Suddenly catching sight of Jiyong on the other side of the cafeteria, Dara immediately felt her stomach turning upside down. He wasn't looking in her direction but she locked her eyes on him, unable to look away. Nothing could describe the way she was feeling. A puddle of emotions and a storm of thoughts took over her.

A few days have passed since the kiss, since the second kiss to be more specific. All this time she thought that finding the mysterious man’s identity would sort everything out and give her the much needed answer. Some things started indeed to make sense but at the same time countless other questions arose.

So that’s why Jiyong has been so awkward and reluctant lately. She didn’t think much about how they started bickering so much, but now the reason was obvious. Not so obvious actually. It clearly had something to do with the kiss and that night, but Dara still didn’t understand why on earth he didn’t say anything at all after that. He just kept his silence. Even more, why would he start being so mean and jumpy in her presence.

Why didn’t he say anything?! You can’t just ignore such a situation. Maybe he had second thoughts. Maybe he was drunk too. Nevermind, scrap that, Jiyong can hold his booze very well, he never gets drunk. That only means he must’ve thought it was a huge mistake. I was so drunk I probably was the one that jumped on him! Poor guy must’ve been taken aback! Oh my god I am basically a ! Yet still, I remember the things completely differently in the dream!! It was obviously mutual! Maybe I am just delusional. I hate this. I have completely embarrassed myself.

Dara eventually managed to look away. She started walking fast towards the exit, with her head held down, eyes fixed on her cup of coffee as so to never catch Jiyong in her sight again.

BUT THEN WHY ON EARTH WOULD HE KISS ME AGAIN, FOR THE SECOND TIME?! IT MAKES NO SENSE THIS MAN’S ACTIONS MAKE NO SENSE!

Full of frustration and confusion, the girl sped up her pace even more, wishing she would disappear from the room as fast as possible.

He can’t possibly be into me. He can’t possibly look at me in that way. He would’ve had said something if this was the case. Well, crap.

Although lots of things still remained ambiguously unanswered, only one thing was extremely clear in Dara’s heart and mind: she did like Jiyong. Knowing that it was him she shared that kiss with, knowing that he could make her feel that good in an instant, put him in a complete different light. And the butterflies in her stomach were only confirming this.

Guess I’ll just wait and see. If he does like me back, he must eventually SAY SOMETHING, right?! If he doesn’t, I’ll just burry my feelings somewhere and lock myself up in the house for a month or something. I’ll be ok. I hope –

*CRASH*

“AISH!”

“OUCH! Watch where you’re going!”

Dara clashed into somebody at full-speed, in her urgent rush to the exit.

When she lifted her eyes, ready to apologize for her clumsiness, she was completely shocked to face exactly the last person she wanted to see that day: none other than Mr. Jiyong himself. What was even better, she had just spilled all her hot coffee on him.

____________________________________________

 

Jiyong’s mind was rambling with thoughts, thoughts that had been tormenting him from a lot longer time than Dara’s had tormented her. If Dara seemed to be having a tough time, you cannot even imagine the struggle GD had perpetually been in. He had been in a hell of anxiety and questions ever since the first kiss happened, so from quite some time. He kissed her that night, the first time, without putting much thought into it. That’s just what he felt like doing. He didn’t use his mind that time at all, he took action solely based on what his feelings dictated. And his heart wanted that kiss badly.

After that night, he didn’t know what to expect. So he made a simple plan to see what will happen: the next day, the first time they would see each other, the first time their eyes would meet again, Jiyong would search for Dara’s reaction and read it. Of course that he wholeheartedly hoped to see a warm, subtle smile, any tiny sign that would confirm she was feeling the same. Because Jiyong was definitely feeling something tender and sweet blooming inside him for Dara. Seeing her smile, as a silent confirmation, it would have given him the courage necesarry to then take her somewhere quiet and secluded and talk about his feelings and how much he would love to act on them.

Unfortunately, things did not happen the way Jiyong was dreaming. When he saw Dara again, he read complete nothingness on her face. She seemed distracted, she didn’t even pay much attention to him, she acted as if nothing happened. Jiyong was filled with dismay. It hurt so much to see her everyday acting the same as she would before, nothing changing for her when everything changed for him. He could have dealt with a rejection, but getting absolutely no reaction in return was something else. So that's why ever since the KTAA party night, ever since that first kiss, he had kept completly silent about it.

