"There's still nothing, Hyung?" Jong In asked through his smartphone, after hearing that Woo Bin still couldn't find Minji anywhere around Korea. Over the past years that Minji had gone missing, Jong In had despeartely had Woo Bin and his police officer team help investigate to where she could be, but there was no sign of her in Korea. Just recently, after confirming that she was not in South Korea, they began branching out out of Korea, beginning to start searching for other countries to where she was. 

He heard Woo Bin sigh on the other side of the phone, sounding highy stressed. "We've done searches all over South Korea, Jong In. There's no sign of any Gong Minji that you're looking for at all. We've already started searching in Japan, but we haven't gotten anything yet. In any way, I will keep searching for her and keep you updated if I find anything at all."

"Thanks Hyung, I really appreciate it. Please update me if you can find anything about her. I'll do anything. Please just help me find her." 

"I will, Jong In," Woo Bin answered nicely with his deep and hoarse voice. "Does this girl know that you're on a frantic search to find her? I know she is Yi's best friend but does she have any clue that you're desperate to find her?" 

"I hope she does," he replied stressfully, looking down at his clean white buttoned down shirt along with his dark blue tie hanging down. "I need to find her, Hyung. No matter how long it takes, I still need to find her. I need to know that she's safe and where she is. I need her to come back home."

"Jong In... What if the day comes you actually do find her again? What will happen?" 

Blankly staying quiet, Jong In tried to think of a decent answer. He hadn't told Woo Bin about Minji as much - all he said was that she was Ha Yi's best friend and she ran away from home, and he had promised her parents that he would help find her. He also mentioned to Woo Bin that he wanted to find her for himself, but he hadn't given him all the reasons to what he ever did to Minji. He wanted to confess all the bad things he did to Minji, but he if she was running away like this, she probably didn't want to face the agony of turning him in. However, he promised himself the day he could find her, he was going to do everything to make it up to her. Grabbing onto his collar with his tie wrapped around, he said, "I'm gonna do everything she needs me to do." 

"I'll keep going with it. You're Taecyeon's brother, so you're like my brother. In any way, I have to help you with everything you need." 

"Thanks Hyung," he said gratefully. Suddenly, three knocks banged onto the door to Jong In's modernized, rather large general manager office. He looked up to his calendar on his iMac computer on his desk, seeing if there were any important appointments or meetings he made at this time today. Seeing it blank, he narrowed his eyes and told Woo Bin on the phone, "Hyung, I have to get back to work. Keep me updated if anything, please."

"Bye Jong In." With that, he hung up his wireless office phone and told the person at the door, "Come in!" 

Once the door open, Jong In heard a pair of heels clacking against the white marble floor of his office, looking up to see Tina. Today Tina was wearing something rather casual than usual; a black pencil skirt with a blue blouse tucked inside, along with black heels to complete the outfit. Her long black wavy hair with a blonde ombre fell nearly towards her waist, blocking her name tag that was around her neck. Jong In grinned at her and greeted, "What's up?" 

"What's up with you, General Manager?" She responded sarcastically, being the comfortable pair of friends like they usually were. On top of Tina and Jong In being the same age, her being older by ten days, they also had no politeness to each other, even when they were at work.

"Did I miss a meeting or something?" Jong In questioned, looking at his iMac computer again. "I didn't schedule anything, did I?"

"Yah, why would I be here if a meeting was going on right now?" Tina sassed. "I would be inside the conference room rather than sending you a bunch of contracts. Other than that, I'd be running over your door since you would be late to your own meeting." 

With a laugh to what his friend responded him with, he leaned back against his rolling chair, feeling his suit jacket against the back of his head placed on top of the chair. "What's all of that in your hands?" He noticed Tina holding at least five different binders, all stacked on top of one another. She lightly placed them on his wooden office desk and replied, "These are all the contracts that you need to sign to confirm our hotel launch event in January of 2015. These are all the other hotels, companies, business and brand names that want to be sponsored in our event, so you need to read, agree and sign all of these contracts." 

"Alright cool. When do you need it by?"

"Preferably tomorrow morning," she responded, standing very straight. "I have to get everything approved by President Jung so the actual planning of the event can start, since you know, I'm the one in charge of the entire thing." 

"Sweet, I'll take a look at them when I finish checking my e-mails with all the VIP customers. Anything else I should be aware about?" 

"One more thing you should be aware about." 

"What's that?" 

"Dude, you seriously need a personal secretary," Tina suggested, tapping all the binders she just gave to him. "I'm running out of breath just bringing all of these documents for you just to sign and then run back to give it to other departments."

