Bom hated it whenever Dara left parties early. Bom and Dara were two weird girls who together, made a semi-sane person.  That’s what everyone said about them because whenever they went out, they would go crazy but somehow restrained each other from doing anything too embarrassing. If one of them acted silly, then the other would be even sillier just to cover the silliness of the other. They were the oldest girls of 2NE1 but acted like teenage girls whenever they went to parties—they were the park sisters.

Now Bom was without her party buddy and on top of it, she had had a lot to drink. “That stupid girl! Why did she have to go home this early? We haven’t properly partied yet!!”

“Calm down, Bom, Dara must be really tired… and I think you had a little too much fun tonight” Minzy said giggling as she was trying to calm Bom down.  It was still weird though, even to Minzy, the way in which Dara left. She just left without saying goodbye or even congratulating Youngbae on his music video.

“What’s worse is that she’s not even back at the dorms, she’s home home, with her parents… aren’t you guys worried about her?” Bom was sad, Dara had never left a party without saying goodbye. Bom sensed something had happened to her.

“You’re overreacting, she’s probably really stressed out and tired. Plus, it’s been a while since she’s been home” Chaerin was also trying to calm Bom down but what she said to her was a lie. She knew something must have happened between Dara and Jiyong. She wanted to find out but she figured it would be best for them work it out themselves.

~~~~~~~~~~

It had happened again, another misunderstanding led to more drama. Chaerin woke up early the morning after Dara’s disappearance because a thin girl wearing an oversized hoodie woke her up. It was Dara. She looked tired.

"Chaerin, I've had time to think about this and I've come to a conclusion. I won't be jealous of you if you start dating Jiyong."

Chaerin was half awake and confused. "Umm... Ehh... What?"

"Yea, you guys are really good friends and it makes sense that you two like each other. Sometimes some of the best relationships rise from friendships. "

"Uh no, you got this all wrong"

"Don't try to spare my feelings. I already know. Jiyong likes you and you should give him a chance. He's a nice boy."

"No seriously, you got this all wrong"

"It's ok. You don't need to explain anything to me." Dara wanted the last word so she left after giving Chaerin her blessing. She could date Jiyong if she wanted.

Chaerin went back to sleep. No way was this happening. The whole ordeal had gotten too out of hand. Plus, she was really confused, she was half awake and half asleep when Dara came to talk to her. I really hope this is one of the weird dreams talks about

Dara went back to her room and looked at her things. She was determined to move on, which meant she'd have to get rid of the old naive Dara who had foolishly fallen for a boy who didn't like her back.

What was that thing that girls did after a break up? Oh right! Haircut. …But I haven't broken up with Jiyong... …We were never together…. Does that mean I shouldn’t get a haircut? Dara looked at herself in her bedroom mirror. Hmm maybe I should get bangs... It’s kind of like a haircut but not really

Dara went to her favorite hair salon to get hair done and kind of re-invent herself—she was overdue for a haircut anyways. She entered the fancy salon and was immediately greeted by Jeremy, the owner of the salon and Dara's favorite person in the world.

"Oh good you're here. Listen honey, if you didn't come in today, I would have had to organize an intervention. Look at your hair! It's so boring, so 5 months ago"

"That's because that's the last time I switched my hairstyle"

"Exactly, how can you live with yourself?"

“The hairstylists trim it whenever we have a concert so there really wasn’t a need to come in” answered Dara with an uninterested look on her face meant to upset Jeremy.

Jeremy looked away from Dara and put his hand to his forehead as if he was going to faint for a second but quikly recomposed himself "You evil girl… Anyways, it looks like we're having a cute little YG gathering toda.  Yes! Our little Seungri is here for a change of hair style too"

“Oh really? It seems like he’s always getting a new hairstyle these days”

"Honestly speaking, you should learn from that boy. He comes in almost every month, just to say hello" Now Jeremy was getting ready to scold Dara “If you cared about my health like he does, then I’d sleep better at night and wouldn’t need to visit my cardiologist as often” Jeremy put his hand to his chest and pretended to have heart aches.

“I thought you liked visiting your cardiologist.  Isn’t Dr. Lee a really handsome young doctor?”

“Me?” Jeremy smiled and couldn’t hide his crush on the young doctor “Now that I think about it, maybe you should visit me less often that way I can visit Dr. Lee more often”

Dara laughed.  She knew she could always count on Jeremy to make her smile.

“So what magic shall I work on your hair today? Waves? Maybe going blond? Remember, blonds have more fun”

“No, I just wanted to trim my hair and some bangs.  I need to leave my past behind”

“Honey, you sound like you just broke up with your fish or something… Oh no! You confessed to a boy and he rejected you didn’t he? Who’s he?...........it’s.. It’s not Jiyong is it?”

Dara nodded.

“What? Jiyong rejected you?! WHAT?!?!”

Dara turned around to find Seungri coming from the back of the salon.  He had heard everything.  Dara was mortified, she forgot Seungri was also getting his hair done.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Jiyong went to pick Dara up from the MBLAQ dorms the next day, he found Dara standing outside with Cheondong. 

“He’s my ride?” Dara’s was annoyed “you couldn’t call a normal cab?”

Ceongdong shrugged, hugged his sister and went inside.  Whatever was going with them needed to be fixed and he didn’t want to get involved.  He was also really sleepy and missed his bed—sleeping in Mir’s bed had not been a good idea, the boy moved too much.

“Please get in, I’ll take you home” Jiyong looked like he had stayed awake all night.

Dara sighed and got in Jiyong’s car.  She smiled and began to fulfill her promise… Act like nothing happened… we’re nothing but co-workers now.

Jiyong started driving towards the 2NE1 dorms “I don’t think you’re being fair.  You left me yesterday waiting and sent me this text message instead.” Jiyong wanted to talk about the text message Dara sent him last night.

Dara looked out the window and noticed the rising sun.  It was seven in the morning.  “Do you think it will rain today? Because if it does then the guest DJ coming from New York will have to come tomorrow and not today.  They might even cancel tomorrow’s rehearsal if he’s not here today.”

Jiyong was confused… Brrrrring! Brrrrring! Brrrrring!

Jiyong’s phone started to ring, Jiyong saw it was his manager so he answered it.  His manager said there was a problem with one of the song recordings and that Jiyong needed to come back to the studio as soon as possible.  By the time he hung up the phone, he had already arrived at 2NE1’s dorm.  He had missed his chance to talk to Dara.

Just as Dara was starting to step out of the car, Jiyong grabbed onto Dara’s hand.  Please don’t go.  Dara sat back in the car seat and looked at Jiyong’s pleading eyes.  She could feel tears forming in her eyes.  I’ve already made my decision.  You don’t belong to me. Dara reached for Jiyong’s cheek with her free hand. “Please let me go” she said but Jiyong didn’t, instead, his grip on her hand got stronger and his eyes were filled with denial.  “Why?” replied Jiyong whose eyes were now glistening with a thin layer of tears.  “You’re hurting me” Dara whispered back.  Jiyong looked down at his hand and began to slowly let go of her.  His face was paralyzed, he had never meant to hurt Dara but maybe this was all too overwhelming for her.  Dara quickly got off the car and wiped away a tear as she ran towards her building. 

Jiyong looked down at his hand again.  He finally let the tears flow out of him; each streaked his face, each revealed just how much he had been hurting since last night.  

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-ani_bell