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Just Another Song“Good morning,” Dara whispered lazily, as she opened her eyes and looked at the glow-in-the-dark stars at her bedroom’s ceiling. She stretched her arms and pointed to one star and connected it to another as if she’s making constellations in her head. This also made her get up from bed, and exhaled.
“Good morning, Tam Tam!” She lightly smiled and patted the ears of the purple rag rabbit doll beside her. It has always been her stress reliever. Everytime she sees it in her bed doing nothing but just sit down, comfort comes inside her. Sometimes, she just wished that she’s in Tamtam’s position, knowing nothing, feeling nothing. Unfortunately, she can’t, because she’s a human being destined to face the cruelty of the world day by day.
She went to the bathroom to prepare herself for another busy day. Ever since she became a member of one of the most popular girl groups in Korea, her routine has always been like that. She would wake up and prepare even though the sun has not yet risen, because anytime soon, her manager would pick her up. For this day, they have a scheduled rehearsal at YG, the company where she worked, because it’s almost the end of the year and there are a lot of music shows that invited them to perform. End of the year, she thought. It would have been her favorite holiday until she found out something the other day.
She has just finished packing her things until she heard a knock on her apartment’s door. She looked through the peephole and saw her manager outside. He just arrived to pick her up. She was about to leave her apartment until someone called through her landline.
“Yeoboseyo?” she said.
“Dara? Are you awake? Can we please talk?”
She recognized that voice. A voice that she has been waiting to hear for quite some time.
*FLASHBACK*
News from different sites have emerged after someone posted a mysterious photo in a social networking site. The mysterious photo spread easily because it involved two of the most famous celebrities today. Netizens have suspected that the man in the photo was G-Dragon, the leader of Bigbang, and together with him in the photo is a woman whom they also suspected to be Kiko Mizuhara. She was the same woman who was rumored to be dating with GD a few years ago.
Dara was spending her Christmas holiday happily until Bom, her best friend and co-member, called her in her mobile phone and told her to read the news-slash-rumor spreading all over the Web. She complied and when she saw it, she thought to herself, why should I still care? Something stung inside her as she read the news as well as the comments of some netizens.
There are some comments which said that the photo was Photoshopped. Some even compared it to the photo that GD posted in his Twitter account, a view of the horizon in the lake, with the caption “Merry Pinkmas”. The comments on this rumor somehow struck Dara especially when her name was mentioned, although she has nothing to do about it.
Has she not?
Upon looking at the photo and reading the comments, she suddenly shut down her computer, lay down on her bed and just listened to music using her phone. She was trying to hold back her tears.
“Neomu chakhan neonde neon geudaeroinde oh
I don’t know, I don’t know
Naega wae ireoneunji
Geutorok saranghaenneunde neon yeogi inneunde oh
I don’t know
Ije nal chatgo sipeo”
Those were her lines from their song “Lonely”. Yes, she was lonely on a Christmas day.
All of the YG artists and employees were permitted to spend the holidays until the 26th. This meant that Dara still had a day left to unwind and reflect on what she had read. This still bothered her emotions, although she already told herself that she will move on. It turned out that she still hadn’t. At all. It was never lost. Her feelings.
*END OF FLASHBACK*
“Dara? Are you awake? Can we please talk?” said the person on the other line.
“Uhm…” She was thinking of the right words to say. But she was not yet ready to do it.
“I’m s-sorry,” she stuttered. “I am late for the rehearsal. I have to go.” Perfect excuse.
She dropped the call without waiting for the person on the other line to respond. Her hands were quite shaking as she put down the phone. She left her apartment carrying all the things she had to bring, but she couldn’t leave the burden she was carrying in her heart. Then again, she had to move on.
Meanwhile, the person who called Dara seemed furious. He immediately grabbed his luggage and rushed through the airport.
Jiyong couldn’t wait to go home.
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