"Why would I need a personal secretary to pay when I have you? You're free and you're so easy to use," Jong In joked, causing him to get a death glare from her. "There's no need for a personal secretary." 

"Do you know how far it is to walk from my office to your office?" Tina questioned sarcastically, giving him a glare. "We ain't next door to each other, Sherlock."

"Yeah, but technically I'm your boss. You would have to walk over to give it to me anyways if I told you to." 

Shaking her head and disagreeing, she pursed her lips as she responded. "Nah, in technical terms you're just saying that so you can make me walk to give you all your documents so you don't have to go to my office. You lazy trying to pull on the boss card with me. We started out as interns together, you may be the general manager of this hotel, but you are not my boss. You're my friend, that's different." 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Jong In said, taking the folders that had the important contracts and documents inside so he could take a look at the details. "But no thanks, I'm skipping out on the personal secretary offer. I don't need one." 

With hung open with disbelief, she grunted and asked, "You do realize that my office is on the other side of this hotel, right? Have you seen this hotel? You're acting like the distance is as short as a king sized bed frame or something. Do you know how long it takes me to get here, fool?" 

"Fool, you're acting like this hotel has the distance of the great wall in China or something," Jong In joked back, rolling their eyes at each other. "Besides, the walk is good for you. You can get an exercise out of walking to see me then going back to your office." 

"You ain't that special for me walking from the opposite side of the hotel just to see you," Tina sassed, crossing her arms while standing up. "You ugly anyways. You're just my friend, that's why I walk over to you. I would be more happy to make the effort if a cute guy was the one waiting for me. I'd sprint here for all I care." 

Snickering, Jong In answered, "Woman, I am way pass cute. You should be happy to see me." 

"Yeah, you way pass ugly that's what," she snickered back, also sticking his tongue out at him. "Do you think I have all the time in the world to see you anyways? I just became the director of the marketing department, I need to do a good job. President Jung, aka, your girlfriend's father needs to see that I am doing well. Especially after that rough incident that happened between your girlfriend and I the day that I got promoted to be marketing director, I don't need him to see that I walked all the way here to drop off paper work for you and left all my employees doing the job for the time being. I would be that jinxed one, dude." 

"Oh, but you became so famous after that incident," Jong In joked, making Tina wanting to strangle him, but there was no time for that at the moment. He painted a picture with both of his hands and showed her, "Your picture was blasted on television and the newspaper all day long. You were like a celebrity that day, you should feel proud. Didn't you tell me you deserve to be famous for your pretty face?" 

"Kim Jong In!" Tina exclaimed loudly, threatening to throw a binder at his face. She then pointed at him and threatened, "Listen buddy. I do need to be more famous for this pretty face, I mean have you seen me? And have you seen how my fashion sense is? I need more recognition. Why else would I be in the marketing field? My face is enough to persuade customers to purchase anything."

"Oh goodness gracious." 

"And second... You're not allowed to stop me yet," Tina demanded, still pointing at him which made him chuckle. "Listen well. I will never stop ranting about that. Your crazy girlfriend wanted to slap my face out of nowhere in front of the hotel entrance, where there were so many customers and guests coming up to come check in. I don't understand how you weren't able to control that girl but she came up to me like a freaking wrecking ball. I was so lucky President Jung knew how crazy his daughter is. If he wasn't a reasonable person, I'd probably have been fired by now."

"I wasn't there." 

Breathing more heavily because he was giving annoying responses, she began to get a little more vulgar since it was just the two of them. ", I know you weren't there. I know I have small eyes, but they weren't that small that I wasn't able to see you. All I saw was your crazy girlfriend coming up to slap my face and then pinning me down in front of a group of people. Then after, when she wasn't answering me to why she was slapping me, she just kept saying Jong In is mine you filthy , don't come near him. Slap, slap, slap, slap. I was not wrong for slapping her back, I have no time to act like the innocent girl because that is crazy."

Tina never really cared about calling Jong In's girlfriend a right to his face because it was really true and he wasn't oblivious enough to get mad. Jong In had always told her since they started becoming close friends that he had a girlfriend whose father was the owner and the president of this hotel building, and he also said that she was crazy. She never expected it to be that extreme until her and Jong In had to work late together one night, which caused her to get mad, and come to start a riot with her. Especially due to the fact that she didn't want Jong In in any way, and she only saw him as a friend, nothing more than that. However, that fight made it to the front page of the newspaper along with the news broadcasting television system, so Jong In felt horrible after that day, afraid of her and Krystal interacting again. He really didn't understand that the past six years that they had been dating, why she still had to go crazy everytime a girl went near Jong In? He clearly showed that he wasn't cheating on her and that he had only her, but she still hadn't changed herself. Today, Krystal had been doing her own fashion line business, having a large, famous and gorgeous wedding dress shop that she runs on her own, but yet she still has the time to track down Jong In and what girls are in his life. Even though Jong In lost all of his feelings for her, he still stayed with her because he just didn't want to deal with the pain he would have to bring to her. He always secretly hoped that she would be the one breaking up with him, but that time just never came. He just had to wait around and see when the time would come that she realized she was holding onto something that was just useless.

