10.

AUGUST

day one: 

Before Dara headed for the airport, she asked the manager to stop over at YG so she could get one of her notebooks from her locker since they had plenty of time left till her flight. 

She quickly fetched the notebook and headed for the elevator, going down two floors. Seungri, Taeyang and Jiyong had happened to be on the other side of the elevator doors when she gotten off. Since Jiyong and Dara had not sorted themselves out, the atmosphere around them was awkward but Taeyang and Seungri pretended nothing had happened. 

"Hey, what are you doing here?" asked Taeyang. 

Dara held up her notebook that she was holding with her right hand. "Forgot my notebook."

"Oh..." Taeyang nodded. 

"When's your flight, noona?" Seungri joined in. 

"Um," Dara checked her watch. "At 4, so in two hours or so. It takes about an hour and a couple of minutes to get to the airport so I'm leaving early." she explained. 

"You're going to Philippines, right? Are you going to be okay?" Seungri gave her a worried look. 

Everyone knew that Dara was afraid of planes. She hated to travel in those gigantic metallic birds. Sure, it was the fastest way to travel but she was just afraid since plane crashes do happen and such. 

Dara smiled at Seungri for remembering her fear and being concerned for his friend. "I'll be fine, Seungri. It's only like a two hour flight, so don't worry." 

Seungri nodded as he hummed a response. 

While the three were interacting, Jiyong stood there next to Taeyang, not saying anything and not even looking at Dara. He kept his gaze focused on the wall as if there was something interesting imprinted on it, and from time to time he would look at his feet, shifting a little as he placed his hands in his jean pockets. His actions didn't go unnoticed by Dara though. She could tell that he was ignoring her and she felt hurt, sad, confused. Was their fight really that serious? 

Usually when they fight, it's over the smallest thing like not having enough time for each other to hang out, etc and they just tend to get over it, apologising to each other over such a silly argument. But this, it was different and far more serious than forgetting to make time for each other. 

Jiyong and Dara were so oblivious of each others feelings. They were both hurting but being the amazing actors they were, they knew how to hide their emotions towards each other, creating an emotionless presence towards one another. 

Another fact is that they were both stubborn. 

Neither of them wanted to start talking to each other, but both had different reasons. Jiyong thought that Dara needed some space; it was not the right time to speak to her yet because she's still probably angry with him over what he had said, plus he needed some time to think for himself. As for Dara, she didn't know how to start a conversation with him anymore, and she believed that he should start considering as it was his fault for causing such an argument to begin with. 

Taeyang noticed the side glances that Dara would steal at Jiyong, he could tell that she was upset by what was happening between her and her best friend but he couldn't exactly do anything about it. This was their fight and they had to sort it out for themselves, no one should get involved. 

"Well, I have to go now. See you guys in five days." she said as she slowly walked towards the exit. 

"Noona, wait!" Seungri called out. Dara stopped at her track and Seungri went over to her, engulfing her in a quick hug before grinning widely. "Have fun at your trip." 

"Thanks." Dara said cheerfully. 

Taeyang went over to her as well, giving her a short side hug and telling her to have a safe trip. 

Jiyong felt jealous. He wanted to envelop her in a hug, tell her to have a safe trip and to have fun, telling her that he'll be here waiting for her until she gets back. He wanted to do all those things but he didn't. He controlled himself from walking towards her and wrapping his arms around her waist by walking away. He pressed the elevator button and as soon as the doors opened, he got on, pressing his desired floor and leaving without saying a word. 

Taeyang and Seungri looked at each other as they saw Dara looking at Jiyong as he walked away. The sadness in her eyes were evident but if any random person were to see her, they'd think she was perfectly okay as she had a small smile plastered on her face. 

"I'm going, okay?" she said as she looked at both the guys in front of her. 

Seungri nodded. "Okay, noona." He turned to Taeyang. "I'm gonna go first."

Taeyang didn't even reply to Seungri, he just looked at Dara as the younger walked away. 

"What?" Dara asked as she looked at Taeyang staring at her. 

"Everything is going to work out." he said. 

Dara gave out a quiet sigh. "I guess." 

Taeyang patted her head, trying his best not to ruffle it since it was tied up and he didn't want to ruin her hairstyle. "Don't worry about it too much. There are just a few things going on in Jiyong's head that he can't tell you just yet, please understand that."

Dara furrowed her eyebrows. What things? What was happening? What wasn't Jiyong telling her? 

"Anyway, go. You don't want to be held in traffic and miss your flight." Taeyang said. 

She nodded, leaving behind her questions. Whatever Jiyong had in his head, she hoped that he would tell her soon because she wants to be there for him. She realises that she caused them to drift apart, she felt sorry for making them that way.

"Maybe it wasn't the best thing to stop hanging out because of Kiko." she thought. If he didn't care, maybe she shouldn't have too. They were friends, that was it, and Kiko should've understood. Dara was beginning to regret ever making that decision of not talking unless they were in work. 

Dara quickly waved a goodbye and headed towards the car parked outside of the building. Throughout the whole car ride to the airport, the flight to Philippines and the car ride to the hotel, Jiyong was on her mind constantly. 

She pondered whether or not she should leave a message to him but decided against it and just unpacked her luggage to keep her busy. 

By the time she had finished unpacking, it was already 8pm so she decided to order room service and eat dinner. 

Her dinner had arrived just 10 minutes later so she began to munch on the delicious food. Suddenly her phone began to ring so she quickly got up from her seat to her bed where the phone was settled. She smiled as soon as she saw who it was. 

