Wah.. The.. I.. Erm.. I stood there flabbergasted. Shock overload.

This wasn't what I was expecting... Don't get me wrong I'm overjoyed to be seeing them, but I was just so... Shocked. There was no other word to describe it. It had been 7 long years since Jiyong had left and although I hate to admit it our connection to the boys was through Jiyong, so we never saw them after he left for Japan.

"OPPAS!" Minzy was the first of us to recover as she launched her self at Daesung who was the closest to her, squeezing the life out of him before moving onto Youngbae then Seunghyun, who looked positively awkward at the human contact, but didn't seem to have the heart to turn down the ecstatic maknae.

"We missed you too mMingkii" Daesung chuckled affectionately. Wow his voice has matured so much!

"Aren't you going to give us a hug? At least a hello?" Youngbae joked from his seat, giving us his famous chinky eyed smile.

CL rolled her eyes, "Psssh, what? It's only been 7 years? That's not been long at all!" she said, folding her arms across her chest, trying to act cold and indifferent, as if this surprise hadn't shocked her or affected her at all, but I knew she was just as surprised as I was and was probably just as happy too.

"I see you haven't changed much Chaerin-ah still the badass you were back then," Seunghyun teased in his very very deep manly baritone voice. Man did his voice break! It must've broken ten times over to be able to achieve such a deep voice! 

Not being able to contain her happiness any longer, CL's face broke out into a wide smile as she high fived Seunghyun, then gave quick hugs to Youngbae and Daesung.

"Pffft, you haven't seen me in 7 years either and all I got was a kick! How unfair!" Seungri mumbled clearly peeved at the clear difference in greetings. CL heard him and shot him a glare, not that he noticed since he was busy sulking.

I watched the scene unfold before me, still not fully recovered from the pleasant surprise.

I blinked and glanced down at my hand, Youngbae had gotten up from his seat and had grabbed my hand, gently guiding me to sit down beside him.

"Are you alright Dara?" he asked worried.

I blinked again, then smiled the brightest smile in a long time.

"I'm more than alright Bae, I feel great," I beamed as I looked around the table at all my friends... And Jiyong, who seemed out to annoy me when he plopped himself down in the empty seat to my left. I blatantly ignored him and basked in the feeling of the gang back together. 'But is it really complete?' my conscious spoke, causing my smile to drop slightly, but it was unnoticeable to everyone who was still high on the surprise reunion.

========

Everyone eventually settled down and we quickly ordered our food so we could begin catching up.

"So give us the low down on what you guys have been up to the past 7 years!" I asked enthusiastically, as the girls nodded eagerly. "I heard you enrolled in business TOP" I commented, calling him by his childhood nickname, "Which university do you go to?"

"Yup, it was mandatory that I take it. The board of directors want me to prove to them that I'm capable of taking over from my parents and seem to think a piece of paper will prove that," he started, rolling his eyes, "and I go to Seoul University..." he finished.

My eyes bugged out, "EHH?!" me and CL cried out in unison.

"We go to the same university?! How come we haven't seen you around then?! How come you aren't rooming with Jiyong Oppa?" CL asked, not even bothering to stop and breathe in between her flurry of questions.

"Youngbae and I go there too..." Daesung in before TOP could reply.

"WAAAHT?!" we shrieked louder, garnering attention from nearby tables. I dipped my head apologetically to the tables before turning back around. How is this possible?! Surely this couldn't just be one big coincidence!

"With my youthful looks I'm not surprised you guys forget that I am infact a year older than Ji." he joked, "I already had an apartment before they joined since I didn't fancy sharing with some random kid, and I got used to living on my own," he shrugged.

"Oh... That explains alot. I was wondering why Jiyong Oppa would willingly room with that rat... But now I understand... he had no choice.." CL bobbed her head in understanding then shot Jiyong an empathetic look that said "I feel so sorry for you" the rest of the table sniggered at her obvious jibe at Seungri, whilst he sat there trying to burn holes through CL's skull.

"How about Daesung and Youngbae Oppa?" Minzy questioned curiously.

"We're rooming together since the buildings our classes are in are closer together. I'm taking Medecine, as I'm sure you all would've guessed by now," Daesung smiled showing his pearly whites.

We weren't surprised to hear this at all. Daesung had always aspired to be a Doctor, wanting to follow in the footsteps of his parents. I chuckled as the image of a 6 year old Daesung popped up in my mind. He was wearing a doctors jacket that was far too big for him, dragging on the floor when he walked, with a toy stethoscope hanging around his neck and clipboard in hand. Everytime he came over to play at Jiyongs, he was more often than not in the same get up, set on curing us of any diseases and pains - which basically equated to him whipping out a colourful plaster with smiley faces on when one of us fell over and scraped our knees.

