Two hundred and fifty miles away . . .

“Where’s G-Dragon-sshi?” Hyuna was asking Seunghyun, looking around. They were down the stairs, at the broken water fountain.

“Oh, uh, he went away for awhile,” he replied. “Gayoon took him somewhere. But he’ll be back soon — with a surprise.”

“Oooh, I love surprises!” Minzy said happily. She looked at her brother who was just as excited as she was. “Taemin does, too!”

“Me, too! Me, too! I love surprises, too!” So-hyun piped up, jumping up and down. She paused. “What sort of surprise?”

“Well, it wouldn’t be a surprise if we told you,” Chaerin said, coming up to them. She smiled at Seunghyun, knowing why he was so happy. “Where are the others, Hyuna?”

“Jonghyun oppa and Dae Sung oppa are in their penthouse,” she replied, looking around. “Bom unnie is in the café. Then Dara is in the room with Rae Ah. Oh, and Onew oppa and Kibum oppa are working on a new project . . . somewhere.”

 “Go call them here, Hyuna,” Seunghyun said, beaming. As she turned to call them, he said, “Oh you know what, never mind.” Then in a very loud voice, he shouted, “HEY EVERYBODY, COME DOWN NOW! COME DOWN IMMEDIATELY! GUYS!”

Thinking it was an emergency, everyone ran down to where others were.

 “What’s the emergency?” Dara asked, carrying Rae Ah in her arms. She cradled her gently. “Shhh, baby.”

 “They say they’ve got a surprise for us!” Minzy exclaimed, jumping up and down excitedly. “But they won’t tell us what it is!”

 “That’s the whole point of surprises, Minzy,” Onew told her.

 “Well, what is it?” Bom asked.

 “GD is coming back!” Seunghyun burst out excitedly. He checked his watch. “Right now.”

At that very moment, G-Dragon appeared on the spot, accompanied by Mi Hwa and baby Ji Yong in her arms.

“Hey, I remember you!” Minzy exclaimed, pointing at Mi Hwa. “You’re the girl who —”

 “Mi Hwa noona,” Taemin cut in, who had always been known for his good memory.

“Awww, that’s such a sweet, little baby,” Bom said, hurrying to Mi Hwa, cooing over Ji Yong. “Hi there, little one. How are you?”

“His name is Ji Yong,” Mi Hwa told her, smiling, cradling her son.

“He’s so cute,” Hyuna gushed, reaching out to his soft cheeks.

G-Dragon took Rae Ah from Dara’s arms, bringing her over to Mi Hwa. “Rae Ah, meet Ji Yong, your half brother.”

“What?!” Dara screeched, realizing what was happening. She walked up to them, glaring at Mi Hwa with pure hate and jealousy. “You slept with my boyfriend? How dare you!” She raised her hand and gave one tight slap across her face.

“Dara!” Chaerin admonished.

G-Dragon stepped forward, ready to give it out to her but Mi Hwa placed a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, GD,” she said and he turned back. She nodded and turned to face Dara. “One,” she said calmly, lifting a finger, “I did not steal your boyfriend. You broke up with him. Two, I slept with him after you ran away from him. Three, you already lost, so there’s no point in arguing.”

Chaerin was amazed at Mi Hwa’s serenity. She didn’t even flinch or attack back when Dara slapped her and it must have hurt. To keep her cool even through that takes a lot of willpower.

Dara turned to G-Dragon, who shrank back at her dangerously, piercing eyes. “Why? How could you do this to me?”

Mi Hwa squeezed his hand and he found the courage to say what has been on his mind for so long. “You played with me, Dara. You never loved me. Mi Hwa here actually loves me, for me, not because she wanted to make my brother jealous.”

“I’m going away,” Dara declared loudly. “I’m taking Rae Ah with me.” She reached out to take Rae Ah into her arms.

But G-Dragon wouldn’t give Rae Ah back. “No way. You can’t take her away from me,” he said firmly, holding his daughter tightly. “She doesn’t have to lose her father just because you can’t admit the fact that you’re wrong. It isn’t fair that she have to suffer for what you did, for your faults.”

“What I did? For my faults? Are you blind?!” she shrieked. “Didn’t you realize that she had planned this all along? This was all her doing!” She pointed at Mi Hwa.

“Oh yeah sure, like I knew this was going to happen. As though I can see the future,” Mi Hwa replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “I’m no psychic.” She paused. “Though I sure would love to be,” she added a little wistfully. She frowned thoughtfully.

Dara called her a bad name that made the older ones gasped in horror.

“Dara, language!” Bom warned.

“Dara unnie said the S word!” So-hyun piped up, giggling.

“What’s the S word?” Minzy wanted to know. “Stupid?”

“No, you silly. The S word is what Dara noona called Mi Hwa noona just now, which is a ,” Taemin replied innocently, oblivious he wasn’t supposed to say those words.

“That’s enough,” Bom told the little kids sternly. “You shall never repeat those word again, any of you.”

“Dara, there shall be no name calling here,” Chaerin spoke up firmly. She sighed, angry that the kids learnt such words, hoping that they wouldn’t find out.

Seunghyun was angry with her. Who does she think she is to call Mi Hwa such name? “Dara, don’t you dare blame Mi Hwa for your stupid and immature mistakes,” he spoke up firmly.

“My mistakes? She’s the one always stirring up trouble everywhere she goes!” She glowered at G-Dragon. “Is it because I gave you a daughter and she gave you a son? Is that why you’re with . . . with her?” She said ‘her’ as though it was a bad thing, like it was a disease.

“Uh, I have a name,” Mi Hwa spoke up.

“Shut up. I wasn’t talking to you.”

