“Father… I..” she stopped, not knowing what to say.

“Rose, I love you and I won’t force you... but, I really wish you could come back. You’re better off here than whatever you are doing there,” there was a moment of silence.

She knew her father had hired private investigators to keep track about her in Korea. That’s why he had been trying to persuade her for the past 1 year to go back to France. Almost 15 years in Korea, and all she had is one full album. Liyin sighed slowly and spoke.

“Alright father… I’ll see what I can do,”

“Good,” his voice sounded a little bit cheery. “your mum would be so happy when she hear this. I have a golf outing now. Bye ma fifille. I love you,” she laughed at her father’s cute French.

“Ok. Love you too,” she hung up smiling and sighed after a while.

In the past, every time her parents brought up the issue, she would smoothly avoid it and turned their conversation to a different direction. At the age of 12, she chose to go to Korea to study in hope to search for her real parents. Her foster parents had been reluctant to let her go but they let her anyway with a condition that she would come back to France for at least 3 months every year. At the age of 14, she signed up a contract with an entertainment company under her birth name; Zhang Li Yin. She had always loved singing and music and being an artist would improve her chance of finding her real parents. That was what she hoped and thankfully, Mr. and Mrs. Walton respected her decision.

Liyin kept her other name ‘Roselyn Walton’ to herself and lived by the name ‘Zhang Li Yin’ for more than 10 years in Korea and now, she knew she had to go back. Her sister had called her 3 days ago informing about their father’s health. He wasn’t doing very well. During his full checkup two weeks ago, the doctor detected a stage 2 cancer. He did not tell her anything. Her sister did. She warned Liyin not to let him know that she knows. He had forbid anyone in the house to inform Liyin about that.

“Sunbaenim,” Liyin snapped out of her thoughts and turned around, “we are going to order food for lunch. What do you want?” the junior singer politely asked.

“Ah, yes. Just order anything. I’m okay with anything,” she smiled.

“Okay,” Her junior bowed and went back to the practice room to inform her friend.

Now she didn’t feel like going back to the practice room. She had been in there for 3 hours straight, monitoring and helping her juniors with vocal practice. After the phone call, she needed a silent moment. So she walked to the quietest place in the building; her recording room.

---------------

                 He felt suffocated and his head was throbbing badly. Lying on the bed, he closed his eyes and took a deep breathe. He’s finally back from the main house. It was a monthly get together dinner in the main mansion and he hated every moment of it.

Being the eldest grandson, he was given the position as the vice president at the main company while his brother and his cousins took over the smaller roles like manager or CEO for the other smaller company. He, Pierre Thompson is the man who was brought up to be the leader in the business world. He was taught to be cool and control his emotion. Head over heart. He believed that judgment should be made with head not heart. Yet when his cousin Anthony announced his engagement, Pierre’s eyes turned cold.

Anthony and Patricia are going to get engaged next month. His cousin and his ex-girlfriend are going to get engaged. As if that wasn’t enough, his aunt purposely directed the conversation to his status as a bachelor, subtlety comparing him to Anthony. He knew that people were talking behind his back.  No. It’s not about his status as bachelor, but how he rejected all marriage proposal made. Rumors were going around that he’s impotent and his cousin somehow blurted that out in front of his grandmother.

Well, that’s how he got himself called to his grandma’s office after lunch.

“I take it that you know about the rumors, yes?” she started the conversation.

“Yes. I’m aware of that and I assure you that was just a rumor,” he emphasized, voice void of any emotion.

“I trust your ability Pierre and I knew you are way more capable to handle those rumors,” she paused and took a sip of the green tea.

“Thank you. I would not disappoint you,” Pierre replied. Somehow he felt uncomfortable with where the conversation was heading. His grandma was known to be a straight forward lady. Beating around the bush just wasn’t her thing.

“You need to get married Pierre,” she looked at him straight in the eyes. “There were talks about this between the shareholders. When Anthony gets married to Patricia, he would have a solid base and support from the Walkers. By that time, I would not be able to back you up,” she took a deep breath and calmly continued.

“I want you married in two months and I would transfer 8% of my shares to you,” she stated with finality. Pierre was not shocked at all. He was expecting this.

“Allow me to think about this,” he replied firmly. His grandmother nodded. She reached a document on the table and passed it to him.

“I will give you three days. She’s a Walton. Roselyn Walton and she will be your wife,” he opened the document and read through the basic information.

Roselyn Walton. Zhang Li Yin.

Pierre opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. He sat up, ing his shirt. He decided to forget about that for tonight and headed to the bathroom. He needed a refreshing shower.

-----------------

“You know… It’s a bad habit to sigh a lot,” Liyin snapped out of her thoughts and turned. There he was, Zhang Yixing, standing at the door raising his left brow with a smirk. She chuckled as he walked in and handed her a can of cold coffee. She must have been too occupied with all the thoughts about her family to not hear him opening the door.

“So... What are you thinking about hmm?” he flopped down on the chair beside her and opened his can. Glancing at her, he took a sip.

“I thought you have a recording today?” She asked, not really wanting to answer his question.

“I did. I finished early,” he grinned. “You haven’t answered my question… Why are you sighing noona?” She just chuckled and ruffled his hair.

“It’s nothing,” Frowning, he narrowed his eyes not satisfied with her answer.

“Don’t do that. It makes your eyes smaller,” she joked and took a sip of the coffee.

“It’s okay. You said you love my smiley eyes anyway,” he did the smiley eyes to cheer her up instead. It worked because she laughed and pinched his left cheek. He knew; if she didn’t want to talk about it, it must be something big. He wished that she would tell him though. After that they fell into a comfortable silence while enjoying the coffee.

“Yixing ya…” she said softly. “Hmm?” he responded, ready to listen. He always did.

“I want to quit,” he froze. “What do you think?” she added. There was a moment of silent before he spoke.

“Why?” he managed to let out. As far as he’s been here, she had always been positive. 7 years in Korea, 3 years after debut, he had gone through a lot and he knew how hard it was to be here. To stay in the Korean entertainment industry, staying in the same company, it was difficult. It had been more than 10 years for her. He didn’t know how she did that but she always smiled. She had always smiled since the first day they met in the practice room.

                Their company was one of the biggest in Korea. Many of their label mates were known to the world. Even he himself got a very big fan base 3 years after debut. That’s how great their company is. But that wasn’t the case for her. Even he himself question why. She was popular when she debuted back in 2006, way before he was casted by the company. Her song ‘Timeless’ was a duet with the company’s popular singer, Xiah Junsu and that was part of the reason why she was so popular.

She was popular until the company decided to put her to rest and gave their focus to new groups. She never got her chance in Korea after that despite the growing ‘Hallyu Wave’. Day by day, she was forgotten. The company then decided to promote her in China in a smaller scale, refusing to let her release anything in Korea. He had heard many rumors circulating around the trainees about her before. Some said the company caught her in a relationship with her duet partner who had a major clash with the company. He won the lawsuit against the company but it did not stop there. The company had decided to suppress anything related to Xiah Junsu and that include her and her song ‘Timeless’.

“I need to go back,” she softly replied. “I’m going home…” he looked at her questioningly. He knew that she’s a Chinese and her parents had passed away.

“You’re going back to China?” He carefully asked. Looking at his questioning gaze, she sighed.

“I’m going back to France… To my foster family,”