She will be loved

(Two weeks ago…)

“AH!!!!!” Seung-ri uttered as he stretched out his arms as all five Big Bang members sat down the Ice Cream Parlor. Practice was particularly grueling today. “Do you think Jinu-hyung hates me?”

“If he hates you, then he hates us all” Young Bae answered. They had come from walking alongside the river to catch a breath of fresh air before deciding to drop by the parlor.

“No hyung” Seung-ri countered “I think he really hates me. He made me push up more after reaching 100.”

“You didn’t even reach 100” Ji told him with a knowing smirk

“And you deserved that for not concentrating when he told us to.”

“But I –“

Ji raised his hand to stop him “No buts Seung-ri. You’re acting like a brat now.”

About to answer again, T.O.P. silenced the maknae by clamping his hand on the latter’s mouth. “Ji Yong-goon told you to shut up already hasn’t he?” he eyed Seung-ri menacingly “Or do you want to continue speaking?”

His eyes shrinking in fear, Seung-ri nodded – making T.O.P. smile.

“Oh !” Ji Yong exclaimed “I forgot my wallet in the practice room!”

“Let’s go back and get it” Young Bae immediately volunteered.

“It’s ok bro. I’ll go back for it myself” he answered and stood up “Order me the Green Tea flavor.”

“Why does Ji-hyung always say he hates that flavor when Dara-noona’s around and orders it when she’s not here?” Seung-ri asked jokingly.

“I like to ” Ji immediately answered “Much like you like to tease CL.”

“HYUNG!” the youngest Big Bang member reacted.

“Be back in a bit” Ji told them, dismissing any more comments Seung-ri was about to make, as he dashed back to their practice room.

He immediately headed for their building when he spotted a black sedan – a car he and the guys have been putting their eyes on because for the past two weeks, they have been seeing this sedan park near the YG building at this hour but no one gets out or gets in.

He shook his head characteristically and decided to tell Teddy about this once they meet up. These were dangerous times and crimes happen so suddenly, you could lose your life in a blink.

“Kwon Ji Yong!” a voice called out as he was about to enter the YG building’s gates.

Ji turned around slowly and saw a familiar-looking guy step out of the car. The Big Bang leader reflexively stood in full height and raised his left brow in warning. “Who are you?” he asked.

The guy was clad in jeans and a black sweater. He wasn’t any taller than Ji Yong and he looked like Ji could take him down if he put his mind to it. “I’m Minhwan” the sedan’s owner answered as he came closer to the building’s lights “Choi Minhwan.”

Ji didn’t know what to make out of this strange introduction. He was distracted by thinking what the other man could possibly want. “You know me” he said instead.

Minhwan nodded “Very few people don’t” he answered and breathed in deeply before continuing “I would like to talk to you.”

“What about?” Ji asked.

Minhwan, looking like he didn’t like the answer at all, grimaced to hide his irritation – unsuccessfully. “I was hoping we could talk somewhere where people won’t just suddenly pop up and disrupt us.”

“We can talk perfectly fine here” Ji informed the Minhwan guy. He wasn’t going to go anywhere with this guy. He might have seen him before that’s why he looked familiar but he was sure as hell that he didn’t know him.

“I’m here to talk about Dara” the other man answered then spread his hands “You sure you want to do that here?”

Feeling his jaw tighten at that response, Ji raised his brow at the absolute weirdness of this. Who was this guy anyway? And why the hell did he want to talk to him about Dara?

“Let’s go over there” he motioned towards one of the lamp posts on the left side of the building “and let’s not take long.”

The other man walked behind him very silently as Ji made sure that no one saw them. There was nothing shady in talking to another person but he didn’t want anyone over-hearing a conversation about him and Dara. This wasn’t the right time for that.

“Are you in love with Dara?” Minhwan asked as soon as they reached the lamp post.

Ji’s brows rose in annoyance and curiosity as he turned back to face the stranger. “Who are you and why do you want to know?” he asked him back.

The other guy shrugged his shoulders, as a gesture of marking some particular territory in his mind. Ji knew the move very well. “I want to know because I am the best guy for her” Minhwan confidently answered “not YOU.”

He’d faced other guys before and knew the likes of Minhwan – they were spoiled brats that resort to threats because they weren’t being given what they wanted. “Is that all you have to say?” he asked, controlling his voice from displaying his irritation. He didn’t want to waste time on something like this.

“No” Minhwan answered, lacing his voice with menace, “I’m telling you to look out for yourself because any move you make towards Dara, I’m going to make sure that you’re taken as far away from her as possible.”