Of course our Jiyong had absolutely no idea that Dara was so intoxicated that night that she wouldn’t even remember his identity. He assumed of course that she had had some drinks and eased up, but little did he know the girl actually had ALL THE DRINKS that night.

So that’s how he decided to just shut up completely about it and act normally as well. Well, as normally as he could, because even if he tried holding in his feelings, they flooded him with frustration every time he was in the same room as Dara.

So of course that when he found himself again in Dara’s sweet company, in exactly the same scenery as that damned night, alone and intimate in his studio, he just couldn’t control himself from kissing her for the second time. Imagine how badly he felt for doing this again to her, when in his mind she clearly showed him that she wanted to forget the first one even ever happened.

These are the thoughts that were ever so torturing Jiyong when somebody suddenly violently crashed into him.

“AISH!”

“OUCH! Watch where you’re going! You spilled your coffee all over me!” Jiyong immediately started to feel his skin burning as the hot liquid dispersed itself all over his chest after the impact. He raised his gaze to see who the culprit was, moment in which he froze still. An equally stunned Dara was staring at him, holding her empty coffee cup with concern.

“I’M SORRY!” she managed to let out. Dara instantly grabbed some tissues from her pocket and started frantically trying to clean GD’s shirt. She started delicately patting and GD’s chest. Her hand then stopped for a moment and rested on his body, while she lifted her head and locked eyes with Jiyong. GD could feel how the tender touch of her hand was burning his skin infinitely more than any coffee ever could. Dara stared deeply into his eyes, expecting, hoping for any kind of a sign, something to put an end to her turmoil.

Instead, Jiyong, not being able to hold the painful visual contact anymore, he looked away and said nothing.

Dara hesitated for a second, but then promptly removed her hand from his chest and looked away as well.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU ARE SO CLUMSY! CAN’T YOU WATCH WHERE YOU ARE GOING!” Jiyong, taken aback by the absurdity of the situation and how fate seemed to always make fun of him, always literally throwing Dara in his face, he spilled all his frustration by angrily starting to yell at the poor girl.

“HEY, YOU ARE THE ONE WHO ISN’T ABLE TO STAY AWAY FROM ME OK” receiving a sudden angry tone, Dara replied back in the same manner, being just as tensed up by the situation herself.

“NO PROBLEM. WATCH ME WALK AWAY RIGHT NOW THEN.” GD hissed. “THANK YOU FOR RUINING MY SHIRT”

“YOU ARE WELCOME. BYE”

And they both grumpily walked away in separate directions.

 

____________________________________________

 

“So, have you talked to Ji Seok since then??”

“Uhm . . . yeah, of course I did. Like, everyday?”

“UHM WHY????? THE MAN IS A DOUCHEBAG?!? HE STOOD YOU UP?!”

“Uhm, no, he didn’t? He called me next morning, apologizing for everything. He had a personal problem, ok? Some problems with the club or something and he didn’t have access to the phone and he couldn’t call me – but why am I telling you details about his personal life anyway?! It’s not your business. All I am telling you is that we are cool. He was the sweetest, , I can assure you he has apologized like a hundred times for it already.”

T.O.P did not like one bit what he was hearing. He had sincerely hoped that after the night when Bom was dumped in the pouring rain, she would wake up and realize what a jackass Ji Seok was. But of course that this cunning, manipulative man would come up with a good excuse and be forgiven.

“Are you really buying that?! He kept you waiting for HOURS! What even was this problem he had?”

“Something came up in the last moment, OK? He was bussy! I won’t tell you anything more, just mind your own business WILL YOU?!”

Seunghyun kept his composure, however staring intently and sorrowfully at the girl in front of him.

“I have no idea why you keep persisting with this?! Why are you so prejudiced against Ji Seok anyway?! I don’t understand you! You keep on pestering us and trying to destroy my relationship. You don’t even want to tell me what is going on. Why are you behaving like this?!? JUST LEAVE ME ALONE PLEASE!”

You have no idea what you’re getting into, girl. It’s not just about me and my sister, it’s about your own safety too. If you only knew . . . No problem, cause I’m going to keep on giving my best in putting an end to this. Watch and learn.

