~Dara POV

“Did you hear about Park?”

“Park who?”

“SANDARA.”

“Ahah, I hear a lot of things about her! What happened now?”

“Omo! Tell me too!”

“Ah, I heard from Kim earlier that—”

“Shh! She might hear us. Say it later.”

I walked up to the small group that formed at the back of the room. They immediately dispersed so I addressed the whole room. “If you want me to hear what you’re saying about me, get up on the podium and say it.” I pointed to the front of the class. “But, if...say, you just wanted to gossip, please learn how to whisper properly.”

Everyone was silenced. Before I could get back to my seat, this guy, wearing a hoodie, jogged up from the door to the podium. “Annyeong.”

It was Kwon Jiyong.

“Yah!” I pointed at him, my eyes screaming KILL.

He just smiled at me and continued. “Judging from the stories that surfaced overnight, I’m sure you all know me. But nonetheless, I am Kwon Jiyong, 4th year in business and performing arts. There are many things that I’d like to verify and deny about the stories going around, so until I get the chance to explain the situation myself, I would gladly appreciate it if you stopped spreading these absurd stories.” He smiled at me after he finished and murmurs went around.

What stories?

“Dara-ah,” he said.

I looked to him.

“Kajja?”

“Wae?”

He strode to me, picked up my bag on the way, grabbed my hand and dragged me to the exit at the back of the room.

“I still have classes! Where are you taking me? YAH! You’re always—” He pushed us through a door and into a dark room. My voice lowered to a whisper. “Yah...where are we?”

He let my hand drop. “Can you see?” I heard him say.

“Yes, I can see perfectly, it’s bright as day. Oh look! Is that the floor? A wall?”

“Let your eyes adjust first, look over there.”

“Are you pointing? I CAN’T SEE WHERE YOU’RE POINTING.” Then I felt him grab my hand and directed it towards where he wanted me to look. I saw a small light, but as my vision adjusted, a very dimly lit stage was revealed.


~Jiyong POV

“Where are we?” Dara asked.

“Auditorium,” I quickly replied, striding over to the control room to turn on a few lights floor lights just so we won’t trip over the seats or anything like that.

From the control room, I heard her say, “I didn’t know we had this place, it’s—” the tardy bell rang, “YAH!”

I winced at her voiced and marched out of the control room and up to her. “Aish! Are you perhaps a member of the Spirit Committee?” I asked bitterly. “I swear my eardrums are going to pop if I spend any more time with you.”

“Yeah, because I enjoy your company sooooo much~! You’re always making me skip class and—” her phone started to ring and her eyes grew wide. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“There you go screaming again!”

She threw her sling on bag at me and ran away. “ANSWER IT.” She ran down the center aisle, up the stage and through the curtains. But she quickly came back out. “It’s dark in there...” She saw me just watching her. “YAH! I said to answer it!” She sat crisscrossed in the middle of the stage, waiting for me to answer.

“Nice ringtone,” I commented with a smirk before digging into her bag and answering, “Yoboseyo?”


~Dara POV

“Yoboseyo?” Kwon Jiyong answered my phone while looking at me. “Oh! Lee ahjusshi...?” His brow crinkled. Does he know ahjusshi? My brow crinkled like his too. “Deh...She’s with me...How—...Deh. But wae—” He slowly put the phone back into my bag.

He continued to look at me weirdly. “Dara-ah...”

I waited for him to say something, but since he didn’t I asked, “You know Lee ahjusshi?”

“Deh...”

I scrambled to my feet. “Yah! Kwon-sshi! Waeyo? Why are you acting like—” I stopped short when he suddenly smiled.


~Jiyong POV

“Kwon-sshi?” I asked playfully. “Shouldn’t you be calling me oppa?”

“Yah, stop joking around. Aish! I’m going back to class! You can stay here and call yourself oppa!”

She started stomping her way down the stage. She grabbed her bag from me and made her way to the door we entered in. “Dara-ah...” She continued to walk away. “Dara-ah...” I grabbed her wrist. I expected a punch to come my way judging from the look she was giving me just earlier, but instead, she slammed her palm right to my nose.

“Sorry if you your nose hurts, but don’t make that face!” she said.

I gently grabbed her hand and removed it from my face. “Arasso. Just don’t go back to class today.”

“Wae?”

“Let’s sit down.”

“Tell me first!”

“Let’s sit first!”

“You sit! I’m not sitting down until you tell me. Get me some soil; I’m planting my feet on the ground.”

I looked at her questioningly. Did she actually just say...? Aigoo, this girl’s sense of humor. She’s so cuuuute~ But she doesn’t find it funny? I’m trying so hard not to laugh at her “soil” joke. Well, I didn’t find the joke funny...I found the fact that she was so serious when she said it that—

“Yah!” she disturbed my thoughts. “What’s so funny?”

I shook my head and grabbed her wrist again. I tugged her to a seat and sat beside her. I looked straight ahead at the stage. “Have you heard the stories?” From my peripheral vision I saw her shake her head. I guess Dara was tired of bickering now too.

“Good.”

She turned to me and shoved my shoulder a bit with both her hands. Forget I said a word about how she was tired of bickering. I swear this woman does not tire... “Yah, what stories? Tell me or else I’m going to—”

“Or else you’re going to plant your feet on the ground? AHAHA! It’s kind of hard to dig here, Dara-ah, we’re on the 3rd floor—YAH!”

She bit my ear.

She bit my ear.

She bit me right on my ear.

Blood rushed to my face as I faced her wide-eyed.
~Dara POV

“YAH!” I shouted at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?” Oh right...because I bit you... It was an instinctive thing! I think.

“You’re asking for it, aren’t you?”