"When you graduate we'll finally get to see you in a doctors jacket that actually fits!" Minzy stated, earning chuckles from the rest of the table as similar images of a young Daesung popped up in their minds.

"How about you Bae?" I asked softly, turning to my right, unsure as to whether I should have asked him.

He sighed heavily, but gave us the best smile he could muster as he shrugged his shoulder, "They wanted me to take business too... But that's not what I want for myself. I want to go into entertainment..." he trailed off.

We all nodded solemnly, understanding his predicament. 'They' were Youngbae's parents and ever since I could remember, they were always pushing him to do well in school, constantly telling him he had to do well since he would inherit their chain of hotel resorts. But Bae never wanted any of it. He wasn't made for the harsh business world. He was too soft and most importantly it wasn't what he wanted. As kids he was even more shy than me, and that was saying something. I was shy when meeting people, but once I got to know them I was literally jumping from wall to wall. He, on the other hand, was always the quietest when we played, kind of standing on the sidelines but that didn't make him any less apart of the group. We all knew that if we needed someone, he was always there and we could be reassured that there was always someone we could rely and depend on.

He never really told any of us about his dream to be an entertainer.. And none of us ever would've guessed that that was his dream either... I mean come on, the boy was as timid as a mouse, we never would've expected that this was the occupation he wanted to persue. One where you're constantly shoved in the spotlight. Infact the way we discovered it was when we -being Jiyong and I- had accidentally stumbled on his aspirations one night during one of our daily fights.

~ Flashback to 10 years ago ~

Third Person POV

It was a normal Saturday and the gang were around at Jiyongs house. Of course Dara wasn't there willingly. Her parents were out on a business trip and she was too young to be at home on her own, and certainly wasn't old enough to look after her younger siblings yet. So the Parks had called on their good friends and neighbour the Kwons to babysit their children. Dara, adamant that she wouldn't suffer alone, only ever agreed to stay there if the girls  could stay too, and since the girls were there Jiyong needed his friends as well. After all he didn't want to be out numbered by four girls. Hence the whole gang were dotted around Jiyongs house going about their own business as if it were their own home.

Currently, Dara and Jiyong were yet again in a heated argument - no surprises there.

"Even your Omma told you to call me oppa! Now say it!" a 9 year old Jiyond demanded with his arms crossed standing his ground and blocking 8 year old Dara's path.

Dara vehemently shook her head "ANDWAE!" she yelled back and broke into a run, trying to run around Jiyong, but Jiyong mirrored her moves, preventing her from running down the hall. Jiyong smirked, pleased, thinking he'd outsmarted Dara, but Dara was smarter.

She feigned left and when Jiyong went to mirror her moves she quickly dashed to the right running around him. Jiyong stood there momentarily shocked, only snapping out of it when he heard Dara's victorious laughter behind him.

He whipped his head around only to see Dara near the end of the hall, "Mehrong!" she teased, sticking out her tongue. Jiyong's eyes narrowed dangerously before he broke into a run. 'This rabbit is going to get it!' He thought. Dara yelped when she saw him begin to charge at her and made a run for it down the hall.

Being smaller she was alot faster than Jiyong. Jiyong chased her around the whole house for 10 minutes before he stopped out of breath. When Dara could no longer hear footsteps following her she stopped, breathing heavily, tired from all the running. She placed her hands on her knees catching her breath. Once she'd recovered, she straightened herself and looked around confused not knowing where she was. She had been  so determined to not get caught that she wasn't paying attention to where she was running and she didn't know where she'd ended up.

She looked around nervously. Her eyes darting left and right as she cautiously walked forward scared that Jiyong would pull another prank and jump out in surprise, causing her to scream or at worse wet herself from fear. She was already mentally cringing from the thought of Jiyong rolling around, on the floor in laughter, whilst her fright induced pee ran down her leg. She shook away the horrible -not to mention gross- thought and crept further down the corridor, and didn't fail to notice how dark the corridor was, she gulped frightened. That's when she heard it.

Soft music was coming from somewhere. Dara furrowed her eyebrows, as she tried to figure out which direction it was coming from. At times like these she really wished she had CL's sensitive hearing. She was unsure whether to be frightened or not, as the music sounded slightly eerie. She stopped in her tracks and contemplated, what if Jiyong was trying to lure her? But that couldn't be right... He was just behind her before, there was no way he could've magically gone ahead of her, and the music was drifting from somewhere ahead.

