" It's so pretty!" Ah-ra nonchalantly admires the butterfly as she held Baro tightly to her.

Baro kept still as he desperately clings on to her. He was afraid that the butterfly was going to fly in his direction. He tried his very best to hide his fear of bugs, that includes butterflies. No matter how pretty or gorgeous they were, anything related to bugs was an existence that he wished to never get close to.

" Yah. What's so pretty about that? Let's go get something to drink." Baro tugged on Ah-ra's blouse a couple of times to make her budge.

" Oh? How can you say that to a butterfly... I bet you wouldn't know the significance behind a butterfly. Dal-rae said that-" Ah-ra bit her lips hard as she thought about it for a moment. 

Baro who wasn't really listening to her, swiftly turns his head to look at her deep in her thoughts.

" What were you saying about Dal-rae?" Baro raises his eyebrows as he tugs her away from the butterfly.

" If you have a secret wish, capture a butterfly and whisper your wish into it... But why?" as Ah-ra utters those words she instantly turns to look at Baro as if he had the answer.

" What?" Baro widened his eyes as he stared at Ah-ra.

" I forgot the reason why... maybe I should ask her later. I'll go get the drinks, you can sit by the fountain and wait for me." Ah-ra laughs it off and suggests that she gets the drinks.

" Haha, in that heel of yours? I'll go get the drinks." Baro pats Ah-ra a few times on the head and pushes her in the direction of the fountain.

Baro mouths the words 'I'll be back' and waves cheerfully at Ah-ra as he runs off to the drink booth. She could only chuckle as she watches his cheerful shoulders walk away from her. Was he always that happy? To Ah-ra, having a friend like him wasn't that bad either. Especially, when her boyfriend was a person with unexpected mood swings and something always happens whenever they were going on a date.

Ah-ra gingerly walks towards the fountain and at the same time surveys the surroundings around her. The trees were starting to bloom and the smell of fresh flowers were evident in the air. Couples were everywhere, celebrating the starting of Spring and also to enjoy the company of each other. Ah-ra couldn't hide her envy towards them. She gently sweeps the fallen cherry blossoms on the stone roundabout of the fountain and carefully tucks her skirt in so that she could sit.

" Ha... what a feeling... Because of all the new scents, I feel chirpy." Ah-ra shakes her head and laughs to herself. She was trying to hide the disappointment that Sandeul was unable to come and at the same time trying to forget the incident that took place in the morning.

The wind blew in Ah-ra's direction sending stray pieces of her hair flying in her face. That didn't bother her, instead she started to play with her feet. Click-a-clack her shoes made each time she kicks on the stone pavement. 

" Is it that difficult to even tell me that your family was coming to visit you? I mean you had the whole morning... Maybe you tried to call me, yeah! Maybe he tried to call me and couldn't get to me because I was already out of the house. Yes...must have been the case then." Ah-ra pouts her lips as she tries to cheer herself up again.

As Ah-ra waited for Baro to come with the drinks, she heard a faint voice calling her. It was so creepy that it made hair on her neck stand. Slowly, she tilts her head to the side to look at the person beside her.

" Ahgasshi..." a weak voice called out to her.

Ah-ra's eyes widens as she observes the old lady with a bunch of lucky charms on her. The old lady's face was filled with wrinkles, every wrinkle and every line has a memory in it. Her once raven black hair was greying and her once sparkling bright eyes are dulled with old age.

" Yes?" Ah-ra awkwardly bit her lips as she answers the old lady.

" This-this is for you." the old lady passes the intricate amulet to Ah-ra.

Upon receiving the amulet, Ah-ra hurriedly opens up her wallet to pass whatever amount that she had in her hands. She wanted the old lady to return home and stop selling those amulets, she should be at home resting instead of walking around hunching her back.

" Halmoni, here's-" Ah-ra wasn't able to finish her sentence as the old lady stops her by wrapping her hands around Ah-ra's hands.

" It's alright. It's your fortune that you met me. This intricate love amulet that I've given you, it'll bless you. You'll find your beautiful target, when the bell on this amulet rings. You will meet the love of your life." as the old woman passes those confusing words to Ah-ra, she stands up to leave.

Time stood still as Ah-ra picks up the love amulet in her hands to look at it. She wasn't the type to be enticed into thinking that such amulets work, but she really wanted to see whether it would work.

