CHAPTER FOURTEEN 

Dara places her palms against the window of the passenger’s seat of Seunghyun’s car.  gapes at the sight of the red carpet and cameras flashing outside the building of their destination. 

“This is not a movie premiere location, right?” She mumbled. 

Seunghyun chuckles and leans forward, staring at the same direction she’s looking at. “It is the usual scenario when it comes to those two.” 

“You did not mention that!” She exclaimed, suddenly feeling conscious of her appearance. It’s not that she wants to appear good for those cameras and catch their attention, but she at least want to look fitting and not out of place when she steps inside. “You really think I don’t look weird?” She asked for the eighth time since they left her apartment. 

“Stop overthinking, teacher Dara. You look mighty fine on that dress,” he said, pointing at her black loose dress, partnered with boots. He smiles at her in assurance and pats her head. “You don’t look weird at all. Now, are you ready to slay that red carpet there?” 

“We’re walking down that carpet?” Her eyes grew wide. “With those flashing cameras around?” 

“Ah-huh. Let’s go?”  

She lets out a nervous sigh, and returns his smile with a nervous one before nodding her head. Seunghyun hops out of the car and runs to her side to open the door for her. Once she finally stepped out, he offers his arm toward her direction. She links her arm through his, and he gives her hand an encouraging tap, smiling. 

“Smile,” he said.  

She nods and smiles as they slowly ascend the stairs toward the entrance. Noticing their presence, some cameras point at their direction and start taking pictures. Although their number is manageable, to Dara, this amount of attention is new and makes her quite uncomfortable. 

All throughout their exposure to the blinding lights, he encouraged her to put on a smile until they made it inside. 

“Are you alright?” He inquired. 

“Yes,” she said, giving him a quite uneasy smile. 

A man in navy blue suit approaches them. 

“Seunghyun, it’s good to see you here today,” he said and shook hands with the guy next to her. He turns to her and smiles. “And who the beautiful lady might be?” 

She smiles and bows a little as Seunghyun introduces her. “This is Park Sandara, a friend of mine who admires art a lot. I invited her to show some of Kiko and Shuhei’s works. Dara,” he turns to her, “this is Nichkhun Horvejkul, one of the investors of this exhibit.” 

He smiles and s a hand toward her which she gladly accepts. “Nice to meet you, Miss Park. I hope you enjoy today’s exhibit.” 

“I am certainly looking forward to it. Thank you for the warm welcome, sir,” she responded. 

“The entrance was extravagantly prepared, Nichkhun. Were you the one who arranged it?” 

“Let’s just say it’s a personal request of Lee Seungri.” 

“And Kiko approved?” 

Nichkhun just shrugs. They talk a little more before he excused themselves, telling the gentleman that he’ll be showing her around. 

Seunghyun accompanies her around and introduces her to more people he is acquainted with that are in the exhibit. A group of investors engages him to a conversation, and this time, it takes longer than the one earlier. 

“Dara, do you want to look around by yourself first while I finish this conversation? I don’t want to keep you here when you can spend the time to see more of the exhibit,” he whispered. 

She looks up at him and smiles. “Okay. Don’t worry about me and take as much time as you need.” 

“Sorry. I’ll just look for you later, okay?” 

“Okay,” she nodded and excused herself to the group. 

She walks around and occasionally takes pictures of the art displays using her phone. All throughout her walk, she is wearing a smile, enjoying her peaceful tour around the place. 

A painting down the hall stops her from her tracks. It is a painting of a mother, cradling a child, both their eyes are close and wearing smiles on their lips, as if enjoying the moment of being with each other’s warmth. 

She was to engrossed with the painting that she failed to notice the new presence that joined her.  

“Do you like the painting?” A woman’s voice asked next to her. 

Quite startled, she turns her head toward her direction and offers her a smile before facing the painting once again. “Yes. This might sound weird but this one is simply breathtaking. It emits love and warmth..” 

“Indeed. I loved it too the moment I laid my eyes on it. This one is not mine. It is one of the three that belong to a friend.” 

She whips her head toward her direction. “You are Miss Kiko?” 

Kiko faces her, still smiling. “Yes. And you are Park Sandara, if I am not mistaken.” She nodded her head in response. “I saw you with Seunghyun earlier. Nice to meet you.” She offers a handshake. “Welcome to my exhibit.” 

“Thank you. Your exhibit is r