“Thanks for taking me Mr. Kim.” Ariel expressed in an appreciative tone. 

“Anytime. I’m surprised you lasted a year living with your father.” Mr. Kim joked while grinning. 

The corners of Ariel’s lips lifted up from Mr. Kim’s joke. “I don’t know how I did it. But I did.”

Mr. Kim stopped the car when they arrived at their destination. He looked into his rear view mirror to take a glance at Ariel, who was sitting in the backseat, leaning her head against the window. “We’re here.”

Ariel glanced out the window to see an apartment building. Ariel got out of the car and waited for the trunk to open so she could take out her duffle bag. She slung her duffle bag over her shoulders and stared at the tall apartment building. She took one last look at Mr. Kim before walking away, “Thanks for taking me here so late.”

“Anytime. Now go inside. Its late.” Mr. Kim insisted. He waited to drive off until Ariel went inside the building safely. 

Ariel walked inside the main foyer, it was empty. The only people in the foyer was Ariel and the security guard, who wasn’t even guarding the place well. He was snoozing on his desk with a half eaten donut on his chest. Ariel shook her head at the so called guard, she proceeded to walk into the elevators and pushed the correct floor number. The doors slid apart from each other when they reached the floor. Ariel strolled out into the hallway, wandering off to find the correct apartment. She turned a corner, glancing at each door number till she found the right one. 

“502.. 503…” Ariel mumbled to herself. “Where the heck is 509?”

She walked all the way down the hall until the numbers 509 came in sight. “There you are.”

Ariel knocked on the door lightly. “Its me Ariel.” Then again, and again. “Open the door!” She whispered yelled so she wouldn’t wake up any of their neighbors. Eventually, the door opened. 

“Hey Uncle Jay.” Ariel greeted as she walked into his apartment. She walked over to the couch and placed her duffle bag on the couch. “Thanks for letting me stay ove-“ Ariel’s words trailed off when she saw another guest, leaning against the frame of the hallway. “Who is that?”

Uncle Jay scratched the back of his head, feeling slightly nervous. “She’s just.. a-” He sneaked a glance at his other guest, who was glaring at him to say the one word which would put her into complete friend zone. 

“She’s my girlfriend.” He said while gritting his teeth to say those words. 

His girlfriend lifted her body off the hallway frame and walked towards Ariel to greet herself. She reached her hand out to Ariel to introduce herself. “Hi, I’m Hwang Ara. Its nice seeing an idol.”

Ariel shook Ara’s hand, “Choi Ariel. Its nice meeting my uncle’s girlfriend…Who didn’t tell me he had a girlfr-”

“So, my lovely niece, are you hungry?!” Uncle Jay asked to interrupt Ariel who seemed a little bit shocked to meet his girlfriend like this. He didn’t want to introduce Ariel to Ara like that, he wanted to do it properly. Or else, he would be sleeping on the couch and eat nothing but noodles.

Ariel grinned at her uncle’s attempt to make her stop talking, which worked because food is life. “So hungry! I just finished practicing not too long ago.” She walked over to the kitchen island and leaned against it. 

Uncle Jay looked through his kitchen cabinets to see what he could make for his niece. The only thing he saw that was actually doable for him to make was ramyun. He grabbed 2 packets of ramyun, spun around to face Ariel, and held up the 2 packets. “Is ramyun okay with you? I’m not a good cook.”

Ariel nodded her head. “Yeah thats fine. I like noodles.”

Ara shook her head and walked into the kitchen. She took the packets of ramyun out of Jay’s hands and placed them back into the cabinets. “You are not making this girl ramyun. You burn water for god sakes.” Ara reevaluated his cabinets and refrigerator to see if she make something decent for Ariel. She glanced at Ariel, “Ariel, how about kimbap? I can make you some in just 30 minutes.”

Ariel thought about for a minute, she was on a diet. For a year she’s been eating literally sticks and tea. Thanks to her evil witch of a step mother, Soo-Yeon, she suggested that Ariel should go on a diet. A diet. When in reality, Ariel eats every hour but the food doesn’t go down to her weight. 

But then again, she hates Soo-Yeon. A wise man once said, yolo.

“Yeah kimbap sounds fantastic.” Ariel agreed happily to eating real food rather than sticks. 

“I’ll call you when its done. In the mean time, make sure your uncle doesn’t damage any of his bones.”

Ariel giggled and made an ‘okay’ signal with her fingers. She leaped off the high chair and sat on the couch where her uncle was, watching TV. “Thanks for letting me stay. I cannot stay another hour in his house.”

Uncle Jay grinned as he kept his attention forward on the TV since he was channel surfing. “What happened this time?”

Ariel sighed as she brought her knees to her chest and hugged them. “Soo-Yeon decided to move in the baby furniture into MY room.”

Uncle Jay stopped everything he was doing. He slowly turned his head to Ariel, with his eyes widen in surprise. “Hold on. Pause. Time out. Flag on the play. She’s pregnant?”

Ariel pressed her lips into a thin line and nodded her head slowly. “Yep. Now I’m suffering.”

“I never liked your father dating your Mom.” Uncle Jay mentioned as he went back to the remote to channel surf. “There was something about him that just stood out. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.”

Yeah he just slapped me like twice and bruised my wrist. 

Maybe thats it Uncle Jay.

“Anyway, how long are you staying?” Uncle Jay questioned when he finally found a rerun of a music show to watch. “Just for tonight?”

Ariel hesitated to answer her uncle’s question. “Forever?”

“Forever? Ah-Young, come on now. You can’t stay here forever.”

Ariel slowly uncovered her wrist from her hoodie’s sleeves, revealing her purple bruise from a few nights ago. 

Uncle Jay’s eyes grew in shock looking at her wrist. “Thats it. I’m calling my old high school friends.” He reached into his pockets for his cell phone and began to go through his contact lists. “When I get my hands on that old raisin, I’m going to beat him into a raisin pudding.”

Ariel shook her head, “No one likes raisin pudding.” She placed her hand on her uncle’s arm to stop him. “I’m okay. Its just my wrist.”

Uncle Jay looked at Ariel with bug eyes, “Just your wrist?” He turned his body to where he can fully face Ariel on the couch. “Ariel, its your wrist now. But then whats n