"Aww come on Sanghyun, let me see Dara, oh?" Jiyong pleaded. "She's my girlfriend! You can't not let me see my girlfriend!"

"No." Thunder scowled. "Which boyfriend in the world would let his ex-girlfriend stay in his house and not let the girlfriend know? Which boyfriend would break his girlfriend's heart TWICE? No way, Kwon Jiyong. You're not seeing noona anytime soon."

"Sanghyun...." Jiyong pleaded.

"Come on Sanghyun." Mrs Park frowned at her son. "Let Jiyong see Dara. Everyone knows he's anxious. All the girls and boys of 2NE1 and Big Bang have already gone in to see her, let Jiyong go in too."

Mr Park nodded. "That's right son." he agreed. "Dara wants to see him too."

Jiyong frowned. "Sanghyun, don't be like this." He pleaded. "Let me see Dara please."

"No." Thunder repeated for the umpteenth time. "I'm going to sit here all night to make sure you don't sneak in to see her. And that's that!"

-----

True to his words, Thunder really sat outside Dara's ward, guarding his noona from evil people: aka Jiyong.

Jiyong cursed under his breath and sat down beside Thunder, who glared at him. "Don't you dare sneak in to see noona." he threatened.

"Don't think I'll be able to, with you guarding like a dog." Jiyong murmured.

"What did you say?" Thunder raised a brow.

Jiyong shook his head and smiled pleasantly. "Nothing!~"

He wrinkled his nose and slumped against the chair. "Why are you so against me anyway?" he asked Thunder curiously. "I mean, yeah I broke Dara's heart. Twice." he frowned to himself. "And I'm stupid enough to believe Sohee over Dara in the past. But don't you think I've proven my love for Dara enough?" he asked.

He looked at Thunder. "I mean," he shrugged. "Not saying I'm noble or anything, but I'm willing to give up what I love doing, just to be by her side." he told Thunder in hope of changing his mind. "I'm willing to let a criminal go for her. I'm willing to die in her place. This love, don't you think it makes up for everything else?"

Thunder looked at Jiyong for a bit. "I guess, you really do love my noona."

"Of course!" Jiyong retorted. "You only just found out?"

Thunder ignored Jiyong's comment. "But you see, her sacrifices for you are too great." Thunder went on. "To me, no matter how deep your love is for her, you're not going to be worthy of her." he looked at Jiyong pointedly.

"Unless you're Bruno Mars of course.' Thunder suddenly added.

"What?" Jiyong blinked.

"I'll catch a Grenade for ya~ Throw my hand on a blade for ya~ I'll stand in front of a train for ya~" Thunder began singing. Jiyong blinked again. Thunder cleared his throat to regain his edge from the friendly atmosphere. He looked at Jiyong in disapproval. "You'll never be able to make up for the sacrifices noona made for you."

"I know." Jiyong sighed. "She took the blame instead of Sohee for the break up and I hated her for years for nothing. She became detested by everyone at school. This even affected her and her application to Seoul National University Law School, and she was rejected. I owe her a lot."

Thunder blinked and looked at Jiyong. "Huh? What the hell are you talking about?"

Jiyong shook his head. "Don't bother hiding." he sighed. "Sohee told me that because I slapped Dara in front of everyone, she got into such a serious scandal that SNU didn't want her anymore and-"

"No." Thunder shook his head. "No no no. You got it all wrong." he looked at Jiyong, frowning. "Ahn Sohee told you all these? What else did she tell you?"

Jiyong bit his lip. "She said that Dara wanted to take revenge for me, causing her to lose her chance to study in SNU." he murmured. "So she switched my essay in my application to Kyunghee university to a lousier one, and I didn't get in. Look, she even showed me this photo of it."

He took out his phone and showed Thunder the photo of Dara in his room, fiddling with his university applications.

"So you thought Dara noona tried to sabotage your application?" Thunder retorted. "You thought she did all that evil things?"

Jiyong bit his lip guiltily. "Well for a better part at least I'm willing to love her with my life even if she does something ten times worse to me."

