2 months later.

Jiyong watched with a smile when Ae Ra slowly fluttered her eyes opened. It’s exactly 7, she always woke up at exactly this time of the day. Blinking a few times, Ae Ra furrowed deeply before groaning and slumped back further into her soft pillow.

“Get up. It’s time.” Jiyong said, not too loud but enough to wake Ae Ra up. He knew she was not a sleepy head like him, that she would be easily woke up just by some few loud sound.

“No, I wanna sleep more.” Ae Ra grunted under her pillow, her voice muffled which sounded so cutely ridiculous.

“You don’t wanna miss the meeting today, right?” Jiyong raised an eyebrow.

“Oh .” Ae Ra instantly shot up right. “I forgot.” She messed her hair and yawned. She hid her face in the palms and peeked through fingers, mumbled. “Morning.”

Jiyong laughed. “Like I never saw your bed face. What’s the point of hiding?” He chuckled while walking out of the room. “Morning you too.” He waved without looking at her, going through the wall and disappeared to the living room or kitchen.

Ae Ra sighed, raked her fingers through her messy hair again. Quickly jumping to the shower to take a bath, Ae Ra sighed again in content when the cool water hit her skin.

The past 2 months came like a wind, and there was not many progress on Jiyong’s body. He’s still unconscious, still in coma. Ae Ra kept her promise, she visited Jiyong’s body at least once per day, and met Jiyong’s mother about twice or 3 times per week, to talk with her on behalf of Jiyong. Despite how busy she was, Ae Ra never let anything interfere with her schedule for Jiyong. To her, until Jiyong woke up, she had this responsibility to present by his side...er...his body, or whatever.

Ae Ra’s relationship with Seungri was still as bad as ever. Sometimes, it’s very rare but still, she met Seungri again in Jiyong’s room. The kid was still mad at her, throwing hateful words to her, doing his best to make her feel bad. A good thing was there was always other BIGBANG members with him, or even Jiyong’s mother, so the kid still behaved somehow. Her relationships with other members were quite alright though. It’s either they’re really nice, or just avoided being rude to her. Whatever, she didn’t complain. Daesung was really nice to her though, Taeyang was polite, while Seunghyun just kept silent and being reclusive. She didn’t try to be close to them either, she didn’t feel the right to do so, so most of the time they just conversed enough.

Ae Ra got quite close to Jiyong’s mother, though. It’s understandable, since she represented for Jiyong. Sometimes she felt uncomfortable to say emotional things like “I love you”, “I miss you so much”, “Please forgive for this bad son”... to his mother, but because Jiyong begged her to do so, she gave in. Jiyong’s mother had asked Ae Ra to call her as “oma” too, to “save me the confusion. There’s no need for you one minute call me “Mrs. Kwon”, then the next ones “oma”. To me you’re like my child now too”, that was her words. Ae Ra was scared at first, she’s afraid she would get too attached to this, and eventually she would get hurt if someday, things got unexpectedly. But Jiyong agreed with his mother too, saying that he didn’t mind, since he owed her, for helping him to communicate to his mother. Their kindness both touched and embarrassed Ae Ra, since she should feel guilty for being the awakening one - like Seungri said.

“Everything happens for a legit reason. You might feel like you’re cursed or doomed, the fact is, God has his own plan for you, so don’t dwell on too much on the pessimistic side.”

Daesung had said those words to her, and Ae Ra truly felt like she was enlightened new conception of life. Learning about Daesung’s accident in 2011, Ae Ra understood why he said so. Even though she & Jiyong’s accident was nothing like Daesung’s, Ae Ra still felt the connection. So she took Daesung’s words and stopped feeling uncomfortable around Jiyong’s beloved people.

Ae Ra was able to contact her sister - Nara - a week after she moved into her new apartment. Ae Ra decided not to tell the kid that she was in coma for over 1 month, just telling her that she was in an accident and too hurt to do anything - even contacting Nara. Surely, the kid got worried, super worried and even wanna “jump to the nearest plane to get to my precious unnie”. But Ae Ra quickly stopped her little sister, she could not let the kid leave her fun time in Greece just to go here to nag about her health, when she was perfectly fine now. Her sister promised will visit her soon though, and Ae Ra was excited for that.

Oh and her new life after being released from the hospital, her life with Jiyong.

It’s quite....comfortable. Ae Ra was not quite sure it’s because of Jiyong’s comfortable nature around women - as he himself once joked with her - or it’s because of her weirdness. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t feel awkward around him. Knowing the fact that only she was be able to see him, she felt the....responsibility to keep herself as his company, to make him feel less lonely. She constantly caught him standing motionless outside the balcony, hands deeply pocketed inside the pants, looking out at the city below, a thoughtful expression presented in his eyes. She knew he missed his life, and he felt quite helpless. Therefore she tried her best to make him comfortable around her.

After retrieving her belongings from the hotel - which she had to thank the staffs with all her heart, because without them she would not know where to start her life in Korea - Ae Ra went on arranging her new life in the homeland. She looked for an apartment, turned out to be a house instead, bought a new car, make acquaintances with neighbors. 3 weeks after being released from the hospital, Ae Ra started her business.

