The next day, Hyoyeon woke up just before Kris. She prepared a simple breakfast for two. Breakfast with Kris was a quiet event. Kris left first, saying he had a few things to handle. He would send her a car to pick her up in the evening for the party. After he left, Hyoyeon sat on the red memory foam bean bag chair and examined his modern-style living room, with its dark-coloured walls, 58-inch floating TV and grey tiled floor. On her side, there was Hamilton leather sofa with mirrored base coffee table in the front. Over the five-tier mount shelf at the corner of the wall was a range of pictures.

The first tier showed a row of pictures of Kris when he was a baby. Baby Kris was cute. There was one picture that showed him trying to stand up and a woman readied to catch him if he were to fall down. That woman must be his mother, Hyoyeon guessed. The second tier showed his childhood pictures. The pictures of Kris when he was an elementary student were on the third tier. The young Kris looked cocky. Maybe he was used to being pampered a lot. The fourth tier showed him in middle school. There were pictures of him playing basketball and playing African drums. The top tier showed his high school self. The Kris that Hyoyeon knew and recognized. In truth, Kris’ face hadn’t changed much. But, his expressions from high school days showed a lot of differences from his younger self. His smug smile and conceited self were no longer there, replaced with more matured and serious face. Was it because his parents died before he entered high school? Hyoyeon wondered.

On the wall, there was a much bigger picture of Kris on his graduation day. His certificate was also framed and hung on the wall. There were also posters of his favourite actors; Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro. Hyoyeon could also see a lot of books in the dark brown modern cube bookcase. When she tried to take a look, there were a lot of self-improvement books.

It was impossible, being in the house, to not feel the presence of Kris in every inch of the house. It made her uncomfortable. Before she knew it, Hyoyeon found herself standing in front of Luhan’s house.

‘So, why am I here again?’ Hyoyeon was having a monologue with her own self.

‘Because I want to know more about Kris.’ That’s right. That’s the answer to her question. ‘And to know more about him, you’ve gotta ask his family member. And, his family member happened to be Luhan. So, here goes nothing.’

Clenching her left hand, her right hand moved to press the doorbell.

“Oh, Hyoyeon! What are you doing here?” Mrs Xi, Luhan’s mother, was the one who opened the door.

“I just want to have a talk with Luhan,” Hyoyeon said casually, showing her beautiful v-smile.

“Come in, come in,” Mrs Xi invited her. “I wondered if Luhan is still asleep. I’ll go and take a look.”

“Oh, no. it’s okay. Let me go and check on him,” Hyoyeon said. Somehow, doing nothing would make her mind thinking of useless thoughts.

After Mrs Xi showed her Luhan’s room, Hyoyeon slowly opened the door.

“Luhan?” She called out.

There was no respond.

A sound came from a closed door. The bathroom. Maybe he was taking a shower.

Hyoyeon took the time to examine Luhan’s room. From a glance, Hyoyeon could deduce that he was a sport-lover. At one corner, there were a collection of basketball, tennis and baseball items such as the bat, balls, rackets and caps. Overall, his room was spacious and unique. The walls were painted white and the floor was covered with dark grey carpets. The king-sized bed and the side table were also white. There was also Rubik’s cube on the side table. A painting of him was hung at the wall over the bed. The walk-in-wardrobe was separated with a long sliding door.

“Oh, Hyoyeon!” Her admiration was cut short. Luhan emerged out of the bathroom with wet hair.

“Hi, Luhan. Sorry if I’m disturbing your day,” Hyoyeon tried to make her smile alluring so that she wouldn’t kick out of his house that instant.

“No, no. It’s okay. It’s great to have you here,” he greeted her with a pleasant smile.

For the next couple of minutes, they were already on friend mode. If you didn’t consider his cooking skill, Luhan was a fun person to be with. He had this easy-going personality. He was someone she could easily be friends with. Now, they were sitting at the living room, chit-chatting about random stuff like some old good friend.

“And, I got mad. So, I told him, ‘Get lost, baldy.’ That guy was not bald though.” Luhan was telling her this great story of what he called ‘The road to become a man’. Hyoyeon laughed. The story was funny. And so did the title. Luhan seemed the type who was sensitive about being called feminine. Maybe because he had cute face so that he craved to be seen as manly.

Suddenly, she remembered something. She wasn’t there just to hear Luhan’s story. And not for a laugh too. She was there in the first place for a much bigger issue. To know more about Kris. She should find a chance to slip in the talk about Kris.

