Sandara bit her lip as she allowed Jiyong to lead her to wherever. She can't believe she forgot.

When Jiyong came to wake her up, she was still in that happy in-between place of wide awake and sleeping. She heard his voice and reacted comfortably. She wasn't able to mask her expressions and she even disagreed with him a couple of times.

She forgot that she was supposed to be as behaved as possible. To cooperate with whatever they ask her to do so that they won’t send her away.

She was genuinely worried when she saw Big Bang sprawled on the floor. She tried to help them because she forgot.

She was reminded of her place by the presence of the three women that she met earlier. They were so mad. She couldn't stop herself. She automatically moved backwards in the hopes of avoiding any retaliation for her insolence.

She remained silent as she and Jiyong entered the elevator. As the doors closed, she heard Seungri calling for them to wait. She saw Jiyong smirk at Seungri, chuckling slightly as the doors closed.

"Shouldn't we -" She stopped herself from questioning him. Jiyong just raised his eyebrows at her as if asking Shouldn't we what? She refused to take the bait and looked down on the floor as she waited for the elevator doors to open again.

Her eyes widened when Jiyong led her to a red convertible. She gasped as she trailed her fingers on the smooth, shiny surface. She's never seen a car like this before!

"It's so pretty!" She couldn't stop herself from gushing.

Jiyong chuckled. "That’s an Aston Martin V12 Vantage Roadster. I don't think it would like being called pretty."

"But it is pretty. And shiny." She insisted and he chuckled again. "How should I describe it then?"

"How about y?" Jiyong asked her as he opened the passenger side door and gestured for her to get in. "I think it would like to be called y."

She frowned at him and was about to respond when Seungri came running towards them. “Hyung! You're taking the Aston Martin? Can I use your lambo?"

"No." Jiyong answered as he closed Sandara's door and made his way to the driver's side.

"The Benz?" he asked hopefully.

"No. Get your own car." Jiyong glared at him when Seungri held the door.

"But Sandara, we promised we'd get ice cream together right?" Seungri the puppy dog eyes and tried to look as pitiful as possible. Sandara bowed her head but she nodded. "See, hyung? We need to keep our promises, right Sandara?"

Sandara nodded once again then stared at her hands which she folded on her lap. Jiyong stared at her before sighing. "Fine." Seungri pumped his fist in the air but Jiyong cut his celebrations short. "Do you plan on leaving them behind?"

Daesung reached them and put his arm around Seungri's neck. "Don't worry, hyung. We'll use the BMW. Youngbae hyung will drive, so your car will be safe."

Jiyong nodded and started the car. Daesung pulled the still protesting Seungri away so that Jiyong could close his door. Jiyong checked that Sandara was buckled in. "We're going to the Baskin Robbins in Sindang-dong." Having said that, he revved the car and sped away from them.

Sandara gasped at the sudden acceleration but Jiyong could see that it quickly turned into a smile. He kept the top down so that she could enjoy the drive more. She was looking everywhere. Soon, she lost whatever reserve she had earlier. She was exclaiming over the store displays and the parks they passed by. "Jiyong, is that boat?" She asked but didn't pause for him to answer. "Can we ride a boat? Does it go to the sea? Are there sharks?"

Jiyong chuckled. "Yes, we can ride a boat next time. I don't think that goes out to sea, just around the river. I sure as hell hope there aren't any sharks."

"I've never seen live fish." She murmured.

"I'll take you to the COEX one of these days." He promised.

"What's in COEX?"

"Oh, an aquarium." He answered. "You can see all kinds of sea creatures there."

"Are there sharks?"

"I'm not sure. What is it with you and sharks?"

"I just haven't seen one before. Ever." She turned her attention back to her surroundings. Jiyong has purposely driven through the more scenic route, choosing what he thought would be more interesting to her rather than the shortest or quickest way, so he wasn't surprised when he saw that Seungri, Daesung and Youngbae are already seated inside the ice cream shop.

Sandara was still marvelling at all the sights and sounds around her when she spotted the three. She practically bounced towards them in excitement. "Seungri, I saw a boat and Jiyong is taking me to the aquarium!"

"Yeah?" Seungri asked grinning widely, happy to see that she has returned to her bubbly self. "Can I come?"

"Of course. Youngbae and Daesung too." She smiled at them. "And Seunghyun!" She looked around. "He didn't come?"

Not wanting her to get sad again, Seungri distracted her. "Ah, he doesn't like ice cream. Come, come! I'll show you all the different flavors and we can order anything you want!"

Jiyong watched her leave and seeing her full preoccupied with Seungri he finally sat down. He saw Youngbae and Daesung grinning at him from ear to ear. "What?"

"We thought you ditched us. We've been here for ten minutes and yet you left before we did. And we had to get the car key." Youngbae stated. Jiyong just shrugged.

"Sandara said you saw a boat. I didn't see a boat on our way here." Daesung said, widening his eyes in a show of innocence.