With an apologetic face, but nervously laughing, he replied, "Heh, I made it up to you already though, right? I bought you sushi." Jong In was also afraid Tina was going to end their friendship that day, but she was so understanding that she knew it wasn't his fault. She was always going to haunt him and complain to him about it, but she still saw him as one of her best friends, so she wasn't leaving him that easily. Also, he had sincerely apologized to her about the situation over a thousand of times, so she saw no harm to him at all. 

"I got slapped on the face and pinned to the ground," she reminded him, shaking her head. "Sushi doesn't make up for slaps, my friend." 

"Nah, but you're fancy, so technically speaking, sushi can make up for your fancy ," he said, managing to joke. 

"Does it look like I'm laughing to you?" She said bluntly, still making him laugh because he knew she wasn't mad. Jong In and Tina were pretty good friends at this point, to the extent that he could call her one of his best after being in the same company for a few years together. He got used to Tina's straightfoward and honest personality because she always meant well, and she was also from the United States, making her have an American mindset. Their personalities did clash though because Jong In enjoyed egging her on just to annoy her, because it was entertaining for messing around with his friend. He also never ever thought to like her, even though she had the pretty looks in most guys' books. She was just too good of a friend for him to think about her like that, and practically his sister at this point.

Giving out a few laughs, Jong In just played around with his pen because he knew once he opened the files, it would just go back to work. He and Tina were friends since their interning days at Oakwood Seoul Hotel. After interning for a year, Jong In got to work more with the financial department of the hotel while Tina separated to go to the marketing department. A few years, Jong In was just a regular employee, until he got moved up to be the financial director of the department, and now proving his sincerity and hardworking personality to Oakwood, Jong In had now been a general manager for Oakwood Hotel for over a year now while Tina had just moved up to be the Marketing Director of the department of marketing, which was obviously a high authority job for her. Things still hadn't changed though; even though he was her boss, he still treated her like a friend and she still acted the same. 

"Anyways," she said, changing the topic. "Remember those contracts need to be sent in by tomorrow morning. I have to send it by noon."

"You coming back today to pick it up?"

"Those contracts aren't going to be sent in until tomorrow afternoon. I am not walking all the way over here just to get your damn signature again today. I'll get it tomorrow morning. I'm leaving now. I need to get back to my office. If Sajangnim comes to his check-up rounds, I will be ed," she stated, beginning to walk away. 

"He doesn't do check-ups at every department. That's the general manager's job. This person right here does that job, not the President of the company," he stated back, nodding his head. Tina scoffed, "Whatever man, when you do your check ups at my department, all we do is end up talking for mad long. I could care less about your rounds, I only care about your girlfriend's father. I need to get back to work." 

Concluding everything, she gave him a wave but then Jong In remembered that he had to tell her something else, so he stopped her. "Wait, wait, wait. Tina, Tina, Tina." 

Turning around, she questioned, "What's up?" 

"What are you doing tonight?" 

"Selling drugs."

"Seriously woman," Jong In demanded out of his mouth.

Rolling her eyes aroud a bit, she responded truthfully, "I don't know yet, no plans. I might stay here a little later to clear up some things for the hotel launch event. Maybe I can settle a few things today so I won't have to have so much work by tomorrow. I have to take care of three interns tomorrow, so it might be too much for me to handle." 

"Oh, I was just wondering if you were free to eat dinner later tonight. I'm grabbing barbeque with Chanyeol later, if you wanted to join." 

"Chanyeol?" Tina questioned, widening her eyes. "That doctor isn't playing the piano for his patients to listen to?" Since Chanyeol was a music therapist at that point, she always had to make a comment about him. They weren't that close though, even though Chanyeol always tried to be close to her since she was also Jong In's good friend. Replying with a chuckle, he responded, "Chanyeol is a therapist, not a doctor. And he doesn't only play the piano to treat his patients, he uses the guitar too." 

