target him.

However, since this "national little sister" has issued a challenge, I'll play along!