- One Week Later -

 

• DARA •

 

"sam?" I knock on sam's door, running a hand through my hair.

 

"At your service." sam grins when he prys open the door.

 

I chuckle. "Can I borrow your laptop?"

 

"Anytime." He smiles, disappearing back into his room and then reappearing, his apple laptop clutched in his hands. "What it you need it for?"

 

"Video chat." I admit, taking the laptop from him. "I promised chaerin I'd chat with her today."

 

"Ah," sam nods, understanding. "You're definitely better at this than I ever was."

 

"Better at what?"

 

"The long distance thing." He tells me.

 

"Oh," I smile slightly. "Maybe it's because what chaerin and I have..." I pause and my cheeks reddening at my current thought. "What we have...it's real."

 

sam gives me a smile. "I can tell. Whenever you talk about her ...it's obvious you're in love."

 

I tilt my head. "Was it like that with you and bea?" I ask, referring to his ex.

 

sam sighs, leaning against the doorframe. "Our relationship was...hard to explain." He looks down at the floor. "I was madly in love with her but...she didn't act like she was madly in love with me."

 

I place my hand on his shoulder. "Maybe she just wasn't the one."

 

"Maybe not."

 

"You'll find the right girl someday." I tell him with an assuring smile.

 

He returns it. "Thanks, dara. You're like the sister I've always wanted."

 

I chuckle and gently push his shoulder. "And you're like the brother I never wanted."

 

His eyes widen. "Never?"

 

"Kidding!" I laugh. "Now let me go talk to chaerin. He's probably sitting impatiently by his laptop waiting for me." I say, turning around to head back to my room.

 

"I don't want to see any kiss marks on my laptop!" sam yells after me.

 

"No promises!" I shout back, slipping into my bedroom and closing the door behind me. I sit down on the bed and place the laptop on my lap, prying it open and quickly going to skype. Sure enough, the minute I get on I get an invite from chaerin. I grin like nut as I hit accept, seeing chaerin's face appear on the screen.

 

"Hey!" I smile, waving. We haven't tried video chatting before but I suddenly like it way more than calling or texting. I could never get enough of seeing chaerin hazel, brown eyes staring back at me and her lips curved into her signature smile that I love so much.

 

"Hey." sHe smiles, her voice making my heart leap. "I miss you."

 

"I miss you too." I tell her.

 

"You look beautiful." sHe says, a cocky smile on her face.

 

I feel myself blush. "You're so cheesy, chae." sHe her head to the side. "How that cheesy? It's a fact."

 

I shrug, my smile widening. "So, how's life?" I decide to ask her.

 

sHe shrugs as well, grinning. "I don't know. How are you?"

 

I bite my lip, blushing deeper. "Are you saying I'm your life, chae?"

 

"That's exactly what I'm saying." sHe informs me. I feel butterflies begin to flutter around my stomach, my face red as a tomato, and chaerin's just there, staring back at me and grinning like a fool. Hearing her say that I'm her life just...just melts me.

 

"I love you." I blurt, not knowing how else to respond.

 

I notice her eyes crawl down to my lips and a sad look falls onto her face. "This is where I should kiss you and tell you that I love you too." sHe sighs. "But you're in philipines and there's a stupid computer screen between in the way."

 

I chuckle. "Don't blame the computer."

 

The smile slightly returns to her lips. "Then what do I blame?"

 

"No one." I say and absentmindedly lean in, pressing my lips to sam's computer screen. Half the reason I did it was because it was the closest I could come to kissing chaerin, the other half was to annoy sam. To make things even better, I'd been wearing lipgloss.

 

I pull away and see chaerin's face closer to the camera, a cute smile on her lips.

 

"I miss your lips." sHe admits. "Do you know how badly I wish I could be your laptop right now?"

 

"It's not my laptop," I tell her. "And you're such a dork."

 

sHe laughs softly. "I've been told."

 

"dara! sam! Dinner!" Karen's voice calls from downstairs.

 

"What was that?" chaerin questions.

 

"I have to go down for dinner." I inform her.

 

"Call me tomorrow?"

 

"Always."

 

"Love you."

 

"Love you more." I blow her a kiss which she returns. I click off skype and close the laptop, picking it up and jumping off the bed, scrambling out to the hall. sam was just coming out of his room as well so I took that as my cue to return his laptop.

 

"Here you go." I smile innocently and push the laptop towards him.

 

He raises a suspicious eyebrow and opens it slightly. He gapes and then groans.

 

"Seriously? Told you not to kiss the screen!" He jokes.

 

"I couldn't resist." I stick out my tongue and make a dash downstairs, leaving sam to put away the laptop (and probably clean it too.)

