“W-w-why are you crying?” YoungBae asked, his little eyes blinking rapidly. He had always been uncomfortable whenever being around crying little girls.

I bit my lower lip and hugged my knees tightly to my chest. I rocked myself back and forth, trying to calm myself.

YoungBae came to sit beside me. “Yah, why are you crying?” He looked around. “Who made you cry?”

His question had made me cry even harder. YoungBae blinked when he saw the heavy flow of my tears. “Why are you crying like a little girl?”

I gave him a steely gaze through my teary eyes. YoungBae gulped.

Just because he was eight, he thought he was big enough to call me a little girl. I clutched my Barbie and knocked his head hard with it. YoungBae shrieked while flailing his arms defensively to evade my brutal attacks.

“What did I do?!” he yelled.

I threw my Barbie in frustration. “You’re bad. I don’t want to be your friend,” I sobbed and began to cry again.

YoungBae scratched his head, looking at me in pure confusion. “Did the monster from under your bed scare you last night? Is that why you’re crying?”

“Nooo~!! I killed the monster with my Ghostbuster gun last week.”

“Then, why are you crying?”

I wiped my wet cheeks. “I’m crying because—because—” I paused, “because we are moving to somewhere far away.”

YoungBae was quiet and he gazed straight ahead, his face looking troubled. “You can stay with my family,” he said, “You can take my room, or we can build you a new room beside my room.”

“My parents won’t allow it.”

“Then, will you come to play with me?”

“Umma says it’s too far to walk.”

“Will you ever be back?”

“I don’t think so.”

“When are you leaving?”

“Umma says next week.”

YoungBae stared down at his feet and I continued to cry. Then, without a word, he left. Within a few seconds, he came back with something in his hand.

“Here, take this.”

I looked up to see a pink ice-cream in a cone. “Strawberry ice-cream!” I shrieked happily, “My favourite! Yay!!” I took it from his hand and began to indulge on it. Strawberry ice-cream had always been able to magically drain my unhappiness.

YoungBae just stared at me in complete silence; just watching me enjoying the ice-cream.

“Don’t worry, EunJung-ah,” he said, his voice in a near whisper, “I will always remember you.”

I woke up and smiled to myself, still basking in the sweet feelings that the dream had left me. From beside me, YoungBae was still soundly asleep. I tossed and turned to face him, studying his features. When asleep, YoungBae looked like a young boy and he always had this peaceful look on his face, like he was enjoying his slumber.

I inched closer to his face and I was so close, I could feel his warm breath tickling my cheek. For a few seconds, I was completely still as I studied his face up close. I don’t even know why I was doing that—maybe his kiss last night had driven me out of my mind—but it just felt like I needed to remember every inch of that handsome face.

“You should never come close, EunJung,” YoungBae suddenly said with his eyes closed and my heart froze; all the blood had drained from my face. “It’s dangerous if you continue doing this,” he added.

I blinked.

Dangerous?

“I-I-I di-d-didn’t do anything,” I stuttered, my voice coming out in a high-pitched shrieked. I quickly went back to my side of the bed and my side so that my back would be facing him. I shut my eyes tight, trying to erase what had happened.

Argh!!

I was so embarrassed that my whole body curled.

Why must he still be awake at that time? Doesn’t he sleep at night? What is he? A vampire?!

I seriously wanted to kill myself for my stupidity.

“Just go to sleep, EunJung-ah,” YoungBae said softly. Just the sound of his voice had made me shivered.

No matter how embarrassed I was, one thing was still puzzling my mind.

“What do you mean by ‘dangerous’?” I asked, “It’s not like I’m going to kill you in your sleep,” I said, trying to lighten up the situation.

I could hear him sigh. Then I heard the sound of him making his way closer towards my ears to whisper, “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m a man, EunJung.”

His breath tickled my ear and I could feel myself shivering again.

My heart was pounding loudly in my chest.

I could feel the sweat forming on my forehead.

I think I was about to faint.

