CHAPTER 4

Dara was bundled up in several layers of clothing when Donghae met her downstairs for breakfast. She smiled and greeted him brightly ignoring Donghae’s dark look on her backpack beside the chair she was sitting in and wearing her bulging sling bag. She was chattering animatedly, also ignoring the fact that Donghae is ignoring her. It seems like no one and nothing could hamper her excitement today.

Lee Hi arrived after a couple of minutes with the tickets for the Ferry to Jeju. Donghae would have preferred flying but seeing it as a last minute, Lee Hi could only get so far as booking a Ferry Ticket.

It was already 12 in the afternoon when they boarded the ship and close to one when it set sail to Jeju. Dara sprinted up to get on the deck, took out her digital camera and took pictures.

“Waahh!” She exclaimed. “So beautiful!”

Donghae could only stand at the side with his hands in his pocket looking at Dara while she snap continuously for as long as where the lenses of the camera could take. 

He could only stare at her taking in her joy at a simple thing as taking pictures, her laugh reminding him so much how it did not take much to get her to laugh. Before he knew, a surge of emotions he didn’t know is still alive came rushing back at him like it’s going to knock him out. He wasn’t ready for this. He didn’t count on this.

He already built up a wall around him to defend himself during this time when even she is unknown to herself. But here he is, breaking his own barrier and exposing himself once again to the same pain he had been friends with for the past 15 years. This is what he’s so afraid of.

He sighed heavily and walked toward the edge, resting his arms on the railing as unwelcome memories invade his thoughts, try as he might to squelch it.

He met Dara when his father is already training him to take over the company. They travelled to Jeju to persuade a good friend of his to return to Hits Entertainment. The man was one of the brilliant songwriters at his time and only stopped when he got married. The man was Dara’s father.

He could remember that day when he was sulking as taking over the business is something he didn’t want. He had excused himself from the Park’s patio and went inside the house. The house overlooked the ocean but even the ocean is magnifying his irritation at missing the party he knew Eunhyuk and the rest of his friends are enjoying so he decided to stay in the living room. He passed an open room and stopped when he saw a girl sitting on the piano bench and scribbling something on a notebook.

She looked up. He could see a gauze pad at the right corner of her forehead covered partially by her bangs. “What would be the best word to go with smile?”

He didn’t know if she was asking him or if she was ruminating by herself by asking what would be the best word to go with smile.

“Ah!” She returned back into writing on her paper.

Donghae strode over to her.  “What are you doing?”

Dara didn’t look up but answered. “Writing a song.”

Donghae scoffed. “Do you even know how?”

“Duh.” She stopped writing and looked at him scornfully. “Your father is in there asking my dad to go back to Hits Entertainment. Last time I checked, I am my father’s daughter. Of course I know how to write a song.” She tapped a few keys listening then shook her head. “No, that doesn’t sound right,” she muttered while she scratched a line on what she’s writing on. “It’s for my finals,” she explained tapping another set of keys then frowned. She looked up at him. “Do you want to hear it?”

“No,” he curtly said.

Dara pulled him down beside her. “I’m gonna let you hear it anyway. I need an outsider’s opinion.”

He tried to protest but Dara shush him flexing her fingers to get ready. Then she started playing the piano and sin