Daesung pretended that he didn't hear her question.

He was about to shovel a spoonful of rice inside his mouth when he noticed everyone was looking at him.

"Is Youngbae oppa coming?" Chaerin repeated.

Sighing, he put down his spoon.

"Hyung can't make it tonight. He has something important that he needs to attend to." He said without making eye contact with anyone.

They just nodded their heads in acknowledgment but one pair of eyes stared at him suspiciously.

Daesung could tell that Dara was not buying his excuse.

"Seems like Youngbae oppa is busy these past few weeks." Minji couldn't hide her disappointment. "He barely has time for us."

"Don't worry; I'm sure he'll join us soon."

Seunghyun couldn't help but glance beside him.

*********

After an hour...

"Everything's resolved now," Jiyong said wrapping an arm around his girlfriend who was sitting beside him.

"Thanks to my lawyers, Hyuna-sshi is off my back." He added with a smile.

Chaerin frowned.

"I could have just handled her by myself but he wouldn't let me." She said with a pout.

"I think it's better that he didn't let you handle it, Chaerin-ah." Seunghyun commented with a chuckle.

"Oppa, how could you say that?" She responded innocently. "I won't do anything bad to her. I'll just talk to her."

Bom snorted while the other girls rolled their eyes.

"Letting you solve the problem spells disaster." She said, making everyone laugh.

"Aigoo unnie, I'm offended." Chaerin said, feigning hurt. "I'm not a war freak. Right, Dara unnie?"

"I'm sorry but what was the question again?" Dara pretended not to hear.

They all burst out laughing.



"I'll get it." Chaerin announced when they heard the doorbell.

Minutes later, she came back with Seungri behind her.

"Annyeong!" He enthusiastically greeted them with a big smile.

"Hey man!" Jiyong greeted. "It's about time."

Chaerin rolled her eyes while going back to her seat.

"We're almost done." She said to Seungri. "What took you so long?"

"I'm sure you know why." He teasingly smiled at her as he took a seat beside Seunghyun.

She scoffed and cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, I forgot. Daesung oppa said you were finishing something important."

"What could that important matter be?" She pretended to wonder.

"You two are at each other's throat again." Jiyong warned them.

"Your girlfriend seems to be curious of my whereabouts." He replied with a smirk. "I'd be happy to give her the complete 411 if she wants."

Chaerin gave him a disgusted look. "No thanks. I think the lipstick on your shirt says it all."

The others snorted while Seungri gave her a knowing look.


**********

After dinner, they all went inside the penthouse to continue their chat.

The girls gathered in the living room while the guys hang out at the mini bar located on the corner of the room.

"You know unnies," Minji suddenly said. "I think we should do something different too."

"What do you mean?" Dara asked her.

"We always hang out at bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and malls. Why don't we go nature tripping for a change?"

"You mean like what Youngbae oppa and the others did?" Chaerin asked, raising an eyebrow.

Minji nodded her head earnestly.

"No thanks, I'll pass." Bom covered and yawned. "Not my thing."

"Me too." Chaerin seconded. "With all my schedules, I don't think I'm fit to hike."

Minji gave Dara a hopeful look.

She smiled a little and patted her leg. "Sorry Minji-ah, maybe next time. Everyone seems busy nowadays."

Minji leaned her back at the couch and pouted.

Seunghyun and Seungri went to join them in the living room.

Dara moved closer to Minji, giving Seunghyun a space to sit on the huge couch.

"So what are you girls talking about?" Seungri sat on the armrest beside Minji.

Bom nods her head towards the maknae. "She wants to go hiking."

Daesung, who was sitting with the guys at the mini bar, overheard what she said.

"Hiking?" He repeated.

Seungri turned to Minji.

"You should've tagged along with us last week." He took a sip of his beer.

"How was your hiking anyway, oppa?" She asked.

"It was great until Youngbae hyung got-" His voice trailed off when he realized what he was about to say.

He quickly glanced at Daesung, wide-eyed.

His friend was giving him a warning look.

"Youngbae oppa got what?" Minji asked him curiously.

Everyone was waiting for him to continue.

Dara can sense that Youngbae's friends are hiding something from them.
She could tell from the moment Daesung said that Youngbae's busy.
She knew right away that he's lying.
They all know that no matter how busy he is, he takes time to meet them even for just awhile.

