The goings on

“Shopping with Bom and T.O.P. is a weird experience”, YB thought to himself as he, the noona, and the hyung headed for the snacks section in the grocery.

Bom loved eating bread but the diet that their trainer set them on didn’t allow her to eat bread for a while. T.O.P., on the other hand, was sticking to his diet that had a lot of fruits and veggies in it.

YB would normally go for a lot of meat and a lot of bread coz he loved sandwiches but how the heck does one do that with these people? He almost told the other two that he’d shop on his own but he felt awkward leaving them. They were another thing he had up his mind.

Unlike himself, T.O.P. was very comfortable with girls. YB knew he had a girlfriend even back in middle school. But hyung and Bom’s closeness was setting warning signals off his head just like the distance between Ji and Dara did.
T.O.P. and Bom were easily the handsomest member of each of their groups and they had talents that one didn’t normally see in Korea. Hyung’s rapping is so recognizable anywhere – YB doubted if anyone who heard it would forget it and Bom-noona’s voice also had more soul than anyone he had ever met. It wasn’t surprising to find them gravitate towards each other.

He knew that everyone – except him – took it for granted but he knew that it could be so easy to fall for another person you find is very much like you and the two are really alike. They are both the oldest in their group and though they aren’t the leaders, they both look out for their members with the instincts of a hawk.

And YB knew that both of them deserve to find love but… their timing wouldn’t be more than imperfect if ever it happened. Most especially with Ji Yong and Dara also showing signs that they just might head at that direction – no matter how the two denied it and acted as though it wasn’t going to happen.

Sure. They rarely spoke with one another – he barely saw them alone together at all – but he couldn’t kill the doubts that continue creeping up his head whenever he saw the two of them. Seung-ri had once grasped on it as well but did not take it as seriously as YB. He wasn’t sure about it even as Seung-ri had a habit of just saying things.

Sighing, he wondered if Teddy had intentionally set things up by creating a group of girls patterned after them. He had told them to get girlfriends for themselves to no avail. Was he trying to help them out?

But… why only four girls? And why hadn’t he lifted the rule about office romance?

He shook his head as he watched T.O.P. and Bom talk whether they should get cheese or not. Teddy wasn’t the type to do something like that.

“Young Bae!!!” a voice echoed throughout the grocery aisle.
He looked behind him and was surprised to find Jin-ah waving from the other end.

“Jin-ah” he greeted back, surprised at her sudden appearance, and walked towards her “Hey! It’s been awhile.”

“I know. I know” the girl answered “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Hey Jin-ah!” T.O.P. greeted from behind Young Bae, he had also seen the unexpected friend who YB walked up to “I thought you were in Jeju.”

“T.O.P.-oppa, hello there.”

YB suddenly remembered he was with the two. “Ow I’m sorry. Uhmmm… Jin-ah, this is Bom-noona. Bom-noona, this is Jin-ah, she’s a very good friend of ours.”

Bom bowed shyly.

“Bom-noona is a member of 2NE1” YB explained.

“Oh my God!” Jin-ah clasped “YB told me about you awhile back. He even showed me clips of you guys. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. I’m a huge fan!”

Bommie smiled – shyer than before at the compliments. “Thank you. Thank you.”

“We’re shopping snacks for everyone. We’re rehearsing nearby. Do you wanna come with us? I’m sure the other boys will be happy to see you” YB invited.

“That sounds great!” Jin-ah replied “I’ll be very happy to watch you guys.”

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*Just when things start looking up*

Ji Yong watched as Dara, CL, Minji, Daesung, and Seung-ri rehearse a song that BIG BANG originally performed – actually, he was just watching Dara carefully.

He knew she had been stunned by the hug last night. She had momentarily stiffened in his arms as he pulled her closer – which wasn’t his intention at all when he got up the roof top.

He just wanted to talk to her - coz he missed hearing her voice the past three weeks. He also just wanted to feast his eyes on her face as he had not seen her that close for days (the pictures in cyworld and me2day weren’t really enough for him).

But as he opened the door and saw her standing there, the wind blowing gently through her hair, looking out the city, repeating to herself with sincere conviction the words “I will” – an electric current ran through him that said “There’s the ONE” louder than any cannon in the world.