“Just go to sleep, EunJung-ah,” YoungBae sighed and began to return to his side of the bed.

Honestly, after what had just happened, I don’t think either of us had managed to even sleep a wink.

******************

“Argh, my back hurts!” SeungRi grumbled while massaging his back. He took a seat at the counter and pouted adorably at me, “Your husband is cruel.”

“You can say that again,” it was DaeSung’s turn to complain as he made his way towards the kitchen. He took the seat beside SeungRi and poured himself a cup of coffee. “He’s a beast. I think he can break my hand with just one slap,” he exclaimed dramatically after he had gulped down his coffee.

SeungRi winced, as though remembering a very painful experience.

They were still grumbling about how YoungBae had hurt them after he had caught them sneaking up on us after our date last night.

Then, within seconds, the leader himself appeared in the kitchen. “They say that once a guy is married, he will forget his friends. They’re right!” JiYong sighed, “He’s my best friend but he has the heart to hurt me like this.”

“I feel your pain, hyung,” SeungRi nodded and JiYong shoot him a menacing glare. “What?!” SeungRi asked, looking innocent.

“This is all your fault!” JiYong yelled, “If you didn’t hide behind me when YoungBae was running amok, I wouldn’t have been hurt!”

“But I can’t just let him hit me, hyung,” SeungRi retorted back, “My fans will worry if they see my bruise.”

“Then what about my fans?!” JiYong shrieked.

“Well, they can become my fans if they want,” SeungRi said with a smirk.

JiYong gasped.

DaeSung blinked and turned to look at me. “On the count of three, JiYong hyung will chase after him.” DaeSung made a silent countdown with his fingers and true enough, the Tom & Jerry were at it again.

“Yah maknae!!! I’m going to unfollow you on Twitter!!!” JiYong yelled angrily as he chased after SeungRi who had already dashed for his life. “And Instagram too while we’re at it.”

“I’m sorry, hyung! Ah, please don’t do that! Anything but that!!” SeungRi pleaded when they were running in circles around the sofa at the living room. “I made that Twitter account to study English. If you unfollow me, VIPs will think that we have a problem.”

I rolled my eyes.

Lately, SeungRi had been obsessed with all the social networking sites available on the planet. YoungBae and JiYong were being funny when they purposely ignored his friend requests and YoungBae said it had led to assumption that there were some internal conflicts within Big Bang.

Suddenly, YoungBae emerged from our room and stared in confusion at the two who were still yelling like crazy at each other while running around the sofa.

“What’s with the two?” he asked DaeSung, pointing his thumb towards their direction. I immediately pour him a cup of coffee and he nodded gratefully at me when I handed him his cup. Our fingers barely touched and I felt myself blushing.

God, I need to stop!

“JiYong hyung blames SeungRi for the beating he gets from you yesterday. SeungRi denies it and wants to steal hyung’s fans. JiYong hyung then wants to unfollow SeungRi on Twitter. Then they run around like that,” DaeSung said, summarizing the whole thing.

We turned to watch JiYong and SeungRi wrestling it out on the carpeted floor of the living room.

“I’m sorry, hyung!” SeungRi pleaded, “I won’t do it again. Argh!!”

“I’m not done yet, maknae!” JiYong replied, tightening his grip around SeungRi’s neck.

Truthfully, I was afraid that SeungRi was going to lose his head in the end.

YoungBae chuckled and sipped on his coffee slowly. “Nice coffee, EunJung. Thanks,” he winked and gave me one of his bright, knee-wobbling smile.

“You—you’re welcome,” I said. I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks and quickly turned to busy myself with the dishes.

God, what the hell is wrong with me?!

Can I be anymore pathetic?!

I could hear DaeSung chuckling quietly. “I’m jealous,” he said, “You two look like high-school lovers.”

YoungBae laughed. “Maybe we are high school lovers, aren’t we EunJung-ah?”

His voice alone had left me frozen and I could not think of a clever thing to say to that except for a vague “Uh huh”.

“Argh, I’m so tired, I could die,” SeungRi moa