Dara seems to realize that she's crying so she immediately sniffs, throwing her head back and looking at the ceiling to keep in the tears. Her hand comes up to wipe her cheek dry.

       Chaerin watches, her shock morphing into growing worry as she sees Dara's distraught appearance. Dara takes a deep breath, exhaling slowly.

       ", I don't even know what just happened. Sorry." Chaerin smiles sadly, shaking her head gently as Dara puts her head in her hands. Her black wings start drooping and Chaerin's heart hurts.

       As Dara runs her left hand through her hair, Chaerin notices some black text on the back of her arm. She tilts her head.

       "You have a tattoo?" she asks. Dara gasps a little.

       "Oh, oh, yeah. Um, is that okay?" she says, as if asking for Chaerin's approval. Chaerin smiles reassuringly.

       "Yeah, more than okay. Can I see it?" Dara moves to sit next to Chaerin on the couch, trying to hide a sniff in the process. Her Aura envelops Chaerin again and it feels like bliss, but Chaerin is too occupied with Dara's sadness to really notice. Dara lifts her arm up to show Chaerin, who tilts her head to the left so she can read it since the text is sideways, along the length of her arm in the triceps area.

       The tattoo is beautifully elegant. It has small black text in clean, uncomplicated calligraphy, with some thin vines intertwining here and there. The two vines wrap around the letters and meet at the right side of the words, forming a small and simple black rose.

       "'You are beautiful' is what it says?" Chaerin reads aloud. Dara nods timidly, bringing her arm back down and scooting away. Her face is red again and Chaerin smiles at the thought of making Dara blush. But Chaerin can tell that she's still crying too.

       "It's a mesmerizing tattoo," Chaerin compliments, just wanting Dara to go back to her bold, happy self.

       "Thanks, Dara says, looking down into her lap. "A quote of my mom's. Well, I mean, 'you are beautiful' are pretty common words so it's not really my mom's but...you know."

       "Really significant to you?" Chaerin kind of finishes Dara's sentence and kind of asks a question at the same time. Her curiosity is growing.

       You love her.

       "Yeah, I mean...my self-esteem isn't exactly the most impressive thing about me." Dara chuckles, a little bitter and a lot of sad. Chaerin stays silent, sensing that Dara wants to say more. She's expecting the venting she was proposing a long time ago, but now she knows she's more than ready to hear it.

       "My family used to move around a lot with my dad's job but eventually we settled down and I went to a Creature school in the Philippines growing up. You know, a school where every student is a Creature so you don't need to hide anything. Everyone lets out their wings and stays in their true form and casts stupid spells on the teacher and stuff. It was a horribly organized school." Dara laughs under her breath, sniffing a little.

       "I didn't know the language so I just stayed silent and self-studied Filipino. I got bullied for being quiet and I got teased for having an accent. You know, the classic 'you're stupid, nerdy, you don't have any friends', that kind of thing. I tried not to be bothered but it ended up bothering me a lot. I wanted to fight back." Chaerin's eyes grow with sadness as a single tear rolls down Dara's cheek and is quickly wiped away in embarrassment.

       "But before I could do anything, news got out that some random Dark Angel in Hawaii or something committed murder; consumed someone's soul. Very, very few Dark Angels are capable of doing that, and even fewer would actually do it to someone."

       Chaerin gasps in understanding. In the back of her head she vaguely realizes that Hyori must've done just that: consumed her mother's soul. That's exactly how her mother died. Chaerin tries to stop the guilt from pouring into her; if such a small number of Darks consume souls like Dara is saying, then Chaerin's entire life has been some huge, absolutely disgusting misunderstanding. But Dara continues and thoughts of Hyori are shoved away.

       "Killed the guy because he was too obnoxious and she wanted to sleep or something stupid like that." Chaerin bit her lip, not wanting the next part to be what she thought it was.

       "The rumors blew up. Our...our entire family was pushed out. I tried to go to school, my Filipino was just starting to get really good, but I was pushed around, kicked, yelled at, discriminated, even by the teachers. Everyone thought I was a murderer too, just because I was a Dark Angel." Dara barely chokes out a sob before swallowing it again and taking a deep breath, refusing to cry in front of Chaerin. Chaerin starts to feel really guilty because isn't that what she and her father have been doing for the past who knows how many years?

       "I got called a lot of names. Accused of a lot of . And I never heard anything other than mean words, it just totally took over my mind until I started believing them too. Was I really a murderer, a , a ? Maybe I was. I just didn't know anymore. But every time I came home I swallowed everything because my family needed me as the strong oldest sister they knew." She pauses. Chaerin doesn't know what to say.

