Three months later . . .

“Move on, Lia,” she told herself. “He’s not worth it.”

She was walking to school three months after they broke up. She had spent the first month moping but then she told herself that this wasn’t good. She shouldn’t like this.

So she decided to distract herself. She took down all posters of Big Bang from her wall. She saved all her pictures of them in her dad’s computer, where it’s locked so she couldn’t open them to see the pictures if she was tempted to look. She forced herself to go out with the FS to distract herself. She goes out with the boys to take her mind off things. She would study to make up for her failed grades.

She’d told herself that day when he had so cold-heartedly broke up with her that she wasn’t going to let him break her. She wasn’t going to let him get to her.

It worked. After giving herself a week to mope she got back on her feet and carried on with life as if she had never met him before. Her friends respected her wish and they never spoke of Big Bang. But they can’t help but wonder why she still didn’t take the bracelet off. She couldn’t bring herself to do it.

She just can’t.

But it didn’t matter because her plan of getting over him was working quite well. She was forgetting about him.

One day she went to Paige’s house for dinner. They carried their plates of food in front of the television to watch whatever that was nice to watch. Paige flipped to the music channel.

Big Bang was on television.

She was about to change the channel when her little sister squealed and yelled, “Don’t you touch the ‘next’ button!”

Paige turned to Lia helplessly, who just shrugged and said, “Let her watch. I’m okay.”

Apparently Big Bang was on as special guest stars in a reality show. They had English subtitles so they could understand what was being said.

As they performed their song Haru Haru, Lia studied Ji Yong. She couldn’t help think how handsome he was. But his face was off.

Her heart ached. She wanted to reach out to him but she couldn’t.

After the song ended, the emcee went up to them and asked each member if they had ever been in love. Lia tensed and was about to ask Paige to switch channels when Ji Yong lifted his hand to scratch his nose.

Dangling on his wrist was the bracelet.

“So, GD, have you ever been in love?” the emcee asked.

Lia watched, transfixed, as his face became thoughtful. “Have I ever been in love?” he repeated. “Well, I’ve been and still am in love with the one girl I once met a park. She was the most beautiful and perfect girl.”

“Oh, who is it?”

He shrugged and lifted the bracelet up. “See this? This is the symbol of our love: a book because she wanted to be an author when she grows up and a microphone because I am a singer. That’s our symbol. At least, it was.”

“Was?”

He nodded. “She lives so far away so it was really hard to talk to her because of the time difference and because I am usually so busy, being famous and all,” he explained. “I knew she missed me and I missed her too. I didn’t want to see her sad. I wanted her to be happy so . . .” He paused. “So I lied to her. I told her I didn’t want to see her anymore because she couldn’t ‘satisfy’ me. Even though I had told her a long time ago that I was with her not because I wanted but because she was just so different from all the others, I told her I wanted and since I can’t get it from her, I wanted to get it from other girls.

“She believed me, and we broke up.” He hung his head. “I thought by doing that, she would have moved on. And I would have moved on, too. But I was wrong.” He looked up, tears in his eyes. “I lost the one girl who loved me for who I am, Kwon Ji Yong, not G-Dragon. I lost the only girl who took my heart and never gave back. I lost a chance to be with the most awesome girl. It was probably the biggest mistake I had ever done when I let her go.” His face crumbled with so much sadness as he wiped his tears away.

“I am so sorry, Bubbles,” he said.

Lia was shocked. ‘Bubbles’ was the nickname he had given her one day, which he only uses when they were alone. He told her she was cute and bubbly but sensitive like Bubbles from the cartoon TV show, The Power Puff Girls. Lia liked her nickname.

TOP then took the mike from Ji Yong and said, “I want to say something to her too. I’m sorry. I now really know how much they love each other and I was stupid to try breaking them up. I was being overprotective and she hated it. So, I’m really sorry.” He hugged Ji Yong in a tight embrace. The other members hugged him too.

Lia shook her head. She stood up and ran out of the living room up to Paige’s room. Paige followed her. She knew what she must be feeling right now. “Lia?” She saw her on the bed, crying. She went to her and hugged her. “It’s okay.”

“Why did he lie? He could have just told me the truth. He didn’t have to lie to me,” Lia sobbed. “I know he did it because he wanted me to be happy, but it’s really pathetic. He did not have to lie.” She looked more angry than upset, her eyes flashing with fury.

Paige backed away. When Lia’s eyes were flashing, it meant she was beyond angry.

She ran out of the room as Lia dialed Seung Ri’s number. “Pick up. Pick up the phone,” she muttered, drumming her fingers on the bed impatiently. “Pick up!”

