Here you go! Let's just say... It's long because I have a lot of new characters, so I wanted to introduce as much as I can. Please leave me feedback >.< and enjoy. Apologize in advance for the length, hehe. 

“What the hell are you holding, Jong In?” Woo Bin asked, as Jong In entered his office, shutting the door tightly behind him, making sure the Hello Kitty balloon didn’t pop as he came in. He didn’t necessarily walk over to Woo Bin’s desk yet, so he stood there, seeing Chanyeol making fun of him as he was sitting right on top of the table. Jong In sighed, looking up at the pink Hello Kitty balloon that wrote ‘Happy Birthday’ and just made a face to make it seem like he was done with life.

Passing by the police officers downstairs, he could tell that they were already making fun of him holding a huge birthday bag with a teddy bear on it and a Hello Kitty balloon.

After his birthday dinner with Krystal, he actually ended up meeting with Tina since he had to go back to the hotel to clear up all his work anyways. She ended up coming to his office to surprise him with his birthday present and a cake, singing happy birthday by herself, but it made him feel a little better that one of his best friends wasn’t leaving on his birthday. Since she had a lot of work to do as well, she had to cut it short and head back home. While Jong In called Woo Bin to meet up at his office because he wasn’t able to erase the image of seeing Minji at the mall. Their plans of searching for her might have to be changed because Woo Bin and his helpers began searching in Japan, in which Jong In believed that it was not going to work because he knew he saw her today. Responding with a stressful sigh, he finally replied, “It’s a long story.”

“Well,” Woo Bin responded, looking at his watch to see the hands on his watch reading 11:45 PM. He widened his mono-lid eyes at Jong In and also chuckled, “It is almost midnight, so I’m pretty sure that you can tell me this short story since you already came to see me so late. I got time.”

“I got mad time too,” Chanyeol added in, wanting to know why he was holding such cutesy, adorable things. His face absolutely did not match that. With a shrug, Chanyeol continued, “My first patient is meeting me at noon tomorrow, so tell away.”

Woo Bin, nudging Chanyeol’s knee with his elbow, since he was sitting right there, loudly teased, “Now we know why he came so late. He was spending time with little kids or something.”

Laughing at his comment, Chanyeol widened his eyes playfully. “Wait a second… Jong In has no kids in his life. He doesn’t have a niece or nephew, what little kids is he spending time with?” As they continuously made fun of him, Jong In only stood there grinning and finally said, “Yah, Chanyeol… Woo Bin Hyung. Are you guys gonna let me explain why I have this or are you gonna keep making fun of me?”

“It’s my birthday today,” Jong In began to explain, sliding his eyes to glare at Chanyeol. “So, this is a birthday gift in my hands.” Knowing that Jong In was implying his bitter statement towards him, Chanyeol pulled out his gift bag, which was rather more masculine and normal looking compared to the one he was holding; it was just a navy blue bag with the words ‘Happy Birthday’ on it, so he quickly replied, “Before you say anything in regards to me missing your birthday this year, this is my gift for you. And it’s not midnight yet, so it’s technically still the day you were born. Here you go, bro. I guess I love you.” Woo Bin ran a finger through his thick, dark locks, laughing at the two younger guys. These two were the strangest best friends, they seemed like were always insulting eachother in some way, but then again, they weren’t really raised to be the sweetest people. They were both so blunt, even though Chanyeol was a tad softer than Jong In. Coming closer to Woo Bin’s desk, Jong In finally walked over towards them, putting his two birthday bags together. Poking his head to look into Chanyeol’s bag, he looked at him with an amused face and asked, “What’d you get me?”  

“Something I paid for,”Chanyeol scoffed, replying sarcastically to his overly curious best friend, who was asking what his present was. Obviously Jong In had to open it in order to know what was inside, which made him have no mood to answer that question. That also resulted in a glare from Jong In, which made Chanyeol shrug. “It’s a damn birthday present, how do you expect to answer that?” Poking his head towards the other adorable looking back, Chanyeol went on with the teasing, “What’d your baby niece get you?”

“Stop judging from the outside,” Jong In sarcastically hissed, holding up Tina’s birthday bag that she got for him. “It’s the inside that matters. This gift is straight from Tina.” Suddenly, Chanyeol just froze and just stopped teasing, knowing that it was Tina’s gift. He was just tongue-tied now, feeling bad about making fun of the gift she got him now. Amused, Jong In slightly chuckled, seeing that Chanyeol stopped making fun of the bag now that he knew it was from Tina. Woo Bin was just sitting at his black, comfortable rolling chair in front of his computer desktop, looking confused to what they were talking about.  

Not knowing what to say, he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck and finally replied, “Did you open your gift yet? What’d she get you?”

“It’s a Jersey from my favorite soccer player from America,” he stated, sitting on Woo Bin’s across from Chanyeol, being able to see both of them clearly. “She had her best friend from America get it and ship it here, so yeah. Along with Adidas sneakers that matched with hers to symbolize our friendship.”

Still not aware of what was going on, Woo Bin heard this and began to chuckle. “Matching sneakers sounds like a couple thing. Minah buys me matching shirts when we go out on dates, and it’s the corniest thing ever.” He was referring to his long-time girlfriend Bang Minah, who he had been dating for quite some time now. Snickering, Chanyeol responded, “Hyung, I mean you still wear it, so she still buys it.”

“I love that girl,” he said sweetly about his girlfriend. “I can’t forget that she’s younger than me, so she’s still in that cutesy, little kid mode. So I don’t actually mind wearing it. Tips to being a good boyfriend, guys.”

Chanyeol only scratched his head, since this conversation didn’t apply to him because he was single. Sighing, Jong In shook his head quickly and thoroughly explained, “Tina’s not my girlfriend though. The shoes are just a symbolism for our friendship because she said in the card that we both love sneakers, or something. Understand that now because people always get the wrong idea.”

“She just loves shoes,” Chanyeol stated, remembering the first time he met Tina during her and Jong In’s internship days, she randomly talked about her love for shoes and it got Chanyeol’s attention because she was really cute and hilarious. Ever since the first day Chanyeol met Tina, he tried to get closer to her, but it just seemed like she had this wall blocking her and that she didn’t even want to get close. No matter how hard he tried, she just always seemed to be pushing him away. Even though she was one of Jong In’s best friend, it always seemed like she never wanted to see him, and it was hard to get the chance to get close to her. Raising his left eyebrow up, Jong In responded, “You think I don’t know her love for shoes? You should see the room in her house. She specifically wanted one closet for her shoes. And it’s not even enough, she has boxes outside that closet. And may I explain that that closet is not small at all.”

“Jong In,” Woo Bin finally chimed in with a small chuckle. “It just sounds like you have a secret girlfriend on your hands.”

Chanyeol tensioned up as the words girlfriend spilled out of Woo Bin’s mouth, which made him a little bit uneasy because he didn’t really want Tina to be anyone’s girlfriend. That statement got Jong In laughing, shaking his head to deny that real quick. “Hyung, if she was actually my secret girlfriend, she’d be kept a secret for real. There would be no way Krystal could find out about her. I wouldn’t even let her work at the hotel, I’d be too afraid of her life.”

“She’d be out of Seoul,” Chanyeol decided to joke along. Snickering, Jong In added in even more, “Nah, she’d be out of the country.”

“Damn,” Woo Bin huffed, widening his eyes in shock. “Your girlfriend that extreme?”

Chanyeol sighed and shook his head. “Woo Bin Hyung, you haven’t seen his girlfriend yet.”

“I have though,” he replied back quickly. “She’s a pretty girl.”

Chanyeol spread his left arms out and indicated towards Jong In, saying, “Take what Jong In just said. Don’t judge by the outside, it’s the inside that matters. Her inside is quite different.”

“Yah yah yah,” Woo Bin stopped Chanyeol, not really appreciating the negative comments said about Jong In’s girlfriend right in front of him. “If you’re gonna talk about his girlfriend, why would you do it in front of him?”

 “I’m not the only one that talks about her, Hyung. Her own boyfriend talks about her too.”

“Yah, I don’t talk about her. I just state facts,” hissed Jong In, slightly glaring at Chanyeol. Woo Bin could only shake his head and lectured, “Be nice, Chanyeol.”

“It’s fine, Hyung,” Jong In assured, shrugging his shoulders. “It’s not only Chanyeol that talks. Everyone that works at the hotel and that’s met her talks all kinds of things about her. She’s not exactly Oakwood’s angel, even though she is the President’s daughter.”

“She’s still your girlfriend though. There’s got to be a reason why you’re still with her.”

Emotionlessly, he shrugged again and responded, “I don’t really know what to say.” He also didn’t want to spill out that he was only dating her because of his position at the hotel, because Woo Bin was quite the lecturer, and he would probably claim Jong In of using Krystal as an advantage to move up at the hotel. But it was hard to explain that Krystal didn’t let go of him easily and he worked hard to move up to become a general manager at the hotel, but it was just his main reason of still being with her, so it would result in some sort of lecture. He pointed to the two birthday bags on the table and continued, “The only friends that have stuck with me while being with Krystal are these two.”