Deep inside she is curious on how he has been doing recently.
It's been two weeks since they last saw each other.
Instinct tells her that Youngbae not showing up has something to do with their talk.

"Seungri-ah?" Bom said impatiently. "What happened?"

"Yah!" Chaerin snapped. "Why don't you tell us what happened to Youngbae oppa."

Seungri sighed and gave Daesung an apologetic look.

"Girls," He said looking around. "Youngbae hyung will surely kill me when he finds out I told you this. But can you please promise me that you won't over react?"

They heard Daesung groaning from the side.

"Yah! What's with all the suspense?" Bom said frowning. "Go on, talk."

Seungri took a deep breath.

"You see, while we were hiking..." He started. "There was a slight accident."

He heard the girls gasping.

"Hey, hey, hey! You promised." He said to the girls.

"Seungri-ah," Jiyong, who was sitting on a stool beside Daesung, called his attention.

"Ye?"

"Just tell us what happened." He said with authority in his vooice.

"What happened to Youngbae?" Dara suddenly spoke.

All eyes went to her.

She was obviously getting anxious.

Seungri bit his lips while looking at Dara.

"While descending from the muddy and slippery mountain, hyung slipped and broke his right arm." He continued.

He saw the girls exchanging worried glances.

"Omo. Is he alright?" Chaerin asked with concern.

"He's healthy as a horse." Daesung quickly answered with an upbeat tone.

"Even with a cast on his arm, he can still do his usual daily routine. Err... except for driving of course." He gave out a laugh hoping that it will lighten up the conversation.

But the room fell silent.

The girls seemed to be thinking a lot and in seeing this, he wanted to strangle Seungri on the spot.

"Are you sure he's okay?" Minji asked. "Can we go and visit him?"

"He's fine. Really. You really don't need to worry about him." He assured them while glancing at Dara direction.

"Stupid!" Bom scoffed. "Did he think he can just hide this from us?"

"Bommie-ah," Jiyong spoke.

"Don't get mad at him. He just doesn’t want you girls getting worried."

She was about to react when he noticed Chaerin and Jiyong motioning their eyes at Dara.

Her gaze landed on her best friend who was not saying anything.

Dara was just looking down at the coffee table in deep thoughts.

**********

While the others were in the living room talking and having their drinks, Dara and Chaerin were in the kitchen cleaning up.

Dara was quietly washing the dishes while Chaerin put some of the dry plates and glasses inside a cupboard.

"He's okay." Dara felt her friend's presence beside her. "Stop worrying, unnie."

She glanced at her and smiled faintly.

"I'm not worrying. It's just that...” She couldn't finish her sentence.

She sighed while closing the faucet then she turned to face Chaerin. "I don't know."

She looked down at her wet hands. "I'm really not sure what I'm feeling right now.”

Chaerin handed her a clean towel.

"Part of me wants to check on him, but part of me thinks it's not a good idea." Dara said while drying her hands.

"Why would it be not a good idea?" Chaerin furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"Unnie, even if he's your ex-boyfriend he's still your best friend." She reminded her.

"You know it's different right now." Dara reasoned out wearily.

"Why do you guys have to make things so damn complicated?" Chaerin annoyingly said.

"Need an extra hand." A voice suddenly interrupted their conversation.

Chaerin beamed and toss the dry towel to Seunghyun.

"You can take my place, oppa." She went to the fridge and took a can of beer.

"You two hurry up and join us outside, arasseo?" She winked at Dara before leaving them.

********

When Chaerin went into the living room, she saw Seungri rushing out to the penthouse garden.

"What's up with him?" She asked her boyfriend who was playing air hockey with Minji and Daesung.

"Incoming call." Her boyfriend replied without looking at her.

She sneered and took a sip of her beer.

"Never ending affairs." She mumbled.

*********

"You know," Seunghyun spoke while drying the last plate that Dara just rinsed.

"You shouldn't take this chore too seriously."

She turned to him with a puzzled look.

"You should have seen you face while you were washing the dishes." He imitated what Dara looked like which made her laugh.

"I don't look like that." She protested.

He chuckled and leaned against the kitchen sink.

She grabbed the towel that he was holding and dried her hands.

"Why don't you show me how you look then?" He teasingly asked.

Dara gave him a ridiculous look then threw the towel at him. "Crazy!"

"I see you've noticed." He replied with a grin. "I'm really crazy about you, Dara."

