Day 61

 

The door to the apartment opened and Dara immediately rushed to peek who it was – as if there would be anyone else who would know the password to the apartment. Her head was poking from the bathroom, leaving her chore unattended. It could wait, she thought. She smiled when his eyes met hers. He smiled back. No more words were exchanged as she went back to her work – fixing the toilet.

 

Jiyong passed by the bathroom and looked down at what she was doing at the moment. “I was just gone for a week and you managed to clog my toilet?”

 

“I was bored so I purposefully clogged it,” she joked.

 

Jiyong chuckled, shaking his head. “Did you meet your friends over the week?”

 

She nodded. “It had been long since I last saw them,” she said as she finished her task. She took off her gloves and washed her hands. “They wondered where I was so you don’t have any idea how much I tried to relax myself while lying to them.”

 

“You sure you didn’t leak what your job was?” he asked.

 

“Yes, your majesty,” she said while she passed by him.

 

“You sure I can trust you with that?” he asked.

 

Dara sighed and faced him. “You think I’ll risk that much money? Of course you can. And I’m sure you already did the moment you permitted me to meet them even once.”

 

Jiyong sighed as well and nodded. “I’m going to sleep for an hour or two. I’m tired. Japan schedules are always so demanding.”

 

Jiyong went to his room and Dara got his luggage and unpacked it. There will be a lot more clothes to wash tomorrow. She would probably be stuck doing them with all the other chores left unattended.

 

Dara sighed. The week was really boring with no one to keep her company in the apartment. She would vacuum the carpeted floor, sweep the tiled ones, clean the kitchen, the bathroom, his bedroom, and studio, do the laundry. It came to a time when she didn’t have any chores to do. So she would just lie on her sofa, probably play with her phone, search for KPOP through her tab, and text Jiyong. Jiyong didn’t respond immediately when she texted though. She knew he was busy, what with all the Japan schedules he had. Their dome tour started a week before the MAMA in Hong Kong and then after a day off after MAMA, they were back to Japan for the second leg of their Dome tour. He was in Osaka then until he came home just a while ago. He had solo activities there, leaving her alone in the apartment.

 

By the time she finished unpacking his luggage and stood up, she realized something: Did I miss him?

 

She gave that a thought for a few minutes, just standing at his spot. Suddenly, she shivered at it. “I was just bored, that’s why,” she said, nodding at herself and went to his room to keep his luggage to his closet.

 

When she arrived in his room, he was there, sprawled on his bed, lying on his stomach and not even minding to change his clothes and remove his shoes before hitting the bed. Dara shook her head. She went on to keep the luggage back to his closet. When she finished, she went to kneel on the floor at the foot of the bed and removed his shoes and socks. She was about to take off his brown coat too but thought better of it. She might disturb his sleep. He seemed really tired. She guessed he didn’t get much sleep back in Japan.

 

She then left him sleeping soundly in his room.

 

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

 

“What time is it?” a hoarse voice came from behind her. Dara was watching television at that time.

 

“Uhm, 8:35PM,” she responded. “Wait here, I’ll prepare the dinner. I thought you won’t wake up until the next day, so I just cooked ramen for myself.”

 

“Ramen will be good,” Jiyong said, plopping himself where she sat before she left to the kitchen. “Don’t bother so much with full-course meal. I’m not really hungry anyway.”

 

“Okay,” she said and prepared to boil the water.

 

He still felt tired. He needed to take a shower but he was too lazy to do so.

 

“Hey, Ding Dong!”

 

“Dora, you have a message,” he called to her while at the same time, picking up her phone. “She has someone else to text besides me?” he asked himself as curiosity took over and he opened the message.

 

Dara came running, panicking, as she saw Jiyong already reading the message from her phone. She bit her lower lip. She forgot to bring her phone with her to the kitchen.

 

“I didn’t know you and TOP were exchanging texts,” he said, not looking up at her.

