Chapter 68

“Dara…” My name only comes off as a whisper from the woman’s lips. “My sweet baby… Sandara…” She takes a step towards me, but I instinctively take one step back.

“Dara…” Her brows furrow and tears begin streaming down her cheeks.

“Don't…” I hear my voice before I even willed it to speak, “Don’t come any closer…”

Confusion hits me. Why would I say such things to my parents? After not seeing them for so long? But the more I stood there, staring at them. The more anger and resentment came.

“Dara, sweetie.” My ‘dad’ spoke next, wrapping his arm around my crying mother, “Please… don’t be like this.”

“W-Why are you here?” My voice is shaking at the same frequency as my body. My heart was pounding so hard against my chest that it hurt. “Why are you suddenly here?!”

They looked at each other, a look of loss and worry on their faces. “We came for you… Dara… to be a family again.”

Family…?

“We… we’ve been working hard for this day to come. We haven’t forgotten you for a single moment,” My ‘mom’ spoke too quickly as a string of excuses flowed out of . She clutched at her jacket, it was clear she was shaking too. “We only came back when we saw… when we saw how well you were doing. Your interview… We never knew you’d end up in this sort of path. But now look at you. You’re all grown up and successful.”

Alarms started going off in my head. Why now? Why now after all these years when they could’ve easily found me at Sohee’s place so many years ago. What has changed?

“Successful…” I let the word roll of my tongue, and there’s a bitter after taste, “So you come here… wanting to be a family now that I’m ‘successful’?” I look at them with disgust. “Tell me, my loving parents… After abandoning me for so long, if I had not ended up where I am now, would you still be here right now? You left me… because of money… so did you come back because of money as well?!”

The tension was high in the air as they seem shocked, almost scared at my accusation. They looked at each other, both mouths unable to move and explain to their only daughter why they came to see her that day.

Hearing enough, I turn away and walk straight past them towards my apartment, “Leave and never come back. I’m better off without you.”

Suddenly, I feel a strong grip on my arm and am pulled around to face my father. The desperation and fear in his eyes as he grips me, almost shaking me.

“Don’t you say such things to us! Even if we made a mistake, even if we come crawling back shamelessly to you, we still love you!” He says so heartbroken, it almost made me cry as well, “For years, your mother and I have been suffering, not being able to see you or take care of you or watch you get older! But now we can! We are here now to make up for the times lost!”

“IT’S TOO LATE!” I scream back at him and try to fight him off. My mother runs towards us and tries to pull her husband’s hands off of me.

“You’re hurting her! Stop it!” She cries. “You’re scaring her!”

“LET GO OF HER!” A voice comes from a distance as we all turn our heads to look. My mouth drops at the sight, not knowing what will become of this messy situation.

“Sohee?” My father says in surprise, “Is that you?”

Sohee glares at him and doesn’t respond as she marches over to us. She grabs a hold of my arm and roughly pulls me away, putting herself between my parents and I.

“Sohee, honey… what are you—“ My mom says while brushing her tears away.

“Leave here. NOW!” Sohee demands. My parent’s jaws drop and I can’t help but look at her in surprise. “She doesn’t want you here!” Sohee continues, standing her ground.

“Sohee… that’s no way to talk to adults… you don’t understand the situation. Now please step aside.” My father reprimands her, but I only see Sohee’s anger grow.

“I don’t understand?” She scoffs and there it is, Sohee’s b*tch-mode. “After you selfishly ABANDONED your daughter, have you forgotten who she ended up living with? My parent’s took care of your own daughter, raising her as her own after you two ran away without an explanation!” Sohee’s voice rises with each word. Her grip is still around my arm but I can feel her shaking. “You abandoned her, do you really expect her to welcome you back into her life so easily?!”

My parents were left speechless before Sohee eventually pulled me away and towards my apartment, not letting me even get a chance to look back. But I did hear the cries of my mother and it hurt my heart.

In no time, we were both back in my apartment. As soon as I stepped into it, I sunk to the floor as my legs gave away… too shocked to keep me together. Now that my mind had recovered from the trauma of this experience, it began replaying everything over and over again, from the moment I saw them till the moment Sohee saved me.

“Here…” She says quietly and I see a glass of water in front of my face. I hadn’t even noticed Sohee had moved from the door.

“Thank you…” I say, weak and exhausted as I take the cup. I wasn’t thirsty, but for some reason the act of drinking water seemed to help calm my nerves.

