Jiyong and Chaerin have been together for a few weeks already and they spent every time they could which other.

Jiyong and Chaerin spent their whole morning just cuddling and talking about every little thing, talking about anything that happened when they weren’t together and just about anything. Both prolonging the time they have with each other because they know that after that morning, they’d be busy again and there wes no certainty to when they would be like this again.

“Hunchae-ah, always text or call me okay? Don’t even think of not picking up my calls. I’ll bother you ‘til you do.” Jiyong said as he was tying his shoelace while sitting on the bed. They spent the night in his place but they didn’t do anything more than talk, cuddle, watch movies and sleep, to which they were both contented with to be honest.

“Arasso, oppa.” She replied while putting on eyeliner.

Then she felt him hug her from the back “Ugh, I miss you already.” He said while burying his face in the crook of her neck.

“Aigoo oppa, it’s not like we’re not gonna see each other for a year!” she said while giggling. She actually loved being treated like this by Jiyong. Seeing his cute side is never tiring.

“Yeah but a couple of weeks will feel like a year if I’m not with you” he whispered to her.

That made the butterflies in her stomach flutter again for the nth time that day. She moved her hands to hold his which were locked around her waist. Separating is always the worst feeling.

“I promise to call you, oppa.” She said sweetly and turned to face him. She cupped his cheeks and placed a quick, soft and sweet kiss on his lips and walked to the bed to get her bag.

“Chaerin-ah, don’t kiss me like that and walk away!” Jiyong whined as he caught her, turned her around and kissed her again, a little harder than how she did a while ago. They ended up making out again and were delayed in going to their company.

They arrived at the company and were thankful that there were only a few fangirls lurking around the place.

Before she got out of the car Jiyong pulled her hand. “Chae, do well babe. Good luck on your tour. I love you. Don’t miss me too much.” he said while looking directly in her eyes.

She smiled and placed her hand on his cheek. “You too, oppa. Well, you always do well anyway. I love you too. Miss me a lot okay?” she said and gave him her eye smile.

They entered the building and went their separate way to wherever they should be.

Days passed with them not seeing each other. Their schedules never seem to meet. If Jiyong was abroad, Chaerin was in Korea and vice versa. Of course they lived up to their word that they’d call and text each other.

But from constant calls during the first day they didn’t see each other, it became a few calls in the following days. Then one call a day until they just settled to exchanging texts. They were really busy with work and just couldn’t find the time.

“That phone won’t send a text on its own no matter how long you look at it, Rinnie.” Bom said, noticing that their leader was awfully quiet, just staring at her phone on the table.

“Just call him already, unnie. I’m sure he would want to hear from you.” Minzy said as she was tying her hair on a high pony tail.

“Huh. Aniyo. I was just…” Chaerin tried to defend herself.

“Come on Chae, maybe he’s busy so why don’t you text or call him first.” Dara said as she too was doing something on her phone.

“If they’re busy, then how come you’re texting with Youngbae oppa?” Chaerin said mischievously, trying to divert the attention from her.

This left Dara startled and the other members look at her with playful eyes.

“What… no… I wasn’t texting him…I was just… Yah! Chaerin-ah!!!” she said giving up on giving excuses. This made the other members laugh at her reaction. They know something’s been going on between the two but were just giving Dara the time to tell them on her own.

“But how come you’re all smiles and really red, unnie?” The maknae asked making Dara more flustered than she already is. They continued to bicker with each other and Chaerin was thankful she was able to get away from the hot seat.

She didn’t really mind that they haven’t contacted each other frequently but a feeling was just irking her ever since she found out that the next trip abroad of her BIGBANG oppas was in Japan.

Everybody knows who was in Japan. She didn’t want to think about anything bad and just put all her trust in Jiyong but as the days passed she started to worry. She trusts him. It’s just that she didn’t know what was happening to him right now. Was he okay? Was he tired? At first, she let her mind think that he was really busy but yesterday she found out that Dara and Youngbae has been constantly in contact with each other. ‘So if Youngbae can find the time of day to text Dara unnie, how come that guy can’t find the time for me?’

Finally making up her mind, she took her phone from the table and exited the room. She decided to call him.

She pressed his contact icon and heard the ring of his phone. It continued to ring and as the seconds passed, she was losing hope of him answering. Just when she was about to end the phone call, it picked up. She immediately placed the phone on her ear again expecting to hear his voice but what she heard was definitely not it.

“Hello?” a female voice on the other line said in English. Her voice was soft but Chaerin still undoubtedly recognized it.

Kiko.

“H-hello?” Chaerin couldn’t help it. Her voice broke, just like her heart. She mentally slapped herself for being able to say only that.

“Hi Chaerin! How are you? It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other. We should hang out!” The woman from the other line said enthusiastically and Chaerin could feel the tears starting to form at the back of her eyes.

“Y-yeah. We should. Anyway, I have to do something so—“ she was cut off by the person on the other line.

“Oh I’m sorry. How rude of me to answer someone else’s phone but you were looking for Ji, right? He’s actually in the bathroom right now so I picked up the phone because I saw it was you who called and thought it was important. I’ll tell Ji that you called okay?” She said.

