Jiwon opened his eyes as he woke up from slumber. He stared at the dark ceiling of his bedroom for a moment before craning his neck sideways and blindly flailing his right hand in search of his phone. It took him one, two, and three flaps until his fingers brushed something solid, and he reached out, grabbing the device he was looking for.

He looked at the lock screen, 6:58 A.M. Two more minutes, he thought, two more minutes of silence and peace. Jiwon placed his phone back next to his pillow and shut his eyes, trying to enjoy his last few moments of freedom.

The clock hit 7, and the alarm on his phone began to beeping in a shrill and loud noise, vibrating so close to his head that he could almost feel it in his skull as well. Lucy began to bark in annoyance. Jiwon rose up and hit the stop button on the alarm. “Sorry, Lucy-ya,” he said, ”But Appa really needs to wake up early today.”

The dog gave him another annoyed huff, but ran to his side nonetheless, rubbing herself up to his feet. Jiwon smiled, and picked up Lucy in his arms. He ran his fingers through Lucy’s white fur.

“Lucy-ya, can you wish your Appa good luck for today?” He sighed. “Look’s like I’d need it.”

Lucy barked once in affirmation.

“Thank you, Lucy-ya.” Jiwon grinned and gave her another cuddle before setting her down.

He took a deep breath. Today was the day. The final day of his concert. But today was also D-day for another thing, something which perhaps meant even more than that.

Ask me tomorrow, he had said, and time has gone and passed by, until it was already a week, two weeks, and a month now. But he had received nothing more than radio silence from her end. He went from waiting for a question, to waiting for a sign, any sign would do.

He had been stupidly checking their chat in the messenger application almost once every day even though there had been no communication, just in case he had missed a message from her asking him for a ticket. Jiwon had asked the concert crew for several tickets to give his close friends, and he had secretly reserved a special seat for her, a center seat, three rows from the front, where he could look up from the stage and recognize her immediately. He debated whether he should just hand her the ticket details immediately, but perhaps she had not even wanted to come. Perhaps she had come to her senses and realized that he was just a mistake on her part. So he refrained from the idea, and continued to check their chat, day in, day out.

Yesterday, on the first day of the concert, he had arrived to the concert hall to see a row of flower wreaths containing well wishes from his colleagues and juniors. He spotted one from the staff members of the New Journey to the West team, and another one from the Winner boys, and several flowers from his fellow YG artists. Amidst the generic messages of “Congratulations on your solo concert!”, one message captured his gaze. He walked to the center of the hall, right next to the grand staircase, and paused to read the message.

”Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, I’m on fire”, it said.

The message brought a grin to Jiwon’s face. He eyed the sender side: “From the one who is always looking at Jiwon-oppa, Sandara Park”. Jiwon in a deep breath. She must have known then, about the concert, and she took her time in thinking of a special message to him. It was a cute and cheeky one too, combining the lyrics of her song with his. It wasn’t that Jiwon was not delighted at the flower, he couldn’t quite wipe off the stupid grin on his face for the next ten minutes after he first saw it. But he was expecting something else. He was expecting her.

The concert had gone without any major hitch yesterday. He had performed in front of a sold-out crowd of his screaming, cheering fans. But the moment that he arrived back home to his empty apartment, with only the noises from his beloved pet dog, Jiwon could not help but feel a little empty inside as well. The soju bottles sitting unopened in his fridge had seem all too tempting, but he stopped himself from the idea. He still had one more concert. One more chance.

If she had not come for his solo concert today, then he would give up on it, he decided. He would bury whatever butterflies fluttering in his stomach, and go back to how it was before, the big brother-little sister relationship that they started with. The thought of it brought a dull ache to his chest that he could not, would not name.

(He knew what it was, deep inside. The most damned thing. He should have learned. He should have known better, then to let it live in his heart. He had, after all, knew what it was like to be burned by it. He should have extinguished it from the very beginning, and now it would just consume him. Fool. Fool. Fool.)

Today, the second day of the concert, was the final day, the judgement day. D-day.

One last chance.

“To battle.” he said to himself.

And after that, he could wallow in as much self-pity as he wanted to.

The hecticness of the final concert managed to take his attention away from that dull ache in his chest at the moment. With the added tension of preparing a surprise performance with his fellow Sechskies members for the concert finale in secret, Jiwon barely had a moment to pause and catch his breath. Before he realized it, it was time for him to be on-stage again.

There was a brief moment when he first stepped onstage, when the crowd roars in response, that he looked up and caught sight of the seat he had reserved for her. Empty. Again. The ache grew sharper, but there was no time for him to pause, to think about it because the music notes hablared loudly from the speakers, and it was time for him to become someone else. To become the Sechskies’ leader and main rapper, the hip-hop artist Eun Jiwon.

