Sorry, I couldn’t update last Thursday. Yes, it was a holiday. Well, I didn’t say I would update. I said, I’d try to update, right? Kekeke Got so busy. Tch. But anyway, here it is! (proud grin)

Did I really make it look like Dara’s gonna leave Donghae in the last chapter? Coz most comments were actually about it. LOL You paranoid Royals. Puahahahaha!

“Waiting for you my prince.”

“I’ll be back soon. I miss you.”

So, how are your Royal hearts after that, huh?

KYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Let all your delusions out!!!

“She kissed you in Lotte World?!” Leeteuk could just gawk at him.

“Deh.”

“It’s not you who initiated the kiss, but Dara ssi?” Shindong eyed him in disbelief.

“Deh.”

“Yesterday, you went to the zoo with her to find the bijuus?” Heechul glanced at Kangin and Siwon as if they could confirm it.

“Deh.”

“You felt that she wasn’t awkward or mad at you anymore?” Eunhyuk asked his bestfriend.

“Deh.”

“Dara noona was acting somehow sweet to you?” Kyuhyun squinted his eyes.

“Deh.”

“She even hugged you so tight just like the way you did?” Yesung straightened his back and touched his forehead. “In public?”

“Deh.”

“She brought you home here and had said goodnight?” Sungmin looked at Ryeowook.

“Deh.”

“Basically, what you and Dara did yesterday could be called . . . like a date?” Kangin enunciated that last word. Super Junior was having their breaktime after practicing for hours.

“Deh.”

Silence.

“So, you two are back together?” Siwon raised his eyebrows.

Silence.

“Aniyo.” His voice came out like a growling frog. If there’s such thing. He began rolling on their practice room.

“DONGHAE!” His Suju members shouted at him in frustration.

“I don’t know.” He sat up on the floor, shook his head and buried his face on his knees.

“You don’t know?” They all asked.

“I know!” The fish shouted in annoyance. He just finished telling the story of his yesterday’s greatest quest of finding the Naruto tailed-beasts with Dara. “I know we’re not still,” Paused. “back together. I know we’re not yet together but then,” Paused. “It feels like we’re together.” He sighed. “You following me?”

“Hell no.” Heechul grimaced. They got more confused with what he said.

“So, how do you feel?”

They all turned to Yesung and then to Donghae. Waiting for what their brother truly felt at that moment.

“I’m happy, hyung.”

But they all couldn’t give him a smile because Donghae wasn’t smiling either. The fish knew with the way they just kept mum and stared at him. They doubted his words. Happy. If his face alone could describe that word . . . then happy could be the saddest thing ever.

“I’m happy. Believe me I am.” He smiled gently at them and sighed. Donghae stood up and walked to the center. Dara . . . Dara . . . He turned to face them again and he just smiled again. That smile that they knew that would somehow confirm that he was truly happy. “She hugged me back. She spent the whole day with me guys. Dara was smiling at me. Laughing at me. Teasing me at times. Could you believe she called me fishy again?” Donghae chuckled at that. “It’s Dara, hyung. After two years . . . could you believe it?” He smiled at them widely.

“Yah.” Leeteuk smiled at him back. “You’re becoming cheesy again.”

“Yeah. Make us more jealous.” Kyuhyun frowned but then smiled.

“So, what’s bothering you then?” Heechul eyed him incredulously. “This is it, Hae. Slowly, you’re getting her back. Winning her back. Just enjoy it. Stop stressing yourself with nonsense feels. Come on!” He and they all laughed. But Donghae didn’t. And that made them stopped.

“Wae?” Kangin asked him.

“I don’t know.”

“Hae. Maybe Dara ssi realizes that she still loves you. What if she forgave you already?” Eunhyuk looked at him comfortingly. He doesn’t want to see his bestfriend like this. He should be happy. Supposed to be happy. “Dara is simply showing how she feels. Two years, you crazy fish!” He threw his used shirt to Donghae.

“Stop worrying.” Ryeowook told him with a smile.

He chuckled again. This time with force. “I don’t know.” He whispered. “Everything felt right. As in everything. But you know what, somehow I feel there’s something wrong.” Paused. “I don’t know what is it. Why I’m feeling this when I’m supposed to be just damn happy that she’s like welcoming me back in her life but then . . .” His eyes were unsteady. “It’s like watching the happy ending of a movie without understanding the whole damn film.” He closed his eyes firmly, suddenly feeling that there’s a major headache coming through. “And I don’t have any idea what is it all about.”

After a couple of seconds, Leeteuk finally spoke. “Have you talked to GDragon?”

“Deh.”

“And?”

Donghae went to them again and sat beside Eunhyuk. The anchovy put his arms around him and swayed together. “He said he doesn’t know. He told me that she’s the same Dara the last time he saw her. Nothing new or big happened.”

“Then stop fretting on it!” Shindong exclaimed with a visible frown. “Everything’s fine. Perfect. Arasso?”

“You think so?” He kinda raised a brow at them.

“YEAAAHHH!” His brothers shouted at him and that made him laughed for a bit. Crazy ahjussis. He thought.

“Oh.”

Somebody’s phone began ringing and vibrating on the floor.

“Donghae.” Eunhyuk frowned as he saw who the caller was and then hesitantly handed it to his fish bestfriend.

