Twelve years had passed since they last saw Sungjae. Both Wendy and him left Korea on the next day and had never looked back. Both had remained in the group chat, Wendy as active as usual, almost as if she had never left while Sungjae dropped in a text once in a while but sometimes they hardly hear from him, sometimes for months and sometimes for years. Wendy would fly in from Canada once in a while, sometimes Irene and Joy would fly to her for vacations.

Joy remained good friends with Irene and the boys. In a way, she filled the void left by Wendy in Irene's life. Irene and her had been inseparable in the following years, studied together in KU and graduated with flying colours a few years later.

She did not exactly became a teacher as she had wanted. Instead, she climbed the corporate ladder to be one of the many executives in her family's business. However, as she had told Sungjae many years before, she worked as a temporary replacement teacher in a preschool during her one of her semester breaks and enjoyed every moment she spent there. 

In a twist of events, Irene and Changsub had gotten closer throughout the years. Just three years before, they dropped the news to all of them that they were officially dating. Joy was thrilled for Irene. She had known that Irene had liked Hyunsik and saw how heartbroken she was when Hyunsik and Seulgi had started dating. Joy knew Changsub was a good guy. He had stood by Irene all those years, helping her to get Hyunsik with not much success, and helping her to get up on her feet when she was down after Hyunsik announced to all of them that he was dating Seulgi.

Joy had asked Changsub one day whether he had deliberately offered to help Irene with Hyunsik because he had liked Irene all along. He had chuckled and said to her:

"I was being a good friend back then. Irene was always too obvious when Hyunsik was concerned. But you know, love grow on