[Chapter 10: Warmth]

The sudden loud knocking on the door jolted Jiyong out of his sleep – scowling a little in frustration, he dragged himself out of bed and headed lazily towards the source of disturbance. Without a thought, he reached out for the knob and flung the door open – and immediately wished he hadn’t done so.

An audible sigh escaped from his throat at the all-too-familiar sight of Dara, who stood before him in the doorway, her face flushed pink as she struggled to catch her breath. Jiyong arched his eyebrow questioningly at her frazzled state – seems like she had been running the whole way or something.

“What do you want?” He asked curtly, his voice flat and emotionless. “I thought I’ve already made it clear enough that you’re not welcome here.”

Inhaling deeply, Dara swallowed hard and raised her head, her eyes boring straight into his. Before her stood an aloof young man, someone she’s always thought of as being arrogant and cold. It was only now that she saw through all that façade – and honestly, Dara couldn’t help but wish she had noticed it earlier. How long would it have taken her to see the masked hurt in Jiyong’s eyes, if it wasn’t for Top, who revealed the truth? Mentally chiding herself, Dara finally realized how selfish she had been all this while – constantly wanting him to notice her, thinking of all sorts of ways to get his attention, and getting all flustered and upset when he didn’t respond to her. Yet not once has she ever tried to get to understand him better as a person…

 It was no wonder that he couldn’t stand her.

“I don’t get what you’re up to, but I’m not gonna stand here and watch you all day. If you’ve got nothing to say, please lea-“

“I heard about your brother.” Dara spoke, her voice trembling a little with every word – whether it was from the cold or from her nerves, she couldn’t really tell.

There was a momentary silence as the weight of her words sank into Jiyong’s mind.

He was stunned, no doubt. It almost felt as though his heart had stopped beating for a moment. He glanced up sharply, trying to read her expression yet not knowing what he was searching for. How did she find out about his brother? And of all people, Jiyong thought bitterly to himself as he gritted his teeth subconsciously, how could she even dare to speak of his brother. For her to mention his brother was akin to spitting on his grave – it was insulting, and it seriously pissed him off. So much so that he couldn’t even seem to find the words to respond to her.

Dara swallowed nervously, her fingers tightly clasped together – she wasn’t sure why, but the colour had suddenly drained from Jiyong’s face and somehow, it gave her a really bad feeling about things.

“Uh…” she mumbled, trying to get her words out properly, “Sorry, I guess it’s not very nice for me to know about your private life. I just… well I don’t know what really happened in your past, but I came here today because I wanted to tell you that…”

She stole a quick glance at Jiyong, whose gaze was averted from her as he stared off into the distance, his eyes hard and cold. Her heart sank a little at the sight. Once again, she felt invisible; it was as though he couldn’t even be bothered to acknowledge her presence.

“I just wanted to tell you that I’ll be here for you whenever you need me,” Dara continued, her voice slightly louder as she tried to muster more courage. “And I won’t give up no matter what happens so... so please don’t push me away.”

Jiyong’s brows furrowed at her words, his jaw tightening as the frustration slowly overwhelmed him. He wasn’t even sure who or what he was pissed with – was it her? Or was he simply angry at himself? He wished he could say that it was her that got him all riled up, yet he couldn’t. Seriously, he should have slammed the door in her face by now or called the guards up, and yet here he was, standing before her like a fool. All of a sudden he couldn’t help but recall what Top had said the other night, and as much as he hated to admit it, there seemed to be some truth in those words. He was constantly at a loss of what to do when it involved her, and that really because Kwon Jiyong isn’t supposed to be like that.

Clenching his fists in frustration, he whipped around and reached for the door, ready to end this stupid conversation. Yet before he could even register what was going on, Dara ran forward and hugged him tightly in her arms, her face buried in his chest. Jiyong’s eyes widened at her sudden action, his arms falling slowly to his sides as he tried to make some sense of the situation.

Just then, Dara let go of him abruptly, her cheeks tinged with a slight blush. Blinking nervously, she opened as though she was going to say something, then closed it again. After a few seconds of awkward silence during which both of them seemed to be looking in all directions except each other, Dara finally mumbled a quick ‘bye’ and ran off towards the exit.

Jiyong stood leaning against the doorframe, his eyes gradually shifting to focus on her disappearing backview. Then, he closed his eyes for a moment, allowing himself to relive the warmth of having her arms around him. He didn’t know why he was doing so, really, and perhaps he’d be wanting to kick himself in just a while when he gets his senses back. But for now…

It’s been a while since he’s felt such warmth. And just for this short moment, he allowed himself to feel it.

*** *** ***

“Can you give me three more days please? Please auntie, just three more days! I promise I’ll get the money…”

“You’re always late in your payments! I’m already kind enough to rent this place to you at such a cheap price, I should’ve thrown you out a long time ago-“

“Please auntie, I’m really sorry! I promise, I really promise to pay you. Just three more days… please?”

