Being adopted was never something you had an issue with. You never even had to be told; just looking at your adoptive parents and then at your own face in the mirror said it all. But that never deterred them from giving you the same amount of love as their own children.

Kang Taegun was a college friend of your birth father and they had remained close after graduation when Taegun returned to Korea. Over the years, they kept in contact and did several business deals together. Your father was a lawyer for a worldwide corporation, specializing in international affairs. He was successful, giving your birth mother a very comfortable life and in return she gave him you. But life isn’t fair and that happiness only lasted for so long.

When you were two years old, your parents had gone out for their anniversary, leaving you at home for the night with a babysitter. They never came back. A hit and run, that’s what the police said. Someone mowed them down as they were crossing the street to their car. Drunk driver most likely, according to the newspaper clipping that Hyunmin - your adoptive mother - once showed you to help explain.

After their deaths, you didn’t have any relatives to take you in, your grandparents on both sides were long gone from this world and your father’s only brother had disappeared years ago. Taegun and Hyunmin decided to take care of you in even though they had two children of their own, bringing you to Korea to live. This was the only life you’d ever known, ever had real memories of, although everyone else outside of your family constantly reminded you that you didn’t fully belong.

Your adoptive siblings, Minah and Mingyu, were twins but tried their hardest to include you in their activities. To them, you were the third sibling whether you looked like them or not. Though they were technically the same age as you, their birthday fell in January, making them a grade ahead of you and very protective. Mingyu was once sent to the office for punching a boy that was taunting you and your awkward pronunciation.

No one could deny that the five of you were a true family and you didn’t want anything to change. But fate, it seemed, just loved to knock you down.

You were twenty-two and working in a small café when your path took a turn for the worse for the second time in your life. You had just graduated college with a degree in literature and were taking your time deciding what to do with the rest of your life. Unlike the others around you, you were content with where you were. In their will, your parents had left you a good sized trust fund that would be transferred to you on your twenty-third birthday so there was no reason to rush around in search of a way to live.

Until then, you had been allowed to have a portion of their life insurance payouts to help you get by. It paid for college so Taegun and Hyunmin could focus on helping out the twins and now you were living off the remaining amount. The job at the café was really just so you had something to do most days and not feel like a bum.

Once your birthday came along in a few months, you planned on buying a plane ticket to anywhere, traveling across the world and exploring different countries. That’s what you wanted most out of life. To see other places and experience other cultures. The one you grew up in was rich with its own history, but you wanted to know more of lives lived elsewhere.

You were in the back of the café, searching through different travel guides on your phone on the day everything started to change.

The café wasn’t busy at all and you were surprised that your manager was keeping all three of you employees there for the shift. Eunbi and Soohyun, the other two girls there with you,were gossiping about some newly debuting boy group a few feet away.

Both of them were friendly enough on the surface, but you weren’t as close to Eunbi who preferred to gossip and giggle about the more attractive customers than actually do her job. Soohyun was much more pleasant to be around. Sure, she could get into Eunbi’s antics, but when it was just the two of you, you could talk about less mundane things like books and places you’d like to visit.

The bell above the entrance chimed, signaling a new arrival.

“Unnie,” Eunbi whined, trying to get your attention.

You bit back a sigh. While you were the oldest out the three, Eunbi always had a sarcastic undertone when speaking to you. Rules of society stated she had to speak to you formally and show you respect as her elder, but she did it with bitter annoyance attached. You couldn’t never get a good read on her. She was always hot and cold with you, but you didn’t have the ambition to find out the cause.

Putting your phone in your pocket, you looked at her. “Yes?”

“I think this customer is yours.” She motioned with her head to the man who sat down at one of the two-person window seats. Her emphasis came out more like an order.

Rolling your eyes, you picked up your notepad and started to leave behind the counter.

“Wait, (y/n), I can help him,” Soohyun offered.

You shook your head at the sweet girl. “No, I got it. I wasn’t doing anything anyway.”

Eunbi smirked at your response like she had any actual power over you. You just glared at her before putting on a smile as you approached the new comer. At least you would be out of here in a few months and no longer have to deal with her on a daily basis.

When you approached the table, the customer’s face was turned towards the window so you couldn’t see his features, but just by his clothes you could tell he didn’t fit in here.

A majority of the people who walked in here were college students and interns that came in to use the free Wi-Fi and stay for hours to get their work done. They were the kind of customers that were easy to talk to because you could relate to them well enough and they didn’t have a haughty or entitled attitude.

