It was a typical weekend for Dara. She and her friends agreed to meet up at their usual hang-out spot at the coffee shop nearby their village. They haven’t seen each other for weeks since they’ve been busy with their individual lives and others, busy with their love lives too and she just arrived from a business trip in New York.

All in all they were 8 in their group. Park Bom and Top, they’re a couple; Chaerin and Seungri another couple; and Minzy and Kai, you’re guessing it right, they’re a couple too and lastly Donghae and herself, no they’re not an item, they never dated and yes, they are the last single people in their group. She’d usually wonder how come these people hooked up with each other. Don’t they find it awkward and weird they’ve been together since they’re were like in their diapers? Well except for Minzy and Kai since they were born years younger than them. But that’s not the point, she just couldn’t imagine herself dating one of her close childhood friends.

These people mean a lot to her. They’re like the family she’s chosen for herself, not that she’s not happy with her family. She is. In fact their parents are also friends with each other, maybe that’s how they got close too. When she’s with her friends, she felt she can be herself no matter how crazy she becomes. She has proven their friendship for so many times, she already lost count. There was one time in high school when a boy broke her heart, they were there to the rescue. When she lost her wallet during their field trip in Jeju, they were there to help her out they spared some of their pocket money and gave it to her. When she had her first period and she didn’t know what to do since her parents weren’t home, she had to call them and all of them rushed to her house, funny how the boys got so paranoid and raced to the nearest convenience store just to buy some sanitary napkins for her to use. They went from childhood to puberty, adolescence, adulthood and even detention together. She can never hide anything from these crazies. Never.

While reminiscing her fond memories of them she heard a knock and her door opened. “Ya! Day dreaming again?” it was Park Bom.

“I wasn’t!”

“You were. You were staring at nowhere like a retard. I’ll bet you’d be drooling by then if I arrived a little later”

“Are you here to pick me up or just make fun of me?”

“Both. Now hurry up, they’re all waiting for us.”

She got up and checked her reflection in the mirror. Hmm same old, she said to herself.

Finally when they arrived at the café, all of her friends were there. As usual, noisy and chaotic. A good kind of chaos. The chaos she missed.

“Daraaaaaa!” everybody exclaimed like they haven’t seen her in years. Chaerin and Minzy got up and gave her a really big hug as well as the boys, they bear-hugged her too.

“Ya! Why the commotion?” she asked them.

“Nothing. We just missed you.” Chaerin explained.

“Gosh, we haven’t seen you for a while. Where have you been?” it was Minzy.

“Duh, I was sent to New York for a couple of weeks, remember?” she reminded them.

“Right. Sorry, we seem to be aging fast. We forgot”, said Chaerin.

“So, found yourself an American lover yet?” Top asked.

“Yeah! You should’ve looked for one or you already have and you’re keeping it from us?” this time Seungri is interrogating her.

“Why would Dara look for an American lover if we have lots of hot Korean men here”, Bom eyed Donghae.

Chaerin got what Bom meant. “Yeah, you’re right Bommie. Maybe love’s just around the corner, right Lee Donghae?” now ever body was staring at him.

“What?” Donghae exclaimed.

The couples have been pairing Dara and Donghae since they were the last single pair in the group.

“Y’all cut it out!” Dara blurted. “Donghae, why aren’t you greeting me? Don’t you miss me?”

“I don’t.” he said coldly.

Out of the 8, Donghae is the least she’s close to. Not that she dislikes him but she just couldn’t stand his mood swings. One minute he’s fine the other he’s not.

“This guy! Aish! You know you could’ve just pretended that you missed me too”, she said when she sat beside him.

“You know I don’t like pretending”, he let out a smirk.

“Fine… Fine, I give up. This guy really, so frustrating!”

The others were just staring at them looking so amazed at their short banter.

“What? Are we here to just look at each other?” Dara said to them.

“Let’s order. Dara’s treat since she didn’t get us anything from the US.” Top announced.

“I didn’t say I’d treat you guys. We all have our jobs, we get paid too. Let’s just pay our own meals instead, alright?” she joked.

Everybody gave her the puppy dog eyes. Another crazy thing they do whenever they wanted something from any one of them.

She laughed at what they did, “Fine, fine, you brats! Order what you want.”

They each recited their order to the waiter, even when ordering they were a total chaos.

“Lee Donghae, how have you been?”

“I’m good. How about you? I see you were enjoying New York so much, huh?”

“Totally good. Yeah, it was fun. I’m already there, might as well enjoy the moment, right? So I heard you were dating someone new again?”

“Where’d you get that news?”

Dara eyed Chaerin.

“Oh right, that blabbermouth. She was just someone my mom set me up with. You know her, if she could set me up on a date with all the girls in Korea, she would.”

She laughed remembering that one date Donghae had, “I remember your date with your mom’s high school classmate’s daughter. The stalker? The girl got all the hots for you, practically followed you everywhere you go!”

“Aish! You really have to bring that up? That girl was a total pain in the ! She really thought I’d marry her. Even my mom got so alarmed. Glad you guys were there to help out.”

Donghae asked for their help. Dara pretended to be Donghae’s girlfriend, it was the plan their friends came up with. At first, both of them didn’t agree and thought it was absurd but the situation called for it. While planning, Tiffany showed up out of nowhere. At that very instant, they were forced to execute their premature plan. It looked like a scene from a movie. Tiffany left crying like a brat.

“Yeah, that was really crazy. Piece of advice Donghae, date sane girls. You’re pretty much insane two crazy people cannot be together, it means destruction”, she patted Donghae’s shoulders.

Donghae just chuckled at the thought.

“Yay! Our order’s here!” Bom happily announced.

“This girl, when she sees food she get all hyped up, I thought you’re watching your figure?” Top asked.

“I’m just watching it, that doesn’t mean I’d give up food.”

“Oh no, no. Diet, does not exist in Bommie’s dictionary”, said Chaerin and they all laughed.

“Minzy, Kai, didn’t you say you were going to announce something?” Seungri reminded them.

“After we eat”, Minzy said.

“If we wait for everybody to finish eating then you’d never get to announce whatever it is. Bom is thinking of ordering another round of pizza and drinks, so?” Top told them and followed by another round of laughter.

“Alright guys. I’ll say it”, Kai started. “A couple of weeks ago, I asked Minzy to –“

“Paris?” Top interrupted.

“a concert?” Seungri joined too.

“ooh I know, to a food fest?” Bom added.

“Aish! These guys!” Kai let out a frustrated sigh, “No, I didn’t ask her to go to Paris with me or to a concert or to a food fest”, Minzy was just laughing beside him. “Seriously, how were you guys label