“Wheein-ah, you need to get in there. Like right now.” Hwasa crossed her arms and gently tapping her right foot against the cold white marble tiles of the restaurant’s lobby, impatiently waiting for the puppy-like girl to move away from the exit door.

“No!”

“Why not? We’re already here anyway.”

“You dragged me here! I had no choice.” The slightly older girl cried in betrayal, now standing a few feet away from the taller one.

“No I did not. You came here on your own will.” Hwasa smirked.

“You told me we’re going to see a movie. Does this seem like a cinema to you?” Wheein, clearly frustrated by her best friend’s dirty trick, pointed to the wall on her left, where a sign that says ‘The Sierra Restaurant’ has been attached at.

Hwasa sighed deeply in return.

“Your mother has been sending me these awful perfectly grammar texts and left quite a lot of miss calls Wheein-ah. I mean, how does she even know my new number? I’m telling you, she can be a one scary woman if she wants to. I won’t be surprised if she already got her hands on Solar unnie’s new number as well.”

Wheein, upon hearing her mother’s attempt to contact her through the younger girl, rolled her eyes in annoyance; and is slightly impressed with her parents’ persistent efforts.

“No.”

“Just get in there.”

“No.”

“Stop being childish, it’s just a dinner meeting.” Hwasa accused.

“Are you kidding me? I’m getting married Ahn Hyejin, with a stranger!” Wheein let out a scoff of disbelief, seeing how her now red-headed best friend is on her parents’ side instead of her own.

“Touchę.”

“If you love me as much I love you yesterday, get me out of here.”

“Yesterday? You don’t love me today?”

“No, I really hate you today. Especially right now.”

“So tragic.”

Wheein frowned before she finally took a few steps forwards towards the other girl until she can feel her body crashes against the luscious body of her best friend. Hwasa, upon receiving the impact, groaned loudly in pain and forcefully hugged the girl’s body to prevent both of them from falling down.

“Jung Wheein.” The younger girl warned, knowing so well with the tactic Wheein is going to use against her anytime soon.

Wheein gently laid her chin on top of the girl’s right shoulder before letting out a tiny fake sob causing Hwasa to roll her eyes and sighed for the nth time.

“Ugh, you are so dramatic.” She tried to push the older girl’s body. However, being the stronger one among the two of them, Wheein’s body barely made it far before it attaches itself back to Hwasa’s front.

“Hyejinyy.” Wheein responded in her infuriating baby voice and shook her shoulders lightly in an attempt to persuade the girl to just leave already, knowing that the girl would do anything to stop her irritating behaviour.

“Eww no, cut it off.”

“Hyejinyyyyy.” Wheein stretched further.

“Okay fine!”

Wheein finally moved away from the girl’s body, let out a silent scream as both of her hands unsuccessfully covering her widely opened mouth while jumping repeatedly at the same spot.

“Just don’t blame and don’t ever look for me if your parents are going to kill you. I have tried my hardest! This is not my fault.” Hwasa pointed out. Wheein nodded vigorously in return, and feeling quite glad Hwasa has finally agreed to run off.

“Just let me find the toilet first before we go.”

“Don’t take too long.”

“You don’t have the right to command me right now.”

Hwasa then left her alone to find the nearest restroom, cursing loudly as she walked away from the older girl.

“I heard that!”

Wheein, now standing awkwardly in the middle of the seemingly and oddly very vacant lobby, twirled around out of boredom, almost in a dancing manner, until a huge blue coloured aquarium tank placed appropriately next to the receptionist table catches her eyes with the bright sparkling light and colourful backgrounds.

She then bounced her way towards the water filled glass, a soft smile can be seen spreading across her face, and feeling quite amazed at the amount and sizes of the fish found inside them. Seeing that there was even different types of fish causes Wheein’s eyes to widen in a child-like excitement. She does have a weird fascination with water and any sea creatures ever since she was a little girl, probably the reason why she became such a good swimmer at the first place. She raised her right hand involuntarily, earning to get closer to the swimming organisms. Her finger touches and points at the thick glass, running her finger across the surface of the glass following the movement of the fish with slowly transformed to an ‘O’ shape. If anyone could see her right now, no one would even guess she’s a 24 year old woman.

Wheein, upon seeing her own expression being reflected by the water and the glass, felt rather ridiculous and immediately cleared in an embarrassment, even if there is no one in sight. Her eyes, however, failed to stray away from the tiny, dazzling bright and constantly moving creatures.

All of a sudden, she can feel her phone vibrating inside her purse, at which she has been holding onto under her left armpit the whole time. Wheein rolled her eyes, her annoyance is now slowly crawling back into her mind; remembering the reason why she was caught here at the first place. She was supposed to arrive at the exact same place at 8pm. But knowing that she’s already 30 minutes late, her parents are no doubt, continuously bombing her with countless of texts and miss calls for the past hour.

