The next morning I woke up to someone lightly shaking my leg. As I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, Seungri's smiling face appeared.
"Heyyyyy wake up, Mindy," he said. "It's time to get up."
I stretched out my arms as I sat up in bed. Seungri stood up and exited my room out into the kitchen. I followed suit to find that no one had waken up yet other than Seungri and me. I walked over to where he was pouring himself a glass of water.
"Uh...oppa. Where are the others?" I asked.
"Still sleeping," Seungri replied.
I glared at him. "Why did you wake me up when no one else is awake? What time is it exactly?!" I looked to the clock on the microwave. "Six?! You woke me up at six?! We go to YG at 8:30! We don't need to wake up this early!!!" I protested.
Seungri pulled out a pan and some eggs. "But I want you to make breakfast for me first," he answered. I gaped at him in amazement. Seungri would wake me up an hour early just to make him breakfast.
"Wow...this is wow...fantastic. Great," I stammered. I turned 180 towards my room. "I going back to sleep."
Seungri quickly grabbed my arm. "Baby~ I need you."
I turned around and covered my face. "Please don't. If you call me baby one more time-"
"Baby..." he whimpered.
I sighed, rolled my eyes and took the pan from his hand. "Honestly, you could have just asked me nicely instead of just randomly waking me up," I scolded him.
"Yeah, whatever. You ended up making me breakfast anyway," he laughed sitting down at the table.
I lifted an egg as a threat. "Do you want to die?"
Daesung came out of his room with hair like a bird's nest and squinting eyes. "What's with the death threat...?"
"What's with the noise...?" Taeyang asked coming out of the room behind Daesung.
"Why are you all awake?" TOP asked as he walked out of his room with Jiyong hanging onto his arm.
"Mindy is making breakfast," Seungri said.
"What?" I looked up from the pan. "I-I...Seungri told me..."
"You're only making breakfast for Seungri? How about me?" TOP asked offended. He grabbed Jiyong's shoulders and moved him over to the couch.
"Ay, hyung. We didn't get any breakfast from Mindy at all," Daesung complained.
"Why don't you make us all breakfast, Mindy?" Jiyong muttered into the couch. I stared at all of their pleading eyes and Jiyong's face-plant on the couch. You couldn't say no to that especially since Jiyong tried so hard to be awake.
"Fine," I muttered.
They all quickly assembled at the table and I made all them a simple breakfast of rolled eggs. After breakfast, we got ready for a day of work. I accidentally stepped into Jiyong's closet instead of my room so I was faced with racks upon racks of clothing and I couldn't keep back my urge to just look through all of them. I found a low cut over sized dark blue shirt that I had to try on but before I could steal it and escape into my room,
Jiyong came in wearing a robe and nothing else. He backed all the way to the door in surprise. "Mindy. Oh my God. What are you doing in here?" he exclaimed.
I lifted up the shirt, guilty. "Shopping," I answered.
"But that's mine..." he protested. "Yeah..." I said. "But I'm an idol now and everything so I've got to dress a little differently...and-"
Jiyong stared at me with a frightened expression. "Yeah, okay. Just please..."
I flashed him a smile, lightly slapped his cheek on the way out, and skipped into my room to pull on an outfit of the blue shirt, black leggings, white high-tops, and a baggy creme colored cardigan. I also pulled my hair into a bun. When I came out of my room, the members were waiting for me.
"Here, Mindy," Taeyang said, handing me a pair of sunglasses. "These are your very first pair of shades to hide your face in case there are any cameras."
"Congratulations!!!" Jiyong exclaimed.
He had gotten over the fright of me in his closet and looked much cleaner and crisper. They all cheered for me. Seungri used the Polaroid to take a picture of me posing with my new glasses on and handed me the picture.
"Now you could put it up on our YG Polaroid wall," TOP told me.
