Oversleeping is not always a bad thing

With a start, Dara sat up on her bed and instantly looked up the table clock on her counter.

Flashing like the northern star on a cold dark night, 8:00 PM blinked at her as though to say “YOU’RE LATE!!! YOU’RE LATE!!! YOU’RE LATE BIG TIME!!!”

“OMO!!!!” She screamed.

The party downstairs was going to start at 6:00! She scrambled to get up, cursing Durami and Sanghyeun for not waking her up and stumbling on the floor.

“Why did they let me sleep this late?!?!?” she asked aloud standing up, as she opened her closet to take out the dress she had bought for tonight’s celebration. Tired and a little disgruntled from everything that was happening for the past two days… what with Ji Yong and everybody in her family acting so strangely and getting hints here and there about something that was going to happen and hoping and praying that it was the fulfillment of a long-time wish and… Oh God! Her mind just went to another dimension again.

She paused and took a deep breath. She was already two hours late and she was sure that everybody would be looking for her. Maybe around this time her mother would realize that she wasn’t downstairs and would be racking up her door to wake her up.

She needed to get dressed immediately.

“Haissshhhh” she muttered to herself as she entered her bathroom “I shouldn’t have listened to Durami.” It was her youngest sister who had made her take the siesta. She remembered that they had slept together in her room but where was the culprit?!? Durami most probably must have woken up earlier and scrambled – like her now – to get ready and forgot all about her older sister in the process.

Soaping up and shampooing at the same time, she told herself to stop thinking and focus on the task at hand. In no less than ten minutes, she was able to finish her bath and dashed to her bed where the dress lay.

In truth, she always took her time with everything, most especially with prepping up. She wasn’t the picky kind, nor was she the typical girly-girl but she does want to always look, if not good, then at least clean.

And with the way things were going now, she only had one way to go and it was to look clean… Chaerin wasn’t there to help her at least fix up her hair, Bommie wasn’t there to at least dab something on her face so she at least looked “healthy”, and Minji wasn’t there to make light of the worry filling her by “kissing” it all away.

Sighing, she sat down on her bed and tried to focus back again. It was only 8:15. She had to move quicly. Five minutes to dry her hair, five minutes for make-up, one minute for putting on the dress, one minute for accessorizing, and three minutes to see if she looked decent enough.

“Let’s hope Grandma doesn’t kill me for being late” she prayed as she efficiently ran the blower all over her long hair.

In the next minutes, Dara moved as fast as lightning. She had fixed up in even less than the time she had calculated.

“Yes!” she exclaimed as she faced the mirror.

She looked… OK but not quite what she had planned for this morning – which reminded her that she wanted to look her prettiest because Ji Yong and his whole family was going to be there. She had bought this white dress, that he had never seen before, just for him and had envisioned herself looking as radiant as the time she and the girls were doing the shoot with Mai-unnie.

“Pyong!” she told herself as she looked up the mirror “I look like a chambermaid instead.”

Defeated, she turned back from the mirror and decided to put on her sandals. Going straight to her shoe rack, something glittering inside the white pumps she had decided to wear caught her eye.

“What’s this?!” she asked aloud as she reached for it and found that it was a beautiful Cartier bracelet.

“Oh my!” she exclaimed as she turned her attention towards the note attached to the hand ornament.

“Wear this tonight” the note said but didn’t give any clues as to who must have given her this expensive gift.

Smiling, she clasped on the bracelet and felt a little better. She might look like a chambermaid but she was at least a chambermaid who wears Cartier, she told herself and finally decided to go out of her room.

Rushing in excitement, it was only when she was going to open the door to their backyard that she realized that their whole house was as silent as a library.

“Where is everyone?!?” she uttered in confusion as she opened the door and walked towards their backyard. The whole place was dark and nothing was stirring! “Oh My!”

