Dara continued to watch through her passenger window as the endless clusters of Seoul buildings began to disperse and be replaced by bursts of colour. The light pink, yellow and orange- flowers were draped a top the mountains, like a blanket. From where she was sitting; it would be easy to be tricked into thinking that they were scoops of ice-cream in a bowl but she knew better than that. Nature was beautiful. A miracle. The dark mist of pollution was now replaced by clear air. It made her think of her 12th birthday.

Mum and Dad had bought her a camera. She was ecstatic! She carried it with her everywhere- school, library, the house and even on her little trip to the convenient store down the road. She always used her camera. But one day while Dara was looking through her prized possession of self-taken photographs; she noticed that as she turned the pages her photographs got a little more blurry than the last. Dara was surprised. When she had taken the picture it looked clear, but comparing them to photographs taken months before; she could see a clear difference.

Thinking that her camera was finally waring down and possibly breaking, Dara had gone to her Mother upset.

“Omma” she said with teary eyes.

Hearing Daras voice, her mother discarded the half-knitted scarf- that would be her Fathers- on the couch and asked Dara “What’s wrong sweetie?”

“My camera’s breaking. Look” she held out the photo album with a frown. “My pictures were so clear before. Now they’re blurry” Daras frown deepened with every turn of a page. Noticing her Mothers silence she raised her head and was shocked to see a ghost of a smile on her lips.

Her Mother reached out her hand and gently wiped a tear that escaped from Daras eyes. “Have you cleaned the lense sweetie?”

Dara smiled upon the memory with her mother and was grateful that the country side had coaxed the memory from her. The country seemed to be cleaning her lense from the grips of Seoul, city life. She sighed. She couldn’t wait until she got off this train. She was grateful for this train ride. It had given her a lot of time to think. She couldn't believe what was happening. That she was with a talking sword and shield and an illegal experiment that wanted to become human. Dara hugged herself tightly as she comtinued to ponder her situation. Only a few months ago was she Sandara Park, just an average Korean girl, no love life and just living the same routine every day. There was nothing special about her. She smiled softly and shook her head; proving herself wrong. No, there is something special about me. My friends.The parents I had. They are what make me special. Her Father had always told her that. 

"Appaaa~ I don't have any friends at school. I'm not cool or special enough" a 5 year old dara pouted to her dad as he handed her a bowl of strawberry ice-cream in their modest kitchen. He watched as his daughter continued to look at the bench top and sighed. If she hadn't eaten it yet, he knew she was deeply hurt.  He leaned forward and pinched her nose. 

"Dara sweetie you were born special. Do you know why?" he paused and after a moment of silence his daughter liftted her head and met his gaze with her eager stare. Hungry for an answer. "You're the outcome of the special bond and love between two people. You're proof that in this crazy and scary world that there are two people who love each other. You're so special. One day you'll find people who you'll cherish. Who you'll call friends and they'll love you for who you are and you the same to them. You'll all be special to each other. You just have to be patient sweetie.One day you'll even meet your special special someone; but I'll let you know more about that when you're older" he held a spoonful of strawberry ice cream against Daras lips and leaned down to kiss her forehead.

Dara ate the ice cream and giggled. "Appa, I already have a special speciaal someone~" Dara said in a sing-song voice.

"I thought you said you didn't have any friends?" he said protectively.

"Appaaa~" 

"Arasso, Arasso" her dad cooed while pinching her cheeks. He gave a little nervous cough. "And who is this special special someone?" Dara just giggled and shyly looked at the empty seat beside her with red cheeks, biting her bottom lip. This didn't go unnoticed and daras dad let out a sigh of relief. "Yah! Don't tell me it's your imaginary friend you always tell me about?" Dara quickly ripped her gaze from the empty seat beside her and shoved more ice cream in .

"It's a secret~" she giggled, her eyes slowly sliding to the chair next to her. 

Her dad was right. She had become special to someone. And they to her. Bommie, Donghae and Top, I miss you. Her eyes grew sad as she thought about her special friends. She had known Donghae for as long as she could remember. He was her rock. Her brother. Upon thinking about the next person Daras face immediately broke into a smile. She met Bommie in elementary school and she introduced Top to her; they were the libnrary monitors and Dara shyly asked for help to find a book. When she had stuttered to Bommie the title, despite being in a library Bommie had squealed! Excitedly telling Dara that was her favorite book. Top had jumped out of nowhere and shoved his hand over to muffle her squeal; as well as bowing apologetically to those studying. Their friendship had grown from there.  

Life was crazy and unexpected. The day her parents died had proven that. She was frozen and didn't know what life was anymore. Her friends were the ones that had kept her alive. Daras eyes drifted from the window and found his face. Another piece of evidence that proved life was crazy and unexpected. Immediately she felt herself be engulfed in a wave of calmness and re-assurety. I found him appa. My special special someone and this time he's not imaginary. 

After Dara had apologised to Seungri after their little 'chat', Chaerin and Seungri had instructed Dara and Gd to buy 2 tickets to Busan and jump on the next train.

“We’re going to take you somewhere safe.” Seungri sounded excited… and his excitement was immediately stepped on when Chaerin spoke next.

“Anywhere with this dumb shield is anything BUT safe. He’s crazy. Truuust me, I’ve been stuck in a sack with him for over 10 years. Pure torture.”

“C-Honey bunch” He began in his high sarcastic tone. “The dirt on my shield and the rust between my engravings; do us all a favour and shut up.”

Dara could imagine him batting his eyelashes at Chaerin. Looking every bit of a bratty, spoilt elementary kid.

Silence…

“What did you say to me? Yah! I’ll give you more than just rust you little…-”

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