**DING DONG DING**

“Unnie!!” I squealed as I heard the familiar chimes of the doorbell. I ran to the front door from the living room, helping Soo Yeon with her bags. “Let me get that for you!”

Soo Yeon paused at the door. “What do you want Soo Jung?”

I looked at her in surprise as I hung her bags on the wall. “Omo! Me?? Want something??” I shook my head while wagging a finger at her. “Unnie, you must be mistaken…” I placed her favorite pair of slippers in front of her bare feet. “I’m just doing a favor for my older sister. Just appreciating her for all she does, you know?”

“Uh-huh…” Soo Yeon placed her feet carefully inside the slippers. She shuffled across the room to the hallway. “Just a favor, huh??”

“Yes! Okay, maybe one or two favors here and there…” I rushed to the stove turning on the pot and pan. “I can’t treat YOU once in a while??” I looked at the kimchi fried rice I was heating up and the eggs as well, wafting the smell crazily towards the hallway. “I have dinner for you ready on the table Unnie!!” I quickly took the cloth off the side dishes on the table, the island all set for dinner for two.

“Where are the kids?” Soo Yeon asked from her bedroom. I looked around for my phone and checked the text message on the screen.

“Oh, Kai took them out to his sister’s coffee shop. You know how much they love her chocolate cakes!” I let out a sigh of relief being able to read that text message from him so naturally. “He’s bringing you home a slice of your favorite cake when he drops off the kids.”

“Oh is that so?” My older sister came out wearing a plain white tshirt and Minnie Mouse fleece pj pants. “Doesn’t he usually do that for you?”

“I told him that it was your turn for cake, and he agreed.” I motioned her to come to the chair where the food was set up. She slowly, but surely made her way to the place I had designated for her.

“Soo Jung—“ She began to call my name suspiciously, but I ignored her as I turned off the heat from the stove.

“Look, I made your favorite for dinner tonight!” I placed the pan of kimchi fried rice as the centerpiece of the table. “Kimchi fried rice with spam and a sunny side up egg for my sunny, cheery older sister!” I knew I was kissing up to her big time. She knew it too…It was all up to how long I was going last until I give in to telling her what I want.

“Well, thank you for the meal.” She started spooning some of the rice into her bowl. “Let’s dig in now, shall we??” She raised a brow. “Or are you gonna feed me too Soo Jung??”

I shook my head. “Sister. I will NOT go that far with you…” I used my chopsticks to draw an invisible line between us. “That is where I draw the line.”

“Okay, so tell me what you want now.” Soo Yeon gave me a look. “Or is it something that you just need to talk to me about Mr. Oh.”

I clenched my teeth wavering my hand side to side. “Ehhhrmmm. A bit of both—“

“Is it about this ‘wedding’ you two are supposed to have?” She asked as she ate a few side dishes. I nodded.

“Yes it actually is—“ I started to nervously scrape the inside of my dish with my chopstick. “So, I’m just going to come out and tell you okay? Like no buts, ors, ands, or ifs—“

“YOU’RE NOT PREGNANT ARE YOU!?” Unnie raised her voice as she made me jump in my seat.

“No no no no no!” I put everything down from my hands and waved them in front of her face. “Oh goodness no! Unnie how could you suggest such a thing?!”

“Well, I don’t know what you do in that house of his.” Soo Yeon calmed down a bit, returning to her food. “I would be so surprised if you hadn’t made any kind of move on him yet—“

“UNNIE!” It was my turn to make her flinch in her seat while I raised my voice.

 “Relax! Relax! Take a chill pill, all right??” Soo Yeon fluttered her hands. “I was just semi-joking, but really now. So what did you want to tell me?”

I let out another deep breath. Okay, here goes nothing… “Okay, so apparently the wedding will be held in California in two days. And I kinda need the twins to come with me because not only will they be my ring bearer and flower girl…BUT I pretended that they were my younger siblings.”

Soo Yeon didn’t even pause as she blew up. “My kids!? The heck are you involving MY kids for in YOUR bed of lies!?” She shook her head. “Oh no no no no no you are NOT bringing them into this Soo Jung!!”

“But, I already did Unnie!” I stood up and walked over to her to get in close contact with her. “Look, I can’t just turn back on the lie or else they’ll think I’m a fraud! They already see something fishy between Sehun and I—“

“Good! Then tell them the truth!” Soo Yeon didn’t turn her body towards me as she continued to eat by herself. “They were eventually going to find out anyways!”

I pouted putting both hands on her arms gently tugging it. “Please! Please! Please! We’ve come THIS far…I can’t stop now!” I thought of how much Sehun and I both sacrificed to let all this come to an early end. No. He was going to get out of the arranged marriage deal and I was going to get the money and fashion credit needed to succeed. “I’ll let you come with me to California as my stylist or something just to watch over them. I mean, Kai is coming as their ‘manny’ anyways and—“

Soo Yeon held up a hand. “Pause. What did you just say?”

“That I’ll let you come to California—“

“No no no, after that. The one about Kai.”

“That he is coming as their ‘manny’. You know: manny= a man nanny—“

“Wait a second, you are bringing Kai to your ‘wedding’??” Soo Yeon looked a bit more surprised about that fact. “How did you get HIM out of all people to come to your wedding??”