1...2...3...

" Lee Sandeul...Sandeul...Sandeul..." Ah-ra closes her eyes as she calls out for his name.

Nothing happens. Ah-ra kept her eyes still closed as she waited for the bell on the amulet to ring. A good thirty second passes, and as hope starts to fades, the bell starts to ring. Ah-ra smiles to herself as she slowly opens her eyes.

" It really works..." Ah-ra widens her eyes as she admires the love amulet.

" What works?" Baro amusingly stares at her while standing infront of her with the two cups of coffee in his hands.

A light breeze passes the both of them and time stood still for a moment as they stared into each other's eyes. 

" Eh~ what the hell..." Ah-ra chucks the love amulet into her bag as she angrily grabs the coffee from Baro.

Baro carefully sits beside her and bends himself forward as he looks around. Something caught the attention of his eyes.

" Yah. Shin Ah-ra. Look! Look!" Baro excitedly pushes her with his shoulders to get her attention.

" What..." Ah-ra reluctantly looks at what Baro was pointing at.

Apparently, Baro was pointing to a toddler in a stroller. The angelic looking toddler caught the attention of the both of them. 

" She's looking at us." Baro excitedly squeals as he cutely waves at the toddler.

" I didn't know you like children..." Ah-ra awkwardly smiles at Baro and teases the toddler with the cup of coffee that she was holding.

" Yah! Don't do that... Stop teasing her." Baro grabs the cup of coffee from her hands and places it by his side.

* 10 minutes later *

" Are you done? She's gone." Ah-ra turns to look at the sad-looking Baro.

" Yoonji-ah...Oppa misses you." Baro pouts as he waves at the toddler.

Ah-ra widens her eyes at the mention of the name ' Yoonji '.

" Yoonji? Your girlfriend? You had a date too? You had to cancel it for me? Oh? I'm sorry." Ah-ra starts to mumbles all sorts of nonsense.

" You're exactly like Lee Sandeul when you're flustered. Yoonji, is the name of my little sister. She's 19 this year." Baro calmly explains as he sips the coffee.

Ah-ra carefully thought of what to say next. She was afraid to ask further, since the last time she asked Sandeul where his parents were, the answer was a bad one. Baro knew exactly what was going through Ah-ra's mind and decided to answer it for her.

" I had to come to Seoul to work and moved away from my family in Kwangju...haha..." Baro happily explains to Ah-ra and at the same time tried to control the tears from coming.

" You really miss your family?" Ah-ra asks a stupid question as she gazes into his eyes.

Baro only nods his head as he raises his head to look into the sky.

" The drive from here to Gwangju is only an hour...Plus, we don't really have much things to do here... Should I?" Ah-ra thought to herself as she contemplates.

Ah-ra stands up and grabs Baro's hands. 

" Yah. Where are we going?" Baro panics as he flusteredly looks around.

" Shut up. Give me the car keys. We're going somewhere." Ah-ra's tone of voice was serious for the first time.

* Two hours later *

Ah-ra straightens her body as she watches out for the sign board. They were already in Kwangju, except that Baro had forgotten the address to his place.  Baro who was on the passenger seat winds down the window as he attempts to spot his house. At the same time, he kept a look out for cars for Ah-ra. At first, he didn't trust her to drive but she wasn't that bad at it.

" There it is! I remember that shop! Just turn left and we'll reach there soon." Baro enthusiatically directs Ah-ra to his house.

Ah-ra only nods her head as she drives to the place that Baro had already pointed out to her. It was a narrow driveway and was going uphill. Cooly, she side parks the car with one hand.

" We're here." Ah-ra utters those words as she passes the car keys to Baro.

" Thank you...Shin Ah-ra." Baro expresses his gratitude to her by calling out her name.

The both of them gently closes the car door and heads towards the green metal gate of Baro's home.

" It's been a long time." Baro gulps as he nervously rings the bell.

All new sorts of emotions overwhelms him. He didn't know whether to feel happy, sad or excited because it was too sudden. 

" Who is it?" a high-pitched voice greets the gate.

Baro took in several deep breaths as he heard Yoonji's voice. Ah-ra who was observing him by the side, could see the yearning and excitement in his eyes. 

