I dream of rain

I dream of gardens in the desert sand

I wake in vain

I dream of love as time runs through my hand

So Hee knew Jiyong wasn’t as calm and collected as Taeyang, but he wasn’t the type to get hysterical either. The way his whole body trembled while trying to gather Chaerin in his arms and picked her out of the building with his eyes frantically searching for something, anything, how he looked like he was on the verge of crying or exploding or maybe both, and the way he ran so sloppily he almost dropped Chaerin, twice –luckily TOP was behind him, and that he held Chaerin tight enough-almost too tight, actually. Everything was so out of character.

She knew Chaerin was close to the Kings and Jiyong, which was the main reason So Hee hated her, with passion. She could never even got close to the circle, she couldn’t figure out why, what she lacked of, what Chaerin had she didn’t except for being Seungri’s cousin, it wasn’t like Chaerin and Seungri were that close anyways. For her, it always looked like they made sure to keep some distance away from each other, why? she couldn’t figure out.

Were there some history between Chaerin and Jiyong? The way she called out for him the time she was drowning, Jingyo oppa? Definitely wasn’t something someone who knew each other just recently would have, right? And the way Jiyong surprised himself when he called her to wake her up, Hunchae? Everything was too childish, even for her. Chaerin didn’t look like that kind of cheesy girl to give or have nicknames, neither did Jiyong.

She knew they knew each other since high school, and that Chaerin had wrapped a ‘Chaerin’s line Do Not Cross’ around Jiyong. But she also knew they never really conversed during high school, and now she started questioning herself, high school, really?

***

Jiyong was a lot calmer when they got to his car; at least his face was, although his tight grip on the steering wheel showed otherwise. They’ve decided to just take her home as soon as possible so they could change her wet clothes to a dry one and the'd call the family doctor. For now, Jiyong’s jacket was wrapped tightly around her body.

With only the two of them and Chaerin being unconscious, the whole ride was silent. Seungri was with the others in Taeyang’s car tailing behind his. Jiyong was trying his best to concentrate, although his mind didn’t help too much, questions after questions kept popping in his head. He couldn’t make head or tail of anything, everything.

He stole a quick glance at the unconscious girl beside him, who is she?

Suddenly Chaerin wasn’t only a mere classmate, not even a girl crushing on him for the longest time and claiming him hers, or a girl he lately got to know more about, no… although he had always known there was more than meets the eye about her, his guts told him that whatever happening right now was definitely something bigger than he’d ever expected.

***

“Should we call a doctor? I’ll call Dr. Kam, okay?” Seungri who was sitting at the backseat frantically questioned his friends who were silent as they were deep in thoughts.

“Guys, please! Say something! this is my cousin we’re talking about!” He said again, this time, shaking Daesung’s arm to get some response. His eyes were almost teary, his voice shaky. “What if something happen to her? How could we let her drown the second time? What kind of cousin I am? What kind of friends we are?” He continued rambling, blaming himself and covered his face with his hands.

“Yah, seungri yah!” Daesung shook his body, “look, listen to me, she’s going to be okay, kay? We know her, she’s not just any girl, she’s Chaerin! She’s the one escaped death many times, she will be okay!” Daesung exclaimed, ensuring both Seungri and himself, and maybe the whole car as it went silent for a moment.

“Ji remembers…” Taeyang started, and the atmosphere tensed, neither one of them said a word. “He called her Hunchae…” Taeyang continued, almost whispering, his grip on the steering wheel tightened.

TOP bit his lip to stop himself from saying anything useless, his palms were sweaty holding onto each other. They should’ve expected this day to come someday, the fact that that someday came today was however, unexpected.

“What should we do hyung?” Seungri asked desperately, “Nothing bad will happen, right?”

Right?

***

“She’s down with fever, but it’s okay she’ll get better soon, nothing serious,” the woman in her fifties, Dr. Kam informed the boys with a smile on her face, “Really Seungri, she’s okay,” she patted the teary-eyed boy and gave him a reassuring smile.

“Just make sure she takes her medicine, you know how much she hates it, right, Jiyong?” She moved her eyes to the silent boy who was sitting on the bedside unmoving, “I know you will take a good care of her, you always do,” she smiled again and patted his head before turning her heels to leave.

The boys were sending Dr. Kam out, or more like because they couldn’t stand being in a same room with Jiyong, they just didn’t know how to react if he asks any question, which he hadn’t done yet.

When they were back, Jiyong was waiting for them, “Can you guys, please… no, I mean, is it okay if I want to take care of her? I mean, can I stay here too? I know I’m not a family but I-“

“Yes yes Ji, you can oh God… you’re a family, why did you say that you’re not? Stay here Ji, stay!” Seungri answered frantically, he seemed to be the hardest to control his emotion. Jiyong looked up to see the others reaction and they gave him a silent nod.

“Alright,” Jiyong nodded curtly and went back to the room where Chaerin was in, sat himself in his previous position and just continued staring at her sleeping state.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed until he heard Chaerin mumbled some incoherent words and stirred in her sleep, her eyebrows creased.

Was she... having a nightmare?

Jiyong scooted himself closer to her, taking her smaller hands to his and whispered some soothing words while his other hand removed the bangs from her sweaty forehead. She continued muttering for about a few moments so Jiyong decided to sang her a lullaby, his thumb slowly the bridge of her nose to cease the creasing eyebrows. Soon she went back to her peaceful sleep.

The second time he heard Chaerin’s voice, she was awake, “wa-ter?” she asked in a hoarse voice and Jiyong quickly brought a glass of water to her.

“How are you feeling?” He questioned while helping her to drink, she looked up and smiled at him, “I’ve been worse,” she answered.

They were silent for a couple of seconds, “Chaerin?”

“Hmm?” she asked, observing the glass of water in her hand. She couldn’t remember what exactly had happened after So Hee’s friend pushed her to the water, but she could feel there was something different with Jiyong right now.

“Who are you?”

And Chaerin could feel the glass slowly slipped away from her hands

So did Jiyong.

And now she turns

This way she moves in the logic of all my dreams

This fire burns

I realize that nothing's as it seems

(Sting – Desert Rose)

Author’s note:

I think you guys want to kill me right now. First, I’m sorry for not updating for about… a week? Yeah, and second… why am I adding more questions instead of answering some??? Uh-oh. And I don't understand, it felt like I've written a long chapter but why is it so short now that I'm rereading it? /cries

But tell me, aren’t you excited?

No?

‘Kay, here’s a little about the next chapter, no I won’t write a teaser. I’ll just tell you that the title would be ‘Truth, Cry, and Lie*’ dramatic much?

And of course, comments are loved and welcomed! :)

♥ littletea

*it’s a song I once heard, it’s nice, but other songs from the singer aren’t in English ;___; they sound good, though. I mean, I listen to music in any language so… yeah, my playlist is so international although I don’t understand most of it. /stop rambling here