Chaerin—who is a heiress and a daughter of a known CEO, Lee Kijin, one of the well-known business tycoons in the marketing industry—is a twenty one year old girl who wants something different, something she haven’t tried in her whole lifetime of luxury. It was then she thought of a sudden question, ‘Why would I be doing now if I’m poor?’, upon seeing children—who looked like siblings—begging for food or money to anyone else walking on the sidewalk as she looked out from the luxurious car’s window. She never thought of wanting to be like that. Nonetheless, she wanted to experience it—the feeling of striving hard for yourself to get what you want to achieve. She have always thought to herself that she can’t rely on her father in the rest of her lifetime—knowing that she won’t be with her father forever.

             She pressed her lips together before opening , “Ah, Mr. Han, can you please stop the car for a minute?” she asked, eyes pleading that her driver will let her be.

             “Why, Ms. Chaerin? Is there something wrong or something you wanted to eat?” Park Sandara, Chaerin’s personal maid, asked from the front passenger seat—looking at her with suspicious eyes. Chaerin cleared , “I just want to buy something at that convenience store,” she said, pointing at the mini-store—which is near to where the kids are sitting at.

             “I can buy it for you, Ms. Chaerin. What is it that you want to buy?” her personal maid asked again, looking at her. Chaerin shook her head and smiled, “No, it is okay. Don’t worry, I can buy it on my own.” And with that, she went out of the car and walked inside the store. As she passed by each person, everyone looked at her with awe on how she shows off her clothes with no intentions at all. Although she was only wearing a plain white dress with a belt and bow on the stomach, a little grey purse bag and black killer heels, people’s eyes didn’t left her.

             She shopped for snacks and drinks then made her way to the counter to pay for the foods and drinks. She slipped out a bill which shocked the cashier because of the high amount of money compared to the price of the total amount of expenses of the food. After a few moments, she exited out the store and walked towards the children. At first, they backed away when she crouched down in front of them, but afterwards they obliged and accepted the plastic of food from her hands. She patted the children’s heads and showed her heart-melting eyes smile.

             “Gomawo, noona,” the older one said, taking a bite on the sandwich he recently opened to eat. Chaerin smiled at him brightly and gave him her calling card, “Call noona if you want anything, ne? I’ll be more glad to help the both of you. So, eat up and take care. I’ll be going ahead now.” She stood up and patted the smaller one’s head, smiling down at her and gently pinching her soft cheek. The little girl looked up to her and showed a smile, “Gomawo, unnie. I’ll call you soon if ever we’ll get hungry. You’re so pretty!” the girl exclaimed, showing her eye-smile and happily drinking her strawberry juice. “Ah, you sweet talker, so cute. Anyways, I’ll go ahead now, okay?”

             “Ah, noona, what’s your name?”

             “Call me ‘Chaerinnie-noona’ if you’d like.” She smiled and waved her hand, “Bye!”

             She then walked inside her car and seated at the backseat, sitting and smiling happily as she watched the children eat the foods she bought for them. A sigh made her turn her head. She giggled and faced her personal maid, “Aigoo, unnie-yah, what’s with the sighing, hmm?”

             Dara sighed again and faced the road, “Ms. Chaerin, if you’ll keep doing that, people might take you for granted. Not all those kids are good. Remember that a kid in the past had played a trick on you to get your wallet and money.”

             “But he admitted it right away, so I didn’t bring him in the police just for that small amount of money. Besides…” she trailed off, not knowing to say anymore. Chaerin remained silent and looked outside the window, “What if I’m in their place? What if I’m poor?” she uttered softly, not looking back at the front.

             “I want to experience something…something different from this. I’m tired…tired of people worshiping me and treating me like a goddess—a treatment that I don’t want to receive. I want to be treated as a normal person, achieve my dreams using my own sweat, not my father’s hardworking,” she finished, sighing and frowning outside the window.

             Dara was the one who sighed this time, “Ms. Chaerin, it wasn’t your fault if you are being treated like that. It was your destiny to be rich. Many people wanted to be like you. I don’t know why you are asking for more if you have anything you need.”

             “But not anything I want,” she replied back, propping her elbow on the window and lean her head on her hand. “Please stop the car in front of that café. And please go home without me. I’ll call if I want to go home. Please tell abeoji to not worry about me.”

             “But Ms. Chaerin—”

             “Please let me do what I want this time, Ms. Park,” Chaerin said, her voice cold and her eyes still outside. The air inside the car was slowly suffocating her.

             The driver, Mr. Han, cleared his throat. It was time for him to speak up. “Just let her be, Ms. Park.” He stopped the car to the said place and unlocked the car doors.

*****

Jiyong—a hardworking man and will do everything for his little sister—walked his way to his work, his hands inside his pockets as he smoothly stepped on the hard ground. With a turn in a street, he spotted two children happily eating snacks and drinking load of drinks. He smiled and walked faster towards the kids.

             “Whoa, you two are big time today, aren’t you?” he asked, bending down his body a bit just to look inside the plastic bag. The boy looked up to him and smiled, “Ah, yeah, hyung. A beautiful girl went to us not to early and gave us food. She even gave us her calling card if ever we needed her help.”

             The boy took out the calling card to show it to him. He took it and eyed at it for a minute, “Lee Chae…rin?” he looked down on the kids, his eyes curious.

             “She said we can call her ‘Chaerinnie-noona,’ so we will call her that. Ah, Jiyong-hyung, do you have a phone? We just want to call her.” Jiyong sadly sighed and shook his head apologetically, “My phone’s been cut since I don’t have enough money to pay the monthly bills,” he said and ruffled the little boy’s hair, “But you can drop by at the coffee shop and you can make a call there. Maybe you can ask Bom-noona if you can use her phone.”