When we reached the building, they showed me where the bulletin was for the Polaroids were. I glanced over the many pictures of my YG family on the wall and felt a sense of great pride when I pinned my first picture with a tack. I didn't linger too long because we began practicing for the music festival. But the feeling lasted.
Each night I closed my eyes, I was met with the roaring crowd of hatred. Soon enough, I became sleep deprived and it began showing on my face and in my actions. The members became so worried; they all asked for me to sit on the couch while they sat on the floor in front me to "talk about my feelings". I only found it scarier because their blank faces looked similar to the repeating blank faces in my nightmare.
"Come on, Mindy," Taeyang pleaded. "Just say it. Tell us everything."
"I told you everything last night, remember? Nothing changes except it gets scarier and scarier..." I muttered.
Jiyong let out a sigh of frustration and laid his head on his knees.
"What do you mean it gets scarier?" TOP asked.
"The festival is coming closer each day," Daesung answered for me. "Of course, it would get worse."
"What are we going to do? What if you don't get any sleep before the festival? It will be a disaster!" Seungri exclaimed.
"It's not what you guys can do..." I told them. "It's what I can do. Look, I'm so thankful for your concern but I need to deal with this by myself."
I stood up and walked into my room, closing my door. As amazing as the members could be, it was absurd for them to solve my internal problem for themselves. I needed to get over it by myself before the festival, which was three days away. I had to find a way. I sat in front of the keyboard I borrowed from Jiyong and played a few notes and chords.
I sang softly:
"I'm so scared.
I'm so scared of blank, ghostlike faces,
Filled with hatred to the brim...
Ready to overflow, And break me into pieces."
With the time I spent awake in the middle of night, I began secretly writing lyrics about my nightmares. The lyrics and music were okay but I never planned to show it to anyone. It wasn't that great to begin with and if I put too much feeling into lyrics...my listeners later on might assume things.
Jiyong knocked on my door and peeked in. I quickly moved from the keyboard to my laptop. Luckily, he didn't noticed.
"I'm going to the YG building to do some stuff. Want to come along?" he offered.
I smiled and snooker my head at him. "No thank you," I told him.
His face fell. "Alright...go to sleep if you can..." Then he left.
Honestly, I felt weird with Jiyong since the night on the room so I tried to not be alone with him too much. I pulled on the YG page and read the comments on the new detail Appa YG released about me today. Reading through them twice over, it wasn't that bad. They were all mostly curious to know who I was and how good I was. But the comments that were filled hatred stung and made me envision the blank, hating faces again.
TOP stepped into my room and sat on the edge of my bed. "Mindy..." he said.
"Yes, oppa?" I replied as I scrolled down the page. He went over next to me on the laptop and sat on the desk.
"It's been a long time since we've really talked. Do you still wear the bracelet?" he asked. I rolled up the sleeve of my sweater to show him the thin blue bracelet with metal beads. He grinned and pulled up his sleeve to show his. "Let's go on a walk," TOP offered.
"Why?" I looked at the clock. "It's late."
"I think we both need to take a breather," he suggested. "Seungri got my favorite Bear Brick dirty so I really need to just..." He sighed.
I laughed. "Alright. Alright."
We ended up walked around this park near their house. We were silent most of the time.
Suddenly, TOP spoke up. "I know you were trying to hide it but I heard you sing something for the past few days." I blushed and looked away. "I know I shouldn't be asking this but...can I hear it?"
I took a seat on a bench. "I don't know. I wasn't planning to share it with anyone and...I don't know if it's that good."
"Well, that's why you share it," TOP chuckled. He took a seat next to me.
I sighed and looked at a distant flickering lamp post. "I guess..." TOP turned to me and smiled for me to start. And I did, hesitantly. I got through the song and at the end, he clapped happily.
"That was amazing, Mindy," he praised. "You should put that into your album."
"It's about what I dream about..." I muttered, "every single night."
"I know," TOP said. "Can I tell you something?" I nodded my head. "I had the same thing happen to them before our debut. Except I wasn't that I couldn't sleep, but I kept freaking out while singing and stopping all together."