His weariness faded on the spot and he couldn’t help himself from smiling at her, teasing her, laughing at her. In his ears roared the words “This is the ONE Kwon Leader! This is the ONE!”

“Make your jump rope step a little higher noona” Seung-ri told Dara, which totally derailed Ji’s train of thought, “like this.”

CL raised an eyebrow at Seung-ri, reacting before Ji was able to “Stop showing off for Dara, will you? She already got that part.”

“Why? Do you want me to teach you instead?” the ‘show-off’ fired back at her.

“Oh please” CL replied, raising her right hand to Seung-ri’s face “YB-sunbae and Ji-oppa already said I’m way better than you at this.”

“They just told you that” Seung-ri told her confidently, not budging at all.

“Stop that you guys” Ji warned the two – sparks could potentially fly between these two but both of them didn’t know it at all - and he wasn’t to tell them that either so for now, he’d stick to what he did best “We’re supposed to be practicing, not engaging in a cat fight.”

“What cat fight?” Seung-ri faced him “I’m just being me. You might want to ask CL of 2NE1 about that.”

CL wagged her tongue at the BIG BANG maknae and was just about to reply when the training room’s door opened to bring in YB to the room.

“I got our snacks!!!!” YB announced.

They – meaning EVERYONE who hasn’t gone shopping – all shouted “YEY!!!”

“I also got us a guest” Young Bae followed through and a cute girl that Ji would know from anywhere stepped inside.

“Jin-ah” he muttered “Aren’t you supposed to be in Jeju?”

“Ji Yong! Seung-ri! Daesung!” Jin-ah answered, side-stepping Ji’s question and went around to hug each of them “How are you guys?”

The other girls looked on at the exchange of greetings as T.O.P. and Bom came in with the other bags.

“Who is she?” Dara whispered to Bomtori.

“She’s an old friend of theirs” Bom explained “we saw her at the Grocery store and YB invited her over.”

“Wow!” she exclaimed “YB invited her? I didn’t think he had that in him.”

“I was just as surprised too” Bom replied as she set another bag down on the counter top.

“Girls” T.O.P. called out, facing all of them after divesting the groceries on the snack counter, “We want you to meet Jin-ah. Jin-ah, this is 2NE1.”

They all bowed to greet her.

“Hi! I’m CL.”

“Hello. I’m Minji.”

“Anyeong. I’m Dara.”

“Ow Hi!” Jin-ah said excitedly and responded with a very enthusiastic bow “I’m so glad to finally meet you. YB’s showed me clips of your performance and he talks a lot about you guys - most especially you Dara-unnie. He says you’re really cute and funny.”

Dara smiled – blushing at that information but doing it quite gracefully “Thank you Jin-ah. YB-sunbae is actually my mentor.”

“Oooohhh. I was kind’a hoping you’d be an item” Jin-ah replied, making everyone laugh.

“We’re just friends” Dara quickly replied.

“That answer is so showbiz” Jin-ah commented “When Ji and I dated, I always answered like that.”

“You dated Ji-oppa?” CL asked in surprise. Actually, all the 2NE1 girls were surprised at that announcement.

Ji admitted he was very surprised too. He had not expected Jin-ah to spill things as casually as that. She didn’t even know these girls for more than five minutes.

Controlling himself from gagging at the statement, he noted the change in Dara’s facial expression after hearing what Jin-ah said.

“That was such a long time ago” Ji said out loud, emphasizing the “long” word and looking on helplessly at Dara.

“Yeah it was” Jin-ah replied casually “but to just set the record straight you guys, we never really became boyfriend and girlfriend coz I had a boyfriend that time I didn’t tell him about – which was really bad of me – so don’t you let other girls hurt him, ok? He’s really special.”

As Jin-ah continued speaking, the Kwon Leader was looking straight at Dara. Something was going on in her mind. He knew it just from the play of emotions on her face.

He also knew that whatever she was thinking bode ill. “Oh hell. What timing! Just when I’m beginning to…” he sighed in frustration “I’ll kill YB for this.”