“Well, if you would let me explain the manny thing then it would make sense.” Soo Yeon gave me permission to continue on. “So, Kai came over one day to apologize for getting in a huge fight with Sehun.”

“Okay, I’ve heard that just tell me WHY he’s coming.”

“Because! Just cause I told Mrs. Oh that the twins were my siblings and they came to Korea to stay with me for the summer with their nanny. But, then she saw Kai in the house with me and I didn’t want her speculating that I was cheating on her son so I turned the nanny into a MANny.”

“Soo Jung! You can’t do that!”

“What!? So I changed two letters into a completely different gender! The idea is still there!” I explained myself. Soo Yeon bumped her head against her palm.

“Pabo. Pabo. Pabo.” She poked a finger at my forehead. “So he knows that he’s coming with you to California?”

I nodded. “I told him over the phone last night.”

“And what did he say?”

I shrugged. “Uhm, okay?”

Soo Yeon shook her head and turned back to the table to face her food. “Poor Kai.”

“Poor Kai? Why poor Kai?” I walked back to my seat to sit down so I could watch my sister’s facial expressions.

“Look, Soo Jung. You know that Kai likes you, right?” She asked pointing he chopsticks at me.

“Well yeah he finds me attractive and he cares about me and—“

“Did it ever occur to you that he more than just LIKES you?” She took a spponful of kimchi rice. “As in he’s maybe in LOVE with you??”

I leaned back in my seat a bit, surprised at what Unnie said. Kai in LOVE with me? No that can’t be; I mean, I’m just another girl he likes to mess around with. He just also happens to have a kind heart to help me out when I need it, and is there when Amber can’t be and—

“Poof! There it is~~” Unnie sang as she waved her chopsticks like a wand pointing at my face. “The realization. The epiphany. The spell has been revealed.”

I pushed her chopsticks away from my face. “No you have it all wrong. Kai is NOT in love with me. He’s just—infatuated with me and is a nice guy overall.” I started stacking the empty side dishes to bring to the sink.

“You’re kidding me right?! Soo Jung! He is in LOVE with you!” Soo Yeon reacted. “I mean think about it—When you met him he was just some neighborhood gangster who got into trouble all the time. Then you came along and did that Hollywood change, turning him into a better person, and he accepted it because he thought that would get him closer to you.” I heard her tap her spoon against the bowl. “Ring a ding ding! Earth to my sister! KAI IS IN LOVE WITH YOU! And you know the most interesting part of this whole ordeal?”

“What?” I asked as I turned around to face my sister. I had to try and keep a blank face because I didn’t want her to think that she was actually making sense. Which she was. That was scary.

“He’s going to be watching YOU get ‘married’ to Sehun whom you’ve barely known for how long, while he’s been there with you through thick and thin! Do you know how heart wrenching that must be for him that even though he’s provided you with all he could, you still turn to the man who provides you with that one thing Kai CAN’T give you; making him feel worthless after all these years of friendship.”

**DING DONG DING DONG**

We both looked at the screen: It was Kai with the twins.

“When did you get so—intellectual huh?” I tried to joke as I pressed the “Enter” button on the monitor. I was just trying to keep my cool since everything in my head was making sense now. Maybe, Kai was in love with me. After all this time, when I thought he had just a simple neighborhood crush on me…Did he actually see a future with me?

“Omma!!” The twins ran inside straight towards their mother. She bent down and took both of them in a warm hug.
 

“My babies. How was it with Kai today??” She pinched their cheeks while getting down to theri level of eye contact.

As the twins begin to explain their adventures, I saw Kai just smiling and placing a bag of pastries on the island. When we made eye contact, he gave me a small grin without saying a word then turned to Unnie. Huh, funny…he usually would at least crack a joke about “where’s my hug?” or something along that sort for some kind of skinship. 

“I better go now. I have some packing to do for the flight soon.” He looked at me. “Noona knows now or ??”

As I was about to answer, Unnie responded instead. “Manny.” She pointed at Kai. “Siblings to Krystal.” She pointed at the twins. “Stylist for the ever so fashionable Krystal Jung.” She pointed at herself. “Didn’t think I’d let you go without MY supervision now, did you?”

I beamed with happiness as I ran over to her giving her a big sisterly hug. “I. Owe. You. BIG. Time.” I felt Soo Yeon turn her head and she whispered in my ear.

“I think you owe somebody else a little something more.” She pulled away from the hug and nudged her head in Kai’s direction. He was saying his goodbye’s to the kids and then stood up looking at the both of us.

“Took a lot to convince Noona huh?” He chuckled as he looked at me. Since when did he have such a nice smile? Or those crinkles in his eyes when he laughs?
 

“Well, let’s just say that some things were straightened out and realized so I HAD to come.” Soo Yeon walked towards the kitchen to the bag of pastries. “Besides, these are my kids that she’s taking—Manny.” She gave him a wink as she opened up a box of her favorite cake and the icing right off. “By the way thanks for the slice tonight.” She pointed at the both of us. “You know just the way to get me to say yes, huh?”

Kai and I laughed. He turned towards the door giving a wave for goodbye.

“All right then, I guess I’ll see you all soon?” He looked at me. “Tell Sehun to send me the details as soon as he gets them. Amber too.”

“Amber??” Soo Yeon pointed at me with her frosted finger. “You didn’t tell me Amber was coming. What is her role in this charade?”

“The best friend. The only true character coming along with us.”

We all laughed.