"And how did you deal with it?" I asked.
"I didn't." He turned to me and started playing with my hair. "It ended when I first stepped into the stage and seeing the excited audience. I just knew then that it would be fine. And I hope the same happens for you." He leaned into a little closer. "You are a beautiful young woman with an amazing voice and such a strong determination. It would be absolutely stupid if anyone...in this entire world would shoot you down."
My heart beat against my chest as I realized TOP was incredibly close to me. He had stopped playing with my hair but left his hand there.
"In any event, you are beyond talented and even if the whole world hated you, you can learn to love yourself," he whispered.
And he was too close. But I didn't lean back.
"And I can learn to love you..."
My mind went blank as he pressed his lips against mine. All that went through my mind was how amazing it felt for TOP to be so close to me. But as soon as it happened, I thought of how close Jiyong was to kissing me and suddenly pulled back. TOP looked disappointed for a second and then concerned.
"Oh God," he said. "I shouldn't have done that. I'm so sorry, Mindy."
I couldn't form words so I stared at him, speechless. Why? What was so wrong with kissing TOP? I felt sweat at my hairline. It was the fact that I thought of Jiyong instead... I ran my fingers through my hair. TOP had a sad, forlorn and equally guilty look on his face.
"It's late..." I finally said. "We should go back and sleep."
He nodded in agreement although he still looked sad. We walked the rest of the way home in silence. Before stepping into the house, TOP stopped me. "Hey, Mindy," he said.
I tried hard to make eye contact with him so it wouldn't be so awkward. "Just forget about it...I know I shouldn't have." I tried to pull on a joking expression so we wouldn't feel so awkward about it. "You're asking me to forget a kiss from Choi Seunghyun, one of the kings of K-pop?" I scoffed. "Fat chance."
He looked worried for a second and then realized I was joking. TOP smiled, opened the door for me, and said, "After you, my lovely chingu."
I slept for only three hours that night and it wasn't because of the nightmares even if they were there. I laid in my bed staring at the ceiling thinking about TOP's lingering kiss and Jiyong's sweet, soft peck. It was all so confusing to me. One side of me wanted to lean into TOP and continue kissing him; the other side wanted to run into Jiyong's arm and be the one to initiate the kiss.
The question ended up being: why did they kiss me? It wasn't obvious that they liked me in an intimate way. But it would make sense that it wouldn't be obvious since they have to hide everything behind a mask for the cameras anyway. Either way, I had myself asking myself: did they kiss me because they liked me or they just felt obliged to...to make me feel better about myself?
I slapped my cheeks in frustration. Oh my goodness, what would happen if they both liked me? It would be chaos. Complete, absolute destruction of the band because it seemed to me that at the moment, I wouldn't be able to choose between the both of them. It would have been so much easier if one of them were uglier than the other. Dammit. They were both so gorgeous...
The next few days, I practiced for the music festival and tried to keep my distance with the two and talked much more with the other members. At least they didn't show any signs of wanting to kiss me. While we ran over the dance by ourselves, Seungri approached me.
"Hi Mindy," he smiled. I smiled back at him.
"What is up, Seungri-ah?"
"Hmm nothing," he replied. We stayed silent for a moment while we practiced our moves. Suddenly, he asked, "Are...you avoiding Jiyong hyung?"
I almost slipped over my left balance but regained my senses. "No! N-no! Why would you think that? I-I would never!" I sputtered.
Seungri shrugged. "I don't know. It just looks like it..."
He moved away to take a drink. As I looked over, I found Jiyong smiling at me and quickly turned away as my cheeks turned pink.
The day before the music festival, we practiced at the concert hall to check the sound and stage. As I stood on the stage staring down at Se7en, Teddy, and Appa YG watching, my mind flashed to the scary emotionless faces in my nightmares. I was about to run off the stage but took a breath and began rehearsals.
