They stayed there until it was four in the afternoon then they decided it was time to head back home since it was getting late.

Mrs. Choi hugged her daughter tightly. “You must come back and visit us again soon,” she said.

Lia nodded. “I will, eomma,” she promised, hugging her back. She turned to hug her dad. “I am so glad to have found you.”

“As we are.”

After saying a couple of more goodbyes, Lia finally reluctantly got into the car with the others and they pulled away.

Tae Yang was driving now. Dae Sung sat in the passenger seat. TOP sat in the middle and Seung Ri and Ji Yong sat at the back with Lia. Seung Ri sat at the back with them because next to TOP were a lot of containers filled with food that Mrs. Choi insisted they bring back to eat.

Lia buried her face in Ji Yong’s chest and he hugged her. The ride back was quiet as each of them drifted away. Suddenly they heard a sniffle coming from Lia.

“Lia, are you okay?” Ji Yong lifted her face up and saw streaks of tears falling down her cheeks and a patch of wetness on his shirt. “You’re crying?” he asked, shocked.

The others turned to look (Tae Yang looked from the review mirror).

She quickly hid her face again.

“Oh, Lia baby, it’s okay. It’s all right,” he said to her, her hair gently as her sobs grew louder.

Seung Ri didn’t want to feel what the others felt: helpless. So he placed his head on her back and sang a song to her. He sang one of Big Bang’s song, Twinkle Twinkle.

The others joined in and soon Lia was okay again. “Thank you for trying to cheer me up,” she said once they ended the song. She kissed Seung Ri on the cheeks.

He smiled softly, ruffling her hair lightly.

They kept quiet again, except for Ji Yong, who was murmuring reassuring words to Lia who was back in his arms. They were silent until Tae Yang pulled to a stop in front of Metro Hotel to drop Lia back off first before heading back to the apartment.

She heaved a sigh. “I don’t want to go back to Australia on Sunday,” she confessed.

“But you have to,” Ji Yong said sadly the same time Seung Ri said, “We don’t want you to go either.”

“What time is your flight on Sunday?” Tae Yang asked her. “We have a full day tomorrow but we are definitely coming to say goodbye to you before you go.”

“It’s at ten,” she said.

“All right,” Dae Sung said, taking note. “We’ll see you off on Sunday. Don’t leave without saying goodbye. We can stop the plane if you do.”

She laughed, getting out of the car. “All right, all right.”

TOP hugged her. “Be safe, Mei,” he told her. “See you soon. Don’t cry, okay? Be strong, for me.”

She nodded before turning to Ji Yong. She hugged him and he kissed her lightly on the lips. “See you.”

Lia walked up to her room. Her friends were out for dinner so she just lay on her bed, thinking of everything that has happened for the past week. She has to go home. She couldn’t believe that this week was coming to an end. Her new friends, her brother, her parents, Ji Yong . . . it was so good. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

She woke up to the sound of her alarm going off. She got up. Paige was already up. This time, Rylee and Shervonne didn’t put up a fuss. They got up as well.

It was Sunday, the day they were going home.

Shervonne, Paige and Rylee chatted about enthusiastically as they packed their stuff but Lia was unusually quiet. She didn’t want to leave.

Paige saw her and softened up a bit. “Hey, it’s going to be okay,” she told her.

She nodded, sighing. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to spend much time with you guys,” she said.

But Shervonne just waved a hand. “Well, honestly, I was jealous at first. But I got over it. Besides, you can spend time with us anytime in Australia. And also, you had fun here, so did I, and I’m pretty sure Rylee and Paige did too. We all had our own adventures.”

“I’m sure she meant that because she found her perfect boyfriend while on this trip,” Rylee teased.

Shervonne blushed and Lia grinned. “I can’t believe after all these years of us telling how perfect you guys are, you choose to be with Ned now.”

Shervonne shrugged. “Well, better late than never, right?” The three other girls just threw their pillows at her. “Hey! Three against one isn’t a fair fight!”

“One last pillow-fight before we check out?” Rylee asked, holding up her pillow with a cheeky grin.

PAH!

She was smacked right in the face by Lia’s pillow. She toppled over on the floor in shock. Lia burst out laughing but stopped when Paige hit her on the back of the head. She whacked her back.

“Aaaiiiiyaah!!!” Shervonne cried, jumping on the bed, swinging her pillows left, right, center, up and down and all around.

Giggling and shrieking, the girls had one last fight, whacking and thumping each other, screaming and yelling with joy.

