Chapter 10
Breaking the Ice

"I'd like to take you out." Jiyong repeated as if Sandara didn't hear him clearly.

Oh she heard him all right... a little too clearly in fact.

"Just go already Sandara. It's not like you'll die if you went out with this fool." Chae Rin had said pointing a thumb over at Jiyong.

Dara took one look at Jiyong and then at Chae Rin.

She wanted to go, but she was tired. And inside she was scared to come with him and be alone. The past few weeks of spending time with him made her think about this relationship they both had. It was dangerous. Not because he was dangerous, but because he knew about her father's dark deeds underground. Where he had to break a few legs just to get what he wanted. If he was into this she didn't know what else she'll do.

"I..." She started her voice coming up as a croak.

Jiyong sighed and pulled on her wrist forcing her to stand up from the couch. She hauled her over his shoulders earning a high-pitched shriek from her and an exhasperated sigh from Chae Rin.

Despite the squeels of protest and the incessant squirming and kicking he still walked towards the door.

"Take care of her or else you'll have to deal with us." Chae Rin shouted from the living room.

"Nae, nae!" Jiyong replied closing the door of the penthouse.

"Kwon Jiyong put me down!" Dara protested as Jiyong opened the car door of the passenger seat.

"All right." He said throwing her down into the seat.

He put the seat belt on for her and closed the door when he was done. After that he went to the driver's seat and put his own seatbelt on. He turned to Dara with a huge grin on his face before turning the engine on and driving off.

"Where are you taking me?" She asked sulking in her seat.

"The amusement park." He plainly replied.

This got her attention. Didn't he take her to the amusement park 3 weeks ago already? Why is he taking her back there?

Despite the questions running through her mind she didn't bother to ask him neither one of them. She wanted to hear him say it directly to her without her, ever asking him what the deal was. She figured they would be more open to each other in that way.

"We're here." Jiyong had said as he parked the car in one of the empty lots.

"Now get out of your seat and lets go." He took his seatbelt off and went out of the car at the same time that Dara did. After locking the bently he escorted his "date" towards the entrance and once again, paid for the tickets.

"So what do you want to do first?"

Dara looked around the whole amusement park and tapped her chin with an index finger as if she was thinking. She was about to open and suggest the octopus when a strange gurgle came up from her stomache.

"I want to do lunch." She said moving her arms to hug her hungry stomache.

Jiyong- who happened to hear the gurgle- laughed and whisked her hand. "Let's go."

Dara blushed at his touch. Good thing she didn't get sweaty whenever she became nervous, because if she did it would have been a dead give away. But what should she do now? Should she retract her hand away or should she just let him hold it like that.

She moved her eyes to look at Jiyong. The stupid idiot looked more handsome than usual. Why did the sun pick this day to reflect off its rays off Jiyong's hair majestically? He was like a prince straight out of the storybook at the angle she was seeing him right now. Maybe she'll let him hold her hand for now. After all... it felt right, like she's somehow done this before.

Jiyong led the two of them into a cafe just inside the amusement park. It was qauint and obviously a maid cafe with cosplay maid's running around in skimpy little outfits carrying their trays like those little anime girls in ecchi manga's and animes. She couldn't blame anyone though. It was after all an amusement park.

Now if the maids weren't all over Jiyong she would have enjoyed her meal better. Don't get the wrong idea. She wasn't jealous of the attention the girls were giving him, but at the constant asking of "will there be anything else" every time they passed by their table.

"Let's go Dara-sshi?" He offered ignoring the attention- maids.

Dara arched an eyebrow and stood up. "Where did that come from?"

Confused, Jiyong replied, "Where did what come from?"

"The formalities Kwon Jiyong. When did you start calling me Dara-sshi?"

"Would you rather if I called you noona? It has a nice ring to it you know... Dara-noona..."

"Stop that." She playfully shoved him as he also stood up from his seat. He walked ahead of her and kept muttering the nickname his voice getting lower and lower.

"Sandara-noona..."

"Jiyong!" She followed him outside the cafe as he kept on walking ahead.

Jiyong suddenly paused and then faced her his face a little more serious now. "Sandy-noona..."

The last nickname caught Sandara off guard. She felt like she heared it wrong due to his audible tone of saying it.

"What?" She blurted out.

Jiyong stared at her a little longer his eyes lingering on the fine structures of her face.

For a minute she could see nostalgia in the depth of his eyes. It was eerie, yet it saddened her for some reason.

Out of nowhere Jiyong suddenly cracked up laughing. "Look at your face, you look like a dear in headlights." He brought a hand up and ruffled her hair. "Let's go 'noona'."

Dara was still shocked but she managed to move her feet along to follow him. She could have sworn he just called her Sandy.

"Noona you better pick it up if you don't want me to start calling you Ajhusshi." He called out.

Dara fastened her pace and chased after him. "Nae! Nae!"

"So what are we gonna do next?" Was the first question he popped when she was walking next to him.

Just when she was about to answer they both saw a little girl bawling her eyes out in the middle of the streets. People could care less if she was rolling on the dirt clawing her face. All the passserby's expressed towards her were annoyance and distaste. It made Jiyong gag.