On my entrance for Thorns, I would jump up from the stage lift for a cool "pop-out" move. The first time I tested it out, I ended up unstable after the jump so that I began falling backwards. Luckily, mysterious, strong arms caught me. I turned around to find Jiyong with his arms around me to keep my balance. I quickly hopped back to stability and out of his arms.
"Thanks oppa!" I exclaimed, ready to turn back to trying the jump again. Instead, Jiyong grabbed my shoulders and positioned me on the lift.
"Let me show some tricks to not look like a flying monkey coming up," he offered.
I pouted. "I didn't know I resembled that kind of animal so much."
"Mm...the only difference is less fur," he chuckled. "Alright. Follow my movements." At first, I was hesitant but followed Jiyong. "When you feel the push, bend your knees and stick out your butt," he advised and demonstrated. I followed him. "Stick out your butt as much as possible to brace your feet."
He stuck his rear even more. Daesung and Taeyang were cracking up from the stairs on the stage.
"Jiyong," Taeyang exclaimed. "You look like you're going to take a really big dump." Jiyong wiggled his butt to tease them. I tried the jump another time with Jiyong's technique and was successful in making an awesome looking jump except I would have to hold down my dress when I jumped. Halfway through rehearsal, Appa YG called me over.
"I heard you were having sleeping problems, Mindy-ssi."
"Ah...Jiyong oppa must have told you," I said.
"Mhm," Appa YG replied. "Just relax as much as you can or even nap during the day. You just need to clear your mind as much as possible. Hwaiting!"
"Thank you, Appa YG," I answered, bowing.
I was about to walk away when Appa YG raised his eyebrows at me and said, "Is there anything else one your mind?"
"Noooo..." I answered. He nodded, smiling and turned back to the members rehearsing on stage. I walked away quickly thinking to myself: did Appa YG know? Did Jiyong tell him? Appa YG didn't say anything else to me other than a few pointers on stage performance and rehearsal ended at 6 PM.
The members and I had a nice dinner at their favorite eel restaurant and we headed home to get to sleep early for the big day. Before going to bed with everyone in their PJ's, Jiyong called a meeting in the living room. I took a seat on the bean bag next to Seungri and stared at Jiyong you looked like he was about to make a speech.
"Yo~" he greeted. "Tomorrow is the day our dear Mindy will debut as the awesomest idol Korea-I mean America- has to offer. Let's hear it for Mindy!"
The members cheered and Jiyong continued, looking at me straight in the eyes," I know ever since you stepped into Korea, you've gone a crazy roller coaster. We hope that you would hold on tight and end up enjoying the ride. We believe in you, Mindy. And love you with all our hearts." He opened his arms for me.
"Oh..." I pointed to myself. "I'm supposed to...Oh, alright." I hurried over to Jiyong and wrapped my arms around his waist. Soon enough, we were joined by the other members and I was once again suffocated. The members shouted praises and compliments as they squeezed the life out of me.
Eventually, they let go and went to their rooms to go to bed. We wished each other good night as we passed each other. Jiyong passed by me and stopped.
"Mindy," he said. I stopped and stared into his beautiful eyes and I wanted to stare into them forever. "Don't run away," he whispered.
I nodded, understanding. Out of the blue, he lightly pressed his lips on my cheek and disappeared into the room. It was so quick, I doubted it ever happened but the lingering feeling told it all. As I felt reality slip away from me as I laid in my bed, a cloud of confusion drove me into sleep.
Jiyong...or TOP?
That night, I slept but struggled with my nightmares once again. This time, it was worst it has been, which made sense since my debut was the day after. I woke up in the middle of the night once again. It was so normal already so I got out of bed and got a glass of water and went out to the roof to take a breath.
I didn't notice Jiyong until he laced his fingers around mine. I looked over to him. His hair stood up in odd angles and his eyes still had sleep in them. I realized that he was out here to keep me company even if it was taking away his sleep.
