Chapter Two►

Minju sat on the steps of a building of her older brother's prestige university containing lecturing halls and a library with an open book on her lap almost dozing off to the soft sound of serene orchestral instruments coming from the music hall just a few tens of yards away. Several students that passed by gawked at her a little before simply walking off as if nothing happened.

She couldn't help herself nor could she help the fact that she was somewhere nearly foreign to her. Her mother had asked for her to wait for Ilhoon, but she also didn't want to intrude or barge in just to get him. "I hate this so damn much." She muttered to herself. Minju's eyes began to close all the way when she heard her name being called out.

"M-Minju? Minju!" 

She slowly opened her eyes to see the familiar face of her brother's friend. "Hello, Xiao Xing."

"What are you doing here? Are you waiting for Ilhoon?" 

Minju responded with, "Yeah, but I didn't want to go inside."

Xiao Xing hummed as her gaze reverted to the book in the younger's lap. She pointed at it and asked, "Can I see this?" Minju nodded sleepily and placed the book gently into the older's hands. 

Xiao Xing reached into her own book bag and took out a bookmark to place into the spot that Minju was already in. She then proceeded to flip over to the first page of the book then reading it.

Her eyes widened quite a bit at the content written and the sketched drawings on the page. Immensely detailed sketches of tigers, leopards, lions, lynxes, and more drifted along the page on the right side, and text about their general species lined up on the page on the left side.

"Do you think I'm insane for thinking that there might still be any of those animals in existance...but not in Luminaria?" Minju pondered as she grabbed a hold of the older's eyes. Xiao Xing slowly shook her head, trying to process everything she's seen on the two mere pages. Then, her lips suddenly curled into a rare smile as she pulled Minju into an embrace, the younger becoming surprised at the older's actions.

"No. I don't think you're insane...to think that my friend's little sister would think the same as I." She chuckled at her own words.

"So...do you think there could be...?" Minju trailed off, leaving her question incomplete as Xiao Xing finished it for her. "A world above? ...Yeah."

"Thank you." Minju gave out a sigh full of mixed feelings such as relief and almost confidence. The girls released each other from their friendly embrace as two voices familiar to the older rang out into the air.

"Hey, Xing!" Her best friend, Kyungmi, called out to her as another friend, Seunghyun or also known as Seungri, motioned for her to join them. "Come on, Xing. We're going down to the bakery!"

Xiao Xing looked at Minju and smiled. "Well, see you later, Min." Minju nodded, returned the smile, and waved before going back into her book.

"Wait, you've gotten that information wrong, kiddos." Ilhoon mentioned to the two high schoolers in front of him and chuckled.

"But Ilhoon, it says that right here." Lei pointed at a sentence in her textbook. Mei laughed a little and said, "Yeah, that's right, Mr. y Pants. It's in the textbook, and you're a university student." Ilhoon laughed as he shook his head slightly. 

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Mei. You're still stuck with me until this thing is due, though. Your teacher assigned you guys with me~" He leaned back in his chair, watching over the girls as he helped them with their project over the ten most well-known architects of Luminaria.

Mei stuck her tongue at him in a playful manner, and Lei elbowed her lightly.

"Who's next, kiddos?" Ilhoon looked over at them with a knowing smile, and Lei checked off a name from their list, and Mei looked at the next name.

"The next one is Sungwon Jung. Well, I guess we all know he's Korean like Cabbage Patch here." Mei winked at him as he laughed.

"He was born on July 5, 2269 and is aged 43. He's married to a Vietnamese woman named Tammy Nguyen and has two children, a son and a daughter." Ilhoon stated oh so matter-of-factly to them as Mei and Lei had their mouths hanging open at the straightforwardness.

"Do you stalk this guy, y Pants?" Mei gawked at him in the oddest way possible. He shook his head at that, and responded with, "Of course not. Do I seem like the stalking type? I'm Sungwon Jung's oldest, one and only son~"

"Wha...?" Mei trailed off her own words.

"We're getting help for this project from the son of the second most known architect of Luminaria?" Lei exclaimed much louder than she had intended, causing the librarian to shush her.

"Eheh, sorry!" She apologized.