Thunder looked at Jiyong for a bit. He seemed to be thinking, weighing. "She didn't do anything like that." Thunder muttered lowly. Jiyong almost didn't catch that. "What?"

"Noona never sabotaged your application, Sohee did." Thunder continued, staring at his hands. "Ahn Sohee had connections in Kyunghee University because her uncle was a professor in there. He made sure not to let you into the school when Sohee made him. She was dumped by Seulong because he found out that she had a boyfriend, namely you. She was angry with you for the embarrassment and wanted revenge."

Jiyong's mind reeled. "Wait.." he gulped. "So Sohee was the one who sabotaged my application? But...what about this picture? What about Dara's secrecy when I asked her about her uni days? She always seemed to be hiding something from me."

"Are you a retard? Look at this picture again." Thunder pointed out. "If she's switching your essay for something lousy she's got to take something out and put something in. But she's only putting something in here. She DID NOT sabotage your application to Kyunghee, she had nothing to do with that."

"But what...." Jiyong stared at the picture, dumbfounded.

Thunder sighed. "Dara was devastated when she knew what Sohee had done. She knew you weren't going to make it to Kyunghee even before the results were announced." he told him. "At that time, noona already knew she was accepted into SNU's scholarship program. Her dream had been fufilled and she got where she wanted to be."

Jiyong had a sinking suspicion of what had happened and he prayed he was wrong.

"But when she knew what would happen to you..." Thunder whispered, closing his eyes. "I remember that afternoon when she did it. I was back from Middle school with a strawberry cake. We celebrated noona's entry into SNU of course, but I wanted to get something for her myself. Hence the cake."

Thunder looked at Jiyong sadly. "I remember walking into the kitchen, seeing Dara noona on the phone. I remember her sad expression and I remember every word." he whispered. "Yes yes I really changed my mind. I don't want to get into SNU's Law School anymore. I think you should give this scholarship to someone else. How about Kwon Jiyong? He's a hardworking student and he's willing to strive for what he wants. He's more than worthy for this."

Jiyong's jaw grew slack. No, she did not do this. She did not do this for him.

Thunder looked at Jiyong with tear-filled eyes. "You see why I hate you so much, Kwon Jiyong?" he whispered. "Because you made noona give up her dream. You made noona sacrifice everything she ever wanted, just for you. You got the scholarship to SNU all of a sudden and didn't you suspect anything? Your results were good but never enough to get a scholarship. She gave it to you. She gave all these to you."

Jiyong shook his head, trembling. Tears were welling in his own eyes.

He, more than anyone else, knew how much SNU's Law School meant to Dara. Other people their age may have wanted a nice house, a car, a wonderful love life. But no. All Dara ever wanted was to get into SNU Law School. She wanted to be a lawyer,  but not just any lawyer. She wanted to be the best of all, to uphold justice, to serve the public.

He remembered how he'd catch Dara surfing the same page on the net every single time she was on the computer. The single page of SNU's Law school, with a few simple line that introduced that faculty. She probably memorised the whole thing but she never got bored of looking at it.

Her eyes would always shine upon hearing about the school, yearning to go there herself. Jiyong knew this was her dream, and she worked so so sooo hard for it.

And she gave it away so easily. For him.

"Noona was afraid that even when she did all these, SNU might not take you in." Thunder continued. "So she slipped into your house one day, even asking Sohee for help. She begged Sohee to keep guard, giving all her savings in return. I guess that was when Sohee took the picture, not knowing it would be useful in the future. SNU's application didn't require an essay, but Dara wrote one for you. She spent five hours in front of the computer, trying to phrase every sentence till it's perfection. She slipped it into your application so that it would gain you favor. And it did. You got the scholarship."

Jiyong gulped, a tear escaping his eyes.

"I may forgive you someday, Jiyong hyung." Thunder murmured. "I might be moved by your love for noona. I might be convinced that you are worthy of her."

Thunder sighed and looked at Jiyong.

"But the Sanghyun at this very instant would hate the future me very very much. Because this Sanghyun right now knows no one is ever good enough for noona. No one."