This man, on the other hand, was dressed in a three-piece suit with expensive leather oxfords that shined in the sunlight. He sat erect with his hands folded in front of him on the table, his forearms resting against the wood. The demeanor he gave off was more of a CEO, although he seemed much too young to hold that kind of position.

“Hi,” you greeted quietly to get his attention.

He turned to look at you. You laughed internally when you saw his face. He was handsome, like a prince from a fairytale. From his pointed chin to his high cheekbones, everything about his features belonged on the front cover of a magazine. You took satisfaction that Eunbi would be kicking herself for not taking this one. She loved flirting with the cute ones.

Without a verbal greeting back, the man just nodded at you, a smirk playing at his own lips. His eyes never left your own, sending a strange nervous feeling to your stomach. You pushed it aside. You should be used to the stares by now.

“What can I get for you today?” you asked, your pen at the ready.

“Just a cup of coffee,” he answered.

You didn’t even bother writing that down. “Do you want any creamer or sugar with that?”

“Half and half will be fine.” From the way he said it, you felt more like his secretary than a waitress at a café.

Tucking the pad away in your apron pocket, you nodded. “Okay, I’ll be right back with that.”

The batch of coffee that was behind the counter was at least an hour old, so you threw it out and started a new one.

As you waited, you peeked at Eunbi from the corner of your eye. She was simultaneously glaring at you and trying to sneak a picture of the customer. You snorted, thankful that your manager had a very strict policy about waiting on other employees’ customers. It kept away arguments about tips, if any were left at all as it wasn’t the norm here.

You poured the hot coffee into a mug and grabbed the creamer, heading back over to the table. The man’s eyes never left you as you put down his order. He barely poured three drops of creamer into his coffee before handing the container back.

“Is there anything else I can get you?” you offered.

He shook his head. “No, thank you.”

“Okay, just let me know if anything comes up.”

With him still not looking away, you scurried behind the counter, putting the creamer away and keeping your back turned to him. You busied yourself cleaning the coffee machine. Eunbi and Soohyun were talking in lower whispers that were unintelligible to your ears. Every time you looked over your shoulder, the man also glanced your way, like he knew you had turned your to him once again.

Finally, he stood up, threw money down on the table, and left. Feeling relieved, you walked over to the table and nearly gasped. For a cup of plain coffee that cost less than four thousand won, he left two ten-thousand notes behind. With a shake of your head, you logged the purchase into the cash register and left the whole thing in the drawer.

Your shift came to an end about fifteen minutes later. You waved goodbye to the other two who were stuck there for another few hours, still a bit giddy from Eunbi’s annoyance. How mature of you.

After hopping on the bus, you fought with yourself as to whether or not you should stop by the bookstore. You had just finished your latest find, but Hyunmin might blow a gasket if you brought another book home. Already having a five-level bookshelf full of novels drove her insane. She tried to get you to donate them, but you argued that you loved rereading them more than once and couldn’t bear to part with them. And most of them you’d bought with your own money.

Maybe if you got one small enough to hide in your purse….

Your love of words winning out, you got off at the correct stop and walked swiftly to the nearest store.

Being a Tuesday afternoon, there weren’t many other customers drifting in and out between the shelves. Just how you liked it.

You’d always been a loner. Preferring to just sit around and read with your music playing in your ears. At school, you didn’t really get along with other kids your age. The therapist Hyunmin took you to when you were eight simply said it was your personality, possibly shaped by losing your parents so young and then growing up in an environment different from the one you were born into. You didn’t believe that it was due to your parents. You simply just didn’t like other people. They blabbed on about pointless subjects and rarely thought beyond themselves.

If you were going to spend your time talking to someone, you would rather the words meant something. Yes, you liked music, you thought boys could be cute, but you didn’t want every conversation to revolve around that. Why didn’t anyone ever want to talk about the deeper meanings behind Philip ’s works or maybe even a conversation on economy or history?

You sighed as you wandered between the aisles, just letting your eyes scan over the bindings, hoping that something would stick out to you.

Truth be told, you were lonely. Not desperate to the point of settling, just wishing for someone to talk to. For someone who could understand you. Perhaps that’s why you filled your time with books. With the fictional characters on the page, you could feel a little less alone. Hyunmin said you could find more friends if you got rid of your high-and-mighty attitude. That hurt a bit when she said that. You didn’t mean to come across that way, but you didn’t know how to change.

A small, pocket-sized book caught your attention, distracting you from your thoughts. From the description on the back, it was by an American author who was popular in the crime thriller category. Shrugging, you leaned against the shelf and started reading.

The hook at the beginning you in. The girl was running away from her past, but - little did she know - it was all about to come crashing down on her.

