The sunlight streamed in yellow ribbons through the glass window, creating warm golden puddles on the wall. Sooyoung’s vision was still blurry as she gave out a yawn, stretched her arms, and opened her eyes to welcome the morning.

“Good Morning Sunshine!” she said to no one in particular before glancing sideways to meet the sleeping face of Shim Changmin just a few inches away from hers.

Twenty-four hours ago, exactly the same scene happened only the sentence was never finished and that she was screaming wildly from the shock of seeing the boy beside her. This time however, she was prepared. She stretched out her legs, letting it linger on the top of the mountain of pillows she piled between her and Changmin. She then rolled over to the side and did some stretching exercises while still on her back. She raised her hands above her and was distracted by the ring on her finger shining brightly as a ray of sunlight hit it. She looked at the ring for few more seconds as the memories of last night’s conversation with Changmin slipped back on her mind.


“Remind me again why we have these rings on our fingers.” Sooyoung said between mouthfuls of steamed rice to a busy Changmin dumping shrimp rolls on his bowl. It was seven o’ clock in the evening and the two were eating a hearty dinner fit for five people.

“Is that a serious question?” the boy barely lifted his head as he gave out an answer. He continued piling shrimp rolls on his plate. “It’s a sign of our everlasting love, honey.” He looked up at Sooyoung and gave the girl a wink.

The girl only glared at him in reply.

“Haha, why so serious?” He put a shrimp roll in his mouth before continuing. “The ring and the marriage certificate, it proves the validity of this marriage. It's a must, Sooyounggie. Especially if you have a mayor for a mother and an incredibly inquisitive dongsaeng, with the name of Seohyun, living in your house.” Changmin gave out a small laugh before attacking another piece of shrimp roll.

“Why the sudden question? You don’t like it?” he stopped chewing as he looked at her with huge puppy eyes, his chopstick still inside his mouth.

“It’s not tha---”
“I think it looks good on you.” He didn’t let the tall girl finish. He then looked back at his bowl and continued on munching the roll. And just when he thought Sooyoung wasn’t listening and that his voice wasn’t loud enough, he said barely audibly “I think it looks good on me too.”


Sooyoung found herself smirking upon remembering. She rolled back sideways to face Changmin’s sleeping form. She would have wanted to annoy him until he wakes up but she somehow ended up just observing the sleeping boy. This wasn’t the first time she’s been this close to him but it would be the first for her to observe his features closely.

Her eyes traveled from his forehead to his thick eyebrows, towards his nose to his distinctively shaped lips.

“You know, you actually look cute.” She said softly. “When you’re not being annoying, that is.”

She studied the boy’s face for a few more seconds before she stood up. She fixed her side of the bed and then walked out of the room. The door clicked close just as Changmin opened his eyes.

The boy stretched his limbs all over the pile of pillows and smiled to himself.

“I heard that, honey.”

“UNNIE, it’s okay. Let me do it. I don’t have anything else to do anyway.” Seohyun was standing near the sink half-pleading to a stubborn Sooyoung. She was washing the dishes when the older girl suddenly popped out of nowhere and grabbed the sponge away from her hands.

“Unnie, I am not here for a vacation.”
“Oh yes you are, makdoongie.” She smiled as she pinched the younger girl’s cheeks, smearing soap bubbles on her face.

“Unnie~~” Seohyun whined cutely as she wiped the soap bubbles from her cheeks.
“Aww... you do know that I always wash the dishes, right?”
“But unnie, I don’t have anything else to do.”
“Go get my laptop in the room and play Zeus and Poseidon.”
“Unnie~~ you’re making fun of me. I want to help too.” Seohyun stood behind the Sooyoung and placed her chin on the tall girl’s shoulder.

Sooyoung put down the plate she’s currently washing and leaned her head towards Seohyun. “Hmmm... you really want to help?”

The younger girl just nodded in reply.

“Why don’t you wake that sleepyhead for me? Tell him his breakfast’s getting cold.” “Changmin-oppa?” Seohyun asked softly.

Sooyoung hummed her reply and continued washing the plates. She heard Seohyun mumble a soft “okay” before she walked out of the kitchen. She put the last plate on the rack and gave out a small yelp when she turned around to see Shim Changmin standing on the doorway.

“YAH! Can you at least try to announce your presence for a change?”

The tall boy smirked and walked closer towards her.

“Do you know that I have a certain fondness for girls who wash the dishes?”
“WHAT?”

He kept walking towards her. “I feel as if I want to hug them from behind.”

Changmin was keeping a serious face but the look on Sooyoung’s face makes it hard for him to do so. Her expressions are a mix of fear and disgust. He was two steps away from her when she suddenly grabbed the nearest thing next to her, which is a very useless soup ladle.

“YAH! Don’t come any closer!” Sooyoung brandished the ladle towards Changmin. The ladle handle poking his chest as he stepped closer.

“Silly girl.” He stopped on his tracks and wiped a soap bubble on Sooyoung’s nose. “The daily paper is here. A certain Jungwoon with a wild mane of hair and freaky little hands asked me to send you his regards.”

Sooyoung seemed to calm down a bit as she put the ladle down. “Ah Jungwoon-oppa. We call him Yesung here.”

“Yeah, whatever.” The boy waved his hand in a careless manner before turning around to walk out of the room. “I’m done eating breakfast. Seohyunnie’s in her room by the way, she’s mumbling to herself about molecular biology and college entrance exams.”

“She’s preparing for it. She stopped for one year because of that stupid divorce, you know.”

Sooyoung followed Changmin out of the kitchen but she stopped in her tracks when she noticed a very familiar car being parked on the side of the road through the glass window.

Omo! Siwon-oppa’s car! She dashed back into the kitchen just as someone knocked on the front door.

Changmin turned around to see that his wife was now nowhere behind him.

"HONEEEEY! Someone's on the porch!" He wailed as he sat down