~AUTHOR'S POV~

 

Jiyong and Dara stopped as they saw CL and Seungri along the way, arguing again. They both looked at each other then decided not to disturb them.

 

“So, where are we heading now?” Dara whispered.

 

“We'll go this way” he said.

 

“How did you know?” she asked in a whisper again.

 

“The clue said so” he answered. “We need to present the pearl as a ticket to the next clue”

 

“Oh, I see” she nodded.

 

Jiyong walked in silence while Dara was ranting about some random stuff about herself.

 

“Will you stop talking?” he broke his silence after a while. “I'm not interested in anything you say”

 

She clicked her tongue. “You're being rude again”

 

“And you're being annoying again”

 

“Ya!” she burst out.

 

“Will you stop being a jerk?!?” CL's voice echoed. Dara and Jiyong looked at each other then behind them. They saw CL and Seungri heading their way.

 

“I'm not being a jerk, you're just being an old maid” Seungri returned.

 

“How did they keep up to us this fast?” Dara asked in a hushed voice.

 

“Well, you-” CL started but stopped as she saw the two standing not too far from her. The four of them looked at each other in silence. Then suddenly, they started running, trying to outrace each other.. CL and Jiyong were neck to neck ahead while Seungri slowed down to Dara's speed.

 

“Hey, how are you?” Seungri asked while running beside her.

 

“I'm doing fine” she panted. “How did you find the pearl that fast?”

 

“Ask CL” Seungri answered. “She found it”

 

“Oh” she replied.

 

“How about you and Jiyong? Did it take you long to find it?”

 

 

he found it but we were slowed down because we. . . . kind of played around” she heavily panted.

 

“Oh, what-?” Seungri started but wasn't able to finish as Jiyong went back to grab Dara's hand and started pulling her with him as he went on track in racing with CL.

 

CL arrived ahead of Jiyong at the next stop. Youngbae was already there, sans Bom. Since the pearl was with Seungri, CL can't proceed. A few minutes after her arrival, Jiyong and Dara came, both of them panting heavily. Jiyong then presented the pearl to the shadow standing in front of the cave.

 

“This time, only the ladies are allowed to get inside and find the clue” the guy said.

 

“WHAT?!?” Jiyong burst out. “Is that some kind of a ing sick joke?! I can't let her get in there alone!”

 

“This is not a joke”

 

“Fine!” Jiyong snapped. “Then we quit. We-”

 

“No” Dara said. “I'll go in”

 

Jiyong's head snapped to her. “Do you know what you're saying?!”

 

“Of course!” Dara defiantly answered. “We already came this far. We can't just quit like that!”

 

“You're not going there alone!” he gritted. “And that's final”

 

“I'll go in”

 

“No”

 

“Yes”

 

“I said no”

 

“I say yes”

 

“Don't be stubborn. You're not going in”

 

“Don't be ridiculous, I'm going in”

 

“NO!”

 

“YES!”

 

“When I say no, it means NO!”

 

Dara's eyes narrowed. She turned to the shadow and smiled. “It'll be my decision, right?”

 

“Yes” the guy nodded.

 

“I'm going in”

 

Jiyong grabbed her wrist tightly. “I said you're not going in!”

 

“You can't stop me!”

 

“Yes I can!” he hissed.

 

“Don't try me!” she hissed back.

 

“Don't try me, either!” he snapped and started pulling her away from the cave. Dara resisted but when she can't escape his grasp, she stopped struggling.

 

“Fine!” she pouted. When she saw the chance, she kneed Jiyong and quickly went to the shadow. “I'm going in!”

 

The guy gave her a stone map and let her through.

 

“!” Jiyong cursed, kneeling on the ground. After the pain subsided, he stood up and walked towards the cave he shadow stopped him.

 

“You can't enter”

 

“Then you shouldn't have let her enter!” he hissed. “That girl has been tagged by one of us! If something happens to her, you'll-!”

 

“No shadow can enter here. We made sure of that” the guy calmly said.

 

“Don't give me that bull!” Jiyong bellowed. “I'll go in if I want!”

 

“You can't”

 

“Try to stop me then” Jiyong challenged, his eyes going all black. But the guy was ready for him because before Jiyong could do anything, he was suddenly sent flying backwards, his body hit the tree.

 

“I'm more experience than you, young one”

 

“Hey, what's going on here?” a new voice came.

 

“YA!” CL shouted, marching towards Seungri and automatically gave him a punch in the face, sending the guy to the ground.

 

“Aww, what was that for?!?”

 

“Where the hell have you been?!?” CL questioned as she took the pearl from him.

 

“I was right behind you”

 

“Idiot” CL mumbled then turned to face the shadow. “Stay here. Only girls are allowed inside” she told Seungri before giving the pearl to the watcher. She was given a stone map in return.

 

“She really punches like a boxer” Seungri said, massaging his jaw. Hes tood up and went to sit beside the quiet Youngbae.

 

“!” Jiyong bellowed, punching the tree.

 

“What happened to him?” Seungri asked Youngbae.

 

“He was outwitted by Dara” Youngbae smiled.

 

“What do you mean?” Seungri asked. Youngbae launched on retelling Seungri what happened. “Oh. He must be really pissed.

 

“Sure he is” Youngbae chuckled. “He's pissed worried for the girl”

 

Seungri frowned a little. “Well, I think he sees Dara as his friend now, that's why”

 

“Do you really think this is all about him being a friend to her?” Youngbae asked quietly.