             The little boy nodded and smiled up to him, “Uhh…can we go with you right now, hyung?” he asked, his voice sounded like a plea. Jiyong blinked for a moment before nodding and saying yes to the boy’s question.

             The boy smiled and pulled his little sister from the cold ground, “Hurry, Minah-yah, Jiyong-hyung will help us contact noona,” he said, giving out a ‘tsk’ when the plastic bag slipped from his sister’s hands.

             Jiyong chuckled at his view, remembering that he once experienced getting mad at his little sister before. The siblings remind him of them before. It was one of the reasons why he was working hard, day and night, just to support his little sister’s education and the kids’ needs. But due to lack of money, he wasn’t able to give the kids the right needs for them. They even rejected his offer to live in their house. The little boy disagreed and told him that he will strive hard for their future. Jiyong laughed at how the little boy said it with confidence, but up until now he was offering them to live with him and his sister.

             “Let’s go. I have a lot of things to do in the café,” Jiyong said and buried his hands inside of his pants’ pockets. They started walking ahead. Not too long, they reached the said place. Opening the door for the kids, he saw a blonde woman walking towards his way. He gulped at the sight of her and held the door open for her to slip in. She looked at him and saw the small smile she gave out. Jiyong cleared his throat and closed the door.

             “Jiyong-ah!”

             Jiyong turned his head to where the voice came from. He smiled and run to the red haired woman in the counter, “Ahh, sorry if I was a bit late, noona. Uhh…is it okay if the kids will be here? There aren’t too much customers at the moment, so I think it’s just fine.”

             Bom—the café owner—smiled and eyed at the kids looking around the café, amazed on how they managed to paint images of flowers on the ceiling. “It’s okay, Ji-goon. Hmm…you can give them some coffee and doughnuts. I don’t mind,” she said while punching some numbers on her touch screen cashier machine.

             Jiyong awkwardly laughed and nodded, “Ah, thank you, noona. I thought you will find them annoying being here. I’ll go change,” he said happily and ran towards the locker room to change to his uniform

             “Noona!” the little boy exclaimed and smiled brightly. He grabbed his sister’s hand and went to the blonde woman’s table. Chaerin took off her earphones and smiled at the sight of the kids in front of her. “Oh, we meet again!” she exclaimed happily, gently pinching the boy’s soft cheek.

             “Chaerinnie-unnie, we thought you were gone. Oppa and I were about to call you, so we went to this café together with Jiyong-oppa,” the little girl giggled and blushed upon mentioning Jiyong’s name. Chaerin chuckled at the cute girl, “’Jiyong-oppa’? Who is he? Is he your big brother aside from…?” Chaerin mentally slapped herself for forgetting to ask the kids’ names.

             “My name is Minyoung, noona! Call me Youngie because I like people calling me that,” the little boy happily exclaimed and smiled sweetly to her. “And my name is Minah, unnie! You are so pretty!” the little girl happily giggled and touched Chaerin’s soft, silky blonde hair.

             “Nice to meet you, Youngie and Minah-yah,” Chaerin said with her eye-smile and reached a hand for them to shake. “And sit down, you two cute kids.” Chaerin ruffled the children’s hair before letting them sit on the chair in front of her. She eyed at the menu and looked at back at the siblings, “What do you want to eat? Doughnuts? Cupcakes? Cakes? Sandwiches? What?”

             “Youngie-ah! Minah-yah!” a man exclaimed and walked towards their direction. He leaned in to Minyoung’s ear to whisper, “Don’t talk to the customers or else Bom-noona will kick us out. And let’s go. Noona will lend her phone for the both of you.”

             “But we don’t need to call Chaerinnie-unnie, oppa! She’s here!”

             Jiyong blinked a few times before leaning away and speaking, “She? The woman’s here?”

             “Neh, I am here,” Chaerin spoke out of the blue. Jiyong turned his head to her and gulped hard, astonished by her beauty but simple look. Chaerin showed her heart-melting-eye-smile to him and took her hand out, “I’m Lee Chaerin. I bought them food earlier. Are you their older brother?” she asked, smiling sweetly to him. Jiyong shook his head, still unable to speak.

             “Yah, hyung. Noona is asking for your name,” Minyoung frowned and looked at Jiyong, tugging his polo’s sleeve. Jiyong slowly turned his head to the little boy, “Huh? What?” he asked, dumbfounded. Chaerin giggled and put her hand down.

             “Aing, oppa. You’re rude,” Minah pouted and turned to Chaerin with an apologetic gaze, “Ah, unnie, his name is Jiyong-oppa. Kwon Jiyong-oppa.” She smiled widely and giggled a little. “He said he will marry me when I grow up, unnie.”

             “Is that so?” Chaerin chuckled and pressed her hands together, “Jiyong-ssi, can you please give us the best coffee and some cupcakes?” she turned to Jiyong, leaning her elbows on the table while looking at him. Jiyong looked at her and blinked a few times before coming back to his senses, “A-ah, alright.”

             Minyoung eyed at his hyung with a confused expression and with narrowed brows. He then glanced at Chaerin, who was smiling non-stop and pinching his little sister’s cheek, and furrowed his brows more, “You know, noona, there’s something strange about Jiyong-hyung today. It’s odd seeing him like that.”

             Chaerin giggled and smiled widely, “Really?” she asked, smiling sweetly and glancing at Jiyong—who was busy brewing coffee for them. She silently sighed at the sight of him and looked out, looking at the plants and flowers surrounding the place. For once, she felt her heart shook and felt butterflies flutter in her stomach.