"Mianhe, Cho Ae. I slightly overreacted about Kris when it wasn't my problem in the first place. But I just don't trust him and the things he thinks about you. You know that even though he didn't say it, he's still thinking it. And I, of course, never want you to be hurt. I just don't understand why you have the need to want to change him. He's always been like this. Don't you ever consider the possibility that he might never change? There might never be a way..."

"Cho Ae... Cho Ae~ YAH, LEE CHO AE!"

I blinked. "Huh?" My eyes met with Hyo Yun's fiery ones. "Ah, mianhe, unnie." I bowed my head to her.

"Are you okay?" She took a seat beside me on the white leather couch.

Kim Hyo Yun never fails to impress anyone who has ever visited her house. Well, a mansion is more appropriate. Her living room, where we are now, is slightly bigger than her bedroom upstairs. It's pretty amazing to me how, not even her father, still would not want to sleep in here.

"You seem distracted." She placed her hands on her hips. "Did Woohyun say something to you?" She shook her head. "I swear, that boy cannot behave. I think I'm gonna have to"—she pounded her fist into her palm—"teach him a lesson."

I chuckled, held my open hands up, and shook them, a bit apologetically. "There's no need for that, unnie." I lowered my hands. "I was just thinking about what he said in a very deliberative way."

One of her eyebrows raised. "What exactly did he say?"

"Well..." I began, cautiously picking from the edges of a vocabulary sandwich. "It was about Kris and—"

"UGH," she said aloud, "not this again. Kris? Why is he picking on Kris again? I understand that he's jealous. I mean, just look at him! Blonde, great face, different nationality. But what is Woohyun rambling on about now?"

I sighed. "Okay. But before I get to Woohyun-oppa's part," I paused, and she leans forward, "I met Kris in Etude House earlier today."

Another eyebrow raised. "Met? As in, planned meet, or as in, unexpected encounter?"

"Unexpected encounter."

"Oh"—she raised her hands in the air then dropped them—"well." Suddenly her eyes widened, and she cocked her head back to me. "Did you say Etude House?" A smile was playing on her face.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, unnie, I said Etude House."

She smirked and shrugged. "Eh, maybe he has a good reason to be there." I silently thanked her. "Was that what Woohyun rambled on about?" She scoffed. "He's so childish." She leaned back on the couch and crossed her arms.

"But," I interrupted, "there's more to it."

"Really?"

I nodded, then looked down at my hands in my lap. "I overheard Kris saying some things to his mom about me in Mandarin," I paused for a moment, "and he almost—"

"That, what, he likes you?" She nearly spat it out with a half-hearted smirk.

I shook my head. "No. They weren't necessarily good things."

"Cho Ae..." She put her arm around my shoulders and leaned on me. Then she pulled away and examined me carefully. A concerned look crossed her face. "Why do you waste your time with him if he's going to say bad stuff about you? That just tells you that he's not right for you and that you deserve better."

"But," I said once again, but she finished it for me, "you want to try and change him." I nodded. "Why though?" I mentally sighed. "What if he can't be changed? You know you can't change just anyone you choose. It's clearly impossible."

I chuckled silently and shook my head. "You and Woohyun are really cousins, you know that?" I gazed at her long enough to see a flash of disgust and yeah, right cross her face. I giggled. "Really. You basically just said what Woohyun said to me."

"Hmm," her eyebrows raised, "chincha?" I nodded. "Maybe I really should consider this family thing one more time." I laughed.

"Unnie!" I yelled, slightly pushing her. She fell on the soft cushion of the couch and began to laugh.

"I'm just kidding, Cho Ae!" She pushed herself back up. "But you do have to admit, you'd be embarrassed to have Woohyun as your relative, right?"

I nodded and giggled. "That would have been a nightmare."

She laughed again, her eyes making a crescent shape. "See what I have to go through?" She shook her head. "You're so lucky you're not related to him."

I chuckled. "Yeah, I'm not."

"You're so lucky that there's no problem with those feelings of yours, either."

"Huh?"

Her eyes widened. "Uh... Nothing! Forget I said anything." She chuckled nervously and made a shooing motion with her hand in the air. "So where's Woohyun right now?"

I leaned back into the cushion with an exhale. "He's probably at home right now."

"His or yours?"

I blinked. "Hmm..." My eyes flickered up toward the white ceiling of the living room. "Probably mine."

She smirked. "Does he ever go back to his own house? It's like he's practically living with you." She giggled. "Your parents are home today, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, he is. You know I can't leave him there alone, you don't know what kind of incidents will occur."

"Ha, yeah, like when they almost burned your house down last month."

"Ugh," I shook my head, "don't remind me, unnie."

She laughed. "Do you know what they might be doing now?"

I shrugged. "They're just babysitting him because I can't. And they're obviously not at the company because your parents are there."

She waved that final sentence away. "You sound so bitter about it."

I let out a short breath. "Because your parents always work longer than they should while my parents stay home almost every day."

"Tch, they're friends, they can do whatever they want. Besides, we do need some people to be able to work from home."

I smiled shyly. "I know."