After a few minutes, Lia called for a time-out. “I can’t breathe! Truce!” She flopped down on the floor, trying to catch her breath.

Shervonne checked the time. “Come on; we have to check out in fifteen minutes time. We need to tidy up the place here or else Ms. Payton will murder us.”

The girls quickly cleaned up the new mess they created before lugging their bags down to the lobby to check out.

Once the whole class had checked out and they clambered onto the bus, they were on their way to the airport.

Goodbye, Korea.

Lia stared out of the window, remembering the fun time she had with Big Bang. She was so lost in thoughts that she nearly lost her balance when the bus pulled to a stop at a traffic light. She looked up and saw Big Bang’s apartment directly in front of them. She looked up to the rooftop outside of Ji Yong’s room, memories of the first date playing in her head.

When she looked up, she saw that Ji Yong sitting outside. He was looking around when he gazed over to the bus. Her heart skipped a beat when he caught her eyes. He smiled and waved. She waved back just as the bus drove away at the green light. She sighed, turning to look at her friends who were busy talking to the boys.

Shervonne left her seat to be with Ned so Mark wandered over to her. “So, what was it like, hanging with Big Bang?” he asked her, smiling.

She shrugged. “It was really nice.”

“I’m sorry about how I reacted the other day,” he apologized. “It’s just that I wasn’t used to seeing you with someone and, well, you know me . . .”

She nodded. “You felt protective of me.”

“Well, yeah. . . . So, what is G-Dragon like?”

She smiled. “He’s nice, sweet, funny and handsome. He was so good to me. He is a gentleman.”

He nodded. “What about the other four members of Big Bang?”

Lia laughed as she tried to find words to describe each of them. “Oh, Dae Sung Oppa is definitely the happy one. Maknae Oppa — or Seung Ri as you guys know him as — would be the cute maknae everyone loves to bully. Bae Oppa — Tae Yang to you — is the kind, gentle one. And Seunghyun Oppa, TOP, is the joker of the group.”

Mark was quiet for awhile. “Lia,” he said, “you seemed to . . . I don’t know. The way you talk about them, it’s like you have known them for years and not just a week. It’s like . . .” he struggled to find the right word “. . . you belong here, like how you would have if you weren’t adopted by Uncle Samuel. Are you happy to be going back now?”

Lia was startled by his question. She knew what Mark’s intentions were. He knew her better than anyone else ever would. “Mark, that’s not fair. I . . .” she faltered.

“Are you, Jun Mei?”

She flinched. He was the only one from her life in Australia who knew her name.

“Or are you sad that this once-in-a-lifetime chance, the fact that you met Big Bang and dated G-Dragon, is ending?” he went on.

She felt a sense of irritation. Who the hell does Mark think he is? “What do you want me to say, Mark?” she snapped. “No, I’m not happy. I don’t want to leave. And it’s not being I met Big Bang nor is it about Ji Oppa.”

“Then what is it?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“Yes!”

“It’s because I found out that Seunghyun Oppa is my real brother and I want to live with him rather than an obnoxious cousin like you!” As soon as the words left , she immediately wished she could take it back. Mark was stunned, looking as though he’d been slapped.

Lia didn’t want this. This was not how she wanted him to find out. But once they get into their usual heated arguments, words just come pouring out, words they never meant to say, words never meant to come one: words out of spite.

They stared at each other more in shock than out of anger. They were unsure of what to say. Mark stood up and walked back to his seat.

They arrived at the airport and went to check their bags in.

Mark came up to her when they were allowed to relax while waiting for to board. “So, TOP  . . . is your . . . brother?” he asked, not quite believing it.

She nodded numbly, not trusting herself to say anything. But eventually she spoke up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean what I said just now in the bus.”

“Yes, you do.”

She winced. He was hurt, she knew he was. “It’s more on staying with them, really, and less on the obnoxious part,” she hastily said. She didn’t want to argue with him.

But Mark was making it impossible. “But you still want to stay with them than with us,” he said bitterly.

“They are my family,” she said, feeling impatient. She was starting to get irritated with him again.

“So are we,” he argued back. “We’ve been your family for ten years, Lia. How could you just forget about us like that?”

“Why do you think I’m here, Mark?” she retorted. “If I wanted to stay with them, I wouldn’t even be here.”

“You —”

“Surprise!”

Mark and Lia turned to see Big Bang walking up to them, grinning at Lia.