Sohee joins me on the floor but doesn’t say a word. We both sit there in uncomfortable silence until I can find my words again.

“Thank you…”

She sighs and rolls her eyes at me, “It was just water. No need to get sappy about it...”

“No… I mean… about standing up for me… taking me away from them…” I say, trying to find the right words. “For helping me…”

She’s silent before suddenly standing up and started pacing back and forth, “I wasn’t helping you!” She stutters, “I was… I was just pissed off because… it’s their fault that they left you… and Omma and Appa had to take care of you. So you stole my spot light and I could never get rid of you!” She whines, clearly frustrated and frazzled. “You were a pain in my and it was all because they left you with us!”

Despite her words, a slow smile crept onto my face at seeing my cousin like this, to see her so embarrassed by what she had done for me. I couldn’t help but notice that something about her changed… but it occurred to me that maybe this was the real Sohee.

She takes a quick glance at me and catches me smiling, “What are you smiling about! I just said you were annoying. My god, you are so weird!” She lets out an aggravated sigh before gathering her set of keys and stuff from the floor, “Never mind. I’ll come back another time. You probably want to be alone.”

“Why did you come?” I asked just as she was slipping her shoes on. She pauses and glances at me and I see the slight blush on her cheeks.

“I just came… to see if you still had… my bracelet.” She mumbled and tugged awkwardly at her clothes. I stare at her, confused by what she’s talking about. “The bracelet! The one that I… the one that we both have, remember!” She raises her voice, clearly embarrassed.

“Oh!” I finally get it and stand up to go find it from my room, but only to come back to see Sohee standing their quietly, zoning off. “Here…” I hand her the pink bracelet that matched my own. It was a symbolism of our friendship… or bond with each other. The one that she discarded long ago when she was still at YG… and the one I still wore everyday.

She takes it and stares at it before slipping it on her wrist, tight. There was another awkward silence before she raised her head to look at me, and our eyes locked. In an instant her arms wrapped around me, bringing me into a warm hug.

“Stay strong, unnie…” She whispered before quickly letting me go and rushed out of my apartment, leaving me in utter shock.

What just happened? There was way too many things to process that happened tonight making my mind spin. My parents and their surprise visit… Sohee’s strange behavior… My phone call with Jiyong…

But at that thought, I remember that just before my parents showed up I was indeed talking to Jiyong. Panic rushes through me as I wonder what he must be thinking and tried to remember what it was we said before my mind went blank. I quickly go out of my apartment and rush down to the ground floor only to find the area completely empty.

I could’ve sworn I had dropped it… and there was no way I was in the right mind to pick it up before Sohee took me upstairs… and my parents… Just at the thought of them made my head and heart hurt.

“This is such a mess…” I sigh to myself before turning back to my apartment thinking about all the troubles that have recently surfaced, “Looks like I have to get a new phone…”

But with my mind too preoccupied, I didn’t even notice the figure standing just a few feet away watching my every move from their usual spot behind the trees.

“Dara!” Youngbae’s voice mixed with his fist banging at my front door fill my apartment early the next morning, “Are you in there?! Open up!”

“Coming! I’m coming!” I call out and rush to the door, wiping dust and sweat off my hands and onto my pants before opening the door and revealing a very covered up yet very frantic Youngbae. “What’ u—“

“WHY AREN’T YOU PICKING UP YOUR PHONE?!” He raises his voice but is suddenly aware of his surroundings and lowers it, just a notch, “Do you have any idea how many times we’ve all called you?!”

I wince and give an apologetic smile, “Sorry… I broke… er… lost my phone last night.” I say, unsure of what it was that I did with it, “I hadn’t gotten a chance to get a new one…”

“Broke it or lost it? You don’t sound so sure…” He looks at me skeptically, before taking notice of what was happening behind me, “What’s going on? Are you moving?!”

I turn to see the boxes I had started on last night, piled up in a corner and other open boxes lying around. “Yeah… I think a change of scenery would be nice… and luckily enough, YG sajangnim has offered to find me a new place closer to the YG building.”

Youngbae is silent before letting out a deep sigh, “Will you please tell me what’s going on here?”

I bite the bottom of my lip before eventually nodding, stepping aside to let him in before closing the door shut.

As I offer to get him a drink, Youngbae settles on the couch and first explains to me why everyone had went on panic mode this morning: Kwon Jiyong. Apparently, after our phone call last night, after hours of torment, Jiyong had tried to call me back. Over and over and over again. The first few times, it went straight to voice mail, but the final time he called, someone had picked up and told him not to call this number anymore, and it was a man’s voice.

