It has been a week now since Dara has decided to stay in Busan and stay away from him. She has been thinking about the things that had happened and related to the two of them. She would often stroll around the park and played with the kids and it would distract her a bit. Playing with the kids made her forget all the problems and thoughts temporarily.

One time, Meirun and Yoobaek let her try making a sand castle in the sandbox at the playground. They said that they really wanted to try and make another one since the bullies always destroy the sand castles they made. She nodded without even thinking on how hard it is to make a sand castle and she even forgot that she’s clumsy with her hands.

“Unnie~ You shouldn’t just grab it that way and mold it so carelessly!” Meirun shrieked as she saw Dara carelessly molding the sands which always destroy the foundation they just made.

“Aigoo, noona! I thought that you are good at this but I thought so wrong!” YooBaek exclaimed and shook his head as he tried to mold again the crushed part of the foundation.

“But I didn’t think that it would be this hard! It’s supposed to be fun and easy!” Dara refuted and pouted making the kids laugh.

“It is fun.” Meirun stated and then smiled as she looked at the hardworking Yoobaek, She glance at the older girl and whispered, “It is hard but it’s fun because he is making it fun for me.”

Dara smiled at the younger girl as she realized what Meirun meant. Right, everything can be fun if you are with someone you like. How can she have forgotten about it? It was so simple if you perceive it the way kids see it on their eyes. If it’s just so simple, it would have never hurt anyone for that matter.

Yoobaek noticed the silence of the older girl and felt guilty. He thought that it was his fault for making Dara look gloomy. He sighed and then grabbed the older girl’s hand to guide her on how to make the other side of the sand castle.

“Noona, don’t you know that making a sand castle is hard?” Yoobaek said as he continued to show the older girl on how to do it and sees Meirun nodding in agreement.

“I already know. I learned it the hard way.” Dara pouted earning a few chuckles from the kids.

“But it has a trick on how to do it and make it seems like the easiest thing to do in front of another person.” Yoobae stated and then stopped as his chinky, round eyes stared at Dara’s eyes.

“Eh?” Dara asked.

“Smile, enjoy and have fun. If one side of it has fallen, smile. If you accidentally crushed the other part, laugh. If you are having a hard time in forming the sand, laugh at your clumsiness and try it one more time. You can never build anything beautifully all at one time. You just need to try and try until you manage to be successful.” Yoobaek said with a timid smile on his face.

Dara didn’t realize that her tears are already falling. Yoobaek’s statement hit her straight to her heart like it was hit bull’s eye. Right, life isn’t all about pretty and nice. She has forgotten how harsh real life can be compared to all her idealistic and deluded thoughts. She felt two pair of hands embracing her and saw Meirun and Yoobaek consoling her.

“I’m sorry unnie… Please don’t cry.” Meirun muttered.

“Noona, did I babble too much? Sorry.” Yoobaek whispered.

Dara smiled weakly and hugged the two kids tightly. She whispered to their ears, “Thank you. Thank you for helping me sorts out my feelings. Thank you…”

With that, she already decided on what would her next step would be. She must stop being a coward and face the problems that she had. She needed to be gathering up all her strength to stand up with life’s adversities.

-oOo-

Minzy has been staying up at the gym longer than before. She was trying to release all her frustrations in working out. She was so frustrated on what is happening now to her surroundings. First, her unnies would not talk to Jiyong-oppa about Dara-unnie. Second, Jiyong-oppa would always stay in front of their dorm waiting for Dara-unnie even if he knew that she won’t be coming home. Lastly and the most frustrating of all, Dara-unnie has not been replying to any of her messages nor the messages sent by the others.

“Sheesh.” Minzy thought aloud right after she lifted some weights.

Hwangssabu was also puzzled with the younger girl’s longer time in the gym and he knew that the kid must be going through some teenage problems but he cannot ask. He doesn’t want to invade her privacy. He saw Minzy’s face crunched up and he shook his head then took out a cold energy drink out of the cooler. He approached Minzy and placed the cold drink on her face which surprised the younger girl.

“Are you trying to be a boy with all of your work out plans?” Hwangssabu asked.