"I was close to him being a doctor," Tina said with a scoff, waving her hand carelessly. "And no thank you, I don't want to risk anything if I go to dinner with you. Your girlfriend might make an unexpected visit and I don't want to become famous again for the day. We'll just stick to our lunch breaks together, okay dude?" 

Leaning back on his chair, he gave her a cunning smirk and questioned back, "Are you sure it's not because you don't want to see Chanyeol? He kinda misses you." 

"Don't even start with that," she demanded, pointing at him. "Want to make the newspaper headline again? Last time you weren't the main topic of the newspaper, but this time you will be. The headline will be the same... Instead of Krystal Jung and Tina Kim being the head topic, it'll be..." Giving him an imaginary headline by motioning her hands, she dramatically went on with an animated deep voice, "Riot breaks out in front of five star hotel, Oakwood Seoul... Kim Jong In, General Manager, gets pinned to the ground and brutally beaten up by Tina Kim. You want that, right? Let's start now." 

"No one has time for that, woman," answering her with an emotionless face, beginning to open up his files to show her that he was going to start working. "If you didn't want to have dinner, you can just say no. Why do you have to go on with all the slapping issues? That just makes you more suspicious that you don't want to see my friend." 

"Bye Jong In," she finally ended everything, waving to him very firmly, also shouting at the door. "See you tomorrow morning! Don't forget to sign all of those contracts!" 

"Okay, see ya," he replied. With that, she shut the door and left him back to himself. Loosening up his suit tie, he settled down on his amusing conversation with Tina, becoming a little more serious at this point, thinking about both work and Minji. No matter how much work he had and how much he was enjoying his work life, he still couldn't stop thinking about Minji after it's been over four years. In only four months, it would be new year already and she was still missing. However, he was really happy to know that no one with the name of Gong Minji had passed away in Asia, so he had a hint of hope that she was perfectly fine. He just couldn't wait for the day he could see her again, he needed to make up his life to her, no matter what it would take. 

On a sunny and hot August day, Minji walk through the front door, with the kitchen being on the left right when she walks in. Once she entered the house and shut the door behind her, she called out to announce her being home. "I'm home! Dara, you upstairs?!" 

"I am!" Dara exclaimed back from their room, way towards the end of the first floor. "Hold on, I'll be right out." 

"You didn't go to work today?" Minji asked, walking straight to the kitchen and placing the car keys right on the island. She was about to grab a cold water bottle from the refridgerator until she stopped seeing a bowl of strawberries placed right there. Her thoughts got interrupted by Dara when she ran down the stairs and suddenly stopped to look at Minji. Making eye contact with one another as Dara gave her a strange look, making Minji slightly stuck on what to do. Slowly walking up to her from the stairs to enter the kitchen, she smiled and pointed at her. "Damn girl, how busy was the restaurant today? I thought you made your hair nice before leaving the house."

Minji wandered her eyes up to try to glance at her hair, remembering that she had to change it into a side braid instead of the high ponytail she had this morning because it was so long it nearly hit the customers' faces everytime she turned around to leave. Looking back at Dara and answering with a monotone, "It was rough." The restaurant Minji worked at was a really big restaurant, that was divided into different sections of the area, but she still had to take care about fifteen to twenty tables, which got out of hand sometimes. It was a regular restaurant that wasn't fancy or anything, but the food was really good and people always came because the prices weren't expensive, and the quality was pretty good. 

"I can see that," Dara said, taking a seat at the kitchen stool, so Minji sat right after that to listen more. "No dinner shift today?" 

"No, the owner told me there was an overload with servers, so he told me to go rest for the day. Since it was busy since morning." 

"He probably saw your hair, so he was like bye girl." 

Minji twisted her lips at her and stuck her tongue out in response. "More like... He thought birds could fly onto my head thinking it was their home." 

They laughed for a few moments until Dara asked, "Yah, you're hair is freaking long now." She grabbed the tip of hair that was nearly down to her waist and continued, "Are you gonna cut it any time soon, baby girl?" 

"I don't know, I kinda want to keep it this long," Minji stated, touching her long hair that was down to her waist by now. She began to jokingly look at Dara and gave her a silly face, pouting and joking, "I'm using my long hair to whack people since you guys said I'm not weak anymore, I can use my hair as a weapon."

Jokingly giving her a glare, Dara pouted and said, "Yeah girl. You whack your hair at me, you're getting a whack back too, just not with my hair." Dara lifted her hands up and twinkled her fingers cutely as a joke, referring to what she was going to smack Minji with, making her laugh. 

Pointing to the bowl of strawberries set on the table, Minji questioned, "Why is there a huge bowl of strawberries here? Am I making dessert tonight?" 

