I honestly don't really remember getting back to my room after that. Truth be told I'm pretty sure I fell asleep standing up, Top's arms supporting me. I think I remember him walking me back to my room, his arm around my shoulder as I tried not to stumble. In fact, I'm pretty sure I apologized to him and he hugged me again, but that could have been my imagination. The next thing I clearly remember was waking up feeling slightly less than stellar in my own hotel bed the next morning.

----

The boys and I had the morning off since starting at 2pm that day we would be stuck in rehearsals, but I really did not want to stay in the hotel. I mean, I had only two actual mornings left with them if you didn't count the morning I would have to spend packing. So even though I wasn't feeling the best, I did not want to spend it doing nothing. I turned to the bed next to me, only to see that it was, in fact, empty with a note on the cover.

Nikky,

We went to pick up the band members from the airport.

The boys shouldn't sleep past 10.

Remember that you need to be at the concert venue by 2:30.

Call the number on the back and they will drive you. If you

want to go out, they can drive you there too.

We will see you at the concert venue!

Hae Jung <3

P.S.- Cho Hee says if you go out shopping, there are rules. No jean tops for Daesung and if GD buys any unapproved jewelry, you both will be in trouble.

I wondered why the boys weren’t allowed to sleep past 10, epsecially since they had a late night the night before. But if the unnies wanted that... I glanced at the clock next to me before letting out a sigh and falling back into bed. It was already 10:15. Well, it’s not like letting them sleep in a little extra would be a bad thing, would it? I had just started to fall back asleep when my phone informed me that I had a text message. When I finally found it underneath my covers at the foot of the bed, there was a text from Hae Jung.

Go out, get breakfast, have fun.

I let out a sigh. How did Hae Jung-unnie know that I was still in bed?  As I was holding my phone, it vibrated again, this time with a text from Cho Hee.

Buy boots and dress. So I see you can do later.

I gave the phone a quick scowl before I tossed it on the bed and started to get ready. I could buy things on my own. In fact, I had managed to do quite well for myself for years before meeting Cho Hee-unnie, thank you very much! It was only when I looked into the mirror as I was brushing my teeth that I realized I was still scowling. Not only was I scowling, my eyes were red from all of the crying. I looked like I was ready for a fight or something. I was in an extremely bad, foul mood, and I had no idea why. No, that wasn't true. I knew why. I felt horrible for crying to Top last night, horrible because I only had two days left, horrible from drinking last night, and horrible because I was extremely hungry. As if to accentuate that fact, my stomach let out a very loud rumble.

I continued to stare at myself in the mirror for a moment before speaking. "Nikky, I swear to all that is holy, if you don't perk up..." I let out a sigh before starting again. "If you stay in a bad mood, you won't be able to enjoy the day, right?" I nodded at my reflection. "Right." I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them, forcing a smile. We, the boys and myself, had four hours before we had to be at rehearsal, and thanks to Cho Hee unnie, I knew exactly how I wanted to try and spend them, bad mood or not.

-----

First item of business was waking the boys up. I started with GD and YB's room as usual. "Noona?" A sleepy Taeyang answered my knocking as he rubbed sleep out of his eye.

"Good morning, Youngbae," I said. He smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back. In fact, I tried to take a mental snapshot of that look. Sleepy, tired, but smiling Bae. Definitely a keeper. "I was wondering..." I trailed off as I looked past him to the room containing the sleeping dragon. "Well, I'm really hungry and..."

"Ah, you want to get breakfast?" I just nodded. "Okay. Do you want to get the others? To help me wake up Jiyong-ah?" I thought about it for a second before I shook my head.

"No,” I replied as his expression turned to one of surprise. “I think I'll try to wake him up myself this morning," Taeyang continued to just stare at me until I smiled. "But if you want to make sure the others are waking up, that would help."

He agreed and soon it was just me and GD in the room. I ended up staring at the bed, trying to come up with a battle plan, and failing. Surely this wasn't as difficult as the others said. He was just a little guy, not much taller than me, and somewhat skinny. Then I remembered the boys running back into the room after the sound of something hitting the wall, the boys being chased by Jiyong, the angry noises he made...  It's not like he was an actual dragon or something, but I had seen him angry before, and it was not something I wanted to see again. Still, he was just a boy. Well, a man, but still. A guy, and I had woken up guys before. Surely this wasn't any different.