Already on her knees, Dara bowed again and again as she pleaded with her landlord.

Finally, after an entire half an hour of continuous pleading and begging for leniency, the landlord gave in. Stomping furiously out of the tiny unit, the landlord slammed the door shut as she left.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Dara got up and slowly walked towards the sofa before collapsing straight onto it in fatigue. This was bad – how could she have forgotten about paying rent? It totally slipped her mind throughout the past few weeks. She must have been too preoccupied with Jiyong… come to think about it, she hasn’t even taken any shifts in the restaurant for quite some time.

Three days.

“Why oh why did I ask for three days,” Dara whined to herself at the very thought of it, “I should have asked for a week at least. How am I supposed to get so much money in three days…”

A loud audible sigh sounded as she tossed and the couch.

This time, she’s really in trouble.

*** *** ***

TOP eyed Jiyong curiously as he sipped from his cup of hot coffee. The latter’s been acting weird these two days – not that he hasn’t been weird all along, but he’s really gotten weirder, if that was even possible. He’s constantly staring into space and lost in his own thoughts, to the extent that he doesn’t seem to realize what he’s doing at times.

Like now, for instance.

“Uh, Jiyong?” TOP spoke, his voice tinged with slight amusement, “that’s paper you’re chewing on.”

Startled, Jiyong took a glance at the torn wrapping of his sandwich and quickly spit the paper out of his mouth, cursing rapidly under his breath as he did so.

“Never knew you liked paper that much.”

TOP commented, the corner of his lips curling into a teasing grin at the sight of Jiyong’s mortified expression.

“Shut up.” Jiyong cut him off sharply, as he reached for his coffee.

“You’re acting all weird recently.”

Jiyong shot TOP a fierce glare at his words. “No I’m not.”

“Yes you are.”

“No, I’m not.” Jiyong refuted, a little irritated. Just then, he caught sight of the maknae, who was staring out at the cafeteria blankly and not at all paying attention to their conversation. “Seungri’s the odd one.”

Upon hearing his name, the youngest quickly whipped around to face his hyungs. “What? I heard my name.”

TOP shrugged and pointed to Jiyong, who was carefully tearing the rest of the wrapper of his sandwich. “Jiyong says you’re weird.”

His mouth falling open in an exaggerated display, Seungri lunged towards Jiyong and made a pained face. “I’m not weird!”

“You weren’t even listening to what we were saying-“

“I was just thinking about Dara! I see her friends there at that table, but she’s not there! I didn’t see her yesterday either.” Seungri pouted as he spoke, sighing as he pushed his food aside in a show of disdain. “I wish she was here, cafeteria food’s not as nice as the food she usually brings.”

Jiyong stopped short in his actions at the mention of her name. Though he quickly got himself together and continued unwrapping his sandwich without any form of response to Seungri’s statement, his tiny actions didn’t go unnoticed by TOP, who was pretty much able to guess the reason behind Jiyong’s odd behavior recently.

Just then, Seungri started waving frantically from his seat. “Hey CL! Bom! Hello!”

His yell caught the attention of CL, who happened to be walking by with Bom. A little unnerved by his warm welcome, the pair slowly approached the table.

“What’s up?” CL inquired, her expression one of sheer confusion.

“Where’s Dara? Why isn’t she with you?”

“Ohh. She’s taking a few days off school to work – she said something about her landlord chasing her for rent, so she took up some extra shifts at the place she usually works at.”

Jiyong looked up upon hearing her words. Work? So that was why she’s not been around…

“Oh mannn then when is she coming back! I miss the food she makes, school food -“

“YAH!” The pitch of CL’s voice suddenly rose as she got agitated, “The poor girl’s working to make ends meet and all you can think about is food? Don’t you have any sympathy in you at all, you selfish-”

A strangled yell escaped from Seungri’s throat as he shot up quickly from his chair and raised his voice to meet hers.

“Oh come on you two, will you both just quit quarreling, you’re always like that!” Bom tried to intervene, but seemingly to no avail.

Jiyong couldn’t be bothered less by the ruckus that was going on around him. He frowned silently to himself; he never knew she had money problems. She didn’t seem that poor after all. But then again, she did use to work at that restaurant place before she started latching on to him all day long instead… maybe that’s why she couldn’t come up with the money for her rent.

“Damn,” Jiyong cursed under his breath all of a sudden, as the reality of what he was doing suddenly occurred to him.

“Why should I even care…  It’s got nothing to do with me. Nothing to do with me at all.”

*** *** ***

Wow I've not updated for... eons. 

I'M SO SORRY EVERYONE :(

Don't really think an apology is enough to make up for being such an irresponsible writer in the past few months, but I'm really sorry :( 

Hope this chapter is to your liking!