Seunghyun squinted his eyes with disapproval and then proceeded to wittily turn everything against Bom:

“Oh, so I have a problem, huh?!?! Would you stop for a second and analyze yourself first?! Why are YOU so affected by this? Why does it matter so much for you to be validated by being in a relationship? Aren’t you a tad desperate?”

Taken aback by the sudden attack on her integrity and values, Bom remained stunned for a few moments. It’s fair to say she got pretty offended, mostly by the amount of truth T.O.P just bluntly spilled in her face.

“EXCUSE ME?! ME? DESPERATE?! PUH-LEASE! I don’t need any relationship at all! I just, uhm . . . I just like going on dates, you know? Yes! It’s so nice to have the thrill of going out and dressing up and everything! It’s just for fun NOT FOR VALIDATION!”

“Aha. Right.”

T.O.P put on an evil smile, as he just came up with another one of his brilliant ideas.

“I’ll take you on a date then.”

“HUH?!?!” Bom almost fell from her chair. “You’re going to do WHAT?!”

“I’ll take you on a date then. To quench your first for fun dates! Trust me, we are going to have one hell of a fun time!”

If a date it’s what she needs then I’m going to give her the date of her life! That way she won’t even feel the need to see that jerk ever again.

“NO WAY WTF”

“Come onnnn, I’m serious!”

“You’re serious?!?” Bom was getting even more perplexed.

“Of course I am! I’ll show you how it’s done. Are you busy right now?”

Bommie was actually done for the day, she was ready to pack and go home when Seunghyun barged into the practice room and started assaulting her with questions.

“Now?! Uhm, no, but we can’t just –“

“PERFECT! I’ll pick you up in 5 minutes!”

“Wait WHAT – “

“Meet me outside the room in 5 minutes! I’m picking you up from home, well, from your current location in this case. That’s how we’ll start our date! See ya!”

And so T.O.P left the room.

What have I done to deserve this lunatic?!

Bom asked herself as she packed her bag.

 

____________________________________________

 

Bom opened the door and run head-on into Seunghyun who was waiting right outside the practice room.

“You’re late!”

“Excuse me??”

“You’re one minute late” T.O.P showed her the clock from his phone.

“What the heck?! Are you crazy?!”

“One minute matters a lot since I’ve been here first and I’ve waited for you. Just like any man should do. You must never leave the girl waiting.” Seunghyun articulated his words, purposely making an obvious comment on Bom’s contrasting experience with Ji Seok.

“I told you it was not his fault! You are absurd!” Bom rolled her eyes. “So where are we even going?”

“Are you hungry? Who am I kidding you are always hungry.”

“Excuse me?!” Both of them knew that Seunghyun was right but Bom couldn’t help from protesting.

“Oh come on you always are, it’s true! So shut up. I know this place where they do the best buttered corn on the cob. I’ve already placed an order, the food will be delivered here soon. We can eat in the studio and then there is this gallery opening of a friend, he invited me from a long time ago but I’ve already called him to announce you are joining too. And don’t worry, there are neither chairs nor furniture, it’s a photography exposition, so I think you’ll like it.”

Bom suddenly remained speechless for a few seconds.

He organized all of these in 5 minutes only? And how could he know that I’d rather order delivery than eat at fancy restaurants. He even thought of ordering fancy corn for me.

“Ok, wow, I am actually quite impressed.” The girl eventually confessed.

“And afterwards we can get ice-cream! OMG this is SO EXCITING!” Instead of reacting to Bom’s compliment, Seunghyun bursted with joy at his own brilliant idea.

The contrast of the activities proposed, from a serious art exhibition to childishly getting ice-cream, reflected T.O.P’s personality perfectly. This only made Bommie even happier, putting a warm smile on her face.

“The more food, the better!” she cheered on.

“Amen!”

 

____________________________________________

 

“I can’t get that corn out if my head. I swear I am in love. I want to marry it.”

T.O.P chuckled, while also feeling proud for making such a lasting impression with his restaurant choice.

“I told you that thing is heavenly. Just please try not to freak out the restaurant by ordering 2 trucks of it at once.”

“Crap how did you know that I was going to do exactly that?”

Bom and Seunghyun both laughed at the thought.

“And thaaatttt ice cream! BOOY! DE-LI-CIOUS!”

“Ice cream is my specialty, thank you very much.” T.O.P took a small break before continuing. “Oh shoot, Hwangssabu is going to kill me after showing you all this food, right?”

