The night when Aiden got caught by Hae Rin’s father, he boldly admitted to the latter that he liked his daughter and that he would like to take her out on dates. At first, Mr. Kang was baffled hearing the bold confession and at the same time, was slightly impressed too.

However, he didn’t show it and instead indulged in enquiring everything he could think of about him. It started with details of his name, birthdate, birthplace etc., to his family details and everything one could think of and even more.

“Just because your father is in the US military, don’t think you could play with my daughter and leave the country alive,” Mr. Kang scared him. He still hasn’t gotten out of his firefighter uniform. “Don’t let the uniform fool you. I know I save lives but I wouldn’t think twice to take the life of anyone that hurt my daughters.”

“Appa!” Hae Rin whined while Hae Jin and their mother giggled in the background.

“Of course not, Sir. My feelings are sincere.”

“Enough scaring the boy. I’m sure he understood you well enough,” Mrs. Kang walked out of the kitchen, “So how are you going to return home, child?” she asked Aiden.

“I’ll take the bus, ma’am.” He looked at the watch and his eyes widened. He has already missed the last bus.

“If I could, I’ll ask Mr. Kang to drive you home but there’s a storm warning. So it isn’t safe to drive in this weather, boy. So, would your parents mind if you stayed over?”

“What?” Aiden, Hae Rin and Mr. Kang said at the same time, although the latter two shouted it.

“Yeobo, be practical. I can’t let you drive in this weather. It wouldn’t hurt if the boy stayed the night. He can sleep here on the couch,” Mrs. Kang stated as a matter-of-a-fact manner and ended the war. She then turned towards Aiden, “So tell me child, have you had your dinner?”

When Aiden shook his head, she asked him to join them too at the dinner table. And later that night, Aiden slept in the living room couch while Mr. Kang slept on the floor in the middle of the room. He slept there because he wanted to keep an eye on the boy. “Boys are all wolves,” is what Mr. Kang always told his daughters.

He still couldn’t believe that his daughters were already at an age to get a boyfriend and the shock was greater when it was the daughter he least expected to be in this situation.

Anyway, since Aiden and Hae Rin had made their dating official, they were able to go on dates freely without having to depend on someone to cover for them. Although, Mr. Kang has set some ground rules to be followed, which included curfew time and ban to date at certain places without prior permission, dark places like cinema halls.

And when they did seek their permission, Hae Jin was sent behind them as a spy. Her job was to make sure they didn’t do anything mischievous in the dark. And she took this job to another level. She always said that she’s not taking anyone’s side and was remaining neutral.

She did maintain neutrality, in that, she only selected a seat that wasn’t along with the dating kids. However, this separate seat was usually right behind the two and whenever she saw anything which remotely looked like he was moving closer to Hae Rin, she would ‘accidently’ throw some popcorn in their direction and apologize after, innocently. Sometimes, the little kid Jun joined her too in this spy shenanigans.

However, Aiden was one of the sweetest guys one could ever know. Because, by the end of the day, he simply laughed at all the antics the spies did to sabotage their dates. He said, it showed the love they had for Hae Rin and since the love was way too much, hence the disruptions as well.

The more time Hae Rin spent with Aiden, the more confidence she had in herself. He also got her interested in learning a new language as well. Although, Aiden looked like an overly intimidating giant, in reality, he was simply such a sappy marshmallow. Most of the times, they both had nerdy dates which they both simply enjoyed.

A few months into their relationship, both of their families met together. At first, both of their fathers were extremely competitive, trying to establish who the bigger and stronger man among them was. Eventually, they started getting along way too well as if they had known each other for years, much to the surprise of their families.

Since then, whenever, the fathers were free from duty, they both hung out together. They introduced each other to their respective friends’ circle, which included Kyungil’s father who was a close friend to Mr. Kang.

Kyungil has recently received his draft notice for his mandatory military service. He would be drafting by the end of the year, and so, he had been coming to his parent’s place more frequently, to spend more time with his family and friends. And because of it, Kyungil and Aiden got acquainted with each other as well. They weren’t close or anything but simply acknowledged the other whenever they met.

As months passed by, Hae Rin was starting to feel distressed and unease. Aiden had said that his family would be returning back to the States for the next academic year as his father got reposted. They were almost near her middle school graduation, which meant only a few months were left and even though he reassured her that they would continue to carry their relationship long distance, she was still distressed.

As if that wasn’t enough, Kyungil’s enlistment was just around the corner. Although he would be there to attend her graduation ceremony, she was still worried about him. She wanted to get him something as a gift, so she made extra shifts at her workplace.

Anyway, before anyone realized, it was already the twins’ graduation day. Their parents, Aiden, Kyungil and Jun attended the ceremony. The latter two got a succulent plant each for the odd eye twin and flower bouquet for the other twin. As usual, they all took loads of pictures after the ceremony ended and dined out in a restaurant.

Later that evening, all of their families, including Aiden’s, gathered at the twins’ place for a barbeque party. Everyone had fun until it got late and Aiden’s family decided to drive back to town while the rest continued to drink and chit-chat.

Somewhere near midnight, the patriarchs of the families, decided to head out for another round of drinks since they had the next day off while the matriarchs decided to call it a night but since they were all pretty drunk, they decided to sleep over at the twins’ place.

Jun had fallen asleep in the living room way earlier and the twins too headed to their rooms while Kyungil was the only one left, sitting on the low table in the front porch. Sometime later, a head popped out the door and looked at the man staring at the sky.

She quietly closed the door behind her and walked out while the man seemed to be writing something on a piece of paper. “Oppa?” she whispered as she neared him while the man looked at her in surprise, “Aren’t you sleeping?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” he smiled while he gestured her to take a seat on the table beside him, “So what’s keeping you up?”

“I’m not sure,” she just shrugged before looking at the sheets of paper that he has set down between them. “Writing music?” he nodded, “Did I interrupt?”

“Oh no, you didn’t. No worries,” he said, “Oh by the way, I got these papers from your desk earlier. Hope you don’t mind.” She shook her head to show it was alright. “So how’s school going? Are there any bullies still troubling you?” she shook her head, “I’m sure Hae Jin will take care of them herself, if there’s any. But still, if you need help, then let me know. Oppa has always got your back, okay?”

“I know, oppa,” she smiled widely, then the two continued to remain in silence for a few more seconds before Hae Rin blurted out, “I’ll miss you, oppa.”

“I’ll miss you all too,” he replied, “Also, we would probably get to meet more often than we think. I’m conscripting as a police officer, remember?” he smiled while she returned the same too.

“Oppa?” she called out while he hummed in reply, staring up at the stars once again, “Is there anything that you want for your service that you haven’t bought yet?”

“Why?” he looked at her curiously, “are you going to buy me?” he joked but she nodded seriously. “Oh Hae Rin-ah, I was just kidding. You don’t need to buy me anything.” She opened to protest, “The thought alone is enough.” He smiled at her widely.

“But you got me those little plants. I’d like to get you something too and I wanted it to be something useful to you. Why can’t I do it, whe