“Looks like it’s going to rain.”

Dara followed Kris’ gaze upward. Dark, heavy clouds were beginning to crowd each other out in the early afternoon sky.

“So you aren’t wasting a good beach day after all,” Dara said as they headed inside the Mall near the shore.

Kris sighed as he held open the door. “When was spending time with each other ever a waste?”

They’d been trying to be a couple again for the past several days. But it was hard. Dara knew Kris was still resentful of Jaejoong. And she couldn’t blame him – even though it was breaking her heart to see Jaejoong suffer like he so obviously was.

Dara steered Kris into the junior department at the mall. Big back-to-school signs were hung from the ceiling and TV’s in the walls blasted K-Pop videos.

“Are you looking for anything in particular?” a clerk asked, coming up to them.

Dara shook her head. “Just looking.” She finigered a velvet short-sleeved mock turtleneck.

“You’d look nice in that,” Kris offered.

Dara hung the hanger back on the rack. “ You think?”

Kris nodded.

Dara stared down at the floor. Here they were, trying to be a couple again when they both knew it could never be like before. She hated the awkward feeling that sat in the pit of her stomach. She’d never felt this way around Kris. They used to just have fun together. Now it was just one heavy-duty guilt trip.

“Do you want to go in the Record Store? Check out the new releases?” Kris suggested.

“Okay.” I wonder what Jae’s doing now.

Once inside, Kris put a pair of headphones and listened to some new releases while Dara flipped halfheartedly through the latest albums.

It wasn’t any different in the bookstore. Kris headed for the boarding magazine while Dara pored over the latest fashion magazine.

Spending the day together? Not.

As the headed down one of the mall’s huge corridors Dara noticed a guy and a girl standing near the mall’s water fountain. The girl was wearing a shirt that Dara had at home in her closet. They guy had his arms around the girl’s waist, and she was smiling at him, her head tilted to the side. They were completely wrapped up in each other. When the girl leaned forward and kissed him, Dara smiled.

“What?” Kris asked, noticing her expression.

“Oh, nothing. Them, I guess.” Dara nodded in the couple’s direction. “They look happy. It makes me happy. Silly, huh?”

“Nothing you do is silly, baby,” Kris said. To Dara’s surprise, he slipped his arm around her. He hadn’t shown her much affection since their almost breakup. “We could try to be like that again, baby.”

Dara looked in Kris’ eyes. “Try?” she repeated softly. “We never had to try before.”

Kris looked at her for a few seconds in silence. “I guess you’re right.” He started walking down the corridor. Dara hurried to catch up.

“Don’t, Kris,” Dara urged. “Can’t we be honest with each other?” Kris chuckled. “I mean…” Dara faltered, trying to find the right words to say. “Isn’t that what we are doing here? Trying to give our relationship another chance?” She smiled brightly at him. “Ice cream. My treat.”

Kris took Dara’s hand, and as they walked forward the food court he gave her fingers a little squeeze, just like he always did.

Dara squeezed his fingers back tightly.

She wasn’t ready to let go.

**

“How…how can you even talk to me?” Dara mumbled as she and Mrs. Kim finished drying the dinner dishes Thursday night. She hadn’t been able to look Kris’ stepmother in the eye since Hayi had told the Kims everything on Sunday. Dara hadn’t even been there for dinner, but she needed to keep busy.

After leaving the mall, she and Kris had driven to a pretty café up the coast for dinner and stopped at a few souvenir shops. They’d even hit the art museum.

But the day hadn’t been fun. Oh, sure, they’d maintained upbeat fronts. Kris had bought a new shirt, Dara got some souvenir postcards and boxes of saltwater taffy for her friends, and they’d both proclaimed dinner was “fab.” But you’re just a big fat liar, Dara Park, and you know it. She was too busy feeling guilty and sad to enjoy anything, and Kris, although he denied it, was totally mistrustful.

Could she blame him? The magic that had once been there between them was gone. Dara knew it, and, she suspect