“Not if he never finds out about it.” Bommie evilly smiled and they both chuckled again.

“No, but seriously.” She went on. “This was really nice. Everything was lovely. Way to recover from that awful failure of a date from last time. Thank you.” The girl sincerely thanked.

“No problem. I’m just glad you are done with that Ji Seok jerk now.”

“HUH!? Who said that?!”

Seunghyun frowned.

“You?! You said you only wanted to go to dates. Well I just took you to a successful, lovely date and now you logically do not have to date him anymore!”

Bommie raised her eyebrows in amazement.

“What the – how on earth did you come to this conclusion?! Of course I’m going to keep on dating him! You can’t expect me to go on one date and be satisfied for the rest of my life. Are you dumb?! I want so much more and Ji Seok has the full potential for it! So, again, thank you for this sweet favor and for driving me home BUT PLEASE STOP POKING YOUR NOSE WHERE IT SHOULDN’T BE AND LEAVE US ALONE!”

Bom swiftly got out of the car and closed the door with a bang.

Well that went well.

Seunghyun facepalmed himself.

Before he could think any more about how his plan spectacularly failed yet again, Seunghyun was startled by the sound of his phone ringing.

*RING RING*

“Yeoboseyo?” he answered.

“Hello son, it’s Uncle Kim here.”

“Uncle Kim! Hi, how have you been, ahjussi?” T.O.P cheerfully asked, upon recognizing him.

“Good, good, thank you son. I am sorry to bother you so late in the evening . . .” the ahjussi hesitated for a moment and then started whispering in a hushed voiced. “but you left me your number and asked me to call you if I notice anything about Mr. Lee. Well, something did happen and I think you might be interested in hearing it.”

T.O.P’s face brightened up with interest.

“Yes, ahjussi, please, go on. What do you know? Did something happen with Ji Seok?”

“Well, yes –“, the old man lowered his voice even more, “I found out why Mr. Lee had to close the club for a few nights. Remember how I told you some men passed by and how they seemed to be health inspectors or something similar? It turns out they were not inspectors at all. They were policemen.”

“Hm?!” Seunghyun exclaimed.

“Yes. The police must be conducting some sorts of investigation at the club. And there’s more. A few nights ago, on Monday, they came again, completely unannounced this time. Mr. Lee was really taking aback. They barged in, but they had a warrant and they then started searching the club up and down. They turned the place upside down. Oh, Mr. Lee was boiling with anger. The policeman then took him to the station and interrogated him for what seemed like hours.”

Seunghyun listened attentively to every word and quickly started analyzing the situation.

Monday? So this is why he stood Bom up. He must have been caught right in the middle of the interrogation while Bom was waiting for him at the club. I wonder what the hell did he say, did he tell her the truth?

“Ahjussi, tell me please, did they find anything? What were they even searching for in the first place?”

“I don’t know. But no, they did not find anything, whatever it was that they were looking for. Mr. Lee came back very late that night, very angry. He said that the police were both wasting their and his precious time as well. He didn’t tell me anything more after that. Now the club is back to running as usually.”

Seunghyun sighed.

“Thank you a lot, Uncle Kim. Please don’t hesitate to call me at any time, not only for information but also for anything you might need.” Seunghyun sensed the fear in the old man’s hushed voice throughout the entire conversation. He pitied how this poor man had to constantly live terror, at Ji Seok’s feet. He wished he could change this situation. “Listen, ahjussi, I sense that we can really help each other out here. We’ll figure things out together, ok?”

“Thank you, son. I’m always glad to help. I have to go now, Mr. Lee needs me. Good bye!”

“Good bye Uncle Kim!”

Something is off. Ji Seok must have some shady business going on. I always knew that this man is capable of anything. The way he shamelessly blackmailed me and my sister was a huge red flag. It’s good that the police are now on his tracks though. I will find out what is going on and hopefully he will finally reveal his true nature to the world.

 

____________________________________________

 

Jiyong, Seungri, Teddy and CL were all sitting in a recording studio, attentively staring into GD’s PC screen and carefully listening to a demo playing.

“I like how the song has a completely new vibe now. You really brought the beat to a whole different height.” Teddy was the first to comment after the song ended.

“It flows very consistently, I like it too.” CL agreed as well.