       Dara takes a deep breath. "Somewhere along the way I guess I wasn't doing my job because my dad, he...he..." Chaerin inhales, immediately sitting up and leaning forward.

       "Dara, you don't need to tell me this. If it's too much then you don't need to hurt yourself talking about it," she says softly, trying to sound protective and reassuring and hiding her growing guilt. Dara shakes her head firmly.

       "I need to get this out." She takes a deep, deep breath, her air shaking as she exhales. Chaerin watches with pain; she really doesn't like seeing Dara like this. "Venting, remember?" Dara says, chuckling through her tears. Chaerin really doesn't like it.

       "My father committed suicide. He just left us." Chaerin's jaw hits the ground and Dara takes another deep, shaky breath. "And a couple of days after that I just couldn't stand going to school anymore. I came running home, crying my eyes out. My mother hugged me and she said those words. 'You are beautiful.'" Dara smiles a tiny smile, rubbing her tattoo lovingly.

       "When I came to Korea I wanted to feel my mother's presence. I got it tattooed a couple weeks after moving here."

       "Your mom and siblings are still in the Philippines?" Chaerin asks gently, recalling Dara's words from a while ago.

       "I thought I wouldn't live to visit my siblings and my mom in the Philippines again and I wouldn't live to experience falling in love and I wouldn't live to clear up the reputation of Dark Angels like I've always wanted to and I was just ing scared!"

       Chaerin's heart pangs just remembering those words.

       "My mother, damn that woman. She loves me too much, I feel bad about it every minute of every day. She wanted me to get a proper education, sent me to Korea with every last penny she had. I wouldn't have agreed in a million years but she guilt-tripped me and said she would never die in peace if I didn't agree." Dara's bottom lip begins to quiver.

       "I take classes really early in the morning a couple times a week," she explains, wiping her tears again. She shakes her head vehemently, sniffing and sighing with finality. "Anyway, I've talked way too much. How about we–"

       "I love you!" Chaerin suddenly blurts out. Immediately after, she covers because she just screamed out her heart's newest deepest darkest secret and she has no idea what she has just done.

       She just saw how Dara felt so bad about herself and how Chaerin was such a baby compared to Dara, who braved the hardest of circumstances for her family for so many years. And she just wanted Dara to be happy, and she wanted Dara to feel loved. So she said the very words that would make her feel that way.

       You love her.

       And Chaerin doesn't want to know what kind of crazy disaster she has just caused. But now that she's said it she feels the need to clarify.

       "I...I really do. I love you in a love-love kind of way. I love you in the way where I want to be your girlfriend, I want to be with you forever, I want you to be happy. I want to hold your hand and hug you and kiss you, and I want to laugh with you and cry with you and yell with you. I love you."

       Dara's lips begin to quiver again even though the rest of her looks like a ghost passed through her, making Chaerin nervous. Chaerin suddenly feels really jittery and shaky and her legs are itching to move. So she moves them.

       And her legs carry her to the door in record time. Chaerin leaves Dara, who looks like she just had a heart attack on the couch. Dara is frozen, her wings not even quivering like they always are, her hand over and tears starting to steadily roll down her cheeks.

       And as Chaerin is hastily walking past the house toward her own apartment, she hears Dara shriek from inside. And she has no idea whatsoever if Dara is happy, angry, scared, or whatever else.

       I really ed up, didn't I?

       Chaerin leaves her apartment the next day, not forgetting to bring her optional restaurant-uniform hat, which is pretty much new because she never ever wore it before. But today and probably for the rest of her career as a chicken chef at the Panda Express, she'll probably need the baseball hat to hide her face from the new most terrifying thing in the world.

       Dara. Dara, the object of Chaerin's newly-found affection. Dara, who now knows Chaerin's true feelings. Dara, who will either take it as a joke, tease Chaerin endlessly, punch her in the face in anger, or push her out of her world entirely because of it.

       Chaerin can't stand to think about any of those three things because they all make her heart hurt like hell.

       But as she goes through the entire day constantly pulling the visor on her hat way down, she is surprised to find that Dara doesn't even show up at the restaurant.

       The next day, Chaerin shoves her visor down over her eyes and yet Dara still doesn't show up.

       The next day, the same thing.

       Chaerin is starting to get really ing worried now because Dara kind of just disappeared. Although Chaerin is too wimpy to call her or pay her a visit so she just comes to work every day with her hideous hat and a heart that rapidly races even at the simple thought of Dara.

       It's Thursday, near the end of the dead period. Chaerin is absentmindedly cooking, her mind constantly drifting off to think about Dara and where she could've gone and what she's doing.