"Mhm," Dara replied with a nod, smiling cheesily at her. "I wanted to eat your recipe of strawberry shortcake because I'm getting bored eating it at the cafe. So I prepared all the ingredients for you, just so you can get started right away." 

Minji rolled her eyes, highly amused and shook her head at Dara. "I was gonna say, Yuri Unnie and Young Bae Oppa don't even like strawberries like that. It wasn't them who put it there for sure." 

Pleading for her best friend to make it for her, she requested, "Baby girl, can you make it for me, please? Not too sweet, alright?" 

"Okay girl, let me take a shower first. Do you know how bad I smell from working under the sun for over seven hours?"

"Girl, you have smelled worse than that," Dara stated, sulking . "One time when you worked morning shift until night shift, I thought an elephant pooped on you, you smelled horrible." 

"That's why I gotta take a shower," Minji sweetly shot back, bobbing her head around. Dara laughed at her gesture and silly face, sighing and picking up a strawberry to eat. As she chewed on it, she reminded Minji, "Mmm! I forgot! Your certificate came in the mail today. You are officially an alumni of Shanghai University, school of Business and Marketing." 

"Oh my god, thank god. I've been waiting for that certificate for the longest time, I thought they forgot about me already." 

"Hey, at least we know that we are done with college, right?" Dara questioned back, finishing up the piece of fruit she was on. Sticking her tongue out, Minji replied, "There's no more need to be ugly with our dark eye circles from staying up late, right?" 

"Girl, you're lucky you're cute. I had to conceal my dark eye circles every day going to school. You know the struggle of being ugly?"

"Girl, if you're ugly, I must look like a hippo or something," Minji joked, pursing her lips at Dara. "I just didn't care about being ugly, so I went as that. There's no one to impress at school."

"Well..." Dara started, patting her chest. "I had someone to impress, so I had to look at least alive, you know?" 

Rolling her eyes, Minji knew she was implying her statement towards Mino, who had already moved back to Korea a few years ago. From Dara's stories, Mino was on his last semester at East China Normal University when Dara started attending the school, so they became even closer from there. After he finished, he worked and intern for a little bit, but then got an good job offer at a travel magazine company back in Korea, so he absolutely had to take it. It was a bummer because none of Minji, Yuri or Young Bae ever got to meet Dara's so-called crush, so they were only more curious because Dara had seemed to be so infatuated by him. Also, Dara was a bit shy to introduce him to them because she didn't know what level of closeness they were at, and she didn't want him to get the wrong idea and scare him away, so she just kept being his friend. He also didn't seem to make any noticeable moves on her since he was naturally a friendly person, so she didn't really keep her hopes us. Now that he was back in Korea and working, she had an even smaller chance to even be an important part of his life. Minji looked at Dara and let out a deep sigh, telling her, "Yeah, you did. After your special Mino left China, you literally started wearing sweatpants and leggings to class."

"Hey," replied Dara, pointing at Minji. "My sweatpants and leggings have style, okay? No matter how hurt I looked, my outfits were still on point. I don't need Mino to determine my outfits that are on point. I just needed him to determine the prettiness in my face."

Squinting , she said, "Mhm. I didn't say your outfits were never on point. It's just when Mino didn't graduate yet, you were all about the flower dresses and girly skirts. Once he left, leggings and sweatpants came into the wardrobe."

"Listen," she demanded strongly and loudly. "I'm still about the flower dresses and skirts, but I needed a break from all that after wearing it for a semester. It was just a gradual change from skirts and dresses to looking cool and chique. You can compare me to the four seasons, I change my style according to seasons. I just didn't care about my face after Mino left." 

With a laugh, Minji said, "Dara, your face is adorable, cute and pretty no matter what. I don't think Mino could tell the difference between make-up and no make-up because you're a natural beauty anyways." 

"Thanks girl," Dara said with a nod, kind of missing Mino at the same time. "Then again, Mino probably wouldn't notice because... He ain't that bright now."

Giving a dramatic face, Minji had hung open and joked, "How can you say that about your future husband, baby girl? You know how hurt he'd be if he heard that come from your mouth?"

Dara clenched her teeth and softly hit Minji on the arm, making her nearly fall off the wooden kitchen stool. When she gained her balance back, Dara pouted and replied, "Yah, quit playing around. I don't even know if he sees me like that, I only message him nowadays. Who knows if he has a girlfriend back in Korea?" 

"Ah, but if he did make his move on you, sees you as more than a friend and doesn't have a girlfriend, he would be your future husband, right?" 

