“Jieun ah, you’re done?” Jiyong raised his voice while finding it bored after having played with Iye for almost half an hour.

“Almost. Just a second.”

Jiyong could imagine how his girlfriend was struggling on her make-up table because they were having a dinner. A very special one, because there would be not just his brothers, which they met last time, but this time with both his brothers and his family were gathering a very big dining, and at his private village. Jiyong guessed that she was being nervous, so therefore she spent extra time just to get her make-up done.

Jiyong found it cute, when she was struggling with her dressing first. She couldn’t stop changing her mind about the dresses, and walking around the room mumbling about how should she behave in front of his parents.

Well, Jiyong believed that she could do a good job since last time the meeting with his brothers were not too bad, except for some parts that made him irritating too much.

“Jieun ah!!!” Seungri was being an extra-rascal again when he first saw Jieun who was bowing herself down ninety-degree politely. “How are you? I can’t believe this happening. You guys…”

“How are you, oppa?” Jieun smiled the next minute that Jiyong actually felt weird when he heard her ‘oppa’ was directing to some other person other than him.

“Oppa?” Jiyong raised his eyebrow, but he was watching Seungri’s reaction.

“Right. I’m your oppa first right Jieun?” Seungri didn’t know he was being watched until he saw Jiyong’s sharp eyes. “Right hyung? We collaborated before, come on.”

“Right.”

 Jiyong hissed his nose and took Jieun away from the annoying brat who was so busy chitchatting about his life. Jieun giggled, when she realized how cute he was when he was jealous.

“Jiyong, are you jealous?”

“What, no way. Are you serious? Why am I jealous over that kid?” Jiyong laughed loudly, but at the same time Jieun could sense his irritation.

Jieun stopped and held his hand back, and that made Jiyong startle. He hoped this was not another hollow argument because they always had so much troubles arguing about ridiculous thing, like his bad habits of smoking and drinking or her insomnia at night.

“What’s now? I said it was not jealousy.” Jiyong tried not to sound angry, because the y voice inside his mind was trying hard to get out but he also tried hard to block it.

She moved closer and gave a peck on his cheek, and Jiyong’s face was completely astonished.

“I’m sorry for making you feel that way.”

He knew he could not do anything about this at all, because everything of him had always given in for her, just for her. That was how Jiyong felt foolish about himself, but as long as she is his, he doesn’t mind at all.

“Jiyong, what are you smiling about?” Jieun snapped a finger in her pretty yellowish dress.

“No.. nothing. You’re taking forever.” Jiyong rolled his eyes, but he suddenly smiled because she looked amazing at how she always did. “Well, at least it’s worth the time.”

Nevertheless, she looked more tense than she was, as if she was about to go through something very serious.

“It’s okay, Jieun ah. Don’t get too nervous. It’s just my family.” Jiyong pulled her for a hug.

“I know… It’s just.. Do you think they will like me? I’m just…very nervous during something like this… What if I mess up something, like say something not approvable?” Jieun started to mumble, and Jiyong even found it more lovely.

“It’s okay, Jieun ah. Just be yourself. I’m sure that my family will like you.”

When Jiyong’s parents came, Jieun almost felt her heart falling out of her chest, because she thought she was so relaxed the moment before they came. Dami arrived later, but in opposite to his parents’ attitude which made Jieun more comfortable with their openness, even had no eye contact with Jieun. Instead, Dami only talked to the boys sitting in the other side, who were also noticing the weird atmosphere between the only two young ladies on the table.

“Noona, do you like my new collection?” Jiyong randomly asked, just to make the atmosphere much better.

“New collection?”

“Yeah, Jieun helped me out with the idea too.”

“Well, good to hear that.” Her answer became too irrelevant that made Jiyong felt uneasy.

“Noona, that’s really not an answer I want to hear.”

“What? Do I have to answer what you want to hear?”

“Noona!” Jiyong frowned.

“What do you want to hear then?” Dami dropped her spoon and glared at the space between him and Jieun. “She did well? I don’t want to lie to myself.”

“Kwon Dami! What’s wrong with you?” Jiyong shouted loudly until Jieun grabbed his hand to calm him down.

The table became even more awkward than before, even though Seungri tried his best to entertain everyone else with his non-sense humor.

One word for Jieun. Probably, she didn’t like her.

“Are you ok?” Youngbae suddenly approached Jieun when she was alone in the kitchen after the dinner to do some dishes despite the insist of his parents on not doing it.

“Hello, sunbaenim. I’m fine.” Jieun weakly smiled, but it showed nothing like a smile.

“Don’t lie to yourself, Jieun ah.”

It’d been a while since her last hearing of Youngbae’s calling her real name, because he always called her stage name, and Jieun suddenly felt weird. It made her want to open up more to him, the guy that she used to be so overwhelmed about.

“I hope I could know the reason why.”

“Huh?”

“Why didn’t she like me?”

Youngbae suddenly laughed, to the point Jieun found it quite… embarrassed.

“Sorry, I’m not being rude. Well, Jiyong must not tell you about this. Kwon Dami is always like this. That sister is just over-analyzing people.”

Jieun almost didn’t get what he said, until he paused another second to laugh.

“Believe me, this always happened before whenever she met other girlfriends of Jiyong. We’re getting used to this. Just not with his parents this time.”

“Is that a bad thing? His parents must not think well of me?” Jieun sighed.

“Well, maybe. Maybe not? But I think they are talking about that just now.” Youngbae pointed out to the garden outside. “Don’t worry. Jiyong got this.”