“The friend who gave you a pink teddy bear birthday bag with a hello kitty balloon attached to the handle?” Woo Bin asked, still managing to joke. On an honest note, Tina only gave him the kiddish bag because she thought it was quite funny, and it didn’t prepare him for the special gift that was inside of the bag. Also, she had no idea where he was coming after being at the hotel, since she thought he was going straight home, but he clearly came to the police station to see Woo Bin, but he didn’t mention that to Tina so she had no idea he was actually going to carry it elsewhere. All Chanyeol do could laugh with his mouth closed, trying to be as soft as he can. Seeing Jong In laugh, he lightly punched Chanyeol’s upper arm and said, “You want me to message her and tell her all of the teasing you’ve been doing with the birthday gift she gave to me? I’m sure that would score mad points for you.”

With a glare, he replied, “Yah, don’t be stupid. I didn’t say it was ugly. I was complimenting that it was cute.”

“Now you say it’s cute when you know who gave it to me.”

“Listen,” Chanyeol uttered, looking at Jong In quite seriously, hoping that he wouldn’t say embarrassing things to Tina, since they obviously talked way more. “She would look cuter holding it, alright?”

“Obviously, she’s a girl.”

“Holding a Hello Kitty balloon does not fit your image at all, homie,” Chanyeol stated, shaking his head very confidently and telling Jong In that. Snickering, he replied, “Like I didn’t know that.”

Woo Bin was going back and forth listening to Jong In and Chanyeol talk about this, and he felt out of the equation. Maybe he was just too old for this. He just slouched back in his comfortable cushioned chair and continued listening, until Jong In would finally talk about the real reason why he stopped by the police station. Curiously, Chanyeol silenced down with the joking and finally questioned, “Did she end up having dinner with you and Krystal?” He was wondering because he obviously got the gift from here, after their line conversation talking about how she wasn’t going to join the dinner.

“After all that’s happened between them, you think they can sit at a dinner table together without Krystal attacking her... Mentally and physically?”

“So, how’d you get her gift?”

“She surprised me at the office with a cake and these gifts when Krystal dropped me back at the hotel,” he answered, grinning widely at his best friend that was ever so curious. Stiffening up again, his smile sunk down when he knew Tina went to visit him at the office. That means that they met up, but Tina didn’t even mention it while she was joking about not seeing him in the group chat.  Then again, like he knows, she had this wall against herself so he wouldn’t even know Tina stopped by the hotel to go see Jong In. Thinking about how close these two were, he could never help but feel a little down everytime he thought about it. Interrupting his thoughts, Woo Bin nodded his head and kept his words as he joked. “That sounds like a secret girlfriend to me.”

“Tina’s not his girlfriend,” Chanyeol said very strongly, both taken aback by how loud he got. Damn, Jong In thought to himself... He was so fast to respond to that statement. Placing a hand on Chanyeol’s shoulders, he said, “Bro, I wasn’t even going to say she was my secret girlfriend.”  

“I just didn’t want Woo Bin Hyung to get the wrong idea, okay?” Chanyeol shrugged, which got Jong In to take his hands off his shoulders, since he didn’t want Jong In to know how tense he was with the assumption of Jong In and Tina being secret lovers, when they clearly weren’t. To stop all of this, Woo Bin loudly clapped his hands once and said, “By the stories of how both of you talk about Krystal, I’d say it’s safe that Tina would probably be missing if she was actually Jong In’s secret girlfriend. I’m already finding a missing person for him, I don’t need another one on my hands.”

“She’s not my girlfriend at all, Hyung. That’s my sister,” he concluded, shaking his head into the real topic now. The real reason why he came to see Woo Bin. After all the joking and playing around, when Woo Bin finally said missing person, he automatically thought back to Minji. “Did you find any updates on Ji Ji, Hyung?”

Sadly, he shook his head and said in a disappointed tone, “I haven’t found anything, and the team that I’m working with haven’t found anything either. We literally just finished searching all of Japan, the next surrounding country has to be China. So, we need to start small.”

“She wasn’t in neither South Korea or Japan?” Chanyeol questioned, curious to where she could even be, along with Dara who had been missing with her. Shaking his head, Woo Bin replied, “All the Gong Minjis that lived in all of South Korea and Japan didn’t match any of the identification for the Gong Minji that Jong In and her parents are searching for. We need to start from the smallest district in China first, then start working our way up to the big cities. I don’t know how long that’ll take though. There’s twenty three provinces and thirty four such divisions. I don't know how you will be able to wait. We would have to start Tianjin, since it’s the smallest district in China. Then we’ll make our way up to Shianghai, since it’s the biggest... Like we’ve been doing for the past few years now.”

Before Jong In could even pause on Woo Bin searching for her in China, Chanyeol spoke up before anything. “I don’t understand why you guys don’t start at the big cities first. Wouldn’t it be easier to start at the bigger districts or provinces then gradually go down to the smaller cities since it’s less people?”

“Chanyeol,” a serious Woo Bin came out, crossing his arms against his chest and looking directly at the younger guy. “If you ran away from home, that just means you don’t want people to find you, right?”

“I-I-I don’t kn-know,” he stuttered in reply. Nodding, Woo Bin continued to explain, “Minji has been missing for five years now and there’s no trace of her. That just means she doesn’t want to be found, otherwise there would be more clues and evidence that she left behind. If someone were to go missing, wouldn't it make sense if they hide somewhere that people wouldn't expect to find them? From the stories that I’ve gathered and analyzed from everyone that knows this Gong Minji, it just seems like she’s running away from the guilt after Ha Yi’s accident, which is why she’s disappeared like this.”

Jong In’s heart literally churned when he heard Ha Yi’s name – it got him quite sensitive everytime his siblings were mentioned because he had missed them dearly. Also, he didn’t even know if Minji was even aware of Taecyeon’s death right after she left, so he wanted to settle everything once and for all. He just felt guilty for everything he did to her and how much he threw at her, he wanted to make up his entire life for it, even if she wanted it or not. Chanyeol crossed his arms against his chest as well and replied, “I mean, it’s been five years already. What if we still can’t find her?”

“You just stick to being a therapist because you are way too happy to be doing this type of work,” Woo Bin said with a small laugh, replying to Chanyeol’s suggestiong of doing searching work to find Minji. Both Chanyeol and Jong In sat on his desk, as he sat down at his chair, staring at the computer to compare and contrast the results that he found. “Saying I’m dumb, Hyung?” Chanyeol asked back, giving him a small glare. Woo Bin shook his head and replied, “No, Chanyeol. I didn’t mean you were dumb. I’m just saying you’re too happy for this type of police job. It’s a lot of stress and work searching for people who have gone missing. It’s not you being dumb, it’s just you not being fit for this field. Why would we have over thousands of job if everyone was fit to do the same thing?”

“I guess.”

“But what you do is good too,” Woo Bin reassured, tapping his forearm a little. “You're making people extremely happy and motivated by being a therapist. Just seeing your damn smile is already worth the money, you don’t even have to go through a therapy session.”

Chanyeol slightly laughed, softly shaking his head. “I don’t only make people feel better, Hyung. I make music too. Compose the music for them to hear so they can relax and feel better.”

Jong In’s eyes went big, nudging Chanyeol on the shoulder before he forgot to tell him. “Oh dude, speaking of music composition. I need you for something.”

“What’s up?”

“There’s a launch party event for the hotel in two weeks or so. It’s on a Saturday. I kinda need you to be a DJ at the event. We’re having trouble find a person who runs and controls the music.”

“Two weeks?” Chanyeol questioned, cocking his eyebrows. Just nodded, knowing that he wanted to help his best friend out, but he wasn’t positive about his schedule towards the end of the month. Jong In nodded and informed to let Chanyeol know, “Yeah, you can use the music you’ve composed before. Just upbeat music to play at the party and being able to control it when they have speeches and announcements.”

He clicked his tongue and teeth together and kept making an unsure face, replying, “I’d have to see my schedule, dude. You cut it kinda short. You know how many people I gotta make happy? I have to go clear my schedule and see the booked sessions that I have to cancel for that day.”

Trying to convince him to take this job, Jong In coughed to clear his throat and said, “If you take this job, you’d be working a lot with Tina because she’s the event planner for this and she needs to approve of everything... Including the music.”

Without any hestiation and thinking, within a second, Chanyeol grinned widely and quickly said, “My schedule’s clear now.”

Jong In laughed quite amused, while Woo Bin sat there a little confused, wondering what was going on between them again. These two were giving him a headache with their side conversations, he was about to kick them out because he had other cases to deal with as well. Mumbling under his breath, Jong In said, “Didn’t even have to think twice when mentioning her name.” Gritting his teeth, Jong In sarcastically said to Chanyeol, “Look at you being a great best friend, taking mad sacrifices for me.” Even though he was willing to cancel all the bookings just so he could work with Tina. This guy and what he would do to get his flirt on with girls, making Jong In snicker at him.

Just smiling, Woo Bin questioned about what he said a few moments ago. “What about all the people you said you have to make happy?”

“I am not the only one in this world that can make them happy,” Chanyeol said, trying to come up with an excuse.

“Wait, wait, wait. Who is Tina anyways? You guys have been talking about her for so long without any explanation to who she is,” he questioned, rather curiously. He looked at Chanyeol and asked, “Is she one of your girls or something? Inform a man who is not your age, because I’m too old for this .”

"Psh, he wishes,” Jong In answered instead. “That girl belongs to nobody besides her parents and best friends back in America.”

