(Dara POV)

Holding Minji’s left hand tightly, I took a deep breath.

We managed to fly to Guangzhou together undetected and hired a car for me to drive us to Hong Kong. It was such a whirlwind but here we are! Sneaking again through the backstage.

Minji’s hand tugged at mine as she moved behind me. Almost hiding from everyone.

With our masks on we moved slowly through to the backstage door. “Did you let Chaerin-ah know that we arrived?” I asked to my maknae.

“Dae. She said that Jihye Unnie will be waiting for us at the door.” Minji replied quietly.

I knocked on the door, ready to be turned away. Surely, this plan can be eaily thwarted by anxiety told me.

A staff member opened the door, next to him was Jihye “You are late!” She exclaimed, almost acting a role.

We bowed an apology to her as we were ushered in.

“Thank you, my friend, for this favour.” She winked at the staff member.

“Thank you!” Minji and I chimed.

“Hurry quickly, I never see you.” The staff member nodded as he shut the door behind us.

Tightening my grip onto Minji’s hand even more, I brought her along as we followed Jihye. “Thank goodness he didn’t suspect us!” Jihye chuckled.

“Did you bribe him then?” I asked her.

“Not really, I just threw Jiyong-ah under the bus.” She told us.

“Oh nooo.” Minji giggled.

“Now I just have to make sure that Jiyong will have a moment to take a picture with his biggest fanboy!”

We couldn’t help but laugh at how we secretly entered MAMA!

As we made our way down the corridor to the dressing room, Jihye filled us in that we were performing after JYP-nim so we had to really impress the audience. Without having rehearsed our set…. We hoped we could rely on our muscle memory!

“You’re in the same wing as iKon, BIGBANG and the dance teams, so you can stay close to the dressing rooms.” Jihye told us as she knocked on the door that read CL.

Minji and I looked at one another, a huge smile spreading on each of our faces.

The door opened a little until the staff member was content to see that it was us.

Again, we were ushered into the door frame, this time coming face to face to welcoming faces. Chaerin’s face lit up as she came towards us for a hug. “You came!” She exclaimed with joy.

I received her hug with my left hand, putting my right hand around Minji’s shoulders as a group hug.

“Yah! Don’t leave me out of this!” I heard Park Bom’s voice call out.

Boms arms wrapped around Minji and Chaerin, her hands resting on my shoulders.

I couldn’t help but sniffle. Finally. We are 2NE1 again.

It felt like an eternity as we broke away from our hug, our eyes full of tears. As if on instinct, Chaerin put her hand in the middle of us, I placed my hand on top of hers, Minji followed suit, her hand landing on mine. Bom completed it, laying her hand onto Minji’s.

Our eyes moved from our hands in the middle to our leader. Chaerin smiled.

“2NE1 NOLZA!” we cheered, putting our hands up.

Our declaration was followed by our staff members cheering.

“Kaja, lets go get ready to show them that 2NE1 is the best.” Chaerin chuckled, putting her arms around Bom and I.

“We’re performing Fire and I am the Best, correct?” Minji asked as she stepped towards the make-up chairs.

“Dae, Fire will be up until Dara’s first paragraph which will go into the bridge to the end, and then the whole of I am the Best.” Chaerin explained.

“Minji did you not listen to the prepared track?” Bom asked as she sat down next to Minji, her red ha