" He must have missed them a lot." Ah-ra thought to herself as she now changed her attention to the young girl standing at the gate.

Tears starts to form on Baro's eyes as he opened his arms wide open, for his little sister to run into.

------------------------------

Baro’s family gave Ah-ra a good stare. His mother tried to get him to tell who she was.

“ Ah…she’s Ah-ra, a person that I'm wo-.” Baro was put to a stop by Ah-ra.

“ I’m a friend of his. Sorry for being rude. I’m Shin Ah-ra.” Ah-ra gave her best smile and bowed to Baro’s mother and younger sister.

“ Eh…Must be your girlfriend, right? Oppa? She’s really pretty. You have good eyes.” Yoonji jokes as she held her brother close to her.

Ah-ra’s eyes sparkled as she observed Baro and Yoonji. They were an exact replica of her and Shinwoo. She totally understood how Yoonji felt being away from her brother. Ah-ra was reminded of an incident two years ago, where her brother had to move to Japan for two months. She cried everyday on the phone telling her brother to come back just because she misses him.

“ She’s not… She’s really just a friend of mine. Yoonji-ah, help Omma.” Baro ruffles his little sister’s hair as he signals to her to help their mother who was in the kitchen preparing drinks.

" The two of you must have been really close." Ah-ra softly utters those words to Baro.

" We're only two years apart from each other. So, we grew up together having only each other by our side. So we're really close. Don't mind my little sister. She's always nosy. I think my dad is still out working." Baro remarks as he proceeds to sit down on the warm wooden floor.

Baro's mother comes into the living room with a tray filled with a plate of fruits and drinks. The living room was filled with photographs of Baro and Yoonji. A family portrait stood proud above the television, Baro’s parents in the front row and their children in the second row.

“ What made you visit all of a sudden?” Mrs. Cha voices out as she hands out the drink to Ah-ra and Baro.

Ah-ra politely bows as she receives the drink from Baro’s mother.

“ She’s really beautiful and polite too…” Baro’s mother thought to herself.

“ We were at Hampyeong Butterfly Festival and Ah-ra forcefully dragged me here. I didn’t say No…because I really wanted to see all of you.” Baro spoke only the truth as he turned to his side to thank Ah-ra.

" So you brought your girlfriend home after a date to introduce her to us?" Yoonji laughs brightly as she passes a fruit to Ah-ra.

Baro upon hearing those words blushes and proceeds to hit his little sister with the end of the fork.

Ah-ra tries to hide her laughter by chewing on the fruit that Yoonji had given her. 

" Aigoo...I'm sorry that I don't have anything else to give to you." Mrs. Cha apologises as she gazes into Ah-ra's brown eyes.

" It's alright. I was also curious to see Baro's family. He's always bright and cheerful. I think I know why now... it runs in the family." Ah-ra compliments his family and at the same time admires baby pictures of Baro and his little sister that were on the table.

Baro’s mother took the chance to hit her son by the shoulder to probe on Ah-ra’s identity and whether she was really just his friend. Baro frowns as he tries to convince his mother and little sister that Ah-ra was really just a friend. They were too excited since this was the first time he brought a girl home.

“ Baro-yah, I’ll be on my way first. I’m going somewhere else. Spend more time with your family…”Ah-ra sneakily utters those words to Baro and at the same time goes to his mother to give her a farewell greeting.

“ Where are you going? I should send you there…” Baro guiltily looks at her as he reaches for the car keys in his pockets.

“ It’s alright…Really, spend more time with Yoonji and your mother. Mrs. Cha, Yoonji sshi, I’ll be going off first then! Bye! Take care…” Ah-ra proceeds to exit the door as she hurries out of the house.

“ Bye! Please visit us when you have the time! Take care!” Yoonji waves excitedly as she yells at Ah-ra who was already at the gate.

Ah-ra turns back to wave at Yoonji and sees Baro and his mother waving to her as well.

“ What a great family he has…” Ah-ra remarks and unlocks her car.

" Shin Ah-ra! Wait!" Baro runs towards her and stops right in front of her.

Ah-ra widens her eyes as she waits for Baro to speak.

" Sandeul will pay for this. I can't thank you enough..." Baro embarrassingly apologizes to Ah-ra on Sandeul's behalf.

