Daniel blinked rapidly as he stared at the girl from head to toe. She had her head bowed and she was sniffing quietly. She was wearing a backpack and another handbag which she rested on the floor.

 

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

 

Dara turned around and wiped her tears. “I-I… uhhh… Daniel-oppa, can I stay here for a while?” she asked, her head bowed.

 

Daniel smiled inwardly and nodded. “Sure. Anything for my cousin,” he said as he instructed the housemaids to lead her to her room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With her knees pulled to herself and her chin resting on her knees, she cried. Her tears didn’t stop falling. She just ran away from home and found herself at her father’s mansion. She hadn’t told anyone, not TOP, not the elder brothers, and especially not Jiyong. Her heart was hurting. How could he do such thing? After all those they had been through?

 

Dara sighed and wiped her tears. Her eyes wandered around and took in her surroundings. The mansion was really large. The guest room Daniel told her to be hers temporarily looked huge, maybe three times bigger than her room back in their home. It was crazy. She felt suffocated because of the enormous space.

 

She then stared at her phone that was resting beside her. Not even a call or a text from him! How dare he?

 

Once again, her tears flowed. Her hand wiped her tears. In the process, she saw the ring she and Jiyong bought the other day. She frowned at it and roughly pulled it off her finger. She then stared at it once again and contemplated if she was really going to throw it away. Finally, she just threw it across the room.

 

She then grabbed her phone and dialed a number. After a few rings, someone picked up the call.

 

“Hello?” it was a woman’s voice.

 

Dara just blinked at her phone, her eyes widened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOP had his back facing her. He heard his phone ringing before it suddenly stopped. He was glad that it did because he was sleeping nicely. Whoever called didn’t know how he didn’t want his sleep to be disrupted.

 

“Hello?” he heard a woman’s voice.

 

His eyes flew open. He then turned towards the woman who answered his phone. She was staring at it, frowning and said ‘Hello?’ again on it.

 

“Give me that,” he said, snatching the phone from hers. He looked at the caller id. Initially shocked, he put the phone on his ear. “Hello?” he said. He heard her breathe on the other line, more like sighed actually. He was glad she didn’t hang up on the phone. “Dara? Are you still there?” he asked, even though he knew she was.

 

“O-Oppa?”

 

“Ah, neh. It’s me,” he said. “Is there something wrong? It’s late.”

 

“A-Are you with someone?” she asked hesitantly.

 

TOP wasn’t able to answer immediately. But he nodded as if she could see her. “Ah, yes. I’m with a…” he trailed off and stared at the woman who hugged him and rested her head on his chest. “…a friend,” he said as he pried her arms off him. He got off the bed with only his boxers on and he went towards their hotel room’s balcony.

 

The cold breeze of the night immediately hugged his bare skin. Even though in goose bumps, he didn’t go back inside to get some clothes on. He didn’t want the woman inside to hear him, to hear a different side of him. He just met the woman tonight and slept with her – a practice he had been doing after the elder brothers accepted Jiyong and Dara. He just couldn’t live the way he lived before after the acceptance. He hadn’t even done his missions. It was like his rebellious side came later than what usually happens on male teenagers.

 

Once he heard Dara’s shaky voice on the other line, he just knew she needed to talk to someone. As for the reason why it wasn’t Jiyong who she needed, he was about to find out.

 

“Okay,” Dara said after a while.

 

“Are you alright? Are you crying? Is there something wrong?”

 

And it came. Dara choked a sob. “Oppa, Jiyong… he…”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOP sped faster than he usually drove. The highways and cars blurred past him as there was only one destination he had in mind. His eyes were straight on the road. His grips on the wheels were tight.

 

When he arrived at their house, he rushed towards Dara’s room. On the floor, his back leaning on the bed, was Jiyong. His hand was holding his phone and his head bowed. When he heard the door to her room opened, he immediately lifted his head. TOP saw streams of tears on his face. There was an expectant expression which immediately changed to a disappointed one when he realized that it was only TOP.

 

“Hyung, Dara… she left,” he said. His voice was weak.

 

TOP’s eyes went towards the opened and empty closets and then back to him. He then stomped towards him, his fists clenched. He then grabbed Jiyong by his collar and landed a punch on his jaw.

 

Jiyong fell on the ground. He then looked up at his hyung. His lips were already bleeding.

 

“What did you do to her?! You dare cheat on her?!” TOP yelled.

 

Jiyong’s brows furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

 

Top then grabbed him by his collar once again and pushed him towards the wall. “Dara left because he saw you kissing Yoona. You dare do that after showing us how you deserve her love?!” he yelled on his face. He then landed another punch on his face and more following as he yelled at him simultaneously. “I shouldn’t have made way for you! I shouldn’t have given up for your sake! I shouldn’t have believed every word you said! I could have loved her more! I could have not hurt her the way you’re doing this to her!”

 

When TOP finished speaking, he still went on hitting the poor guy. However, Jiyong caught him by his fist. He then faced TOP. His face was already bloody, his lips and nose bleeding and a bruise on his eye.

 

“I didn’t hurt her,” Jiyong hissed. “I can love her more than any man can love a woman so don’t you throw those words at me just as easily.”

 

TOP was about to throw another punch using his other fist but Jiyong caught it as well. Gripping on both fists, he pushed him away.

