When it rains, it pours

Dara frowned at the bouquet of roses Chung handed her.

“That Minhwan guy really likes you” the headwaiter commented to which Dara made a face. Chung, who was their former supervisor when they were part of the service crew, always dropped by their dressing room whenever they had a scheduled performance at the club.

“He’s really persistent” CL added, taking the flowers from a flustered Dara.

“I know but it’s embarrassing” Dara answered.

“Guys are like that about girls they like” Chung told them.

“Are you like that too Chung-oppa?” Minji asked playfully.

“No” Chung answered, poker-faced.

Bom laughed “I don’t believe you Chung-oppa.”

And before the man could give an answer, there was another knock on the door. Se7en came in with another set of flowers – tulips.

“Dara! Bom!” Se7en called out in irritation “Take these away from me! These are for you.”

“Unnies! We can now build a flower shop with all of these!” CL announced.

Both Bom and Dara frowned.

“I think I’ll have to tell Teddy to impose rules for those who give you gifts and flowers” Se7en declared, plucking petals that had stuck themselves on his jacket “And your Big Bang-sunbaes won’t certainly be too happy as they would have to protect you from all these admirers.”

The girls’ faces seemed to say “Yeah right” but Se7en just smiled as if to say he knew better.“Teddy said he and the boys might have to extend in JP but it’s still indefinite. He’ll let me know what their final plans are as soon as ----“

A knock came from the door and an annoyed Se7en (he hadn’t finished his announcement yet) opened the door.

“I – I’m sorry Se7en hyung” a stuttering waitress was at the door – with another bouquet of flowers. “This… this is for Dara-unnie.”

Se7en inhaled a deep breath, took the flowers and very calmly commanded “I want you to tell everyone to stop delivering gifts and flowers to this room from now on. Whoever gives it, I don’t care wherever you take it just stop taking it here.”

The waitress nodded, still shaking – whether from nervousness or excitement – they didn’t know.
“You scared her Se7en-oppa” Minji commented.

Se7en shrugged and put down the flowers on the nearest chair. His phone rang. “Han?”

The girls didn’t hear what Han said but Se7en laughed, then faced them. “She says Hi and she bought gifts for you.”

“Hi Unnie!” They replied in harmony.

Se7en went back to her conversation as CL took a peak at the card that came with the new bunch of flowers.

“It’s for Dara” CL confirmed and looked at Minji, who shook her head and took off the bracelet she wore. “Yipee!” the leader took it from the maknae and danced in parody of a chicken.

“What’s going on?” Bom asked.

“We’ve been betting on who’ll receive most flowers today” Minji said in frustration “Dara-unnie beat you by one bouquet.”

Both older girls looked at CL and Minji and pinched them.

“Ow!” the two youngest girls reacted, going as far away from the “Park Twins” as possible.

“That’s rude to bet about us” Bom told them just as Se7en was wrapping up his phone conversation.

“Kids! Kids!” Se7en called out, mocking a referee stance in a boxing fight “Stop that! Time to get back to business. We’ve got a busy night ahead of us and a lot of fan boys to take care of.”

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*Waters apart*

He’d declined a drink with the boys and Teddy, feigning a head-ache.

“Maybe we shouldn’t go out tonight” YB told the others, a worried look on his face.

“No. You should have that drink” Ji replied “I want you guys to have fun. This headache’s very bad in its timing but I don’t want you guys to worry about me. I’ll take some pills and sleep on this.”

“Come on. Come on” Seung-ri pushed “Kwon-leader will be ok and when he is, we’ll drown him in beer.”

“You do know… you’re not allowed to drink at all” Teddy told the youngest BB member firmly.

Seung-ri put on his “Panda” smile. “But you’ve got all the connections Manager. You’ll get me in.”

And so with a little more push, the guys left Ji alone.
They were supposed to be back home by tomorrow but Teddy had been coerced by his friends to stay for three more days. Their last performance in Tokyo LAX had been moved to Saturday Night – the BIG EASY night as their JP promoter labeled it.

He’d packed already. Had prepared himself. Had talked in front of the mirror a thousand times since that faithful dinner with Han.

He’d replayed every word his noona said and back-tracked on each instance that he was with Dara. He had seen all those – the sadness, the hopefulness, the love. But he’d always thought that they were out of guilt, out of a foreboding sense of remorse on what she had done to him.

But to love him? Did it mean she had always loved him?
But that e-mail? Her sudden cutting-off of their communication? He knew he had failed to reply to one of her e-mails (failed being the operative word as he had actually decided to not reply at all) but she had not tried to talk to him again ever. Didn’t that mean justification of that message he had read a thousand times since?

“This headache’s going to be real soon” he thought to himself as he opened a box of cereals.

He’d been torn in indecision.

He had just previously come at a solution for this. He had decided to forget whatever happened in the past and begin a friendship – nothing more, nothing less – with Dara.

But if what Han said was true – which he felt was the case – a pool of hope had begun to build itself inside him.

“I want you both to be happy” Han told him “I love you both so much. But I can’t be the only one to want your happiness Ji. You have to want to be happy too. And you have to make Dara realize how happy she really wants to be with you too.”

Oh man. Oh man. Oh man.

How do you win back a woman you’ve hurt as much as he’s hurt Dara?

“I’ve got to find a way…” he knew it by heart before but now his whole body was screaming it “She’s the one Kwon Ji Yong… you can’t let the one slip away without a fight. You did that once and the hands of faith brought her back to you.”

He had been too blind (or too stupid actually) to realize that he shouldn’t have ignored what destiny had told him a long time ago. It won’t matter, now, really whatever happened in the past. It won’t matter, even, whether she loved him or not.

What Han made him realize wasn’t that he should move because Dara loved him too – he should move because he LOVED her.

That reason was enough. It should have always been.

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*Well HELLO sunshine*

Dara woke up to messages from her friends. They had replied to her message last night. She asked everyone in her phone book if they were still awake as she had a hard time getting some shut-eye. People had replied in the morning except for one – her heartbeat stopped – Ji Yong had asked her why she couldn’t sleep.

“Oh my God” she screamed in her head “Why didn’t this message arrive earlier???”

She had not expected him to even reply. It was just a try last night – a test to see whether he meant what he told her that they could begin being friends.

“But you’re not really seeing him as a friend are you?” a voice boomed in her head.

“I’m going crazy” she said aloud.

“You’ve always been crazy Unnie” CL told her as the other girl came in hers and Bom’s room.

She quickly hid her phone and changed the topic. “What’s for breakfast?”

“I don’t know but Minji and Bomtori are cooking something up” CL collapsed on her bed “I saw Ji-oppa’s Me2Day. He replied to your sms last night. He even attached the picture of a rainbow. It was pretty cool.”

Dara’s breathing had stopped completely. If she could have only screamed, her voice might have exploded throughout the whole apartment complex. “Ommo! He replied not only to my number, he replied via selca too!”

“What the -?! Why are you tensing up? I can feel you” CL asked, sitting up on the bed to look at her.

Dara flushed in embarrassment “Uhmmmm… morning bed exercise” she covered up “Trainer said its good for the muscles… you know…” She did another move to tense up her muscles “You should try this.”

CL looked at her – completely weirded out. “Ok! That’s it! I’m leaving before I get infected by your madness!”

Dara, instead of crunching her nose at the comment, just smiled – which weirded out CL more. The leader got off her bed and immediately headed for the door.

“Bom-unnie, Minji, let’s feed Dara” she heard the other girl announce “She’s gone mad.”

She laughed out loud, a smile painting itself on her face. “Today is a great day” she thought “a great great day.”