A tear managed to escape her eye as the person finished saying that.

“No, no! Don’t. It’s okay. I have to go.” Chaerin replied shortly. She couldn’t stay in this conversation anymore and before she hung up, she heard the voice she missed.

“Hey Kik, is that my phone? Who’re you talking to—“

Beep.

Chaerin ended the call and let her tears drop. A lot of things ran on her mind and she didn’t like it for even a bit.

Saying she was hurt was an understatement. She cried. It had been weeks since she cried like that.

She felt her phone vibrate and saw an incoming call from him. She ended it immediately. She didn’t wanna talk right now. Her judgment is clouded by what just happened and she didn’t want to say anything she didn’t mean. She fixed herself, cleaned her face and went back to the room where the rest of 2NE1 are.

“Oh hey unnie, did you call Jiyong oppa? What did he say?” Minzy said. She was stretching in front of the mirror that covered the walls of the room.

“He’s busy.” Chaerin curtly responded, not wanting to sound cold but she did anyway.

The others in the room noticed the cold demeanor and dark aura that surrounded her.

“Let’s start the practice.” She said as she went to the computer and pressed play and soon after, their song played, slightly catching the others of guard since their practice weren’t for another 30 minutes but seeing Chaerin like this, no one would even want to argue.

The members and dancers immediately went to their places and caught up to the song. This practice was the most tiresome of all, not because it was long. It had only been three hours but it felt like a day. The leader was on full leader mode and pointed out every mistake made, making all of them repeat the songs over and over again. It felt like they were rookies again who had to perfect everything.

“Chaerin-ah! Let’s take a break! I’m dying here!” Bom said while gasping and lying down on the wooden bench at the back of the practice room.

“Bommie’s right wifey. Come on. Let’s all rest. I think we’ve perfected it already.” Dara said as she too was too tired catching her breath while keeping steady with her hand on the wall.

The maknae who had the best stamina was tired too. She sat on the dance floor, sweat dripping from her face. She wasn’t one to complain though.

Chaerin looked at them all and felt sorry. She had been releasing her stress but it just added to other people’s stress.

She nodded at them and took a seat beside Minzy on the floor. She laid her head on the maknae’s shoulder which caught Minzy off guard since Chaerin doesn’t usually do it.

“It’s really hard, Mingkki-ah” she said with a strained voice.

Minzy knew their leader wasn’t just talking about practice. She held Chaerin’s hand and lightly pressed it to show comfort.

Chaerin chose to show her emotion to Minzy because she was the most sensible of them all. Because she knows that if she says anything to the two older members, they would pester her and Jiyong and she didn’t want that.

She knows Minzy would just listen to her and that’s exactly what she needs right now. She just needs a shoulder to lean on that’s what Minzy is giving her and she’s very thankful for that.

Their practice ended after an hour because Chaerin didn’t want to make the others suffer because of her stress anymore.

As she was fixing her things, readying herself to go back to their dorm, she heard Dara call her name.

“Chaerin-ah, Jiyong just called right now, he said you’re not picking up his call. He sounded worried.”

Chaerin just zipped her bag and smiled at her unnie.

“Let’s go home unnie, I’m tired” she said as she walked out of the room.

Dara just followed and decided not to say anything more because she saw that Chaerin looked really tired and sad. But all this explains her cold attitude earlier, Dara thought.

When they got home, Chaerin immediately went to her room after saying good night to the others. She sat on her bed, feeling really down.

She couldn’t even drag herself to shower. She opened her bag and took out her phone. As soon as she held it, she felt it vibrate. She looked at the screen and saw ‘GDGDBABY’ flashing.

She looked at it for a while but placed it on her bed and went to the bathroom to clean up.

When she went out of the bathroom, freshly showered, she dried her hair and put on her sleeping clothes. When she got to the bed, she saw her phone and it wasn’t vibrating anymore. ‘Guess he gave up’

She wasn’t mad or anything, she just felt hurt. She couldn’t blame him for it, but as soon as she heard her voice earlier, she couldn’t help but feel hurt. She was jealous, definitely, but the jealousy was overshadowed by that unidentifiable feeling, but the closest she could put to words is scared.

She was scared of what it meant. What were they doing together? Were they alone together? Why didn’t Jiyong call or even text her the past few days?

Everything just seemed to look shady.

She decided she would talk to him. Tomorrow. She’d do it tomorrow. She’s too tired right now. Maybe, she was just overthinking things and was misunderstanding the situation but who could blame her? Her boyfriend was with his ex and they were possibly alone together in God knows where.

Just as she was about to close her eyes and sleep, she heard her phone vibrate again on the nightstand.

She took it and saw ‘Bae oppa :)’. She wondered why he would call her at that time. It was already almost 1AM (still fangirling lol). She picked it up though, thinking it had something to do with her unnie.

“Hello oppa, what’s up?” she said groggily. Her eyes are about to close.

“Chae”  Her eyes immediately opened wide.