Final concert. Final chance.

Jiwon gave all he had to every song he performed and watched in delight as the crowd grooved and sang with him. The concert passed by with a lot of fun and energy. And finally, it was already time for him to wave goodbye to the crowd.

As he took his last glance at the cheering audience, he saw the empty seat again.

In the back of his mind, he wondered, Was she there? Somewhere else? Watching him?

Something throbbed painfully again on his chest.

As soon as Jiwon had stepped off the stage, the adrenaline fueling his system began to wear off. His body suddenly felt like shutting down. He almost had to stumble his way back to the dressing room. His hoarse throat was painful, his legs were shaking so bad they could barely keep him upright, his vision grew dim, his head was almost floating in the clouds, and the dull ache had turned into a sharp, painful jab in his chest.

Final chance. Over.

Over. Over. Over.

Jiwon just wanted to sleep, he just wanted to lie down in his bed all the way in Yeouido, and raid his fridge of all the alcohol he could find so that he could feel something, anything else in his chest.

But first of all, he had to thank all the staffs, the dancers, the managers, for making this concert happen in the first place. They had done so much work for him and he was very grateful to them. So he laid down on the couch in the dressing room, closing his eyes, waiting for his body to settle down, so that he could at least sneak in a bit of rest until he could go outside and thank everyone.

And then he could go home. And sleep. And cry or something. Anything to escape this pain.

For now, his dry throat was screaming the loudest at him to get something to drink, water, soda, anything. He was reaching for a bottle of water on the table to alleviate it when he heard a knock on his door. It must be his manager, or one of his friends in the audience who wanted to congratulate him.

“One second!” Jiwon yelled, standing up and walking to the door.

He opened it -

And Dara stood right there. She entered the waiting room and now she was standing right in front of him with the Sechskies yellow balloon lightstick in her right hand, a lunch bag in her left, and the brightest smile on her face, telling him that he shone on the stage, that the concert was incredible, that she was so lucky she managed to get a reservation during ticketing because the tickets were sold out only in minutes, and oh, she brought some sliced fruits and ramyeon in the lunch bag so he could snack on those on his way home after the concert and -

She's here, she didn't ask me for tickets because she bought it herself, she brought me snacks because she knew how tired I'll be after the concert, she even sliced the fruits and cooked the ramyeon herself, she's here, she's actually here - and the dull ache on his chest dissipated, the spark of hope that died out last night was lit again, only it was not a spark anymore as it bloomed and filled him and set him on fire and -

"Oh."

He was well and truly ed, wasn't he?

He just ended up staring at her without a word in a daze. A part of his mind was wondering whether he had only conjured her in his imagination - their fingers brushed as she handed him the lunchbag and the electricity that travelled from his hand all the way to his spine was as real as any actual electrocution he had endured on-screen. The other part tried to think, tried to process the information hitting him in waves, but his brain was just filled with static noises, incapable of outputting anything other than “She’s here. She’s real.”

Dara noticed, eventually, tilting her head slightly and asking, "Oppa, are you okay?"

Jiwon shook his head to clear it, at least a little bit, "Yeah. Sorry. I'm just, losing my mind a bit right now," because of you, mostly, and 'a bit' was definitely an understatement, he left that part unsaid.

Her eyes widened in concern, "Oh! You must be exhausted. You should rest! I won't take up more of your time."

She was leaving. Which was good, on one hand, because he could barely hear what she was saying over the buzz of adrenaline from the concert and every cell of his body screaming at him to kiss her very pink, very tempting, very beautiful lips. And his self control was starting to fray and he had no idea how much longer he could stand here and not lunge at her, or something. But it was also bad because he didn't want her to leave. He wanted her here. With him. And maybe later when he went home, she could...

Oh Lord, get a grip, Eun Jiwon. He truly was losing it.

Jiwon moved as if he was possessed, taking one step closer to Dara. She looked up at his eyes, but did not take a step back. He put his arms around her back as softly as he could, giving her room to step back or shrug him off. But instead, she pressed herself closer to him, wrapping her arms around his neck in return.

Jiwon’s heart was thundering in his chest. He wondered whether it was loud enough for her to hear it, with her ears being pressed so close to his chest. His right hand moved to cradle the back of her head and pat it gently. “Dara-ya, thanks for coming,” he said.

She rubbed his back several times with her right hand, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world. And I should thank you instead. The concert was awesome! Oppa, you’re the best!”