"Hello."

"Hey..." his deep voice made an explosion of butterflies in her stomach. It was funny how just a single word from him made her feel so good, letting her know that she must really like this guy if she felt that way. 

"What's up, Minho? Is everything okay?" she asked. 

"Mhmm~" he hummed. "I just wanted to see how you were doing." 

"Oh... Uh, I haven't really been doing much. I just unpacked and now I'm eating dinner." she said as she walked back to her table where her food was all laid out in front of her. 

"Ah, haven't been sight seeing or anything yet?"

"Nah, I'm planning to do that after I've done the interviews. I'm just resting right now." she picked up a prawn with her fork and started eating it quietly so Minho couldn't hear. "What are you doing?"

"I'm just in the car going to a fan signing."

"Hm..." Dara hummed a response, too busy eating to even bother saying anything else. 

"Oh, I was checking different Filipino food I wanted to try while I'm there and there's this dish called... Uh, sini-sinigan? Urgh, what was it again?" he asked. 

"Omo! Sinigang!!! That's my favourite!!" she stated happily. "You definitely need to try it. We'll go and get some when you come here. You're coming here tomorrow, right? What time?"

"Ah..." Minho sighed. "There was another schedule booked for that day that I have to attend, I completely forgot to jot it down somewhere and booked the ticket without consulting my agency, so I'll have to be there the day after, in the evening."

"Oh, I see. Well, that's okay. As long as you're still coming." 

"Yup, and it's during the evening so the next day we can just hang out and sight see since you'll be done with your interviews by then, right?" 

"Yup!!" 

"Cool. Anyway, I'm at the fan signing now so I have to go. I'll talk to you later." 

"Okay. Have fun! Bye." 

Dara ended the call then placed it on the table next to her plate. She took the fork into her hand, stabbing another prawn and stuffing it in . 

* *

Seungri followed Jiyong to his studio, bursting into the room and glaring at his hyung. 

"Seriously? You're not even going to say bye and tell her to enjoy herself?" Seungri was angry that Jiyong had acted so rudely. He thought that he would be more mature than that, but he guessed that he was wrong. 

Jiyong gave Seungri an irritated look from the chair he was sitting at. As soon as he got into his studio, he sat on the black comfy chair and the computer to work on more songs so he could take some things off of his mind. 

"Hyung." Seungri spoke. 

No reply. 

"Hyung." he repeated. 

Silence. 

Seungri tutted before shouting "Hyung!!", completely annoyed now by Jiyong ignoring his presence. 

Jiyong sighed in frustration, pushing himself on the chair back a little before turning to face the agitated Seungri. "What?" he spoke, his voice was on the quiet side but sounded like poison. 

Seungri ran his hand through his hair. "You can't keep acting this way. Now she's probably thinking you don't want anything to do with her anymore, that you don't want to be friends. Is that what you want?" No answer. "Dara is an over thinker, she tends to over think things too much and comes up with the most negative scenario she can think of. What I'm trying to say is, don't act so rude towards her. I know you want to make up later on, I know that you're probably thinking she needs some space from you but what you did seriously did not help. Just walking away like that? Dara was smiling but you can see it in her eyes that it affected her. The small things you do affect her and I think you should understand that. If you want to be the guy for her, stop making her sad and don't do stupid things." 

Seungri left the studio without saying another word, leaving Jiyong shocked to hear the maknae say all these things and to be honest, he didn't want to admit that the younger was right. Jiyong was being stupid and he was hurting her. He felt so guilty but what can he do now? He sighed once again, bending down and resting his elbows on lap before covering his face with his hands. 

"He means well." 

Jiyong turned and saw Taeyang standing by the door. He entered, closing the door behind him and sitting on the couch. Jiyong turned around to face his long time friend. 

"I know," he said. "He's right, I should've known better." 

"It's not completely your fault. You didn't know what to do so you just thought of escaping." 

Jiyong stared at Taeyang. Was that what he does when situations get tough? He escapes? Surely not. 

"Dara is probably the only girl that you've fallen for that you can't have so you don't know what to do but escape." Taeyang explained. 

"Oh." was all Jiyong could say. 

Taeyang stood up, Jiyong didn't even bother to look up or ask where he was going. The older of the two placed a hand on the troubled guy's shoulder, patting it slightly. 

"Don't worry. Things will work out." Taeyang reassured. 

"What if they don't?" Jiyong questioned quietly. 

"Then I guess it just wasn't meant to be." 

Taeyang left the studio and Jiyong was once again left in his own. The room had suddenly felt so silent and cold, and for once in his life, he felt truly alone. 

Was this the effect Dara left on him? That if she wasn't by his side, he felt alone? Because if it was, he did not like it, not one bit, which made him more determined to make sure that Dara would be his someday. It might not be right now, or in a couple of months time, but he was sure that Dara will be his one day and he promises that when that day comes, he will do everything to make her happy and not let her go.

A/N: Finally updated~ and I fail at ending off chapters OTL.

Sorry I took so long, things have been hectic with college and everything. I mean, I only go to college three days a week but I never knew I'd get so busy in my four day weekends with school work, and to top it all of, I've been sick for three weeks now T_T

I even go college even though I feel like I'm going to collapse any minute URGH.  

I actually just finished this a couple of minutes ago, I kind of rushed since I wanted to update quickly cz I haven't in such a long time so I felt bad >< 

Thank you for waiting patiently and for subscribing :) 

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