{Part 4}

Daniel watched Alex’s hands as she tried to uncork the wine bottle. He took a quick peek at her face, and smiled a little. It was amazing to him, the little things he had forgotten about his old best friend—the way she moved (as though everything were delicate, a result of going through countless antique shops with her mom when she was younger), the way she spoke (carefully, choosing the words she needed to convey her meaning, weighing each on her tongue before she voiced it), and especially the habits she hadn’t been able to kick (sticking her tongue out a little when she was having trouble doing something but was determined to do something on her own, like she was doing right now as she struggled with the wine).

“Here, let me,” John’s voice broke into Daniel’s silent observations. He smirked a little, confident about what was going to happen. Alex had always been independent, insisting that she be able to do things on her own, no matter how difficult they proved to be.

But to Daniel’s surprise, Alex handed the wine bottle over to John without a second glance at him. Daniel, shocked, glared at John over the counter. Who was he to be able to get Alex to depend on him? What made him even angrier was the smile on John’s face, and what that smile conveyed. John thought

Alex was cute for trying on her own, but he liked that she could depend on him to solve her unsolvable problems.

Daniel hated it.

“Daniel, your friends want wine, right?” Alex asked softly.

“Oh, yeah, they probably will,” Daniel said, trying to look unbothered. This was not the way he had wanted things to go. He wanted to just see how she was doing and then leave, while letting her know that her old best friend was alive, well, and thinking about her.

But instead, they ran into each other again, and somehow, John had convinced everyone to come over to his and Alex’s place for wine and snacks, in order to catch up.

Daniel had cringed when John had said “our” place, making it perfectly clear to everyone that he and Alex weren’t just together, but they were serious.

Now, Daniel found himself at their place, playing translator and trying not to become too confused and angry with the happy couple chatting lightly away in front of him. The rest of his group had found other things around the house to fascinate themselves with.

“So Daniel,” John started, finally getting the cork out of the bottle. “What have you been up to? I know we weren’t really friends when you lived here, but I know you and Al were close, and I know you moved really suddenly.”

Al. Daniel felt his hand twitch involuntarily. Whatever happened to her insisting that everyone only call her “Alex”?

Pushing all that to the back of his mind though, Daniel answered, “Well, I’ve always wanted to be a singer, and knew that that was more of a possibility in Korea, so that’s where I went.”

“And you made it big?” John asked, voice full of friendliness.

Daniel wasn’t too keen on answering to John, but when he looked over at Alex, he saw that she was anticipating his answer excitedly.

“Sort of,” Daniel sighed. “We’ve debuted and all of that, but there are groups that are much bigger than us. And Dari had his stint in the military to do, so that took roughly two years away from promoting properly.”

“Military?” John asked, looking over Daniel’s shoulder and at, Daniel assumed, the tall, skinny rapper sitting in the living room.

“Korean men have to spend time in the military. It’s a requirement.”

The answer didn’t come from Daniel, but from Alex. When Daniel shot her a questioning look, surprised she had known that, Alex looked down, a little embarrassed. “When you left so suddenly, I did a little research on the country you were going to. I can’t even tell you how long I spent trying to remember if you were an American citizen or not.”

Daniel laughed lightly, as though it were nothing to him, but inside, all he wanted to do was gloat that Alex had thought about him after he had left.

“So all of you are in the same group?” John interrupted Daniel’s moment of happiness as he nodded in the direction of Daniel’s group members.

Daniel nodded.

“What’s your group name?” Alex asked, handing Daniel a glass of wine after pouring five others for the other guests.

“Um…Dalmatian,” Daniel answered softly. He had never been ashamed of the name his group had been given, but suddenly, in front of his old friend and her boyfriend, he wasn’t sure about how they would feel about it. Would they laugh? Would they be embarrassed for him? Ask him why a dog breed was chosen for a band name? Things Daniel didn’t want to or couldn’t answer.

Instead, John and Alex exchanged looks, then John said, “Oh no way. Really, man? Dalmatian?”

Daniel was unsure of what this kind of reaction meant, so he nodded. “Yeah…”

John smiled and suddenly left his post where he had been arranging different types of cheeses. Daniel was hyperaware that he and Alex were actually without John for the first time since they had met that night, but Daniel couldn’t immediately think of anything to say, and it looked like Alex didn’t have much to say anyway. She picked up two glasses of wine and left the kitchen as well, walking into the living room to give the wine to the others.

As Alex made her way back after making sure everyone had wine, a sound from the direction in which John had gone caught Daniel’s attention. It was the unmistakable sound of dog nails on hard floors. John reappeared, followed closely by a four-legged friend.

A Dalmatian.

“We weren’t sure if any of you had an allergy to dogs, so we had her in the laundry room,” Alex explained.

The dog, catching unfamiliar smells, bounded out of the kitchen and into the living room, smelling anyone she could get to.

Surprised but delighted, the other members of Dalmatian immediately fell into playing with her, exclaiming excitedly about how coincidental and “awesome” is was that they had a Dalmatian.

“Her name’s Friday,” Alex said, picking up her own glass of wine. “Because we got her on Friday.”

“And we were too uncreative to think of a better name,” John said with a chuckle. Looking back at Daniel, he asked, “With your name being ‘Dalmatian,’ do you actually have one?”

Daniel nodded slowly. “His name’s Bbangku.”

John looked surprised at first, and Daniel couldn’t help but mock him in his head, did you think we’d name him something like ‘John’?

“See, why couldn’t we have been that creative?” John asked, looking wonderingly at Alex, who laughed.

Daniel was amazed at his patience level. It must have grown since moving in with his group, because he knew that before he had moved away, he would have snapped by now. Things were not going the way he had expected, and as the night went on, Daniel felt more and more positive that ever going to look for Alex was a mistake.

Thanks for reading/subscribing~!

And again, I thank you for your patience.

:D