Dara took a deep breath, and tiptoed toward the source of the music. The further she walked down the louder the music got. 'Was that a piano?' She thought to herself.

Soon she found herself stood outside of a door that had been left ajar, causing bright light to stream through the gap in the door. From her current position she could now clearly differentiate the musical instrument that was making the music - someone was playing fluently on a piano. She never knew the Kwons had a piano, then again she'd never really gathered enough interest to venture around their house.

Her curiosity was at its peak, as she tried to peak around the door, looking through the little gap, when suddenly her vision went black. Dara was about to let out a piercing scream in fright when another hand covered , muffling her voice, pulling her away from the door. Tears started to well up in her eyes.

'Please, I don't want to die' was all she kept repeating in her mind, scared that someone had captured her for finding out a secret she wasn't supposed to know, and was going to kill her. After all she was just a little girl, what else would she think?

Jiyong felt droplets of water on his right hand that was currently covering Dara's eyes. He began to panic, 'Is she crying?!' he thought. Dara didn't cry much. Well she did after his first couple of pranks but soon she began to realise the pranks weren't going to stop and crying didn't help her in anyway, so when Jiyong felt her tears accumulate in his little palms he began to panic. He quickly removed his hands from her face and turned her around to face him.

"Shhhh..." he whispered softly, "It's just me," he said, as he attempted to wipe away her flowing tears, fumbling, not quite sure how to handle the situation. He didn't even think he was wiping her tears correctly.

When Dara heard his voice she couldn't help but feel relief flood through her entire small body, I mean sure she disliked Jiyong but he was better than a mass murderer anyday. She opened her eyes, and met eyes with a worried Jiyong. Still trembling she threw herself at him in a hug, surprising Jiyong, who stumbled slightly. It had only been a few moments when Dara quickly pulled away and thwacked him across the head hard.

"I HATE YOU! YOU ARE SO MEAN! That's the worst prank yet! Do you know how scared I was?!" She shouted furiously, her cheeks still tainted with tears, jabbing him hard in the chest with her short pointer finger. Jiyong just stood there confused from the turn of events, but eventually smiled, glad that she was no longer crying hysterically.

"WHY ARE YOU SMILING?! It's NOT funny!" Dara went on, thinking Jiyong was smiling because the prank went well.

What they had failed to notice was that the soft music that had been playing had abruptly stopped when Dara had begun shouting. The door opened and the bright light streamed into the dark hallway, momentarily blinding the surprised Dara and Jiyong who shielded their faces as their eyes tried to accustom to the bright light. A small figure, around Jiyong's height stood there holding the door, wearing the same surprised face as them.

Dara and Jiyong blinked, almost in unison as their eyes finally grew accustomed to the light and their eyes widened in shock when they made out the surprised face among the bright light.

"Youngbae?!" they exclaimed.

~ End of Flashback ~

Dara's POV

After we recovered from the shock of finding out that Youngbae was behind the beautiful music, he brought us into the music room in Jiyongs house, that even Jiyong didn't know about. He said it was his little anctuary. Although he was only 9, he spoke so passionately about music, his eyes lighting up as he spoke. I had never seen him speak so much and so enthusiasitcally before. It was clear he had found what he loved to do. We soon realised that this was where Youngbae would disappear of to when we were playing and couldn't find him. A place where he could escape from the pressure of his parents and let his real feelings flow through his music.

On that day he opened up to the rest of the gang, telling us of his aspirations. When we asked why he hadn't told us before, he simply said he was worried we wouldn't approve and wouldn't want to be friends with him anymore. We had of course laughed it off, told him how silly he was and reassured him that we fully supported him in his dreams.

"I'm sure they'll come around soon Bae," I consoled him, patting him on the shoulder reassuringly. Murmurs of agreement were heard around the table.

"Yeah... I hope so..." he replied, but no hope could be heard in his voice, "I enrolled in business though, just to keep them happy and at peace for now, whilst I sort out if this is what I really want.. but I'm pretty sure Music and Entertainment is what I want."

"That's a wise decision Oppa, but just remember, we're always here to support you neh?" Minzy said cheerily, causing Youngbae to break out into one of his genuine smiles.

"I know. You guys always have my back." he said, and at the moment we all exchanged looks, smiling at each other, any individual grudges between us momentarily disappearing, because for a short moment, we were all at peace with one another, knowing that Bae wasn't just speaking for himself.

That's right, no matter what, we'll always have each other's backs.