Candace Park

Official cover art of Candace

Candace Park is the protagonist of the K-Pop Confidential series by Stephan Lee. She is a normal girl from New Jersey with a hidden talent for singing, despite her mothers insistance on playing the viola (an instrument for which she has no talent). She debuted with THE GIRLS under a restructured S.A.Y Entertainment.

### Personality

Candace is outspoken and true to herself, as encouraged by her parents. Upon entering S.A.Y Entertainment, her Umma tells her to never let anyone forget she is someones most cherished person. She does not let the staff and executives walk over her, and due to her poor Korean skills and "American mindset" often accidentally slips into *banmal* (extremely informal speech). This both enrages and charms executives, ultimately securing her a spot on the debut team of S.A.Y Entertainment's first girl group (along with her vocal and artistic abilities, being dubbed "the female One.J").

Her directness, however, can also lend itself to thoughtlessness due to her lack of filter. She often acts in the heat of the moment, and whilst this authenticity endears some it has also harmed others. Candace does show remorse and always tries to right her wrongs

### Appearance

At the beginning of the series Candace has long, greasy black hair. She is 5'1", and is constantly reminded by the trainers and executives at S.A.Y Entertainment that she is too short to have an "attractive body line". She is neither fat nor thin, according to her, and The General says though her weight isn't high due to her height she should lose more weight.

Candace has monolids and a wide nose, features CEO Sang wanted her to alter with cosmetic surgery. Candace declines as she wants to look like Abba. Candace embraces her ethnic features as part of her identity and her families love for her. She writes a song about this called "Monolid Girl".

Upon her first makeover at S.A.Y Entertainment, her hair is bleached white blonde. It is then dyed purple to match the wig worn in One.J's music video to avoid suspicion of them dating.

### Relationships

#### Helena Cho

Helena seems to take an immediate dislike toward Candace. They are both Korean-Americans, and Helena seemed to resent Candace for this. This is due to Madam Jung telling Helena that the company would only ever debut one Korean-American, due to the groups global concept. Candace, however, thought Helena was the most beautiful girl in the world when they first met (until she saw Aram). When Candace catched Helena making out with their junior manager, Jihoon (Madam Jung's son), she runs away and promises to never tell anyone. However, Candace points out that she knows Candace has been sneaking up to the roof to meet a boy, and turns the potential blackmail around. Helena ruins Candace's hair after she asks for help to maintain its health after an intense bleach job, seemingly continuing a streak of sabotage (after constantly putting trash into her bed and seeming to get YoungBae to destroy her guitar). This turns out to not be sabotage on her part, but on Madam Jungs. This misunderstanding leads to a fight in the waiting room of the crowing ceremony.

Their relationship is healed afterwards, when things are talked out between them and Candace finds out Helena's mother died when she was young and her father died whilst she was training. Helena resented how easy things came to Candace, despite her not needing it in the same way so many other trainees did. After the incident at the crowning ceremony, Candace and Umma take in Helena and the three create a familial bond. Whilst Candace is in hiding, Helena looks after her and takes care of her public image, with Candace finding comfort in everything Helena does. As such, the two become closer than ever, their bond further solidifying as Candace refuses to join THE GIRLS' lineup without Helena.