He was speechless as he was rooted to the spot. She chuckled and snapped her fingers in front of him. He blinked.

“I-I. . .Y-you. . .” he stuttered.

She chuckled amusingly at him. “I see you haven’t change”

He stood there, transfixed as the silence grew.

“Oh, your mom said she’ll be out to check a few things. But I think, she was just giving us some quality time together, don’t you think?”

Then, he heard a buzzing sound. He snapped out of his reverie and excused himself from her and went to open the door.

“Congratulations, oppa!”

“Congratulations” the girls greeted cheerfully.

“We got some cookies for you” CL said. His eyes suddenly flew to Dara who was smiling brightly at him.

“Er, aren’t you going to let us in?” she joked

He blinked. “Oh, yeah. . .Come in”

Dara entered the room headfirst, feeling excited. Then, all of them stopped as they saw another visitor. They all bowed and greeted her. The girl smiled back.

“J-ah, 2NE1” he casually said.

“Sandara-ssi, did you like the flower?”

Dara was taken aback. “I-it was from you?”

“Yeah, I’m a big fan you see. Sorry, I tend to be shy at times so I just left it there. And, sorry about just putting a letter J instead of my full name”

“Oh, it’s alright” she mumbled, turning red as she sensed the girls’ eyes on her. Now they knew she lied. “Thank you by the way” she added as she glanced briefly at him. Then, she gave a little bow to her to show her appreciation.

‘I should have known better’ she thought as the disappointment hit her hard in the guts. She shouldn’t have assumed nor expected. She was right from the very beginning, to let her hopes up would be a slap in her face.

Then, another buzz came. GD went to see who that was.

“Youngbae oppa!” Minzy greeted. YB greeted everyone. Then, his eyes landed on the other girl in the room making him glance at Dara at once.

“I just came to congratulate you” he said to GD while still glancing at her in between

“Ahh, you’re embarrassing me. You know it’s unnecessary” GD chuckled.

The girl chuckled, too, making all their heads turn to her.

“Looks like everyone came here to greet you but me”

“You don’t really have to . . .” his voice faded.

“You’ve got a nice set of friends” she said.

YB saw GD smiled then glanced at Dara. “Yeah, I am lucky to have them”

“Looking at you now made me realize that I made the right decision before”

“I think I should put this on plates now” CL suddenly said, going to the direction of the kitchen while MInzy offered help and followed the leader.

“Why don’t we take our seats?” the girl asked, breaking the silence.

“Oh, I’m not really staying. I just dropped by to greet GD” YB answered, looking at Dara who was as stiff as a board.
Then, CL and Minzy returned.

“Oppa, we’ll get going. We still have training tomorrow”

They said their goodbyes. YB secretly nudged Dara who seemed to be rooted to the spot. Then, they went on their way. When they were outside, YB glanced at Dara. Upon seeing him looking at her, she smiled. He smiled back, unable to resist her charm. Then, he watched as the girls turned around and started walking away from him. He then went to his dorm, too. Upon arriving, he took a bath then put some PJ’s on. He proceeded on opening the computer. Then, he heard a buzz. He went to open the door and see who it was.

“Noona!”

She smiled. “Can I come in?”

“Of course” he answered.

“I’m not disturbing you in any way, am I?”

He chuckled. “You don’t mind disturbing me before. Why ask?”

She chuckled, too. “Yeah, I guess that’s true”

They stood in silence, then he broke it. “Why don’t we take a seat?”

“Okay”

Then, she started telling him about the “flower” incident, how she lied to the others, how she assumed that it was him. But she never mentioned how disappointed she was when she finally found out who the sender was, but he heard it in her voice. And she also confessed that she’s now a bit ashamed for lying and can’t face the girls, so she sneaked out to go in his dorm.

“I want to let the girls sleep first before I go back. I don’t want to talk about it yet. I know they’ll be asking me questions”

Then, she was silent again.

An idea came to his mind. “Come, I want to show you something”

He went in front of his computer and let her sit on the swivel chair. He leaned his hand on the table while the other took the mouse and he clicked a few buttons then, when the video started, he put his other hand on the backrest of the swivel chair as the other was still leaning on the table.

“Omo!” she exclaimed as the video started. It was taken during the time when she did her In Or Out stint in the restaurant.

“You got a copy of this?” she asked.

“GD was insisting to have a lot of copies, for backup purposes according to him” he chuckled.

The room was then filled with their laughters as they jumped from one video to another. Most of them were taken when they were still trainees: in the karaoke, in the practice room, etc.Miraculously, their laughters sounded harmoniously and beautifully together, as if they never experienced any hardships in their lives.



GD’s dorm. . .

“What did you mean when you said you made the right decision?” he asked.

“I never really wanted to be in the way while you were reaching for your dream. And I’m actually happy that all your hardwork paved off. You’ve gone so far” she chuckled lightly.

He was silent.

“Your friend seemed to change” she said.

“Who?”

“Youngbae. She seemed at ease with girls already, especially with Sandara-ssi”

“Oh. Yeah. I think she’s the first girl Youngbae was comfortable talking and hanging out with”

“Hmm..”

“So, what really brought you here?” he asked.

“I think it’s about time to claim back what I once have” she said, giving him a knowing smile. “I already had enough waiting”


Back to YB’s dorm . . .

They were now looking at some pictures.

“Ha! Look! I look so bad there!” she exclaimed.

“Hmm” he paused. He looked at her then at the picture. “Well, nothing really changed from that picture to what you look now”

“Ya!” she exclaimed and slapped him in the arm. He laughed. Then, they heard someone clearing his throat. They both turned their heads at the same time: she, to the left; he, to the right that it made their noses touch each other. They both stopped and leaned back as their eyes grew wide. Then, they started laughing.

“Omo, that was close” she said.

The person made another clearing-of-throat sound.

“GD!”