“Aren’t you one of her best friends?” Chanyeol asked. With a smirk, Jong In sassed in response, “I better be one of her best friends. I will slam her if I’m not one of her best friends. We’ve been through hell together during our intern years. Shoot, who said she made it out by herself?”

“You guys are about to make your way out of my office if you keep sidetracking,” Woo Bin finally threatened, seeing the time was already 12:20 in the morning. “It is late, and I am old. Do you want to stop this search or not?”

They decided to top playing around and got serious, because they were sidetracking a little too much. Despite all the changes that Jong In went through within himself after losing Ha Yi, losing Taecyeon, and also realizing all of his stupidity, and especially after guilt ate his entire body up with Minji, it did shape him up to be the more playful and easy-going person that he is today. But even though all of these years has passed and Jong In  life continuously kept going on, he still couldn't give up with Minji. It was the guilt inside of him eating his entire body every single day and it was hard to explain to people how much he wanted to make it up to the poor girl he brought pain to because of his own shallow brain. 

“We can’t stop searching,” Jong In demanded, both turning to look at him with a completely straight face, with all seriousness in his eyes. “We need to find her no matter what, and no matter how long.”

“Then we’ll start here then,” Woo Bin confirmed, sending e-mails to his teammates to start this new one. Before he clicked the send button, Jong In abruptly stopped him again, making him look up with another dazed expression. Chanyeol also glanced to look at him, wondering what was up.

Sighing loudly, he just started with, “The search for Ji Ji...”

“What about it?” Woo Bin said with a nod. With another sigh, he finally went on, “Instead of moving on to China... Can you possibly move the search back to South Korea?”

“The , Jong In?” Chanyeol aggressed, widening his large, round eyes, his ears perking up. “Woo Bin Hyung and his team members spend over a year searching in South Korea and didn’t get anything. He spent a lot more years trying to find her in Japan, and all of a sudden, you want him to search back in South Korea?”

“Okay, I know this sounds complicated and kind of weird... But I saw her today.”

“What?” Chanyeol and Woo Bin asked at the exact same time, shocked by his statement. Repeating what he said, he sighed again, “I saw Ji Ji today when I was eating dinner with Krystal at the mall. Dara was with her too.” That made Chanyeol and Woo Bin look at eachother, confused as hell to what was going on. Chanyeol just shook his head, looking at Jong In to knock some sense into what he saying. “Dude, are you sure it was them? It could’ve been someone who looked like them.”

“Chanyeol, I’m not dumb. It was obviously them, I wouldn’t be this confident in saying it’s them if I wasn't sure.”

“Are you positive?” Woo Bin reassured, narrowing his eyes. “If we change this entire search back to South Korea, everything will change. You know that, right, Jong In?”

“I know.”

“You sure you weren’t hallucinating?” Chanyeol questioned, giving him a curious look to analyze his friend. “Your brain may send images to your eyesight if something inside of you is triggering to want to see something.”

“Man, I understand your psychology of how the brain works, but I was not hallucinating. If I were to hallucinate, wouldn’t I have been doing that since Minji has been missing? I don’t think my brain is that strange now.”

Pursing his lips, Chanyeol responded while looking down, “Your brain is all over the place, I don’t know what’s wrong with it.” Even though Jong In heard that, all he did was glare at Chanyeol. Shrugging it off, he just shook his head and constantly said, “I know it was Ji Ji. I know it was Dara. I know it was them. I was not hallucinating.”

Jong In seemed very positive about his statement, which got Woo Bin and Chanyeol to believe him. Then again, Jong In never really was the type of person to see random things or hallucinate, so they had to take his word for it. Over the five years that he hasn't seen her, he has never hallucinated like this before, so how could have just started? 

Pressing his lips together, Woo Bin hit the back arrow and cancelled his plans real quick. “I guess we’re back to searching in South Korea.”

"Thank you, Hyung." Jong In looked at him with a grateful grin, slightly bowing at how much he’s been doing to help with this. Ji Ji... Please let me find you. I promise I’ll make everything up to you.

The moment Minji and Dara stepped out of the transportation bus arriving to their condominium that they were going to live in, they came back with a bunch of shopping bags and each strolling two large suitcases since they were checked out of their hotel, ready to move into their new place thanks to Yuri and Young Bae. They had to pass by the front security guard first, which had around two guards sitting right in the front, in the area where cars had to pass by so they open the security bar at the gate for people who were going to park here. 

They knew one thing about the condo already... It was definitely safe. Since there were two security guards at the entrance gate to press the security bar open, one at the bottom of the stairs at the entrance door, and one inside of the door as well. Before the entrance doors, there were marble stairs that had open five steps going up, and the security guard right in front of the stairs caught both of their attention.

First, he looked really young, and second, he had this adorable aura to his entire face. The second he saw Minji and Dara, he stood up out of his white plastic chair and saluted them, making them bow politely to him right away. They weren't aware of his age, but they bowed to him nicely anyways because he stood up to give them a salute. Also, he started running over as he saw they had suitcases and many other things hanging around their arms. 

"Let me help you get those up the stairs," he finally talked, hearing that his voice even matched with his adorable, young-looking face. Even when he smiled, his face scrunched up, giving him the most adorable eye smile ever. Minji thought her brother-in-law, Young Bae, had an adorable eye smile, but this security guard was definitely on the top list of adorable eye smiles. He looked so young to even be wearing this security uniform with his all the really intimidating utilities hanging from the belt wrapped around his waist, like his light bar, flashlight, walkie talkie, and a night stick. He probably had a lot more but they couldn't notice anything else. Minji and Dara smiled at him as he came to grab one of each of their bags first, taking it up the stairs with absolutely no problem. Damn, he was even strong too. As he was up the stairs, Dara nudged her and whispered, "Is he really a security guard?" 

"He must be. He looks so legit with that uniform," Minji replied, still finding him adorable. 

"That is not the face and body of someone who can fight. Like, he's so damn cute. Like, can I pinch his cheeks instead?" Dara argued, still amazed by how adorable he was. Amusingly, Minji laughed and said, "Never judge from the outside, baby girl. He just carried both of our suitcases up the stairs, and that's the one filled with all of your shoes." The guard came back to grab the next set of bags, making Minji quickly notice that he wasn't that much taller than her. Even though she was short herself, he was pretty small for an average guy, but that didn't stop her thinking that he was an adorable guy. 

When he was back up the stairs, with the other security guard inside opening the glass door for him, Dara sighed and said, "I don't care, he's just ing adorable as . He makes me want a little brother." The moment he settled on the four huge and heavy suitcases inside of the entrance of the condominium, he came back down and rubbed his hands together. Both of the girls stepped back real quick because he was charging for the bags hanging on their arms. Shaking her head, Dara told him, "That's okay, we can carry the bags inside. Thank you so much for helping us with the suitcases. Those were really heavy." 

"It's not a problem at all," he responded in his rather high-pitched voice, a boy that sounded like his puberty didn't hit yet, smiling so brightly that it made their entire heart melt. "Are you guys just moving in here? Do I need to call down the maids to come help? He and I would be more than happy to help, but we're on duty for guarding the front doors," he said, pointing at himself and the really good-looking security guard with dark hair that fell down to his forehead, inside the door who also gave them a salute, seeming he was waiting for them to entire because he held the door open. 

Poking her head around, Minji responded, "We were planning to move in here tonight, but we needed to stop by the Sales Office first to meet with... Miss Tiffany Hwang?" Both Minji and Dara actually called her Tiffany Unnie since they talked on phone and message, but she wasn't aware what the security guards called her, so she went with saying her full name. 

"Oh," he replied, sounding rather upbeat. "You must be Miss Gong Minji and Miss Park Sandara, correct?" They looked at eachother, quite surprised that he knew their names. A little dazed, they both nodded, giving him a smile. A few seconds later, they heard heels clacking against the marble floor inside, hearing a girl with a rather raspy voice call out, "Ah, you guys are here!" When they looked over, a girl wearing a simple, yet tight, black sweater dress came out from inside the condominium, with her long and black wavy hair dangling as she ran to them. They wanted to guess this was Tiffany, Yuri and Young Bae's close friend from college. She looked exactly like how she was in the pictures. As she ran down the stairs, she exclaimed rather quickly, "Minji and Dara, right?" Nodding, Tiffany quickly pulled both of them into a hug as she stood in the middle and exclaimed happily, "So glad you guys are finally moving in! I've been saving this room for you guys ever since Yuri and Young Bae called me for their little sisters to move into. How are you? Why'd you guys stay at the hotel for so long?" 

"We were trying to find the right time to move in," Minji answered, as Tiffany pulled away from them. They saw a better view of her face, and she was just a gorgeous girl, and her smile just topped everything off. "We thought today would be a good time. Sorry if it's too late though, I know you probably should be home by now. We ended up standing at the wrong bus stop so our time got delayed by an hour." 

"Girl, it's totally fine," Tiffany quickly responded, waving her hands, reassuring that it was no problem how long they took even though it was almost eleven at night. "I was doing work from my office anyways. I have about five people moving in to their room tomorrow, so I'm going crazy being on the phone with them. I would rather have you guys move in tonight anyways, because it's just gonna be chaotic after by tomorrow morning." She looked down at them holding shopping bags and questioned, "Is that all you guys have to move in?" 