I walked over and gave his foot a soft shake, hoping to gently start waking him up. "GD?" Nothing. "GD, it's time to wake up." Still nothing. I then proceed to step two: shaking harder and using a different name. "Jiyong-ah, I want to go get breakfast." A groan emanated as GD turned over and pulled the covers over his head. I considered step two a partial success and a step in the right direction and proceeded to step three: poking. I gave his leg a few gentle prods before moving farther up the bed and sitting down on the edge, proceeding to the final step. "Jiyong-a~ah," I said with a hint of pleading in my voice, "please? I'm hungry." I reached over and shook him a tiny bit before he responded.

"Ugh, want to sleep," he mumbled. At least I think that was what he mumbled.

I really, really wanted to spend time with him which is why I opened my mouth to continue to pester him, but I almost immediately snapped it shut. Yes, I wanted to spend time with him, but if he wanted to sleep I wasn’t going to force him. And we would still be able to spend time together tomorrow. “Alright, we’ll bring you something back, okay?” I started to stand when I heard a groan from behind me.

"Fine," was the muffled response I received. "10 minutes."

"Really?" I grinned at the covered head before he pulled the covers down, peaking out.

"Ugh," he let out a groan. "Yes, really."

"Okay!" I did my best not to actually jump up and clap, settling on just standing up and smiling. "I’ll let you get dressed and I’ll see you in the other room, okay?" I turned to go when a hand reached out and grabbed my wrist. I sat back down as it was given a tug and turned to see a no longer sleepy looking Jiyong staring at me from under the covers.

“Noona,” he started before letting go of my wrist. He glanced away before turning back to me, a serious expression on his face. “Would… would you stay if you could?”

“Wha-what?” I had to admit, I wasn’t expecting a question like that. When he continued to just stare at me, I managed to paste a smile on my face as I stammered out a response. “Of- of course I would!” I felt my emotions start to push against the wall I had put up, but I somehow succeeded in pushing them back down. “I love being with you all, and I’m going to miss you so much.” My eyes were burning from the effort of not watering, but I wasn’t going to cry damn it. I was going to be happy, no matter what. “I’m really, really happy that I had the chance to get to know you all like this.” I tried to give him an even brighter smile even as I battled within myself. I may be emotional, but good lord! This was starting to push it to an all new level.

Luckily, he didn’t notice my internal struggle and instead he nodded at me, his face remaining serious as he sat up. “We all talked about it last night. Hyung was… pissed that I brought it up and left, but-“ A commotion in the other room caused me to turn towards the wall and thankfully interrupted his speech because I was not ready to hear how the others had taken the reminder. In fact, the thought of having to leave them made me feel like crying. Again. Note to self, time for some chocolate or something. Getting through this day with the waterworks barely being held back was not going to be easy. But so long as no one noticed, it was going to be do-able.

When I turned back towards him, he was just staring at me. No, not staring. It was like he was trying to make sense of something. It was rather unnerving, but as I opened my mouth to speak, he spoke again. “Your eyes are red.” Aaand . I felt said eyes of betrayal go wide before I turned away, getting ready to leave. However, a hand on my wrist stopped me again. “Nikky-noona, look at me.” I didn’t want to shake off his hand, but there was no way in hell I was going to- “Please?” And there it was. The ‘please’ plus a gentle hand turning my chin towards him was what it took to get me to look at him again. I took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh as I turned and looked at him. “Did you cry last night?”

It took me a second before I managed to look him in the eye as I denied it. “Of course not. What would make you say that?”

“I can tell. Your eyes are puffy.” Well damn. I wanted to reply, to continue to deny that it was true, but I couldn’t. I wanted to stop being upset, to be happy and enjoy the time I knew I was going to have with the boys, but at that moment, I just couldn’t. Couldn’t say anything actually. Not that I needed to. The tear that had just escaped down my cheek was enough of an answer for him. I went motionless as he let go of my chin and reached up, using his thumb to wipe away the evidence of my emotions. “Nikky-“

