January/2016

She sat out in the balcony, waiting for the stars to come out. Dal Po was stuck at work, and she had felt too tired and lazy to go out alone. 

So she came home, made herself some hot chocolate, and decided to sit outside and wait for the stars. And Dal Po. 

It was the first time that she sat alone in the balcony. 

The sky was a beautiful mixture of fading orange and midnight blue. The sun had gone down leaving behind a trail of fiery shades of orange and yellow at the end of the horizon. She loved this time of the evening. This was the time of the day that belonged to both of them. 

She sighed. She missed his arms around her. 

So she just sat there, looking at her darkening evening sky, thinking about nothing and everything. About them. About firsts.

 It had been almost a year since Halabeoji had found Dal Po and told him that he was being unadopted. That day would forever be etched in her memory.

Because that was a day of firsts. 

Just a week until the one year anniversary of that very date.

She sighed. 

**flashback**

January/2015

In Ha had just returned to her desk after a long day. The day of the interview for new recruitments was usually one of the most taxing days of the year. 

She sat down at her desk and took off her new pointy black heels. Wearing heels had been a wrong idea, she realised looking at her angry red toes. She tugged at one of her toes and winced in pain. Dal Po would be so mad. He kept telling her to stay off shoes that hurt her legs. She kept telling him that new shoes needed to be broken in, and it wasn't really her fault that she had feet that cut easily.

Almost as if he knew, her phone buzzed and the screen lit up with his name. 

One new message. Just one word. "Busy?"

"Just got over with the recruitments. Where are you?" She replied.

He replied back almost instantly, "Come down. I'm waiting for you outside."

She smiled at that message. Typical Dal Po.

She grabbed her bag and coat in one hand and stumbled onto her shoes, wincing with the pain again.

"Just a little while feet. I'll take care of you at home, I promise!" she muttered.

She hobbled down to the lobby and pressed the button for the elevator. Just then the elevator door opened to reveal Song Cha Ok. 

"Omma! What are you doing here?" 

Song Cha Ok looked at her daughter with a mixed expression and said, "I came to see the chairman. Not that it concerns you."

And she walked straight past her daughter into the office. 

In Ha frowned. Everything was fishy when it came to the chairmans motives. She shrugged the thought away and got on to the waiting lift, still frowning. 

Downstairs, a certain man, was suddenly feeling very nervous about meeting his soon "to-be" fiancée. He paced around the small landscaped area outside the MSC building. He looked at his watch and then checked his phone. She should be m