Here's the new version of the first chapter! Mostly the same except for the ending. Thanks for re-reading! :3

Chaerin believed the greeting to be that of a kitten. Whether or not the thing at the dorm door was a kitten is actually debatable.

“Hello~” The voice came after a rap of knocks. “Noona?” And that was when CL made the connection.

“Dara!” She yelled.

“Ne?” Sandara Park hollered back from within the bathroom, fixing her hair. 

“Your brother,” CL mumbled in English. When Cheondung knocked again, she sighed and sat up, dragging herself to the door. Why was he at their dorm at 10:30 at night? What could this kid possibly want? Shouldn’t he be with the MBLAQ oppas? “Yah, Dungie.”

“Oh, h-hi, Chaerin,” Thunder stuttered at the sight of a pajama adorned leader. She crossed her arms, giving him a stern glare that read, ‘What are you doing here?’ “I-I brought some cake from the store nearby,” he smiled and handed her the small box. She stared at it, while Cheondung stared at her, before mustering enough courage just to take it. Not that she was scared. She was the one and only CL, after all.

“You didn’t have to…” She admitted and continued, “Besides, our trainer is making us go on diets, so nothing, especially sweets, after seven. Sorry. You wasted your money. And time,” Chaerin sighed and the older boy blushed a little, his eyes engulfed in sorrow but maintaining his small smile. She didn’t enjoy hurting his feelings (not that much, but, yes, a little humor came out of it), yet sometimes he tried too hard to please others.

“Dogpoop!” Dara shouted, running over and wrapping her arms around her younger yet taller brother. She leaned back and pinched his cheeks. “Squishy!”

“Ah, noona~” he laughed and took her hands in his, kissing her forehead. Chaerin smugly began to make gagging noises as she strutted back to the couch.

“Come in, come in,” Dara invited him in. By then, Minzy and Bom had skipped into the living room, both collapsing upon their leader on the couch, causing her to jump up and scowl at them. “Be careful with Leader-ssi, she’s so fragile!” Fragile? Do they even know who CL is? Meanwhile, Dara subconsciously took the box from Cheondung’s grasp and looked with in it, gasping at the sight. “Cake~!”

“CAKE?!” Bom cheered and pranced about, bouncing on the balls of her feet around the coffee table and over to Thunder, grabbing his hands and twirling him around, shaking her head. Bom loved cake. If only Cheondung loved Bom and Bom loved Cheondung, this story would end here. But it doesn’t. “Thank you Dungie-ah!” She snatched the box out of Dara’s hands and ran to her own room.

“YAH, THAT’S MINE!” Dara chased her unni around the dorm and into the kitchen, leaving her brother standing hopelessly at the door.

“Guys, we’re not supposed to be eating that anyways,” Minzy chastised them as she scurried after them, partially to see what kind of cake it was. After all, cake was cake. CL, glued to the couch, pouted and crossed her arms, heaving a heavy sigh of annoyance. Since when did Cheondung know girls’ greatest weakness? No; since when did 2NE1 become the pig group? Oh, the girls would be getting hell, not just from their trainer, but from Lee Chaerin herself. Damn it.

“I’m sorry,” Cheondung guiltily muttered, bowing fully to Chaerin. Her brow rose at the boy and she scoffed under her breath, staring at the ground, listening to the girls argue from the other room. “If there’s any way I can make it up to you,” he said quickly, crossing to sit next to her on the couch, and continuing, “please, let me know.” The earnest expression on his face was priceless. She had to resist laughing.

“Well,” Chaerin sighed, puckering her lips, “you can come with us to our trainer tomorrow and admit that you were the one who bought the cake. So you can get in trouble, not me,” she added with a slight hiss at the end. He nodded.

“Ne.”

“Ne?”

“Ne. I can do that,” he confirmed with a smile, slightly flashing his teeth.

“Bom!” The yelp came from the other room; metal clings erupted and echoed throughout the dorm, causing the two on the couch to flinch.

“YAH! Cut it out in there and settle down!” Chaerin snarled and Cheondung giggled quietly. “Eh, don’t you start, too.”

“As you wish,” he said with a childish smirk.

“Stop it!” She huffed, whacking him over the head with a pillow; it released the laughter from the depths of his stomach, a sweet and soothing sound.

“Hahaha, Chaerin-ah, why don’t you relax some?” Thunder asked between hits, his hands hovering over his face as she continued to beat him. She stopped, moving some hair out of her face and studied him for a long time. She plopped down on the cushion next to him, hugging the pillow to her chest.

“I am relaxed,” she declared, leaning back while still holding the pillow. Or was the spoken word a lie, and was Chaerin, Lee Chaerin, tense whenever she was around this boy? The world wasn’t sure.