 

“Don’t read the messages,” Dara said, running towards him, but still keeping a distance. She wanted to snatch the phone from his hand but she didn’t want to risk another salary deduction.

 

Jiyong kept on reading the messages. Every time he came across some messages from her to TOP which looked like she was squealing while texting it, he frowned.

 

Finally, he looked up after reading the last and current message. “You’re openly flirting with him.”

 

“I’m not. We’re just friends,” she said. “Now give me back my phone.”

 

“You’re flushing red. Are you remembering your own texts to him saying ‘Have you eaten? Don’t skip your meals, arasso?’” he said, imitating a high-pitched tone.

 

Her brows furrowed. “Fine. Think whatever you like,” she said and turned away, remembering she was cooking ramen.

 

Jiyong then went back to her phone. He looked into her contacts and saw only five. “Daesung, Seungri, Taeyang, The Most Annoying Person Alive, TOP,” he read aloud. “Why is there a smiley after TOP’s name?” he asked. “And where’s my number?” he asked. He had a bad feeling that this “Most Annoying Person Alive” was him. When he opened the contact, it was indeed his number. “YAH! Why did you change my contact name?”

 

“Because you’re not ‘My handsome and hot boss’, you are ‘The most annoying person alive,’” she answered simply.

 

Dara wondered why he didn’t respond afterwards. She was done with cooking his meal and when she peeked from the kitchen, she saw him laughing silently by himself.

 

“YAH! What are you laughing at?”

 

“Do you call this a selca? You look really ugly,” Jiyong said while showing her one of the selfies she took with her scrunching her nose and edited a pair of rabbit teeth in the place of her real teeth.

 

“YAH!”

 

Jiyong pulled the phone back and scrolled through her phone’s gallery. He kept on laughing, seeing her silly selfies. Dara decided to snatch the phone from him before he would be able to reach a specific folder. Screw the salary deduction. Her mission right now was to get her phone back and avoid him from reaching that secret folder.

 

Seeing Dara charging towards him, Jiyong stood up and started running away, with the phone still clutched in his hand while he was scrolling through the gallery.

 

“Give me my phone back!!! YAH! Stop it! Stop running and going through my gallery! YAH!”

 

Jiyong still kept on running in circles, the phone stretched away from himself while he was still scrolling the gallery. “Oh, what’s this?” he asked when he saw a folder named ‘For Dara’s eyes only’. When he opened them, he was surprised as he saw thumbnails of his face. He then opened one and he came to a stop when a picture of him while sleeping on his desk in his room faced him. His brows furrowed, trying to figure out what it meant until the phone was snatched from his hands.

 

Dara panted and looked at her phone. She clicked her tongue and exited from the gallery. She then turned away and walked towards the sofa, crossing her arms over her chest.

 

“W-What did those pictures meant? Why did you have candid pictures of me?” he asked.

 

“Don’t feel too special,” she said, borrowing the phrase he had used on her twice in the past. “I was just testing the camera.”

 

For a while, Jiyong just stood there, not saying anything. After a while, he went to sit on the couch opposite the sofa. “Ehhh, you have a secret crush on your boss, neh?” he teased.

 

Hearing that, Dara’s eyes widened. She then turned away and shook her head. “Don’t put yourself in a high pedestal. Like TOP, I have standards too.”

 

Jiyong snorted and stood up. “Whatever,” he said and went to the dining room to eat his ramen.

 

In the middle of his meal, his eyes darted towards the living room where Dara was still on the sofa, not moving on her spot. He then remembered his picture on her phone and he chuckled, shook his head, and went back to eating. I still don’t understand why I’m happy, he thought to himself. “Why do I feel the urge to brag to TOP-hyung?” he asked himself and then shook his head. An idea came to his mind and stared at her back in the living room. “YAH! Can I borrow your phone again? I’ll change my contact name to ‘My Boss who I have a Secret Crush with’.”

 

In an instant, there was already a flying slipper going his way.