He immediately walked over to that girl with Dara trailing behind him like a pup. She stopped a good step away from Jiyong watching him deal with the crying little lady.

"What's wrong?" He asked kneeling down to her size so he can meet her eyes.

She was still crying non-stop and he just patiently waited for her to simmer down to tiny sobs when she realized someone payed close attention to her.

All he did was stare at her for 5 seconds straight before speaking up. "What's wrong?" He asked again.

The little girl wiped her tear-stained face with one of her hands and pointed to one a giant teddy bear limply hanging at one of the stalls.

"You want that teddy bear?" He asked her in a tender voice.

She just stared at him blankly and didn't even flinch. Jiyong assumed it was a yes.

Dara was watching the scene warrily and it really touched her heart. It made her want to run up to him and kick him in the for being so sensitive towards kids. No it was not that feeling of annoyance you get when someone's being too soft on someone, but the giddy feeling you get inside as if jumping jelly beans are bouncing off the walls of your whole body because of being too touched.

"I'll get you that teddy bear, if you tell me where your mom is."

The little girl stayed silent, but then opened as if to speak.

Sandara Park leaned forward as if hearing her voice is suddenly the most interesting thing in the world. Seriously, after seeing her just point and nod who wouldn't want to hear her voice?

But she stood corrected. In a matter of seconds Sandara was laughing her off on the pavement when the girl sneezed on Kwon Jiyong's face full on with spit.

Jiyong took his handkerchief from his pocket and patiently wipped his face with it. He turned to scowl at Dara but she only returned his scowl with the childish act of sticking her tongue out at him. He shook his head before turning back to the girl in front of him.

"You know, I can't help you if you won't tell me where your mom is." Jiyong told her.

"There you are!" A woman out of no where shrieked stomping her way over to the little girl.

Jiyong stood from the ground and faced the woman while the little girl didn't even flinch from the shrill voice of whom was probably her mom. She just stared up as Jiyong towered over her.

"You must be her mom." He said once the woman was in front of them. That's when the child turned around to hug her mom.

Dara approached him this time standing side by side with him.

The woman clutched the child by her shoulders and the two expected her to throw out words of scolding at the child but was surprised to see hand gestures. The child was deaf!

After patting the child's head she grabbed her hand and looked at Jiyong. "I'm sorry if my kid caused you trouble. She usually slips out of my grasp and wanders off on her own. It's a little hard too because as you can see she's deaf."

Jiyong shook his head. "She seemed to understand me when I was talking to her." He stated glancing down at the little girl who was now hiding behind her mom's legs.

"She can lip-read." Was all she said.

"That's impressive." Dara praised also looking down at the girl. Despite the tears strained face, she was so cute with her bangs and pigtails she just wanted to pinch and keep her in her arms. It made her wonder if she'd have a child like that someday.

"She was pointing to that toy when we I talked to her. I assumed she wanted it because she was crying before that."

The woman shook her head. "I'm sure she meant the stall. I was by that stall when she wandered off, she must've went back when I sarted looking for her."

Jiyong leaned down and gave her a light pet in the head. "Do you still want that teddy bear?"

The woman glanced down at the child and saw that she wasn't looking at Jiyong when he said the statement. She tapped on her shoulder to give her attention and started making hand signals. After they were done communicating the lady turned back to Jiyong. "Yes."

After getting the teddy bear for the child Jiyong and Dara went back to deciding what they were doing next just lazily walking along the crowded streets of the amusement park. Laughter  mixed with screams were filling the air of merriment around them.

Dara caught sight of the ice cream stand not away from them and practically dragged Jiyong over there. They their icecream gleefully while walking with Dara laughing at Jiyong's futile attempts to keep his ice cream tower steady. She told him that 5 scoops was too much, but he wouldn't listen to her. He succesfully finished his ice cream, but not without leaving its marks on his arms. After washing off, they were back to zero yet again.

"What do you want to ride?" Dara asked when she realized they've been inside the park for 6 hours now without trying any of the rides in the park. It was almost 5:00 in the afternoon yet the only exciting thing they've done was count how many popcorns Jiyong could fit inside his mouth. They were up to 21 already when he spat them all out and complained how his mouth just suddenly became very dry.

He searched his eyes around for the perfect ride and found what he was looking for. "That one." He said pointing to the Tunnel of Love.

Dara cocked an eyebrow and brought her hand up to her waist. "Seriously?"

"You said I could pick right? So I pick that one."

He wiggled his eyebrows at her momentarily sending chills down her spine. She lightly stepped on his foot and he pretended to wince in pain. She of course didn't acknowledge his terrible acting.

"A different one." She said.

"All right." He replied stopping his incessant whimpering. He roamed his eyes around the area and found what he has been looking for. He brought his hand up and pointed his finger towards something. "There."

She moved her head to where his finger was directly pointed at.

Her breath hitched when she saw the ride he was pointing at. She averted her gaze to the ground and shuffled her feet. "I'm sorry... anything but that one."

