“Ugh, the cafeteria’s packed again,” Seungri groaned as they stepped into the cafeteria.

 

Jiyong lazily walked towards one table as his friends followed behind him. When they arrived, the students on that table scampered away, not meeting the gaze of the great Kwon Jiyong. With that, he and his group sat comfortably as if they owned the place.

 

“What shall I eat?” Seungri said, eyes looking around students’ trays of food.

 

“Yah! The foods are there. You’re not thinking of snatching other’s foods, are you?” Daesung said, smacking the younger guy’s head.

 

Seungri groaned and looked up to their leader. “You’re not eating?” he asked but didn’t get a response as he noticed his eyes looking at a far distance. Daesung and Seungri followed his gaze as they were the only ones who noticed him.

 

They saw what, or rather who, Jiyong was looking at a distance, his eyes unblinking.

 

Daesung slumped to his chair and sighed. “Look at him being a protective brother. He kept on watching her every move, maybe afraid that she would be approached by some guys. At first, I thought he had a crush on her like the other guys in our school, but those stares were actually meant to protect her from them,” he said knowingly. “You’re such a protective brother.”

 

“Oh! Speaking of which…” Seungri snapped his fingers and leaned forward towards Jiyong. “Was what the boys said true?” he asked, referring to the other members of their group. He and Daesung were Jiyong’s closest among them.

 

Jiyong looked down at the maknae of the group. “What is?”

 

“Youngbae didn’t join us for two days now. The boys said you beat him up,” Seungri said.

 

“Why would Jiyong beat him up?” Daesung butted in.

 

Seungri looked at him incredulously. “Are you blind or deaf? Youngbae has had a crush on Dara since forever. He’s just so lucky that they’re classmates in Chemistry. But he never confessed his feelings because he thought Jiyong had a crush on her too. So with what I heard from the other boys, when he learned that they’re actually siblings, he was about to confess his feelings to her. Until you…” Seungri said, pointing at Jiyong accusingly. “…beat him up.”

 

Jiyong scoffed. “I would know who’s best for her.”

 

Daesung nodded. “Right. Because she’s his sister, he would know.”

 

Jiyong shifted his gaze to Daesung as the latter sank on his seat holding out a peace sign although he wasn’t sure why the former’s stare looked deadly.

 

Jiyong’s gaze returned to Dara as she had her back towards her. She was eating alone. If he had noticed since a while ago that she was eating alone, he would have accompanied her.

 

Suddenly, two girls approached her. Dara looked up from her food as she listened to what the girls were telling her. She looked down and pointed with her chopsticks to her back. The girls followed where she was pointing and their gazes met Jiyong. They bowed before running towards Jiyong’s table.

 

‘So she knows I’m here?’ he thought as he ignored the girls talking in front of her.

 

“So, please accept this, Jiyong-oppa,” the girls said, reaching their own boxes of chocolates towards him. However, Jiyong never took his gaze off Dara, battling within himself if he would approach her or not. They had been ignoring each other. Dara had been avoiding her, even at home, even choosing not to eat breakfast with them.

 

“Hey,” Seungri nudged him but Jiyong didn’t seem to feel it. Hesitantly, he received the boxes of chocolate in behalf of him as the girls bowed thankfully towards him. “I’ll eat th—oh, I mean, Jiyong will eat this happily,” he said to the girls. When they were no longer in earshot, he turned to Jiyong. “So… are you taking this home?”

 

Jiyong didn’t answer though as he started getting up from his seat.

 

Seungri caught his wrist and asked, “So does it mean it’s mine?”

 

Jiyong looked down and glared at him, causing the maknae to let go of his wrist. The former then walked away, leaving his friends.

 

“It’s a yes,” Seungri said, nodding to Daesung.

 

“Hey! You already had two boxes for today. These two are mine now!” Daesung said, snatching the boxes of chocolates from Seungri.

 

Meanwhile… Jiyong was walking his way towards Dara’s table when his path was blocked.

 

“Jiyong, we need to talk,” it was Youngbae.

 

Jiyong glared at him. “Youngbae, we already talked. Do you need more of those ‘talks’?”

 

“I like your sister. Just give me a—“

 

Youngbae was cut off when Jiyong landed a punch on the guy’s face, causing him to fall backwards and the students to crowd around them.