“Wae?” His smile fell as he looked at who it was. His grip tightened against his cellphone and jaw clenched. It was as if a sudden enormous dark cloud appeared inside Suju’s practice room and chose to just stay above the fish’s head. “Yoboseyo?” And his shoulders got even more tensed that made s looked at each other and Eunhyuk . . . chuckled secretly on the side. This is gonna be interesting. The anchovy thought and drank his cola as he enjoyed watching his bestfriend’s straight, murdering face.

10:36 P.M.

The mighty dragon was enjoying his barbecue wrapped in lettuce too much. Dara was already eating her dessert but there he was, wrapping his meat still. They decided to eat late dinner together at YG’s barbecue restaurant that YG stans have been dreaming to dine in. Not because of the dishes but of the chance of seeing the YG artists eat there. She had to keep herself from snatching the meat in front of him. The Bigbang leader does not easily gain weight like her but he was way eating too much at that night. GD swallowed and grinned at her.

“Can you stop eating?” She finally said.

“Can you stop pretending?”

Dara shut and pursed her lips forward. His grin not going down. It was turning into a smirk she didn’t want to see. “Can you not?”

“Can you not?” GD retorted with a victorious smirk.

“Ji.” Her voice ominous.

“Dara noona.” His voice mischievous.

“Stop it.”

“I won’t stop.” His smirk falling as he finally looked at her seriously. “Until when? Tell me.”

Silence.

“I don’t know.” Her most honest answer.

“You should know. You have to know.”

“How?” She challenged him. Her grip on her soju bottle getting tighter.

GD finished drinking the half of his soju bottle in one go and took his cellphone and put in on the table a little bit harshly. He swiped on the screen and showed one of his contacts to her. Donghae hyung. The screen said. “Call him. Talk to him. Make him come here.” His voice kinda raising up. Good thing, the two were seated in a private room of the restaurant. A room that only YG artists can go. “Tell him the truth. Tell him you feel. Then-”

“Then what?!” She fully shouted that made GD leaned back and just stare. “Donghae. Hello. Good evening. How are you? You know what, I lied. I lied yesterday. I told you that you threw that glass to a cockroach but honestly, there’s no cockroach in your room. It was me. You told me every damn thing that happened for the past two years. About Candice. About Durami. About sanjangnim. Donghae. I’m sorry. I hurt you. I’m stupid. It’s all my fault. You shouldn’t have been dragged into this. I hope someday you’ll forgive me. Then what, Jiyong?!” A bottle flew across the room with the tears falling on her black jogger pants.

Her eyes were piercing against his sympathetic ones.

“The ‘I love you’ part, noona.”

Silence enveloped the two.

“I can’t.” She whispered and barely swallowed. “I can’t.” And wiped the tears that fell on her cheeks.

“Why not?” He looked at her like she had gone crazy. Yes, she’s crazy. Keeping the truth and pretending. Hiding.

Instead, Dara did not answer his question. Her eyes were fixed on the lettuces on her plate. Her chest heaving and tears controlling to burst out. “Have you seen him, Ji?”

GD creased his forehead. “Nugu?”

“Donghae.” She whispered sorrowfully. Noticing that he wasn’t gonna answer, she just continued. “It’s so painful to look at him, Ji. To be with him.” Her tears falling once again. Heart breaking for the nth time in her lifetime. “His eyes. His smile. His laugh. His teasing. Whining and jealousy. Everything about him.” Her sobs were getting louder and GD just let her. “I saw him breaking down in front of me, Jiyong. He was drunk and he was so broken. Damaged. I couldn’t go near him because how the could I?! I was the very reason why-”

“You’re not! You know that.”

Dara forced a smile. “I know that. I know that.” Her voice was trailing off. “But it’s Donghae.” She buried her face on her palms as she tried to control her sobs but couldn’t so. “It’s Donghae, Ji! He shouldn’t be hurting. Shouldn’t have hurt. He shouldn’t be having the dilemma on how to tell me the truth. I shouldn’t have slapped him. Doubted him. I shouldn’t have said those words. Ji, I told him he was selfish. That he shouldn’t come back. I told him all those Ji and you know what he did?” GD never thought that this would happen. It was so messed up. Their plan that would put everything to its rightful places. Now, he didn’t know where to begin. How to begin. “He accepted everything, Jiyong.”

“You’re scared.” GD said loud and clear. It was a statement that has been there when she learned the truth about Candice.

“No.”

His eyes not leaving hers.

“I’m terrified.”

“Nothing much has changed. Don’t you think?”

“Here? Yeah. Everything’s pretty the same.”

The two were standing on the middle of a basketball court. At almost 1 in the morning. It wasn’t that they were feeling so alive that they could feel their blood flowing rapidly on the every part of their body. It was simply how they stood against each other while staring at the ring of basketball’s board. Just the two of them.

“It’s been a long time.”

“It is.”

“You have always at basketball.”

“Things have changed. I might surprise you.”

Jaejoong chuckled at that. “Really?” Paused. “Yeah. Things have really changed.” Cold wind blew against the two but it wasn’t enough to shake that fire litting inside them. “Back then, we always go here to play basketball with our members. When Suju and DBSK would sneak out from practice and just go here to play and eat streetfoods. Our managers never learned about this place even though it’s just a few blocks away from SM building.” He chuckled as he reminisced the good ‘ol days. “You’re always called one of the bench guys just like Ryeowook. But it isn’t basketball that the two of us love to do when we were young.”

“Racing.” Donghae answered stiffly. “The exact same spot we are now to SM’s rooftop. We run from here to there.”

“You never won against me. Not once.” Jaejoong’s voice wasn’t arrogant. It was calm and just merely stating something lik