You were on page twenty before you realized how late it was. There hadn’t been any panicking phone calls yet, but that didn’t mean you wouldn’t be in for it when you got home. Taegun and Hyunmin had always been more wary with you. When you were younger, if you were out of their sight for more than a minute, they panicked. As an adult, they would call a hundred times until you answered if you didn’t come home at your normal time. While you could understand that they were a little more worried about you than the twins, you certainly thought their worry went a little overboard.

Your leg shook impatiently as you waited in line to purchase the book, itching to get out before the call came. The cashier behind the counter was smiling and friendly, but you kept the small talk to a minimum. Stuffing the receipt in your pocket, you shoved the book into your purse as you headed out the door, pushing it open with your shoulder. In your hurry, you didn’t see the person standing just outside and you hit them in the back with the door.

Bending deeply at your waist, you spurted out multiple apologies.

“It’s alright,” they replied. “It was an accident.”

You froze halfway up. Peeking up through your eyelashes, you confirmed your suspicion. It was the man from the café.

He threw you a smirk before getting the back of a parked car. It sped off down the road as you stared after it.

What the hell?

Huffing, you ran in the opposite direction to the bus stop.

Home was anything but quiet when you walked through the door.

The TV in the living room was to the evening news, but no one was paying attention to it. Minah was on her phone, texting away to one of her many friends as reclined in the LazyBoy. Hyunmin was in the kitchen working on dinner while Taegun sat at the kitchen table, pouring himself over a few piles of paperwork. Mingyu was nowhere to be found in the immediate vicinity. Probably holed up in his room, playing video games when he should be studying.

Mingyu had enlisted in the army right away to get it over with while Minah had taken two years off before college “to find herself”. While you loved both of them, their hatred of school and learning was just something you couldn’t fathom. You were already looking into possibly getting your masters. You knew that didn’t make you any better than them, it was just frustrating trying to explain to them what you liked so much about taking classes in subjects you were interested in while they stared at you like an alien with two heads.

Grabbing a glass out of the cabinet, you tried to stay out of Hyunmin’s way as you got something to drink from the fridge. Usually when you were spotted, she would greet you with a kiss on the cheek and ask you how your day was. Today, you received no such greeting.

It was obvious that Taegun was taking in a lot of stress from work. All your life, he had never let that affect how he was at home, but over the last few weeks, it’d been too much. From the circles under his eyes, he was hardly sleeping. Hyunmin, too, seemed worried about the situation. You knew it wasn’t your place to step in and say something, so you picked up extra shifts at the café in order to not be in the way.

You fought off disappointment as you left the kitchen still unnoticed and sat down on the couch. The news was covering the recent disappearance of two loan sharks. No one they interviewed seemed too disappointed, but was that really a surprise?

“All right, time for dinner!” Hyunmin called.

Hopping up, you walked over to the kitchen after turning the TV off and started helping her set the table. Still no verbal greeting, but she did give you a small, weary smile. Mingyu and Minah sprinted over and sat down in their usual seats while Taegun shuffled his papers together and put them to the side where there wouldn’t be any danger of them getting dirty or ruined.  

The first ten minutes of dinner were silent. While the twins didn’t really care, you felt uncomfortable. This wasn’t normal. The silence felt like a pressure pushing down on your shoulders and you just wanted to be relieved from it.

“Mom?” you said quietly. You never called your adoptive parents by their names to their faces, out of respect and their insistence.

Her hand stopped just and inch from , the spoon shaking slightly. “Yes, (y/n)?”

“I know it’s not for me to ask,” you swallowed your mouthful of food, “but is everything alright?”

Hyunmin didn’t answer you. Instead, her eyes drifted to Taegun across the table. Mingyu looked back and forth between his parents while Minah kept her attention on her phone.

Taegun sighed, setting down his chopsticks. “Everything is fine. However, I will need you to stay here tomorrow. There’s something we need to discuss with you.”

His tone frightened you. There was a quiver that you would have missed if you hadn’t been paying attention so closely. He didn’t make eye contact with you, keeping his gaze on Hyunmin, who looked like she was on the verge of tears.

“Of course,” you agreed immediately. “I don’t work tomorrow. So I’ll be here.”

Nodding, Taegun went back to his food, ending the conversation.

Needing to leave the tension-filled room, you quickly finished off what you could force down and excused yourself to your room.

Something was going on and it scared you. They were never cold or dismissive of you. Hyunmin had said time and time again that you were her daughter and she would always treat you as such. So why did tomorrow feel so ominous?