MInzy let out a weak laugh and shook her head.

“Aigoo, oppa. It’s not like that…” Minzy denied and tried to lie her way out.

Of course, Hwangssabu noticed it but he decided to keep mum about it. He wouldn’t ask but he would wait until the younger girl would say it herself.

“Oppa, I need to go now…” Minzy excused herself before she slipped out in telling the gym instructor unnecessary things.

As soon as she reached home, she reached for her phone and dialed the number of Dara. For the nth time, she can only reached the voicemail and just like the other times, she left another message hoping that she would receive a reply from the older girl.

“Unnie, how are you doing? I hope you’re all right. I miss you. Don’t you miss the most adorable dongseng that you have? I know that I cannot give any sound advices to you because of our age difference but you can lean on me. You can cry on me and if you want, I can cry with you─ for you. Always remember unnie, I love you…” Minzy whispered as she broke into tears after leaving the message and hoping that the older girl will come back.

-oOo-

In Japan, Jun was getting restless since it has almost been a week now since Dara’s last message to him. He doesn’t know what happened since every single time he tried to call her; he always reached the voice mail. He sighed and leaned his chin on the arm chair.

“Hey, Jun… What’s with the gloomy look?” Kazunari asked as he sat at the couch opposite of Jun.

“Ah, nothing…” Jun stated and let out another heavy sigh.

Kazunari laughed at the sad looking face of the younger guy.

“Love problems, perhaps?” Kazunari asked as he eyed the reaction of Jun. He saw Jun twitched his nose in frustration that made him laugh again.

“Is it really funny to see me being worried and stuff, huh?” Jun asked as one of his eyebrows was raised.

Kazunari nodded a bit and tried to control his laughter but a big goofy smile was plastered on his face.

“It’s not that I love seeing you being worried but rather it’s amusing for you to get worried about heart matters. It’s not very Jun.” Kazunari explained the reason for his laughter.

Jun pulled out his hair and then managed to give out a weak laugh. He knew what his friend was saying and he can understand why it was amusing. If he wasn’t the one experiencing this, he would have teased and laughed at that person but it’s him.

“What is Jun-like?” Jun thought aloud that made Kazunari stopped on whatever he was doing at the moment.

“What do you mean?” Kazunari asked in confusion.

“You told me that the way I’m acting wasn’t very Jun-like. What is very Jun like?” Jun innocently asked with a heavy sigh.

“Are you really asking me that? Don’t you already know the answer?” Kazunari asked without batting an eyelash.

“I was that obvious?” Jun asked back with a meaningful laugh.

“Should I pack my things again?” Kazunari questioned that made the two of them laugh.

-oOo-

Jiyong was crumped on his room and writing stuffs for their upcoming comeback. He tried to write but his concentration and inspiration can nowhere been found. It has been almost six hours and he only wrote three lines on the sheet of paper.

He rubbed his hands over his face. He already knew that he won’t be able to concentrate not unless he knew her whereabouts. He has been trying to convince the president to give out her whereabouts but his lips were sealed and he cannot get any information out of him.

He let out a heavy breath and the framed photo on his bedside caught his attention. He stood up and walked towards the bed to get the framed photo. He misses her badly and he was just realizing on how his days seem so incomplete without hearing or seeing her. He misses her presence and her adorable laugh that always sounds good to him.

“Ah, I am so sorry for being unable to notice your importance.” Jiyong whispered into the thin air as he hugged the framed photo closer to his heart. “When you return, I’ll show you on how important you are to me… Just give me a chance…”

He hasn’t notice that he fell asleep hugging the photo not until a phone call woke him up. Annoyed and irritated, he grabbed his phone and answered it just to be surprised who called.

“Dara…?” Jiyong asked as soon as he heard her voice and hope filled his heart.

“You’re returning right? Where are you now? Are you coming back? I’ll go and pick you up…” JIyong rambled as he started to get excited but all his hopes crushed when he heard her voice sounding cold and distance.

“We need to talk Jiyong. Meet me at the Han River, same time tomorrow.” Dara said and then ended the call leaving a hanging and nervous Jiyong.