The Lost Crow

*banner by bepu27

- - -

DARA’S POV

I was so thirsty that it woke me up. I opened my eyes and the lights stabbed my eyes painfully. My head was pounding really and I feel awful. “Ugh!” I groaned as I pushed myself up in a sitting position. Groggily, I stood up and headed towards the door, planning to get myself a glass of water. I leaned one hand against the wall as I walked towards the kitchen. It took me some time to get there. As soon as I was able to, I grabbed a glass and poured cold water there. I was able to drink up to three glass of water in one go. After that, I went to the sink and opened the faucet, washing my face with water. I closed my eyes when I straightened up as I tried to take deep breath to dull the heavy feeling in my head. My thoughts were not organized and it made it harder for me to think straight.

I decided to ignore it. As I was on my way back to my room, I thought I saw someone from far ahead. I frowned and narrowed my eyes, trying to know who it was. It was Seungri. Curious, I slowly walked towards his direction and was about to ask him what he was doing when I heard a familiar voice just beyond the corner Seungri was hiding from.

“The wedding is just a few days from today,” Sohee said. “Do you think it would go smoothly?”

“What could go wrong?” Jiyong asked.

I froze. My heart froze. My brain even went blank.

Wedding?

All coherent thoughts were shoved out of my mind. My head suddenly cleared with thoughts I didn’t know I was capable of. I marched angrily towards the room, not minding if they’ll call me an eavesdropper or what. I don’t care.

“Whose wedding are you talking about?” I demanded at once, facing Jiyong. He didn’t even look surprise or guilty or ashamed. He looked. . . unreadable.

“You should not be eavesdropping on other people’s conversation,” he drily commented.

“Whose wedding are you talking about?” I asked again, my voice rising in a high-pitched panic mode.

“Dara. . . .” Sohee started.

My head whipped to her direction, my eyes glaring. “You don’t have the right to call me by my name!”

“Dara, I know that this is quite –”

“Sohee, can we talk?” Seungri came in.

“S-seungri!” Sohee exclaimed. “W-what. . .how. . .?”

“I heard everything, even before the part when Dara entered,” he said. “Can we talk.” It was not a request, but a demand.

Sohee glanced at Jiyong first. “It’s up to you,” he said.

She then sighed and turned her eyes back to Seungri. “Fine.”

As soon as they left, I faced Jiyong again. “Whose wedding were you talking about a while ago.”

He just stared at me. He looked like he was not going to answer. But then, he sighed, his face blank as he said, “Mine and Sohee.”

It took, five or ten minutes for that information to dig into my brain. As soon as it did, I suddenly find it hard to breathe. Surely, this is too much already? It’s quite surprising how I can still stand here in front of him. “Why?” I managed to ask.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Why?” I just asked again.

He sighed. “I think you’re still drunk. You should go back to bed,” he said and reached out but then, even before he could reach me, his hand froze halfway and then, he dropped it to his side.

“Why?” I asked again.

“I’m not obliged to answer that.”

“But you said you love me,” I whispered softly. My voice was close to breaking up. “But why are you marrying her?”

“You won’t understand,” he said, shaking his head.

“Why?! Because my intellect is below-sea-level?!?”

“As I’ve just said, I’m not obliged to answer your question or even explain things to you. You’re not my girlfriend anymore.”

“Do you enjoy hurting me, Jiyong?” I asked. “Will it make you happy to see me in pain? Will it satisfy you to see me regretting that I’ve even kissed TOP?”

He didn’t say anything.

“Well, if you enjoy doing things like that, you should have invited me to your wedding as Sohee’s maid of honor!!” I screamed. “That would be quite a show! Me, watching you wait for Sohee in the altar. Me, listening to you as you say your vows that would bind you with her for the rest of your life. Me, standing on the sideline, watching you kiss her. Me, seeing everyone clapping and wishing you all the happiness in the world! I’ll go ahead and find Sohee and beg her to make me the maid of honor instead. If that would make you happy, I will do that! I will –”

“SHUT UP!!!” he roared, his hand gripping my arm tightly. It was too tight that I’m sure it’ll bruise. I even think that if he gripped on it tighter, my bone would break. “SHUT YOUR ING MOUTH UP!!!”

“Why?” I asked, voice shaking. “Would those be not enough for you to be happy? Would those be not enough for you to forgive me completely? I’ll break myself over and over again, I’ll face death over and over again, I’ll let myself suffer over and over again if that’s what it takes for you to forgive me.”

