On August 16 episode of MBC's television show 'Radio Star', DARA made a guest appearance.
On this day, DARA revealed that she used to be a cyber lover, which meant that she mostly texted her boyfriend, and only went on one to two dates in a car.
She explained, "If I got caught dating someone as a trainee, I was going to get kicked out of the agency. And I wasn't allowed to date anyone for five years after debut. Under those strict rules, I could only be a cyber lover in order to hide things from our agency staff."
"Once, I managed to get some time off work. So, my ex and I decided to go on a trip together. As the date came close though, I got more and more scared. I was mainly scared of paparazzi that may follow me and snap photos of us together. At that time, people would go, 'Oh, it's 2NE1!' everywhere I went."
"I ended up ghosting all his calls on the day of our trip. He called me almost a hundred times, but I could only apologize to him in my head, over my ringing phone. Don't be surprised, but he's someone from this industry."
When the host Kim Gu-ra commented, "He probably told everyone around him that you were some sort of crazy person.", DARA laughed and responded, "Yeah, that's very likely. He dumped me after that, so... I know it's late, but I would like to apologize to him."
DARA looked at the camera and said, "I'm sorry." while lowering her head.
DARA stated, "There was this time I went to Gyeongnidan-gil with my ex. Nobody recognized us, since we were both covered up with long padded coats, scarves, masks and stuff. As we were walking about, we suddenly smelt sweet potatoes being cooked. We excitedly headed to the street vendor. However, it turned out the sweet potatoes were sold by rapper Cheetah. We were afraid that our relationship might be revealed in the industry if we let her see us, so we just walked away."
She continued, "Later, we broke up, without a single memory of us eating out together. He was a pretty well-known person as well, so... I feel bad about that. Let me say sorry to him too. Sorry!", then once again lowered her head toward the camera.
Then, the hosts told her, "Don't let anyone or anything get in the way of your relationship anymore, DARA!"
DARA replied, "Yes, don't worry. I'm no longer a cyber lover now. I do sometimes make mistakes since I don't have much dating experience, but I go on normal dates outside these days."
(SBS Star)