The breeze was cool and sweet as was the grass beneath him.  Afternoon sunlight filtered lazily through the dancing leaves of an overhanging branch.  He stretched out his long legs with a blissful sigh, nuzzling the back of his head against her lap.  Her long slender fingertips his hair away from his face as she hummed a bittersweet melody made just for him. 

As he opened his mouth to accept the cream covered strawberry she pressed against his lips, he searched for her face.  The delicate contours were bathed in shade, but through his half-opened lids he drunk in the depths of her dazzling blue eyes.

A bee buzzed somewhere near his ear.  He shooed it away, but the sound grew louder and more insistent.  He shooed it away again, but again it grew louder .. and louder .. and LOUDERRRRRRRRRRRR …

Choi Seung-Hyun brought his fist down on the top of the alarm clock.  Pulling a pillow over his head, his mind reached out for the remnants of the fleeting dream.

Kwon Ji-Yong viciously ran his fingers through his hair.  He sat alone at the long table behind Teddy and tried to hammer out the details to the lyrics he’d been working on, but his mind was all over the place.  At least while Noelle had been around he’d been distracted enough not to dwell on it.  But now .. now it was all he could think about.

Dara was engaged?

He didn’t even know they were dating.  How could his have happened?  How could he have let this happen??

He threw his pencil down and stormed out of the room.

Teddy looked up in confusion as the door slammed shut.

Noelle groaned.  The bottle of pain-killers the hospital had given her was empty and her arm and ankle throbbed mercilessly.  She found a lone tablet of Tylenol and downed it dry.

She needed to get started with her plan.  There was so much to do, but she was so tired and miserable.  She missed him so much.

Jiggling her mouse to bring her laptop out of screensaver mode, she checked to see if there was any email yet from YG.  Her in-box was empty.  Plopping down on the couch, she pulled her body into a fetal position and hugged her knees with her good arm.

A knock at her apartment door startled her.  She pulled herself up with a crutch and limped to the door.

“Yes?”

“Hello there!  This is Jason from La Madeleine?  I have a food delivery for a Miss Noelle Linden?”

Food? She hadn’t ordered anything.  And since when did La Madeleine deliver?

She cracked open the door.  “I didn’t order anything, who is this from?” she quizzed.

The delivery boy looked like he’d just crawled off his surfboard and thrown on a uniform.  He tossed his shoulder length sun-bleached hair and squinted for a moment at what looked like a receipt.

“Says here the order was placed by someone at … Monahan Entertainment?”

“Ah, I see.  Thank you.”  It must have been her father’s secretary.  She took the bag and gave him a tip. 

The aroma rising from the bag smelled like tomato basil.  began to water.  She hadn’t had this type of food in over a month.

Pulling out a chunk of sour-dough bread, she dipped it into the soup and ate hungrily.  Her eyes rolled back as she moaned ecstatically.

Ji-Yong stuck his head into 2NE1’s studio and took a quick look around.  The girls were in a corner discussing music, but they turned to look at him.  He couldn’t fight the flush that raced up his neck to his cheeks. He cleared his throat.

“Sandara, could I talk to you for a minute?”

Dara bobbed her head curiously, “Sure.”  She followed him out into the hallway.

Ji-Yong stuffed his hands into his pockets.  Then he pulled them out and crossed them over his chest.  Then he placed them on his hips.

“What’s up?” Dara asked.

He stuffed his hands back into his pockets and looked hard at the floor.

“I need to talk to you about something.  Would you have time to have lunch with me tomorrow?”

Dara’s eyes widened with surprise.

“Of course,” she replied.

Daesung knocked on Top’s bedroom door, but there was no answer.

“Hyung!” he called.  “Are you getting up?”

He thought for a moment, then quietly cracked the door open.  He poked his head inside, just in time to catch a glimpse of Top’s arm hurling something in his direction.

It was still early, and his reflexes weren’t all awake yet.  He accepted the face full of pillow as inevitable.

Noelle was feeling worse by the second.  The Tylenol hadn’t helped at all.

She called for a cab and headed to a nearby clinic.  In the waiting room her entire body began to ache and bouts of dizziness periodically hit her.

When the nurse called for her, she was slumped over the armrest, unconscious.