"Yah!" She hits him in the arm. "Quit it!"

"You're so cute." He continued teasing her while shielding his arm with one hand.

She was about to hit him again but he was quick to catch her hand. "No, you should quit playing games with my heart, Sandy."

"Eeewww, Choi Seunghyun-ah!" She grimaced at his cheeky remark.

He laughed.

"Arasseo, arasseo. I'll stop." He said releasing her hand.

Dara walked towards the fridge and took two cans of beer.

She handed one to him.

"It's nice to see you smiling again." He said, taking the can from her.

Dara didn't respond.

"You hardly cracked a smile the whole night." He added.

She looked away feeling ashamed.

"Mianhe," She apologized, remembering what she promised him. "I couldn't help it."

Seeing her showing sadness, he looked away and let out a light chuckle.

"Why are you saying sorry to me? There's nothing wrong in showing how you feel." He opened his can of beer and took a sip.

Dara turned to face him. "It's not like that, Seunghyun-ah-"

He looked at her and smiled.

"If you want to visit him, then you should." He quietly said.

His hand reached to tuck a loose strand of her hair behind her ear.

Dara was startled with his gesture that she felt herself blushing.
It was awkward on her part but somehow she wondered why it felt so natural.
She didn't even notice that she was staring at his dark orbs for a long time.

"Dara?" Seunghyun spoke as he tilted his head to the side. "Are you okay?"

Her heart was beating so loud that she could feel the thumping from her chest.
She wanted to say something but she didn''t know what to tell him.

Staring into each other's eyes, Seunghyun smiled at her dazed expression.
He lightly caressed her cheek trying to bring her back to her senses.

Dara's eyes widened when she felt something gentle touching her face.
It made her slip out of her reverie.
She turned her head to the side, avoiding his intense gaze.
She took a step backward and gave out an awkward chuckle.

"I-I- "She stammered while rubbing the back of her neck with her free hand.

"For a minute there, I thought you saw a ghost." Seunghyun told her.

She forced out a laugh. "N-no, I-I just remembered something."

"Well, I hope you remembered where we left off."

"Eh?" Remembering what just happened made her heart skip a beat.

"I mean, if you still remember what we were talking about earlier?" Seunghyun said sensing her uncomfortable state.

"Oh yeah," She chuckled nervously. "I remember. It was... ah... uhmm...”

"You wanted to visit Youngbae." He reminded her.

Dara snap her fingers. "Yeah, that. Err… no, I don’t want to visit him."

Seunghyun raised an eyebrow.

“I mean I have no plans in visiting him.” She then took a big gulp of her beer.

Her face distorted at the bitter taste making Seunghyun snort.

"Well... As long as he's fine, I don't see any reason for me to go and visit him." She said, wiping with the back of her hand.

"And besides, this is better for both of us. Less interaction, less confrontation." She added.

**********

Daesung found Seungri sitting alone at the penthouse garden.

From where he was, he can easily tell that his friend was reading some messages from his cellphone.

"Hey," He sat beside him.

Seungri puts his cellphone inside his pocket.

"Sorry about revealing Youngbae hyung's secret." He said.

"Don't worry about that." Daesung ruffled his hair. "To tell you the truth, I don't exactly understand why we need to keep it from them."

"They are our friends and they deserve to know, especially Dara nuna." He added.

"Yeah," Seungri agreed. "Did you see her face? She really looked worried."

Daesung nodded his head. "I feel sad for her and hyung."

There was brief silence between the two.

"What's the matter, Seungri-ah?"

"Nothing." He took a deep breath and looked up at the dark sky. "Same old, same old."

Daesung examined his friend. "You broke up with her, didn't you?"

Seungri nods his head in reply.

"So what's bugging you? Not satisfied with the break-up ?" He teased.

"Hyung, I break up with more than four girls every month. It's getting kinda boring. But she is...." He paused to think of the word to say.

"Don't tell me you have feelings for her." His friend said narrowing his eyes.

"NO WAY!" He quickly replied. "What I wanted to say is that, she was just like every other girl I've ever dated, nothing special. But she was definitely wild."

Daesung breathe a sign of relief. "I thought that I'll be the only one left to continue our tradition."

Upon hearing what his friend said, Seungri slowly lowered his eyes to the ground.

"Well, you ARE the only one left, hyung." He said grimly. "I'm getting married soon, remember?"