Blood suddenly pumping up his head, Ji took a deep breath and through grinding teeth answered “I don’t know who you really are but you’re wasting you’re time here. You better leave.”

He began to walk away from Minhwan when he suddenly heard footsteps coming after him. He turned back fast enough to see Minhwan lunging at him.

Out of control, Minhwan hit the nearby wall as Ji cut himself when he grabbed the side mirror of the nearest car in order to avoid being hit bulls eye by the other man.

“What the?!?” Ji exclaimed.

“You and Dara can never be together!” Minhwan told him spitefully as the other man was standing up from his collision with the wall.

“You don’t understand do you?” Ji answered, his patience almost snapping “I don’t care whether we’re together or not or whatever it is that you do to drive us apart. I don’t know who you are and why you believe yourself to be the best man for her but that doesn’t matter to me because to love her has always been enough for me. I don’t need to be the best, I don’t need to threaten other people, and I most surely don’t need to attack them. If Dara does not love me that’s still fine coz you know what? I will still love her and that’s the most important thing.”

Dumbfounded, the other guy was not able to react even after Ji’s speech.

“Go home” Ji told him “Go home and think about what you’ve done. That’s not the right way to love someone.”

------------------------------------------------------------

In his pain

Dara trained more hours than Minji, CL, and Bom because she knew that she still needed to do a lot. Her teammates were good at whatever it was they did and she had always admitted to being the weakest despite their protests.

“I have to admit my weakness so I can be strong” she once told CL when the leader was telling her that she wasn’t weak at all.

“Still” CL told her “You’re not weak… I’m just too strong.”

They had both laughed at that. It was great to be given an opportunity to work together with people she was so comfortable with that no hint of rivalry has ever surfaced amongst them.

“Unnie, I’ll cook for you when you get home ok?” Minji – or ‘Minki’ as she loved to call their maknae – told her before she and the others packed to head to their apartment unit.

Now, resting up after gathering her stuff, she looked at her watch and found that two hours had already gone by and she might be the only one in the whole training room floor.

Their Big Bang Sunbaes had left around the same time that the other girls did and she had heard their talks in the hallway as she fought with wanting to go outside to at least take a peak at Ji Yong.

She had never seen him more intense with training as he was the past few days. He still treated her with particular deference and he was actually very sweet to her in some instances but there was still a wall between the two of them that she couldn’t breach.

She felt that despite being so near to him… she was actually farther away than she had ever been.

Sure… their conversation in the rooftop when he’d told her that he’d never see her as a kid was giving her fireworks in the head but until she could actually hear him say those three words, she wouldn’t assume. “Hope but never expect” she had been told once and she knew then as surely as she knew now that the hardest thing to crush in the world was hope.

She heard scuffles from the hallway and decided to take a peak at who had come back or who was there to check. She opened the training room door and almost bumped into – what do you know? – Ji.

Ji immediately grabbed her to steady her balance. “Dara?”

Completely caught off-guard coz she knew she might look unruly and she might be stinking with sweat, she immediately stepped back to avoid further contact with Ji Yong.

“I – I was headed home” she answered.

“You just finished training now?”

She nodded, her voice caught in .

“Wait for me then” Ji told her “I’ll just go back for my wallet and I’ll walk you home.”

Distracted by a wound on his left arm that was bleeding, Dara stopped Ji from walking away by grabbing his shirt. “You cut yourself.”

“Ow!” Ji reacted and looked at the same arm that Dara was staring at “I almost slipped outside and I grabbed hold of anything from Kush-hyung’s car. It’s just a scratch. Don’t worry.”

“It’s not a scratch” Dara told him and suddenly bent to take something out of her bag “I don’t always have meds with me like Bommie but I think I have alcohol here. Can we clean that first? It’s bleeding.”

Sighing, Ji let her fuss over his wound and contented himself with just looking at her. This, however, was not something that Dara liked.

“Don’t look at me” she told him as she stopped the bleeding by pressing on the wound.

“Why not?” he asked.

“I’m all sweaty and I look dirty. I have no make-up on at all” she answered irritably.

Ji laughed, earning a disgruntled look from Dara.

“Don’t be angry” he immediately remedied “I laughed because you seem to think I only consider you pretty when you have all that make-up.”

“Well –“

“I do” Ji cut her off and smiled “but I think you’re more beautiful without all that.”

In her head, Dara felt another set of fireworks explode to ensure that she was as red as a tomato.

In Ji’s head though, he was thinking about what he had told that Minhwan guy – to love Dara is enough… it will always be.