 

“Of course” Seungri said. “He said it himself, he doesn't like the girl”

 

“Well, we can't really tell when he's lying or telling the truth, can we? He's the smoothest liar among us”

 

“I think he was telling the truth” Seungri said. “He doesn't lie to stuff like this. And you know him, he doesn't like commitments and stuff like that”

 

“True” Youngbae agreed. “But people change, Seungri”

 

“Not him” Seungri stubbornly said.

 

“You're being blinded with your admiration to Dara” Youngbae shook his head.

 

Meanwhile, Jiyong was having some inner struggle. He kept on  asking himself why he acted that way or why he's so determined to get the girl out of the cave.

 

'What is she to me, anyways?' he thought. 'It's like I care what happen to her! It'll be better if something happen. I can get rid of her then!' his mind screamed. But no matter how many times his mind scream those words, he can't get rid of the nagging fear in his chest. It's making him uneasy, uncomfortable.

 

He pulled his hair out of frustration. He doesn't like feeling this way. He doesn't like being weak like this. Yes, he sees himself as weak right now for feeling afraid for the girl.

 

“Will you stop walking in circles?” Seungri called. “It's making me dizzy”

 

“Mind your own ing business” Jiyong hissed.

 

“I think we'll  be in second place” Seungri grinned.

 

Youngbae chuckled. “You're lucky you were paired with CL”

 

“I can win without her and I'll be luckier if I wasn't paired with her” Seungri said. “I would have loved it if I was paired with Dara instead”

 

Jiyong paused then glanced darkly at Seungri. But then, he resumed walking here and there, still struggling with himself.

 

o=o=o

 

It was high noon when they started hearing footsteps coming from the cave. Jiyong stopped walking then face the cave while Seungri and Youngbae straightened up. Soon after, Bom emerged out of the cave, looking like it was just a simple day of sunshine.

 

“Youngbae, let's go” she said.

 

“We should eat first. It's already no-”

 

“I'm not hungry yet” she cut off.

 

“We'll go ahead” Youngbae said to Seungri and Jiyong. Seungri nodded in return and waved them off with high spirits while Jiyong froze in his place, staring darkly at the entrance of the cave. Seungri crossed his arms behind his head and leaned them against the tree. He closed his eyes, savoring the silence of the surroundings until Jiyong started shouting and swearing here and there.

 

Seungri peeked at him through one eye. Jiyong was once again, arguing with the shadow in front of the cave. But the latter remained firm in his spot.

 

“If you don't stop harrassing me, then I'll be forced to turn you into a statue for the meantime”

 

Seungri chuckled and closed his right eye. “You're just wasting your time and energy, Jiyong. Don't you have confidence  that your partner will get through this?”

 

“That girl is stupid!” Jiyong bellowed. “She doesn't have a brain at all! How do you expect me to have confidence in her?!”

 

“Will you chill down?”

 

“!”

 

After two hours, Seungri woke up with a kick in his middle region.

 

“Wake up, you lazy jerk!” CL snapped.

 

“Oh, you're here already” Seungri yawned while rubbing his eyes.

 

“Get up already!” she spat.

 

“Okay, okay. “I'm standing up already”

 

“You're really useless!”

 

“I didn't ask to be paired with you so stop complaining” he irritably said.

 

“I didn't want to be paired with you, too” she returned.

 

“Then we'll just have to endure each other's presence” Seungri said. “Now stop babbling. What's the clue anyways?”

 

“I'll read it to you along the way” she said. “Now let's go”

 

Jiyong's anxiety started to heightened up. 'Patience' he thought. 'Relax. That girl don't mean a thing to you so just relax'

 

He wiped off all thoughts running about his mind and concentrated on convincing himself that the girl meant nothing to him; that he doesn't care whether she lives or dies. He concentrated on the thought that he was just worried about being last in the game. He walked to a tree. He sat down and leaned against it.

 

Time passed. Jiyong suddenly jumped to his feet as he saw it was already sunset.

 

“That's it!” he said. “I had enough of this”

 

He walked towards the watcher again but he was just sent flying back again. He groaned as his body hit the ground. He jumped up again, ignoring the pain. His eyes went all black and he was all set for a fight when he started seeing a silhouette from the cave.

 

“Jiyong!” the girl's cheerful voice echoed. Jiyong's breathing started to slow down, his eyes going back to normal.

 

Then finally, the girl emerged from the cave with a smile on her face. Her hair was in disarray. There were smudges of dirt in her face, her arms and even her clothes. He also saw that she scraped her palms.

 

“I'm sorry it took me long to come back” Dara said, bouncing up and down like a little girl towards him. “There were rats all over the cave! I got scared of them! I also took some photos along the way. There were really interesting drawings in against the walls. I slipped a lot of times, too. Then, I got lost because I don't know how to read the stone map but eventually, I got the-” she ranted but stopped as Jiyong suddenly pulled her to a tight hug.

 

She blinked several times, momentarily lost with what's going on. As her brain processed everything, a small smile curved her lips. That's also the time when she noticed that Kwon Jiyong was TREMBLING so hard. She buried her face on the crook of his neck.

 

“Stupid” he said.

 

A part of her was ordering her to pull away but a stronger voice interrupted that. She's aware that it's wrong for her to feel the way she does right now but she can't help it. She likes the feeling the hug brought.

 

Actually, she loves it.

 

 

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*a/n: first off, i just like to apologize in advance because it seemed like this fic won't be finish before the year ends.. i still got a few more things to add up, so I REALLY AM SO SORRY..

 

MERRY DARAGON CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!