Two hundred and fifty miles away . . .

Mi Hwa was sitting with Seung Ri, watching his sketch. “That’s a lovely picture,” she said, commenting on the character. “You really got an eye for this kind of thing.”

Seung Ri smiled warmly at her. “Thanks, Mi Hwa. I’m glad you like it.”

“Like it? I love it.”

“It’s nice when someone appreciate my art.” He was pleased. “If you want, I could give it to you when I’m done with it.”

“Oh, no, I possibly couldn’t —”

“It’s all right, Mi Hwa. Don’t sweat it,” he laughed. He waved a hand. “I can always sketch myself another one.”

Mi Hwa was about to say something when Ji-yoon came running to her. “Mi Hwa! Mi Hwa!” she cried out breathlessly.

“Whoa, where’s the fire, Ji-yoon? Calm down!” Mi Hwa asked the girl, laughing.

Seung Ri shook his head in amazement. There’s no use telling her to calm down. Ji-yoon was always going about, always rushing about. To her, the fire is everywhere. It is really impossible to get to calm down.

“There’s a boy outside who says that you’re his girlfriend!”

Seung Ri chortled. He wasn’t surprised she has a boyfriend. Mi Hwa is pretty and the nicest girl he’s ever met. But it was the fact that she didn’t know about it that caught him off guard. “Mi Hwa, you naughty girl!” he teased. “You never told me you had a boyfriend!”

But Mi Hwa frowned, wondering who Ji-yoon could possibly mean. There wasn’t a guy in the orphanage that fancied her. At least she doesn’t think there is. “But, oppa, I didn’t tell you because I don’t have a boyfriend.”

Now it was Ji-yoon’s turn to frown. The poor girl looked really confused. “But the boy said that —”

“Hello, Mi Hwa,” a deep voice said and she looked up to see a guy with blonde hair and war paint on his face.

She gasped, standing up. “GD oppa.”

He smiled. “How are you?” he asked. “I haven’t seen you for over two years already. You changed a lot. You look . . . amazing.”

“How — but — I —” she stammered, shocked to see G-Dragon, her G-Dragon, standing in front of her in human flesh and all. “Where’s Dara? Or oppa? How did you get here?” She stretched her neck to see if anyone was behind her. There was a girl standing in a distance, watching them. “Who’s that girl over there?”

“Oh, that’s Gayoon. She has the same gift as you. She brought me here,” he replied, shrugging nonchalantly. He turned to hug her.

But she took a few steps back and folded her arms across her chest and he looked startled. “And how, may I ask, did you do that exactly?” she demanded to know as he searched for something in his pocket. “You’ll need an image or something. She doesn’t know how I look like, and I’m pretty sure you can’t exactly tell her how I —”

He threw a photo on Seung Ri’s table and she froze, staring at the photo as though she was hypnotized. She recognized that picture. Seung Ri and Ji-yoon leaned forward to see a picture of G-Dragon and Mi Hwa at the beach during a gorgeous sunset. His arms were wrapped around her. One of her hands was on his back; the other was on his chest with her back facing the camera. But they were both looking at the camera, smiling happily.

It was three years ago, when they first got together after they’d ran away. She remembered Minho taking this picture, Jihyun’s face with pure jealousy as she watched them together. It was also that same night when . . .

She shook her head. She would not think about that particular memory. She looked up to him. “I didn’t think you would keep this picture after everything that’s happened,” she said quietly after awhile. “I thought you would have replaced it with memories of Dara and the baby . . .” She realized she didn’t know the name of his daughter.

“Rae Ah,” he supplied for her. “That’s the name of my baby daughter.”

“Huh, that’s the name Seunghyun oppa wants for his daughter,” she remarked without thinking and regretted it the moment the words left . She looked at him.

“That’s the whole point,” he said softly and a little wistfully.

Seung Ri stood up instantly, knowing that they needed privacy, and gathered his stuff. “Ji-yoon, come on. I think Se7en-sshi needs our help in the kitchen.”

“But it’s not even close to dinnertime yet!” Ji-yoon pouted.

But Seung Ri just gave her a stern look. “Cleaning — he might need help with the cleaning.” As he and the little girl walked away, Mi Hwa shot him a grateful look and made a mental note to thank him later.

“What do you mean? What do you mean that it’s the whole point?” Mi Hwa asked as soon as they were out of earshot.

He sighed. “Well, it seems that Dara slept with the wrong brother. She’d been in love with oppa all this while, even when she and I were together before we ran away.”

She sensed a mixture of remorse, bitterness and anger in his voice. She didn’t know what to feel about this situation, what to say, so she just kept shut. She would not say anything. She might say the wrong thing and end up getting hurt instead.

He looked at her, reaching out for her hand. He caressed it gently and she realized how much she missed him. “Mi Hwa, I know you’re mad at me, and I promise I’ll leave you alone,” he went on, “but —”

“Noona! There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you!” a boy cried, rushing toward them. “Could you please lend me your history notes? I lost mine. And I have to do a test tomorrow but I don’t know anything! Help!”