"Jiyong oppa," I said, "...you don't have to be here with me."
He smiled at me. "I want to. I've been worrying about you so it's been hard to sleep too..."
I glared at him and said, "No! What? There isn't anything to worry about."
"Are they getting worse?" he asked.
I looked down at my toes. "The worst this night."
Jiyong sighed, frustrated. "I don't know what I can do."
"You don't have to do anything," I told him. I stood up with my fingers still link through his. "I'll just go back to sleep and get some sleep in if I can."
"But...your nightmares..." he protested.
"I'll fight through them," I smiled. "Oppa..." I instinctively reached out to brush a few strands of his hair out of a knot. "I'll be fine."
Jiyong wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me in for a tight hug. He kissed the top of my head as I leaned in close, inhaling the sweet scent of Jiyong. We stayed like that for a while before letting go and stepping back into the house.
TOP looked up at us from when we entered the house. His face was first confused then startled. I realized what it looked like after it was too late. TOP tried to play it cool by putting down the glass of water and pulling on a smile to cover up his previous expression.
"How are you guys?" he asked.
I stammered, "I was just about to go back to sleep..." Out of the corner of my eye, TOP held a clenched fist at his side, trying to conceal it.
"Oh," he answered. "Good night."
I wished him a goodnight along with Jiyong and walked back into my room. I barely heard the words Jiyong and TOP were saying but I knew it wasn't great. I ended up falling asleep to fast whispered words coming from the kitchen. The next morning, the six of us went to the site of the music festival and rehearsed with a few more Kpop groups.
Jiyong and TOP tried to distance themselves the whole time, not saying a word to each other. TOP must have thought something was between Jiyong and I so that it seemed like I pushed TOP away. In a sense, it would be considered like that but it was never my intention. Now I was left with two unhappy members. I practiced my jump once again and everything seemed fine.
Soon enough, I was at the dressing table with Hye Ri putting on my makeup and clothes. Minutes later I was rushed to the bottom of the stage where I was going to jump up with the lift. Jae Min suddenly appeared next to me with a flashlight and a stack of non-makeup remover napkins.
"Hey, Mindy," she greeted. "This way."
The members ran past me with sweat running down the sides of their faces. They all sent me a thumbs up or a smile as Jae Min and I passed them. I found it really strange for Jae Min to be leading me to my lift but I didn't argue since we needed to rush there to be on schedule.
When we reached the lift, Jae Min carefully positioned me. "Good luck, Mindy-ssi!" she said and I was off.
The second I was raised up, I already felt that the lift was unbalanced but I followed through with Jiyong's instructions and hoped for best. Which wasn't that great. The moment I landed, I felt a great deal of pain shoot up from my right ankle all the way up my leg. Despite wanting to cry out in pain, I brought the microphone to my lips and began strutting down the stage with my surely injured ankle.
"Annyeongseo, I'm Mindy-ssi!" I screamed out.
Suddenly, a burst of anxiety rushed through me, afraid that I would be met with the blank ghostlike expressions once again but this time in reality.
I was shocked with a load roar of enthusiasm in reply. I quickly glanced around the auditorium to find that almost everyone was standing and waving their glowsticks in support for me and I found strength. Standing under the bright spotlight with my now throbbing ankle, I never felt so strong or so confident. At that moment, I knew that I was meant for this.
So I ignored how painful my ankle was and continued on. "1! 2! 3! 4!," I exclaimed.
And the music started. With every beat and every step, I sung and danced my best. Of course, the audience began to notice my injured ankle but I continued on, fighting the pain. When the song ended, it was almost impossible to take the pain from my ankle. I choked out a "kansamnida" to the roaring audience. I didn't take notice since all I wanted was to get off the stage and sit.
The music for Somebody to Love began and the members ran up the stage to exist me. I grind my teeth together and fought through the song but halfway through, I felt like I was going to collapse. Seeing this, the choreography stopped and TOP and Jiyong rushed to each side of me and supported me. I still sang and I still put a smile of my face but as soon as the song ended, I muttered a last thank you and rushed off the stage with Jiyong and TOP still supporting me.