“Yea but I still think it could be much better. I need to figure out what’s still bothering me about it. It is an old and epic song and I have to be careful remaking it while also doing it justice.” Jiyong sighed with vexation. He then clicked on the screen a few more times, replaying a certain part from the demo again.

“Look Chae, this is the part where I want to try the backing vocals on.” GD commented.

“Okay, cool. Whenever you are ready tell me and I’ll go record em.”

Jiyong had been struggling with the Lollipop song remake ever since YG suggested it for the first time. He found it to be a great idea at the beginning, just as everyone did. He was excited so he started working on it right away. However it soon turned out to be one of the trickiest projects he had ever dealt with. He kept on changing it, adjusting and then changing it again, from top to bottom, but no matter what he did he still wasn’t pleased by any version.

So here he was again, trying new things and hoping to save it again. That’s why he had asked for CL’s help, to record a couple of backing vocals and see how he could balance out the vocals.

“What about me? Don’t you need my help too? Don’t you wanna hear my opinion about it too?” Seungri had been listening silently to everything, doing so however only in preparation of dramatically delivering his necessary commentary as well.

“Uhm, may I remind you nobody called you over? I never asked for your help. You just barged in and sticked your nose in other people’s business, like you always do.” Jiyong scoffed.

“I DON’T DO THAT! I just wanted to check on you and give you a hand! SoRrY FoR TrYiNG tO bE a GoOd FrIenD –“

“HELLO there guys!”

Seungri’s ridiculous outrage was suddenly put to an end when a new person entered the studio, greeting in a cheerful, high-pitched voice.

All eyes immediately went in that direction, to see who this mysterious voice belonged to.

A tall, slim, extravagantly dressed woman was standing in the doorway, holding a big leather bag on her arm and a phone in her hand.

“EUN JUNG-AH? What are you doing here?!” Seungri exclaimed, his voice almost cracking from the shock of seeing her there.

“Of course it’s me, dummy! Who else?! Now come here and let me greet you properly! I’ve missed this handsome face!”

Without any further warning, the girl stormed next to Seungri, cupped his face in her two hands, pulled him in and plopped a firm and noisy kiss right on the maknae’s lips.

Upon witnessing this inadequate and unrestrained display of exuberant affection, Jiyong and Teddy gave each other a curios look and exchanged an amused smile.

For CL on the other hand, the image did not amuse her in any way. She remained completely speechless, feeling a sudden, violent twinge in her heart. It was like the ground was shaking underneath her feet.

“Didn’t you miss me too, Boo Boo? I thought you’d be more excited to see me again!” Eun Jung playfully pouted.

“I – uh . . . no, I – of course I am glad to see you. I was just, uhm, not expecting you . . .” Seungri stammered to let out a coherent sentence.

“Well, surprise!” the tall girl cheekily smiled.

At this point it is only fair to reveal that Kim Eun Jung here is none other than one of Seungri’s famous supermodel exes. Hence the extra familiarity in displaying affection. However, Eun Jung was quite a special one, standing out in beauty, exuberance and nerve, as well as in being Seungri’s longest relationship ever. Well, that being before Chaerin happened, of course.

CL was well aware of their history together, so seeing this ridiculous scene unfold before her eyes without being able to say anything at all only brought her an awful amount of pain and anger.

“Wh – what are you doing here?” Seungri asked, still dazed.

“Oh, well I am actually on business here! Your girl is a busy bee! I was just passing by YG to talk about a potential modeling contract and of course I couldn’t help myself from asking around about you, to see if you are here so I could pass by and say hi!”

“Ah, aha –“

“OH MY, speaking about business, I am totally going to be late for my meeting! Maybe we’ll start seeing each other more often again around here, isn’t that great?! I gotta go now, bye bye Boo Boo! Give me a call! Mwah!”

Eun Jung caressed Seungri’s cheek and let her hand slowly brush his chest too before she broke the touch, blew a kiss and walked away towards the exit.

Seungri remained still for a second, as if he had been hit by a storm.

“Boo Boo, huh? I like it. I’m going to start calling you this too.” Jiyong bursted into laughter.

“Man, I gotta give it to you, the girl looks amazing, but besides eyes, don’t you have ears too? Have you heard the way this woman talks?! How could you stand being around her for more than 5 minutes at a time?! And when you think that you've actuslly dated her for 5 months! I’ve never ever meet a girl more annoying in my entire life!” Teddy joined the laughter.