My parents have been "living" at home for nearly an entire month. They cook, clean, watch TV, and, sometimes, even attempt to take me out around town for dinner or shopping. It's pleasant and all, but not really what you'd expect from parents who run a successful business together and have to be away from home every day to tend to their jobs that they have to uphold.

"Okay!" Hyo Yun slapped her hands together, causing me to flinch out of my thoughts, and adjusted herself on the couch for the hundredth time today. "Come on, we need to plan this party."

"Well..." I started, tapping the eraser end of the pencil on the clipboard on my lap. "Did you order the catering already?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I did. They have the most amazing ddeokbokki I have ever tasted. It's casual food, you know, and perfect for summer."

I giggled and nodded in response. "Their ddeokbokki is pretty amazing." I checked off the catering on the paper. "What about the entertainment?"

She chuckled. "Honey, the entertainment is INFINITE, remember?"

I shook my head, slightly embarrassed for having forgotten that obvious fact. "Mianhe, unnie." I chuckled slightly. "I think I'm thinking too much about what Woohyun-oppa was saying."

She sighed. "Come on, Cho Ae." She uncrossed her legs and leaned forward. "Don't listen to that stuff, he clearly doesn't know what he's talking about."

I shook my head again. "No, it's not that." I smiled. "It's about this bet we agreed on."

Her eyebrows raised. "A bet?" She began to grin that all-too-familiar, devilish grin. "What kind of bet?"

"He challenged me to a game during the party," I answered casually, staring down at the clipboard. I am, clearly, not worried at all about Woohyun beating me at any game. Besides, I'm Hyo Yun's assistant in coordinating the party, so I am co-head in planning the activities for that day. He is at a near complete disadvantage.

"Did he say what kind of game?"

I lifted my head up, beaming. "Nope! That's why he is going to lose to me. I am going to pick the games."

She clapped her hands and began bouncing on the couch. "Good job!" She held out a thumbs up to me. "That's my girl! You're becoming just like me."

"Sadly," I added. She pouted, and I laughed. "I'm just kidding, unnie. I would love to be just like you."

She eyed me playfully. "Right. What kind of game are you gonna pick then?"

I shrugged. "I'm not too sure yet. But it does have to be a game in which I can win."

"What have you got to lose if you don't?"

"Just my pride." We laughed.

"Hey," she snapped suddenly. My eyes widened at her. "What song are the boys going to sing at the party?"

I smirked and shrugged. "I don't know." I tried to sound convincing.

"You are such a bad liar, Cho Ae," she scolded. I didn't reply, so she slapped her hand on the couch.  "Come on, tell me! I promise that I'll act surprised."

I chuckled. "Aigoo, unnie, you know you are such a terrible person for hiding your emotions."

"But I really want to know what they're gonna sing!" She whined.

I placed the pencil down on the clipboard and held it with my hand. "Don't worry unnie, it's a great song. You'll love it."

She pouted. "Ugh, fine, whatever." Then she pushed herself up and stood on the floor.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Outside," she replied in an enthusiastic tone. When she saw the skeptical look in my eyes, she rolled hers. "Come on," she grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet, "we gotta plan this party properly."

We strolled to the main hallway, past the many family and individual portraits on the walls surrounding us, toward the sliding door leading to the vast backyard that stretches out for millions of miles like an open range that horses can run through, free of the reigns that bind them down. At the edge of the open green pastures was a huge lake that empties out into the ocean below the house atop the hill. Even without decorations for the party, the different landscape behind Hyo Yun's house would certainly still be a spectacular sight to see.

"So what do you think, my assistant?" Hyo Yun asked, waiting patiently with her hands behind her back and swaying in her place.

I scrutinized the area, mentally placing everything where I thought would ideally fit, then glanced at her with a glint in my eyes. "What do you think about having the boys perform on the water?"

----

He's there again.

I don't know how long we've been standing like this: Only a few yards apart, but it seems like miles. It's like we're bound to stay like this for all eternity. He doesn't move an inch at all, while I've been moving the entire time, and I'm not quite sure if he's breathing or not.

I've had enough of this.

I took a step forward, but finally, the statue moved in the opposite direction.

Here we go again.

I began to jog to keep up with him, maintaining the same pace he has, and the same amount of distance between us.

Another eternity passed before I began to see the light ahead of us.

The end.

I braced myself for it, ready to dart up in my bed and realize that it was only a dream. Just a silly dream that will never come true.

I've tried lucid dreaming in the past, believe me. I've tried it many times before, where I am in full control of my dreams. Where I am the puppeteer and my dreams are my objects of manipulation. But no matter how much training I've gone through, the brutal nights of whipping myself into a manipulator, starving myself of sleep every night, just to change the fate of my dreams... The results always remained the same.

Was I born to obey the reigns of fate when I am the one who should be controlling them?

I sighed. I knew this all too well.

Suddenly I skidded to a stop, nearly tumbled forward and onto my face. He stopped. My eyes furrowed and my mind began to race. Why did he stop? My heart began pounding in my chest.

Cautiously, I took a step toward him.

He didn't move.

I blinked. What? I took another step. Still, he didn't move.

Then I took another.

Then another.

And another.

Until I finally reached him, the distance between us diminished with every step I took, and I finally extended my hand out to softly graze his broad shoulder...

Before he started to turn around to face me.