It must have been really painful for Dara after leaving the cafeteria. She tried her best not to cry, but she could not contain her feelings. She went to the bathroom and released all the pain she could feel. She was crying so hard that she had this in mind: I don’t want to feel this anymore. Why are you doing this to me, Jiyong? Why?

She was silently sobbing until she heard the door swung open. It was Bom. She entered so she could check the bathroom since she was hearing sobs while passing the hallway.

“Dara-ya!” she uttered, and immediately embraced Dara.

“I can’t do this anymore, Bommie. It’s killing me,” she wailed.

“Why? Tell me what happened,” Bom said while still hugging her best friend.

Dara told Bom everything that happened while she was in the cafeteria with Jiyong. Bom even threatened that she would confront Jiyong right at that very moment and embarrass him in front of the other YG members (artists and dancers alike), but Dara stopped her because it would just cause a bigger trouble especially when the CEO finds it out. So, she just calmed Dara down in the next 30 minutes before returning to the dance practice hall.

“Don’t do it, Dara. It’s the right thing to do,” said Bom.

“I already kept my word. It will be the last time I’ll do it,” replied Dara.

“Did he already tell you what to do?” Bom asked.

“Not yet, I told him to just leave me a message. I can’t bear to see him anymore,” Dara said.

“Check your phone now. We’ll see what we can do,” Bom instructed.

There was no message yet until someone knocked on the bathroom’s door.

“Who is it?” Bom shouted.

“Unnie-ya! Is Dara unnie there? Seungri oppa is looking for her.” It was Minzy’s voice.

“Why? What’s he up to?” Bom was still the one interrogating in behalf of Dara.

“I’m not sure. He needs to talk to Dara unnie personally,” Minzy said.

“Hang on,” said Bom. “I’ll be beside you Dara, okay?” she nodded and they both went out of the bathroom.

“DARA NOONA!!” Seungri shouted. He was agitated because of Dara’s current state. She was not able to fix up herself yet. “WHAT HAPPENED?”

“None of your business, Seungri-ah. Now what do you want?” Bom shrieked.

“I need to talk to Dara noona alone,” he said.

“As you can see, she is not in a good state right now. I can’t leave her. Just tell us what you want to say. Dara would tell me everything anyway,” Bom assured.

“Let’s go to that corner,” Seungri instructed, and the girls, except Minzy who went back to the dance practice hall, followed him.

“What is it now, Seungri-ah?” Bom asked.

Seungri was looking at Dara while she was bowing her head down, and began, “Dara noona, Hyung wants you to join in our performance tomorrow.”

“WHAT?” Bom shouted. “SEUNGRI-AH, YOU KNOW VERY WELL HOW DIFFICULT THAT WOULD BE.”

“Bom noona, we’re performers, right? We can perform and pretend like there’s nothing wrong on stage. This is the only idea Hyung could think of,” Seungri explained. “If Dara noona appears in our performance, people would focus on the chemistry that Jiyong hyung and Dara noona has on stage. Just like the ‘Hello’ days.”

Dara felt sadder. Flashbacks during the ‘Hello’ days came up to her mind. She was so happy back then. They were happy.

“Seungri was right. That’s the only way I could do it,” Dara finally said. “I’ll do it,” Dara said as she rose up her head and looked at Seungri. “Tell me what the plan is.”

Bom, and even Seungri, looked really worried as Dara said those words. But without any hesitations, Seungri explained to them what Dara needs to do in the performance.

“It’s very simple,” he finished. “But noona, can you really do­­--”

“Yes, if that’s the only way this could end,” Dara interrupted him. Bom and Seungri looked at each other, still worried.

“Should I still practice with you today?” Dara asked.

“If you want to, or if you can do it spontaneously tomorrow, it’s okay as well,” Seungri said.

“I will--“

Bom cut her off and said, “Ah! Dara, I think you can just do it tomorrow. You will not mess up anyway, right?”

“Of course not,” she seriously said.

“Okay Seungri, she’ll do it spontaneously. Is there anything else you want to tell her?” Bom asked.

“Noona,” Seungri was looking at Dara. “If you need any help, just tell me. I’ll teach you what you should do,” he said.

“Thank you, Seungri. Don’t bother,” said Dara, letting out a simple smile to assure him. After that conversation, Seungri went back to their dance practice hall while the two girls returned to the bathroom so that Dara could fix herself up.

At another corner, Jiyong was there, listening to their conversation. His face looked guilty. I’m sorry, Dara, he thought.

*******

--EXTRAS--

The night had come and everybody was about to go home to rest after a very long day. The artists and performers in both rooms were already packing up their things. Seungri suddenly entered the hall where 2NE1 was. He was looking for Dara again.

“Dara noona!”

Dara, whose mood finally brightened up for a bit but still feeling exhausted, said, “Seungri-ssi, why?”

“I just want to make sure. Can you really do it tomorrow? You can back out anytime,” he said.

“Yes, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it. It would be the last time,” she said, half smiling.

“Ok ok. Noona, please know that I’m still rooting for you. I don’t like her, too,” Seungri whispered. Dara just chuckled when she heard that from him.

“I’m going now,” he said. He was about to leave the room until he uttered, “Noona, I forgot to do something.”

“What is it this time?” she asked.

“Let’s have a selca together,” he ordered.

“A selca? For what?”

“So that everyone knows that you’re okay,” he said.

“Ahh, Seungri-ah,” she awed.

Seungri took out his phone and took a selca with Dara. He was happy because he made Dara smile even for a while. Jiyong hyung, look at what you are missing, he thought.

After taking the selca, he bade goodbye to everyone and left the room. He posted it in his “Seungchan’s Diary” and Twitter account the next day.