It was time to go shopping with GD. Don’t get me wrong, I love shopping (I mean, which real girl doesn’t?) but doing it with a lovesick homoual by your side seems a bit depressing to my taste. And it was exactly as depressing as I thought it was going to be.

Caked with makeup and dressed in my iest casual clothes—a short skirt, strapless tube shirt, and stilettos—I walked into different shops of the hottest mall in all of South Korea pretending to look for y clothes to impress Seungri. “How’s this one?” I asked GD with a flutter of my long eyelashes as I walked out of the dressing room with the shop’s shortest tube dress. I saw the ladies in the other stalls eyeing my long thin legs and skinny waist with envy.

“Looks good,” he said unenthusiastically. I pouted. Even though he was playing right into my trap, he might as well just enjoy it at least! I walked back into the dressing room and started getting into a pair of skinny jeans and a shirt that showed my belly button, careful not to smudge my makeup. I walked out in a few minutes, and posed in front of GD.

“How about this one?”

“Great.” Oh god he was so dismal.

“Good! I’ll buy both, then!”

This went on for a couple of hours, and in no time I had sixteen large bags of y outfits that I made Jiyong carry while I ran to other different stores in fake (ok, not entirely fake) eagerness. In the end, I had five new dresses, nine new pairs of jeans, twelve new shirts, and fifteen new pairs of shoes.

“I’ll think that is enough for now, don’t you think?” I chatted happily. “Let’s go get something from the food court!” GD just nodded in response as he juggled all twenty shopping bags.

“I’ll put these in the car,” he said.

I pouted in annoyance. “Alright. Meet me at the food court in a few minutes, though.”

GD’s POV

Aish, that girl. She could have at least looked at me for a minute to have seen how difficult it was to have held twenty bags of HER clothes and manage to have not dropped even one of them. Not to mention the fact that I was wearing a beanie, sunglasses, and oversized hoodie to disguise myself from any Big Bang fans lurking around anywhere.

I was starting to regret going shopping with her. I was even starting to regret the fact that I didn’t sabotage her outfits. Truthfully, she looked stunning in all of the outfits she chose, and it was definitely going to impress Seungri. He liked to pursue girls who practically killed themselves in order to look good. I sighed in defeat as I walked towards the car.

I smiled bitterly. Seungri was going to have to deal with this girl if he chose her over me. On one hand, I pitied that poor maknae; he was going to be doing this with her every single bloody day of the rest of life. On the other hand, I was glad that he was going to go through this pain; he would regret not choosing to love me! I sighed again. No matter what the hell he does, I will continue loving him. Ever since that fateful day when I looked deep into his eyes, I knew that I would never stop loving him. Even if it kills me. Even when I could feel my heart breaking every single time I see him.

I made it to the car and patted myself on the back for a job well down: I didn’t drop one bag nor did I stumble in any way. I finally loaded the damn bags into the trunk (quite painfully, since one bag already took up a third of it), and leaned against the side of the car in exhaustion. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. I looked at all of the clothes. Ji Song would look stunning in front of Seungri, and soon he would not even give me a second glance. I hung my head low and sunk to the ground.

My phone suddenly rang, scaring the daylights out of me. I checked the caller ID: Taeyang. I groaned. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I was leaving with Ji Song.

“Yobosayo?” I answered the call. A frenzied Taeyang in 3, 2, 1…

“GD WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? DO YOU KNOW I WORRIED I WAS ABOUT YOU! WHEN I COULDN’T FIND YOU IN THE HOTEL, I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO COMMIT SUICIDE OR SOMETHING! WHERE ARE YOU ANYWAYS?”

Right on time. “Buddy, calm down!”

“HOW COULD I CALM DOWN WHEN I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO JUMP OFF A BRIDGE?!?!”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m actually shopping with the little monster.”

“… Oh. YOU’RE SO STUPID, KWON JIYONG! NOT ONLY DID YOU LEAVE WITHOUT INFORMING ME OF YOUR SECRET EXCURSION, YOU ACTUALLY AGREED TO GO SHOPPING WITH THAT—”

“Yah yah, I’m stupid and reckless for doing it blah blah blah I get it. Well, I’m not exactly enjoying this either, you know? I feel like I just hauled a whole shopping mall to the car.”

“THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU AGREE TO TAKE HER SHOPPING IN THE FIRST PLACE?”

Because I wanted to make Seungri happy. “I-I don’t know,” I lied.

“… You’re really stupid, GD.”

“I know,” I scrunched my face in annoyance. My face softened, “How’s Maknae?”

“… He’s in the other room right now, but I think he wants to talk to you. Can you handle it right now?”

