Breaking Rules

RULE # 43: DON'T THINK NO ONE ELSE CAN HEAR YOU

In a flash

The first performance they had since they began training with Mai was a success. Dara logged in on-line while in the dressing room to check what netizens had to say on their site.

"Are 2NE1 still rookies?!?!"

"That performance was explosive! Oh my God!"

"I love the girls! 2NE1 fighting!!!"

"This time, all the girls shined and I really loved their performance!"

"What did they say? What did they say?" Bom asked excitedly.

"They loved it!" Dara answered enthusiastically, showing Bom the praises from their audience.

"Ooooh!" Bom exclaimed in delight, browsing through the rest of the page.

"They always update with comments like these so fast" Minji said, popping from behind the two Unnies.

Their door opened as CL was making her way to look at the laptop too. Danny came in with a bunch of gift bags on hand. "You did great!" he greeted, handing each of them the gift bags.

"Thank you sunbae."

"Thank you."

"Thank you."

"Mai was with me but she's been sidetracked by Yu Seuk. That old man wanted to come in here and Mai decided to keep him at bay" Danny told them.

"Poor Unnie" CL announced.

"Well... don't worry all that much about Mai. She's had more experience handling men like Mr. Song than you do" the sunbae replied.

The door opened once again and in came Teddy, holding Mai's arm, assisting the sunbae-nim towards the door.

"You disposed of Yu Seuk?" Danny asked jokingly.

Mai smiled "Teddy did that for me... he always knows how to dispose men who get THAT close."

Danny laughed as Teddy (who Dara –or for that case any of them 2NE1 girls – never saw blush over a woman's comment) turned red as a tomato.

The other three continued their banter as she and the girls began removing their make-up. The three had assigned themselves as 2NE1's body guards against the D.O.M.'s lurking like hyenas outside. Dara shuddered just thinking how the Manager had gotten involved with such men.

"This is the first time I saw Manager this happy" CL whispered to her.

"What do you mean?" Dara asked then sneaked a peek at Teddy.

"Do you think he has feelings for Mai-sunbae?"

"What are you talking about?!?! They just seem really close friends. He might be happy because, remember? He hadn't gotten to seeing much of Danny-oppa and Mai-unnie."

CL heaved a sigh and looked on with such sadness "I hope that's true... I mean, Manager is my "forever" kind of guy but... sometimes, what you see isn't really gospel truth. I really feel Unnie is special to Manager and I've never been wrong with my intuition. You don't necessarily have to make others see how special someone is to you for them to know it."

Dara gulped and tried to look neutrally at their leader. She felt that there was a hint of something else in that statement as well. Could CL be talking about her and Ji too? Was it becoming that obvious how much she cared for the guy? She was trying to hide it at all costs because of her fear that when people find out about them, they might take them apart. "Well... well... it's not always a good thing to assume unless Manager really admits it."