Hello Royal chingus!

Hmm. Before you read the story, I just think it would help you understand this chapter if you would read the Chapters 23, 24, 26 and 29. Again. Coz it’ll be really confusing if you skipped those chapters before or you forgot them already. Just an advice. Well, I understand if you're feeling lazy to do so. Haha! Take it or leave it. Kekekekeke!

July 6, 2017

It was a sunny afternoon outside the 2NE1’s dorm. Dara had been pacing back and forth in front of her members who could just gaped at her. It was their free day! They already finished shooting their next music video and were just waiting for the released but . . . there was their visual and most hardworking member, getting anxious over a certain fish. 

“E-eonni.” CL shook her head. Her eyes were beginning to hurt. “My head is hurting and so as my eyes. Can’t you sit down?”

“Yeah. Take a chill pill.” Bom laid her back on the couch a little too comfortably, not being bothered by Dara’s paranoia.

“Unattended. Out of coverage area. What the hell! That fish!” She finally exploded that Minzy could just stifle a laugh. Dara began dialing his number again, almost breaking the screen of her phone as she put it near her ear.

“Eonni.” CL and Minzy stood up slowly to pacify her but . . .

“BUSY!!!!”

The girls sat back again and just kept mum.

“Yah Darong. Shut up. I want to sleep, okay? Stop whining and go out and find Donghae ssi if you want.” Bom placed a pillow on top of her face.

“How would I even know where he is if he’s not answering my calls? I mean, what’s so hard with sliding your phone to the side and say ‘Hello’ or just send me a message that says, Hey. I’m alive. I’m breathing. Bye. What’s so hard in that?!” She exploded at the eldest member but then shut her small mouth up when Bom took that pillow off her face and looked at Dara. Uh oh. Bomminator mode on. 

“Who told you to raise your voice at me?!” Bom hurled the pillow to Dara which she tried to dodge but still ended up getting hit on the head. “Just wait for his reply. Aigoo! You’re ruining my supposed free and relaxing day!” She glared at Dara. “Super Junior is busy with their SS7 Encore. You know that so shut up and take a bath. You stink already!”

CL and Minzy just watched in amusement as their older sisters bicker in front of them.

“I’m not!” Dara pouted. “Well, I’ve been waiting since this morning for his text or call. I can understand that he’s busy but really? No text? Call? DM?” Dara sighed in defeat and slumped on the floor. She messed her hair in frustration and began to dial his number again.

“Eonni.” Minzy sat beside her down heartened sister. “But it’s only 3 in the afternoon. If oppa woke up at 6 in the morning then,” The maknae counted with her fingers. “It had only been 9 hours that he hasn’t sent you a reply.” She hesitated to speak more as Dara narrowed her eyes at her.

“See? 9 hours. He couldn’t use 30 seconds of that to send me a message? Unbelievable. We just got back together. That fish! He’ll sure get it from me!”

Silence. 

“Eonni.” CL called her name. Dara raised her head but then the crease on her forehead smoothened as she saw her members’ solemn stare. 

“What?”

“You weren’t like that,” said CL.

“Weren’t like what?”

“That paranoid,” told Minzy.

She made a tsk sound and made a face. “I’m not.” And dialed again. “I’m his freaking girlfriend.”

The girls looked at each other.

“Back then, you kept on telling Donghae oppa that it’s okay to not text or call you for a day. That he should prioritize his work. That you would understand.” CL studied her face and she and her members knew what was it Dara was getting so worked up about. “There was a time when you didn’t even text him for four days because you were very busy but you didn’t hear a thing from him, right? Even though you said you were so guilty, he told you that it was okay and that he trusts you and all his concern was if you were eating on time.”

Dara couldn’t meet their eyes. She just sat there in silence with her legs crossed.

They knew the answer for her behavior but they waited for her to admit it. 

“I’m scared to lose him again. What if something came up that will make him leave me again? There’s no way I can survive that.” Dara whispered blankly but then burst out in laughter like she just lost a screw in her head. “I’m so weird, right?”

“Dara eonni.” The 2NE1 leader sighed and leaned to her. “He won’t leave you again. There’s no Dicey to order him so. There are no sick Durami and YG artists that he needed to save. Donghae oppa will stay, arasso?”

Dara glanced at Minzy who nodded and hugged her tightly as they both swayed. They’re right. I guess, I’m being clingy to my fish because of what happened in the past. I just can’t lose him again. “Yeah.” Dara chuckled warmly and scratched the back of her head. “Well, if he would try to do so, I’d be there to chain his neck on my wrist, right?” She lightly joked.

“Right!” CL and Minzy made a high five to each other and laughed as they actually envisioned Donghae with a chain on his neck and Dara dragging him around like a tamed puppy.

Bom shook her head at their silliness but then smiled. She just finished sending a cheesy message to bingu TOP. “But you certainly cannot put a chain on him when he goes in the military camp for two years.”

Silence.

Bom looked at her members. Dara was blankly staring at her. CL was giving her a piercing glare while Minzy put a palm to cover her face. Oh . She put her phone on her side and straightened her back. “Darong.”

She bit her tongue as she tried to control her calm façade. Military enlistment. Why haven’t I thought of that? Two years. He’ll be gone. Again.

