I let out an exhausted sigh as I readjusted my smock and took a step back to examine my work so far. My lips slowly curled up into a smile. It’s beautiful…but I don’t want to let that stop me. I know I could do better if I tried harder. After giving myself a little “prep talk” in my head, I breathed in deeply, and continued.

“If only he was here to see it.” I said with a small frown.

“See what?”  A male voice said.  I turned my head to see someone I’ve been avoiding for some time now. Well it was more like he was avoiding me. Not on purpose of course, because I knew how “busy” he’s been these past few years. Yeah that’s right. Years. I looked at him with disdain.

“Why are you here?”  I asked after a while. The blonde smirked and walked over to me.

“What are you doing?” He asked, ignoring my question and tilted his head a bit to see. I quickly covered my work with a spare towel and glared at him.

“Get out.”

“Aw come on Sarah.~ I just want to know what you’ve been-“

“Get. OUT.” I said through gritted teeth. The blonde’s smirk never faded as he laughed and sat on top of a counter.

“Aren’t you at least going to say hi?” I sighed as I turned my gaze away from him and started to place all my used paintbrushes into clean water.

“Fine. Hello Kwon Ji Yong.” I said in a dull and plain voice while dabbing each brush in some water. It was slowly removing the mixture of paint in each of them. He laughed and gave me a large smile.

“Ah.~ Why so formal with me Sarah? Just call me G-Dragon! Everybody else does.” He stated with a wink, waggling his finger at me.

“Wow funny. I don’t remember being “everybody else”.”  I muttered drying the brushes with an old rag. I thought I actually meant something to him. I mean, being one of his childhood friends would at least make me a tiny bit special. But apparently I was wrong.

“Oh you know what I mean!”

“How did you know I was going to be here? I’m assuming someone must have told you.” I said placing the brushes on the counter next to him.”Because I know you wouldn’t just come to the Community Arts Center for no reason at all.”

“Well…” He started, leaning back a bit on the counter.”A little birdie told me that you liked hanging out around here. And I remembered that you were always interested in art as a kid.”  I glanced at him for a brief moment in surprise. He remembered? That’s kind of…I suddenly shook my head to snap out of it. That’s not the point. Everyone knows that I like art. I walked over to my painting again and removed the towel that was over it.

“It was Seunghyun, wasn’t it? He always liked getting into my business.” I mentioned a bit uninterested. But inside…I missed him very much. He was one of my only true friends and I haven’t seen him in a while.”…He never changes.”

“Huh? Oh you mean T.O.P?”  GD asked, slightly confused. “You know you could just call him T.O.P.” Like everyone else, I thought getting aggravated.

“No thanks. I’ve been calling him that since I was eight. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to change now.”  I scoffed turning to completely face him for the first time now. I took this time to examine him. He had grown taller these past years so now he was about three inches taller than me.

His hair was bleached blonde like in his music video “Heartbreaker”. It wasn’t a natural kind of blonde. It was a startling, almost blinding color. He wore a plain white t-shirt with light blue jeans. I wonder how much he paid for this look, I thought. GD rolled his eyes and flashed me a grin.

“Things change.” He said with a small shrug.”But let’s not talk about that.”

“I don’t want to talk at all.” I replied, placing one hand on my hip. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Sarah, we haven’t seen each other for almost five years! There must be something you want to say to me!” Hm…well if you really want to know…I hate you. I missed you. You’re such a jerk. You should have kept in touch! What would one phone call cost you?!

“…I see you’re blonde again.” I said instead.”How come?” He shot me a confused look.

“…What makes you say that?”

“Well, you’ve had almost every hairstyle known to man. So I would have expected you to have a purple mohawk or something.”GD chuckled at my answer.”But…blonde? Haven’t you already done blonde?”

“Well I remember a certain someone saying they loved blonde hair on guys.~” He said in a sing song tone. My eyes widened.

“W-What are you talking about?”

“Hm, I don’t know.~” GD chuckled softly as he leaned more on the counter and looked at ne, as if expecting something. Then it suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks.

~~~~****~~~~

“I wonder if I could dye my hair.” She mumbled to herself, grabbing a strand of her hair. The young boy next to her let out a gasp.

“Why? You have really nice hair!” He said quickly running his fingers through her soft hair. Instead of blushing, the eight year old let a cheerful laugh escape her light pink lips.

“Haha!~ You’re reaction was even funnier than I expected!” She giggled.”Don’t worry I’m just kidding Ji Yong!”  The boy crossed his arms over his chest and pouted.

“Not fair Sarah!” He whined.

“Oh calm down! It was just a joke!”

“Hmph…whatever.” He muttered under his breath.”But if you did…what color would it be?” She placed her index finger on her chin as she thought about this.

“Hm…well I really like blonde hair. But I don’t think it will look good on me.” She mused.”Maybe if it was on a boy…”

“SO you like blonde guys?” The boy asked unfolding his arms.

“Hm, I guess so.~” She said with a small shrug and a smile.”But why does that matter?”

“Because!~ One day, I will become famous!” He announced jumping up excitingly.”And then I’ll have blonde hair and you’ll have to like me!” The girl couldn’t help but giggle again.

“Mhm.~ Sure you are.~” She grinned as she messed up his shaggy dark brown hair. He laughed and playfully swatted her hand away.

~~~~****~~~~

I blinked several times and shook my head. So…He remembered that day? That was nearly 10 years ago! How could he remember that?!

“You still remember that?” I asked. Honestly, I was a little flattered.  He nodded eagerly at me and smirked.

“Of course.” GD said with his smirk slowly growing.”Why wouldn’t I?”

