8.

AUGUST

The next day, Dara had been busy since the moment she woke up early in the morning from running errands. She had to get an international license so she was able to drive while she was in the Philippines, had to see her family since they needed to give her things to pack (plus they haven't seen each other in a while), had to buy a few more things to pack, but even though she was exhausted, it didn't stop her from having a smile on her face. 

She was happy. 

Anyone who saw her could tell she was in a good mood. 

And the reason was quite simple. 

Lee Minho. 

Yes, the gorgeous young actor who she had just met yesterday for the first time was making her smile. 

From the moment she had left the set of the commercial shoot, she had already gotten a text from Minho. 

It was nice to finally meet you! ^^

I'm sorry we didn't get to properly talk considering we didn't have much breaks. 

I hope this isn't the last time we'll see each other... 

- LMH

Since then, the two have been exchanging in tons of text messages non stop. They did have a few breaks since at some point, Dara was busy as she does her errands and so was Minho, having to talk in a few interviews or whatever he had at that time. 

Dara had reached the YG building by 6pm, ready to practise, even though practise wasn't till an hour later but she was sure no one would be in the dance studio since the last time she checked, the time slot was empty. 

But she was wrong. 

When she walked into the studio, Jiyong was in the middle of practise with a bunch of other dancers. 

Dara walked in and shut the door behind her quietly, although you wouldn't have been able to hear the door anyway since the music was so loud. 

No one had noticed her. Or so she thought. 

Jiyong had spotted her entrance, but he decided to ignore her since he had to focus on his performance. That and he decided to distance himself from her for a while until he broke up with Kiko. Plus, he was still just a teeny tiny bit jealous over the kiss scene happening for real between her and Minho. Every time he thought about it, he felt like hitting something as his body was washed with jealousy. 

The music stopped and the choreographer called for a break. 

Jiyong was about to go over to his bag but then noticed Dara being at the side where his bag was so he decided to go over to the other dancers and talk to them, tell them they've worked hard and other things he could come up with. 

Dara noticed Jiyong's avoidance but she tried to keep a positive mind. 

'Maybe he needed to tell the dancers something quickly', she thought. 'There is no way he would avoid me. I haven't done anything wrong'.

She kept trying to reassure herself as she didn't like it when Jiyong would avoid her. She hated it when they didn't talk. Although she should get use to it considering they hardly talked anymore, except for when they see each other at work. Which is probably why Dara was a little upset to think Jiyong was avoiding her. 

She didn't want to loose time. They hardly ever had time to speak to each other already. 

Jiyong kept talking to the dancers, trying his hardest not to turn around and look at Dara. 

"Jiyong, aren't you gonna go to Dara?" asked one of the dancers. 

Jiyong looked at the dancer. "Huh?"

"Dara," the dancer nodded his head at the direction where Dara was standing. "Go talk to her. She seems a little lonely, and I think she wants to speak to you." 

Jiyong was a little reluctant but he didn't want to seem rude. "Ah, yeah..." 

He slowly turned around and walked over to Dara. 

Dara smiled and waved at him when she noticed he was making his way towards her. Jiyong waved back as well. 

When he finally reached her, he gave a quick 'hey' and went to his bag that was left on a bench. 

Dara turned around to him but she felt a little uncomfortable. Something seemed different about how they were. They never use to be like this. No matter how many days they haven't seen or spoken to each other, when they actually do see each other, they always always joked around comfortably. But this time, it was beyond awkward. It was as if they had suddenly drifted apart and Dara didn't like the feeling of it at all, so she tried to make conversation. 

"Is the practise going well?" she asked. 

"Yes." he bluntly replied. 

Jiyong was still looking for something in his bag it seemed but that was just an excuse. 

"Oh, okay. Um, I listened to 'Heartbreaker' yesterday. It's a really good song." she complimented. 

"Thanks." he said. 

Dara furrowed her eyebrows and tapped her foot repeatedly to get Jiyong's attention. When Jiyong looked up to face Dara, he felt bad. He could tell that she was angry, but... he needed time fully be okay with seeing her. 

He couldn't help but imagine how she must've kissed Minho during the shoot. 

And what's worse is that it's going to be on tv soon so he'll see it all over the place which will definitely piss him off. 

"What is with you?!" questioned Dara. 

Jiyong kept his cool composure. "What did I do?" 

"Why are you acting so awkward around me? Did I do something wrong?" 

Jiyong looked at Dara directly in her eyes. "No."

Dara stepped back a little. His eyes, the way he looked at her, they were so emotionless that it slightly scared her. 