“But… should I talk to her first?”

Youngbae looked quite surprised, because he didn’t think Jieun would think that way. Honestly, everyone knows that Dami Kwon is that one scary woman.

“Are you sure?”

“Right? Because this is between us, not between Jiyong and her.”

“If you want to… I guess you can.” Instead, Youngbae felt quite interested about this because he looked forward to see what kind of reaction was it from Dami.

When Jieun found Dami sitting alone in the bench after some small arguments with Jiyong, she was half-moving forward half-going back but eventually went straight to the bench.

“Hello unnie, can I sit here with you?”

“If you want.” Her voice was still cold as before.

“Did you enjoy the meal today?” Jieun felt proud that she finally knew what to talk about.

“Just so-so.”

“I think my favourite is the pumpkin soup.”

“Um.”

It was awkward, and in a second Jieun had thought this was such a bad idea.

“Unnie, can I ask you a question?”

“Go ahead.”

“Did I make you feel uncomfortable?”

Dami suddenly turned her face to look at Jieun, whose face was also completely startled. But all of a sudden, Jieun felt regretted.

“I’m sorry if this question also makes you uncomfortable. You can ignore it.”

“Well no, I’m just… surprised.” Dami hesitantly responded. “You’re the first one to approach me this way.”

“Yeah?”

“I just… don’t like the idea that he’s being too carried away because of some random girls. And…” Dami paused a while, which made Jieun nervous. “I thought you were some kind of girls like that too. Sorry.”

“It’s… okay, unnie.”

“I’m sorry for being such an , too. Let’s get to know each other more.”

When Jieun first saw Dami’s smile, she almost felt like she had achieved something very very big, even bigger than any awards that she had ever received. The feeling of happiness overwhelmed her anxiety, and that made her dash into the living room, where Youngbae and Jiyong were having some champagne.

“Taeyang sunbae, thank you so much. I did it. I talked to her.”

Jiyong was the only one who didn’t get anything at all. So he was still observing how they were talking (with a heavy heart again).

“Really? Congratz Jieun. You did well.”

Youngbae patted her shoulder softly, as if he did forget that Jiyong was standing there because Jiyong impatiently wanted to know what was happening. So, he cleared his throat to inform these two that he was still here and they’d better tell him what was going on.

“Oh, so she was worried why Dami was behaving like that lately and asked me if she should go talk to her. And she did it. Right, Jieun?”

The smiley eyes of Youngbae suddenly irritated Jiyong, as if he didn’t know that was the most charming part of his face and in front of him was Jiyong’s girl who once had a big crush on him.

“Yeah. I talked to her and she told me to get to know each other.” Jieun sounded almost like a child.

“Really? Good job Jieun ah. That’s so good to hear.” Youngbae raised his hand up for a high-five from Jieun.

Just then, Youngbae pushed Jiyong’s shoulder. “I think your sister also approves, good for you Jiyong.”

Jiyong knew he tended to get uneasy when Jieun spoke to other guys, but somehow this was the first time he felt irritated by the fact that the guy was Youngbae instead. Jiyong supposed it was because of the crushing issue between them in the past few years ago, which left Jiyong questioning about Youngbae’s real feelings. Jiyong just hadn’t ever cared about that, until now.

Jieun’s smile was still the same for Youngbae, and Jiyong was just being greedy at something he found it quite ridiculous for him, that he should be the only one who received that smile. When Youngbae left the scene, Jiyong found it hard to even say something to Jieun. And Jieun knew it right away, because Jiyong was indeed good at demonstrating his feelings through expressions.

“Jiyong, what’s with your expression? Is something wrong?” Jieun slowly grabbed his hand, when Jiyong had no energy to even feel something on his skin.

“No..nothing.”

“Really?” Jieun moved her face closer to Jiyong, because she was good at telling whether he was being honest or not. “It doesn’t seem like that.”

Jiyong let go of his hand, and it would make Jieun uncomfortable and (a bit mad?). But Jieun was being a sweet girlfriend who wouldn’t make a mess out of this, so she embraced him from the back despite her hands were short and barely touched each other.

“Why did you come to ask Youngbae instead of me?” Jiyong pulled out each of his words heavily.

A small ‘Pfft’ came slightly from Jieun, and that even embarrassed him because he sounded like a kid who was being a silly jealous-head over his best friend.

“Nevermind.” Jiyong pushed her away and tried to run away from her before she pulled him back.

“You’re cute Jiyong.”

“What?”

“You’re cute when you get jealous.”

Jiyong didn’t like to hear that halfheartedly, because it still made him feel like a childish guy. But when she gave him another peck again on his lips, he made sure that his heart would always go back to normal with the same feeling he always has.

Jiyong knew he couldn’t resist her, because it was her. Only her.

“You used to be head over heel to Youngbae so much, don’t you know Jieun?”

“Really?”

“Hey? You’re super famous for that. We even talk about this between Bigbang.”

“Really? It sounds like I’m famous among you guys.”

“At that time, he also thought you were cute too.”

“Really?!?! Why didn’t he tell me?”

“Hey Lee Jieun, seriously? Are you regretting because he didn’t tell you?”

“Well… sort of.”

“Hey!!!”

“But I’m glad too…” She paused to look at him before continuing. “Cause now it is you here.”

So he could never resist kissing her.

“Lee Jieun.”

“Hm?”

“Will you marry me?”

And again.

“Yes.”

And again.