“Shut up guys!” Seungri protested. “Let’s just thank god I am done with her. ”

“She sure as hell doesn t seem to be done with you! Dude, you really gotta raise your standards –“ GD didn’t even finish his sentence when Chaerin bluntly stood up from her sit and rushed outside of the room in a flash.

Seeing this, Seungri immediately ran after her as well.

“What just happened?” A confused Teddy then asked a confused Jiyong, getting only a confused shrug in return.

 

____________________________________________

 

Chaerin’s eyes started uncontrollably tearing up. She felt like very soon there would be no way in which she could hold it in any longer. She felt like she was going to throw up if she stood in the room another second.

So she ran outside.

Seungri soon followed her.

“Hey, babe, I’m so sorry, I had no idea she was coming here –“

“shut up” Chaerin more of a whispered, her back turned to Seungri, trying to face away and conceal her miserable state.

“Hey, I’m sorry, seriously, how could I know she was going to barge in like that. You know this girl is a little crazy. She never took the break up well and she still thinks she can win me back – “

“you have no idea, do you?” Chaerin eventually turned to face him, a tear already racing down her cheek.

Seeing her like this, Seungri’s expression suddenly darkened, finally realizing the gravity of the situation.

“you have no idea. You like living in oblivion, don’t you? You like not taking responsibility for your actions. You love ignorance. I couldn’t care less about her. I couldn’t care less about any of your exes, Seungri. I am not absurd. What bothers me tremendously is that this type of situation could have been avoided very easily. How? If you would’ve just had the courage and commonsense to tell the truth, from the beginning. Why is it so hard for you to admit your damn feelings?! Why would it ing matter if other people know them too, if they are true? I don’t understand you.”

“Chaerin, I’m sorry, I –“

“No. Instead of admitting the truth I have to keep my mouth shut and watch my boyfriend being jumped on by a ruthless bimbo! You didn’t say anything even after she had kissed you RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! Is keeping this secret more important than not hurting me? Cause you did hurt me.”

“No, Chaerin, please listen, I am so sorry. I’m sorry things turned out this way. But I do care about you, ok? I love you! I do!”

“I don’t believe you. Prove it.” Chaerin’s dreary tone changed into a harsher, more determined voice. Her tears had eventually dried out and she was now insistently staring into Seungri’s eyes, hoping to spot a change.

“How?” he asked.

“Acknowledge our relationship. Tell somebody, anybody, that we are together. Even just one person, one close friend, anybody. Make it real and stop this pretense.”

“I – I can’t – I can’t do that just yet. Please understand –“

“Seungri listen carefully. If this keeps on staying between us, you might as well consider that our relationship has never even existed. I am sick and tired of this. If you can’t even say it out loud then it means all of this was simply fake.”

Seungri tried to grab CL’s hand but she promptly pushed him away.

“I can’t, Chae, not right now. Please, just give me a little more time, I promise –“

CL’s pain had been replaced instead with a wave of disappointment. She started lightly shaking her head no.

“I’ve got no more time to waste, Seungri. This was all my patience. This was it. I need to stop this, it’s going nowhere. We are done. Make this easy and behave like nothing ever happened, will you. It will be easy, since nobody even ever knew something ever happened. Just as you’ve always wished.” CL threw on a bitter smile. “I gotta get back to the recording room and help Jiyong with the backing-vocals. I’m sincerely sorry . . . it ended like this. Good bye.”

And with that, CL got back in the studio. Seungri remained alone in the hallway, staring for a very long time at the door through which she disappeared.

 

____________________________________________

 

Daesung took sort of a break. He put his concerns on standby. What concerns one might ask? None other than his constant flurry of thoughts regarding how and why Yuri did started to completely ignore him.

He didn’t texted her in quite a while. He was sorta in denial.

So if Yuri is going to ignore me then I am going to ignore Yuri too. There is no problem here. Nothing even happened if you come to think of it.

But his serene refusal to deal with his problem did not last long. He tried and tried to ignore thinking about it but today his mind just couldn’t conceal its indignation anymore. He now found himself again thinking about Yuri.