“Are you insane?!” he hissed.

“Maybe I am,” I answered. “Maybe I don’t know what’s right from wrong, what’s real from not. I only know one thing. And I can bet my all of how certain that is – I love you, Jiyong.”

His grip tightened on my arm again as I watched one emotion to another flickered in his eyes. But even before I could get glimpse to all of them, he let me go and turned away from me.

“I love you,” I whispered. “I always have and always will.”

“Stop. . .”

“I don’t think I have it in me to stop loving you, Jiyong. Pancake –”

“STOP!” he shouted and turned to face me. He looked angry again. “It’s over, Dara. It’s over!”

“Pancake.”

“I SAID STOP!!!” he roared so loud that the whole room vibrated. “Why are you being like this?! Why are you doing this?!?”

“I want you back,” I desperately whispered. “I just want you back.”

He shook his head, his face so grim that it made me want to touch his face to calm him down. But even before I could reach out to him, he slowly turned into a black smoke, almost vapor then disappeared.

- - -

My eyes were puffy red. I’m sure everyone noticed it but no one said a thing, especially TOP. He was especially cheerful, teasing me with weird dance steps he said I showed him last night. I haven’t seen Jiyong yet, nor Sohee or Seungri. I don’t want to ruin the mood of CL’s comeback because of my personal problems so I tried to be as cheerful as I can be.

“I didn’t do that!” I exclaimed.

“Yes, you did!” TOP returned. “Aish, I should have taken a video of it. It was epic!”

I was thankful that TOP was being a good friend. He hasn’t shown me his sarcastic or bully side for about. . .four months. I wanted to thank him personally but I can’t seem to say those words out loud at the moment. Some simple things can be really complicated especially if. . .no, I don’t want to think about it. I love Jiyong. The reason why I’m here is because of Jiyong, period.

Out of all the people in this reunion, CL’s aunt, who wants to be generally called as Aunt, was the only hyper person. She’s just so energetic, enthusiastic and excited with everything. After our little swimming getaway and the clubbing, now she just set up a game. It was almost the same game that we had before, with me teaming up with Jiyong, except that for this one, it’ll be simply a race. We need to get past three forest and two mountains. Bom and Youngbae would not be participating because they need to look after their daughter but they’ve warned the guys not to use any magic tricks. I guess they used those terms for the benefit or CL's aunt or Aunt, as she prefers it.

“Oh look, here come the others!” Aunt clapped. We all turned our heads towards the direction where Aunt was looking and saw Jiyong, Sohee and Seungri walking towards us. I didn’t even glance at Sohee, call me bitter or whatever but I just don’t feel like seeing her today. As for Seungri, he seemed. . . . lighter. I don’t know - his aura seemed lighter. Aish, what am I talking about?

And Jiyong. of course, he’s still as handsome as ever, as y as ever, as mysterious as ever, as. . . my heart constricted. Just the sight of him leaves me breathless and pathetic.

“He’s going to melt if you stare at him like that.”

“H-huh?” I blinked and turned to TOP. He just smiled at me and patted my head. “You would make an adorable pet.”

“Ya!”

He chuckled. “I’m doing a good job in distracting you, aren’t I?”

I flushed. Guilt suddenly welled up inside my chest.

“Okay! For the newcomers, come here. I’m going to explain the mechanics again,” Aunt announced. The whole time she was explaining, my eyes were on him. I can’t help it. I wanted to talk to him about last night. I want to clear things up but I don’t want to do that in the open, especially in front of Aunt. I don’t want to ruin her mood.

As soon as she was done explaining, she clapped again. “Okay, so pair yourself up!”

“I’ll pair with my sister,” Daesung announced at once. “I’m comfortable with her.”

I was about to open my mouth and say that I wanted to be paired with Jiyong but then, he beat me to it. “I’ll pair with Sohee.”

“But I want to be paired up with Sohee too!” Seungri complained.

“I’ll take pet Dara with me,” TOP announced happily.

“Ya!”

“Sohee is Jiyong’s girlfriend,” Aunt said. “It’s quite normal for him to want to be paired with his loved one. Why don’t you pair up with my Chaerin? Chaerin’s really good in games like these.”

“Why am I always left with no choice?” Seungri sighed.

“Okay, since everyone’s paired up, I’ll be giving you your things now.”

