Yenny quickly led Yubin to the queen who was waiting with a team of reporters at the orphanage lobby. She remembered casually informing her mom that she was going to do some volunteer work here with her friends but she sure didn’t remember her mom mentioning she would join them as well. She gave her mom a questioning look and the queen quickly approached her whispering into her ear “Sweetheart, I was just having a casual interview with this nice bunch of reporters when I thought they should also drop by here to check out your charity work as well. It’s good publicity anyway.” and then the queen turned and smiled widely to the reporters who were busy snapping away photos of the mother-daughter team. Yubin whispered back “The least you could do is informed me in advance, and you know very well we never did charity work for publicity in the past.”

Yubin got a light squeeze on her arm from her mom who replied her softly “Just this time, ok? Smile, Sweetheart.”

Yubin finally obeyed and smiled to let the reporters take photos. At the same time, she found Taecyeon watching her at the corner with Yenny and Chansung. Taec gave her an encouraging smile and she felt much better from seeing that. Damn, why did her mom have to come and interrupt her alone time with him? She wanted to tell him she was indeed that girl he met and kissed. While Taec and Yubin stole occasional glances at each other during the photo-taking, she didn’t expect the session to suddenly turn into a press conference as the reporters started asking her unexpected personal questions.

“Can you tell us about the relationship between you and CM group’s heir, Choi Siwon?”

“We heard that he has asked for your hand in marriage. Is it true?”

“Will we be expecting a royal wedding soon?”

All these unexpected questions came rolling in and Yubin was caught in a rug because these were questions she didn’t expect to be answering in front of Taec. Yenny immediately felt the need to act as her PR spokesperson and walked towards Yubin and the queen, ready to help her answer or rather, dodge those questions. However, the queen raised her hand to stop Yenny as a signal that she would handle the questions.

“It is indeed true that Mr. Choi did send in a proposal for my daughter’s hand in marriage. However, these kids are still at the beginning stage of getting to know each other and so it is still too early to tell.” The queen answered. However, it prompted even more gossipy questions from the reporters that the queen finally reminded them that the purpose of their visit was to be on the charity work the royal family was participating now and not an interview about the princess’ dating life. The reporters finally apologized and went on to take a tour with the queen and Yubin in the orphanage. Before Yubin was led off to the tour, she realized that Taec was not smiling and was looking confused and serious. She wondered if he had misunderstood anything.

Taec was surprised that Siwon was actually that serious about Yubin to send in a proposal to marry her. From what he gathered from Siwon, there was no mention about plans to marry Yubin at all. Yenny noticed Taec’s uneasiness and asked “Taec, are you alright?”

“Yenny, is it true what the queen said? That Siwon has intentions to marry Yubin?” he asked.

Yenny sensed that Taec and Yubin already had some kind of attraction from the way they had been looking at each other, not to mention that she caught them in a rather intimate position with their faces so close to each other in the classroom earlier. However, she knew she had to tell Taec the truth since Siwon was still his close friend and boss.

“Yes. In fact, Siwon-shii sent in the proposal before they met up. Didn’t he tell you?” Yenny informed.

Taec was even more confused now because Siwon only told him he met Yubin through some friends at a café and they hit it off. He was sure Siwon was hiding something from him and he needed to find out now. He apologized to Yenny and Chansung that he had to leave early for some work issues.

As Taec was driving, he quickly made a call to Siwon in Japan. It took a few rings before Siwon picked up.

“What’s up, buddy?” Siwon greeted.

“Siwon, did you send a marriage proposal to Yubin?” Taec went straight to the point.

“Ermm.. yeah. It’s sooner or later anyway.” Siwon admitted, though the marriage word sent slight nervous chills to him once again.

“What the , Siwon! Why didn’t you tell me?” Taec raged.

“Dude, calm down. What’s wrong with you?”

“You only told me you met her through some friends and you never mention anything about sending a marriage proposal to Yubin earlier.  Aren’t you engaged to Sooyoung?!”

“Taec, you know damn well I don’t want to marry Sooyoung. I would so rather marry Yubin than her. And where did you hear this piece of news anyway?”

“There was a press interview earlier and the queen confirmed the news of your marriage proposal to Yubin.”

“ ! I need to go, buddy. I need to warn my dad before the news get to him. Thanks for letting me know.”

“Wait, Siwon! Are you really ready to settle down? Are you really serious about Yubin?” Taec asked before Siwon could hang up.

“Yeah, cross my heart. Look, I really gotta hang up now. Thanks, again. Bye!”

Taec threw off his earpiece when Siwon ended the call with those last words. He felt his heart ache in despair as he drove around aimlessly for an hour before he reached home. He went to shower and kept asking himself what he was going to do. He was almost ready to take Yubin away from Siwon because he was pretty sure she was that girl he had been searching for years and that he would let Siwon know she was that girl. He thought Siwon was not that serious about Yubin and might eventually let him have the girl. Taec was still following the first come first serve rule since he did indeed meet Yubin first.  However, Siwon’s last words showed that he was not going to let that happen so easily since he was serious about marrying Yubin. Furthermore, Yubin still had not acknowledged she was that girl and he wasn’t sure of her feelings for him. He lay in bed going through the worst dilemma of his life. For the first time, when he was so sure about a girl he wanted so bad, it had to be one whom his best friend wanted to marry.

A/N: Bonus for readers, I’m uploading next chapter as well.