4 YEARS LATER 

"Excuse me, but is Mr. Kwon Jiyong in the building?" 

The arrogant-looking receptionist with a tight bun took a moment to look up from her computer to see a relatively small, but proportionate Asian woman that was holding a boy by the hand while a toddler slept inside the baby carrier that was on her chest.  The Asian woman wore sunglasses despite being inside the building and the little boy sported the same pair. She was wearing black Capri pants and a pastel blouse that had the first two buttons undone. Her hair was arranged in a slight mess and the boy looked no better. He was wearing a chartreuse bucket hat that clearly didn't match the rest of his outfit. He was also wearing a prominent scowl on his face and she could tell because his mouth was filled with a certain angst. It was like the toddler was the only one that look decent in this picture. She was swaddled with a yellow blanket while on a pacifier. Her hair was swept up into different directions but it only made her cuter in the people's eyes. 

The receptionist rolled her eyes at the woman and looked at her uninterestedly. Many women who claimed to have had her superior's children had come up to her countless of times insisting that he needed to compensate for them. She feels bad for her boss because she knows that he's a good soul under all that rigidness in his face and his 'cross-me-or-die' aura. She couldn't believe how many women would want to take advantage of an innocent man who's just working for his family. She crossed her arms at her, letting her know that she doesn't buy it. The woman on the other hand, took off her shades and gave them to the little boy who hurriedly put it in one of their luggage. She was shocked to see how young she looked under her glasses. Her face looked innocent yet she feels like she had been through a lot more than what her face tells. The mother gave her a warm smile and repeated the same question without even a slightest tinge of a badly accented English, "Is Mr. Kwon Jiyong in the building?" 

The girl behind the counter gulped, feeling a menacing aura surrounding this calm and beautiful mother, but she straightened up, not giving in without a fight. The company's reputation was indirectly in her hands now. She doesn't want a scandal to rise again because of a surprisingly intimidating, smiling woman. She loves the company and the pay too much to let it go into ruin. She cleared and brushed her blonde hair back. "Do you have an appointment?" she asked condescendingly. 

The woman chuckled but she could clearly detect the bitterness in it. "He has an appointment with me." she exclaimed, rearranging her baby carrier to further emphasize her point. "Why don't you call him for me, sweetheart?" 

She doesn't know why but her calling her 'sweetheart' sounded like an insult. She side-glanced at the other receptionists and saw them looking at her amusedly. She mentally sighed in annoyance. Why was it always her that gets to deal with this kind of people? She gave the woman a forced smile and flinched a bit when she saw the little boy remove his glasses only to show a cold set of glaring eyes. 

"Do you want me to give you his direct line or are you good?" The woman interrupted her thoughts. 

"N-no, we can't call him directly. He might be busy. I'll call his secretary." She replied uneasily and absentmindedly dialed the Operation Manager's secretary. As the phone rang on her ear, she wondered how the lady knew his direct line. She mentally commended her for research but she still wasn't convinced. 

"Hello, you've reached Mr. Kwon Jiyong's office. This is his secretary speaking, how may I help you?" A very familiar voice entered her ears since she'd had a pleasure to speak to her because of all these 'baby-mama's'. The receptionist slightly moved back and talked in a whisper, not letting the woman hear what she was saying. 

"I have another one, Jihyo. She brought kids too." 

"Aisht! They always bring kids with them." Jihyo scoffed. "Just tell them that he's in a meeting." 

"Hey, stop randomly speaking in Korean. You know I don't understand it!" she half-whispered, half yelled. She froze when she heard the lady clear and she looked up to see her smiling again. Her kid was now sitting on one of the lobby chairs like a prince while guarding their bags. 

"It seems you're having trouble. I would've called him already but my phone is dead." She smiled wider and so did her eyes. "Can you please tell his little assistant that his wife is here?"

She nodded hesitantly and turned away from her. "Jihyo!!! She says that she's his wife!!!!" she panicked. 

"Calm down, Kate. They always say that, you should be used to it by now." Jihyo said. "Besides, I'm pretty sure his wife is in Korea. But just for curiosity's sake, does she look like her?" 

"I don't even know what his wife looks like!!!" she panicked even more and Jihyo laughed from the other line. Kate peeked at her and saw her playing with the little baby on her chest and making funny faces. "Well... she's small and a bit thin, like holy does she even eat? Uhmm... she's baby-faced and she keeps smiling at me and it's making me uncomfortable."

Jihyo suddenly straightened up in her seat, a comical sweat drop trickling down on the side of her face. She took a brief look at her boss' closed doors and felt her palms sweat. She inched away from her seat and gripped the table, getting ready to run if she has too. She breathed audibly and asked, "Ask her what her name is." 

"What?"

"JUST DO IT!"

Kate moved the phone away from her ear and covered it. She went closer to the counter and the lady instantly looked up at her. "Is he coming down?" she questioned. 

