“It’s settled then.”

Silently, Jiyong handed the tray to be filled by the Bopcha ahjumma and the latter took it uneasily as she saw the loss in his eyes. She scooped up a big helping of food in the tray before giving it back to the boy. Jiyong took it wearing a ghost of a smile and turned around. He could hear the loud murmuring. He could see their pointing fingers. But all of that was washed over with the insane amount of dread that he was feeling.

“Our client, Ms. Sandara Park, will only be working for YG Entertainment until the end of next month.”

Hyunsuk look at the signed agreement with regretful eyes while the rest could just look sadly at Dara. Jiyong left just before they officially put everything on paper. He didn’t want to see it, and he definitely didn’t want to hear it either.

“We hope that you respect her wishes and let her go in peace.”

He set the tray down with a loud thud and beamed down on the girl that he intentionally sat by. The Winner kids who sat in the same table looked at each other uncomfortably before looking at the two people in front of them. Dara was just nonchalantly eating her own meal while Jiyong was still smiling down at her like an insane person. He suddenly pushed her tray off and set his own tray in front of her.

“These are all your favorites!” he cheered, sitting down beside her. “I’ve been watching you and I heard from Bom and Chaerin what you liked too. I made the chefs at Bopcha cook these especially for you!”

Dara giggled only making him clench his jaw. He could see it in her eyes that she didn’t care about what he did. He felt mocked and ridiculed but that didn’t stop him.

He only had a month, heck a couple more weeks left for her to change her mind.

“But I’m already full, Jiyong-ssi.” Dara frowned a little, not even bothering to spare him a glance.

“Do you want me to get you some water then, maybe some coffee, a Coke?” he offered.

Dara didn’t reply but off he went to get her drink anyway. The boys watched their noona weakly push their hyung’s tray away and put her hair to the side with a long sigh. They looked at each other again, not really knowing if they should bring up what just happened or not.

Word had already gotten around that Dara had filed her termination papers. Of course, everyone was shocked and depressed about the matter. The girl had already planted herself in everyone’s hearts and they were gonna be sad to see her go. The reason behind her decision holds a certain ambiguity to those of the staff. Some rumored that she was having family problems and she needed to leave so that she can focus on her family. While a few others believe that she got hired for another agency. The majority still didn’t know what Dara’s job really was but despite that she was treated like a star, like the mascot of the company who made everyone’s day a little brighter.

But now, she was leaving.

“A-are you alright, noona?” Seungyoon asked.

She looked up from her phone and arched a brow. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

They could hear the whimsy that was usually in her voice disappear and was replaced by the cynical-sounding reality. They didn’t like seeing her like this and they didn’t like the fact that they didn’t know why she was like this.

Seunghoon cleared his throat. “Jiyong hyung’s getting pretty close to you lately, huh?”

“Jiyong-ssi?” the boys shared a shocked expression on how she called her name. It sounded so unfamiliar to their ears… it was like she was saying his name but not saying it at the same time. It was weird. “I guess you’re right, huh?”

“So…” Jinwoo chimed in.

She tilted her head and chuckled. “So…?”

“Why aren’t you acting happy or excited?!” Mino accused. “You should be happy dancing with us right now, noona! He’s attending to you like a waiter! Haven’t you been dreaming about this day since forever?????”

Dara just smiled at him and it was then that Jiyong finally came back, hugging a pile of cans and bottles to his chest. He carefully set them down and made sure the labels pointed to her direction. He stood there waiting for her to pick with hopeful eyes while the boys continued to watch the events unfold in front of them. The girl looked at the drinks uninterestedly before standing up and wearing her bag over her shoulder.

“I should get going now. I’m meeting with an old friend. Thank you for the effort, Jiyong-ssi. I’m sure any girl would be lucky to have you.” She smiled again and then she left without looking back.

Jiyong stared at her retreating figure with a pining gaze. He deserved this, his heart scolded. He deserved every bit of it. With a dejected sigh, he fluttered down the cafeteria bench while Dara’s ‘supposed’ children just continued to look at him and eat their lunch. Distractedly, he took what looks like a tater tot from Mino’s tray and munched on it with a frown.

“Yah hyung, do you know how much I fought for those?” Mino said accusingly but the latter just ignored him as he chewed off into the nothingness. Mino pouted and went to take one of the bottles his hyung placed on the table when Jiyong suddenly slapped his hand away. The group looked at him wide-eyed and horrified as if they’d just witness a crime happen before their eyes.

“Don’t touch.” He growled. “It’s Dara’s.”

Jinwoo’s brows trembled. “But she didn’t even take it—”

Jiyong cut him off by placing a finger on his lips. “Let’s just respect hyung and noona’s situation, okay?” he smiled a little too happily. The boys just nodded, a bit scared.

Again, they shared curious gazes with each other. There wasn’t a lot of people in Bopcha right now but the people present were still quietly listening on to the loud table in the middle. Seungyoon suddenly raised his hand up in question and Jiyong nodded uninterestedly at him.

“What’s going on between you and noona?” he asked innocently making him sigh. Jiyong gruffly took a can of soda and drank from it with a big burp, not caring about his appearance.

“I hurt her.”

Scandalized gasps reverberated around the room, even the ahjummas in the kitchen did their part in the shock.

“You didn’t!” Seunghoon gasped again.

Jiyong started hitting his head on the table repeatedly. “I did and now she’s avoiding me.” He grumbled.

“Is that why noona’s quitting too?” Jinwoo chimed in.

They received no answer.

“Yah hyung!!”

Jiyong had his eyes-wide while decided to rest his head on the table. If he told them that he was the reason, he was bound to get out-casted by the entirety of the company. The people who know about Dara’s decision where already starting to hate him already. What’s more if the whole company—which loves the girl to the bone—hates him too?  Does he have to move to another company because of this?