“A man?” I ask, slightly confused, yet ruling out Sohee or my mother… Perhaps my father?

“Yeah. So he completely flipped out, called me, TOP, Bom, and CL a million times saying that you had either been kidnapped or having an affair.” Youngbae explains and I want to laugh at Jiyong’s ridiculousness but just end up rolling my eyes.

“Oh god… He’s crazy…” I say while setting down the glasses of water on the table, “Jumping to conclusions as always. He couldn’t have assumed that my phone might have gotten stolen or something?”

Youngbae shrugs and lets out an aggravated sigh, “Well he’d be happy to know it’s not the latter reason. But I think I’ll let him sweat it out a little longer, just to get back at him.” Youngbae winks as I slap his arm lightly.

“Some friend you are.” I scoff and take a sip of water.

“Speaking of friends… so what’s going on, trainee? I’m guessing your sudden move doesn’t have to do with part of your training?”

I hold the glass in my hand and rest it on my lap as I look down into it and watch the water move back and forth. I had stayed up the entire night last night thinking about my parents and their sudden appearance and ended up resorting to packing as my way to distract myself. But in the end, I just needed to let it out.

I start by updating Youngbae with Jiyong, Sohee, and eventually come to explain the situation with my parents. How they seemed to have suddenly appeared before my eyes like smoke or fog, what they said, my mother’s tears, my father’s anger, and their reasons for leaving me the way they did. I explain to him how Sohee showed up again but ended up taking me away from them into the safety of my own apartment. Youngbae listens quietly and attentively as I tell him every detail. Little by little, with each word that had been on my mind for the last few hours being said, my mind became more and more clear.

“So… that’s why you’re moving?” Youngbae asks carefully,” You want to get away from your parents?”

After a few minutes of thinking, I nod with a little shrug, “I thought I’d be happy to have them back. To see them again, to be family like they said. But instead, I was so angry. I hated them. I felt sick upon seeing them and even worse when they said they came back after seeing what I’ve become. How “successful” I am.” I wrap my arms around me as I feel myself shaking again just at the thought. “Maybe this just isn’t the right time for them to come. Maybe eventually I will forgive and forget and welcome them with open arms… but right now, my only thoughts are to get away from them… to show how it feels for someone to disappear suddenly.”

Youngbae sits quietly, letting my words sink in as we sit in silence. But finally, he moves by opening his arms out towards me. I stare at him, slightly confused on what he wants, until I see him move his hands in a ‘come here’ motion. A smile creeps onto my face as I get closer to him, accepting his warm and comforting hug.

“You have every right to be upset and angry at them.” He begins, wording his sentences carefully, “But like you said, this is a bad and sensitive time for you, and probably for them as well. Willingly seeing their daughter in the first time in years must have been hard. From the sounds of your conversation with them last night, it was just an overwhelming amount of emotion all at once. Who knows what was going on in their heads.” He slowly pulls back but keeps me at arms length, letting me see his smile. “Do whatever you need to. But you need to also think very carefully of what you want to do with them. Don’t forget how bad it is and feels when someone jumps to conclusions too quickly…” He gives a little smirk, making me think we were thinking of the same person.

I give a little nod and an appreciative smile, “Thanks, Youngyang.”

His smile grows wider at the name, “I hadn’t heard that name is a long time. I kind of miss it.”

“It’s a great name. Shows my creativity, doesn’t it?” I point my thumb and pointer finger and align it with my chin in a ‘cool manner’, which Youngbae clearly disagrees.

“Why do I even hang out with you?” He shakes his head in embarrassment and pretends to shudder at the sight of my dorky-ness. His eyes roam around my apartment. “So will you be packing up all day?”

“Yeah, I mean I’m not moving out yet, so I’m keeping the necessities out and just packing things I don’t use every day.” I give a little sigh, “YG sajangnim says I can take my time since I only have Gummy sunbaenim’s party to go to.”

“Ah, that’s right. I nearly forgot about that.” Youngbae says, slapping his thigh.

“Oh you’re going?” I ask but immediately realize it was probably a stupid question.

“Yeah, luckily I’m not too busy today so I can go, since the whole YG family is invited to celebrate her album.”

“Oh…” I nod meaningfully. “Does that mean… do you think Jiyong will be able to…?”

But before I can finish, Youngbae is already shaking his head, “I don’t think so, Dara. It sounds like he still has things to take care of over there...” He gives me an apologetic smile as I just nod, already expecting that answer.

