Chapter 18

~*Jiyong’s POV*~

No way.

“So everyone, I would like for all of you to welcome…”

How is this possible?

“our newest addition to the group…”

She’s here.

“Park Sandara. From now on, she will be working with all of you…”

Park Sandara is here.

“as G-Dragon’s backup dancer.”

She’s my backup dancer.

YG finishes his sentence as he gestures Dara to move forward and introduce herself.

“Hello, my name is Park Sandara but everyone can just call me Dara. I look forward to working with all of you, please take care of me.” She does a 90-degree bow before shining her flawless smile. Instantly, everyone is won over.

“Dara unnie!” CL calls out and runs to hug her, “Welcome! I missed you!” Bom and Minzy follow excitedly introducing themselves and giving her welcoming hugs.

“Chaerin-ah, introduce me to the new noona!” Seungri runs over as well with Seunghyun and Daesung.

“Yah, Seungri, stop harassing the newbie.” Youngbae walks over and puts his arm around Dara’s shoulders, “You alright Dara-ah?”

“Youngbae! You are already so friendly with her!” Seunghyun exclaims pointing at their connection.

Youngbae smirks and says as if it was no big deal, “Yeah TOP, we are good friends already. We’ve even exchanged phone numbers.”

“What?!” The boys all exclaim and immediately take out there phones, “I want noona’s number too! Let’s exchange!” Seungri announced as I watch Dara awkwardly smile and struggle handling the childish boys crowding around her.

I am just about to yell at all of them to stop being idiots for bothering her until someone rushes through the studio doors, “I’m sorry I’m late!” Sohee exclaims before stopping and staring at the commotion.

Her bag drops to the ground when she sees Dara. I almost forgot, they are cousins. I look at Sohee’s expression which is clearly in shock while Dara just glances at her and flashes a small smile before returning to putting in Daesung’s number. So… she didn’t tell Sohee, her own cousin, about this? That’s suspicious…

Sohee continues to just stand and watch everyone gather around Dara and asking her questions one after another. Clearly different than the welcoming that Sohee got. Finally, I hear Sohee beside me, “Oppa… what’s going on…?”

“YG just introduced Sandara as our newest backup dancer.” I continue to watch Dara wondering if this is the reason why I saw her the other day going into his office.

“What? But…” Sohee exclaims looking for the right words, “but now we have too many right? We already have four girls and four guys!”

I shake my head remembering YG’s explanation, “Actually, now it’s perfect. Including me, there’s five guys so now, with Dara, there’s five girls as well.”

Sohee is pauses for a while before speaking again, “So that means… everyone has a partner…”

I nod, still not looking anywhere but Dara who is now laughing with Youngbae while making fun of Seungri.

“H-have they… assigned partners yet?” I turn to Sohee, giving her a questioning look for such an odd question. But I answer her anyways, “No, they haven’t yet. I’m not sure how it’s going to work now, honestly. Whether it will be like before, how everyone is assigned a partner and stick with them or if we will rotate partners.”

Sohee seems to relax and let out a sigh of relief before looking back at Dara. I see them make eye contact, Dara’s eyes linger for a second before she turns away and focuses back on Youngbae. Why doesn't she bother to acknowledge her own cousin?

“I guess she still wants to keep our relationship a secret…” Sohee says just loud enough for me to hear. I look at her confused, “What?”

Sohee looks at me and shrugs, “She told me before auditions that she wanted to keep the fact that we were cousins a secret. I guess she doesn’t want to be associated with someone like me. Especially since she believes I’m the one who stole her spot…” She looks down on the ground and sniffs as if almost about to cry.

I look back towards Dara and her smiling face. How can Sohee’s Dara and this Dara be the same people? I see now that Dara looks over at Sohee once more. She must notice that she’s upset, right? I watch as her eyes widen for a split second and linger on Sohee, but just as I thought she was going to come over, I see that she pulls her eyes away and direct her attention to Bom who was exclaiming that they were the same age. She continues to laugh and jump in joy with her, ignoring her cousin, her family, who is about to cry.

Clearly, I was just being fooled once again just like everyone else here…

I feel a tug on my sleeve and I look over to see Sohee’s watery eyes, “Oppa, please keep it a secret too. I don’t want unnie to be mad at me anymore. She’s my best friend.” Her voice cracks a little which tugs at my heartstrings.

This poor girl… she can’t even see how much she is being manipulated.

I nod and smile at her reassuringly, “I promise, Sohee-ah. Don’t worry.”

She gives me an appreciative smile before walking over to the crowd too and “introduces herself” to Dara. Dara is taken aback a bit but quickly recovers and plays along. Man, she’s good, but not good enough.