Dara shook her head and pointed to the four suitcases already sitting up at the front door. "The rest of our things are up there. The nice security guard helped us put it there." Tiffany looked over to him and gave him a bright smile, as he bowed to her very politely. "Thank you, Jimin." 

Ah... So Jimin was the cutie pie's name. He was so adorable and polite, they really couldn't help but smile everytime he was smiling and being beyond obedient. 

Bowing again, he also asked, "Would you like me to call anyone down here to grab the suitcases to bring to their room?" 

"Leave it here first," Tiffany instructed, shaking her head. "I'm gonna give them a quick tour of the condo, then I'll let you know when to call someone to come bring it up to their rooms." 

"Will do, Miss Hwang," he obeyed, giving her a firm nod and another bow. She took both of their hands and before she even started walking up the stairs, she pointed to Jimin. "That's Park Jimin, he's the only one that works the security guard night shift, along with the one inside the door over there." They looked over to the other handsome security guard who had a rather sweet yet masculine face, but damn, he was a fine security guard. Tiffany also mentioned, "That's Jeon Jungkook. These two work night shift every single day. Don't ever worry about not being safe, these two can be highly trusted. If any danger occurs, these two are always the ones you want to go to." 

They both just nodded as Tiffany began walking up the stairs, while Dara whispered closely to Minji, "I already trust them by looking at their faces." 

"I mean, they do look young," Minji commented, with a shrug. "And they have sweet faces too." 

"Girl, it's not because they look young. They just look fine," Dara complimented, amazed by how handsome and cute they were. "They make me not want to leave this condo. Obviously, Tiffany Unnie goes through some casting while choosing her security guards, because they smokin'." 

"You get to see them everyday, don't worry about it," she joked back, tugging onto her arm to motion her to follow up with Tiffany. Amusingly laughing as they walked up, Tiffany stopped to stand in front of Jungkook as he saluted her, also giving him instructions. "Jungkook, watch their suitcases for me. I'm gonna give Minji and Dara a quick tour around the condo. I'll say about fifteen or twenty minutes. Watch their things while we're up there. I'll inform you when we come back down that way you guys can call either Baekhyun or Sehun can come grab their bags to drop them off to their room." 

"Will do, Miss Hwang," Jungkook said in the most obedient tone ever, not to mention, the sweetest voice as well. Unexpectedly, Jungkook came up to them and took the hanging shopping bags up their arms and placed them gently along with their suitcases. Taken aback by his nice gesture, Minji and Dara only bowed politely, very thankful that they were so cute and helpful. Linking his hands together, Jungkook assured, "I will take good care of your belongings, Miss Minji, Miss Dara." That got them to widen their eyes, quite surprised that he was calling them Miss. They just weren't used to being called such a formal name. However, they didn't stop him because it was probably their system of what to call them, since they had called Tiffany - Miss Hwang. All they could do was smile awkwardly at him, gradually moving away from his sweet face as they followed Tiffany. 

What they got out of the fifteen minute tour around the condominium was that it was probably the most convenient place to even live in. Their room number was 319, which was on the third floor. If they had a car that they needed to park, the entire lower level was a parking garage, which also had an elevator easily going up into their room. All exercise facilities such as swimming pool, fitness center, studio room and a cardio room were located on the entire floor on level ten. If they wanted an outdoor swimming pool, it would be at at the right section of the fifth level. In different areas of the first floor (lobby level), there was a a a laundry room and a very small mini-mart. But, if they ever needed anything else, there was a 24-hour convenient store right next to the condo building.

Getting to places was also easy because there was a bus stop right on the sidewalk in front of the condo, which also had the option to take people to the train stop. 

Yuri and Young Bae surely knew who to go to when finding a place to live. On top of that, Tiffany was already being so good to them. She even offered a maid to come to their room at 4 am everyday, but they had to decline it because they felt like it was too much. 

"That's basically it," Tiffany concluded, coming back down to get their things at the lobby. "It was dark, but I hope you guys got to know where everything was. If you have any questions, seriously just text or call me anytime. Sound good?" 

"Yes, we got everything though. Thank you so much for the tour though," Dara said happily. Agreeing, Minji said as well, "I know, thank you so much, Unnie. It's getting late, you must be really tired. Go home and get some rest, Unnie. You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow, right?" Tifffany nodded at the younger girls, finding them quite adorable. They knew they were back at the lobby again because they saw Jungkook once more standing by the front door. He stood up from his chair to pay his respects to all three of them, so they all just flashed a smile at the handsome guy. 

After Tiffany's explanations of Jimin and Jungkook, who seemed to be her favorite security guards because they were really sweet, on top of being responsible. She loved all of her workers, she just picked favorites because of their delightful personalities all around. They were also able to know that both of them were younger than them since they were only twenty two. They both went to a police academy instead of attending college, and they studied during the day and worked at Tiffany's condo from 10:00 PM until 5:00 AM. They were basically there until the sun rised up, so they wondered how they even got sleep. Then again, class wasn't every single day. 

"Do you guys have any plans for tomorrow?" Tiffany asked them, as she was ending the short tour she just gave the two younger girls around the condominium building. Dara looked at Minji to see if she had anything since she didn't have anything herself. Minji pointed at herself and just said, "I just have stop by at the hotels I have an interview at. I need to go schedule an appointment date in person, but I'm doing that in the morning." 

"Oh nice," Tiffany stated, mouth hanging open. "Which hotels do you have an interview for?" 

"Oakwood and The Marriot." 

"Baby girl, I can say this now. If you score a position with Oakwood, I can say you're all set. Oakwood is probably the most known hotel in all of Seoul right now. They've only been getting bigger and bigger these past years, I wish I knew what their secret was, they're so big. Congrats on getting an interview with them, Minji." Slightly chuckling, Minji only smiled, relieved that Tiffany was saying that about the hotel that she managed to get an interview for. That only meant good things in store for her. 

"How about you Dara?" 

"I have an interview with a travel magazine company," Dara answered proudly as well. "I already have an appointment but I wanted to actually find the place so I won't get lost on the day of the interview." 

"Which magazine is it?" 

"TRAVEL KOREA Magazine." 

Tiffany playfully nudged Dara on the elbow and said, "Tell them to put my condo in there. I won't charge them. Put in the word for me." 

Dara and Minji laughed at her comment as Dara told her, "Unnie. Your condo needs to be put out there no matter what. It's seriously the best place to live. Anyone who can't see that is beyond blind." 

"So sweet," Tiffany cooed, putting her arms all around Dara's shoulders. "I was just asking. I wanted to know if you guys were free tomorrow night. We can go to the mall, shop for some clothes for you guys' interview and grab some dinner... On me, obviously. I have one of my employees working for me tomorrow night since I cleared my schedule to hang out with you guys." Tiffany also grabbed Minji to wrap her arms around as well, trying to make them feel as welcome as possible.

As Minji looked around her new home, her new place, her new everything... She began to think to herself that maybe everything was meant to happen for a reason. Maybe everything was finally falling into place, just like how life is eventually supposed to be. 

****

Walking… Actually, more like limping towards the door to get to their room, Minji and Dara were dragging everything that they had with them against the white marble floors because they were way too sore and tired to put anything around their arm anymore. With their suitcases, they dragged both of it and also let the shopping bags dangle along the handle.

“We should’ve let Tiffany Unnie call someone to help us out for real,” Dara slightly complained, feeling like she was dragging something that weight a thousand pounds across the floor. Feeling the same, Minji grunted, “I know. I didn’t think getting our things into and onto the elevator would even be a struggle.”

“You know what’s our problem?” questioned Dara, making Minji raise an eyebrow up for the answer. “Tiffany Unnie was ready to call someone up and we said that we’d be okay with bringing it up ourselves.”

“Never reject anyone’s kindness with stupidity,” Minji joked, causing Dara to snicker. She finally looked up and saw the room number in a gold plate next to the door, written in black ‘319.’ Minji started pointing to it, not being to explain how happy she was that they were finally at their assigned condominium room. “Oh my god, found it.”

“Oh, thank god,” Dara let out a relieved breath, shrugging her shoulders back down. She looked back at the elevator and nodded in satisfaction. “Yuri Unnie and Young Bae Oppa really have connections. They found us a room right near the elevator too. And they said they didn’t love us.”

Minji let out a small chuckle at her comment. They went to go place their things right in front of the room, but leaned against eachother, both feeling more than lazy to move their things inside the room. With a deep breath, Dara stated, “Only a few more steps, girlfriend. We got this.”

“Don’t forget we have to unpack.”

“I said a few more steps. Take it by the steps,” she said irritated after Minji obliviously reminded her about the unpacking part. They both let out a deep breath, contemplating how they were going to do this after they were just so tired, and wanted to hop on their beds as soon as they entered the room.

****

Looking in the mirror, he made sure he wiped all the dirt and sweat off his face and neck before going back into his condominium room with his mother. Bobby, just getting back home from playing basketball with all of his friends, was afraid that if his mother, Joo Hee, even saw him in a dirty condition, she’d lash out on him, and all of his friends whenever she saw them next. The elevator dinged up to the third floor and Bobby exited from it, checking himself in the mirror and scrunching up his entire face, resulting in his eyes to become smaller. He was highly confident that his mother would not even be suspicious of getting down and dirty playing ball with his friends.

