And it's finally here!! It's actually longer than I had imagined, but hope you enjoy! =)

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Part II

2ne1, along with the dancers of Crazy and Hi-tech were dancing to “Do you love me”, rehearsing for the AON Seoul concert that was soon approaching them.  The song ended with each girl striking their own final pose. 

“Okay..Great job everyone! Let’s take 5 before we finish off with ‘I am the best’ tonight,” The head choreographer who had been monitoring the performance from the front said. 

Chaerin walked over to her things and picked up her phone, which had been flashing due to a new message.  When she saw the name on screen, she couldn’t help but to surrender a smile.

“What’s with that smile?”

Chaerin snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of the familiar voice of her oppa.  “Hi Oppa!”

“Ahnyoung Chaerin-ah,” Jiyong greeted her with his own smirk. 

“What are you doing here?”

“Just wanted to check out your rehearsal, since I haven’t seen you for a while.  How’s the rehearsal coming along?”

“Not too bad.  Everything’s slowly starting to come together nicely.  We just have a few new dances to memorize. Can you hold on a sec? I have to text Bae Oppa back.”  Chaerin said before she turned her attention back to her phone screen and the wide grin she had before, returned. 

“I recognize that look from anywhere!” Jiyong exclaimed.

“What do you mean?” Chaerin defended, as she shot him a questioning look.

“You like him don’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about oppa,” Chaerin tried to shake off the embarrassment that she was starting to feel build up.  

“Do you like Youngbae, Chaerin?” Jiyong asked her seriously. Chaerin’s eyes shot wide open, flustered that she had been found out. ‘Have I been this obvious?’ she questioned herself.

“Okay everyone! Let’s get back to work. The sooner we finish this song, the faster we can all go home!”

‘Talk about being saved by the bell.’ Chaerin thought to herself. “Sorry Jingyo oppa, I have to get back to practice. You can go sit with Jaewook oppa and help monitor us.” Chaerin speedily went back to her girls and the other dancers, escaping from Jiyong’s prying eyes.

After a few rounds of “I am the best”, their dance practice finally finished.

“Let’s call it a night and resume tomorrow.”

“Great job, everyone!” CL shouted to everyone. “Thanks for all your hard work!”  Along with everyone else, she shuffled back to her phone to see if Youngbae had texted her back.  She was expecting to see him come in mid-way through the practice like he had told her, but he still hasn’t shown up. ‘Maybe he’s just running late,’ Chaerin thought to herself. 

“So you never answered my question,” the same pestering voice had startled her again.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, oppa,” she said, trying not to be flustered and moved to put her personal items back into her black leather bag.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” he continued. “And do you want to know why I don’t believe you’re as clueless as you are right now? It’s because your face always turns this shade of red when you’re caught red-handed.” Chaerin instinctively brought her hands up to cover any evidence that had been written on her face and turned back to look at the mirrors.

It was true; she was flushed and no, it wasn’t from the dancing.  Chaerin took a deep, long sigh. “It’s okay Chaerin-ah..I think I may be the only one that knows.” She turned to look at Jiyong, who then gave her a wink. “if you need any help, oppa’s always here for you.” He teased, but also genuinely willing to help her.

“I’ll get going now,” Jiyong started to walk away, but was held back by Chaerin’s small hands on his wrist.  

“Wait.”  It came out more desperately than she had intended it to.  He turned around to look at his dongseng and he knew then that she needed a friend to talk to. 

After seeing that everyone had cleared out from the dance studio, Jiyong made his way to sit along the mirrored wall and CL paced around him, still standing.

“So….” He tried to break the silence.

“You’re right,” she blurted.  A knowing-grin slowly crept upon Jiyong’s face. “I like Bae-oppa.” She confessed for the first time. “But please don’t tell him.” She turned towards him with her pleading eyes. 

“Um..I’ll have to think about that one.” Jiyong joked as he tapped his lips with his finger and looked up at the ceiling.

“Oppa!” Chaerin whined as she crouched down and took hold of Jiyong’s arm and shook him.

“I’m just kidding, I’m just kidding..I won’t say a word.” He said as he imaginatively zipped his lips.  Chaerin heaved a sigh of relief, followed by giving him her eye-smile, which he returned.

“Thanks oppa,” she said as she reached out to wrap her arms around Jiyong, hugging him. Jiyong also reciprocated her actions.  He knew that this was serious because she never struggled to voice out her thoughts before. These were new emotions to her and Jiyong acknowledged that it was hard for her to come in terms with them.  She may be the ‘baddest female’ on stage, but off stage, she was still the naïve and innocent Chaerin, who hasn’t experienced love yet.

“So when did this all start?” Jiyong questioned as he pulled away from her.  He had known her for so many years and thought they were close friends, but how could this go unnoticed to him for so long?

Just then Chaerin’s phone beeped, signaling a new message.  She smiled at the name that popped up on the screen.

“Wow…Just one text message and he’s got you grinning from ear to ear!”