       Suddenly, she feels like she hears Seungri scream, "DARA!" but her lovesick heart is probably just imagining things. And then she faintly hears worn-out converse on the ground, but those are probably just imaginations too.

       But then she hears her voice and she feels her Aura and she knows it isn't a dream.

       "Lee Chaerin, come outside with me. Right now," Dara's stern voice orders, scarily firm and dark. Chaerin flinches because she hasn't heard Dara sound so angry since that first Monday Dara bared her heart out to then-stranger Chaerin.

       She doesn't reply and instead pulls her visor down and shifts her gaze down, a newly-developed habit of hers. Dara heaves a horribly loud sigh and Chaerin's heart starts to pound nervously.

       She expects to hear Dara say something else, but only feels a hand grab hold of her visor. Chaerin reflexively drops the cooking utensils she was holding, yelping in surprise.

       "Wh–Y-YAH! Dara!" she squeaks as Dara storms out of the restaurant with a firm grip on Chaerin's hat. Chaerin barely has time to turn off the stove before she is stumbling after her, holding the hat on her head and desperately trying to keep up with Dara's fast pace.

       Why is Dara so angry? Is this what Chaerin predicted? That Dara would get mad and shut her out? She can't even bear to think about it.

       Finally, Dara pulls them both outside and then forcefully lets go of the visor. Chaerin stumbles to the side a little before fixing her hat on her head and regaining her balance. She pulls the hat back down over her eyes and looks at her feet. She feels the painful sting of familiarity.

       "Chae, I just want to get this over with, okay?" Dara begins. Chaerin gulps, not sure of what she's gonna say. "I'm bad with stupid ing emotional words but here's the gist of it. The past two months have been an insane rollercoaster and I have no idea what's happening to my life. But you told me you loved me the other day and after that I just lost it."

       Chaerin's eyes widen, still staring at her feet but shocked because Dara said she lost it. That's definitely a bad thing.

       "I couldn't come back to work because my head was all jumbled up but I think I've figured everything out. And I've never felt this way but I just want to try it."

       "T-try what?" Chaerin stutters. She likes to believe that it's because of the cold but it's obviously because she's standing in front of Dara, who is undoubtedly fuming.

       "Try...try this." Chaerin doesn't get it so she looks up and Dara (not fuming) is just motioning to the space in between them. "Try us."

       Chaerin's heart grows tiny little wings at those words but before they take flight, she has to make sure.

       "You mean...us? As in, us in a relationship? Us liking each other?" she asks with disbelief. Dara rolls her eyes in annoyance and impatience but her lips form into an embarrassed smile. She gives a barely imperceptible nod.

       "Oh my god YES!" Chaerin yells, jumping up and down. Dara's smile grows until she starts to laugh a little, full of relief.

       And with this whole thing, Chaerin's heart grows its own big fluffy wings and it soars to the heavens. A smile is already permanently etched onto her face from ear to ear. She opens her arms for a hug, surprised at her own boldness but appreciating it (because Dara is her ing girlfriend now!)

       Dara immediately backs away, putting her hands up in defense. "Whoa, whoa! I told you, I've never felt this way. I just want to take it slow. Skinship kinda freaks me out still." She eyes Chaerin awkwardly.

       Chaerin nods excitedly, not at all hurt by Dara's words. Her smile is still huge and her heart is still flying and her life is still glowing like the damn gates to heaven.

       Chaerin is just staring at Dara and Dara is doing her best to avoid Chaerin's eyes because she's really embarrassed at this whole confession thing.

       "God it's cold," she grumbles, rubbing her arms and turning away. Chaerin hastily takes off her jacket.

       "Here," she squeaks, not feeling the chill on her bare arms because of the warmth in her cheeks. She gently puts the jacket on Dara's shoulders, careful not to actually touch her because "skinship kinda freaks her out still".

       Dara seems to stop breathing when she feels Chaerin's jacket on her. Suddenly she breaks into stifled giggles and her two hands come up to cover . Deep red is rapidly rushing into her cheeks and the same begins to happen with Chaerin.

       They're just two totally giddy lovesick idiots right now and it's the happiest feeling in the world.

       Dara wraps the jacket tightly around her arms, opening the restaurant door and yelling, "Seungri, I'm stealing Chaerin! Tell the boss man it was an emergency if he ever finds out!"

       Seungri replies, "What the hell, okay, I guess?!" Dara grins and slams the door closed, huddling in Chaerin's jacket and sighing happily. Chaerin giggles at Dara's cuteness. They start to walk toward Dara's house like it's an automatic response to leaving the restaurant (which it basically is by now).

