Now equipped with a big bowl of fresh popcorn, the two sat across each other. Jiyong gave up his seat on the couch and joined Dara on the carpet. Jiyong lightly kicked her shin to get her attention.

“What?” Dara said unintelligibly, because she was speaking with a handful of popcorn inside . It sounded more like “whrawr?”

“You’re disgusting, you know that?” Pointing to the mess she made on her shirt - bits of popcorn and drips of butter mixed in. He was chuckling, with an amused look on his face.

“Coming from Mr. Nori, wow, that’s rich.” She then threatened to post the photo “by mistake” on one of the fan forums, which got him laughing. But it made him stop teasing her.

“Yah, so tell me.”

“Hmmm?”

“What’s up with you and Seunghyun?”

“Pffft…me and that clown? Nothing.”

The clown part made Jiyong crack up, but he continued to probe.

“Well, if something was going on, would you tell me?” Jiyong nudged her shoulder playfully. Just like that, Jiyong seemed like his old playful self. In her head, Dara patted herself on the back for coaxing Jiyong out of his gloomy thoughts.

Dara still gave him nothing. That heightened Jiyong’s curiosity more.

“Thinking about it, ever since that birthday week of yours, there’s something different about you.” He paused, thinking of the right word to say, his hands making gestures, as if that would help him pinpoint the ideas in his head.

“Jiyong, running out of words to describe me, that’s new” She teased.

“I think it’s the glasses? Or is it the clothes? But those were from Dami from before….hmmm.”

She pelted Jiyong some popcorn, hitting him on the face.

“I guess I’m just…adjusting. I had to will myself to move on from something that’s out of my hands. You can say I feel more…free? I don’t know.” Dara scrunched up her nose and looked at her slippers. She hated that Jiyong’s questions were skirting around dangerous territory: her feelings for him.

“Wow, some deep right there. Is it something you want to share?”

“My problems will probably bore you to death, Jiyongie.”

“Pfffft. Says the girl who sat with me and fed me for an hour, even when I wasn’t sharing what’s bothering me. You know,” Jiyong put a hand on her shoulder, and looked intently to her eyes. “..one thing I learned since I’ve known you is that real friends exist.”

Wow.<