Glaring back, Dara motioned Minji with one finger indicating her to come closer. "You wanna whack your long hair at me? You can see the results you're gonna get back if you do. It seems like you're in the mood for wanting to get smacked." 

"Okay," she said with a shrug, grinning at her. "You smack me, I'm just gonna tell you how much I love you. Then after, I'm gonna give you a hug, no matter how much you push me off, I'm gonna hang onto you until you can't breathe. Try smacking me now." 

"Yah, your method of fighting back is scarier than just slapping me back, girlfriend."

With a happy smile, she answered, "Yeah girl. Then you can feel the love that I have for you."

"I feel that everyday anyways," she stated, sticking her tongue out at her. She let out a sigh and went on, "But seriously though, can you not mention Mino to me anymore? It just that I can't get to know him more than this, and now we're just stuck with messaging each other since he's in Korea. It makes me wonder if he ever even thinks about me. I'm sorry for not understanding you when you were on your crushing stage, but now I know how it feels. It stinks." 

The moment Dara said that phrase, she immediately thought back to Jong In, since he was really the only person that she truly ever liked. Up until this day, even though it had already been four years, she just didn't know why she couldn't erase anything about him from her mind and her heart. He seemed to make a permanent scar on her, even though he had hurt her so much when she was younger. Even though she was a new person, the only thing she hadn't changed was the fact that he still lived with her every waking moment of her life. She wanted to forget about him and move on, but she didn't know why she couldn't do it. It mad her angry and hate herself even more about it, but she couldn't let anyone know since they all thought that she had erased him from her life completely. 

"Hey," Minji said, grabbing Dara's wrist. "At least your Mino still considers you a friend. You don't need to be sorry about not understanding me. I wasn't like you at all, I was stupid." 

"You weren't stupid, Minji," Dara reassured, shaking her head to make her friend feel better. "It may have been a tough ride for you, but you were never stupid. Don't look down on yourself like that." Minji could only give her a genuine smile, since she wasn't going to cry anymore about the situation that has passed. It was hard because Yoogeun, her son that was now four years old, had every facial feature that belonged to Jong In. It made it hard to forget about him, but at the same time, she unconditionally loved Yoogeun despited the fact that she hated and despised his father. Trying to shake it off, Minji chuckled and said, "Ah, it was such a long time ago. I'm sure all of them are doing big things by now, let's just go back to you. Have you talked to Mino lately?" 

"The last time he sent me a message was around three days ago," Dara answered, trying to change the dramatic topic as well. "He said he was busy with a new project, so we didn't really talk much. He even sent me a picture of what he was doing." 

"So cute," she teased, scrunching up her face. "Maybe he's hinting something."

"Some hint he's giving," she scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Someone should message him and say, hey hint some more. Because I certainly am not getting any hints from him. Freaking Mino playing with my emotions. Why'd he have to be so cute?" 

"I'm surprised you don't call him Mino Oppa, since you said he's like three years old than us. The Mino that I met told me to call him Oppa and he was really determined to get me to call him that." 

"I should've met your Mino then," Dara scoffed again. "Maybe he shows more affection than my Mino. Was he cute?"

"He was cute," she replied, nodding her head. "But I don't know, I didn't really pay that much attention to him. I haven't seen him around though. The last time I saw him so long ago, and then he completely disappeared. He must've moved locations or something, because there's no sign of him anywhere."

Minji thought back to when she saw the Mino she knew last, remembering that she went to the mall by herself to buy some clothes for her job as a waitress. He had been coincidentally shopping at the same store, which made them bump into each other when they were trying on clothes in the fitting room. As usual, Minji didn't really say or talk much to him, since she was trying not to open her heart up anymore to be nice or friendly to anyone - since she learned that it all comes back biting her in the end. However, she did wonder how he was doing, since he was always so sweet to her everytime they accidentally ran into each other. He must've went back to Korea, Minji thought to herself, also hoping he was doing well with his writing career that he mentioned to her before. 

"Well," Dara spoke up, interrupting her train of thoughts. "If you ever see him again, bring him this way. Maybe it'll get me to stop thinking about the other Mino in Korea."

"Girl, no matter how many Minos I bring into your life, I doubt they will be able to compare to your Mino. I could bring Lee Minho in this room and you probably still wouldn't want that." 

That made Dara laugh, knowing it was particularly true. It was probably the same as Minji's situation, but not as bad in the end. Like for Minji, no matter what guy named Jong In, or any other guy came into her life, she knew she was not going to forget about Jong In. Even though he had hurt her and literally made it feel like her heart was stepped on, she knew Minji wasn't going to forget about him easily. No matter how strong and how durable she was now, there was always going to be a small sensitive spot about her. 

