Chapter one

I was one of those kids who believed they would never grow up, the idea of it seemed unrealistic to me and marriage always sort of made me cringe. I had a good reason to avoid these sorts of things, I'd witnessed millions of weddings that appeared perfect, but in the long run they always crumpled apart. it happened with my parents, my older sister, aunts and uncles, cousins, even my grandparents split up from one another back when I was just a kid... to me, marriage was as stupid as a fairy tale, nice and sweet when you read it, but there's always an end to the story. I guess I was a pessimist, I guess I probably should have been born to a family that didn't feed off of the elusion of a happy ever after... I guess I should have done a lot of things different, I should have been different all together... but my views were pretty stuck, it would take a lot more then a sledge hammer to tear my wall down.

It's not like I'm all doom and gloom, I can be pretty damn chipper when I wanna be, most of the time it's usually fake but in my book that still counts. I have to fake a happy facade for the family business, one of LA's most exclusive marriage planning facilities. generation after generation, the Liu family has run this business on the arms of some pretty independent women. the business was the the brink of ending though, I had no real interest in it and neither did my sister... not that her reputation screamed "perfect marriage", her being on her third husband at twenty-seven.

guilt, that's what we went through every time we went to Gran's house for dinner, she hated that we weren't pulling through with the family business, but really, would you blame us, this is probably one of the most stressful jobs on the planet! The look on Gran's face that night would make anyone reconsider, "I just don't think people will want someone like ME planning their wedding when I'm not very... traditional and-"

"no no, it's fine, just let what your Great grandparents created disintegrate." here we go again, "you know, when they arrived here from China they had only the-"

"clothes on their backs and a dream, we've been told the story before Grans, give Amby a break, really, you should be happy she's not taking it over." my sister, tall, thin, beautiful, the perfect figure and she didn't even have to try. she'd been the reason I am who I am today, having discovered early on that she wasn't someone to emulate I chose instead to idolize my dear dad who used to take me on train rides for fun and to the lake to skip rocks. we were the complete opposite, her the definition of femine and me a tomboy to the end, the only real features we shared were our noses and eyes, other wise the rest of her was flawless.

"they had so little yet they lived so fulfilling, why can't-"

"the youth these days be more like them, Grans, sorry, how about I travel to China with just the clothes on my back and a dream so I can live like Great Gran and Gramps." I said and shifted in my seat. I hated when she talked about my Great Grandparents, it was always the same thing and it always lead to me storming off to the Garden where I'd threw rocks at her "prized" ceramic toads she claimed were irreplaceable, "I don't wanna run the wedding planners, I mean have you looked at me?"

"You're beautiful Liu Yi Yun." Grans smiled that dimpled smile of hers and tilted her head, another calculated move before the big blow, "I'm sure if you let your hair grow out-"

"yeah yeah, and start wearing makeup, hell, we might as well throw in plastic surgery to, we all know you're not a REAL Liu unless you have something plastic."

"Yi Yun..."

"Yeah, yeah, sorry Grans, you had to have wanted to talk about something else right, I mean you usually wait until Sunday to call me and Rachel over."

"oh yes, I nearly forgotten." Grans let out a little fake laugh. the thing about old people was that you let them get away with everything, hell, if they wanted to, they could kill someone and we'd turn a blind eye to it cause their old and . Grans used our blind eyes to her advantage, "I recently received a call from my old friend, silly me, I had been under the impression she'd been dead for some time now, I guess it was someone else's funeral then"

"how interesting." I drawled as I set my chin on my hands, knowing now that this was going to being a long story.

"well, she told me about her bad back at first, apparently all those years finally started catching up with her, backs been out for well over a month." Grans let out a laugh, "I haven't even had a bit of back problems yet, I bet you it's because I-"

"Grans, is this getting anywhere, Jake wants me home before eight."

"oh, yes, you girls won't be wanting to hear these kinds of things now do you." she fanned innocence, though I knew her rambling had nothing to do with age, she was trying to soften the blow, "Well it seems her Grandson took over her wedding planner business about three months ago and is in need of an assistant."

"Grans, you didn't" Rachel sighed and slapped her forehead.

I shook my head, knowing it would be immoral to fight with her, "where and how long?"

"South Korea, about seven months."

"I can't go to Korea Grans, I have a husband!" Rachel stood up.

"now now, calm down Da Xia, I don't wish for you to go there." Grans turned to me with a smile. I let out a sigh, "It's about time you really see what it's like to run a business, then come back and decide if you truly want to quit."

I guess I should count my self lucky, I mean in a way she was letting me choose, and while I knew that she wouldn't stop pestering me about it if I refused, I knew this was her way of giving me space, no matter how annoying it was, "When do I leave?"

-

"I can't believe you're going to Korea with him, but not me." Nicole pouted as she walked with me and Kevin into Starbucks.

"It's not like I'm going there for a vacation, it's work and Kevin's just lucky enough to have family over in Korea that we can stay with... and I mean, we've been living together for the past two years, it would be strange if he didn't go with" I sighed and looked over at Kevin who smiled sympathetically towards me, "hello, could I get a Caramel Macciato, an iced skinny Latte and a... Americano for me, thank you." I faked a smile and handed him my card.

Once we sat down Nicole sighed loudly, "why can't I go~" she whined cutely and dipped her finger in her drink before bringing it to , "I'll be good."

"I didn't think You'd wanna, I mean it'll be pretty boring, make some schedules, deal with needy brides, it'll be like bridezilla live." I didn't understand why these hyped up princess' complained about their weddings that were seemingly perfect, I mean who gives if the flowers you wanted are red instead of deep red... I don't know, I guess I'll just have to be a bride to see what's going through these girls' heads, not that I ever want to get married, it seemed like a waist of time and money.

"I love Bridezilla!" Nicole grinned, "I'm going no matter what."

I nodded, knowing I could never stop her, "we have to be at the airport by 4AM next Friday, try to get a plane for then." I yawned and stirred in some sugar. once we were done with our drinks Nicole parted from us, claiming she had to go pack even though the trip wasn't until next week, she was mostly likely deciding on which hotel she would want to stay at, not wanting to spend any extended time with Kevin then she needed to.

"You think it was smart to bring her, she'll just be bored." Kevin said as we sat in our apartment searching through the channels for something good to watch.

"yeah, well she'll find that out when we get there, then she can pay for her own trip back home." I shrugged and stopped the channel on the discover channel, it being a special on rainforest animals, "It's not like she'll get in the way, she'll be to obsessed with shopping and boys." things most college girls worried about... except me... I let my head rest on his shoulder and listen to him breath in and out.

We'd been friends since we were kids, being in the same pre-school, elementary, middle school and high school, we were practically inseperatable, that being one of the major reasons I'd asked for him to go along with me. We weren't dating, that'd be weird since I at least have never looked at him like that and well, he and Nicole sort of had a thing back in high school, it'd be weird if we got together. I remember thinking about it back when we were teased back in middle school, but all thoughts of it were thrown out the window, Kevin wasn't the kind of person you fooled around with, he was alot more fragile then most guys so if it didn't work out I could be risking our friendship... and I liked what we had now, I didn't have to worry about impressing him and he didn't have to worry about me breaking his heart.

(I'll make longer chapters later on, I really just wanted to get the main characters in place.

g'night, I'll try to update later on^^)