“Asking for what?” I swear his eyes dilated. What am I? Some kind of prey?

“TO BE BITTEN.” Aish! I forgot! I forgot that he said he would bite me if I bit him! Omo! Ottoke ottoke??

I stood, prepared to run away, but Kwon Jiyong grabbed my wrist again and pulled me to down to my seat.

“Dara-ah,” he cooed and he inched closer.

“Yah! Kwon Jiyong! If you bite me, I’m going to kick you where it hurts and make sure that you won’t be able to continue your generation!”

“Dara-ah, but that would be inconvenient for you too, pabo.” He pulled me to his lap and I went red. Why am I blushing? Why am I blushing? Dara, calm down, this guy should not be able to make you blush. You hate him, remember? Just remember that, Dara. Omo! I’m even calling myself by the nickname he gave me! Aigoo, that’s bad! I pushed at his chest as hard as I could but I lost my balance and nearly fell back, but he instantly wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer.

“Come on now, Dara-ah, don’t be shy.”

“SHY?! I’m not shy! Why would you make me shy? I’m NOT shy!”

He broke into a grin. “Arasso. Then prove it. Don’t move away.”

“Yah! What kind of—” he pulled me even closer and swooped down to my neck.

“If you’re not shy, then keep still.”

For the sake of my pride, I stayed put. But I went stiff as he breathed in my scent. Is he a dog? Stop smelling me, huu huu. A dog with rabies? Huu huu huu. I felt his hot breath at the nape of my neck and I prepared myself for the sharp tugging pain of his teeth. But it never came. Instead, I felt something warm and soft press into my skin. WAH! Is he kissing me?!

“Yah!” I pushed myself off him and struggled to my feet. I placed my index fingers on the sides of my head and wiggled them, staring at him.

“Why do you always do that?” he composedly asked as though he didn’t just kiss me earlier. Aish, the nerve.

“None of your business.” I walked away, still wiggling my fingers.

“Yah, Dara-ah, please don’t go out.”

“Why should I listen to you?”

“Because I’m your boyfriend.”

I scoffed, putting my hand down.  I looked at him. Boyfriend? Is he still going on about that? I frowned.

“I don’t want you to get hurt, Dara-ah. They’re saying some really...inappropriate things out there. Dara please.”

Aish. I sighed.

“Just sit down and let’s just talk until lunch time and we’ll eat.”

“Eating requires going out. You’re so contradictory.”

“Yes, but Seungri will be out of his classes then too, and both of us can be with you to protect you. I really wish I am enough to prot—”

“Seungri? Who’s that? I always—”

“YAH! You just cut me off when I’m to say some mushy boyfriend things!”

I rolled my eyes. There we go with the boyfriend thing again.

“Come here and sit, Dara.”

I did what he said, finally complying to his wishes. He just looked so desperate, I kind of felt sorry for him. Still though, he needs to stop with the boyfriend thing before I kick him down there.

“Let’s just talk. Ask me anything,” he said.

I bit my lip and thought about it. “About the stories...”

“Not that.”

“You said to ask you anything!”

“Anything but that.”

“Aish, you’re so annoying. Okay, Seungri then. Who’s he? I heard your friends talking about him yesterday too.”

“Of all the questions! Why are you asking about other guys? I wanted you to ask things about ME~~~” What a whiny guy...

“You’re not answering anything~~” I whined like he did.

“You really don’t know Seungri?”

“No.”

“He was there yesterday. The guy who freaked out and pointed at you. The one that the waitress kept hitting to be quiet.”

“Oh! I remember.”

“You really don’t know him?”

“I told you already!”


~Jiyong POV

I looked at her seriously. “He confessed to you last month...” No reaction. “You accepted the chocolates?” She doesn’t seem to remember... “You accepted the chocolates and walked away without saying a single word.”

Her eyes widened in recognition. “At the university gate?”

I nodded.

“He confessed to me?”

I nodded.

“Really?!?! I thought he was giving out chocolate samples!”

I nearly choked on my own tongue after hearing her response. “He was strongly hurt... He thought you rejected him, yet all this time, you weren’t even aware of his affection towards you, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.” And I continued to laugh until I saw a pout surface on her face. Kyaaaa~ She’s so cute. Did I just say “kya” ? Aha, that probably wasn’t me...

“It’s just that no one ever confessed to me before...” she said softly.

My smile slowly fell and I just looked at her for a while. “Was it someone else in your body during your first few days in school when all those boys flocked you, asking for your heart? Or, as a matter of fact, even for some time in bed?”

“Aish, what are you talking about?”

“You say you’ve never been confessed to?”

“Yeah.”

“Never?”

“NEVER.”

“YAH!” I shouted so loud that she gave a little jump.  I leaned towards her so we were only inches apart. “I CONFESSED TO YOU JUST YESTERDAY!”

She looked back at me blankly.

“What did you think I was doing, asking for a sandwich, when I asked you to be my girlfriend?!”

A flash of anger and annoyance washed over her face. “You didn’t ask me! You tricked me into being your girlfriend!”

I leaned in even closer to her, our faces nearly touching, and a smile made its way to my lips. I placed my arms around her neck and pulled her into a hug. “Oh, so you admit that you’re my girlfriend now? Great! When should we get married?”

She pushed me. “When? Of course when and if you meet my father, muster up the courage to ask for my hand, and by some miracle gain his favor without getting zapped or kicked out of the country,” she said with a smirk on her lips and a gleam in her eyes.

She thinks it’s impossible? Oh Dara...do you not know that you practically set the date of our wedding? A smirk crept up to my lips.

“Oh, did I mention that I’m set up for an arranged marriage?”

I whipped to her. BWO? Did I hear her properly? Arranged marriage? I blinked.