Let Me
The girls asked to be left alone and Ji couldn't do anything about it.
After the meeting with Teddy, they lost all drive to practice and decided to go back to their apartment. They ate together but did not discuss what was going to happen.
He boldly took a seat beside Dara and didn't give a care whether the others saw how he piled her with food and kept looking at her eating.
Ji knew that, despite her hearty appetite, she had crumbled inside already – just like Minji, Bom, and CL who ate mechanically.
After lunch, the girls had a concensus to go to their room and asked everyone to leave them alone for the whole day. Ji wanted to tell them that they needed their sunbaes now more than any other time but saw the sadness etched in their eyes.
He wanted to hug each of them and assure them that they were going to work out something but knew that that was a hard promise to make. A hand squeezing his heart, he agreed to let them go and put a hand on Seung-ri's shoulder who was going after the girls.
"Hyung!" the maknae reacted but he shook his head.
"They need this" he told Seung-ri "As of the moment, we can't do anything for them yet."
"This is unfair!" Daesung screamed to the walls of Ji's apartment.
"We can still do something about this" Seung-ri said aloud "the club has a lot of patrons and I'm sure that they will not allow this."
"You have to also see it from where Teddy is standing" T.O.P. answered "We might defy them but as they said, they'll make sure that Teddy will sink so low he'd never emerge again. And these men have that capability. He's choosing the best way to protect the girls and protect us too."
"But what will they be doing now? If they can't even be allowed to work again at the club even as part of the crew, they'd have to look for jobs elsewhere and we all know it's the recession. Finding a job is really really difficult. And we won't even be able to see them just as much as we want to. They'll be going away just when I've become used to having them around."
Seung-ri was breathing hard after the speech to which YB patted him on the back "They've grown on you haven't they?"
"Am I alone in feeling that?" Seung-ri retorted.
"No" YB answered "We all feel the same way but... T.O.P.-hyung has a point. We need to help the girls with a solution but we also have to open ourselves to the idea that that solution might not involve them going back to the club anymore."
***
Thorns
They hugged one another and cried.
It was one of the saddest days of Dara's life.
"How are we going to start over?" Minji asked weakly "Where are we going to begin?"
"We'll find jobs" Bom answered "We'll... we'll find another job that we also love."
"But what if I don't get to work with you guys anymore?" the maknae asked, her voice breaking.
"Ow don't think that!" CL told her, trying to lighten up the mood "We'll find a job where we will still be together. We can't work apart coz you all know that you need me. Nobody else can control Dara like me so I always have to look after her. And Bomtori needs someone who'll also look out after her, most specially with what she eats. And you need me to make sure everything's going to be ok."
Minji cried louder at CL's words and grabbed her jacket sleeves to wipe her eyes.
"We'll stay together no matter what" Dara assured the maknae, hugging Minji as tightly as she could.
"I hope we still get to see the Big Bang-oppas" CL muttered.
"That might be difficult now" Bom answered "If those men see us with the Big Bang-sunbaes, they might soon turn their anger towards them. They have been unable to get their hands on us because of Manager's decision and we need to do our part in that. He might not have said it but I understood that he wants us to get as far away from here as possible."
"But! But! They are our friends!"
"It wouldn't matter" Dara said defeatedly, looking at CL "We all know it wouldn't matter at all."
"Haisssssshhhhhhh!!!!" the leader screamed her frustration "What's up with not allowing us to have a boyfriend for five years?!? Do they think that after that time we might be able to reconsider their propositions?!? They're just doing this to spite Teddy-oppa!"
"Of course they are" Bom agreed. "That is actually what those oldies want. They want to break Manager by breaking us and they have succeeded. You saw how he was right? Just seeing him like that already broke me."
"I want to find these men and shoot them with a BB gun" CL declared, her fists high up in anger "They're dirty and they have no soul! Why can't they let Teddy-oppa begin anew? He's different now from who he was before! They're so evil!"
***
Pulling the strings
"Teddy refused???" Jin-ah cleared with Minhwan "but you were giving a wonderful offer."
"I know" Minhwan replied "but according to Uncle, he refused to let me become Dara's boyfriend. I was going to put in a lot of money into that club too just for that but he said that we were treating them like prostitutes. What's up with that?"
Jin-ah nodded "I have to agree. I mean... you did tell me that Teddy had done services like that before. I apologize, though, because of my suggestion, you might now have a harder time to be with Dara-unnie."
"Oh. That's no problem... Uncle made a deal with Teddy. The girls won't be allowed to have boyfriends for five years at all. I think I'd be able to change her mind by then."
"That's a long time..."
"Well... I would have extended it to ten years" Minhwan joked.
"That's so evil!" Jin-ah reacted.
"I know it is" Minhwan admitted "but I'm very single minded. I may perform in clubs and I know people think that I'm really nobody but that's only for show. I don't want them knowing just how much influence I could exercise."
"You must really like Dara then. I didn't think you'd actually do something like this."
"Well... I was worried about what you told me... if that Ji Yong friend of yours really likes Dara, he could be close competition and I do my best to eliminate all possible competition."
"But you said Teddy dissolved 2NE1 already? How is all this even going to work?"
"Well... I'll take them" Minhwan answered confidently "They'll be looking for jobs right? I'll extend an offer to them they can't refuse and make sure that none of those Big Bang boys ever see them again."
Jin-ah covered her face with her hands "You're almost scaring me Minhwan. I would have never thought you'd do something like this. This is so evil and I know you... you're not like this."
"I used to think the same way" the guy answered, looking up the ceiling of the coffee shop then back at his closest childhood friend "but a person who wants something as bad as I want this will understand that sometimes... you just do everything you can to get what you really really want."
"But you could have spared the other girls..."
"Do you think that Dara is the only one who men notice? I may like Dara but others have an interest in Park Bom, Lee Chae Rin, and Gong Minji too..."
"But..."
"You thought otherwise?"
Jin-ah nodded.
"My suggestion snow-balled amongst other partners" Minhwan explained "I didn't expect it too but there's no turning back now."
A waitress stopped at their table to bring the cakes that they ordered and Jin-ah took her time in sampling the blueberry cheesecake. She understood what Minhwan had told her about doing things that one never thought one would do for the sake of something one wants. She had done just that as well.
"You look like you're thinking really deeply" her friend told her.
"I'm just thinking how unfair it sometimes is... you do so much for someone you love but they just can't love you right back."
"Woah!" Mihwan jibed at her "Where did that come from???"
Jin-ah smiled and shook her head. "It's nothing... nothing... sorry... just don't mind me... So, what else do you plan to do today?"
Minhwanlooked at her strangely but accepted her explanation. "What else would you liketo do today? We'll do whatever you want to do coz I owe you a lot."