He let go of my wrist and I decided to take what might be my only chance of escaping without crying. I stood up quickly and interrupted him. “I’m sorry. I- I should go make sure the others are up.” I stopped when I was at the door, then turned back and smiled. “Sorry about that. I’m just being silly. I’ll see you downstairs in 30, okay?” I rushed out the door at that point, not giving him a chance to answer. Once in the hallway, I leaned against the doorframe of the closed door. My mission, Wake Up the Sleeping Dragon, was somewhat successful, minus the tears and feeling depressed again. If I was going to accomplish mission two, Make sure the other boys are awake, I needed to be calm, less sad and more happy. So I took a few moments to compose myself and wipe away the tears that had piled up before I was finally ready to deal with the others. Happy Nikky was back because being sad Nikky was not going to help. And if this was the last day I had to hang out and have fun with the boys, I wanted to be happy. Well, semi-happy. Forced happy isn’t the same as actual happy, but it was better than nothing.

Of course, just as I was about to turn and enter the room, forced-Happy Nikky restored, the door opened.  “Oh, Nikky,” Taeyang peaked past me to the closed door behind me. “Did you wake Jiyong-ah?”

I nodded. “Mission accomplished. What about the boys?”

Instead of replying that they were up, he gave me a sigh and a somewhat guilty look before he spoke. “Oh, well… They are awake, but not very happy.”

“Oh no, how-” I started. I almost asked how come, when I remembered the “conversation” I just had with Jiyong. “Oh…” I trailed off as I averted my gaze to the ground.

“Nikky-ah, I’m so-“ I looked up as his voice stopped suddenly only to be met with what I can only describe as the most intense gaze I have ever seen from Taeyang. “Your eyes are red. You look-“ I quickly turned away again and held up my hand, making sure he could see if over my shoulder. The fact that both of the boys I had seen so far today had noticed my red, puffy eyes was a bad sign. I honestly had no idea what I was going to do to get out of this funk, but something needed to change. Being an emotional rollercoaster was not on my list of things to do that day.

I took a few steading breaths before turning back around. “I know. It’s just been a little bit of a trying morning, and I’m sad to be leaving, you know?” The corners of my mouth turned up in a ‘smile’. “I’m going to miss you guys, and I’m just being an emotional girl about it, that’s all.”

“We’re going to miss you too,” he said as he reached out and laid a comforting hand on my shoulder. Next thing I knew, he had pulled me into a very secure hug. “There will be plenty of time to be sad later. Now is the time to be happy and thankful that we are able to have time together.” He gave me an extra squeeze as he continued to hold me and talk. “And since this is one of our last days, it should be a fun day, yes?” He smiled at me as he pulled away, and I felt myself smiling back. “Even though we will be apart, you will always be our noona.” I nodded in agreement. That right there? That was what I needed. Knowing they were going to miss me was okay, but having someone like Taeyang there to help me see the silver lining? I hated to say it, but having someone say those things helped me more than any amount of pity or sympathy could. And it was exactly what I needed to hear to clear away those pesky emotional storm clouds.

“You’re right. You are so right,” I gave him another quick hug as I felt my mood do a 180. “Thanks, Youngbae-ya,” he grinned at my attempt to use an honorific, “you have no idea how much I needed to hear that right now.” I closed my eyes, took a steading breath, and opened them, smiling. “We’re going to meet downstairs in 30 minutes, ‘kay?”

“Okay,” he gave me a thumbs up, and we both grinned. Thanks to that man, I was able to enter the next room with a smile on my face, my entire mood having been lifted.

-----

As it turned out, Seungri and Taeyang did my job very well. Er, almost. By time I got over to the other room, Daesung was in the bathroom getting ready, and an almost fully dressed Seungri was sitting on the side of Top's bed, shaking him. "Hyung!"

"Is he not up yet?" I walked over to the side of his bed as Seungri shook his head. "Top-ssi, aren't you going to get up?" I reached out to give his arm a shake but stopped abruptly before I touched him. I had just woken up GD, so why was the thought of waking Top up making me feel so, well, anxious? I cleared my throat and stood back up. "Um, Top-ssi?" The maknae gave him a shake again and tried to pull the covers off. The fact that they weren't moving let us both know that he was actually awake. Finally, the boy next to me just shook his head, giving up.

"I need to brush my hair." He stood up and put a hand on my shoulder before giving me a smile. "Good luck," he said as he abandoned me.