 

• • •

 

"That's the chemistry lab and across from that is biology..." sam points in the direction of the biology room.

 

I look down at my schedule, cocking my head to the side. "I'm supposed to be in trig right now..." I pause. "And I don't take biology."

 

"But you have chemistry." He points out.

 

"After lunch!" I inform him, rolling my eyes. "Can you just show me to trig? I honestly don't want to get a detention on my first day of school."

 

"Eh," sam shrugs. "Detentions are pointless. I've gotten loads."

 

"Not surprised." I mutter beneath my breath as he leads me towards the trig classroom. "Any useful advice?" I ask him before I go inside. He pretends to think for a second. "Hm...stay away from the boys locker room."

 

"Why?"

 

"Just stay away." He orders. "Even I stay away...and I'm a guy."

 

"A not too manly guy." I add. "I'm manly." sam argues, flexing his biceps.

 

I stifle a laugh. "A very manly guy who bakes. Interesting combination."

 

sam frowns. "Get to class."

 

I chuckle. "See you later." I wave before sauntering into the trigonometry classroom. All eyes fall on me while I'm inside, including the teacher's. He gives me a stern look but then softens, probably realizing I'm new.

 

"You're...Sandara, right?" He questions, pulling down his glasses.

 

I only nod. "You're late but I'll let it slip this time." He tells me. "Go take a seat in the back beside jeff." I nod again and scurry to the back, slipping into the seat beside the dark-haired boy I assumed was .jeff He flashed me a smile, revealing his perfect rows of white teeth. I returned the smile and looked away, pulling out a sharpened pencil and cursing beneath my breath when I realize I hadn't got paper.

 

"Need paper?" The boy, jeff asks me.

 

"Uh, yeah. Thanks." I mumble as he hands me three sheets of paper with a cocky grin. "You might want to start bringing paper. mr.Gonzales gets really pissed when students forget." "Thanks for the warning." I thank him, scribbling my name on the corner of one of the paper sheets.

 

"You're the girl that moved in with sam, right?" He questions.

 

I answer with a nod, not wanting to start a conversation and risking detention from Mr.Gonzales "What do you have next period?" jeff asks me this time.

 

"Lunch." I reply, slightly annoyed.

 

jeff chuckles. "I know. I mean after that-"

 

"Mr.Cruz? Miss park?" mr.Gonzales look over at us, a disappointed look on his face. "Talking already?"

 

I curse beneath my breath, already knowing what was coming.

 

"Detention."

 

• CHAERIN •

 

"CL, your girlfriend is HOT!" seungri exclaims as he scrolls down the pictures on my iPhone.

 

We're at IN-AND-OUT Burger, chilling like we haven't done in ages.

 

I chuckle, a sad look forming on my face. "I miss her."

 

"I'd miss something this hot too." seungri agrees. I raise an eyebrow in his direction and seungri clears his throat.

 

"I mean, yeah. I understand you."

 

I roll my eyes. "Nice save."

 

seungri suddenly looks over my shoulder, his eyes widening. "Yo, I think that's tiffany!" He says, motioning with his chin in the direction of the front door.

 

I turn to look. "." I mutter, quickly looking away and pulling my hoodie over my head.

 

"chae?" tiffany calls suddenly.

 

I curse, pulling my hoodie back down and facing tiffany who's now walking towards us.

 

"Hey." She smiles. "How have you been?"

 

"Good." I answer her bluntly. "You?"

 

"Great." She tells me, running a hand through her waves. "Are we still friends, CL?"

 

Seungri stands up awkwardly. "I'll, uh, I need to go to restroom." He fakes a cough and scurries away, leaving me alone with tiffany

 

"He's not going to be back anytime soon," I inform tiffany. "You can sit down."

 

She flashes me a small smile and takes seungri's seat, biting her lips. "So are we?"

 

"I guess." I shrug and swirl my straw around my barely-touched strawberry smoothie.

 

"I want things to be normal with us." She says. "Like before when we first met."

 

I nod slowly, agreeing. "Me too."

 

tiffany smile widens. "Well, hyorin, jiyeon and I are going to see the last Harry Potter tomorrow. Want to tag along? Your girlfriend can come too."

 

"My girlfriend's...out of town." I mutter.

 

tiff throws me a sympathetic look, knowing that wasn't the whole truth. "Well, you can bring seungri."

 

I ponder over the thought but give in at last, deciding that I had nothing better to do anyways.

 

"Sure." I say at last.

 

"Great!" tiffany chirps and stands up. "See ya, chae."

 

"Bye, tiff."

 

"So we're going to see Harry Potter 7?" seungri appears out of the blue, slipping into his seat.

 

I frown. "Have you been eavesdropping, seungri?"

 

He shifts in his seat. "...Nae."