When they laughed it off for a few moments, Dara looked at the changed and improved Minji, grinning at how happy she was that she was so much better than she was around five years ago. She definitely became a stronger person, a lot more wiser and built up a lot of courage to be daring. It was all thanks to Yuri and Young Bae, and she couldn't be any more happier than Minji went through that change with a lot of help. Minji was the type of person to wear her heart on her sleeve, and Dara knew she only had one heart - it was always going to be hard to completely erase someone that she has a child with, no matter how secretive she can be with being the mother. 

Becoming a bit serious, Dara sighed and began to wonder, "Well, we're done with school now. What are we going to do now?" Curiously thinking about that, she wanted to know what Minji had in store next. It seemed like Mino went back after he was done, so now she wanted to know what Minji was planning to do since both of them were finished. Looking at her with a semi sorrowful smile, she lightly shrugged and said, "I had a few things in mind. But I don't know yet, I kind of want to talk to Yuri Unnie about it before I make any decisions." 

"I'm pretty sure Yuri Unnie is not gonna make any decisions for you," Dara hinted, shaking her head. "The past four plus years that we've been living with her, she's been pretty good at making sure that no one makes decisions for you. You've got to be your own person." 

"I know," whining in reply, Minji rested her elbow on the shiny wooden kitchen table and pouted. "It's just a lot to think about, you know? It would help if Yuri Unnie could give any ideas or tell me what she thinks."

"Yuri Unnie is going to chop you if you ask her too many questions." 

Suddenly, a little body popped up from behind the kitchen counter and screamed, "WHY YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT MAMA?!" It was Yoogeun who popped out of nowhere, startling them because they didn't even hear him come around the kitchen area. Dara thought he was still upstairs watching television by himself, since she came down to prepare all the strawberries and ingredients for Minji to make. As he stood there with his messy bed hair and gray shirt that they could see, it still didn't help them because they almost died with their panic attack. 

"Yah Yoogeun!" Dara and Minji exclaimed loudly at the same time, nearly getting a heart attack from Yoogeun's small body popping up from the kitchen counter. Patting her chest, Dara breathed heavily and questioned loudly, "Damn Yoogeun, how'd you get here?"

"I walked down here with my legs," a sassy Yoogeun replied back, getting Dara to purse her lips at him. Yoogeun was a really good kid, but sometimes he was too sassy for their liking. They always just forgave him because he was a cutie pie who knew how to sweet talk his way to get his aunties to love him. However, Dara replied back with a sassy face as well, "No duh sherlock, I thought you flew down here with your wings." 

Yoogeun gave her a cheesy giggle, scrunching up his entire face to make the two of them laugh. He then turned to Minji and sweetly smiled at her, also greeting, "Hi Mingkki."

"Hi baby." 

"Did you go to work at the restaurant today?" 

"Yes I did, baby," she replied happily, looking at her son so lovingly. "You stayed home with Auntie Dara today?" 

"Yes I did, Mingkki," he answered, making her wary of the next answer he was going to give. "She is the only one home today, so I wouldn't be able to stay with anyone else."

"I knew that was coming, why did I even ask that?" Whispering to Dara about her correct prediction on what he was going to say. Dara shrugged highly amused and replied, "I mean, you knew it was coming, you still asked." 

Yoogeun just smiled and continued asking, "Was the restaurant busy today?" 

"It's busy everyday, Yoogeun," she responded, blowing out a piece of hair that fell onto her face. "The restaurant has over like five hundred people every single day." It got quiet for a few moments as they Minji and Yoogeun stared at eachother, while she was looking at him so lovingly. Out of nowhere again, he began to laugh and ask, "Why you ugly?" 

She sighed, running a hair through her messy work hair and was completely fed up with his sassy statements. "Yah, why you ugly?" He only laughed at the sassy comment back, making her smile amusingly at him. Before he could say anything else, she spread her arms out and said, "Baby, come here. Your sassy mouth needs to give me a kiss. You want dessert tonight?" 

"Yes!" He exclaimed excitedly, running around the kitchen counter and quickly jumping onto Minji's lap while she was on the black stool chair. He continued smiling, wrapping his little arms around her neck and planted multiple kisses on her lips in a row. She could barely even kiss him back because he was so quick with the kisses, so all she could do was grab him by the waist and receive all the kisses he was giving. When he planted the last kiss, he pulled away while still hugging her. "Are you making ice cream for me today?" 

"If you're a good boy," she answered, bobbing her head around playfully. "I will even make your favorite, coconut ice cream, or do you want red bean tonight?" 

