Dinner with the Shanghai kids was a little chaotic, Dylan and Lucas were all over the place. Caesar was forcing Connor to take a big bite of a chili he was holding, while Darren just ate, totally unaffected by everything.

“Remember when I told you that I wished you didn’t have to meet them? This is why.” Alessa whispered to Chanyeol, the male chuckled.

“You haven’t met a drunk Chen and Baekhyun, Alessa.”

She shook her head before picking up chopsticks again, from across the table, Lucas was watching them with interest and he smiled.

“Hey, hey, stop it.” Alessa spoke, and to Chanyeol’s surprise, the males did halt.

“Let’s have a toast. For Ahee. She’s stronger than she looks like and I hope my mother stops harassing her.” She announced, Darren quickly translated for the younger girl, and she smiled.

“Thank you, unnie. For everything.” Ahee said to her, Chanyeol smiled and patted Alessa’s back.

“Yeah, but if she ever does fire me, I really might take the offer, Connor.”

The Leong male looked up and gave her a thumbs up, he probably knows what she was talking about. And these guys look like they would give Alessa whatever she wanted.

“So, should we interview her about the man sitting beside her?” Caesar suggested, Dylan guffawed as Alessa paled.

“Should I translate that?” Darren suggested in his perfect Korean, Alessa glared at him.

“Why? Is something wrong?” Chanyeol asked her, Alessa quickly shook her head.

“What’s going on between these two? Alessandra seems to like him a lot if she’s bringing him along here. I mean, he’s already met the family. Both her Hwang and Wong side.” Connor mused.

“Right, this da ge is also welcome at their home too. I heard Mr. Wong say that he wouldn’t really mind to have son-in-law like him. And, jie jie seems to have a type don’t you think?”

Lucas was whispering to Ahee, translating.

“Why park Chanyeol when you can ride Chanyeol?” Caesar stated, Dylan and Lucas choked on their drinks, Connor was growing red from lauging. Darren winked at his friend.

“Okay, so who wants to dies first? Caesar?” Alessa spoke, Chanyeol was growing more confused by the second. Darren was smiling to himself, a smile that Alessa knew well.

“So, Chanyeol-ssi, it goes like this,” Darren looked at Chanyeol.

“Connor just said that Alessa seems to~”

“Guan Hong!” Alessa’s palm flew to his mouth, and they all broke out laughing. Chanyeol couldn’t help but laugh along, it was his first time seeing Alessa this panicked and he could see that she was having a lot of fun too. She started speaking in rapid Mandarin, and Darren just continued to laugh.

“Don’t worry, hyung. Noona can’t hurt any of them.” Lucas said to him.

"Can't?" Ahee replied.

"We're doing business with them." Lucas snickered.

“Alessa, let him live.” Chanyeol said teasingly as he pulled the girl back to her seat, Alessa rolled her eyes at him before going back to her meal.

Lucas exhaled as he leaned over the railings, they were already finished eating and were just waiting for dessert.

“It was a long night, huh?”

He glanced behind him, his sister was standing by the doors.

“Are you really okay with leaving hyung with the guys?” Lucas said with a grin as he pointed towards their table inside.

“Darren knows I’ll kill him if he ever does tries something funny.” She shrugged as she stood next to Lucas.

“Jie, I~”

“I know, but I’m at fault too. So, don’t.” She grinned at him, Lucas chuckled.

“Nope. We are going to talk about this.”

“Lucas~”

“I know I said some really mean things to you, I did lash back and became hurtful towards you and I’m really sorry.”

Alessa frowned and took his hand in hers, Lucas pulled her in for a hug.

“I know why did all those, you just wanted to shield me from ma. And I’m sorry I didn’t realize it sooner.” He added.

“I was mean too, I mean,I said some awful things. And~”

“Okay, so done with that.” Lucas shrugged her off, Alessa balked at him.

“What~”

“Let’s talk about you and Chanyeol hyung.”

“Nope. I am not~”

“Oh, come on, jie. I know he likes you. And I know you like him. You always did~”

“Wong Yukhei!” She hissed, Lucas laughed and shook his head.

“We should hang out tomorrow. Wanna go on a date with me?” Lucas said, Alessa snorted.

