Park Bom pushed the female toilet door open with a loud bang, startling the few girls inside. The frazzled look on her face and the bloody girl behind her spoke for themselves and the girls hurriedly left the toilet, murmuring words of encouragement to Park Bom. 

Once the girls left, Park Bom pulled Sandara to sit at the sink before reaching into her bag for some tissue paper.

"Aigoo, are you feeling alright? Faint, dizzy? Anything?" She fussed relentlessly over Sandara while wiping her forehead carefully. 

Sandara blushed from the attention that Park Bom was giving her and wanted to push her away gently, but the way Park Bom's eyes darted over her face and injury with so much worry and concern melted something inside Sandara. 

Something in her melted and was replaced wih something warm.

So Sandara smiled and reached up to hold Park Bom's arm still. "I'm okay, really. It's just a small scratch, see?" Sandara lifted up her drenched hair and cleaned up the last of her blood, showing Park Bom the small cut.

Park Bom gave a sigh of relief but the worried look did not go away. "I was SO WORRIED!" Park Bom said, close to tears as she leaned forward to engulf the girl in a tight hug. 

Sandara stiffened slightly. It has been so long since someone had last hugged her. But Park Bom refused to let go, so Sandara finally relaxed and raised her arms stiffly to return the hug. Park Bom finally released her and grasped her shoulders, looking deep into Sandara's eyes. "Thank you for being okay..." She whispered.

Sandara blinked back a few tears as she gave Park Bom a genuine smile. "As long as you are okay too". The girls smiled at each other for a few moments before breaking out into laughter at the absurdity of the situation they were in.

After their laughter died down, Park Bom remembered how wet Sandara was. "Omo, you'll fall sick like this! Wait, I have a set of spare clothes in my locker." Retreiving her phone, she immediately dialled for CL and Minzy to come to the toilet with the clothes. 

---

"Hey girls! We're here!" Minzy announced as she and CL strutted into the toilet, clothes in hand. 

"Yah! You want all the teachers to know that we're skipping class?" CL tried to hush Minzy hurriedly as she poked her head out of the toilet to see if any teacher was lurking in the hallways to catch them. Satisfied that the hallway was clear, she closed and locked the toilet door.

"Hurry, change into these before you catch a cold!" She said to Sandara, snatching the clothes out of Minzy's hand and passing them to Sandara, pushing her gently into a cubicle.

Speechlessly, Sandara complied, stripping herself of her wet belongings and putting on the simple long-sleeved white blouse and a pair of short black jeans. Today was a surprising day indeed. Saving the most popular clique first thing in the morning, finding out that they're actually really nice people... What's next? Purple dinosaurs are going to fall out of the sky? Hmm... That would be nice...keke

But wait... Why are they so nice to her? It didn't make sense...

"W...W...Why are you all so nice to me?" Sandara asked meekly as she pulled on the blouse in the cubicle.

She froze, not daring to move as she heard a sudden silence from the other side of the door. The silence continued and she started to get a litte scared. Opening the door just a crack to look at the girls, she was shocked to see sad expressions on all of their faces.

"Umm... Are you all ok?" She asked timidly as she stepped out of the cubicle, her hands clenched tightly in worry.

"You...you don't remember us, Sandara?" CL was the first to speak.

Remember them? Was she supposed to? No... How would she even know these beautiful people?

"I'm not surprised that you've forgotten us, Sandara. After all, we were SO young... Dara..." CL said with a gentle smile.

Dara... Oh my... She has not heard that nickname in so long... It was so... nostalgic?

"I'm CL, also known as The Fat Girl in kindergarten."

"I'm Minzy, also known as "The Man Voice" in kindergarten" Minzy rolled her eyes and made air quotes at the name, but flashed a grin at Sandara.

"I'm Park Bom, also known as "Bom the buttocks" in kindergarten... Now do you remember us?" Park Bom shot a desperate gaze at Sandara.

Warm tears rolled down Sandara's eyes as she stared at the 3 girls in front of her in recognition. Yes..Yes, of course she remembered them! They were the 4 musketeers during kindergarten. The 4 girls who were always bullied. The 4 girls who had bonded over that fact initially, and then over so much more. They shared sweets, had sleepovers, shared secrets, eaten peanut butter out of the jar together, cried together and laughed together. They called themselves 2NE1 because they had sworn to change and be so popular and successful in their school by the time they turned 21 to show anyone who had ever bullied them what they could be. 

"You guys... Come here!" Sandara wept as she pulled them into a group hug. The four of them wept and smiled as they messed up Sandara's hair and hugged her tightly, as if making up for the years of hugs they had missed out on.

*Sniff sniff* The girls finally calmed down and couldn't stop grinning at each other. "Come on, we've missed two classes already, let's just go out to talk!" Minzy proposed. 

"OK! Let's goooooo!!!!" Park Bom wiped away the last of her tears and grabbed as many of her friends as possible and ushered them out of school and to the nearest coffeeshop.

---

"Yah, what happened to you over all these years? CL questioned, taking a sip of her latte.

"After kindergarten, my parents didn't let me go to the same school as the three of you... They had lost a lot of money in stocks and shares and couldn't afford the private school, so they put me in a public school and it was too far from your school so we couldn't keep in contact..." Sandara said sadly.

"No wonder! Do you know how devastated we were? Bommie cried for three days straight!" Minzy interrupted, pouting. "And then what happened? Why did you leave the country?"

"Jiyong..." Sandara stated.

"JIYONG???!!!" The other three girls shrieked in horror, Minzy even spitting a mouthful of iced coffee at some unsuspecting guy sitting at the next table.