"Tonight should be coconut ice cream," he requested, making sweet eyes with her. "Then tomorrow should be red bean."

She raised an eyebrow in response. "Boy, you're pushing it with wanting me to make ice cream for you two days in a row. You know how many hours it takes me to make homemade ice cream?"

"I know it takes long. That's why I said coconut for today and red bean for tomorrow." 

Minji slid her head over to give a bothered look at Dara, pursing her lips in the process. Dara only shrugged and motioned her to deal with it herself, knowing that Minji was probably going to give in. Yoogeun knew his ways with her, so he planted more kisses onto her cheek cutely and begged, "Please, please, please Mingkki." He started grabbing her face then kissed her lips even more, making her smile so much on the inside that he loved her this much. Trying to move out of the way so she could catch her breath, she started squealing and tried to push Yoogeun out of the way. "Yah, Yoogeun! I got it, okay okay! I'll make you your ice cream, enough with the kisses, I can't breathe!" Because he loved her so much, he planted one more kiss on her lips and then smiled. Whenever his face was so happy, his round eyes went big, his rather large nose flared up and his adorable smile looked like it was about to rip up from his face. 

The moment he stopped, Minji grabbed onto his waist and started relaxing. "My gosh, if you're not sassy then you're smothering me with hugs and kisses. You're so freaking cute. Does cake and coconut ice cream sound good for you tonight?"

"Very good," he said cutely, giving her a wide smile. "Thank you, Mingkki."

"You better eat all of your dinner tonight to get the dessert, understand me?" She slightly gave him a lesson, trying her best to make him be a good child. "You remember what happened last time you were being bad?"

"Mama threw me into the wall."

"And did it hurt?"

"It was a wall, Mingkki," he sassed again. "She didn't throw me on the bed. She threw me into the wall. It was not soft." 

"So you're gonna be good today, right?" 

"I guess so." 

She grabbed his face to kiss his cheek passionately, then sat him back down on his lap normally. Once they both calmed down while they were both sitting, Yoogeun began to eat the strawberries that were on the table, grabbing a handful of them so he could eat and sit with her. Minji was so happy that she could still be close with her son, even though he didn't know himself that she was his actual mother. At first, it was quite painful to know that she'll never get the chance to hear him call her mother in any way, but she was just happy that she could be so near him. It was enough calling her by the nickname that Young Joon called her, which was Mingkki. In any way, they had an unconditional bond that was never going to be broken. Even though Yoogeun saw her as an aunt, she was just so happy he had a mother and father that completed his life. Yuri and Young Bae raised him so well, treating him as if Yuri gave birth to him herself. Minji couldn't be more appreciative of what they did for her and how much it meant to her that they accepted Yoogeun to be a part of their family. Today, as part of the Dong family, there was Young Bae, Yuri, Young Joon and Yoogeun. 

Hugging him tightly on her lap, she looked at Dara to continue their conversation. "What were we talking about before Yoogeun wanted to give us a heart attack?" 

Before Dara even answered, Yoogeun spoke up in a high pitched voice, "You guys were talking about Mommy." He went on chewing on the strawberries, making the two girls give each other a look, also shaking their heads. 

"About her throwing you into a wall?" Dara questioned, raising her eyebrows. Mumbling while he was chewing on all the fruits stuffed into his mouth, he responded, "Her throwing me into a wall is nothing new. You guys were saying how you were going to ask her something important. What are you guys gonna ask Mommy?" 

"Grown up things," Minji replied instead, rubbing his head. "Keep eating, you don't need to pay attention to us." 

He pouted a bit, but then went on eating, trying not to interfere with the conversation. Dara sighed and continued to talk, "What should we do? We need to start doing something with our lives though. We're about to be 24 years old, we can't just keep living at home." 

"I really don't know."

"I'm four years old," Yoogeun interrupted unintentionally, getting them to glare at him. "I'm turning five in April." 

"You want a cookie for that?" Dara asked jokingly, making him nod his head in reply. He said excitedly, "Can you make them chocolate chips with raisins in them?" 

Giving him a push on his forehead, she looked at Minji to try to go on with their important conversation. She sighed and explained, "You obviously don't want to be a waitress for the rest of your life, and I don't want to be a server at the cafe for the rest of mine. I really think we need to start branching off to do something." 

"What do we do though?" Minji questioned, shaking her head. "How do we even start?" 

"Who bought the strawberries?" Yoogeun randomly interrupted again, making them about to strangle him. Minji was on the verge of covering his mouth because he interrupted them way too much. Wi