“Um cause that was ten years ago. I barely remember that.”

“Well, I never forgot that day.” He smiled.”I vowed that I’d be famous and dye my hair blonde. And look at me now!~” GD exclaimed waving his hands everywhere. I couldn’t help but blush a bit and smile.

“Wow that’s…sweet.”

“Thanks.” He said grabbing dome paint near him.”And you look cute in your little art smock too.~” He added in a teasing way. I blushed a dark red.

“W-Whatever Ji Yong.” GD laughed and easily opened the paint.

“Oh.~ Someone’s blushing!~ Did I embarrass you Sarah?~”

“I’m not blushing!”

“Yes you are!”

“No I’m not!”

“Yes you are.~” He cooed inching closer to me. “You’re blushing right-“ GD rubbed his thumb against my left cheek which made it immediately burn.”There.~” I quickly lifted my hand to my cheek where he had touched me…Wait a minute…It’s wet…

“…You just not just do what I think you did.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” GD insisted, putting his hands up defensively. I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Then how come your thumb is red?” He looked at his own hand and noticed that his entire thumb was covered in red paint. GD quickly hid his hand behind his back.

“Uh…I bleed easily?”

“Oh really? Like this?” I asked as I dumped two fingers into red paint and smeared it across his right cheek. GD gasped dramatically and glared at me coldly.

“You did not just do that.”

“Oh, but I did.~” I said with a small shrug and a smirk. I noticed GD’s lips form a mischievous grin as he reached for more paint.

“This means war.” 

~~5 minutes later~~

The room was now a mixture of blues, reds, and yellows. GD’s shirt was splattered with many shades of orange and purple. His clean blonde hair now had slightly pink and blue highlights. His face was practically a rainbow.

“You’re never going to win! NEVER!” He exclaimed before throwing a cup of green paint at me. I dodged and gave him a low growl.

“In your dreams you poptart!” I yelled throwing a paintbrush at him.

“You’re just jealous because I can pull off this look!” GD exclaimed gesturing to his hair and clothes. I scoffed and placed both hands on my hips.

“Shut up!”

“No you shut up!”

“No you!”

“You!”

“YOU!” We both screamed in each other’s faces. Both of us fell silent for a minute or two…then burst out laughing.

“Haha! Just like old times!” He said laughing hysterically.

“Ha yeah!~” I said between laughs. We both sighed deeply and smiled at each other.”I’m sorry I made your face look like a rainbow.”

“And I’m sorry I…” He glanced around the room a little embarrassed.”...Um for all this.” I let out a carefree laugh and beamed at him. This is how it always ended. With us fighting, then laughing, and ending with an apology.

“Wow Sarah…you laughed.”

“Uh yeah. I always laugh.” I replied with an awkward smile. He shook his head at me and returned the smile.

“Yeah but…that time it kind of reminded me of when we were kids…” GD explained with a genuine smile.”I kind of miss it.”

“Well you always did bring out my good side…and bad.”  I added with a chuckle.

“Hehe…yeah.~” He mumbled. We stared at each other in silence yet again. It wasn’t awkward or anything. We just took this time to admire how much we have grown and how that didn’t matter. No matter how much we’ve changed we always stayed the same somehow.  Suddenly, his lips captured mine in a sudden and unexpected kiss. My eyes widened slightly in surprise. Sure I was shocked but…it felt like it was right. Like it was something that was supposed to happen.

My eyes closed slowly in content. I noticed myself kissing back with no problem at all. The kiss was passionate but gentle, simple but meaningful. It was just…wonderful. I heard someone at the door chuckling. We both pulled away a bit startled. A tall man with black hair that wore a simple black hoodie, jeans, and sunglasses stood at the door. I gasped.

“Seunghyun?!” He chuckled and took off his glasses with a nod.

“I knew this would happen.” Seunghyun grinned at us.

“T-TOP! You’re such a mood killer!” GD whined with a small pout on his face. Seunghyun laughed once again and nodded.

“I’m sorry. I just wanted to drop in on Sarah to see how she was doing.” He apologized.”But I guess you two a little too busy catching up so…I’ll just come back later.” He was about to walk away but stopped and turned to me with a familiar smile.

“It’s nice to see you again Sarah.”

“Me too Seunghyun.” I replied with a smile.

“After you two are done can you please wash up? You both look like a unicorn threw up on you.” And with that last comment he left.

“…Well that was rude.”

“It’s Seunghyun. What did you expect?” GD said. I sighed. Seunghyun hasn’t changed one bit. I walked over to my painting to see if it had been ruined or damaged in any way from our “paint war.” I smiled as I noticed that it had been perfectly untouched.

“SO…are you going to show me now?” I heard him ask.

“What?”

“Your painting.” He said resting his head on my shoulder. ”You haven’t showed me it.~”  My cheeks grew warm. I cleared my throat and stepped aside to let him see it. GD stepped closer to it and examined it with silence. He stared at it with intensity for a while but soon his lips formed a heartwarming smile.

“Wow…this is amazing.” He whispered in complete awe with a sparkle in his eyes. I rolled my eyes slightly and shrugged.

“It’s nothing.” I said. But I knew that wasn’t true. This was the best thing I’ve painted in years! And what he said meant a lot to me.

“Yeah you’re right.” GD admitted with the same shrug.”You’re the amazing one.”  He said wrapping his arms around my waist and placing a small kiss on the top of my head.

“You really think so?” I asked with a small smile.

“Of course.” He chuckled.”…And I never knew you were so into me!~”

“J-Ji Yong!”  

This was the painting: