In a flash

The first performance they had since they began training with Mai was a success. Dara logged in on-line while in the dressing room to check what netizens had to say on their site.

- “Are 2NE1 still rookies?!?!”

- “That performance was explosive! Oh my God!”

- “I love the girls! 2NE1 fighting!!!”

- “This time, all the girls shined and I really loved their performance!”

“What did they say? What did they say?” Bom asked excitedly.

“They loved it!” Dara answered enthusiastically, showing Bom the praises from their audience.

“Ooooh!” Bom exclaimed in delight, browsing through the rest of the page.

“They always update with comments like these so fast” Minji said, popping from behind the two Unnies.

Their door opened as CL was making her way to look at the laptop too. Danny came in with a bunch of gift bags on hand. “You did great!” he greeted, handing each of them the gift bags.

“Thank you sunbae.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you.”

“Mai was with me she’s been sidetracked by Yu Seuk. That old man wanted to come in here and Mai decided to keep him at bay” Danny told them.

“Poor Unnie” CL announced.

“Well… don’t worry all that much about Mai. She’s had more experience handling men like Mr. Song than you do” the sunbae replied.

The door opened once again and in came Teddy, holding Mai’s arm, assisting the sunbae-nim towards the door.

“You disposed of Yu Seuk?” Danny asked jokingly.

Mai smiled “Teddy did that for me… he always knows how to dispose men who get that close.”

Danny laughed as Teddy (who Dara –or for that case any of them 2NE1 girls – never saw blush over a woman's comment) turned red as a tomato.

The other three continued their banter as she and the girls began removing their make-up. The three had assigned themselves as 2NE1’s body guards against the D.O.M.’s lurking like hyenas outside. Dara shuddered just thinking how the Manager had gotten involved with such men.

“This is the first time I saw Manager this happy” CL whispered to her.

“What do you mean?” Dara asked then sneaked a peek at Teddy.

“Do you think he has feelings for Mai-sunbae?”

“What are you talking about?!?! They just seem really close friends. He might be happy because, remember? He hadn’t gotten to seeing much of Danny-oppa and Mai-unnie.”

CL heaved a sigh and looked on with such sadness “I hope that’s true… I mean, Manager is my “forever” kind of guy but… sometimes, what you see isn’t really gospel truth. I really feel Unnie is special to Manager and I’ve never been wrong with my intuition. You don’t necessarily have to make others see how special someone is to you for them to know it.”

Dara gulped and tried to look neutrally at their leader. She felt that there was a hint of something else in that statement as well. Could CL be talking about her and Ji too? Was it becoming that obvious how much she cared for the guy? She was trying to hide it at all costs because of her fear that when people find out about them, they might take them apart. “Well… well… it’s not always a good thing to assume unless Manager really admits it.”

CL shook her head “I don’t think Manager will admit it to us. I know a lot of people like that. They’d rather suffer in silence than let the world know. What makes me curious is why he’s trying to hide it.”

“Maybe he couldn’t say it out loud because as of the moment, the best way is to keep his love secret” she answered.

“I don’t know but… wouldn’t it hurt? To hide a thing such as love?”

“It does” Dara replied and looked at their Manager who was laughing at a joke that Mai-unnie had just said “Of course, it does but… what could one do about that?”

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Red-handed

Daesung and Seung-ri watched as Jin-ah made her way towards Dara when the girls came out of the make-up room.

“She won’t give this up” Dae announced “Haissshhh.”

“I think what would make her give up is an outright rejection but Ji-hyung wouldn’t do that unless Jin-ah confesses to him and Jin-ah is to wise to do that. She’ll pretend to Ji that she does everything for friendship but she’ll make Dara-noona see otherwise” Seung-ri answered.

“She’s really sly” Dae agreed “and she makes me actually want to tell Ji and Dara outright that we know how they feel for one another and we’ll help them find a way to be together.”

“But T.O.P.-hyung has told us off for that and I think he’s actually right. We’re at the mercy of having to wait when Ji-hyung finally decides to drop everything and go all out because if we tell them first, Ji might feel like he wasn’t the one who paved the way for them to be together but us.”

“Well… we have to still do a lot” Dae answered “How is your prep talk coming out?”

“I hate to admit this but I think CL’s doing a whole lot better with Dara-noona. She tells me that she sees flickers of reaction from noona whereas I don’t even get a hint at all.”

Dae made a face at him “Maybe we should have CL do your part instead. She always seems better than you at anything you both do.”

“Hey! That’s unfair!” Seung-ri contradicted “Girls are really skilled in these kinds of things you know. And who says CL does everything better than me? I just let her you know.”

Dae looked up the ceiling “Yeah right” and decided to head for the bar for a refill.

“Hey! Hey! I’m still talking to you” Seung-ri called out and made his way towards the bar too to follow Dae when he bumped into Jin-ah who had just finished talking to Dara.

“Sorry Jin-ah-noona.”

“Ow. Seung-ri… I didn’t know you guys were here” Jin-ah looked a little flustered.

“We came in while 2NE1 was performing” he answered “I see you just spoke with Dara-noona.”

“I just congratulated her” Jin-ah quickly replied.

Unable to stop himself “I do hope that is all you did noona” he looked straight at her “You have to stop this coz it will hurt you in the end.”

“I don’t really want to talk about that.”

“We know what you’re up to” Daesung butted in. He was already at the bar when he saw the two – Seung-ri and Jin-ah speaking to one another. He decided to go back to see what it was about.

“They cannot be together now – that I know” Jin-ah told the two of them “And I think you should just let me be with what I want to do because when the partners learn of a relationship between any of you guys, you’ll all lose your jobs and might not be able to perform at any club at all for that matter. How are you going to support your families?”

Daesung raised an eyebrow “I have considered you a friend up to this moment but that comment made me lose the respect I still have for you. Is this how far you will go Jin-ah? Will you consider destroying us all like that just for your selfish motives?”

“I don’t know how far I’ll be willing to go” Jin-ah answered “But until Ji and I are together, I will stop at nothing.”

“We begin this war then” Daesung replied sadly “I cannot believe this is who you want to become.”

“Stop acting like everything in this world is nice and innocent Dae!” Jin-ah lashed angrily “You and I both know it isn’t and I’m not evil. I’m doing everything I can just to have the one I love back.”

“We both know he was never yours noona” Seung-ri replied.

“Believe what you want to believe Jin-ah but I assure you this… I will do everything to stop you from succeeding with your schemes. Love is not supposed to be won that way” Dae added.

“Then so be it. I have already considered all of you my enemies even before” Jin-ah’s eyes flamed with conviction “This will make it official.”

As Jin-ah turned to leave them, she bumped into the most unexpected person.

“I believe you were talking about me” Ji Yong whispered dangerously, his eyes threateningly thin as slits as he looked straight at Jin-ah “Why don’t you tell me about it?”