His mother was always a tidy, clean woman. If he came home ever having dirt on his face, or even looked like he laid down on the ground, she’d be hitting his bum until the sun rises the next day. She never minded him coming home late, or hanging out with friends – her main rule was to keep himself clean and pure; that was all she ever asked for. 

Walking out, he was about to enter the condominium room when something stopped him. Right next to his room, 318, stood two decent-looking girls who looked like they were in the zone talking to one another. Bobby slightly got curious to why they were standing right there, since it was nearly midnight. They also seemed like they had lots of things, since four suitcases and a bunch of shopping bags were placed right in front of the door of the room number 318. Starting to widen his eyes, he remembered that the condo suite next to him had been empty for a few months already. With a smile creeping up to his face, he realized that these two pretty girls were probably his neighbors. He took the chance to glide by them very smoothly, since he was heading back to his condo room anyway, seeping a glance to look at them to admire the pretty neighbors he was going to live next to. They were both fairly small, at least 5’3 or 5’4 at the most. Both of them had long dark hair, also having rather sweet faces – one sweeter than the other, but nonetheless, both highly having a sweet look. All Bobby knew the most was that… They were super cute and pretty, making him excited that he got good-looking neighbors to live next to.

He unlocked his room with his key, trying not to make obvious eye contact with the two girls, so they wouldn’t be able to tell he was admiring their cuteness. The moment he shut the door from behind him, he scrunched up his adorable-looking face, as he saw his mother sitting on the sofa in the living room.

“You’re back home already, sweetie?” Joo Hee asked her teenage son, looking up at him with a smile. “Who’d you go hang out with?”

“I was hanging out with Chanwoo, Han Bin and Taehyung. The usual crew, Omma,” he replied, still standing at the door and wanting to take a peak at his cute female neighbors. They had so many things, maybe it was rude of him to just acted like he didn’t see anything and come in. He pinched his medium pointed nose and tried to think deeply about what he should do next. Joo Hee gave him a stange look and questioned, “Sweetie. Aren’t you gonna go change your clothes? You wore that varsity jacket all day. Are those the same jeans?”

“Omma,” he slightly snickered. “I didn’t go stay over anyone’s house, Omma. I went to school and hung out. What pants do you want me to bring?” She stood up within a heartbeat and put her hands on both sides of her hips. “Are you arguing with me, Kim Jinwon?”

“No, Omma!” He exclaimed, putting his hands on his hips as well to joke with her. “I am just saying a high school boy like me cannot be bringing extra change of clothes to school. I can’t be too tidy at school, they’ll see me in the wrong light. And I don’t want to be seen in the wrong light, Omma.”

“Well, come inside and take a shower, Jinwon. You probably smell terrible after hanging out with the boys.”

He snickered and whispered, “I could take a shower for an hour and you would still say I smell terrible.”

“What was that, Jinwon?” Joo Hee said strictly. Bobby scrunched up his face cutely, knowing what was his mother’s weakness and nervously giggled, “Anything for you, Omma.” That got her to roll her eyes. Bobby began changing the topic and asked her, “Omma. Did you know we have neighbors?”

“Neighbors?” She questioned, tilting her head in confusion. “You mean... Next door?”

“Yes.”

She turned her head again and continued being curious. “Wait. I thought Mrs. Lee moved out of her room because her mother passed away. She’s still there?”

“Omma!” Bobby lightly hissed, clicking his tongue and teeth together. “That was like four months ago. I meant our new neighbors.”

Glaring back at him, she stated, “Jinwon, you didn’t necessarily say new neighbors. You just said neighbors, how am I supposed to keep track of who that is? I’m at the flower shop every single day. Unlike you, who doesn’t know how to help out around the shop, only caring about neighbors and everyone else besides your own mother.”

Bobby squinted his mouth, wondering how the situation went back to him real quick. He swore his mother could make a lecture even if he was talking about a chair put in the middle of the hallway. So, he just ended up scratching the back of his head, since he didn’t know what to do. Joo Hee was the type of mother who remembers everything that he didn’t do. If Bobby were to go to the flower shop for six days and ask to hang out with his friends on the last day, Joo Hee would be lecturing him about that one particular day. He loved his mother though... That’s why he allowed her to lecture him on the little things without getting angry – he just took it as a funny thing because without his complaining mother, he’d be completely lonely.

“Mother dearest,” he slightly joked, pointing a finger at her and waving it around like a little kid. “Let’s not sidetrack about the flower shop right now. It’s exam season, I gotta keep myself locked up in the library, you know, Omma?”

“I thought you said you were with your crew.”

“At the library, Omma,” he answered rather quickly, snapping his fingers to make himself less suspicious. She glared at her sixteen-year-old son, shaking her head at the fact that she couldn’t control him more than this, but she was just too lazy to speak up. She’d rather just vent out in other ways since she knew he didn’t tell the truth anyways sometimes. Before she could open to say anything else, he quickly exclaimed, “Omma! We got new neighbors now! Now we can say hi to people when we leave the room!”

“Why do you sound so excited to have new neighbors?” She asked her son with a questioned face. Bobby nervously laughed and gestured for her to come at the door, in order to show what he was talking about. Joo Hee suspiciously walked over to him, as Bobby opened the door to leave a small space and made his mother peak out with him. Excitedly, he still managed to whisper, “Omma, see? This is what I’m talking about. Pretty neighbors, this is the moment I have been waiting for, Omma.” Joo Hee, getting slightly angry, took the ruler she was holding and hit Bobby in the rather hard with it. Quickly shutting the door, Bobby cried out loudly while caressing his . “Omma! What was that for?!” Joo Hee was always holding a ruler to measure the length of the stems of the flowers and the measurements of the bouquets, and it was also another weapon to use for hitting Bobby – all the time. Joo Hee began chasing him in a small circle while still hitting his and responded angrily, “I did not raise you to be this kind of male!”

“What kind of male are you talking about, Omma?!” He exclaimed, still running around and covering his .

“Stop running, and let me hit you so you know that I don’t want a son like this.”

“Goodness gracious mother, I am an fabulous son, what else do you want from me? I don’t even know why you’re hitting me right now.”

Finally, she caught him by the hood and looked up at his pale self, pointing the ruler in his face. “I told you to never look at girls as objects.” Since Bobby was peaking over at the two girls who were supposedly the new neighbors. Bobby pouted his mouth, which made his eyes go smaller than usual, also furrowing his eyebrows in utter confusion. “How am I look at them as objects? I just said they were new neighbors, and that they were pretty!”

“You taking a peak at them as a sixteen-year-old boy is already an indication of a erted symptom.”

“Oh Omma,” he slightly paused, knowing where she was going with this. “I wasn’t aware that ertedness was a symptom. I thought it was a natural happening to men.” She began hitting him again on the and he jumped up in shock, as he continuously screamed, “I. Am. Just. Kidding! Omma, enough hitting me. I’ll stop looking at them so you’ll know I’m not a erted creepy guy!” As he was about to leave to go into his own bedroom, Joo Hee grabbed him by his hood of his jacket again, making Bobby grunt out. “What is it now, Omma?”

“I didn’t teach you how to be a ert, but I do remember teaching you to be a gentleman.”

He raised his left eyebrow up and said confusingly, “Omma, you just making my head hurt now.”

“If you see two small girls like that with heavy things piled in front of their door, what is a boy like you supposed to do?”

“Help them?” He remembered, rolling his eyes up at the white ceilings. Widening her eyes rather largely and looking at him strictly, she spread her arms out and shrugged, “So, where do you think you’re going?”

“Omma, you wanna just tell me what to do? I’m afraid if I answer that, your ruler might just go to my head.”

“You foolish child, two small girls are standing there trying to move in. You are a strong teenage boy, go and help them move in or something.”

“You see, you need to tell me that, Omma. By the way you were talking a few minutes ago, it just sounded like I needed to wear a blindfold everytime I see them.”

“Be a gentleman and help, Jinwon,” demanded his mother. Slightly having his mouth hang open at his rather bipolar mother, he just forced a smile and saluted at her. “Will do, Captain Kim Joo Hee!” That got her to roll her eyes at him as Bobby let out a deep breath, opening the door to go help out the pretty ladies.

As he was hoping, they were still standing in front of the door, looking like they were just trying to get it open. Without hestiation, Bobby just went in. “Hello, hello!”

****

Minji and Dara slightly jumped when a rather pale, young-looking boy with really small eyes popped out from the room next to theirs, greeting them quite loudly. Being the polite girls they were, Minji and Dara automatically gave him a smile, also a very small bow – just nice enough because he looked a lot younger than them.

“Are you guys trying to open the door?” He asked, seeing Minji holding the keycard up to the censor of the door. She nervously laughed and nodded her head in slight embarrassment, so he came up to them and asked for the keycard from her, very respectfully, in order to show how to get into the door.

“So, you have to scan the keycard on the censor twice,” he taught, doing exactly what he said. “Then, after doing that, you enter the passcode to get into the room. Do you guys know your code number to the room?” Minji quickly looked at Dara, because Tiffany had handed her a piece of paper with the code number on it, as she stared down at the pinpad that was attached underneath the horizontal doorknob. Dara raised her hands and announced, “I got it.” With that, she quickly entered the pin number of 9091, which were Minji and Dara’s birth years combined together. He stood out of the way as she was entering the number, so he wouldn’t have to be rude by seeing what she entered, and with that, the door opened. He smiled at them as he linked his hands together. “It’s a little confusing the first time. I stood in front of my door the first twenty minutes because my Omma didn’t inform me how to do it.”