"They would like to know your name first, m-ma'am." 

"Unbelievable." The woman laughed again. Korean, Kate thought. She might not know exactly what she said but she was damn well sure she knew what Korean sounds like. "No, I'm not giving my name. I would really like to speak to him, Ms..." She peered at her name tag. "Ms. Kate Bradberry." 

She asked her to wait and the woman just smiled again. "Jihyo!!! She doesn't want to give her name and she said that she really wants to speak to Mr. Kwon." 

"Kate. Listen to me." Jihyo calmly said. "Is the phone wireless?"

"Yes?"

"Hand her the phone, Kate."

"Wh---"

"HAND HER THE PHONE!!!"

Kate jumped in surprise and mindlessly handed the phone over to the woman. She gave Kate a brief but genuine 'thanks' as she made her way to sit beside her son. "Hello?"

"Mrs. K-k-won?" Jihyo stuttered. 

"No right now, I'm a Ms. Park. Do you mind handing your boss the phone?" 

"I... uhhh.. He might be busy, Ms. Park." Jihyo stood up, slowly making her way to her boss' door. 

"Oh is that so? Can you leave him a message then... from Ms. Park?" 

Jihyo reluctantly opened the door and found Jiyong with his fellow Operating Manager, Youngbae, eating some take-out while talking amongst themselves. The two stopped, seeing Jiyong's secretary walk cautiously to them while having a phone in her ear. They looked at her anxious face questioningly as she slowly brought the phone to Jiyong's ear. She mouthed a 'Your Mrs. Kwon' before bolting her out of the door and probably hide under her desk. 

Jiyong's face lit up and Youngbae just continued eating wearing a bored face. He held the phone in his hand and was about to speak when his lovely wife interrupted her. 

"Yeah, can you tell your boss that Ms. Park is in the building, and hmmm... Oh yeah. Tell him to go HIMSELF!" then the line was cut off. 

Jiyong's smile completely faded and he looked at the phone like it was something that he had never seen before. Youngbae elbowed him while some noodles hanged over his mouth. "Dude," he said. "Sandara's here." 

It took him a minute to process what was going on and after the realization finally hit him, he ran out of the room like Usain Bolt. The worse part was that he was on the 10th floor while Dara was on the ground floor. He quickly darted to the elevators and kept pushing at the buttons incessantly. The employees who were waiting with him dispersed, seeing the frantic look on his face. Their Operations Manager wasn't one to leave out of his office without a good enough reason. Usually, he leaves the office to reprimand someone, go to the toilet, go to meetings, or go home. Judging from the horrified look in his face, he may be reprimanding someone again, but now that they look at it, it seems that he may be the one getting scolded. After a few minutes of incessant pushing with no elevators coming up, he kicked one of the elevator doors hard, leaving an imprint on it, and then running to the emergency staircase. 

Meanwhile, Dara handed back the phone to the receptionist and sat back down with her son. Mino's eyes lit up at the sight of his little sister looking up at him and he waved his hand at her innocently. They may have a 3 year gap, but she could see how attached Mino was to his sister. Even though Jisoo was already three, she was still pretty small, at least, small and light enough to still fit into a baby carrier. She opted for a baby carrier, stating that it'll help her lose all the pregnancy weight and build body mass, but she had never had been so wrong in her life. God, why did she have to think healthy? 

"Want to eat Jisoo-yah, Mino-yah?" She asked after her kids laughed when they heard their mother's loud stomach. Mino answered with a loud cheer while Jisoo just meekly nodded her head. Dara took Jisoo out with the help of Mino and sighed in relief when she could feel her shoulders again.

She stretched a little bit with her Mino holding Jisoo's hand protectively. The sight was totally out of place under a white-collar environment but she doesn't seem to care. They all went to the reception again and practically forced them to keep their luggage for a bit with her kind personality that easily gets people to do what she wants. Call her a manipulator but she was too ing tired to argue with them. She asked if they had a restaurant here and a male receptionist told her that they had a food court on the 2nd floor. She looked back at her kids and saw them already waiting for the elevator. She thanked the receptionist and ran to her kids. 

"MOVE!!!!" Jiyong thundered.

There were a bunch of employees in the stairway, clearly loitering around. When they saw the fire in his eyes, their face paled and they quickly scattered like they were teenagers getting busted by the cops. This little fiasco caused a great hindrance for him, seeing that the people were going distressed like he was. Jiyong completely lost it, and hauled every single person out of his way. He still had about 9 floors to go and he was sure as hell that he was going to make it down those nine floors even if he couldn't feel his legs anymore. 

"Wahh, they even have Korean food in here." Mino mumbled, gawking at the numbers of food stalls in the place. 

Jisoo weakly tugged on the hem of Dara's blouse and pointed at a Japanese stall. She ho