 

“Before you accuse me of anything I haven’t done, why don’t you hear me out first?” he said, wiping the blood from his lips. “I think I know what exactly happened.” Jiyong walked towards his phone which was resting on the floor. He then fiddled on it a little and then shook his head. “As I thought it was…”

 

TOP only stared at him, itching to beat him more, but he was curious as to what he was talking about.

 

Jiyong flashed his phone towards him. “Yoona texted her using my phone. Although I couldn’t see her text to Dara, maybe because she deleted it right away, the message logs showed that there was a text sent from my phone to her during that time. I didn’t text her that time.”

 

“So, you were with Yoona,” TOP said.

 

“I was but just because she promised that if I would see her, she would stay away from Dara,” he said. He then showed TOP a message from Yoona saying the exact same thing he just did. “I was a fool to fall on her trap. I should have known after she told me she was thirsty so I left to buy drinks for us. I left my phone and that must have been the time when she texted Dara,” he paused. “Dara also called several times before that but I wasn’t able to notice since it was on silent.”

 

Jiyong then dropped on the floor.

 

“So, Yoona kissed you?”

 

“She did. I was warning her not to mess with Dara anymore because I would know. But she interrupted me when she pulled me into a hug and she kissed me on the side of my lips,” he explained.

 

TOP was more confused. Although it seemed like Jiyong already explained himself, he was skeptical on believing him or not. He then dropped on the floor and patted him on the shoulder.

 

“Okay. Because you’re my brother, I believe you. To be honest, I can’t really believe that you can do that kind of thing.  I have seen how much you love her.”

 

Jiyong buried his head on his palms. “What am I going to do? Where is she?”

 

“She said she’s in her father’s place,” TOP said.

 

Jiyong stared at him, furrowing his brows. “Her father’s place?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Are you really sure, noona?” Cheondoong asked for the nth time.

 

“Yes, Sanghyun. I already told you right? That’s why you should immediately come home. You need to meet Appa,” she said.

 

There was silence before Cheondoong sighed. “Noona, have you told Jiyong-hyung about this?”

 

Dara was silent for a while too. She looked out of the car window. “No. Not yet.”

 

“Noona, tell him. I don’t know. But I got a bad feeling about this.”

 

“I-I will,” Dara said hesitantly.

 

“What’s wrong? Did you two have a fight?”

 

But before Dara could even answer, the car stopped. “Sandara, we’re here,” it was Daniel who drove her to school.

 

Dara bowed gratefully before she stepped out of the car.

 

“Who was that? He doesn’t sound like any of your brothers,” Cheondoong noticed.

 

Dara gulped. “Uhhh, I’ll call you later. I’m late. I need to run,” she said as she hung up the phone. She sighed in relief as she walked towards school. In fact she was earlier than usual. She just needed to avoid any suspicious questions from him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Dara was near to her classroom, she stopped on her tracks as she saw three familiar figures standing outside of her room with the taller guy talking to the woman while the other guy lazily leaning on the wall with his head bowed low. Dara was about to turn around and leave when the two guys noticed her. Seeing this, the woman also noticed her. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

 

Dara, realizing that she would appear that she was avoiding him when she decides to leave, decided to just enter her room quietly and just ignore him.

 

When she was nearer, he grabbed her by her wrist.

 

“Talk to me,” there was a tone of pleading in his voice. She didn’t know if it was that that made her face him. When she did, she was shocked when his face was full of bruises and wounds. “Please, hear me out, Dara.”

 

“What happened to you?” she asked even before she could stop herself.

 

“Never mind that,” he waved off. He then gripped on both her shoulders. “Are you mad at me? Of course, you must be, right? But, please, Dara, it wasn’t what you think. Yoona, she’s just nothing. Believe me. Please?”

 

Hearing this immediately took the worries she felt towards him away and got replaced with rage. She then struggled to get off his grips but he hugged him tighter.

 

“Please don’t do this, Dara. It’s hurting me more than the beatings I got from everyone,” he said.

 

“Dara,” TOP called from behind her. Jiyong let her go for a while. “I already talked to both Jiyong and Yoona. Yoona set the two of you up. It was part of her plan.”

 

“Oppa, why would you even believe them?” Dara said.

 

TOP then looked down at Yoona, as if telling her it was time. Her brows were furrowed and her nose was flaring out of anger.

 

“Tell her,” TOP told Yoona who looked up at him for a while and then at Dara.

 

“Yes, I did. I did that to ruin your relationship because Jiyong was supposedly mine until you appeared in the scene and took him away from me,” she said.

 

People already started crowding them in the hallways as they chattered and gossiped to each other.

 

Dara looked at Jiyong behind her.

 

“She’s telling the truth. Please, forgive me,” he said.

 

Dara then turned to Yoona again. Her fists were clenching on her sides. Whatever TOP told Yoona was really effective. Somehow, already coming from Yoona, Dara already believed that Jiyong didn’t cheat on her. Besides, it was a confession right?

 

Her gaze zeroed in on Yoona who immediately sensed a heavy aura from her. She backed away a little. But before she could even escape, Dara was already on her way, her claws pulled out as she grabbed Yoona by her hair, not caring that she was making a scene as Yoona kept on cursing and shouting for help. Dara was just angry. Too angry, no one could even imagine it.