Daesung finally realized why his friend is feeling down.

"You know, Bom nuna has the same dilemma as you." He shared, hoping that it might lighten his mood.

Seungri scoffed.

"Who would marry her?" He commented. "If Chaerin is the baddest female in Seoul city, nuna is the Bominator."

Daesung laughed. "Then tell me who would marry a sleazy playboy like you?"

"Why thank you for the compliment, my dear friend." Seungri glared at him. "I know what I am and I never denied that."

Daesung patted his back.

"You know that in our case we don't really get married because of feelings. Our parents choose from family backgrounds. They don't call it arranged marriage for nothing." Daesung said.

"That's what I hate about my parents; they're still live in that kind of era." Seungri complained. "Look at Jiyong hyung and Chaerin, Youngbae hyung and Dara nuna."

"Their parents don't put them in arranged marriage. They get to choose who they want to be with. Why can't I be the same?"

He glanced at Daesung. "How about you, hyung? Are you okay with arranged marriage?"

His friend shrugged his shoulders. "I guess. I never really thought about it."

Seungri rolled her eyes.

"Now, I really wish Youngbae hyung was here." He mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

"Do you have anyone that you want to marry?" Daesung suddenly asked.

Seungri turned mute.
He realized that he keeps complaining about choosing a bride when he doesn't even have someone in mind.

"Well, life is a b*tch." The maknae could only say.

"Getting married makes you scared, huh?" Daesung asked.

"Scared is an understatement, hyung." Seungri frowned. "Marriage is really not my thing."

"I'm Lee Seungri, the second notorious playboy among the three of us."

Daesung sneered. "Correction. You have taken the top spot after hyung gave up his throne."

"Exactly!" Seungri said out loud.

He stood up and shook his head.  "That's why I can't get married!"

"What's going on here?" They heard a voice said.

"Minji-ah," Daesung saw her walking towards them.

"Did I hear it correct Seungri oppa?" She asked with a smile. "You don't want to get married?"

Seungri puts his arm around her shoulder. "Maknae-ah, you shouldn't be eavesdropping on grown-up conversations."

Minji removed his arm. "Excuse me oppa, for your information, I'm old enough to get married as well."

Seungri looked down at Daesung for confirmation.

"She's right." His friend answered with a smile.

"No way! Over my dead y body!" Seungri exclaimed.

He gave Minji a warning look and started shaking his index finger at her.

"You can't get married yet, arasseo?!" He said sternly. "You're too young to get yourself into a mess."

Minji raised an eyebrow and went to sit beside Daesung. "Mess?? You call marriage a mess?"

"Aigoo, aigoo." Seungri said waving his hand. "You' wouldn't understand."

"Then explain it to me." She said putting down the cellphone she was holding on the table.

"Just listen to me, maknae-ah." He said with conviction. "Marriage is no fairytale. There's no such thing as the little red riding hood."

Minji turned to Daesung who looked as baffled as she is.

"Uhm, oppa..." She said in a low voice. "I didn't know that the little red riding hood is a fairytale love story."

Before he could open his mouth, they heard Seungri sneered.

"See?!" He said. "You don't even know the story of the little red riding hood. God! How can you even think of marriage, Minji-ah?!"

Daesung and Minji exchanged glances.

"Little red riding hood is the one who ate the apple and was kissed by the wolf that turned into a prince! Geez! What are they teaching the kids nowadays??"

Right on queue, the two burst out laughing.

"Yah! Yah! Yah!" Seungri said pointing at them. "What's so funny?"

Daesung stood up pulling the laughing Minji with him.

"Don't listen to him. I think he is in a phase called wedding jitters." He snorted.

Seungri scoffed watching the two laughing hysterically while going inside the penthouse.

"Fine, go ahead and laugh." He said frowning at their backs. "I'll wait for your turn. Don't even come running to me asking for advises because I won't even help you change your baby's diaper."

He heard a cellphone ringing beside him.
Mumbling to himself he grabbed the cellphone from the table.

"Yoboseyo? Who??!!! What the-" He held the cell phone away from his ear and realized that it's not his.

"Wha-what??? You want to speak with Minji? No! Who are you???"

"Taemin who???!!!"

"Ohhhh... So you’re both in the same university?"

"Me??? Who am I???!!!" Seungri gave out an evil laugh. "I'm- Kang Daesung, Minji's fiancé."