********************

“It’s all about you… my butterfly…
Everytime… I come close to you… everytime I’m feeling you…
Feels like I’m gonna dream everytime…”

********************

Her heart stopped as Ji Yong’s voice filled the air and the garden gradually lighted up… each tree… each flower bush… each plant came alive… and in the middle of it… walking towards her with mic on hand was a vision of a man… a man who had walked towards her a thousand times like this during her daydreams…

The music continued but he had stopped singing the moment he had finally made it in front of her.

“Ji Yong?” she squeaked.

“Kwon Ji Yong” he began, stepping closer to her as he abandoned his mic “born August 18, 1988. Youngest child of the Kwon Family. Big Bang Leader for almost four years now. Owner of a dog named Gaho. Stubborn. A little pig-headed at times. Very concerned about my pride. Often very crazy. Impatient with slow learners. Touchy. Likes things coordinated. Possessive. Doesn’t feel comfortable talking to complete strangers. Hates anything messy. Neat Freak. Experiments with almost anything but not that often with food –“

“What are you talking about?!?” she piped in, unable to hide the surprise and confusion that his speech had triggered.
Ji smiled down at her and reached out for her hands “I’m telling you things about myself that you already know and some things that you might not yet have an idea of…”

Her heart now beating like a complete set of percussion instruments had just been installed inside her chest, she looked down on their interloked hands then up at him and asked the most important question of all… “Why?”

If it was possible to say that a person’s smile just brightened up ten thousand times more, Dara would have said that of Ji Yong at this moment. He continued to look at her, melting her to that very spot and answered “Because I need to know if the girl who has kept me up for countless nights unable to sleep just thinking, whose name I seem to hear everywhere and all the time, whose face I seem to see just about anywhere, whose laughter I have already recorded in my mind, whose expressions and words I couldn’t help myself imitating unconsciously, whose eyes I always look for in the middle of a crowd, who was the inspiration for almost every song I have written for myself, and who has completely turned my world upside down, can accept me as I am because I would do anything in this world for her to just do so…”

As Ji Yong spoke, Dara had not noticed the tears spilling down her cheeks.

“Dara!” Ji asked in concern, immediately reaching in his pocket for a handkerchief to wipe away her tears “Why are you crying?!? Ow! Don’t cry! Did I say something wrong?!?” He was softy dabbing at her cheeks as she bowed her head and continued to tear up.

“I’ve already asked everyone’s permission” Ji continued “I talked to the girls and my brothers, Sanghyeun, Durami, your Umma and your Appa (but we only got to talk over the phone), Grandma Park, your Aunts and Uncles who were here awhile ago. I also already made a deal with Gaho because I know you –“

This time, she stopped him in mid-speech by punching him hard on the chest.

“Kwon Ji Yong!” she shouted “All this time!” she continued, finally lifting a very angry face at him “YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO DO ALL OF THESE! YOU DIDN’T EVEN NEED TO ASK ME! ALL IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN ARE THREE WORDS! I DO AGREE! YOU ARE CRAZY! YOU MADE ME WAIT THIS LONG AND EVEN UPTO NOW YOU HAVEN’T EVEN SAID THOSE THREE –“

The whole world turned 360’ as Ji Yong cut her off by kissing her, without preamble and without any precaution. He held her small face in his hands and she felt his pounding heart the moment their lips touched and Ji Yong gathered her closer. Unconciously, she had reached up on a tiptoe and placed her arms around his neck. She became unaware of anything else except the rush of emotions roaring in her ears and the sensation of having Ji Yong this close to her overpowering all thought and logic and reason.

When Ji slowly pulled back, their lips reluctantly separating, she felt a tremendous sense of loss that was completely blown away when he put her hands on his heart and looked into her eyes without falter… “I love you Park Sandara… I love you. I love you. I love you.”

Feeling that her tears were going to fall again, Dara used their intertwined hands to wipe away any imminent tear before looking back at him and smiling like she had just won the lottery “I love you Kwon Ji Yong. I love you more. I love you more. I love you more.”