“What’s this? But if hyung asked you would~”

“Fine! We’re going out tomorrow. You big baby.” She muttered as she padded back inside, Lucas smiled and watched as his sibling went to their table again. He saw Chanyeol look up when she reached the group, he said something to her and she nodded back before taking her seat.

Alessa leaned towards him to murmur something, Chanyeol laughed and nodded along.

“Bai tuo, even our grandmother would never say no to him,” Lucas chuckled to himself.

“I’m proud of you. You were very manly today.” Ahee said, Lucas glanced at her, Connor was slicing the cake fore everybody. And Dylan was complaining that the slices were uneven.

“I’ve never seen my mom look at me like that, but you’re always worth it.” Lucas grinned at her.

“But that was dangerous. Shouldn’t you at least ask your father to speak with her?”

“My mother?”

“Your sister.”

Lucas chuckled and shook his head, Connor handed them their slices.

“I’m serious, I…in a way, I understand your mother. She only wants you to be safe, that’s why~”

“She was being unreasonable with you?” Lucas said wanly, Ahee shook her head at him.

“Trust me, mothers are like that. Well, she might have gone a little too much. But you and your sister did kind of gang up on her.”

“We did not!” Alessa protested, Dylan shushed her.

“Can’t you at least pretend that you’re not eavesdropping?” Dylan said, Lucas laughed.

“Things will eventually settle down soon, don’t worry. Pa’s here so, he’ll be able to console her.”

“I just don’t feel comfortable that you fought with your mother, that’s all.” Ahee mumbled, Alessa smiled to herself and shifted her attention away from the two.

“Don’t worry, she’ll come around.”

“But at least try to talk to her, okay? I can see that she really was just worried about you. I mean, my mother was rude to you when we first started dating.”

“Your father didn’t like how I looked. He said he couldn’t trust me.” Lucas mused.

“Now’s not the time to brag about your looks, Lucas.”

“Intense, huh?” Alessa said as they stepped out of the restaurant.

“I like how you have all of them right inside your palm.” Ahee chuckled, the older girl shook her head.

“You mean; she controls them because they’re all afraid of her?” Lucas chimed in, Alessa’s eyes narrowed at the youngest Wong. Ahee smiled to herself, it was nice seeing the two talking again.

“I’ll leave you two to talk.” Alessa said before walking ahead of the two, Chanyeol glanced at her.

“Darren said some pretty interesting things.” Chanyeol said to her, Alessa paused, her brows rose.

“What?”

Chanyeol grinned before offering his arm to her, Alessa’s eyes narrowed at him before deciding to hold onto the sleeve of his coat instead.

“How interesting?”

“That you two almost got married. But he stopped it.”

Alessa smiled and nodded, Chanyeol grew curious.

“But he didn’t say why.”

“He never did tell me why. I don’t mind either, thinking about it now, it was probably for the best.”

“He was your Dylan huh? Before that arranged marriage thing happened?” Chanyeol asked her, Alessa paused, she puffed her cheeks before hooking her arm around his. Chanyeol smiled as the girl leaned the side of her head against his arm.

“He was. I mean, that’s how close we were, but…it got a little awkward after that whole thing. I mean, it wasn’t easy getting back to where we are now, but,”

“But, what? Do you regret it?” He said teasingly, Alessa rolled her eyes at him.

“If I had met you earlier, I probably would go against the wedding too.” She said in a light tone, he paused and glanced at her.

“Really?”

“Why would I lie to you when you’ve always been so open with me?” She replied back without meeting his gaze, Chanyeol smiled to himself, not wanting to push her to talk.

“Then, can I see you tomorrow?”

“It’s a weekend.” She blinked at him, Chanyeol smiled and nodded at her.

“Sure, where should~”

“I’ll pick you up at around ten, is that good?”

“In the morning…right? I can’t stand being out of the house at night.” She blinked back at him, Chanyeol chuckled before pulling the girl towards him.

“Of course, Alessa. We agree on that one, I can’t stand being out late.”

“Good, because I have a gut feeling I have to babysit four idiots tomorrow afternoon.”

“Wow, glad to know I’m first on your schedule.” Yeol deadpanned at her, she smiled before gently tugging down on his necktie to bring his face closer to hers.

“You should get used to that too.” She said playfully before kissing his cheek, Chanyeol was about to react but the girl was already running towards her friends.

Chanyeol beamed, his dimple showing.

“My Alessa.” He whispered to himself as he followed the rest of the group.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++