"Yeh...Jiyong...When I entered Junior High, there was this one boy who would be my friend... Jiyong. He was my friend when no one would be. I was still the nerd, the geek, the weird one from another planet... So you don't know how happy I was when someone would be my friend, especially when I had lost my three best friends... But as we grew older, he got more attractive, more popular, while I remained the plain, simple, Sandara. Well... Like all stories, I fell in love with him. It wasn't hard, trust me. He was so...NICE... So I confessed to him on my 12th birthday, but...he tore up my confession letter in front of the whole school. I was so upset that I was bawling the whole way home in my parent's car. And I think my parents got so distracted that... They got into a car accident..." It was the first time Sandara had told all these to anyone. In a way, she didn't know whether she should have, after all, it has been 10 years since they last met and they could have changed. But on the other hand, it felt good to tell someone sho understood her and how she felt.

"HUHHHHHHHHHHH" Sandara heard someone wailing. Looking up, she saw Bommie in tears. Haha, all these years and she was still so emotional... Minzy rolled her eyes in disbelief while CL fumbled around for a tissue and a way to comfort the bawling Bom. 

"You...You... poor thing..." She bubbled in tears as she tried to reach across her seat to hug Dara. 

"Ara...ara...Don't cry ok? You won't look pretty anymore! I'm not even crying, so why are you?" Sandara whispered comfortingly to Bom as she patted her shoulder calmly.

"Do...Do you know why we hate Jiyong and gang so much?" Minzy spat as Bom started to calm down.

"Wae?" Sandara questioned, her eyebrows drawn together in confusion.

"Because he's the school's biggest playboy... And because they used to bully us." CL said, propping her head on her arms thoughtfully.

"We weren't always like this. After Jiyong and gang left junior high and entered Seoul High School when we were all 13, they started picking on the ugliest people in school, which happened to be us. The bullying went on for two years... until we got s and hips" CL grinned happily.

"I lost some weight, Minzy won a singing/rapping competition, Bommie started shaking that when she walked..." CL continued but got interrupted when Bom started smacking her playfully.

"Yeah, we got y." Bom smirked, a mock-proud look on her face. She looked so smug that the girls couldn't help but burst into mad laughter.

"So people started liking us first for our looks, next because we were different from the other b!tchy, popular gang that people were used to. Not to be shameless, but I think we overthrew f(x) as the popular group because we were genuinely nice to people" CL gave a small smile.

The girls talked and laughed for at least 2 hours, catching up on old times. Being so absorbed in their conversation, they failed to notice a VERY conspicuous character in a bright pink tank top and matching mini-skirt that was so tight it was painful who was listening intently...

---

"Wow... what a day!!!" Sandara mused to herself as she skipped back home, her mood lifted immensely. She found her best friends again, and they haven't changed a bit! That was the most amazing part! 

"Whee!!! She spun two rounds on the spot in happiness, feeling like nothing could touch her now. Unfortunately, her clumsy self didn't see a huge rock on the ground and she tripped.

"AHHHHHHH!!!!" She screamed as the ground loomed closer as she fell. She closed her eyes, anticipating the fall.

But the fall never happened. Cracking open her eyelids, she realised that her face was inches from the ground and there was a firm, warm arm wrapped securely around her waist. 

"Thank you so much for saving m..me..." Sandara started, a briliiant smile on her face as she straightened herself and turned to the stranger. But the smile faded quickly as she saw who the stranger was.

Kwon Jiyong.

"Yah, is this how you greet an old friend?" An innocent smile played on Jiyong's lips as he asked a very shocked Sandara.

Shock turned to anger as she pulled herself away from his embrace.

"I'm NOT YOUR FRIEND!" She shouted angrily as she took three steps away from him. Confusion was written all over his face.

"I... I'm Jiyong... Don't you recognise me?" Hurt was registered all over his face as he took a few steps closer to bridge the distance between them.

That just made Sandara take a few more steps back. "Oh I recognise you all right... Kwon Jiyong... How can I ever forget after you mocked me so heartlessly when I gave you my heart? And you call yourself my friend? The nerve of you!" Sandara mocked, her anger and hurt taking over her kind nature. Spinning around on her heel, Sandara started running away from him.

She was so, SO angry. How dare he act innocent?! She reached home and slammed the front door closed. Leaning on it for support, she took deep breaths to calm herself. She had no tears left to waste on Kwon Jiyong. But the hurt was still there, masked by her anger for Jiyong.

---

Jiyong could only stare at her running away from him. What she said stunned him. She... gave him her heart? When? Oh no. The confession when they were 12... But the boys told him that it was a joke that she was going to play on him, and that tearing up the confession letter would be fun!

No....no...no no no no no! He had been waiting for this moment where he would meet his best friend again for so long! He raked his long fingers through his blond hair in exasparation. He didn't know why she suddenly disappeared and never contacted him again after that day, and only God knows how he survived without his best friend. He missed her SO much that he was drowning in the memories they shared...

He grabbed his chest that was hurting and blinked away tears furiously. "I'll apologise tomorrow Dara... I'm so sorry... I really didn't know... Please don't hate me... I miss you, best friend."

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

HI GUYS!!!!! So I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for supporting my fic! I hope you like it!!!

I was just so surprised to see so many people subscribing to me when I've only written one chapter!!! I don't know how to say how much I appreciate your support, so here's a shoutout to all my wonderful subscribers who have so much faith in me and my story:

so SUBSCRIBE, COMMENT AND UPVOTE!!! KAMSAHABNIDA!!! (90 degree bows)

Love, hannahnah