Jiwon in another deep breath. Her compliment was enough to send him reeling again. He gave her another squeeze before letting go. The first thing he noticed after looking at Dara’s face again was that her cheeks had reddened. She gave him a small, shy smile, and averted her gaze from his, the flush growing brighter. He could feel his cheeks heating up too, and perhaps he was blushing even more than her.

Luckily, Jiwon somehow still managed enough coherent thought to thank her for coming and ask her whether she would be free this weekend so he could treat her to lunch or dinner together, or something?

The question had slipped out of his mouth before Jiwon’s brain could catch up as to what he was saying and she just stared at him. Blinked at him. Once, twice, thrice.

Jiwon was just about to retract his question and play it off as a joke when she blurted out, ”Um, I’m free for dinner on Saturday.”

”Oh, good. Good. Good. Um.” He paused. And now it was his turn to stare at her blankly. Damn it, Jiwon. Pull yourself together, man. “There’s this very good barbeque restaurant in my neighborhood. Do you want to eat there?”

”Sure, that sounds delicious.” Dara said, smiling at him so sweetly that he could feel something warm spreading in his chest “Text me the details later?”

He nodded, and unconsciously, the grin in his face grew wider.

“I better get going now.” Dara said, “Oppa, you should rest well. Eat the snacks if you're hungry.”

“Thanks a lot.” Jiwon said, fighting the urge to pull her to another hug so that he could hold her for a moment longer. “Dara-ya, drive safely. Be careful on your way home.”

“I will! Goodbye, Oppa. Well done on your concert!”

Jiwon waved his hand goodbye at her, and then she turned around and began to walk back to the exit. He stood in the doorway and watched the image of her back, moving further and further away from him, with a strange warmth in his chest, and the butterflies, definitely alive, somersaulting in his stomach.

Just before she reached the door at the end of the hallway, she turned back. Their eyes met, and Jiwon smiled, raising his hand for another farewell wave.

She smiled too, giving him a wave back before exiting the hallway.

Dara headed down to the basement and began her drive back home. She was still a bit disoriented as her car began to roll down the streets of Seoul. She didn't know what exactly had happened. She had thought that going to the concert was her last chance, that this was the last shot she was going to shoot before she would give up on this entirely. She wasn't really expecting anything to come out of it. She was also fully prepared for it to miss the target.

Instead of nothing, Dara received a dinner invitation, a very soft “thank you for coming”, two gentle head pats, a very wide smile with the crinkled eyes, scrunched nose, and the cute bunny grin in full display. And most importantly, she received a hug from him. Jiwon was not exactly someone who would hug anyone lightly. She had only seen him hug Joonhyung-oppa, who was his long time friend, and “hug” Suwon-oppa so he could trap him and give him a noogie. Jiwon did hug her before, as he was delivering the jjampong for her. But at that time, she was half sick, and only had vague memory of the moment. This hug would be seared in her mind forever, his warm hands on her back and cradling her head gently, the scent of sandalwood and sweat from his neck, the sound of his heartbeat thumping fast and loud in his chest. If she hadn't lost her mind completely from just how attractive, charismatic and hot Jiwon was during the concert, she was pretty sure that any semblance of sanity she had left had been obliterated at that moment. Luckily, she still had enough remaining process in her brain to be able to squeak out that, yes, she was very free on Saturday for dinner, and now she was glancing at her phone on the passenger seat, which just lit up with notification for a text message sent containing the address of the restaurant, and “See you on Saturday”.

The traffic lights in the intersection in front of Dara turned red and she stopped her car. She quickly opened her messenger app to confirm that she hadn’t dreamt up the text with her imagination, and yep, the message was there from the contact she saved in her phone under the name “Eun Jiwon Oppa”

She took a deep breath, and typed, “Thank you! See you on Saturday~”. Before she could realize what she was doing, she already added an emoji, a blushing, smiling face 😊 that mimicked her actual expression, and hit the send button.

Wait no, Dara thought, no no no. Was that emoji too forward? Would Oppa think weirdly of her for sending that emoji?

Suddenly, another reply popped up, no message, just another emoji, with closed eyes and wide toothy smile 😁. She could see him making that expression in her mind, and it brought out a chuckle from her.

The lights in front of turned green. Dara placed her phone down and a smile spread on her face as she began to drive home.

(A/N: Can y’all believe it took these two pining fools, like, fifteen thousand words to get here. You see, I wasn’t kidding when I said this is a slow burn. Or more like, sloooooooow burn. :))))

Next chapter: A ‘date’, or is it? Cue mental breakdowns for both of them. Jiwon asked for help. Dara was confused. The dinner date, and a serious conversation.