Bom burst into Dara's apartment and hurried over to her friend, who was sitting in a chair in the kitchen. Dara looked startled.

"Dara, Jiyong's being discharged from the army today!" She said excitedly, bouncing over to sit in the chair next to her. Dara's face lit up for a brief moment.

"I know. I just hope that everything goes according to plan." She murmured, looking down at her fingers nervously. Bom's smile faded as she realized what she meant.

The plan. They had both rehearsed how Dara would act in front of Jiyong when he came back. Bom didn't like the idea at first but Dara pleaded with her best friend. In the end, Bom grudgingly began to visit her house daily to help her with her plan. It took many months, but they had finally perfected it.

Now all they had to do was hope that Jiyong would be fooled by the act.

"Dara, are you sure you want to do this?" Bom asked worriedly. She took Dara's small hand and shook it lightly. "Why can't you just tell him the truth, hmm?"

Dara shook her head and leaned back in her chair, making it creak. Just when Bom was about to open to say something, her cell phone rang. She frowned and flipped her phone open before putting it up to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Bom. It's me, J-"

"Jiyong!' Bom exclaimed. "Oh my gosh, it's been so long! How are you?"

Dara's breath hitched when she heard that her boyfriend was on the phone. She missed him so much. She wanted to see him so badly, but she knew that wouldn't happen.

Bom noticed Dara stiffen. She put her phone on the table and pressed a button to enable speaker-phone.

"I've been good, I guess. It wasn't the same without you guys, though." Jiyong's voice came from the speaker. His voice sounded deeper than usual, but that was probably because of the phone.

"Mhm..." Bom said. "We all missed you, too. Seungri cried a lot when you left, you know."

"Haha. How's Dara?" Jiyong asked.

Bom glanced at her friend, who was glancing at her lap and fiddling with her fingers. "Uhh, I think you'll have to see for yourself."

Not catching the uncertainty in Bom's voice, Jiyong laughed. "That's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm gonna visit Dara's apartment today and surprise her."

Dara's head snapped up in alarm. Bom gasped inaudibly when she heard his reply. She quickly cleared .

"Today?! W-what time?" She stuttered into the cellphone.

"3:00 ish...why? Don't you dare tell her, Park Bom." Jiyong threatened. Bom glanced at the clock on the wall.

11:30. Both of the girls let out a sigh of relief.

"I won't." Bom promised.

“Good. I'll talk to you lat- oh wait, hold on. Does Dara still like white roses? They were her favorite flowers back then, so..”

Dara exhaled sharply, her mind being filled with memories from the past when Jiyong would always bring her white roses on every single date that they had. Even when she told him not to, he still did. On her 20th birthday, he snuck into her apartment and scattered the floor with flower petals, making sure that not a patch of tile was visible. She got really angry when she woke up to find her home filled with white rose petals, which took forever to clean up. In fact, there were probably still a few bits of dried petals here and there in her apartment even now. But she got over it pretty quickly. It was impossible to stay mad at the guy for long.

“Yes, she does.” Bom said softly. “Bye now.”

“And Bom?”

“What?”

“..I'm going to ask her to marry me.” The smile in Jiyong's voice could be heard as he said those words.

Dara's eyes began to burn as they welled up with tears. She clasped a hand to to stifle her sobs so that the person on the other end of the line wouldn't hear. Jiyong had absolutely no idea of how his words pained her.

Dara took off her sunglasses and wiped her eyes with her jacket sleeve. Bom fussed over her and patted her back soothingly as they both sat down on the couch in the living room without another word.

"Do you think I'll be able to trick him, Bommie?" Dara asked softly. "What if I make a mistake and Jiyong finds out?"

Bom remained silent. She wasn't sure what to say.

After a minute of silence, Dara sighed exasperatedly. She stared straight ahead at the blank wall in front of them.

Her eyes were strangely unfocused.