“So, do you have anything to ask of me?”

Luhan smiled.

And Hyoyeon smiled too. Somehow, she didn’t know how to start the topic about Kris.

“No, no! I just want to know you better,” Hyoyeon denied innocently. It wasn’t the right time to ask that yet. “What do you want to do?”

“I know! Let’s play quiz,” Luhan suggested.

This could be the chance. Maybe she could play this stupid quiz and casually ask him about Kris.

“Wow, quiz! I love quiz!” Her face was full of false enthusiasm.

Luhan was grinning ear to ear. “Marvellous! Then, I’ll ask first. What do you call dog with no legs?”

Uh-oh. Luhan was dead serious. “Doglegsless?” Hyoyeon just threw anything she could think of.

“Wrong! Doesn't matter what you call him, he ain't gonna come.”

“Ha ha… isn’t that funny? Of course dog without leg can’t walk,” Hyoyeon let out an awkward laugh. Nonsense quiz, how could she answer that?

“Next. Your turn,” Luhan passed the baton to Hyoyeon with eager eyes.

His eyes were shining so brightly that Hyoyeon almost felt she could be blinded by the light. Certainly, her plan to ‘play-quiz-and-casually-ask-him-about-Kris-without-raising-his-suspicion’ wouldn’t work. What a long name but useless plan.

“Well, I don’t know a lot of quiz,” Hyoyeon said, hoping they would move on to talk about other topic.

“Then, let me do the questioning.” Without waiting for Hyoyeon’s consent, he continued to ask. “Why did the Cinderella fail at basketball?”

Hyoyeon tried to maintain her calm expression and resisted the urge to stomp her feet like a five-years-old kid. “Erm, because she wears a gown?”

“Deng. Wrong again. It is because she had a pumpkin for a coach.” Luhan showed a satisfied face as she couldn’t answer even one of his questions.

Before long, they’d already reached the fiftieth quiz, with Luhan doing all the questions.

“Why did the King Kong climb the Empire State Building?”

“Because he is stupid.” And so were you. Hyoyeon disinterestedly said though the last sentence only voiced inside her mind.

Luhan grinned. Hyoyeon knew that reaction. “Deng, no. Because he couldn’t fit in the elevator.”

“Ha ha. Who could have guessed the answer,” Hyoyeon laughed weakly.

Luhan seemed oblivious to her boring expression. He kept going on with the quiz. “Next. Why did the computer go to the doctor?”

Suddenly, Hyoyeon perked up. “I know this question! It is because it had a virus!”

“Correct!” That made the first question ever she answered correctly.

Luhan smiled again.

And Hyoyeon smiled too.

‘So, what am I doing again?’ Hyoyeon slumped back on her chair. This was not the whole point for this trip. But it was getting harder to get to the point. At last, Hyoyeon snapped. Before she got more side-tracked, she should get straight to the main point. In fact, she should have done the direct approach since the start. Saving her time and saving her patience.

“Can I ask you something?” She asked, tilting her head to one side with a shockingly tempting smile.

Luhan gulped. Suddenly he felt as if the woman sitting in front of him was emitting different aura.

“Yes, sure!”

After he said that, Hyoyeon’s face made a hundred eighty degree change, not bothering to pretend to disguise her impatience anymore.

Hyoyeon tried to mask her disappointment with her casual smile. She didn’t get much of the answer that she was hoping for. All she got from Luhan was the facts that were already known to her. The fact that Kris was the only son and his parents died just before his high school entrance. His deceased father was supposed to be the heir to lead the company. Since then, Kris was named the heir as Luhan wasn’t interested in it. Luhan also said Kris was his favourite cousin. Not that she couldn’t guess since they only had each other because Luhan was an only child too.

As Luhan was going to the party too, Hyoyeon immediately agreed to go with him. So, that evening, after going through the same make-over that she experienced the day she was supposed to pretend as Kris’ girlfriend, they went to the company where the party was held.

It wasn’t that hard at the party. All she had to do were wore princess-style dress, smiled like a princess and walked like a princess. In short, she just had to act like a princess. Not hard at all. The problem was she wasn’t the princess they thought of. She was the fake princess. Hyoyeon grunted after the entire introduction was done. Suddenly, she realized how hard it would be to marry some big-name and important person.

The only thing to calm her down was seeing familiar faces such as Jessica. It was such a surprise to see Jessica coming with her own brother, Heechul. So, since when did their relationship progress this far?

“Here,