She stood up, relieved for the distraction. “Yeah, relax. You can borrow them. They’re in my locker,” she told him. “I’ll go get them. You wait out here.” She walked to the back with G-Dragon following her behind closely. “But what?” she prompted G-Dragon, opening her locker to take out the notes, which was wedged between two books. She scanned to see if it was the right notes.

“But I need to see my child first.”

She slammed her locker door shut. What is he trying to do, mock her? She didn’t think it was very funny. In fact, she found it totally mean. “Find Gayoon and ask her to take you back to Dara. Rae Ah will be there,” she snapped. “If not, then with Bom unnie.”

“I meant my son.”

She froze just as a little came out of the girls’ toilet. “Can you give this to oppa, please?” she asked, handing the notes to the little girl who took it and ran off. The moment the girl was out of room, she turned back to him, pretending not to know what he was talking about while deep down she cursed Seunghyun in every language she knew. “What are you talking about, GD oppa? You have no son. Rae Ah is your only child — and last time I checked, she’s a girl.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Okay, so why don’t you bring my brother here so you can repeat all you said just now in front of him? I’d like to see how big of a liar you are.”

She glared at him. He had her cornered. Stuck in a dead end with no way out. There was no point in trying to cover up. G-Dragon would only see right through it. That was how close they were with one another. “It’s a boy,” she said flatly. “His name is Ji Yong, named after his dad, which is a good thing as he looks like his dad, except for the eyes; he has his mom’s eyes.”

“Will I ever get to see him?”

She struggled to answer that question. She wanted her son to know his dad, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to at the same time. “I don’t know,” she finally answered.

“Mi Hwa —”

“GD oppa, you don’t know the full story so don’t try to say that I have no right to do what I did,” she cut through.

“So enlighten me and tell me why you did it.” He leaned back against the row of lockers, folding his arms. “I’ve got the time.”

Mi Hwa glared at him. He was so arrogant that sometimes she wondered why in the world she fell for him. But yet, she did want him to understand why she did it. “It wasn’t for my own selfishness that I did it,” she replied. “I did it for you. I didn’t want to make you feel as though you were forced to choose between me and Dara, though you obviously would have chosen her.”

“How could you be so sure? I might have chosen you instead.”

She smirked, folding her arms. “Over a baby and your first love? I don’t think so. Even you wouldn’t dare abandon Dara.”

He was quiet for awhile. “Do you regret it?” he asked.

She gave him a thoughtful look as she thought about the question. “No, I don’t regret it at all, actually. Otherwise I would have tried to stop you from going to see Dara, although I’m not sure how that would have turned out.” She shrugged. “I couldn’t stay with you, GD,” she added softly. “It hurt a lot, watching you decide to stay with her when I thought we could have a future together with Ji Yong. I was going to tell you, but you were already gone.”

“It’s not too late,” he quickly said, unfolding his arms. “I already told Dara that I’m leaving her. I’ll just . . . occasionally drop by to visit Rae Ah. But I . . . I want to stay with you.”

She didn’t know what to say. But she knew that she couldn’t agree to this plan of his. “Oppa . . . I can’t,” she replied sadly, close to tears.

She felt trapped.

He looked disappointed. “Mimi, Ji Yong needs his dad.”

“You mean like how Rae Ah needs hers?” She folded her arms.

“I don’t want to have anything to do with her mother,” he simply replied.

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “So you have to cut out all connections from your daughter just because her mother made a fool out of you? What kind of stupid thinking is that?”

“You don’t under —”

“Don’t you dare tell me I don’t understand, GD oppa,” she snapped, cutting him off. “You left me, pregnant, after saying you love me and would never dream of leaving me, damnit!”

G-Dragon was feeling a twinge of unfairness. After all, he didn’t just sit down and did nothing. “Hey, you were the one who left me. I asked you to stay! But you didn’t. My brother had to go out and chase after you to beg you to come back!”

“Funny how your brother had to chase after me and not you,” she retorted, folding her arms across her chest. “If you had cared enough about me, you would have chased after me yourself!”

He didn’t want to admit, but she had a point.

“Tell me one good reason why I shouldn’t take you back and leave you there,” she continued.

“Because you need me,” he simply replied. “I can tell you missed me all this time you were here. Face it, Mi Hwa. You want me. You’ll regret sending me back. You can’t do this alone. You’ll need someone to hold you when life gets rough and though there might be other people there, you’ll realize that it’s me who you want to be in the arms of, and not them.”

Mi Hwa was speechless not because she was shocked, but because he was right. Every word, he was right.

She missed him, she needed him, and she wanted him.

She began to sob. She couldn’t do this alone. She just couldn’t. She tried so hard, but it was difficult. She remembered how easy it felt before when he was with her.

G-Dragon hugged her. “I love you,” he whispered, wiping her tears away before kissing her sweetly on the lips.

They stayed like that for a long time. And when they broke apart, they didn’t need words to say what they were feeling. They knew. They looked at each other and smiled, embracing into one another’s warmth once again.