"Maybe they went a different route. I wonder why." Youngbae couldn't stop himself from laughing at Jiyong's glare. "It's nice to see her back to normal."

Jiyong's glare immediately softened. "Yeah."

"Don't you find it weird that we have a normal with her now considering we just met?" Daesung asked.

"Haven't we asked ourselves that question multiple times since we met her? More than twenty-four hours ago?" Youngbae shot back. All three of them shrugged since they were all unable to find a logical reason for how they feel.

They quickly pasted smiles on their faces when Sandara came bouncing back towards them. "Seungri said he knows what you want and he'll order for you guys. Do you always come here?"

"Not always." Youngbae answered. "So what did you get?"

"The brownie sundae!" She told him excitedly as Jiyong guided her to take a seat. "It has mint chocolate chip and fudge and whipped cream and a cherry!"

Youngbae laughed at her enthusiasm. "Sounds good. I always order the green tea ice cream. Kinda boring but I like it."

"Maybe I can try it next time." She turned to Jiyong hopefully. Jiyong just nodded making her squeal.

Just then Seungri came to their table with all their ice cream. He presented Sandara's ice cream to her with a flourish. Seungri got the Banana split sundae, while Daesung got a parfait. Youngbae and Jiyong each had two scoops of ice cream.

They watched as Sandara savored the taste of her first spoonful. She closed her eyes and moaned in pleasure. Something dangerous flashed in Jiyong’s eyes before he turned away from Sandara and started eating his own ice cream.

Jiyong’s momentary lapse did not escape the three spectators and they all hid their laughter behind their ice creams.

They chatted as comfortably about the things that Sandara wanted to see. Suddenly, Youngbae recalled the expression of the three girls they left behind earlier. “Sandara.” When she looked at him, he tried to look as trustworthy and reassuring as possible, which wasn’t really difficult since Youngbae practically radiated those qualities. “You really like us right? And you know that we won’t let anyone hurt you again?” He waited for her to nod. “Well, we have some friends that we hope you can get close to so that we can all hang around each other. Maybe we can all go to the beach or maybe go skiing or something. Would you like that?”

“Yeah.” Sandara answered with a smile. “That sounds fun.”

“Great!” Youngbae commented. “We have lots of friends that we hope you can meet but right now, at HQ, I think you already met some of them.”

“I did?” Sandara got that sinking feeling in her stomach so she tried to buy herself more time.

“Yeah. They’re really nice.” Youngbae answered with a smile. He could feel Jiyong watching the conversation intently. He knew that one wrong move and Jiyong would kill their conversation. Hopefully that's all he kills, Youngbae thought with a smirk. “There’s Bom noona who is a doctor. She is Seunghyun hyung’s girlfriend. She loves corn and ice cream and basically anything edible. She’s also really nice and sweet and funny.” He watched as Sandara avoided his gaze. “ Then there’s Hyesun noona. I personally think she’s the kindest person on earth. She’s also a doctor but she deals with patients and their families who have gone through terrible experiences like kidnapping, extortion and other bad stuff. She really helps them as they try to move on from those terrible things. She really cares about them too and I know she sees some of them even years after. Maybe she can help you too, you know? Then there’s Chaerin or CL. She handles the day-to-day operations of our business. I’m not sure if someone has told you that we run a private security business. That’s also why we have Hyesun noona and Bom noona on board since there might be medical or psychological treatments needed. Back to CL, she might come off as intimidating but she’s a really sweet girl. She’s just really passionate about her goals. If you want to try new things, I think she would be your best bet because she’s adventurous but protective so you know she won’t let you get in trouble.” He waited for her to speak but she remained silent, playing with her spoon. “They’re really great girls and you can do all the fun stuff that you can’t do with us. Like doing your nails, or going to the salon or gossip about boys.”

Youngbae bit back a chuckle when Jiyong grunted at his last words.

“Okay.” Sandara finally spoke, but her eyes were still focused on her melting ice cream.

“Okay?”

“Yeah.” Sandara answered, knowing that that’s the answer they want to hear. If they want her to spend time with those people, then she will. She’ll even try to smile and pretend to have fun.

“That’s great.” She looked up and saw that Youngbae looked really pleased with her answer. Her lips turned up a little, in a semblance of a smile but her eyes were sad. “What do you think you should do? Do you want to meet them for coffee? Do you like coffee? Or you can just hang out at Jiyong’s suite and maybe watch TV or something..”

“Okay.” Sandara answered again.

“Is it really okay?” Youngbae asked with a frown.

Seeing his frown, Sandara experienced a moment of panic and she tried to inject more enthusiasm to her next words. “Yeah. Everything you said sounds good. I don’t know what to pick.”

Her cheery response did not fool anyone, but Youngbae kept the smile on his face since he noticed the millisecond of fear in Sandara’s eyes before she masked it. “Great. I’ll speak with the girls and ask them for suggestions. Maybe they can co