When we reached backstage, I fell against a chair and groaned in pain. "Oh my God," I cried in English, gritting my teeth. The members and the YG staff surrounded me.
"What happened?" Taeyang demanded to a staff member of the stage.
"I don't know! The lift was somehow unbalanced and once side didn't lift up to be equal to the height of stage..." he replied.
Seungri shook his head," How could this have happened?"
"It doesn't matter," Daesung cried. "We need to get her to the hospital.”
I looked over to Jiyong who was gripping my hand and TOP who was calling the ambulance. I tried to smile and say I was alright but they would know it was a lie. I looked into Jiyong's brown eyes filling with tears.
My eyes traveled to Jae Min who was gripping her flashlight and the napkins and staring at my ankle as if she was in agony. But something in me told me that she didn't mean anything she was doing or anything she was saying. Jae Min planted this and there was no doubt about it.
But I didn't say anything. I didn't want the YG staff to think I had an attitude for other staff members. Either way, the ambulance had already arrived and I was helped out to it. The members had to return back to the music festival for the closing song so Sae Kyung and Appa YG came along with me.
When we reached the hospital, the doctor quickly took and X-ray of my ankle and the three of us sat before the black screen.
"It's pretty bad," the doctor said. He pointed to a spot that looked like there was little black lines running through it. "Her heel is slightly cracked and her ankle is twisted. All we need to do is twist it back and leave it for the bone to heal back by itself but..."
"She'll be alright, right?" Appa YG asked.
The doctor looked at the X-ray. "Yes. She will be fine. But the least this will take is 2 weeks in a wheelchair or crutches. She cannot put pressure on her right foot at all."
Sae Kyung looked down at her scheduler and shook her head in silence. Appa YG only looked determined to fix me.
"Twist her ankle back and put her in crutches. She needs to get back to work," he demanded.
"Will do," the doctor agreed.
He pushed me out of the room on a wheelchair and into a surgery room where a nurse injected a numbing solution. I looked away when the doctor reached for my ankle. Good thing I was numb to the pain; it would have been so painful.
After that, they applied some medicine to that spot and the heel and put a light cast around my foot. The two also helped me walk with my crutches. Soon enough, I was sitting in the waiting lobby waiting for Sae Kyung and Appa YG to finish the paperwork. I looked down at my bandaged foot.
It was so crazy. On my debut, I managed to injure myself. I was so focused on the injury, I had no idea how my debut turned out like. The two finished and we drove back to the YG building where the three of us sat before a glass coffee table on couches. Appa YG smiled at me.
"Are you alright, Mindy-ssi?" he asked.
I smiled back. "I'm alright. I just wanted a pink cast," I said looking the ugly white cast over my foot.
"We'll find a way," he assured. "I just wanted to talk about what happened and what will happen." He brought a laptop over to where we sat. "It's been at least an hour since your debut and the response for it is..." He looked to me expressionless.
I gulped. "Did I...?"
"Oh stop scaring her," Sae Kyung said.
"What is it?" I asked them even further.
"We released your single on iTunes and it currently has 24,000 downloads. And..."
Sae Kyung finished for him, "...and you have three variety shows requests, five interviews, seven song requests, two radio station invitations, a press conference, and a photoshoot for a magazine."
"What-what is that supposed to mean?" I asked, startled.
"You were a huge HIT!" Appa YG exclaimed. "Here listen to this." He read off of a website on his laptop.
"And the day has arrived! YG released his secret project today at the Seoul Music Festival; American-born Mindy. Strutting in 2 inch heeled hunter boots and a enthusiastic attitude, this 20 year-old performed admirably with a badly injured ankle after landing on an unbalanced lift on the stage. Critics has proposed that Mindy might become the next big thing in Korea with her powerful, heartbreaking song 'Thorns' which expresses how hurtful it is to experience hatred and a cover of Big Bang's 'Somebody to Love.’