“Right, right,” Cheondung grinned softly at her, scooting closer to her. However, the gesture was rejected when Chaerin scooted away from him. He stared at his knees.

“Stupid Dung,” she mouthed. Stupid, adorable Dung.

“Have you ever seen this? Joonie-hyung recommended I watch it, especially with you guys because it’s in English…” Cheondung had pulled a DVD out (from where, CL will never know) and showed it to her. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“No, I’ve never seen it,” she reluctantly confessed, knowing the next question.

“Well, uh, would you like to watch it now?” He pursued.

She bit her lip. No, no she didn’t want to watch it, especially not now. But he was giving her that look, that begging look, the one where he asked her to ride the rollercoaster with him once because he was scared, the one where he got her to lend him some won for a present for his sister. The look she couldn’t refuse.

“Gah, fine!” She hissed, snatching the DVD from his hand and moving towards the television. “Bom! Dara! Minzy! You wanna watch this movie with Dungie and I?”

“No thank you,” Dara replied in English as she left the kitchen and passed the living room. Both CL and Thunder took a double take.

“Ne, we’re all going to take a shower and go to bed,” Bom said, trailing her.

“What they said,” Minzy nodded yet hid her face with her hair as she followed Bom and Dara.

“Look at what you did!” Chaerin scolded Thunder. Her fists balled as she returned to sit next to him. He gave her a sheepish grin.

“Well, actually-”

“I don’t care!”

Contrary to this show, Lee Chaerin is not, was not, and may never be an angry person. Often she was actually quite gleeful. Yet here was Cheondung, sitting all high and mighty, aggravating her endlessly. Why he did it, no one who knows can say.

-

While Chaerin had managed to stay pissed off through the entire movie, she was still awake when it ended, unlike the certain oppa sleeping peacefully next to her. What good was watching the movie if you were just going to sleep through it!

Chaerin resisted her boiling anger. It was nearly impossible to be angry at someone who slept like that, abnormally peaceful, when you’ve seen your fair share of ugly during someone’s ‘beauty sleep’.

“Aish, Cheondung,” she whispered so not to wake him, grabbing a plush throw and tossing it upon him. His snore was light and feathery and it tickled her cheek when she had bent down to make sure it covered him. “Night, Dungie…”

His eyes suddenly fluttered open like butterflies and he sat straight up in shock, bumping his head with hers. She yelped and grabbed her forehead, and staggering away to her room. Thunder followed her closely, a waterfall of apologies spewing from his mouth. “You’re such a klutz!”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry Chaerin-ah.”

“What are you guys doing up so early? Don’t tell me you were doing what I think you were doing…” Minzy poked her head out of her room, dazed. She had been waking up several times that night.

“Shut up and go to bed,” CL barked quietly so they didn’t wake their unnis. She definitely didn’t want an overprotective Dara yelling at Thunder for being up so late.

“Fine, loverbirds.”

“We’re not-”

“Chaerin?”

“What?!”

“I’m sorry.” Chaerin squinted in the dark hallway up at the older boy. He had lost his signature sheepish smile for a depressed frown. He generally masked his pain, but at that moment, he looked genuinely regretful. She wasn’t sure if she could handle seeing him cry, so she sighed.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll be fine. Don’t worry yourself over it. And you can still sleep on the couch if you want,” CL spoke quickly, part nervous and embarrassed to see him like this as well as too tired to stay awake much longer. “Really. The movie was nice, too,” she slowed her words.

“Alright, then I guess I’ll stay here for the night,” he whispered, hugging her (though it wasn’t returned) as another apology. She stood there awkwardly against his towering figure and nearly stopped breathing. After a minute or so, she coughed slightly as a sign to end it. “Goodnight. Have sweet dreams,” Thunder muttered, sadness still tinting his words, as he stumbled back towards the living room, equally tired.

“Yeah,” was all Chaerin could think to say. And why? When did she ever run out of things to say? It was just a hug for Christ-sakes! Chaerin, snap yourself out of it!

“Oh, one more thing,” Cheondung added, breaking Chaerin out of her mini-mental-rant.

“Ne?”

“Well…”

He paused.

“Were you going to kiss me, Chaerin-ah?”

If Chaerin could bend hell and fire, Thunder would be in flames. She grabbed a guest pillow out of the closet and chucked it as hard as she could at him before quickly disappearing into her bedroom. Who did he think he was? The bastard! The nerve!

She flopped on her bed, her head still aching. However, her heart also felt tingly and seemed to tug itself in different directions. It was all stupid Cheondung’s fault. Damn it, Dung-ah. Damn it.