Seung Ri suddenly woke up without opening his eyes with his whole body tense. “What is this feeling?” he asked as he ran a hand to his chest. He was sweating and he could hardly breathe. He slowly opened his eyes and tilted his head to the side. “Oppa.” The words echoed in the room. “Oppa.” It repeated. The image was blurry and he couldn’t tell who the person was. The only thing he was sure of that it was a girl because of the voice.

He got out of bed as his vision got clearer with a few blinks. That’s when he recognized her, the girl version of him—Hyun Jae, his younger sister. “What are you doing trying to freak me out with that ‘Oppa’ ‘Oppa’ call?” he asked and rubbed his eyes.

Hyun Jae had a serious look of sadness in her eyes but Seung Ri couldn’t tell why. “What’s with the long face, sis? Did something happen?” he asked, trying to be of help as a big bro. Hyun Jae shook her head and headed out of the room, pausing before she could open the knob. “I just want you to know that I’ll be here when you need someone to talk to. I don’t like seeing you get hurt.” She uttered these words and bit her lip lightly. “Now look who’s trying to be the elder sister!” Seung Ri joked and laughed. Hyun Jae closed the door behind her and left.

____________

“Everyone must be so angry.” Sun Mi said as she took a teaspoon of the strawberry ice cream. “Nah, don’t mind them. Your mom could fix things up without our help.” Taecyeon stated eating a big pretzel.

They were on their way back to Seoul on that sunny morning. The air was cool even if it was summer. “Global warming.” Sun Mi mumbled as she observed how her ice cream melted. “It’s just the melting of ice cream.” Taecyeon reacted on her 4-Dness. “But still. This is how ice melts. This could cause the end of the world.” She answered. Taecyeon rolled his eyes and sighed.

____________

Seung Ri took a stop at one of the candy stores in the city before going to the big office. He found the m&m’s and took the one with a yellow wrapper. “She’ll be happy when she sees this.” He thought, throwing it to the air and catching it again.

The news on TV caught his attention and upon seeing Sun Mi’s wedding being covered in the business exclusives, he wasn’t able to catch the m&m pack back on his hand.

Reporter: Here we could see Dae Hwa Corporation’s Sun Mi. She really looks wonderful doesn’t she?!

Sun Mi: (laughs) I’m really nervous right now.

Reporter: But Kyung-Sam Corporation’s Taecyeon looks cool with his outfit!

Taecyeon: (waves at the camera)

Reporter: And those were the cuts we had before the wedding! President Sun Dae Rin didn’t want the media to cover the whole wedding event but all in all it was successful. This is Choi Sang-Hee reporting for Business Exclusives, Global News Korea.

“How lucky it must be for the high class people.” The lady on the counter said. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Seung Ri muttered and left the store without buying the m&m’s.

____________

That was how Seung Ri knew why Hyun Jae was looking miserable early in the morning. She knew about the wedding before he did. “That call.” He thought. “Maybe she wanted to tell me she was getting married. Maybe she wanted me to stop the wedding. Maybe…if I was able to answer the call, I could’ve saved her!!”

Exactly, but too bad he wasn’t able to. Everything could’ve gone back to normal.

Tears began to fall from his eyes; he realized how important she was. He began to see it clearly, that feeling he felt earlier—he understood everything now. He took his new phone out of his pocket and began to type a message.

Hyun Jae’s phone beeped, a text message from Seung Ri.

Sis,
Tell me what to do.
I can’t let go of her.
I can’t just pretend I’m okay.
-Seung Ri

Immediately, he received a reply.

‘Believe me. You can.
That’s all I can tell you.
The rest will depend upon your decision.’

-Hyun Jae

____________

Sun Mi and Taecyeon arrived at the Dae Hwa building, everyone bowed in honor. Secretary Jang led them the way to Dae Rin’s office.

As they got inside the office, awkwardness filled the air.

“You think you could escape this easily?” she asked and turned to them, she wasn’t smoking.

“We know how professional you are when it comes to these things, mom. So we decided to give you something more challenging.” Sun Mi said, gathering her courage.

“Stop talking to me that way!”

“No! You stop treating me this way! Stop ruining my life!” Sun Mi scoffed.

“You know what I’m doing is for the good of this family!” her mother said angrily.

“Family? You still think of family? Ever since I was a kid I already knew that dad was with another woman because you are a bossy mean !” Sun Mi replied as her fingers began to tremble.

Dae Rin took a deep breath.

“Sun Mi, you’re all I have. Please, just once, listen to me.” She said with a calm voice.

“And one day you’ll lose me. I have been listening to your annoying mouth since the day I was born.” Every piece of her was starting to fall off; she couldn’t believe she was talking this way while Taecyeon just stood beside her, stiff.

“The company…is invited for the birthday of the prime minister. You and Taecyeon should come, it would be great.” She was talking like an old woman being rejected.

Taecyeon smiled. “We will, auntie.”

____________

“Dad, you gave me loads of work and now you want me to go to a party? I would rather do my job!” Seung Ri exclaimed. “Son, give yourself a break. What happened to my Casanova Seung Ri?” Young Min, his father asked. “I’m already broken, what do you expect me to do? Turn myself into ash?” he said as he piled the papers on the other side of the table.

Young Min tapped Seung Ri on the shoulder. “I understand how you feel. But you can’t just lock that heart of yours because of Sun Mi; there are so many women in the world! Maybe you just don’t deserve each other.” He said.

“Fine, fine. I’ll go.”

____________

“Let’s go?” Sun Mi asked as she fixed her dress. Taecyeon looked at her from top to bottom. “You look pretty.” He muttered. Sun Mi smiled shyly and got in the car.

Everyone was gathered in a big hall lit with many chandeliers. The long table on the left was filled with different kinds of food and beverages. Kwon Chin Ho, the prime minister, was smiling as he was greeted by the people who were arriving.

“Prime Minister Kwon, your son is here but he is in disguise.” His secretary informed. “Oh that rascal! Tell him to go directly here.” He answered.

Seung Ri just got in the hall when someone grabbed him by the arm and covered his mouth. “Mhmyonm?” he uttered unclear words for the person’s hand was still covering his mouth. When he finally took the hand off, Seung Ri exclaimed again, “Ji-yong?!”

“Ssssh! I don’t want my dad to find out it’s me! He wants me to get married to that Ahn So-hee girl!” he told him in a whisper. “So what’s the matter with that?” Seung Ri asked. “She’s so young! I’m like 20 and she’s 17! The , man! The ! I don’t want to go to jail!” Ji-yong blurted out. “Okay, okay. Calm down. Let’s get out of here.”

When they were on their way out passing the food table, Seung Ri accidentally bumped on someone who looked rather familiar.

“Seung-ri-ah.” Sun Mi found it hard to call out his name.

"Hey, congratulations on your wedding." He said and faked a smile.

“So…who are you with?” Sun Mi asked.

Seung-ri couldn’t just tell her he was alone. He looked for ways to show her that he has moved on so he pulled the girl beside him who was busy eating.

“Um…this is…” Seung-ri was shaking.

Fortunately, the girl heard all their talking and just wanted to go with the flow since she had been secretly crushing on Seung-ri.

“Hi, I’m Kwon Yuri, Ji-yong’s cousin; niece of the Prime Minister and Seung-ri oppa’s new girlfriend. We just made it official yesterday.” She lied and held out a hand to Sun Mi.

Sun Mi was so dumbfounded with what she heard that Taecyeon had to cover up for her.

“Hi, I’m Taecyeon. Nice to meet you.” He shook her hands.

“Excuse us for a while.” Seung-ri pulled Yuri from him and they both walked away.