“Don’t talk to Mi Hwa that way, Dara,” Seunghyun said, glaring at her. “She didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Oh right, go ahead and defend her!”

“Oh, real immature,” Mi Hwa muttered under her breath.

“Bom, why don’t you take the kids somewhere else to play?” Chaerin suggested.

“I’ll go with her,” Hyuna added. “Onew oppa and Kibum oppa, you guys should come too.”

Relieved to have an escape, they walked away. Jonghyun and Dae Sung made an excuse to leave as well. And then it was just Chaerin, Seunghyun, G-Dragon, Dara, Mi Hwa and the babies left.

“Dara, it’s not a matter of me having a son or daughter,” G-Dragon said quietly. He put his arms around Mi Hwa. “I don’t care about that.”

“Then what is it? Please tell me so I would know!”

G-Dragon shrugged. “I love Mi Hwa. And I want to be with her.”

Dara glared at Mi Hwa. “I told you what would happen if you made a move on my man,” she said menacingly.

“He’s not ’your man’ anymore,” she shot back. “You broke up with him when you proudly announced it to the whole world you were in love with Seunghyun oppa.”

“Dara, that’s enough,” Chaerin spoke up. It was time to step in and take charge before all hell breaks loose. “You have no right to argue in this case. And it’s no one’s faults of why G-Dragon decided to choose Mi Hwa over you, okay? It’s not Mi Hwa’s faults, nor yours, nor G-Dragon’s. It was made based on his decision.”

“But she —”

“And you are not running away. For your daughter’s sake, don’t run away.”

“You’re not the boss of me, Chaerin unnie,” Dara spat back nastily.

“Yes, I am,” Chaerin shot back sternly. “I’m one of the leaders of this clan, therefore making me the boss of you. I don’t like to be bossy but you are leaving me with no better choice. Now, go to your room, stay in there and calm down. G-Dragon, give Rae Ah back to her.”

He gave her back to her mother, who walked to her room in a huff.

“Will you be joining us?” Seunghyun asked.

She exchanged glances with G-Dragon. She smiled and nodded. “Maybe not forever, but for now, yes. I will. I’ll be honored, if you’ll have me.”

Chaerin nodded. “We’ll love to have you and baby Ji Yong,” she said warmly and G-Dragon kissed her cheeks.

Seunghyun beamed, happy with the good news. “That’s great!”

“Come on,” G-Dragon said. “Let’s go to my room. I’m sure Ji Yong is ready for his nap.” The three of them went to his room.

Chaerin turned to Seunghyun, letting out a big sigh of relief.

He laughed. “Well, that seemed to have went well,” he remarked.

“Are you kidding?” Chaerin shook her head. “I fear it’s just the start. It’s going to be a lot worse than when Bom liked you. You know how insanely jealous Dara can be and what she’s capable of!”

He sighed. “It’s probably a good thing that Mi Hwa is a strong girl; otherwise Dara might win in this situation. I mean, to not lose her cool when she slapped her!”

“I think that’s because she grew up with three guys,” Chaerin teased.

“We’re not boys; we’re men.”

She snorted but she was laughing. “Right. Very humble of you to say that.”

He laughed as well. “Maybe you’re right. I mean, she may have been a girl, but we didn’t treat her like one. But, of course, she had girl friends so she wasn’t at all that tomboyish. Just tough enough to handle situations like this.”

They smiled at each other.

Later in the night G-Dragon woke up to see that Mi Hwa was gone. He panicked. She can’t have left, can she? He checked to see if Ji Yong was still there. Yup, he was there in his basket, sleeping soundly. But where was Mi Hwa? He walked out of the room and found her on the landing steps of the stairs, leaning against the rail bars. He walked to her. “Can’t sleep?” he asked, putting his hands on her waist.

She looked at him. “Hey,” she said, startled.

He kissed her. He couldn’t help himself. “I love you, Mimi,” he murmured.

Mi Hwa let herself be won ever. She didn’t want to fight against him, especially not on a romantic night such as this. She just wanted to enjoy this moment while she can.

“GD oppa?” she asked as he buried his head in her hair, kissing her neck softly.

“Mmm?” He loved it when she called him that.

She smiled, hugging him tightly. She didn’t want him to let go. “Why don’t we go somewhere else? Like we leave this place?”

He pulled away, confused. “Wait, what? Why? Mimi, we just got here. What about Rae Ah and everyone else? We can’t just leave them here.”

“I don’t mean the three of us, dummy,” she said, laughing softly. She dug her hands in his hair. “I mean all of us, everyone in this clan. We’ll go to the future, where we don’t have to worry about Zaifhers or anything dangerous lurking around.”

He frowned thoughtfully. “I’m listening,” he said dryly.

“We could have a better life there,” she went on. “We wouldn’t have to worry about the Zaifhers. Life would be better over there. The little children would have a better future there than living here. It’s so simple, and good. How could you resist? So what do you think?”

“I like it, but I’m not sure if everyone else would agree to it easily, especially Onew. This was his home before we invaded,” he told her, noting the flaws in her plan.

“But you would come with me . . . right, oppa?” she asked, wrapping her arms around his neck. She buried her hands in his hair, resting her head on his chest. She closed her eyes.

“You are such a tease,” he remarked affectionately. He kissed her forehead. “Come on, babe. It’s late. Let’s sleep.”

They walked back to their room, unaware that they were being watched carefully by Dara from her doorway. She watched through the glass window as they got into bed together. G-Dragon put his arms around Mi Hwa as she snuggled closely to him. Dara’s heart broke just to see them so happy together.

“Just you wait, Mi Hwa,” she muttered murderously under her breath. “You’re going to learn what happens to those who steal my man. Just you wait.”