“Aigoo!” CL exclaimed and clapped her hands after noticing the huge, dark cloud above Dara’s head. “Donghae oppa will not enter the camp yet. Maybe next year, deh? You still have lots of tim-”

“Wrong.”

They all whipped their heads to the Corn Diva who had her eyes fixed at Dara with that definite gloom on her face. She sighed and said, “I heard from Youngbae yesterday that Eunhyuk ssi already got his notice. They’re calling for him.”

It took a moment before the girls could react. “W-well maybe that’s for Eunhyuk oppa only.” Minzy tried to ease the situation. “Donghae oppa could go next-”

“Stop it, Minji.” Bom’s voice was firm. “Let’s face it. Donghae ssi has to leave. Again.” She emphasized that last word. “Those two were the only ones who haven’t gone inside. It was delayed for such a long time and for what? For us.” CL and Minzy were quiet as she listened to her. “Darong. Come on. Don’t tell me you’re gonna stop him? Don’t. Please don’t. Let him go with the peace of mind of knowing that he still have you, his home, when he returns.”

Dara couldn’t reply as she wiped the tears on her cheeks. was constricting and chest heaving. Yes. Bommie was right. But damn it! Watching and knowing him leave again.

“I hate North Korea.” That was all she could say.

She didn’t even touch the dish that Bom cooked for their dinner. Much to her relief, the fish had already texted her that afternoon.

               Jagiya. Mianhe. I’m so busy practicing dance steps in our Encore stage. Eunhyuk made some revisions and the hyungs were scolding the two of us for making them difficult. Even the Prince Manager was reprimanding us about the missing shoe of Ryeowook. Eat your dinner. See you later. Love you Santokki! 

Dara sighed after reading that text for the nth time already and stared at the white ceiling on her bedroom. Military enlistment. She had wondered him if he already got a notice like Eunhyuk. But he didn’t say a thing, so . . . maybe Minji is right! It’ll be only Hyuk who’ll enter this year. Hae will be going on 2018. I still have him! He’s not gonna leave me! But that momentarily feeling of hope and happiness just passed by her like a bullet train. Still, he’ll be leaving me next year. Two years. Even if he wouldn’t now, it would still come.

“Aaaaaaahhhh!” Dara kicked her feet on the air and messed her hair in so much annoyance. She was kinda hating herself that moment. She knew this has to happen. Every man in South Korea had to go! She had to be understanding but damn it! Deep inside her, she knew she couldn’t.  

She rose up from her bed and blew the strands of hair that fell on her face irritably. “Dara!” She shouted her name at no one. She was about to say something on herself but . . .”Dara.” Her head nodded awkwardly without knowing what to tell her crazy self. She shut her eyes closely, hoping that when she opened them, the hollow feeling digging inside her heart would finally go.

Her big, black orbs fell on a medium sized box on the corner of her room which the delivery guy brought her three hours ago. It was from Donghae. She couldn’t open it a while ago because her mind was occupied with the military enlistment thing. But now that she stared at it longer.

What could be inside it?

Her brows creased.

Maybe it’s food. He told me to eat properly a while ago.

She took it and placed the box on the center of her bed as she leaned her back on the headboard. Her head tilted to the left and then to the right. For a food box, it sure was secured. Way too secured. It even used duck tape. Dara grabbed the scissors near her lamp table.

The moment she opened that box was the same moment her heart and mind stopped. 

The first thing her eyes fell onto was the pendant on top of a blue thing which seemed blurred to her vision all of a sudden while the pendant seemed shining at her.

She took it and raised in level of her face. It slowly swayed as if saying ‘Hello Again’ to her. Her brows met at the middle as she melted in with a questioning gaze. She couldn’t be wrong. She knew what it was for it was once hers.

The dandelion necklace.

It was the necklace that Donghae gave her after that little spat about Jihyun in Strong Heart. It was the dandelion that he compared her with for she was once a wish that finally came true for him. It was the thing that she threw in the deepest part of the park’s lagoon when she decided to let him go.

This is the last time that my tears are going to fall . . . all because of you. 

I’m letting you go, so please, don’t ever come back.

I love you so much, Donghae.

Goodbye, fishy.

It was supposedly their second anniversary. And Dara let that dandelion necklace sank into the deepest part of the water. Promised to never let herself get hurt again. That it would be the last. But what she didn’t know that when she left that place . . .

A broken fish jumped to the water and searched for that thing that he was hoping could somehow heal him someday. Hearing her from a near distance actually saying goodbye to him could be as painful as him leaving her. 

His frantic hand took a hold of it and put it near his heart, letting his tears flowed with the cold water of the night. 

He promised to not let go.

He promised that he would come back no matter what happen.

Donghae was alone, standing on the water of the lagoon. She had let me go. That echoed in his mind. It echoed so loud that his sanity was about to snap. When he thought that the pain that he was feeling could get not deeper . . .

His right hand trembling as he put the necklace near his heart, letting the tears made tiny drops on the calm water. “Just one last wish.” He buried his already tired, crying eyes on his other palm.

But the dandelion wish would never be his.

In the end, all he thought was her. Seeing her so broken. So