“Thank you so much,” they said to him in unison, finding him rather adorable as well. This condo was just filled with adorable looking people. He nodded at him and pointed at himself to introduce, “My name is Kim Jinwon, I live right here. The room right next to yours. Are you pretty girls just moving in?”

They laughed at his comment of ‘pretty girls’ but they just nodded. Answering, Minji responded, “We’re moving ourselves in tonight, but we still have a lot of other things to move in. I’m Minji, this is Dara.”

“Ah, please call me Bobby. I only allow pretty girls to call me Bobby, so you guys are that special to be calling me that name,” Bobby jokingly flirted, making them slightly cackle at that because he was too adorable and geeky looking to be even flirting with them. Not to mention, super young too. Covering with her hands, Dara still laughed, “Okay... Bobby. If you don’t mind, can I ask how old you are?”

“I’m sixteen.”

“Oh my god, I’m mad old,” Dara blurted out, patting her chest. “We’re nearly a decade older than you.”

“You guys are so pretty, you don’t look a day over twenty,” he said sweetly, waving his hand at them. Dara and Minji stood closer to eachother as Minji whispered, “I didn’t know all pretty girls could look young.”

“According to him, they do. But take the compliment, I like this kid,” Dara whispered back, as they moved away from eachother. Bobby smiled at them and questioned, “If I can get the honor, can I call you guys Noona?”

“Please call us Noona,” Minji responded quickly, getting him to smile even bigger. He clapped his hands and excitedly said, “Minji Noona and Dara Noona, my new pretty neighbors. I’ve always been dreaming to have pretty girl neighbors.”

They both laughed again, realizing that his words were probably just the senseless teenage boy randomly blurting out, since he was actually really young. Without thinking, Minji happily replied, “It’s nice to meet you too, Bobby. Promise we won’t be disruptful neighbors.”

“Where’d you move from, Noona?”

“China,” Dara answered. “We moved there a few years ago and now we’re back in Korea.”

“Oh!” He exclaimed, widening his eyes. “Welcome back home from China, Minji Noona, Dara Noona. You guys are so lucky. You guys moved in next to me, my Omma and I are good neighbors to be next to.”

Minji laughed excessively at this adorable kid, shaking her head. “Have you and your Omma lived here long, Bobby?”

“Since I started middle school, Noona,” he answered cutely, scrunching up his shoulders. “So about... four or five years ago. If you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to knock on our door. I can always be here for you.”

“Thank you, Bobby,” they told him at the same time. When he saw all of their things scattered on the floor, he didn’t want to waste anymore time so he helped out, “Can I help you guys out to bring your things out? They look awfully heavy.”

“Oh it’s okay, Bobby,” Minji quickly rejected, feeling bad because so many people had helped them out already. “Really. You should get some rest. It’s getting late.”

“Nonsense, Noona!” He exclaimed, immediately arguing with them. “I’d feel guilty if I go inside knowing that you guys dragged all those heavy things by yourself.” That pleading tone of Bobby’s made them give in, so they allowed another nice and considerate person to help them out.

 

It took only five minutes for Bobby to bring everything towards the front of the room, since they were going to do the organization part themselves. When they stood in front of their room once again, they thanked Bobby countless times already. Bobby just nodded his adorable dimple smile at him and said, “It’s no problem, Noona. Seriously, if you have any more things to move in, feel free to knock on the door to call me. I’m a strong boy, I can handle anything.”

After a few more friendly words with eachother, they ended up exchanging numbers, which made Bobby very excited that they had seen him as a trustworthy guy. Bobby excitedly played around with his emojis on his Iphone 6, cackling while he was at it. “I’m saving you guys under my pretty Noonas then.” They continuously laughed at everything he said, because everything that came out was just really humorous and childish. It was like they gained a little friend, who was rather flirtacious, but they could tell that he meant no harm. And they could also hear his mother screaming his name from time to time on the other side of the door, so that must’ve meant he always had his mother hovering him with whatever he did.

“Go to sleep, Bobby,” Dara jokingly demanded, giving him a small push to go back to his room. “You said you have school tomorrow, right?”

“Yes yes, I’m going now,” he concluded, finally heading back to his room. Then, he scanned his keycard twiced and entered his pin number to go inside the door. Very cutely, he poked his head out, squinted his eyes to be even smaller which got them to curl their lips up with smiling as he said, "Good night to my pretty neighbors. I'll make myself see you guys tomorrow. That way I can call it destiny." 

"Someone's creating their own destiny," Dara joked with him, making him scrunch his shoulders up. Minji laughed as well and said to Dara, "Someone reads too many romance comic books." 

"Comic books have romance?" 

"He reads it somewhere." 

Bobby wiggled his fingers lastly and said sweetly, "Goodnight, my pretty Noonas." 

"Goodnight Bobby," they said in unison, waving at him nicely. Minji smiled at him and said again, "Thanks for all the help." The moment Bobby shut the door, Minji and Dara stood there empty-handed, laughing at everything that was going on in such a short period of time.

Waking up with the sun blaring down her face, Minji slowly flickered her eyes for a few moments until her vision was actually back to being clear. She woke up on the right side of her queen-sized bed, feeling rather strange than usual. Something just felt empty as she woke up this time.

For the past five years, Minji had always been waking either next to Dara, or Yoogeun, or even Young Joon. Come to think of it, for the past five years, she’d never once had a moment where she had woken up alone, so maybe that is why she felt so strange and rather empty. She kind of missed being able to wake Dara up with her usual ‘Good Morning Sunshine’ or Dara awakening her with ‘Get up, sunshine.’ It was all something new that she had to adjust to. Sitting up and sighing, she took her phone that was on the white nightstand next to her bed, seeing three new messages from Yuri in their four-people family chat, which consisted of herself, Dara, Yuri and Young Bae. When she opened it, she immediately chuckled seeing Yoogeun’s overly cheesy face, flashing a smile with a message reading on the bottom…

This child knows how to take selfies now. Once he took one, he wanted Mingkki and Auntie Dara to see it first. And he says… I’M CUTE, RIGHT?

Resting on her elbow with the phone in her hands, Minji simply texted back with, “Miss my baby so much. You are cute more than words can say.” With that, Minji saved the picture and continued admiring his adorable face. She missed everything about him. His face, his eye-smile, his small round nose, his petite little mouth that always flashed a bright smile, his rather round ears and missed being able to kiss and hug him every single morning. She tried not to cry at the thought of missing him, since she knew he was in way better hands with Yuri and Young Bae. All she could do was sigh and kiss her own phone that has picture, saying, “Miss you, baby.”

After sitting for a while, she eventually heard something sizzling outside. She threw her white blankets off and confusingly went to go open her door, seeing the sight of Dara cooking right at the kitchen past the living room. Then she smiled again, knowing that even though Dara wasn’t right there everytime she woke up, she still knew Dara was by her side all the time – that’s all she was ever happy about.

“What are you doing so early in the morning?” Minji asked loudly, going past the living room that was completely empty since there was nothing, the dining area that had no table, then finally going into the kitchen to where Dara was. Tiffany had stored their fridge with eggs, water, juices, milk and a few other frozen products that they were able to make food off of. In this case, Minji could see that Dara was making eggs. Smiling back, Dara replied, “I’m making eggs. I was gonna go downstairs to buy some frozen things but… I was lazy. So eggs and bacon for us this morning.”

“Sounds good to me,” Minji said happily, sitting on the white bar stool to lean against the kitchen island. “You should’ve woken me up though, I would’ve helped you.”

“Girl, being friends with you…” Dara said, drifting off and putting the first batch of eggs onto the plate. “Eggs and bacon have become the easiest thing on this planet. I mean, you’ve taught me how to make food that I can’t even pronounce, so like… Let me make eggs and bacon for my bestie.” Minji smiled as Dara handed her the plate of breakfast food, also grabbing a fork and knife for her to eat from. A few minutes later, Dara finished up and set aside the pans, coming to eat right across from Minji at the kitchen island. “What time do you have to go to Oakwood and Marriot today?”

“Just anytime before their reception table closes,” Minji answered, deliciously eating Dara’s homemade bacon. “It’s just signing up for the interview, so it’s not gonna be long. Are you coming along?”

Dara pouted and shook her head. “I wanted to come with you, but I was looking at Google Maps and saw that the magazine company is the opposite side from where Oakwood and Marriot is. If we end up getting this jobs, we can’t even go to work together.”

“That’s okay,” Minji said with a pout as well. She wiggled her fingers her chin and looked at Dara cutely. “I’ll come early all the time just so you won’t miss my face. Along with Starbucks to make you love me more.”

“Yah, you fool,” she replied back with a laugh, lightly slapping her fingers down at how Minji joked. Once they settled down with the joking, Minji gradually began to ask, “Did you see our baby’s selfie that he sent this morning?”

“Which baby?”

“Younger one.”

“He knows how to take selfies already?” Dara questioned, immediately opening up her messaging application, since she hasn’t checked it since she woke up. “Oh my god, mad cute. That’s going on my Instagram.”

“”Gosh, why are they growing up so fast? Young Joon is nearly going to be in middle school while one is already using phones to take selfies.”