Shut up, you . You deserve this.

He groaned and inaudibly shouted against the palms of his hands. Jiyong figured that he had to fess up sooner or later. God, the things this girl makes him do. Despite all of it, he still had the decency to think this was refreshing.

ing psycho.

“Yeah.” It barely came out as a whisper as Jiyong shrunk in his seat. “She’s leaving because of me.”

“HYUNG!!!!!” they all snapped.

“How could you?!” It was Seunghoon.

Mino sniffed. “N-noona is the only girl that takes care of me.” Jiyong almost scoffed. Yeah, because you look just like me. The arrogance in this man was really astounding. Aigoo.

“You must be insane, hyung!” Seungyoon shook his head unbelievingly.

And Jinwoo just hummed in understanding. The lack of response made everyone in the room look at him. Even Jiyong arched a brow and waited for his attack. Jinwoo just raised a brow at the guy across from him too. “What?” he blinked.

“Aren’t you gonna say something, oh I don’t know, how I’m a for hurting Dara?” Jiyong said sarcastically.

Jinwoo sipped his tea and made a sturgeon face. “No… I kinda expected this.” He said.

Jiyong furrowed his brows while the rest of Winner tried to clamp Jinwoo’s mouth shut. “What do you mean?” he shot icily.

The boy eventually broke free from Seungyoon’s sweaty palms. He took a deep breath first before saying, “I’ve been watching you with girls through the years, hyung. You take an interest in them, you lead them on, you flirt a little bit, you date, and after a week or two, I see a girl crying in the halls and calling out your name.” he explained. “Noona is just one of those girls, right?”

Before they knew it, Jiyong had his fists clenched on Jinwoo’s collars while the guys in the room tried to break them apart.

“Dara is not one of those girls.” Jiyong gritted under his teeth. “She will never be one of those girls.”

Jinwoo didn’t look fazed at all. He was even brave enough to continue to look at the anger that was roaring beneath his hyung’s eyes. Jiyong could see a corner of his mouth curl into a bitter smirk. His anger just skyrocketed.

“If she’s not like one of those girls then why did hurt her?” Jinwoo said, silencing the whole room. “If you know that she’s different then why did you do the same thing you did to those girls who were crying for you?”

“I don’t know what happened between you and noona,” Jinwoo continued. “But you better make things right if you still believe she’s different. Noona doesn’t deserve the same pain. She doesn’t deserve you if you’re not gonna change, hyung. Prove me wrong and I’ll gladly take back what I said.” He challenged with conviction in his eyes.

Jiyong didn’t say anything more. He let go of Jinwoo and went off with heavy steps. The boys felt Jinwoo removing himself from their grip and he sat back down to eat his lunch.

Seunghoon gaped at him. “T-that was so manly, Jinwoo hyung!”

The ‘manly’ hyung looked at him and chewed his food.

“I have to protect noona too.” He said. “She’s from the QT Line after all.”

Was Yang Hyunsuk desperate? Yes. Was the executive board restless? Yes, but not as much as the CEO. So what did they do to try to make Dara—one of YG’s most top grossing producers—stay in the company?

“Hello YG Entertainment! We are proud to be hosting this year’s team building training here in Yongpyong Resort!” An obnoxiously cheery-looking announcer said.

Yongpyong Resort is a well-known ski lodge in South Korea. YG Entertainment doesn’t do ‘team building trainings’ especially with the entirety of the company present. And yes, the shareholders and the executives were all desperate in getting Dara back in their rosters. Not only was Dara good at her craft, she had made it to everyone’s sweet spots and they were too bummed to let her go without a fight. The CEO’s excuse to such a big company trip was “If SM did it, then we can do it better.” Sometimes Papa YG wasn’t the most insightful person in the enterprise.

Kwon Jiyong was all for this trip. He briefly glanced at Dara who was standing in front of him with an oversized scarf on. Jiyong even insisted to pay for half of the cost along with the CEO and the board of directors.

With his tongue slightly out on the side of his mouth, he cautiously tapped Dara’s shoulder.

She didn’t respond.

He groaned.

Jiyong looked to his sides before stepping behind her and putting his mouth close to her ear. When he was about to say her name, she suddenly turned around and pushed him off, causing him to land on his Ikon hoobaes. Dara stared at him in shock as she cupped her ear while Jiyong did the same thing but having his hand on his chest in shock.

“D-Don’t come near me.” He heard her mumble under her breath.

His heart constricted right then. After recovering from the slight ache in his chest, he removed himself from Ikon’s wary grasp and tentatively walked up to her, stopping at a safe distance to make her feel comfortable. The guilt in him ate him up even more when he saw that the horror in her face hasn’t disappeared yet. Jiyong clenched his fists tight inside his pockets and forced himself to look up to her with a reassuring smile.

“I was just going to ask if you’re excited… with all of this I mean.”

There was only a about 2 weeks left until her official leave and he’s been trying to change her mind, or at least have a more genuine relationship with her. He can clearly see her forcing herself to change her attitude towards him and to him, that hurt more than her burst of anger a couple of weeks back. That told him that she was forcing herself to let go what she couldn’t. Jiyong didn’t want her to go through that. He should know since he’s been holding back too in terms of the paparazzi, the fans, and to her… when she was trying her hardest to show him her love.

Okay, man, stop being so pessimistic. Just do what you need to do before things get out of hand.

He nodded to himself and focused his attention back to Dara who was slowly unwrapping her scarf.

“You haven’t taken that since we got on the bus.” Jiyong fidgeted. “You must be h-hot—you got your hair cut?”

Dara brushed her hair that now only reached to the base of her neck. It was wavy, short, and refreshing just like her. A smile crept up on his lips as the girl clearly looked like she wasn’t used to