"Ji, are you sure? If I did anything wrong, you should tell me..." 

"Why?" he asked. 

She looked at him with slightly widened eyes but regained her composure. "Why?? Well, so I know what I did and I could apologise for it or something." 

"Why should I? It's not like you ever told me why you avoided me before. You just did." 

Jiyong didn't know what was coming out of his mouth, or why he even bought past events into their conversation. He was mad. He didn't know why he was so mad, but it wasn't Dara he was mad at. No, it wasn't her. 

It was Minho. 

He was taking out his anger onto her. An anger which was infused with jealousy, it was deathly and uncontrollable. 

"Ji..." Dara started. 

"Why are you here?" Jiyong questioned with a rude tone that he didn't mean to have. 

Dara looked at the ground. Her chest was hurting, she felt like she wanted to cry. She didn't know what was happening between her and her best friend. Did she cause this? Was it all her fault? She did start the whole "only talk when we're at work" thing and maybe that's what caused this instant separation. 

But that didn't give Jiyong a reason to act like such a jerk. 

He could've just talked to her about it instead of being so rude. 

She silently cleared to remove the lump that she felt there and looked up at him with sudden confidence. 

"Jiyong, firstly, I don't know what your problem is but you don't need to act like such a jerk towards me. Secondly, I'm here because I do work for this company and I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to be in the dance studio to practise. I didn't know you guys would be here so I'm sorry if I interrupted you or whatever." Dara grabbed her bag that she settled on one of the benches and put it over her shoulder. "I'll go find somewhere else to practise." 

She turned and walked towards the door. Jiyong was about to stop her but the door suddenly opened, revealing someone who he really didn't want to see. 

"Minho!" Dara said surprised. 

Minho peeked his head through the opening of the door, looking around but soon found Dara right in front of him. 

"Hey." he said casually. 

Jiyong rolled his eyes but no one noticed since Dara and Minho were busy looking at each other. 

"What are you doing here?" Dara asked as she was still wondering the reason why Minho had come. 

"Oh. Um, I just..." Minho stuttered. 

Dara laughed. "Not much changed in a day, huh?" 

Minho scratched the back of his neck and smiled goofily, although it looked very y on his face. 

"I just wanted to visit. I didn't know if I was allowed but when I came here and asked for you, they said you'd be here. I'm not interrupting anything, am I? Are you busy?" Minho explained. 

"Ah, I see. And no, I'm not busy. I still have about..." Dara looked at the clock on the wall above the door. "Around 45 minutes till practice."

"That's good then. So uh..." Minho didn't really plan what he was going to do next, he hadn't really expected Dara to say that she wasn't busy. He had come here on a spontaneous trip. He just really had the urge to see her. 

"Let's hang out in the canteen then. You hungry? They serve pretty good food here." Dara suggested. 

Minho nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that."

"Cool. Let's go." 

Dara walked out of the room with Minho, leaving Jiyong standing there completely in rage. 

She didn't even introduce him to that guy. 

But then again, he realised that he was being such a towards her before. And what perfect timing for that guy to enter that studio just when he was about to apologise to her. 

He ruffled his hair and groaned out loud in frustration as he knelt onto the ground. 

The dancers and choreographers looked at Jiyong with a weird look that Jiyong noticed once he stopped looking on the floor and up at his surroundings. 

He started nervously laughing while continuously saying "sorry" and making up a lame excuse about how he forgot to walk Gaho today. 

He wanted to slap himself so bad at how stupid he must've looked but whatever, he was more concerned about Dara and Minho. 

Was he really going to let this guy get his girl? 

Jiyong was about to leave but the choreographer told everyone to get into places again as break was over. 

He frustratedly sighed.

Of course he wanted to know what was going on but he couldn't. He had to focus on what was important at this moment and that was to do well on his solo. A lot of people were expecting a whole lot from him and he wasn't going to let them down. 

He then had a great idea and got out his phone from his bag. 

He looked through his contacts, pressed a button on the screen and pressed his phone onto his ear. 

Once the person picked up, he spoke. 

"Seungri, where are you?"

A/N: Hi, sorry I took long to update! ><

And I'm sorry that this chapter is very short, you must be thinking why it took me so long to update when the chapter is so short but like, yh, it was difficult and I kept on taking out stuff and rewriting, it was urgh. But I promise that next chapter will be longer! 

Btw, thank you so much for subscribing to this fic, all 93 of you! I never expected quite a lot to subscribe to this fic so I'm really thankful :D