Wheein, now getting used to the sound of her phone made, vibrated against the leathered skin of her purse, decided to ignore the desperation call of her parents and instead, nonchalantly convert her attention back towards the tall tank standing in front of her. Little did she knows, she was no longer the only person in the lobby.

The vibrating sound, though seems to have no effect to her eardrums, was actually quite loud enough to alert the other person. In her world full of fish, she also failed to hear the soft footsteps that were slowly coming towards her.

“Excuse me miss-”

Wheein, extremely alarmed upon hearing the low yet gentle voice coming from behind her, causes her body to quickly jump around automatically to face the stranger, already in her defensive stance; ready to attack back any possible danger she’s confronting. However, of course Wheein often being the clumsy one, failed to twist her other ankle around before she turned abruptly, causing her body to lose whatever balance she had at the first place.

Knowing her mistake a few milliseconds after, the younger girl couldn’t help but to close her eyes and let out a tiny yet loud yelp, waiting for the glass surface of the tank to make a harsh impact against her back and fearfully, her head. But what she didn’t expect was the feeling of a pair of warm arms that were quite swiftly, embracing around her tiny waist preventing her from completely falling down backwards. It was a few seconds later when Wheein slowly started to realize that she was still standing on her two still, amazingly firm feet. Her eyes still shut closed, her palms now pressed against something smooth, her face now perfectly fit under the person’s chin and her front was completely flushed against the front of the stranger. Her brain, trying so hard to ignore the humiliating reality, leads the two of them to just stand there in a close proximity for a good 10 seconds or so and soon after, Wheein heard the similar gentle but becomingly shaky voice, now coming from above her.

“I am so sorry. Are you okay, miss?”

Wheein opened her eyes slowly and ultimately got the chance to look at her own saviour, almost instantly let out a surprised gasp. The taller woman, upon hearing the sound, looked down and in return, stared intensely at Wheein’s eyes. A shock expression can be seen across the stranger’s beautiful face and quickly transformed to something else that Wheein can’t really quite figure out just yet.

‘Was it recognition that I saw behind those, oh so stunning eyes of hers? Snap out of it, Wheein! What are you doing? Maybe she’s uncomfortable you gawking at her too much.’ Wheein thought to herself and shook her head lightly to jiggle the seemingly inappropriate idea away, but however still not moving away from the woman’s arms just yet.

The woman, sensing Wheein lack of response, took her silence as her cue to release her tight grip away from her waist and oddly enough, Wheein almost immediately misses the warm feeling of the girl’s arms made against her own body.

Her heart skipped a beat.

“Are you okay?” The woman repeated, moving a step backward to give the girl a much needed space. Wheein, who was wearing a sneaker, feels absolutely short next to the blonde haired woman.

“Ye-yes.” She stuttered, still feeling a bit flustered after the mortifying incident that just happened a few minutes ago.

“I am so sorry, miss. I didn’t to mean to scare you.” The woman bowed slightly.

“No, it’s alright really. I was just really, out of my mind just now.” Wheein lightly blushed, struggling to maintain an eye contact with the woman for more than 6 seconds.

“Uh… yes.” The woman turned her head to her left, focusing her now intense stare towards the tank instead.

“The fish is umm… pretty.” Wheein continued, her left eye squinted a tad, silently beating herself up for sounding like a child.

“Yes. Yes, there are.” The woman politely smiled in return.

“You are interested in fish?” She awkwardly continued.

“I do!” Wheein confirmed, “I mean sure. But I was just waiting for my friend. She’s in the toilet.” Wheein pointed to the brightly lit corridor on her left, where Hwasa was off to about 5 minutes ago.

“I see.” The woman paused. “Sorry to intrude your space just now. I just wanted to inform you about your phone; I thought maybe you didn’t hear it vibrating.” Her right hand went up and lightly scratched at the back of her neck.

“Thank you. I didn’t, by the way. I didn’t hear it vibrating.” Wheein lied, not really wanting to explain why she was ignoring the phone call beforehand. The woman nodded and smiled in acknowledgment. Wheein finally got the chance to look properly at the woman in front of her; amazed by her slim figure as her black suit perfectly hugged the woman’s body in the right places causing Wheein to be super self-aware with what she was currently wearing. A yellow sweater with a picture of a fluffy unicorn displayed at her front, alongside with a faded skinny ripped jean. ‘How attractive.’

“My name is Wheein, by the way.” Wheein extended her arm.