I can’t do this any longer. I just can’t understand why she stopped talking to me so abruptly. Everything seemed to be going so well. When we talked at the KTAA party she was all smiles. She spent the whole night at our table with me and Youngbae. So naturally, after that I felt like it was time to start texting her. And then, when I tried to ask her out BAM, she started dodging my invitations. She kept inventing excuses up until she eventually completely cut me off.

Dae sighed hopelessly.

I did nothing wrong. I was the perfect gentleman. What happened?!

. . .

. . .

WAIT A SECOND! I really actually DID NOTHING WRONG. SHE HAD NO REASON TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS TOWARDS ME. THIS MEANS SHE IS SIMPLY BEING MEAN, RIGHT?! HOW DARE SHE!

The boy suddenly plucked his phone out of his pocket and dialed Yuri’s number in rage. He had shifted to full-on anger.

After a few dial tones, contrary to what Dae actually expected, she picked up. He however did not hesitate at all before he straight off started screaming into his phone, releasing all of his frustration.

“WOW! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU ACTUALLY PICKED UP! WHAT HAPPENED?! FEELING BAD FOR BEHAVING LIKE A RASCAL WITH ME?! WELL GUESS WHAT! IF YOU WANT TO SAY SORRY, I WON’T EVEN ACCEPT YOUR APOLOGIEZ! YEAH, THAT’S RIGHT! YOU DESERVE TO FEEL PAIN TOO!”

“I’m sorry, what?!” on the other end of the line, not Yuri, but a male voice responded in return, with great confusion.

“Huh?! Who is this?! Isn’t this Yuri number?! DID THAT LIAR CHANGE HER NUMBER!?”

“What!? No, no! This is Yuri’s number, she just isn’t here right now –“

“Then who are you?!” Daesung frowned, but upon hearing the other person speak some more, he had a realization. “Wait, I think I recognize your voice. Youngbae?!”

“. . . uhmmmmmm –“

 

____________________________________________

 

“Your phone is ringing.”

“Who is it?”

Youngbae looked at the ringing phone on the table in front of him.

“I don’t know. It’s just a number, it’s not in your contacts”

“UGH” Yuri rolled her eyes in annoyance. “It does this all the time! Since I changed my phone, my contacts have gotten completely messed up. They didn’t synchronize properly and I lost a tone of numbers. Would you be a darling and answer it for me please? It’s most certainly a friend or an acquaintance that I lost the number from. I need to go check on the oven.”

“Sure, babe.”

Yuri left the living room, where she was preparing the salad and entered her kitchen to finish the steak. Taeyang picked her phone up and answered.

He couldn’t even say one world as the person on the other line started to throw a fit.

Taeyang instantly recognized Daesung’s voice. What he didn’t realize right away was that Dae would recognize him as well eventually:

“Wait, I think I recognize your voice. Youngbae?!”

“. . . uhmmmmmm –“ So when the question came, Tae froze up. “Is your refrigerator working?” was the best thing he managed to say.

“What?” Dae was baffled.

“Then you’d better go catch it!”

“ . . .” Dae puffed. “Uhm, you do realize I was the one that called you. You can’t prank call the person that called you. It’s not how it works.”

Taeyang facepalmed himself.

“I wasn’t prank calling! I – uhm, I am a handyman YES! I am here to fix Ms. Yuri’s refrigerator.”

“And answering her phone calls is also in your job description?” Daesung suspiciously asked.

Taeyang was breaking out in cold sweat at this point.

“No, man, LOOK! I’m just helping with all I can! The miss is not here now and I should get back to working now! This refrigerator really needs me!”

“Oh, uhm, fine then, tell Yuri I called then? Sorry for bothering, good luck man! Bye!”

Youngbae breathed a huge sigh of relief upon hanging up.

“Now that – was close!”

“What happened, who was it?” Yuri came back with a steaming roasted steak.

“You wouldn’t believe what a bullet I just dodged. It was freaking Daesung!”

“OH GOD!” Yuri gasped. “Didn’t he recognize you?! What did you say?!”

“I think I fooled him eventually. But it was close.”

“You do know we’d have to eventually tell him . . . that we are dating, right?” Yuri bared a scolding look on her face.

“Yes . . . but he is still very affected by this. We’ll have to wait a little longer for him to receive it well. Let’s eat dinner now. Wow, everything looks amazing!”

“You have an amazing cook for a girlfriend, just wait till you taste this!”