I looked down at the form under the blanket and felt my face heat up and my heart start to race. What the heck? I just woke up someone who was known to attack his wakers, and I hadn't felt anything. But now... It was an odd feeling. I wanted to wake him up, but when I reached for him, all I could think about was last night. And the strangest part was the fact that I realized I didn’t mind crying in front of him. At the time it upset me, but now? Something had changed, and I didn’t know what. Finally, I shook myself out of my revelry and tried to focus on the task at hand. “Seunghyun-ssi? We’re going to breakfast soon, okay?” I asked as I reached down and shook what appeared to be an arm shaped lump under the blankets. I heard what sounded like a grunt, which I took to be an acknowledgement, but I didn’t stand up. No, there was something else on my mind at that point. Something that I wanted to do.

I glanced towards the bathroom and, seeing that there was no one around, I knew that this was most likely the only chance I had. I took a deep breath, and went for it.

I braced myself with my hands on the pillow and leaned forward until I was right near the head shaped lump. “Top-ssi?” There was no response, so I tried again. “Top-oppa?” I felt a small bit of movement before the blankets lowered slightly. I was eye to eye with Top, and I felt my face flush, but I knew that this was it, my one shot. He just looked at me, so I took that as my cue to speak. “Thank you, oppa.” I couldn’t keep a small smile off of my face as he lowered the blankets even more until finally his entire head was visible. “For last night, I mean. I’m sorry for crying but I think I needed that. So, well, thanks.” I felt myself blush as I tried to find the right words to say. We looked at each other for another moment and he opened his mouth to speak... just as the door to the room opened with a bang.

I jumped up and turned around to see none other than leader extraordinaire and Taeyang in the doorway.

"Hyung," GD said, walking past me. "You’re actually up?" Talk about perfect timing.

"I have to go call the driver," I said as I headed towards the door. "I'll meet you all downstairs in 15!" After I took a moment to calm down and figure out what the heck was going on with my emotions, that is.

----

"But noona," Seungri whined at me and all I could do was laugh.

"No, I will not tell you where we are going after breakfast, it's a surprise." I handed him the sunglasses to complete his disguise, but he was having none of that.

"We will not tell, we promise," he gave my hand a tug which I just responded to with a smile and a shake of my head. Since the boys would be in disguise today, it meant I didn't have to be. Meaning I didn't have to worry about a wig falling off when I shook my head. It was nice. 

"Nope! I have a plan," I smiled even as he pouted and finally put on his sunglasses. "You’ll like it, I promise!" Seungri let out another whine and I couldn't help but laugh, even if it was just a tiny bit.

It was currently just Seungri, Daesung, and myself down in the lobby. And even though Seungri was acting all hyper, things were a tiny bit awkward. Why? Well, as much as we all were trying to deny it, that little voice in the back of our heads kept reminding us about what was coming up. Or at least mine was. She wouldn't shut up in fact. From the way the two boys were acting, I could only imagine the same thing was happening to them. Since we had arrived downstairs, Seungri had been perky and hyper and, well, lively. Even more so than usual if you can believe it. Meanwhile Daesung, who normally was able to keep up with Seungri in the happy department, was very quiet and reserved. He’d smile when we looked his way, and answer if we asked him something, but besides that he just stood next to me, hands in his pockets, a serious expression on his face. I wanted to get him out of his funk, but since I had just gotten out of a funk myself, I didn’t know the best way to do it. So, as Seungri continued his protest, I reached over and linked my arm through Dae’s. He looked at me and smiled, a genuine smile, and I couldn’t help but grin back. We exchanged a look, and I tried to convey all of my noona-love for him and how much I was going to miss him in that one look. I made a mental note to make sure to talk with him later. I actually would have done it right then, but I didn’t want to ruin the mood anymore. Plus, Seungri was still going on about being left out of the loop.

Luckily, he stopped whining as soon as we heard another set of voices heading towards us. All three of us looked over to see the others boys, in disguise just like the two youngest, heading towards us and laughing. I smiled at them until I made eye contact with Top, at which point I blushed and we both quickly looked away.

When they finally reached us, GD and Taeyang grinned. "Ready to go?" Taeyang asked.