Mindy has been secretly working under YG as a trainee for the past 2 weeks after the president accidentally stumbled on her singing on a visit to Big Bang. Big Bang's G-Dragon has been closely working with Mindy to create this sensational song.
Nonetheless, Mindy's strong determination and fortitude won the hearts of many in Korea. Her track on iTunes reached 24,000 downloads in the past hour. We applaud Mindy's overpowering success and await her next comeback."
I couldn't believe my ears. Despite my weakness because of my injured ankle, the response on my debut was awesome beyond words. Sae Kyung couldn't hold in her excitement. She began clapping. "I'm so proud of you, Mindy-ssi. Gosh, this is almost as awesome as Big Bang's debut!"
"So..." I started rubbing an itchy spot on my cast. "...what's going to happen next?"
"Well...I'm going to leave Sae Kyung to organize the events you're going to attend and the next big thing will be the YG Family Concert." Appa YG smiled. "Why don't you collab with Jiyong or TOP to create a new song? You seem to work well with them."
I laughed nervously. "O-of course. But yeah well...how am I going to practice for the concert with this thing." I pointed to my cast.
"You'll be fine," Appa YG replied. He looked to a computer screen on his desk. "Your Big Bang boys are coming up here so get out of my office and meet up with them."
I raised my eyebrows. "How do you know...?"
"I have access to all the cameras in the building," he simply stated.
"Oh yeah...that's right," I said. I stood up with the help of Sae Kyung and then bowed the both of them. "Thank you. I'll be going now."
When I came out into the hallway to the elevators and found the members coming up to me with sweat dripping down their faces.
"My oppas!" I yelled happily, attempting to raise my arms.
Jiyong rushed to me and grabbed me by my waist and pulled me close. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"Y-yes," I stammered, pushing him away gently.
It was too late, TOP had already registered it in his eyes that he didn't like it one bit. To try to make things better, I smiled to the rest of the members. "Come here, you bastards."
Seungri enveloped me first with TOP last. I felt something different about his hug like he was trying as hard as possible not to touch me, but still with a loving caring way.
Taeyang patted my head lightly. "That was the best performance the whole night!" he complimented. "I had chills."
Daesung crouched down to my ankle. "May I be the first to sign it?" he asked.
"Oh, please." I laughed and looked down at him. "Who would think Kang Daesung would sign my cast...?"
"So what did they say about your ankle?" Seungri asked offering for me to lean on him. I accepted his offer.
"I couldn't get a hot pink cast..." I answered.
He laughed. "I'll talk to them again if you want. Or we can find something stylish for you so it could fit your concept."
"Yes yes! That's an awesome idea!" I smiled.
I looked to TOP but he didn't say anything. He only sent me a weak smile. Jiyong, on the other hand, took my bag and danced around to make me smile. A side of my heart wanted to reach out to TOP but I couldn't...really I couldn't. We drove back to the hostel and each had a glass of champagne in celebration.
"We're sorry we couldn't have a real party for your debut since well...you couldn't party normally," Taeyang apologized.
Jiyong laughed, "And I don't think alcohol is the right solution for you right now."
I couldn't hold in my tears and fell down my face. "Gosh..." I sniffled. "I can't believe I'm here. I can't put into words the feelings I'm feeling right now. All I know is that I don't want it to stop."
"I think I can say this for all the members," Jiyong said, "We love you, Mindy. And congratulations."
We attempted a group hug but it ended up with me just stumbling so after cleaning up, we got ready for bed. Somehow, TOP and I ended alone in the living room. He was about to go to his room when I called him back.
"Oppa..." I said. He turned around. "You've been so quiet. Is it because..." I didn't need to say it because he already knew.
He slightly smiled, sadly. "Congratulations, Mindy."
And he turned around and walked on to leave me in the room alone.