“Well, we aren’t getting any younger, so they’re bound to be growing up as well. It’s just going by too fast.”

“Can we get a remote control for time?” Minji questioned playfully, sighing loudly knowing how fast time was going. Young Joon was already ten years old while Yoogeun was turning give this April. It seemed like yesterday where they were just newborns and being cradled in their arms so lightly… Now they were nearly impossible to carry with a worry about someone’s back being in pain. Dara let out a deep breath and stated, “I know… Next week we have job interviews and . You know when we were younger, I always wanted that day to come. The day where we would finally be done with college and finally be applying for jobs. But now that we’re actually here, I just wanna go back.”

All Minji could do was nod her head and tried to agree with Dara about going back with in time. Sure, Minji wanted to put a pause on both Young Joon and Yoogeun growing up. But to go back to where she was during her college years… That was just something she didn’t want to take back anymore because of the pain she felt every waking moment of her life that time. 

As Minji stepped foot into the rather luxurious hotel building of Oakwood Seoul Hotel, she was amazed that it was a lot more than she had expected by the pictures and by the video clips from when she applied for the job online. Holding her portfolio and her folders in hand just in case, she immediately went to the receptionist desk, headed for the girl with long blonde hair and a light complex upon her face because she was the one who was available. She didn’t want to wait in line since she wasn’t a customer checking in, so she didn’t want to necessarily waste anyone’s time.

The moment Minji went straight to her, she immediately stood up and gave her one of the biggest smile ever, resulting in Minji to smile as well. The blonde girl, who was wearing a gray-green tuxedo jacket, with the nametag ‘Kim Hyoyeon’ stood up and bowed to Minji. “Hello there, welcome to Oakwood Seoul Hotel. How may I help you today, Miss?”

“Hello,” Minji said shyly, leaning against the counter to get a close look. “I received a phone call for an opening job position in the marketing department, but the e-mail said I needed to stop by the building to schedule and confirm an appointment.”

“Oh yes, give me a few moments. May I get your name please?” She replied back in a rather husky, yet cute voice. Nodding, Minji pinched her lips together to answer, “Gong Minji.”

 

“Krystal,” Sang Min said into the phone as he was speaking to his stubborn daughter. “Don’t need to wait up for me tonight for dinner, okay? I’ll be back home late. Just eat the dinner Ji You and Minseon prepared for you, take a shower, do some wedding dress sketches and just relax. No need to worry about me, okay Princess?”

“Appa,” his whiney daughter said on the other side of the phone. “That means I’ll be eating dinner alone tonight. You could’ve told me earlier, Appa. I would’ve scheduled with Naeun or one of my friends so that it wouldn’t end up like this.”

Scratching his nose, Sang Min completely lied to Krystal, trying to get her to hang up as soon as possible so he could call his fellow lady customers back. “I’m sorry sweetie, but one of my customers called me to talk business. And this customer is a VIP customer, I can’t leave him hanging. I will make it up to you tomorrow, sound good?”

She sighed again on the phone, which got him to slightly grin because that means she somewhat gave in. Then again, what else could she do? He wasn’t going to go back home until later anyways tonight, so he might as well just inform her. “Is there any way you can tell Jong In to clear his work to come eat with me? He hasn’t answered my phone calls all day. The only message he answered back was a few hours ago, and I still haven’t heard from him.”

“Sweetie, don’t bother Jong In right now. He and his friend are really busy dealing with the hotel launch party. He’s the general manager and she’s the marketing director. They have a lot of things going on right now, I don’t think they can answer anybody.”

“As long as they don’t answer eachother,” Krystal stated out of jealousy, getting him to sigh. How did he raise such a jealous daughter? He never understood that part of his fatherhood. Even he knew Jong In and Tina were no more than really good friends. He noticed them during their internship years that they treated eachother more like siblings even more than people who were friends – if Krystal were to worry, Tina was absolutely the last person that she even needed to be worried about. He crossed one arm that wasn’t using his arm across his chest and said, “Get back to work, sweetie. I need to head out for a lunch meeting with one another hotel representative from Oakwood Jeju. I will see you tomorrow morning?”

“Okay, Appa,” she whined, still sounding like a child. He slightly laughed and told her, “And I can assure you, your precious Jong In is highly busy today. The launch party is happening in less than two weeks. You’re not the one hosting and organizing it, you don’t know how much work and how much stress that it for only two people to be doing all of that.”

“Okay Appa.” Her tone sounded slightly annoyed this time. “I’m gonna go work with my customers now. Her wedding is tomorrow and she needs her dress adjusted. I’ll talk to you later tonight. Bye, love you.”

“Love you too, sweetheart.”

The moment as Sang Min was about to walk outside the hotel to head to his van that was prepared for him, some girl caught his attention at the receptionist desk. Rather quickly, he went to stand behind one of the poles to block himself, to see if it was actually the girl that has caught his attention for quite some time... Since the day the airport in China where he had met the young special lady who had picked up his passport for him. Was she really standing at his hotel right now? His damn vision wasn’t getting better by age, but he managed to tweak his eyes closer together to get a clear vision of her.

Indeed, it was her. The same fair reflex of her skin, her round eyes, sharp nose and defined lips. She looked rather formal than usual, from neck to legs, wearing a sweater shirt with a collar inside, skinny jeans and boots. Nonetheless, she was still as mesmorizing as he saw her last. It didn’t seem like she was a customer checking in to the hotel because she was alone holding only a simple bag, along with a binder and folder in her hands. It also seemed like she was ending the conversation with Hyoyeon, one of Sang Min’s employees that had worked with him for over five years now. On top of being receptionists, all of them also had to take in a lot of service such as interviews, surveys, concerns, appointments and many other things. As for Hyoyeon, she nearly worked as a secretary for everyone because she knew everyone’s schedule. The girl took one of their business cards, bowed to Hyoyeon, and Hyoyeon did the same, then she skipped out of the hotel looking rather happy.

Sang Min watched as she left the hotel, then marched straight to Hyoyeon before any customers could come stop by the counter.

“Hyoyeon,” he called, coming to stand right in front of her.

“Oh Sajangnim!” She replied excitedly, paying her respects by bowing. “What brings you to the counter today, Sajangnim?”

“That girl a few moments ago... What was she here for? The one that was just talking to you,” Sang Min tried to ask smoothly. “She didn’t seem like a customer. Was she surverying something?”

“Oh, she wasn’t surverying anything, Sajangnim,” Hyoyeon gladly answered. “She received a job interview for the open spot at the marketing department, so she came to schedule an appointment. Her name is Gong Minji.”

“Gong Minji...” He slowly repeated, almost smiling at the fact that he got her name now. “Marketing department?”

“Yes. She signed up for a position under the department of marketing. Her interview is this Monday.”

“Whose the person interviewing her?” Sang Min continued asking, remembering it was already Thursday. He also remembered that he had to go to a business meeting in Busan on Monday, which messed everything up.

Hyoyeon went back to check what she wrote in her booklet of notes, scanning with her finger. Without looking up quite yet, she answered, “General Manager, Kim Jong In, Sir.”

“Jong In? Does Miss. Gong Minji know who she’s being interviewed by?”

“I didn’t give out his name, Sajangnim. I just said General Manager of the hotel will be doing the interview,” Hyoyeon replied, shaking her head. “And yes, Sajangnim. Mr. Kim Jong In has three interviews scheduled for this coming Monday. Is there any concerns, Sajangnim?”

Without even thinking, he quickly answered, “Switch my business meeting in Busan with Jong In’s interviews on Monday. I’ll take care of the interviews myself, since Jong In knows more in-depth detail about the hotel scouting in Busan more than I know. Please do that for me, Hyoyeon.”

“Will do that for you, sir.”

“Thank you very much, Hyoyeon. I will let Jong In know the change myself,” Sang Min gratefully told her, also beginning to walk out of the hotel so he could head to his lunch meeting. He walked out rather satisfied this time, knowing that this Monday he would be able to meet the young girl he had been waiting to see for the longest time, ever since that day at the airport. Before he even pulled out his phone to inform Jong In, he just wanted to absorb the moment of how eager he was to be able to see her again in only a few days.

Gong Minji. They're chance that they were finally meeting again.

After Dara did some searching and scanning around for the travel magazine of the company TRAVEL KOREA, she didn’t exactly realize that the business was bigger than she had expected it to be. The building had a rather unique texture, which was a 92-meter tall complex of soft, undulating curves that marks the skyline of Seoul. It also had an asymmetric construction that was rare from other buildings… In short, the company made themselves known that they were a unique travel magazine company. When she saw the building, she became utterly nervous that she was going in for an interview with them next week.

At this moment, to calm down her nervousness, she stopped by a riverside café that was only a ten-minute walk from the magazine building when she was trying to get back to the bus stop. Since Minji wasn’t even back at the condo yet, she figured she would just sit and relax away because being at a café always erased some of her worries away. She also got a seat at the edge of table with the best view of the river, which was the most gorgeous and the most relaxing view in her sight at this very moment. The water was so settle and so clear, that just looking at the water view being underneath the clear skies could really bring someone into another dimension. Even though it was the winter season, being cold outside and the windows being up at this very moment at the café, it was still beautiful as ever. She pulled out her DSLR camera from her camera bag, along with her smartphone from her small blue striped backpack just to inform Minji about where she was.