The first 2 weeks, it was so difficult. It’s like no one believed Ae Ra was really The S’s owner. Even though it’s not such a global brand, but it’s recognizable enough, especially among Koreans, since it’s known widely to be owned by Koreans. Ae Ra remembered how she had to scoffed at some insults. Decided that arranging meetings directly was not a smart move, Ae Ra went back and sent out announcement from her email account in London, the one clearly showing that she’s the owner of The S, saying that she would visit them in person in a few more days. It worked well though, and she’s in the first stages of the process to bring The S to join Koren market.

Jiyong was always by her side days and nights, everytime and everywhere. It’s Ae Ra’s request. Sometimes, when he felt bored with her meetings or when she was engrossed in works too much, Jiyong would take alone walk in the park near her house, or visit his body by himself. But she always came and “fetch” him back to her side, since she knew the more he sat by his motionless body, the more depressed he got. Until now, they could be seen as “friends”, Ae Ra guessed.

“You took a lot time to shower.” Jiyong raised an eyebrow when Ae Ra stepped out of her room, in her best look: business suit, make-up face and hair. He glanced at the clock. “You took 35 minutes today! Yesterday it was only 30!”

Ae Ra rolled her eyes at him, as if saying are-you-serious? “Someone in a good mood this morning.” Ae Ra mumbled while passing him, went straight to the kitchen. “And someone just wanna have more sleep, but cannot.”

This time it’s Jiyong who rolled eyes at her. “Then that someone should not have stayed up that late last night, Miss.” He scoffed while folding his arms. “If it’s not me nagging you to go to sleep, you might just stay up for the whole night.”

“Thank you.” Ae Ra laughed at his scowling face. She looked at her watch. “Ugh, no time for breakfast. Mr. Kim gonna have to wait up for me.” Groaning, Ae Ra sprinted towards the door, hopping while putting on her heels. Her stomach already churned loudly.

Jiyong gave her an I-told-you-so look while leisurely strode through the door. “I’ll wait in the car then.”

Sighing, Ae Ra finished lacing her shoes before trying to catch up with him. “I wish I won’t feel hungry like you.”

_____

Throwing her face into the mattress, Ae Ra didn’t bother to get up and change her clothes. She sprawled on the bed and groaned because of being exhausted.

“Yah, get up! You need to feed your stomach with something!” Jiyong said with a bossy voice. “You skipped breakfast, just had a sandwich for lunch and now intend to skip dinner also? Yah, get up!” Jiyong yelled.

“No...” Ae Ra mumbled with muffled voice under her pillow. “I want sleep. It’s past 9 already. I don’t feel hungry anymore.”

“Bull.” Jiyong said clearly. “Get up, change, take a shower and eat something properly, not ramen by the way.”

Ae Ra was too tired to even lecture Jiyong about his language. “Fine.” She slowly got up, glaring at him. “What is wrong with my ramen anyway?” She asked gruntly when came to retrieve something more comfy to wear at home.

“It looks and smells good, nothing wrong, but it’s unhealthy.” Jiyong sat down, crossing his legs on her chair. “At least not enough good.”

“You seem to care a lot about your health huh?” Ae Ra winked, laughing when walking towards her bathroom. “Wait in the kitchen, nosy.”

“Why? You are about to walk out half- from the shower?” Jiyong winked back mischievously. “Then I definitely stay.”

Ae Ra decided she needed a bath more entertaining than amusing Jiyong, she just closed the bathroom door, a bit forcefully behind her back. She could here Jiyong’s laughter through the door.

20 minutes had passed. Jiyong frowned.

Scoffing, he stood up from the kitchen table and headed to her room. Normally, Ae Ra only took a bath for 10 minutes, unless she took bubble bath, but she only did that on weekend. Jiyong had a pretty idea of what she was doing right now though.

Right as he guessed, Ae Ra, once again, laying on her stomach on the bed, and this time she was really in a deep sleep already.

Sighing, Jiyong didn’t have the heart to wake her up now. She looked extremely exhausted after a long working day. At least she took a bath and removed her make-up. Jiyong thought with a smile.

Ae Ra always looked better without make-up and in her comfy clothes. Sure make-up made her look more matured, and more beautiful, but Jiyong prefered to see her bare face. Therefore, Ae Ra’s sleeping form was still what Jiyong liked most.

Life with Ae Ra was.....interesting enough. Jiyong still hadn’t found any way to solve his problem, and being incapable of doing normal things a human being was supposed to be made him go crazy.What pained him most was seeing how everyone slowly forgot him. Jiyong knew he could not blame them, when he was away from their life for nearly 3 months now, but he was upset, extremely upset. Mom didn’t give up on him, but that didn’t lift his mood any better because she was suffering over his coma in her own way. It pained him even more when he saw her silently cried over his unconscious body everytime she visited him at the hospital.

But there was Ae Ra with him.

Ae Ra was the only one could see, hear, listen and respond to him. She talked with him, entertained him, kept him company, making sure that he was in her life. There were times, when he was drowned into depression, she pulled him out, tried to make him talk, laugh or just yelled and scowled at him because of his lack of response. Truthfully was, he was grateful for her. Thank to her, Jiyong had to remind himself that he was still here, in a way.

“Sleep well, Ae Ra.” He whispered to her, and settled on the chair next to the bed, watching Ae Ra in her peaceful sleep, as he usually did each night.

______

A/N

Just a little update and moving future a bit :) Can you guys give me some comments? is it ok? too slow?