Jiyong stared at her sympathetically. Had she really kept that promise to him for such a long period of time?

"I'm sure Yongie won't mind..." He muttered moving his eyes on the sky, just as her eyes were on the ground.

Dara's head snapped up in full attention. "What did you say?"

Jiyong summed up all the courage he had inside of him and fully faced her. "I said, I'm sure Yongie won't mind."

Her eyes went wide as saucers as she tried to conjure up the words she needed to ask him a simple question. "H-how... How do you know about Yongie?"

He shrugged and walked towards the ferris wheel. "Sources."

Dara was a little furious. "What do you mean by sources? It's always "your" sources."

He completely ignored her and bought the ticket while kept rambling nne stop at where he gets his sources and how he gets them. She didn't even notice that they were already inside a capsule if she hadn't heard the click sound of the door being closed.

"Calm down Dara." He soothed in a desperate attempt to let her know slowly. He knew if he suddenly dropped the bomb on her she would freak the hell out.

"How can I calm down? You're like a creepy stalker who's been eyeing me like a kid who found the perfect lollipop." She huffed and looked away from him with her hands firmly crossed on her chest.

Jiyong chuckled and just stared at her, studying the features that changed so much over the years. Time was really good to her considering the fact that she looked like a carved goddess. But if time was incredoulusly generous, puberty was being stingy. Her s and  wasn't really much of an eye-candy. Even with pads she'd look totally deflated if you asked him.

He smacked his lips together and looked away from her. "It's not really finding the perfect lollipop. It's more of a... finding a long lost lollipop?"

She snickered at his pathetic use of metaphor and looked at him obviously amused.

"Long lost lollipop? You're seriously throwing me that?"

The ferris wheel started moving and he didn't miss the fact that her eyes immediately darted towards their feet which were firmly placed on top of the glass floor.

It made Jiyong a little guilty that he lost hope of finding her ever again because by the looks of it, she never let go of his memory. Though it really irked him that she can not even remember his full name and how he looked when he was young. Was he really that handsome now?

He grinned to himself egotistically.

"Yah..." Dara called out to him taking note of his impish grin. "What's so amusing?"

They were almost at the top of the ferris wheel now and they could see the whole view of the park from up there. He slowly leaned closer, his face only inches away from her. "You." Was his only reply.

The red that tinted her cheeks was classic. It made her look too cute all the way.

Dara's heart was beating so loud that she swore even amplified drums (which is none-existant) would do it no justice.

Jiyong heard her mutter something under her breath her eyes transfixed on the wall of the capsule. Since when did a glass wall become more interesting than his mesmerizing gaze anyways?

"What was that?" He asked inching a little more closer until his hot breath tickled her lips tempting her to just repeat the events in the car a few weeks ago.

"You're too close." She repeated this time bringing a hand up to push him away.

He put on a grin on his face and drapped his arm across her shoulders. "Don't you like close proximity? Because I surely am enjoying this."

She just sat there silently. She didn't even move to shake his arms off- much to his liking- or make a snide comment.

Just when Jiyong thoguht it could get anymore tense inside the small space she suddenly asked out of no where, "Jiyong, who are you really?"

Jiyong tensed. He took his arm off of her shoulder and stared into space. It was as if his nosetrils were too small to let air inside his lungs or the oxygen has been out of the capsule completely. It was making his head spin like crazy.

"You know about my father. You know where I live..." She craned her neck to look at him with eyes full of questions that he had tried to avoid. "You know about my childhood friend and god I swear you just called me by the nickname he made up for me."

Her lips was a thin line when she finished speaking. It was evident that she was already getting impatient. "Who are you."

It wasn't a question. It was a statment to make her point clear that she wants to know how he knows all these things about her. It was dangerous for her family. What if this guy was a spy?

"Dara, have you ever held on to a memory for so long that it pained you to even remember it?" He asked.

She scowled at him. "I'm the one throwing questions here Kwon Jiyong. Who are you?" Her voice was stern and her expression blank. She was really frustrated now and he could tell she was on the verge of loosing it while dangling 20 feet from the ground if he doesn't tell her who he is now.

He just chuckled bemusingly and slipped something in her hand.

She was surprised and almost jumped. "What did you give me?"

"Why don't you find out yourself?" He offered her to open her palm.

Dara stared at him warrily as she averted her gaze to her fist. She turned her hand over and opened her palm very slowly as if keeping the suspense.

The glint of silver took her by surprise. She looked up to meet his gaze quizically. "Where did you get this?" She questioned her eyes boring holes into his face.

The ferris wheel made a stop and their capsule door opened informing them that the ride was over.

Jiyong smiled and looked at her straight in the eyes. "Look at that.... you actually fulfilled the promise you made to me 17 years ago..."

Author's Note:

Omo! Now that Jiyong finally told Dara about the secret what will be her initial reaction now? Keep on reading to find out arasso?

Anyways... My muse! She has returned! I hope I made up with this chapter for the poorly written Chapter 8 and 9.

Again, no comment replied for now. I still love you guys for commenting though ^_^ thanks so much for showing me your support.