       Chaerin beams at Dara's happy face and suddenly Dara laughs brightly. Chaerin smiles, not bothering to question it because what is there to question when she feels like her life is roller coaster that only goes up.

       They arrive at Dara's home sweet home and burst into the door, giggling and blushing and smiling for no reason at all. Bom looks up from the couch where she's watching TV, totally looking bored. She's almost upside down on the couch, holding up her phone and glancing back at the TV every once in a while.

       "Whoa there you two! What the hell happened?" she asks, flipping over and sitting up, locking her phone and throwing it to the other end of the couch. She begins to look suspicious, narrowing her eyes when Chaerin and Dara go straight to Dara's room. But Bom just ignores them because Chaerin and Dara can do whatever the they want.

       Dara goes to the bathroom and Chaerin quietly closes Dara's bedroom door behind her, looking around and smiling at the white room with hints of soft pink. There are pictures propped up all across a shelf that takes up an entire wall of the room. Some of the pictures are of Dara alone, some are Dara and Bom, some are Dara and people Chaerin assumes are her family.

       She lightly sits down on the princess bed, chuckling at her so totally wrong interpretation of Dara's character. She thought Dara was 200% goth fierce chick but now she's sitting on her pink princess bed in her pink room.

       Dara pops her head out from the bathroom, smiling a radiant smile and stepping out, clothes fully changed and wings fully expanded.

       Suddenly, a thought pops into Chaerin's head as Dara sits down next to her on the bed with her comforting Aura.

       "Can I see your wing markings?" she says before the courage to ask decides to leave her indefinitely. Dara's eyes widen slightly but she smiles anyways, nodding lightly.

       "I mean, don't look at my chest please," she says jokingly. Chaerin vehemently shakes her head, heat completely engulfing her face.

       "God, or course not! Who do you think I am?!" she sputters quickly, still shaking her head. Dara laughs happily. This feels right again. They never realized it but the conversations between them became an integral part of their...existence. Not even a week apart and the effect is already obvious.

       Dara's wings begin to shrink back into her back so the wing markings will show up.

       "I know, chill out CL-roo. I trust you." Chaerin blushes even deeper but then catches her breath as Dara turns around, showing Chaerin her .

       Dara brings her knees up and wraps her arms around them, setting her chin on her knee and patiently staring at the wall. Chaerin adjusts herself on the bed, squaring her shoulders to get a better look at Dara's back.

       It looks like a beautiful painting on a canvas. There are exquisitely thin black lines all across her back, decorating it with the minutest of details and the most graceful of swoops. No tattoo-artist could recreate this. This is part of Dara's body.

       It covers the top three quarters of Dara's back, on her virtually glowing skin. The black lines all come together and split apart to form a subtle yet strong and bold image of two black wings. The tips of the marked feathers curve around to barely reach Dara's side.

       Chaerin can't breathe because she's never seen anything, anything this beautiful before. No one's wing markings, no one's wings (although Dara's wings are good competition), no one's face or body, no one's anything. Her hand reflexively reaches up to touch it but then she draws it back. Partially because she's scared to touch a Dark Angel, partially because she's scared to touch the wing markings, and partially because she's scared to touch Dara. She can't screw up at all or else Dara will throw her away and her life will end for the first time since her mother's death.

       "Everything about you is beautiful," Chaerin whispers, her eyes never leaving Dara's back. Her head is jumbled with images of black wings, images of Dara's beautiful face, and images of wing markings.

       Dara slowly puts her shirt back on and her wings gradually grow to full size again. She twists around to look Chaerin in the eyes, captivating her with golden eyes.

       Chaerin gasps as Dara begins to tear up.

       "Dara! I'm so sorry, did I make you cry? ," Chaerin apologizes even though she doesn't know what's happening. She wants to punch herself in the face for hurting Dara again. But then Dara smiles a tiny smile, shaking her head lightly and looking into her lap.

       "No. I just...never had anyone other than family tell me that before. And you're...you. You're important. Tears of joy, you know?" she says, wiping her tears and looking up with eyes full of happiness and relief. Chaerin's heart soars because she notices that this is the first time she's seen Dara's eyes full of bliss and nothing else.

       "It's true, Dara. You're beautiful." Dara laughs again, shaking her head and wiping more tears.

       "You make me so goddamn happy, Lee Chaerin," she murmurs, almost to herself.

       "You do the same thing for me, Sandara Park," Chaerin replies with a gentle smile.

       Dara slowly looks down at their hands. She moves a trembling right hand until it hovers above Chaerin's left. And then she sets her fingers on top of Chaerin's hand.

       Chaerin touches a Dark Angel for the first time. And the electricity coursing up her arm is the most ultimate bliss she has ever felt.