"Well, each group in your class was assigned to a child of one of the architects that are in college or have graduated. Mr. Number One has no kids, so no one gets help on that one. Architects three through eight all have two kids who are in college or have graduated, and architects nine and ten both have four children who have already graduated. My younger sister is only 17 and is a junior in high school, so it's just me. You guys are lucky~" Ilhoon explained. "Wait, your teacher didn't tell you this?" The two shook their heads cluelessly.

"Anyway...do you guys want to meet my dad instead of looking for his information through your textbooks? No source is better than from Sungwon Jung himself!"

The two nodded vigorously, and the group stood up and exited the library and made their way through the vast halls to get out of the building. They pushed through the huge doors of the building and stepped out into the open before walking over to the top of the stairs and making their way down.

On the way down, Mei clumsily bumped into a small, blonde girl who was sitting on the steps in a daze.

"Oh, sorry about that!" She apologized sincerely, and the girl on the steps turned to look up Mei with a slight smile. "That's alright. At least you hadn't trampled over me like some group of boys had done earlier." The blonde girl's gaze reverted to Ilhoon, and she quickly stood up and slapped his arm.

"Stupid Ilhoon! You made me wait for such a long time. Mom wanted me to go home together with you." The girl looked angry at Ilhoon as she once again smacked him on his arm. "Ouch, Shortie. You know that hurts. Calm down, okay? I didn't know you were waiting. Why didn't you come inside to look for me?"

She huffed and said, "I-I didn't want to go inside and bother you...Sorry."

"It's okay, Minju~ It's all good. Oh! Where are my manners? Min, this is Mei and Lei. Mei and Lei, this is my cute little baby sister, Minju." He pinched Minju's cheek only to have his hand slapped away.

Minju turned to the girls, smiled, and bowed. "Pleased to meet you...so are we all going to the same place?" 

Ilhoon nodded. "Yep, they need to get information on Dad." Minju held onto Ilhoon's arm as they had all began to walk down the stairs. 

The siblings had endlessly playfully teased and lightly hit each other as they went home with the two friends trailing beside them, laughing at their actions. "This is pretty fun." Mei said in between laughs to Lei, and she nodded in agreement.

Sora sat in the back of her university's library and smiled thinking about yesterday's events. "23 years old now, huh?"

Flashback:

"Sooorrraaaaaaa~" Hoya called out with Myungsoo as Hoya knocked on Sora's apartment door. To their surprise, though, it wasn't Sora who opened the door but a much older man whose appearance was classy to the maximum.

"Hello. What can I do for you boys?" The man's voice was just as his appearance, classy but a little raspy due to his age.

"Oh, sorry, sir. We've must've gotten the wrong apartment." Myungsoo explained to the man. He nudged Hoya in the elbow and said, "Hoya, call Sora and ask her again what her apartment number is."

The old man chuckled and bidded them inside. "Don't worry, boys. You're in the right place. I'm Sora's grandfather, and please, drop the 'sir'. Just call me Haruto, boys."

Myungsoo and Hoya's mouths formed an 'o' shape as they entered through the door and followed Haruto to Sora's living room to find her performing some card sleight tricks for herself.

"Ah, Hoya, Myungsoo! What brings you here?" Sora queried.

Hoya chuckled and held up a white box. "Happy birthday~" The two boys sing-songed together. Hoya set the box down on the table and opened it to reveal a chocolate birthday cake.

"Wah~" Sora smiled brightly as if she was a young child who had just gotten a piece of candy or a new bicycle. "Thank you, guys!" 

Sora's grandfather sat took out a lighter from his shirt pocket to light the candles on the cake as he sat next to his beaming granddaughter. The three men sang 'Happy Birthday' to her and she clapped when they were done.

"Make a wish, dear." Her grandfather smiled at her as she nodded, closing her eyes and blowing out the candles.

End

Author's Note►

Hello, everyone! It's been quite some time since the last update hasn't it? I'm so sorry about that and I'm sorry for this short chapter. ;-; Since I'm nearing the end of school, I've been having a lot of STAAR  (Yep, I'm in Texas) examinations to take...and I still have to take an EOC exam for Algebra sometime this week oTL So taking up a whole bunch of time for studying was crucial. Well, happy belated birthday to jadefix's character X3 Woo~ \o.o/ I'll try to update again sometime soon, hopefully. Goodbye for now~