I don’t know how long I’ve been staring at her but our eyes finally meet and lock the first time since she showed up here. I see that she is searching my eyes for an answer but I make sure she doesn’t find anything. I make sure to give her the most unwelcoming and blank stare I could. She’s not going to fool me anymore. The minute she shows any signs of causing trouble, I’ll be sure to interfere.

Finally, after I’ve had enough of staring her down, I walk over to the group, “Alright, enough. We have to get back to work now.” Everyone complies and separates to spread out. I make my way to my usual spot as well but have to pass Dara along the way.

I ignore her glances at me as I keep looking straight ahead. But as soon as I pass by her, I say just loud enough for her to hear me, to let her know I know what she’s up to.

“Already on your first day, you cause a commotion and put us behind,” I look down at her shocked expression as her face pales, “Keep this up and see what happens.” I warn her before going to my spot.

That will teach her.

~*Dara’s POV*~

What… what the hell was that?! I scream in my head as anger builds inside of me. What is that blonde-headed, egotistical idiot’s problem?!

I throw my water bottle into my bag in anger.

“Already on your first day, you cause a commotion…keep this up and see what happens.”

Is he threatening me?! I ruffle my head in frustration and let out a groan. Thanks to him and what he said, I couldn’t concentrate during practice and kept messing up… everyone was really nice about it but it was still so embarrassing… and unprofessional. Not only that, but also that LOOK he gave me after messing up…he smirked and shook his head as if amused by my suffering. And to think I used to look up to a jerk of a man like him.

It’s okay, Dara. After all your training through YG and once you become a big big star with a lot of fans and supporters, you will show him. You will become an even BIGGER STAR! An idol that people can really look up to! Then he will realize his mistake for looking down at you. THAT is your new goal in life. THAT is what you will achieve! I close my eyes and tighten my fists before punching them in the air. “YEAH! Fighting!” I yell out feeling energized with my new purpose.

“What are you yelling about?” I turn to see Youngbae sitting in the corner watching me in amusement. I didn’t realize that everyone had left the studio already. Slightly embarrassed that I did that in front of Youngbae I turn around and fiddle with my bag, “It’s none of your business! Don’t sit in places creepily watching over young girls.”

“Uh-huh, Dara NOONA.” He emphasizes the ‘noona’ reminding me that I am indeed older than him.

“That’s right BaeTae, I am your noona so you must respect me!” I snap back at him before standing up.

He quickly gets to his feet and runs over, grabbing my bag and slinging it over his shoulder. “Yes, noona!” He winks causing me to blush again.

“Aigoo, what a good dongseng!” I was about to pat his head but he grabbed my wrist and pulled it down to our sides as we walked… as if we were holding hands.

“Y-Yah! What are you doing?” I half yell at him while trying to pull my arm away but he wouldn’t release me and just kept smiling and walking.

“We’re going to eat food.” He continues to drag me along.

“A-ah! I can’t! I…. uh… have to practice! Practice the choreography I just learned!”

He turns to look at me with a disappointed expression, “Oh… really? But you still have to eat…”

“I know. I just don’t feel satisfied with my performance this morning and really want to get it right. Please? I just need to do this, for myself. Go ahead and eat without me.”

He eyes me, clearly wonder what he should do before he answers, “Fine, go and practice but I’ll go get us food and bring it to you. You need to eat.”

I try to protest but it’s clear he isn’t going to take no for an answer. Finally, I give in.

“Okay okay. Then I’ll meet you back at the studio.”

He grins clearly feeling triumphant. “Sounds good. See you soon.” He hands me back my bag and jogs down the hall and out of sight.

I sigh with in relief that I was able to get out of that fairly easily. I wasn’t lying that I wanted to practice more but… lately I’ve been feeling so flustered around Youngbae… all his winking and skin ship is driving me insane… I don’t know how to deal with it and just needed some time alone.

I make my way back to the empty studio and begin practicing what I’ve learned this morning. A few minutes in, I feel more satisfied with a few of the choreographies we’ve learned today, but the one I’m having most trouble with seems to be ‘Only Look At Me’. It’s probably because some parts of the dance requires a partner… Maybe I’ll ask Youngbae to help me when he comes back? I blush slightly at the thought and shake out the giddiness I was feeling in my head. What’s going on with me!!

I try to refocus and practice the moves by myself for now. Half concentrating, and half wondering when Youngbae will come back.

“The feeling isn’t right.” I stop at the voice coming from the studio door. A week ago, I would never have thought that one day I would actually be unhappy to see him.

G-Dragon.

I cross my arms over my chest and stare right back into his eyes, unfaltering.

“Excuse me?”

He smirks and begins to walk slowly towards me.

“Why don’t I show you?”

*BlueNote*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
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