 

“Not another word about Dara,” Jiyong snarled before he looked up to where Dara was sitting only to find it empty. He impatiently pulled his hair out of frustration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOP was walking on the dark road, his hands inside his pockets as he bowed his head down. It was late and he just accomplished one of his clients’ missions for him. The moment he arrived at the front porch of their house, the door opened and out came Jiyong who looked like he was hurrying.

 

“Yo,” he greeted when he walked past him, not earning any response as he watched his brother walking away.

 

TOP frowned before he got inside the house. As it was late, he was expecting the house silent. Kush and Teddy were on their respective missions while Dara was probably upstairs sleeping. Although, he must admit, he was kind of wondering what was up with Jiyong. If he thought back of it, he looked kind of angry at something.

 

TOP stared upstairs, wondering if Jiyong and Dara got into a fight or something. The two were acting weird lately, weirder than they usually were. He sighed and turned to the kitchen. He had decided since years ago not to meddle with Jiyong and her business. He had long given up.

 

He started searching for dinner as he had not taken it yet. He found some microwave-ready foods and he went into the oven to heat them up, setting up the required time. He decided to take a quick shower before eating so he went up the stairs. When he was halfway up, Dara hurriedly walked past him, fixing something on her skimpy and tight black dress, not noticing TOP on the stairs.

 

Suddenly, Dara stopped on her tracks and looked up at TOP who was staring down at her too.

 

“Oh? You’re home,” Dara noticed.

 

That was also the time that TOP noticed the heavy makeup painted on her face with a blond bob-cut hair. He blinked several times as his eyes wandered along her body.

 

“I-I’m going to work,” Dara said. “Goodbye, oppa.”

 

“I’ll send you there,” TOP interrupted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a silent journey inside TOP’s car as TOP kept his gaze ahead while Dara was awkwardly fiddling with her fingers on her lap. Dara was wondering what came into TOP’s mind why he just decided to drive her to work.

 

“Oh, I’ll work here tonight,” Dara said, pointing at a club called ‘Diamonds’.

 

TOP gently stopped his car but Dara didn’t go out yet. She was going to thank him but she couldn’t find her voice. TOP didn’t also say anything.

 

“You shou—“

 

“Then I’ll b—“

 

They said together. But TOP cleared his throat and motioned for her to continue.

 

“Then, I’ll be going. Thanks for the ride,” Dara said before turning to the door to open it but before she could, she heard TOP speak.

 

“Jiyong doesn’t know this, right?” he asked.

 

Dara turned to him and shook her head. “He’ll get mad.”

 

“You know that you don’t need to do this, right?” TOP asked.

 

Dara smiled. “Thank you oppa. But I do need this. Although, I don’t think I could tell you exactly what I need this for.”

 

TOP sighed and decided to let it go. He decided not to pry on her business. Dara turned her back again when TOP spoke again. “I’m sorry for the past days. I’ve been really grumpy to you and I think I upset you.”

 

Dara smiled again. “No need to apologize, oppa. I’ll get going then,” she said, going out of the car. She leaned down as TOP started the engine. She waved at him until his car was nowhere in sight.

 

Even when she couldn’t see the car anymore, her smile never faltered. It was weird at first, how he approached her so suddenly but those words warmed her heart. With one last sigh, she turned and walked towards the club.

 

She fixed her wig on her head and tried to pull her short dress downwards. Although she had been doing this for a year already, she still gets awkward and uncomfortable with dresses like this. Anyway, it wasn’t really ‘her’ who uses it. It was the ‘other side of Dara’ who no one knew of except her family.

 

She walked inside the crowded club. People were dancing with their friends and partners on the dance floor while the others stayed on their seats drinking. She joined the people dancing on the floor and swayed her hips along with the music; her eyes were wandering around the club, looking for her victim for the night.

 

She felt a hand wandering on her waist and she turned around, not wanting to make it obvious that she was uncomfortable with his advances, especially because she had stopped doing this for months but she found the need to do this recently. Her gaze met a young guy’s eyes who was also biting his lips while checking her out.

 

After a while, Dara was starting to loosen up as she started to dance with him. Their gazes never broke as the guy’s hands wandered around her body while Dara’s hands were on the guy’s nape, keeping him close to her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jiyong arrived home at around twelve thirty in the morning. He was pissed off at his client when they met and discussed the mission he was going to do for him. His client was asking him to leave Seoul because the guy to be assassinated was at America at that time. Jiyong didn’t want to leave Seoul. He was still having unresolved issues with Dara and besides, this would be his first time leaving home. He was always doing his job just around Seoul or just within Korea.