 

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

Day 62

 

Jiyong was watching as Dara hung some of his newly-ironed clothes. He was lying on his side at the edge of his bed, resting his head on his knuckles while watching her doing her chores. There was a grin on his face. He enjoyed teasing him all day about his pictures on her phone. Needless to say, Dara kept on ignoring him. She didn’t even spare a glance his way. But it didn’t stop him from teasing her. Maybe he would eventually stop when she would burst out or cry or something. He didn’t know.

 

Jiyong grabbed something from under his pillow. He laughed while looking at it. Out of all the fan gifts he had received, this was the most ridiculous – a back-scratcher. Fans could really be so ridiculous and funny at times. He hadn’t used it at all but he kept it. He didn’t expect that this would come in handy someday.

 

He held on to the end of the stick and reached it out, slowly and carefully. Suddenly, it hit Dara’s side, making her squeal in surprise.

 

“What…?” she asked, snatching the stick from his hand. Jiyong grinned as he was successful to make her face him finally. “What is this?”

 

Jiyong didn’t respond but just kept his pose on the bed, his head cradled by his hand while lying on his side. This time, he placed his other hand beside his face and flashed a peace sign.

 

“What are you doing?” she asked, confused.

 

“Posing,” he said briefly and then smiled back again.

 

“I mean, why are you posing?” she asked again.

 

“So that you don’t be bothered with stealing pictures of mine without me knowing,” he explained, still holding his pose. When she didn’t respond and just stood there, he put down his hand which was starting to go numb by the way. He then sat straight and slouched, looking up at her with a disappointed expression. “Come on. It’s tiring to pose like that. I’m giving you a free pass so grab the opportunity immediately!” he exclaimed and went back to posing, now holding both his palms under his face as if he was a flower and smiled widely.

 

Suddenly, Dara snorted. She just turned her back though, to hide the wide smile that was threatening to appear. “I’m busy, your majesty,” she said. “I still need to pack your stuff for tomorrow.”

 

“Why do you sound so sad though?” he asked. “Is it because you’re going to miss me again?”

 

Dara faced him again, raising her brow. He looked up at her, smiling stupidly. Without warning, Dara poked his stomach with the back-scratcher, catching him in surprise and making him yelp. She immediately ran outside of the room.

 

“YAH!” Jiyong called, laughing hysterically.

 

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

 

Day 64

 

Their rehearsal that was open for some fans just finished and they were heading to the dressing room to start preparing for the concert. Daesung and Taeyang started working out with their trainer. Seungri was out probably talking with some PDs for his Japan variety shows. He was the busiest in Japan out of all five of them. TOP was on the sofa, his hand fiddling with his phone, probably texting. Jiyong was on the opposite couch, just staring at him. He stared at his own phone, unlocked it, and locked it again when he saw that there were no messages.

 

Jiyong stared back at him, frowning. Who was he texting? Is he texting her?

 

However, a smile started forming on his lips when he remembered something from nights before. His smile turned into a chuckle and then into a laughter.

 

TOP stared at him, raising his brow, wondering what was making him laugh hysterically like that.

 

“Who are you texting with?” Jiyong asked, wiping an invisible tear.

 

TOP looked uncomfortable as he shifted on his spot. “Nothing… I mean no one.”

 

Jiyong chuckled. “Come on, dude. You can tell me. Is it a girl?” he asked in a low tone, leaning forward.

 

TOP turned away. “What do you mean a girl? HA!”

 

Jiyong laughed loudly again, catching everyone’s attention in the room. He leaned back on his seat. “I know who you’re texting with.”

 

Hearing this, TOP turned to him, alarmed.

 

“It’s fine. Don’t be alarmed,” Jiyong said, crossing his legs. “She doesn’t have your pictures on a secret for-her-eyes-only folder anyway,” he said, laughing more.

 

TOP could just tilt his head to the side and wonder what he meant.