“What’s the point of this game again?” Seungri asked.

“Scared of competition, are you?” Aunt laughed, making Seungri stare at her in disbelief. “Don’t worry dear, Chaerin can win this game if she wants to. You don’t have to do anything.”

“What does that mean?” he demanded but Aunt already walked away since he was distributing our hiking things and stuff.

“She meant that you won’t be really of any help to Chaerin,” Jiyong said, smirking.

Seungri glared at CL. “We’ll see about that.”

“I know you wanted to be paired up with him but since he already announced that he’s pairing up with –”

“I don’t have problems being paired up with you,” I told him, my eyes still fixed on Jiyong.

“I don’t get why we have to do this,” Seungri complained. “Can’t any of you see how dark the cloud is? It’s going to rain!”

“I’m really starting to think that you’re not that competitive,” Minzy commented out of nowhere.

I heard TOP snort at first but then, he burst out laughing. It sounded so childish that I can’t help but smile. I shook my head and chuckled. It was then that I felt someone looking at me. I looked around and was able to catch Jiyong looking at me. But the look on his face was not the look I expected to see.

- - -

All throughout the day, I silently hoped that I’ll bump into Jiyong but nothing happened. So when night came, me and TOP settled in our tent. We only had one tent you see, but it was big enough to shelter the two of us.

“It seemed like Seungri was right about the weather,” he commented.

“Hmm,” I murmured. True, it started to drizzle late afternoon and it hasn’t stopped ever since. I have this feeling that it’s really going to rain hard, soon.

“Ah, I feel so tired. I’m not really up to physical activities that much.”

“Go to sleep,” I suggested. “We still have a long day tomorrow.”

He chuckled and looked at me. “As much as I want to stay awake and talk to you, I really am sleepy. Goodnight, pet Dara.”

“Stop calling me that,” I pouted. But he just chuckled and closed his eyes. Sooner or later, he was already fast asleep.

- - -

AUTHOR’S POV

Jiyong looked down at Sohee. She was cuddled up close to him, fast asleep. As for him, he was wide awake for a few hours now. He attempted to go to sleep several times but it was to no avail. Maybe I need some fresh air, he thought. With that thought in mind, he slowly detached himself from Sohee and stepped out from the tent. It was drizzling a little but he didn’t mind. He closed his eyes for a moment then threw his head back, letting the soft drizzle touch his face.

When he opened his eyes, he was now looking at his surroundings through crow’s eyes. He spread his wings out and flapped them. He flew into the trees, letting his instinct guide him. After a while, he stopped on a branch of a tree standing not too far from a tent. He was not sure what he was doing there, watching the tent as if something was interesting about it. He could just tell that the occupants in that tent were fast asleep, or maybe doing something else, he was not sure. He stayed far enough not to hear anything from that tent, if there were any. He just stayed there, watching the tent even if he was wet already.

But then, a movement froze him. Sooner or later, someone was getting out from the tent. His whole body tensed upon recognizing who it was. There was a frown on her small, pretty face as she looked around, looking for something.

Seeing her was enough, at least that’s what he’s trying to tell himself. He wasn’t even sure why he wanted to see her in the first place. He could not help but sigh at the carelessness and clumsiness of the girl. Who in their sane mind would go out to look for something when it’s raining?

“Jiyong?”

He totally froze.

“Jiyong, where are you?”

He looked carefully to check if the girl was dreaming or sleepwalking. But no, she was wide awake and she sensed his presence. That alarmed him. He spread his wings and started to fly away before she could even notice him. He was thankful that it was dark, his crow form perfectly blended in with the darkness of the night and of the forest.

After a minute, he slowly turned back to his human form. Standing in the middle of the trees, he placed his hands on his waist and tried to breathe in and out slowly. Then, his ears pricked.

“Jiyong?”

He paused.

“Jiyong, what are you doing here?”

He closed his eyes tightly. He should have gone straight back to the tent as a crow. Why did he stop anyway and turned back to his human form? It was plain stupidity. Left with no choice, he opened his eyes and slowly turned around. “I was just trying to see if I could still gather some dry woods. Sohee’s a bit cold.”

“I see,” she said, nodding. Her lower lip then started to tremble and it didn’t escape his eyes. He quickly turned his back on her and swallowed the lump that seemed to have clogged his throat.

