Chapter 2: After The Fall

“Where’s Ji?” Dara asked Seunghyun as they entered the new YG building, the premises relatively silent as it was already quite late in the evening.

He sighed in response, and looked back at her with worried eyes, “He’s in his room. He’s refusing to come out. He won’t eat. I don’t think he sleeps. He doesn’t want to talk to anyone.”

“Even to Bae?” she asked again, biting her lower lip in worry.

“Even to Bae. It’s driving him crazy too,” he answered, squeezing her hand.

“This is bad.”

“Really bad.”

They lapsed into silence as they rode the elevator up to Jiyong’s floor. They then walked the short hallway until they arrived at his door.

Seunghyun paused, knuckles hesitating to rap against it the door. He looked at her uncertainly.

“Go on,” she whispered, giving him an encouraging smile.

He rapped his knuckles smartly at the door. Then stepped back, waiting for someone inside to open it.

Nothing.

Dara stepped forward and put her ear against the door to listen for any possible movements or any signs of life on the other side.

Nothing.

Dara chewed on her lower lip again, directing worried eyes towards Seunghyun.

He shrugged his shoulders, giving her an I-told-you-so look.

She squared her shoulders, turned, and knocked on the door herself. Loudly.

Still nothing.

“That’s it,” she said, starting to get mad, “This is getting ridiculous,” she muttered, before knocking again, even louder this time.

When it still did not gain any response from the occupant inside the room, she yelled, “YAH! KWON JIYONG, IF YOU DON’T OPEN THIS DOOR IN 3 SECONDS, I’M GOING TO BREAK IT DOWN, THEN BREAK EVERY SINGLE BONE IN YOUR BODY!”

She paused and put her ear against the door again.

Silence.

“YAH, KWON JIYONG!” she yelled again.

“You might want to lessen the shouting. I think the poor door’s gone deaf,” Seunghyun told her, crossing his arms and leaning back on the wall near the doorframe.

Dara just glared at him.

Then her expression changed, and Seunghyun feared that she was having another one of her “Eureka!” moments that usually ended up in something disastrous. For him.

To his surprise, Dara rapped her knuckles on the door again, but this time, in a rhythmic pattern: three short raps, two long ones, five short ones again in rapid succession, then three long ones.

“What the heck was that about? Something you learned in Girl Scout?” he asked incredulously, shaking his head at her silliness.

“No,” she said, stepping back and looking at the door expectantly, “It’s our secret code. Me, Bae, and Ji use it when we want to get into each other’s dorms back when we were trainees,” she revealed offhandedly, still staring at the door, as if willing it to open with the sheer force of her stare.

He choked, hearing what she just said.

“Yah! You let Jiyong and Youngbae into your room when you were trainees?! WHAT DID THEY DO THERE, HUH?!” he demanded, shooting her an outraged glare.

“Yah, why are you shouting?” she asked him back, throwing him a glare, “It was just nothing. We needed to get into each other’s dorms, and to make sure that we’d know that it’s one of the three of us on the other side, we developed a system.”

“A system?! A SYSTEM?! A FREAKING SYSTEM?!” he shouted, “Yah! Do I have to lecture you about the birds and the bees?! When a man goes into a woman’s room, it usually-“

“Shhhhh!” Dara shushed him, listening intently, and grabbing his arm that was wildly flailing about.

He stopped, still glaring at her.

Then the knob rattled.

Seunghyun looked surprised.

Dara looked smug.

Then after two days, a haggard-looking Kwon Jiyong finally emerged from his room.

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His eyes looked confusingly at Seunghyun for a while, then zeroed in on Dara and stayed there.

She looked at him with worry.

He looked at her with relief and vulnerability.

Seunghyun looked at them, feeling torn. He felt like he was witnessing something so private that it was a bit indecent to be watching. But watch he did.

“Jagiya,” Jiyong whispered as he continued to gaze at Dara, his eyes becoming less guarded, becoming softer. Becoming teary.

“I’m here, Ji. I’m here,” she whispered back, tears prickling her eyes as she fought to hold it back.

Then he was hugging her so tight that she felt her breath get knocked out of her.

“Dara,” he whispered into her hair, over and over again, sobs racking his thin body, making his shoulders shake.

The shaking reverberated to her body and finally, Dara let her tears flow too.

“Shhh, Ji, it’s okay. It’s okay,” she whispered back, smoothing his hair with one hand, rubbing his back with the other, “It’s okay. I’m here.”

And finally, after two days, Kwon Jiyong allowed himself to let go of all the pain and confusion that he felt.

He broke down, his knees buckling, dragging Dara to the floor with him, where they both kneeled on the hard, unforgiving marble, still not letting go of each other, clutching each other as if their lives depended on it.

"Dara, Dara," he whispered brokenly, again and again into her hair, hugging her like she was his lifeline. 

“It’s okay Ji, I’m here. I’m not leaving you, I’m here,” she whispered again and again as she fought for composure, continuing to rub his back and caressing his hair, dropping butterfly kisses onto his temple and everywhere else she could reach.

Seeing him so broken, so fragile, made her heart ache.

And again, Seunghyun felt like he shouldn’t be here, feeling like he was witnessing something private.

But he stayed.

He had to.

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Eureka! Another update! LOL!

So, bets on who is with who? :) I think it's pretty obvious, isn't it? 

Please comment! It really spurs me to update more. Hehe! :)