DARA'S POV

"Where are they?" I heard Bom asked as we stood in front of the mall. Chaerin and Minzy asked us if we can hang out with them, and that includes Donghae of course. "There they are!!"

"Unnies!!!" Chaerin and Minzy sprinted towards our direction and gave each of us a tight hug. "We missed you!"

"Where's your cousin?" I asked noticing that he's nowhere in sight.

"At the parking lot, we left him in despair." All of us laughed at her joke. We decided to wait for him at the restaurant where we'll have our lunch.

"So Dara Unnie, have you decided if you'll go on with the pageant?" Chaerin asked as she raised her brows up and down while smiling giddily.

"I'm still thinking about it."

"What? Decide now, Dara. We only have less than two weeks to prepare." Bom interjected as she flipped the pages of the menu.

"This is all your fault Bom. If you didn't register my name, I won't have this kind of problem to think about!" I spat, my blood began to boil once again.

"Ehh? What is there to think about? If I didn't do that, Jaejoong will not recognize your name. What if this is your chance to be with him? Hmm?" She confidently asked. I don't know if its an advantage that my best friend sometimes knows me more than I know myself.

"She's right Unnie. Maybe joining the pageant will give you time to know him more." Minzy said as she smiled at me. Well, the Maknae has a point but I really don't know what to do in those kinds of activities.

"Fine. Let's just say I decided to go on with it, I don't have any idea what to do and how to be a candidate. I even have stage frights for crying out loud!" I felt my stomach churned just by imagining myself walking on stage by myself with lots of audiences watching.

"Stage fright? You have experienced being on stage remember? When you joined quiz bees and all those nerdy stuff...Ouch!!! Dara!!" I smacked her head with the menu I was holding. How dare she call me a nerd! The two dongsaengs just laughed at us.

"That's totally different idiot! I know what I was doing back then unlike this. This is totally new to me." I glared at her.

"You don't have to act Unnie, you just have to be yourself," Chaerin added. She's right but that's one of my problems, if I do that, I’ll totally embarrass myself in front of everybody for sure.

"And with regards to your clothes, we got you covered," Bom said grinning from ear to ear.

"So...is it a yes?" Chaerin asked as the three of them stared at me with hopeful eyes. I looked at them interchangeably before heaving a deep sigh.

"Arrggg!! Fine. As if I have a choice." I said defeatedly.

"Yes!!!! Finally! Now let's celebrate!" Bom cheered as she waved her hand to call the waiter.

"What are we celebrating?" The four of us shifted our gaze to where the voice came from and saw Donghae took the seat beside me.

"Dara's birthday." Bom nonchalantly said making us all looked confused.

"It's my birthday?" I raised my brow at her.

"Yup, the new Dara will be born today!"

"Ohhhhh...." Chaerin and Minzy gave each other a knowing look while Donghae stayed confused as ever.

Aisht! What did I get myself into?!?

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After eating our lunch, the girls decided to take me shopping. Even if I and especially Donghae strongly disagreed, the three paid no heed to our pleas and dragged us to every boutique they laid their eyes on.

"Come on guys, this is too much! For one, I don't need these much clothes. I have a bunch of still wearable and normal clothes back home. And two, how am I suppose to pay for all these? Have mercy on my malnourish wallet!!!" I begged as I sat on the couch at one of the boutiques we're currently in. They were scanning or should I say ransacking the whole store that made the sales ladies looked worried on how they will rearrange the stuff back in place.

"Don't worry Dara, as we told you, we've got you covered. Just relax and we'll let you fit them later." Bom said, still busy rummaging the cloth racks near the fitting area.

Donghae, who was sitting beside me on the couch, shook his head as he watched the girls do their thing. "What are you guys doing anyways? Dara looks nice in her clothes. You don't need to overdo her dress for her to look beautiful. She already is." He commented as he winked at me.

"See? Even Donghae agrees with me!" I said nodding my head repeatedly.

"Of course he will, he hates shopping. He'll do everything he can to escape things like this." Chaerin said while piling the dresses at the corner. Aisht! They really won't give up.

After several minutes passed, I saw a mountain of clothes sprawled all over the table in front of the couch Donghae and I were sitting. "What.are.all.these???" I muttered, my eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"Are you blind? Their clothes. Now stand up and go to the dressing room." Bom commanded like a mother hen that she is.

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