She snapped a few twenty pictures of the river view with all different angles, then took out her phone to take one picture, in order to post it somewhere. But first things first, she opened her messaging application to tell Minji that she was eating lunch by herself. She also sent her a selfie with herself at the river view with a messy bun and a silly face, only for Minji to see, to actually prove that she was literally by herself. After sending the picture, she wrote, I knew you weren’t back home yet so I stopped by to eat at a café nearby because my stomach was growling like crazy. Don’t forget dinner with Tiffany Unnie tonight.

Within a minute, Minji texted back saying, I know… Sorry >.< I don’t know what’s taking so long to schedule an appointment with Marriot Hotel. I thought I’d be back by now. I’m gonna grab something to eat real quick too then we’ll have dinner tonight. Sorry, girl.

Dara shrugged it off and just sent her an ‘ok’ sticker, finally putting the phone down to absorb in the beautiful view of the river. She could definitely get used to this if she lands a job as a travel photographer for this magazine. She wouldn’t mind taking her lunch breaks over here, even if it did mean eating by herself. She was actually hoping to come here during the summer when the windows were off and the river was in full vision.

“A large matcha green tea iced latte with soy milk,” the waiter who was wearing a white dress shirt and a bowtie finally came to serve what she ordered around a few moments ago. Dara nodded her head as the waiter put down the tasty looking drink right in front of her, that looked like it had the right amount of Green Tea Matcha, Soy Milk and the sweetener she wanted. She could definitely get used to eating her. “And also a chicken salad sandwich on wheat bread with a side of French fries?” Dara nodded excitedly as she heard her order and the waiter placed it down right in front of her. With the tray by his side, he bowed down to ask, “Is there anything else I can get for you for right now?”

“No, thank you. I’m all set. Thank you so much.”

With that, the waitress went to the next table that was behind her as she felt someone taking out the chair right in the back. She shifted a bit so that person could easily get in, but she didn’t bother to look over because she was too eager to eat right now. Also, eager to take pictures of the food.

“Did you want to get the same thing?” hearing the waiter ask to the person behind her, assuming that he or she just came to sit down. She jumped a little when she heard a raspy guy’s voice replying with, “Yes, please. You can bring the cake out as well when the food comes. I gotta rush to eat it, I was procrastinating at work today, so lunch got cut short. Thank you so much, Jong Dae.”

Dara didn’t want to think about it, but that voice surprisingly sounded like it belonged to Mino. In which, she didn’t want to think about because how could some coincidentally meet at a café their third time? Maybe she was just thinking too much. She couldn’t deny to herself that she had always been thinking about Mino ever since he came back to Korea, but she never once expected him to return those thoughts back. She didn’t really have anything for him to return those thoughts back. He did message her from time to time but they were so casual and to him, it probably meant nothing.

She only shook it off, deciding to eat already because she knew it was nearly impossible for these things to happen. Meeting someone coincidentally for the third time… Those things just happened in movies and romance novels.

After taking pictures of her food and her drink, she couldn’t help but turn back around to the river to take more pictures of it. It was just too gorgeous to avoid. With her shutter going off for a few moments, she rested her elbow and her camera on the railing stand to get a still picture of it, just so she could get the perfect angle from her position.

All of a sudden, she bumped elbows with the person right next to her on the left, nearly dropping her camera into the water. Letting out a small gasp, the guy who was next to her grabbed the camera strap, saving it from falling into the water. With that, when she was about to thank him, she turned around and got the surprise of her life.

hung open as she saw who the person sitting down right behind her was. It was Mino.

“Mino?” She immediately blurted out, not being able to describe the emotions flying around in her stomach, zapping through her head right now. He hadn’t changed one bit… Well, besides the longer length of his hair, but everything else remained the same. That crooked smirk of his came back as he saw Dara as he greeted, “Dara?!”

Literally, she smiled so big when it really was him, since he had called her name excitedly. Ugh, now she had wished she hadn’t left the house without a care because she didn’t expect to see anyone. Especially Mino. Without waiting for her to answer, he immediately asked, “When’d you come back from China? Why didn’t you tell me you were moving back?” Impatiently, he moved all of his things from the seat he was in to sit at the seat across from her, hoping to sit with her in order to catch up from all the years they weren’t able to see eachother. As he sat down, Dara finally responded, still in disbelief that she was meeting him like this. “I just got back two weeks ago. I figured you were busy, I didn’t want to be a bother if I was messaging you at a busy time. I know you have a legit job now, so it’s busy.”

“Nonsense. No matter how busy I am, I’m never that busy to be answering a friend. Seriously, hit me up anytime. I was wondering why your texts were disappearing lately. I’ve just been taking trips to mountains and such, so there’s barely any signal up there. When I get back down, I’m just so worn out and I come back to sleep. But if you hit me up, there’s no way I wouldn’t answer you.”  Dara just smiled sweetly at him, seeing that he was the same, optimistic Mino that she had met years ago… The Mino that made her remember him up until this day. “How’ve you been? How’s the job treating you?”

“I’ve been well,” he answered truthfully, so happy to be able to see Dara again, since he always admired her friendly personality with the way she talked. “I moved from being a journalist photographer to a editorial journalist photographer so on top of taking photographs, I also write columns for the magazine as well. My boss also makes me help him edit some of the articles, so my brain spins like crazy sometimes having to correct my co-worker’s grammar.”

Dara laughed at his comment, shaking her head. It did sound like a lot of fun though… Something she definitely wanted to do with her life. “That sounds amazing.”

“It’s amazing because I’m doing what I enjoy doing,” Mino admitted, making her chuckle at him cutely. “If I went with what my parents told me to do, guarantee, I would not be chilling and relaxing at this café right now.”

“I thought you just told the waiter that you were in a hurry because you were procrastinating at work.”

“Dang it,” jokingly scowling, Mino gritted between his teeth. “You heard that? You eavesdropping, Dara?” Since Dara knew it was a joke, she stuck his tongue out at him and played back, “Please. You were right behind me, I’d need to get my ears checked if I didn’t hear that. Don’t be changing the topic about your procrastination at work, Mr. Mino.”

He laughed as well, finally answering, “I kinda put off two articles to write for my trips to Hallsan Mountain and Jirisan Mountain, so I spent a lot of my lunch break trying to finish off those columns since they’re due tonight, in order to send to the publication department for them to print out for the magazine. That’s why my lunch break got cut short today. I usually have an hour and a half off, but today I only have forty five minutes.” While Dara was nodding, Mino leaned in a tad bit closer to her and playfully said, “Say all that you want, we only have forty five minutes to catch up.”

“Oh, so we’re not gonna see eachother again after this?”

“I didn’t say that,” he commented, clicking his teeth and tongue against one another. “I’m just saying we should catch up as much as we can now, then try to meet up with eachother again, once we’re done catching up. You know… Back to being regular friends.” Something about the word friends when he said sent a tingly feeling up her spine because she didn’t really know how to take his tone of it. “Unless, you don’t wanna see me again, then I’d completely understand.”

“Yah, you play around too much,” Dara teased, nearly reaching out a hand to hit him on the arm. “You’re the one who doesn’t answer my messages. You used to send me messages of the photos you took when you went on trips for your job… I thought you got so busy that you had no time to be doing that anymore.”

“I just thought you got bored of my photos since you’re a photographer yourself.”

“Photographers never get bored of other people’s work,” Dara joked, rolling her eyes at him. “Gosh Mino, what kind of person do you take me for?”

“You wanna see some of my pictures?” Mino asked, eager to show someone who had the same interest as him. “The magazine just got published a week ago and they took most of my pictures that I photographed when I traveled to Jeju with my production team.” Dara nodded her head eagerly, eyes going bigger to show how much she wanted to actually see his work. A few seconds later when the waiter came to serve Mino his water and hot coffee, Mino waved his hands over to show that he moved his seat. “Over here.”

“Oh sorry, Mr. Song.”

The waiter shifted real quick and placed his glass of iced water and coffee in front of Mino. “Your ice water and cup of Americano, Mr. Song.”

“Thank you, Jong Dae,” he replied, quickly tapping this Jong Dae’s wrists as he finished serving. “My bad for not informing about me moving. I saw my friend and I got a little excited. I didn’t ask for anyone’s permission yet.”

“It’s no problem, sir. Your sandwich and cake should be out in just a few moments.”

“Thank you, thank you,” Mino said as Jong Dae was walking away. Once Mino turned to look at Dara again with those ravishing eyes of his, she couldn’t help but feel her heart skip a beat everytime he did so. “I forgot to ask for your permission if I could sit with you.”

“Well, you already sat down with me, Mr. Song,” she joked, making her tone known that she was teasing him by calling him what the waiter called him. “So obviously you have my permission to sit with me.”

If only she could say how happy she was that he made the effort to come sit down with her, that probably would’ve been the response that she wanted to blurt out.

He made his smile crooked again, giving her that famous half-smile of his as he asked, “You weren’t waiting for anyone, were you? I’d feel terrible if I stole someone’s seat.”

“There’s only one set of food here, Mino,” she stated, making him look down at the set of one drink, one glass of water and one plate of food, along with one set of serving utensils. “Trust me, if someone else was joining me, you can still sit here. But as of now, I’m alone. So… Sit here and keep me company within the forty-five minutes you have. What kind of person would I be if I said, no boy go back to your seat.”

“A mean one, but I know the girl named