“Oh well. I mean, I wasn’t expecting anything more than that…” I say with a shrug. We are left in an awkward silence, both deep in our own thoughts when suddenly Youngbae stood up and began taking off his jacket.

“What are you doing?” I look at him confused.

“Helping you pack.” He says as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “Since I have nothing better to do anyways. As a matter of fact…” He snaps his fingers as an idea pops into his head, “Let’s get some more people to help out, shall we?”

“Are you two almost done?!” CL calls out from my living room as Bom and I are still getting ready in my bedroom.

“ALMOST!” Bom yells as she fixes up my hair and make-up, “THERE WAS A LOT OF WORK TO BE DONE ON THIS ONE.”

“At this rate we are going to be la—“ I can hear Minzy chime in but is cut of by Bom opening my bedroom door.

“THERE. My work of art.” Bom said with pride as she steps aside and lets me walk pass her and out into the hallway where the two other girls are waiting for us.

“Ta-dah!” I open my arms wide to reveal the dress CL had picked out for me. “Is this better?” I ask, anticipating their reaction and twirl around in a simple black sequined dress.

“MUCH better.” CL nods of approval while analyzing me carefully. The fashion queen was really taking ahold of her, “I can’t believe you were going to go in anything else BUT this.”

Originally, I had planned on going to Gummy sunbaenim’s album party in jeans and a T-shirt. But, luckily for me, it turns out I didn’t get the memo. Thankfully, the girls were here to tell me (scold me) that it was going to be much fancier than just a ‘YG family get together’ as I originally thought.

“Now all we have to do is wait for the guys.” Bom said while reapplying her lipstick.

Earlier today, Youngbae had called over both the girls and guys to come over and help us pack up my apartment. One by one, they came over on their own time and eventually we all just ended up hanging out and barely get any packing done. Once it had gotten late, the boys all left to get ready for the party tonight, while the girls had already brought their makeup and clothes over to change into. Although we didn’t get that much done, it was nice to have everyone over. It was a great distraction from everything that has happened lately.

“Unnie, are you sure you don’t want to throw out some of these?” Minzy said while touching a few of the roses displayed in the vase, “Some of them look kind of… dead.”

“Oh,” I laugh and walk over to it, observing the ones that indeed look less vibrant than the rest, “I guess I should, yeah? He wouldn’t mind if I threw them out I suppose…”

“Who? Jiyong?” CL asked and got closer, picking up one of the many cards and read it aloud, “’You are my life, my angel’… He wrote this?!”

I nod, and notice the other girls fake gagging at the cheesiness of his love, “Why?”

“I mean, I know Jiyong oppa was a romantic… but this…” She picks up another and reads it, “This is a little… too corny for him… Right?”

“Really?” I take a look at it myself and shrug, “I mean that’s what I thought too, but who else could’ve sent them to me, right?”

CL raises an eyebrow and eventually shrugs, “That’s true. I guess love makes you do stupid things.”

The doorbell rings making us all jump, “Oh! The boys are here. Let’s go!” Bom says with a mouthful of snacks before rushing to the door to let them in.

“Sorry, we’re late… Seungri ripped his pants and had to cha—“ Youngbae says while walking in but only stops to stare at all of us. The others had a similar expression of pleasant surprise, “Wow! You girls look great.”

“Yeah! Super y!” Seungri chimes in with two thumbs-up.

Us girls all grin ear-to-ear at the compliment, “You guys don’t look half bad, yourselves,” CL says, “Except for you Seungri, you always look the same no matter what you wear.”

“Well, thank yo--. Wait, is that a compliment or not?!”

We all laugh at the usual spectacle of the rat and the cat bickering as we make our way out of my apartment and to the cars.

One by one the girl’s get into the respective cars of the boys. CL with Seungri, still bickering. BOM with TOP and Minzy with Daesung. Leaving me with Youngbae.

He opens the door for me and bows, “Your ride, my lady.”

I laugh at his gesture but slip in graciously, “Thank you, kind sir.”

He makes his way to the driver’s seat, buckles himself in and starts the engine before turning to me, “Ready to see how the YG family parties?”

*BlueNote*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
AN UPDATE. FINALLY.

Anyways, here is a bit of an update and I hope to have another one posted soon.

Again, I'm so sorry guys that I've been taking so long with the updates :(

I hope you guys are still enjoying the story!

*If you are confused about layout/weird details that seem wrong+right at the same time, please read the story description!*