“Yo, Lia!”

Lia’s heart burned with anger.

Seung Ri came out of his room timidly to the living room. His hyungs were playing on the Xbox. “Uh, Lia just called me,” he said a bit hesitantly. “She was crying . . . well, mostly she was yelling.”

Four heads snapped up to look at him. Tae Yang paused the game and they all turned their full attention to him.

“Why?” Dae Sung asked.

TOP was too scared to move. He had a bad feeling it was his fault.

But Seung Ri looked at the leader. “She’s mad at you, hyung.”

Ji Yong’s face was expressionless. “I know,” he said calmly but sadly. “She hates me.”

“No.” Seung Ri shook his head. “She saw us on tv, that night when you told the whole world that you lied to her because you wanted her to be happy,” he explained. “She told me she watched the entire thing.” He held up a tape recorder. “I was trying to record something when she called and I forgot to turn it off. I put her on loudspeaker because I needed my two hands to do something.” He set it down and pressed on the button ‘play’.

Lia: Why did he lie?

SeungRi: Why did who lie?

Lia:Ji . . . your leader. I heard, what he said. At the TV show.

SeungRi: Oh. Lia, he lied to protect you. He lied —

Lia: It’s pathetic.

SeungRi: I know you are upset, but you gotta know that it was hard for him too.

Lia:We could have still tried. It’s only been a few months, damnit. I know why he lied, but it’s really dumb.

SeungRi: Uh, do you want to talk to him?

Lia: No! I don’t want to talk to him. He had no idea, does he? How I felt when he called? Six months ago he told me he liked me and didn’t want me for ! And then he calls saying he wants but I can’t give that to him because I was far away? What the hell?

SeungRi: Lia, don’t cry. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. Please don’t cry.

Lia:It’s not your fault, Maknae Oppa.

SeungRi: Do you want to leave a message?

Lia: . . . . Yeah. I don’t want to talk to him ever again.

SeungRi: Okay . . .

Lia:I gotta go.

The recording ended. Everyone turned to their leader. His face was registered shock as he sat there, staring at the tape.

“I . . . didn’t know,” he whispered. Then he groaned and buried his face in his hands.

“What are you going to do?” TOP asked.

“What can I do?” he asked back. “I already lost her. I knew what consequences were.”

“You love her, but obviously not enough to keep her,” Seung Ri said flatly. “If she was my girlfriend, I would have done everything I can to keep her. I wouldn’t want to lose her, and especially if she was the best thing that’s ever happened.”

“Shut up, maknae,” Ji Yong snapped. “Just shut up. I know, all right? Shut up.”

Tae Yang bit his lips. “I’m with maknae in this one,” he spoke up. “If you really love Lia like you said you do, you would have at least made an effort to keep her.”

Dae Sung nodded. “I wouldn’t care if she lived far away. I will continue to do what I can. Lia’s really amazing and you can’t find girls like her that easily. Girls like her are like once-in-a-lifetime chances.”

Ji Yong was tearing up his hair in total frustration. He didn’t want to hear this. He knew, damnit. Why do they think he said it was the biggest mistake he had ever done? He regretted it.

Someone’s phone went off. It was TOP’s. He answered. “Mei,” he said in surprise.

Ji Yong looked up at her name. Why was she calling TOP? She still hated him.

TOP walked away as he talked to his sister on the phone. The others exchanged curious glances. They didn’t know why she was calling him.

When he came a few minutes later, he was smiling. “She forgave me,” he said happily. “Mei heard my apology and forgave me.” But then he frowned, remembering Ji Yong. “Oh. Sorry, Ji.”

Ji Yong just gave him a tight smile. “Good for you,” he said to him sincerely. “At least she doesn’t have to hold onto so much anger now, right?”

“Yeah. . . .” He nodded.

Their leader stood up and walked inside his room, closing the door behind him. A loud thud was heard and they knew he’d punched the wall with all his might. TOP stood up and went in to comfort him. But he couldn’t find him. Confused, he came out again.

What he didn’t know was that Ji Yong was sitting out on the rooftop, the spot where they first kissed. He could still remember that night clearly.

It had been amazing. She was so beautiful and he felt so lucky that night when she was in his arms. He thought he was the luckiest man alive. He was dating the best girl ever. And when they were officially together, he was really happy. Lia meant a lot to him. He can’t believe he was stupid as to let such girl go away like that.

He closed his eyes and pictured her smile. He could hear her laugh, her voice and he can smell her scent. It was as though she was there with him. His heart ached for her to be back in his arms. He missed her. He loves her.

He looked up to the sky. “Lia, I love you.”