“I should go back,” he said. “I don’t want Sohee to wait for me. You should go back too,” he added. As he took a step forward, two arms suddenly went around his waist. Everything then shut down. It’s as if his heart stopped beating, his lungs stopped functioning, his brain dead – his jaw clenched and unclenched uncontrollably as his fists balled tightly.

“Pancake. . .” she whispered against his back. “Please. . .”

His eyes snapped close on their own accord, his teeth grinding on each other and his whole body was trembling. He could not allow this to happen. His hands moved up, as he planned to get Dara’s arms off of him. But the moment his skin touched hers – soft, smooth and fragile, memories suddenly flashed in his mind like tidal wave that he was close to drowning from it. Along with those memories was his plan to propose to her. His eyes suddenly snapped open. He gripped her wrists hard and took them off him. “Stay away from me.”

He then started heading back towards his tent with Sohee, aware that Dara was following him. But he ignored her. As soon as he reached the tent, he faced her again and he halted upon seeing her on her knees. “What do you think are you doing?!”

“I. . .if you don’t want. . . I’m not going to. . t-to a-ask you to c-comeback. . . if you don’t want me anymore, I-I’ll t-try t-to deal with that,” she said in a broken voice. “But can you at least. . . forgive me?”

“That’s not going to happen!” he said. “Now get up and get away from here!”

He angrily went back inside the tent he’s sharing with Sohee. The moment he closed the flap and turned to lay down, he saw that Sohee was awake, staring at him. And then, it started to rain, really hard.

“She’s going to get sick,” she said.

“I don’t care.”

Sohee sighed then pushed herself up in a sitting position. But Jiyong grabbed her arm and pulled her down again.

“Don’t you dare. . .!”

“But Jiyong. . .”

“Let her be,” he said. “She’s not going to stay that long there anyways. A minute or two from now, she’ll go back to the tent she’s sharing with TOP.”

- - -

It was four in the morning already and it was still raining hard. For some unknown reason, Jiyong woke up from his sleep. He glanced beside him and saw Sohee fast asleep. He closed his eyes again and tried to sleep but he couldn’t do that anymore. He sighed heavily and sat up. He looked straight up ahead. Out from curiosity, he opened the tent and took a peek outside. And she was still there, kneeling under the heavy rain.

Anger, rage or hatred – he was not sure which but he suddenly felt violent. He stepped out of the tent, getting soaked at once. “What do you think are you doing?!?” he demanded.

“Y-y-you. . . s-should g-get i-inside, i-it’s c-c-cold out here. Y-you’ll g-g-get sick,” she stuttered.

He stared at her kneeling form. “Stand up,” he said in a low voice.

“N-no.”

“Stand up, Dara.”

“No. . .”

“I SAID STAND UP!!!”

“I can’t!”

“What do you mean you can’t?” he thundered and pulled her up to her feet but then, her knees collapsed. “!” he cursed and went to kneel in front of her. “ you!”

“Y-ya!” she whispered weakly. “N-no s-swearing i-in front of m-me.”

“Jiyong?” a voice from inside the tent called.

He suddenly stood up then turned into a crow and flew away just in time for Sohee to peek outside. She gasped upon seeing Dara’s pitiful form under the rain.

“Dara!” she exclaimed. “What are you-?!”

“Bring her back to your tent,” Jiyong’s voice came back. Sohee looked up and saw that TOp was closely behind him.

“I think you should bring her to Bom at once,” Sohee suggested. “She looks sick!”

“I’ll take care of it,” TOP answered. Reluctantly, he turned to Jiyong. “Thank you for informing me. but it would have been better if you didn’t let her stay this long under the rain.”

“I didn’t –”

“You could have just brought her straight to your healer friend instead of getting me to bring her there, she wouldn’t have to stay under the rain for so long, although I appreciate that you informed me,” TOP cut off. He then knelt in front of Dara. “Come here,” he said in a gentle voice as he scooped her up in his arms.

“I-it’s c-c-cold,” Dara trembled.

“I know,” TOP whispered. “Don’t worry, I’m here. I’ll keep you warm, okay?”

“Mmm. . .”

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Huhuhuhu. . . i was harrassed yesterday by ehem, two, ehem, innocent looking girls (nyahahahaha), that's why I was forced to post this chappie (ya, you two! you asked for this!) . Friends, protect me! LOLz, just kidding guys... kekekeke..

anyways, got some new banners!!!

YAY!!!!

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