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CHAPTER 16. GIFT GIVING

Two months later…

Time flew by so fast that they were almost done filming the movie.  Today they shot one of the most important scenes of the movie in a beautiful private resort.  The filming started as early as seven in the morning and ended at 3 in the afternoon.  Despite this day being a tiring one, everyone’s energy level was up because they were excited for something.

Today was Nov. 3rd Choi Seunghyuns' birhtday was tomorrow.  He was set to fly to Japan for a Bigbang concert tomorrow and the movie crew decided to prepare a surprise dinner for him before he left.  Of course he doesn’t know about it, all he knows is that they were just going to have dinner in the resorts’ function hall.

 Dara, along with at least forty other people waited in bated breathe for their special guest to arrive.  She knew about this special event from the director a week before.  And for that entire week she has been wracking her brains out with what gift to get him for his birthday.  She thought about the things she knew he liked but somehow she feels like anything that money can buy was something very half hearted.  So she decided to use that one skill she was confident with. 

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I smiled to myself in the dark as I clutched at the pretty little envelope in my hands.

Just then the door creaks open.  Light streams into the dark room and illuminates Seunghyuns’ profile who was wearing a dark tailored suit.

“What the…” she heard him mumble when suddenly someone, a very pretty girl, wearing  a black dress steps forward carrying a cake and leads the group as they all yell, ‘surprise’.

He looked really taken aback. Even I was surprised with the multitude of people inside the room.  It seems like the number of guests have doubled was I was busy day dreaming in the dark.

The pretty girl leads the singing of the birthday song. Seunghyun scratches his head and cracks a smile. I could tell he was getting pretty embarrassed, for a celebrity he sure does not handle this much attention on him that well.  The guests start to swarm him with greetings. I wanted to approach him too but I’m just a very small person, I could get trampled in there, so I just waited for the guests to clear out.

I don’t know if everyone was in a hurry but they started giving him their birthday gifts.  In birthday parties that I went to, gift giving usually happens last.  But I guess this one was different.

The pretty girl in black dress gave him two gifts.

“This one is from mother.” She says. Only then did I notice their resemblance and realized she was his sister.

Seunghyun excitedly opens the package.  Some people whistled as a very expensive looking watch was revealed nestled inside the exquisite box.  At least five people gave him his favorite and expensive liquors and wines.  Shin Minah gave him designer limited edition cuff links.

He likes wearing suits Dara! Why didn’t you think of that?!

Of course, Shin Minah was his ex-girlfriend at least she knew that much about him.  The more the gifts were revealed the more she felt despondent with hers.  The pretty envelope that she happily held earlier was now hidden in the pockets of her jeans.  There was no way he was going to find out what a crappy gift giver she was.

“Let’s open one of these!” one of his guy friends cajoled and reached for one of his liquors that were gifted. Seunghyun indulged them and opened a bottle for them, and the guests started drinking.

Dara sighed and looked around then headed for the balcony.

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She was in a pensive mood.  Earlier she was excited to celebrate his birthday but she couldn’t even greet him properly.  It would’ve been probably easier if they were with YG family, but right now most of the guests were Seunghyuns’ ‘other’ friends.

“A penny for your thoughts?” The pretty girl earlier approached to stand beside Dara.  She jumped a bit in surprise.  She was taken aback for a second, apart from the fact that she was sneaked up on; Seunghyuns’ sister was really pretty up close.  She realized they shared the same arresting eyes.

“Hi! I’m Seunghyuns’ sister…you can call me Hye Yoon.” She said offering her hands and she accepted the handshake, “And you must be…”

“Ah…Dara...I’m Sandara Park but you can call me Dara.”

“Oh…” the girl smiled knowingly.  Dara looked down on herself because it suddenly seemed like the girl was looking at her with meaning, and she found nothing wrong with her appearance.

Hye Yoon snapped out of it. It seemed like her brain was flying off somewhere. “I’m sorry…I just suddenly remembered something…” she looked around the balcony then turned back to Dara. “Why did you join the rest of the party inside?” she asked.

“Uh…I just needed some air…” she answered at first but she couldn’t help but blurt out the truth. “Quite frankly…I’m just not comfortable in parties if more than fifty percent of the people are mostly strangers to me.”

Hye Yoons’ eyes rounded and she placed a hand on top of Dara’s, “So am I! I really hate going to parties…especially the ones’ where I’m only forced to go to.  My mother would always tell me that I need to socialize more and I would always tell her…I’m not even good at being friends with my friends..how much more to a bunch of strangers?!” she started rambling on.  “You know…I’m not trying to brag…but because of our genes…a lot of talent scouts have tried to get me into the same business with my brother. But I can’t…I just can’t deal with…” she sighed. “I think I’m the most antisocial person I’ve ever met.”

Dara laughed at the other girls’ ramblings then replied. “No. I think I AM the most antisocial person I’ve ever met.”

They both end up laughing together.

“If Seunghyun was here…I think he would also fight for that title.” Hye Yoon said as they recovered from their laughter.  “He can be a pretty aloof person at times…though he still has a lot of friends.”

“Because he is genuine…there is nothing hypocrite about him and it just draws people in.” Dara answered.

The other girl smiled and stared at Dara.  Dara tried hard not to squirm under her gaze.  She felt weird, like she was being scrutinized.

“I think…you’re both similar.” She said as she gave Dara an approving look.

Dara shook her head and gave out a laugh.

“Well Dara…I think you are sweet and genuine…and there is something pure about you.”

Dara blushed at the compliment and mumbled a thank you.

“Have you greeted him yet?” Eugene asked.

Dara shook her head.

I doubt he even noticed, she thought as she looked back at the party.

“No wonder he looked so restless.”  The other girl mumbled but Dara wasn’t sure if she heard the last phrase right because not a moment later Hye Yoon started to excuse herself, “I’m gong in…just…stay here for a while okay. It was nice to finally meet you.”

“It was nice meeting you too…” she waved to the other girl.

• - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - -

Seunghyun did not expect this surprise party. But then again that was the whole point, to surprise him.  So he’d better expect another surprise party from YG family in Japan tomorrow.

A lot of his friends came today. But quite frankly, he’d rather spend his birthday on a quite dinner with his family. 

His eyes roamed around the room as he looked for Dara.  He knew she was here because he spotted her earlier.  But she suddenly disappeared halfway through the gift giving.  He waited all night for her to approach him and give him his gift…but the blasted girl hasn’t even greeted him yet.

Where was she?

He felt a tap on his shoulder and he looked back to find his sister smiling at him.  He felt crept out by her smile.

“Brother…I may tease you a lot sometimes but there is completely nothing wrong giving up the cool Seunghyun if you’ve found the right girl.” She started.

Seunghyun furrowed his eyebrows at his sister, “What has gotten into you? Are you drunk?” he asked.

She shook her head, “Nope.” She answered. “It’s just that the stars, particularly in the balcony, are quite pretty tonight.”

(guys…I’m sorry if I’ve been away for so long. i really hate dissapointing you...ke ke ke..)