“Hello Miss Wheein.” The woman replied, shaking Wheein’s hand gently. However, the woman didn’t continue any further even after a while and Wheein shyly pressed, quite curious with the presence of the stunning women standing in front of her. “And, you are?”

The woman remained silent, now slightly open, however, no answer was being uttered. Her eyes blinked a couple times and she lowered her gaze to the floor, finding the tiles to be more appealing rather than upholding her eye contact with the shorter girl. Wheein, sensing the woman’s hesitation, thinking that she might have crossed the line, almost apologize immediately before she heard a reply.

“My name is Mo-”

“Wheein-ah, we need to go!” Suddenly, a loud voice can be heard from her left side.

“What?”

“Solar unnie just gave me the 50% discounts gold card. We need to go like right now.” Hwasa shouted, before running off towards the exit door.

“I uhh- Hyejiny!”

“Quick!”

“Oh my god.” Wheein mumbled, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I’m sorry, I need to go.”

“I see.” The mysterious woman smiled in return.

“I umm… I hope to see you around.” Wheein blushed.

“I do too, Miss Wheein.”

“Wheein, let’s go!” Another shout.

“Alright alright!” Wheein bowed politely, giving the woman one last stare before chasing off her apparently impatient best friend. No doubt, already planning for whatever punishment the younger girl deserve for interrupting her very important conversation.

The woman, even after the two friends had left the scene, was instinctively still rooted at the same place, processing whatever things happened just now.

“Miss Moon?” A voice from her left asked, as the lady started to recognize her as one of the regular customers. “May I help you?”

“Yes, I was just looking for the restroom. But no one was here.”

“Oh I am very sorry, Miss Moon. Please let me show you the way.”

Moonbyul, who wasn’t paying much attention to the waitress, let out a tiny sigh as she looked towards the door where the dark haired girl was standing a few seconds ago.

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“Dinner was interesting.”

“It would be more interesting if your future wife is actually present.”

Moonbyul gave out a tiny smile, knowing that she did meet the girl Madame was referring to, but it was not during the meeting itself.

“I don’t blame the girl, it is perfectly normal to not wanting to get married with a complete stranger.”

The Moon women, sitting comfortably at the back of the car with a large space in between them, are now on their way back from the unsuccessful dinner meeting that evening. Madame Moon, upon hearing the response, took a glance at Moonbyul’s face for a good few seconds.

“Do not be glad yet, your marriage has not been cancelled.”

“A girl can hope.”

“Not for people like us.”

Moonbyul frowned, realizing how true the statement really is and it’s making her to feel a slight sympathy towards the older woman.

“You haven’t really explained to me why you chose the Jung household at the first place.”

“I didn’t. They chose you.”

“That doesn’t mean that you should necessarily accept the proposal.” Moonbyul wondered.

“Oh but I should. The Jungs own quite a generous amount of private high schools, universities and even public libraries all around the world. Last year, CEO Jung invested around 5 million dollars, offering computers to all across the schools.” Madame Moon explained.

“Do you know how much data and information they can gain from the users? We’re talking about thousands, even millions of people using their brand. They have the power.”

“I thought we do too?” Moonbyul turned her head and gave Madame her ultimate attention.

“We have access to the country’s security, Miss Moon. We’re in charge of laws, armies, and weapons evens. But we’re a private sector; we do have our own limits.” Madame Moon paused, “The tie between you and Young Lady Jung will give you a definite access to whatever they have in store. You would be unstoppable.”

“If I can get access to theirs, won’t they get access to ours?”

“They will only see what we allow them to see, Miss Moon.” Madame smirked. “The Jungs are smart, but we are smarter.”

Moonbyul sighed softly, feeling almost in guilt.

“Do not need to feel bad, this is how your world works now.” Madame reassured. “CEO and Madame Jung were born and raised as young lady and young master. They were fed with silver spoon. Manipulative and betrayal are in their true nature. If you reject their proposal, they won’t hesitate to bring you down.”

“I see.”

“Miss Moon,” Madame Moon started, facing the younger girl on her right. “Not all of us have the privilege to learn about the value of the innocence and humanity, unlike you. Keep that in mind as your advantage and to keep you sane. You’ll need it.”

“Yes, Madame Moon.”

“Oh by the way, you’ll be coming along with me tomorrow night as well.”

Moonbyul raised her eyebrows in questions.

“The Jungs have invited us to their dinner party at their house. This time around, I’ll make sure you are going to be introduced to Young Lady Jung in person.”

Moonbyul gulped. Oh no.

p/s: A bit of WheeByul, yayy finally >.< though their interactions were a bit short (sorry about that!) and a bit of Madame Moon's real plan behind the arranged marriage. Do comment what do you guys think so far, thank you for the support! :D <3