 

Maybe it was his temper that night or because of the fact that Dara kept on avoiding him that he eventually burst out and was about to beat his client up to a pulp when the latter kept on insisting him to accomplish the mission even though he clearly told him he was declining it along with the money. It was his first time declining it and the money at stake was a big amount too. So it was really saying something.

 

He puffed his last stick of cigarette before he went inside of the house because he knew that Dara didn’t like the smell of cigarette smoke. When he stepped inside, Kush was leaning his back on the wall as he was being treated by an unskilled TOP beside him.

 

Kush weakly looked up and Jiyong got a clear view of his beaten-up face.

 

“What happened?” Jiyong asked.

 

“Oh, nothing, I just—“

 

“Where’s Dara?” Jiyong interrupted Kush.

 

“Aish, here I thought you’re being caring for me for a second,” Kush said weakly.

 

Jiyong turned to TOP who was having a hard time working with bandages. “Is Dara asleep?”

 

TOP stared up at him. “About that…” he trailed off, causing Jiyong to grab him by his shirt’s collar and lift him up. He was having a hunch where Dara was and he was hoping that TOP was saying otherwise. “She went to work. Club Diamonds.”

 

Jiyong released TOP as he quickly drove to where Dara was. In no time, he arrived and when he entered the noisy club, he quickly scanned on the crowd of dancing people. It would be harder though because as usual, Dara would be in her disguise. He mentally scolded Teddy and Kush for once influencing and dressing Dara up when she was younger, as if she was their doll. He remembered how fascinated they were when she entered their family.

 

Desperately, he pulled every girl to look at their faces and confirm if it was Dara. Every time he failed, he would shove the girls away from his way and look at the next person. He pulled his hair in frustration and stomped his foot, earning some weird glances from around him.

 

Suddenly, his eyes caught a petite girl with a guy on a sofa at a far distance. Without so much hesitation, he stomped his way towards the direction. It seemed they were kissing or something. He saw how the guy was leaning closer to her as she was even holding him by his nape, as if deepening the kiss more. He saw how the guy’s hand wandered on her legs and they were closing in just under the hem of her short dress.

 

Jiyong ran faster towards their direction and without really confirming it was Dara, he pulled the guy by his shoulder and punched him on the jaw.

 

“What the…” the guy wiped the blood that was trickling from his lip and then looked up. He was about to get up and fight back when Jiyong repeatedly kicked him on his stomach.

 

“Jiyong! Jiyong, stop it!” Dara pulled Jiyong as he stared menacingly at her. He roughly pulled her by her wrist and out of the club. They kept on walking while Dara kept on complaining on how his grip on her wrist hurt.

 

After some time of walking, Jiyong turned to face her and then glared down at her some more.

 

“Jiyong, let go!” Dara screamed, causing Jiyong to finally realize how tight his grip was all this time.

 

He was about to apologize when he remembered why he was there to fetch her in the first place. “What the hell were you doing?”

 

“I should ask you that! I could have gotten his wallet from his suit already! Just a few inches and then I’ll be ab—“

 

“Why the hell do you still do that kind of job?!” Jiyong screamed.

 

“I needed money, alright?” Dara’s voice softened.

 

“We earn more than enough. Why would you need money?” Jiyong’s voice was still loud.

 

“I don’t want to burden you!” Dara answered back, her voice rising too.

 

Jiyong sighed. “Dara, we talked about this many times before. Why don’t you just stop this kind of job?”

 

“Why do you even want me to stop this? This is the only way I could earn money faster. You don’t expect me to work on a simple restaurant and get only a small salary.”

 

“That’s better than this kind of dirty job.”

 

“Your job’s dirtier, Jiyong! You don’t have the right to tell me what a dirty job is or what’s not.”

 

“Just shut up, Dara! I don’t want you seeing in clubs again. Stop wearing that wig and those skimpy short dresses that’s revealing your skin. Don’t you see how men are drooling all over you?”

 

“That’s the only way I cou—“

 

Jiyong pulled her face closer but he stopped just inches away from hers. He gulped at their distance. He wasn’t thinking of what he was doing until now. It was a relief that he was able to stop himself before he could shut her up with his lips against hers.

 

Dara’s eyes were widened. She tried pulling away but Jiyong kept her face in place.

 

“I don’t want seeing you being touched by those filthy hands,” Jiyong whispered, his voice dangerously low, his breath fanning Dara’s cheeks. 

 

--

a/n:

 thank you to Bernny for the poster. :)