I froze. Of course I wanted to talk to him. “Put him on.”

I heard whispering in the background and the clinking of metal.

“Yobosayo?” I could hear that Maknae was crying even through the phone.

“Hey, Seungri. Are you alright, Maknae? You don’t sound too good.”

“Oh yah, I’m fine. Are you okay?”

“I’m in perfect shape, Seungri, don’t worry about me.”

“Okay. I-I just wanted to make sure. Take care.”

“You too, Maknae.” And he hung up. I listened to the dial tone for a few seconds before hanging up as well. He cared about my safety. I smiled to myself while a tear trickled my cheek.

My phone rang again. It was Ji Song. Crap.

“Yobosayo?”

“Where the hell are you, GD? I’ve been waiting here for the last five minutes and you’re still not at the food court! What could be so hard about taking twenty bags back to the car?” Uh, everything. “I told you a FEW minutes, not FIVE minutes! Geez!”

“I’ll be there in a minute, ok?”

“I’ll be counting! You have fifty-six seconds left!”

And with that, I sprinted back towards the mall.

Seungri’s POV

I sighed with relief after I hung up. GD was alright. He certainly gave me and Taeyang a huge scare. Both of us noticed how much more depressed GD looked. He skipped meals, talked much less than before, and his smiles were never genuine anymore. When he suddenly went missing, I and Taeyang both feared the worst.

FLASHBACK

“Seungri, is GD here?” Taeyang asked as he came in my hotel room. “He’s not in our room.”

“No, I haven’t seen him since this morning,” I answered, taking my eyes off the computer in front of me. “Are you sure that he is not in your room?”

“I am absolutely positive; I have been waiting for half an hour already.”

“Maybe he went with Daesung and TOP to go snack-hunting.”

“No, I sent them off myself—you know how they are—and GD was not definitely with them.”

“I’ll help you look for him.” My anxiousness was starting to rise.

“I’ll check with the secretary.”

“I’ll look around the rest of the hotel.” I left the computer and dashed out the door. I first checked the whole floor. No sign on GD. Where could he be? He hardly went out of his room in the first place. Next I checked the cafeteria, but he was not there either. He seldom ate anyways. I did not panic at first, but really started to worry when I finished checking the whole hotel with no trace of Jiyong. Taeyang and I met back at his and GD’s room. I really started panicking when Taeyang told me that the secretary told him that she saw Jiyong walking out the hotel doors with a rather depressed expression on his face.

“Do you think…?” I and Taeyang looked each other in pure terror. His self-isolation, his loss of appetite, his gloomy expression when he left the hotel. Could it be that he—?

“No, he couldn’t have! He is not that stupid to have wanted to do that to himself! He couldn’t have!” I just started freaking out in front of Taeyang, hot tears suddenly pouring out of my eyes in pitiless persistence. “No, he wouldn’t! He can’t! He just can’t leave me like that!” I just kept yelling in intense sorrow, more at myself than Taeyang.

“Calm down, Seungri, I’ll call his cellphone.”

“Taeyang, he might have killed himself already! And it would be all my fault!” I couldn’t take it anymore. I ran back to my room and threw myself onto the bed, sobbing mercilessly. He could have jumped off a bridge, poisoned himself, or stabbed himself in the heart by now. We could have been too late. And it would have been my fault for breaking his heart without telling him why.

After a few minutes (it seemed like long painful hours to me), Taeyang knocked on my door and looked at me pitifully. Tears still running down my face, I looked at him with desperation.

“GD wants to talk to you.”

I felt relief wash over me like soothing warm water after a day in the freezing cold. I took the phone from Taeyang slowly. “Yobosayo?” My voice cracked out of happiness.

“Hey, Seungri. Are you alright, Maknae?” No. “You don’t sound too good.” Of course I did not sound good! How would I when I thought that you committed suicide or something? I thought that you left me!

“Oh yah, I’m fine,” I lied, “Are you okay?” Please be, I prayed.

“I’m in perfect shape, Seungri, don’t worry about me.” I sighed in gratitude. GD was alright.

“Okay. I-I just wanted to make sure. Take care.” I love you, I thought to myself.

“You too, Maknae.” I closed my eyes, smiled, and hung up. More tears trickled down my face, but this time out of happiness instead of distress. GD was alright. If he was alright, I was alright. And he was alright.

END OF FLASHBACK

The tears on my face finally dried, and I was still overwhelmed by the relief I received when I discovered that GD was safe. This relief was immediately replaced by dread when Taeyang came in with a doubtful expression on his face.

“I want you to tell me something, truthfully.”

I was about to protest, but Taeyang had already settled himself beside me on the bed. Crap, I had a lot of explaining to do.