“Shut up, oppa!” Chaerin said as she unlocked her phone to read the message.

‘Sorry..I won’t make it tonight.’

Chaerin’s face grew dim, reading the short text from Young bae.

“What’s up?”

“Oh, Bae oppa won’t be able to make it tonight.”

“Aww..I bet you wanted to kiss your Bae oppa good night huh?” Jiyong mocked, which earned him a fierce look from Chaerin.

“Aigoo..I knew I shouldn’t have told you. Now I won’t hear the end of it.”

“That’s what I’m here for!”

“This oppa..” Chaerin said shaking her head.

“So…”Jiyong dragged out. “Back to my question that you didn’t answer because of your wandering mind to all things Youngbae; when did you start to like him?”

The atmosphere turned more serious again.  Chaerin let out a loud sigh and looked forward, but contemplated about when it all began. She hadn’t really thought about this before either. “Um.. I don’t know.” Chaerin started to feel flustered.  She never really thought about it in depth, let alone told anyone about her feelings for Youngbae. “It just happened. Well, I’ve always thought he was handsome and stuff, but other than that, it came as a surprise to me too.  Like we would be talking, and then I would just start to notice these little things about him. Like the way his eyes would disappear when he smiles or the way that scrunches up his nose before he sneezes.”

Jiyong looked at his love-struck friend and couldn’t help but giggle a little at her. “What?” She said snapping out of her thoughts. “Don’t laugh at me!” She yelled at him as she hit him on his arm.

“Sorry..Sorry..!” Jiyong said as he was trying to shield himself from her abuse.  “It’s just..I couldn’t believe those words were coming out of the ‘baddest female Seoul city ever had’s’ mouth.” Chaerin continued giving her oppa the death glare.

“Okay, sorry again,” he said throwing up his hands in defeat, which softened her expression a bit.  “It’s cute.  My two best friends..together.  You know what? I’ll help you, Chae.” Ji winked at her.  “Just leave it to oppa.”

“Nooo..Don’t go and tell him! I already told you not to!”

“I won’t! Let THE Mr. G-dragon work his magic…”

“Eww..Now you sound like Seungri,” Chaerin said rolling her eyes, but ended up laughing along with Jiyong.

“Oppa..Thanks for listening.  I hadn’t told anyone, but being able to confide in someone has really helped ease my mind a lot.”

“No problem, Hunchae!” He said as he patted her head and messed up her hair a bit, not without getting some protest from her.

“We should head out..It’s getting late. And plus, remember, we have our first YG family concert tour meeting tomorrow.” Chaerin said as she got up from her spot, followed by Jiyong.  

Even though it’s only been a couple of days, not seeing Youngbae made Chaerin miss him. But she knew that she’d finally get to see him again tomorrow.

--

Youngbae woke up that morning feeling more tired than he was before he fell asleep.  He couldn’t stop thinking about the scene he had seen last night in the dance studio.  He couldn’t bring himself to believe that he missed this..missed that his best friend was also in love with Chaerin.

The sun shone down on him as he still lay on his bed, refusing to move. He couldn’t help but chuckle thinking about the promise that him and his long-time friend Jiyong had made to never fall in love with the same girl.  But here they are now, in love with the same girl. 

But Lee Chaerin was not just any ol’ ordinary girl.  She was far from it.  He couldn’t help but think about all the reasons why he had fallen in love with her in the first place again, which was probably why his best friend had also fallen in love with her, he thought.

“I should’ve known though,” Youngbae said to himself as he replayed all the times that those two had done collaborations, been paired up together by others, etc etc.  “Maybe I was just too blinded by my own love for her to notice this.” 

Love.  Since when did it escalate this much, he thought to himself.

Love was such a complicated thing.  But what wasn’t problematical was Youngbae’s decision to choose his love for his life-long best friend instead of Chaerin. He would do that because he knew his friend.  He would give her that happiness a great girl like Chaerin deserved.  And even though Youngbae loved Chaerin plentifully, he wouldn’t trade Jiyong’s friendship for that.

Youngbae heaved out a loud sigh at his decision and rolled out of bed to get ready for work.

When Youngbae finally reached the conference room where the YG Family Concert Tour meeting was taking place, he saw that the room was already occupied by a couple people.  And by a couple people, it was the 2ne1 ladies minus CL, seated on one side of the table and then there was Jiyong and Chaerin sitting across from them.  Youngbae was about to turn around and come back later when more of the YG family had arrived. He couldn’t bear to see them together, after his decision to let her go was so fresh in his mind.  Youngbae needed time.

“Hi oppa!” Minzy, who was first to see Youngbae, greeted him, making him stop in his tracks. “Where are you going?”  By this time, all the occupants in the room had noticed him.

Youngbae turned around to face them, “Oh, I’m just gonna go grab some tea from the cafeteria.” He lied.

“You don’t have to..Hyung already had them bring up some for the meeting,” Jiyong said pointing to a coffee