"Yup, the car is waiting for us outside." I smiled at him and looked at the other boys who were all grinning. Except Top. He was smiling, yes, but he wasn't looking towards me or the boys. He just kept glancing at me before looking in some other direction. I had apologized, hadn’t I? I couldn’t help the frown that was on my face at that point because I honestly did not know what to do. Was he feeling uncomfortable now? Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten so close to him this morning. Or maybe I should have forgotten it all happened. Was that what he wanted? He hadn’t said anything after I apologized so maybe-

My thoughts were broken through as my stomach decided to sing the song of its people, aka rumble as loudly as it possibly could. This didn’t go unnoticed by the boys and, needless to say, my face became a bright red color. I’m happy to report that it did manage to bring a smile to everyone’s face, including Daesung. So while I might have been embarrassed, at least some good was coming from it. “Well,” I looked around at the boys, “looks like it might be time for breakfast?” I made eye contact with Top, and the smile he sent me set my heart at ease. Even though we both glanced away almost immediately, at least I knew he wasn't upset. More like embarrassed. I didn't know what about, but it was now on my list of things to do. After talking with Daesung and finding food!

“Yes!” Seungri hurried over to me in a single leap and grabbed the arm that wasn’t linked with Daesung. “Noona, let us eat now!”

We started heading towards the door when I stopped in my tracks. Something was tickling the corner of my brain, something that I had wanted to do… Oh! I started digging through my bag as I spoke up, trying to get the boys’ attention. “Wait! Guys, I have… oh, where is it… I have a favor to ask… Come on now. Ah! Found it!” I grinned triumphantly as I pulled my hand out of my purse to display my prize.

“Nikky, why do you have a camera?” Taeyang glanced from me to the camera in my hand and I felt myself blush. I had managed to do an alright job of treating the boys as though they were just, well, boys. Which was why I had tried to avoid this before now.

“I was hoping that, well, we could take a few pictures?” When they continued to just look at me, I hurriedly tried to explain myself. “It’s just that I have a bad memory, and I like to take pictures to remember things that have happened like vacations, parties, stuff like that.” I waved the camera around as I continued to talk, making an effort not to actually make eye contact. “I understand if you guys don’t want to, I just thought I’d ask since I’ve had so much fun recently and really I’m sure I’ll remember all of it without the pictures so there’s really no-“ I was stopped as someone strode over and stopped a foot in front of me, taking the camera away. When I looked up I was blinded by a flash followed by a laugh.

“I call picture number one flustered noona,” Jiyong said as he smiled at me. Or at least he was smiling when I stopped blinking from the light.

“So… does that mean it is okay?” I glanced between him and the others, only to be met with nods and smiles.

“Of course,” Taeyang said, coming up and putting an arm around my shoulder. “We will take lots, so you will have happy memories.”

“Just do not share with crazy fans,” Seungri spoke up as he came over. “They may not like you then.” He nodded solemnly before grabbing the camera from Jiyong. “Now, say cheese!” He quickly said before taking a picture of myself and Taeyang in which I think I managed to smile. “Aish, noona. You are very prettier when you smile,” he said as he gave me a wink before being hit on the shoulder by his leader. “Ya, Hyung!” He turned with a pout on his face, only to be met with a raised eyebrow and glare.

“No flirting with Nikky,” Jiyong lectured him. “And don’t take the camera from me. I’m better at taking pictures than you,” he stated as he snatched the camera back. “And if you flirt with noona, I won’t take your picture.” The lecture transitioned to Korean and continued as he led the maknae out of the hotel, the rest of us following behind, contemplative Daesung, silent Top, smiling Taeyang, and me, the girl who, for now, was going to enjoy her time with some of her favorite people and act like there was no tomorrow. Because as one of my role models always said, you have to "just keep swimming".

----

A/N: Well, here it is. Finally. I had finished writing this earlier this week, but I just kept reading it over and over again >.< Still not FULLY happy with it, but it is better than before. I tried to smooth out the emotional roller coaster for now. I already have chapter 37 drafted, lol, so there shouldn't be too many horrible delays from this point onward, but... we'll see. If you see a problem, let me know! I didn't send this chapter through my beta-readers because I wanted to get it to you guys as soon as I could so... yeah. There may be problems, heh. Just message me if you see any!

And for all of you who are still with me and who sent me those kind words, thank you. From the bottom of my heart. Really. I cannot tell you how much the helped, and how they motivated me to keep going. It is because of you, the commentors, old subscribers, and new subsribers, that I am still writing. So thank you ^_^ <3<3<3