Ara stayed close to Doojoon as they entered the party. It was a lovely garden, with white tables and arches, each table filled to its limit with mouth-watering foods. At least a hundred people were there, all of them dressed in beautiful gowns or handsome suits. Everyone seemed to know each other already, but as Ara's eyes travelled over the crowd, she saw no familiar faces.

"Doojoon-ssi! Ara-ssi!" said an unfamiliar voice from behind the two siblings. They turned around slowly and Ara looked at the girl power-walking towards them with curiosity. She had a stupid looking smile on her face; already giving Ara the feeling that she wouldn't like her- whoever she was.

"Hello," Doojoon greeted very curtly. "Um..." he paused, waiting for her to give him her name. Good, Ara thought, so I'm not the only one who has no idea who this person is.

"Park Sora," she said, attempting to be flirty, Ara guessed, to impress Doojoon or "interest" him as her friends would say. Doojoon simply nodded politely as Ara stood there, practically glued to his protective arm. Ara didn't like Sora. She couldn't put her finger on the reason why, but something about her- her face, her voice, her eyes- made Ara dislike her.

Sora pursed her lips and flipped her hair, tossing her head to the side. "Well, I must be going then. It was nice meeting you -both - in person," she said, glancing at Ara bitterly as if it were her fault that Doojoon showed no interest in her.

"Goodbye, nice meeting you as well," Doojoon said, maintaining his gentleman-like composture. Sora's lips pressed against each other even tighter, as if trying to supress a scoff, and she stormed away.

"Well," Doojoon said, sounding normal again. "We might as well meet with the other guests now." Ara nodded and put her arm around his, preparing to begin socializing with one-hundred people she's never met before.

 

Three hours had passed by and Ara and Doojoon had met and conversed with at least half of the guests. The two had now separated, because Doojoon had found his group of friends, and of course didn't want Ara tagging along with them. So, now, Ara was alone. She sat on the white bench, twiddling her thumbs, bored out of her mind.

After a few minutes, Mrs. Oh approached her. "Ara, dear, Jihoon is waiting to dance with you!" 

"Oh..." she paused. "Sorry, where is he?" Mrs. Oh led her over to the dance floor where Jihoon was waiting for her, standing curtly, just as princes should. When he saw her, he grinned toothily and took her hand.

"Hello, Ara," he said as they began dancing to the classical ballroom music that flowed through the ears of all the high class guests.

"Hi Jihoon," she replied awkwardly. The two danced in silence for a while among the other dancing guests until Ara chuckled to herself.

"What is it? Do I amuse you?" Jihoon asked curiously.

"No no, it's not that," Ara giggled again. "I just had a vision of all the men wearing dresses and all the women wearing suits."

"Perhaps it's best you keep those kind of thoughts to yourself," he suggested, looking at her strangely. 

Ara silenced. I thought it was funny.

"Oof! Sorry!" she squeaked suddenly as she bumped into another dancing couple.

"I apoligize, Miss Kim. Miss Yoon is off her head today," Jihoon said, pulling Ara aside. "What is wrong with you!" he demanded.

"I was just wondering what it would be like to fly, I lost track of my feet, I'm sorry..." she protested, curling her toes in annoyance.

"But that's impossible! Why would you waste your time imagining impossible things?"

"I don't know... you know, sometimes my brothr says that he thinks up six impossible things before he even eats breakfast!"

Jihoon sighed, giving up the arguement, knowing he wasn't going to get anywhere at this rate. "Ara, meet me at the gazebo in exactly ten minutes," and he walked away. Ara watched him leave, now curious as to what he wanted to  meet her at the gazebo for.

"We have a secret to tell you," said two feminine voices from behind her. Ara turned around to see her twin cousins, Kim Dayoung and Kim Eunmi, standing in front of her anticipatingly.

Ara raised her eyebrows. Her cousins were known for stirring up trouble and rumours, she had to be careful. "What kind of secret?"

"We shouldn't tell you," admitted Eunmi.

"We really shouldn't," Dayoung agreed.

"Well, you've brought it up, now you have to tell me!" Ara demanded.

"No we don't," Eunmi contradicted.

"In fact, we won't!" chirped Dayoung.

Ara thought for a moment. "Does your mother know that you go skinny dipping with the Choi brothers?"

The twins' mischevious grins disappeared and they looked at Ara in pure terror. "You wouldn't."

"Oh, I would. Now would you mind telling me?"

"The twins exchanged nervous glances and spoke out at the same time. "Jihoon is going to propose!"

Ara gaped. "To me? Today?!"

"Of course! This whole party was planned for this!" said Eunmi.

"Does everybody else know?"

"It's what they all CAME here for!" said Dayoung.

"And when you say yes, everything will be just perfect! You'll have a wonderful wedding, a magical honeymoon, the most beautiful children, a lovely home, and-" Eunmi started.

"But I don't know if I'm going to say yes..."

The twins gaped at her. "What?!" Dayoung exclaimed. "But you can't do any better than a prince like Jihoon! Someone from such a wealthy family! And that pretty young face won't last forever, Ara!" 

Ara gnawed at her lowe lip nervously. Dayoung was right in a way. But was she ready to tie herself down to one man at such a young age? Not to mention he was quite the creativity killer!

"I-" Ara was cut off when she heard a scuffling noise coming from the bushes. Her head snapped to the direction of the sound and she swore she saw something small and white run past.

"I'll be right back," she said to her cousins, keeping an eye on the white figure as she casually power walked towards it. She followed the figure until it suddenly turned a corner and disappeared. Ara, now disappointed, suddenly realized where she was standing. She was now right beside the gazebo, and as she looked up, she saw Jihoon standing proudly inside it as all of the other guests were standing around the gazebo.

"Ara!" he called. Ara gulped, she was itching to see where that white thing was and where it was going. She was about to leave and continue looking when suddenly Doojoon caught her eye. He gave her 'the look', and Ara sighed in defeat. The white figure was likely long gone by now, and she had afterall promised Jihoon...

She slowly made her way onto the gazebo, her hands now feeling clammy. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead as she realized that one-hundred people were now surrounding her, waiting for her to accept the proposal of the man who had planned this party for that sole purpose. She was completely surrounded. No way out now, she thought miserably.