" You ran here just to tell me this? Ha-ha... Don't worry. I'll be going off first then. I'm going to visit a family friend." Ah-ra laughs at Baro's cute actions and without wasting more time, she heads into the car.

---------------------------------------------------

On the other hand...

" Remember this place?" Dal-rae cheerfully grabs Sandeul by the neck as she speaks.

" This..." Sandeul stutters as he looks around.

It was a 2 hours and 50 minutes ride from Seoul by KTX. ( Korean Train Express ).

" Haeundae... Ha... The place where Omma would always bring us after school." Dal-rae chuckles as she tries to make Sandeul remember.

" Noona. We travelled all the way to Busan just to come here?" Sandeul finally realizes something was totally off.

Dal-rae regretfully folds her arms and heads to the sandy beach.

" You know jolly well that I hated this place. You knew... Why did you bring me here?" Sandeul bit his lips as he catches up with her.

Dal-rae batted her eye lashes as she tries to come up with an excuse. Since she was in a hurry to foil Ah-ra's and Sandeul's date, this was the only place that she could come up with. However, she made the wrong decision as this was the place where Sandeul had almost drowned when he was a child.

Sandeul's heart beat twice as fast as he approaches his sister. 

" No... Noona is not the type of person. Perhaps..." Sandeul whispers those words to himself as he shakes his head.

Dal-rae afraid that Sandeul was going to suspect her, immediately tries to get tears into her eyes. She had to concoct another story, another lie.

" Sandeul-ah... I was feeling upset, hence I wanted to visit this place with you." Dal-rae acts all tearful as she looks into his eyes.

" Upset? What happened?" after hearing the word 'upset' and seeing his sister all teary, he was concerned.

" I'm not sure about what to say to you. You see this necklace? Ah-ra...Ah-ra..." Dal-rae bit her lips as she uncontrollably burst into tears.

" I gave this necklace to Ah-ra. How come it's with you?" Sandeul's eye widens as he stares at the necklace that was on Dal-rae's neck. He wanted an explanation, although it belonged to Dal-rae. He had definitely told Ah-ra to never lose it.

" Last week. I had a major fight with Ah-ra...she-she tried to drown me...and I grabbed the necklace from her... She even hurled hurtful words at me. That I wasn't her sister and I should just get out of the house because I'm adopted." Dal-rae cries into her hands as she speaks.

" Drown you?! Ah-ra...Ah-ra isn't like that. She said she loved you more than anything in the world. Noona! You're not lying right? So the day where she was upset was because of fighting with you? Why would she even do that?" Sandeul's mind got the better of him, he was in denial that Ah-ra was a person capable of doing such things.

" I should just drown myself here right? Let the sea just take my life. Nobody loves me. My family hates me. I'm just an adopted child any way." Dal-rae attempts to make Sandeul believe her by threatening to kill herself.

Sandeul grabs his hair in desperation. Seeing his older sister in misery made him miserable. 

" What did they do to you? Tell me all about it." Sandeul grabs her hands and drags her to an open restaurant by the beach.

* 30 minutes later *

Sandeul places his cup on the table and clenches his fists. After hearing the heart-wrenching story from Dal-rae, he couldn't help but hate the Shin's for making her live in sorrow and torture.

" Noona...don't worry. Once, I graduate and start earning money. I'll buy a house for us. We'll live together happily. Please cheer up." Sandeul pours a drink for his sister as he innocently utters those words.

" Sandeul-ah. You have to help me. You have to get back what is rightfully yours..." Dal-rae tries to change the topic.

" No. I'm not going to hurt the people I love. Especially you." Sandeul calmly remarks as he proceeds to take a sip from his cup.

" It's because of Ah-ra right? It's because you're in love with her right?" Dal-rae smirks as she pushes her drink away from her.

Sandeul only kept quiet as the atmosphere got a bit tensed.

" It's true then. You love her." Dal-rae took Sandeul's silence as the answer.

" Noona. I'm only doing this for our own good... You, don't you know you have a fam-"

" I don't care! Ah-ra is going to marry Jinyoung! Don't you get it?! She's been deceiving you! The Shin's are a bunch of cheaters!" Dal-rae finally bursts as she desperately tries to get Sandeul on her side.

Sandeul's face went pale as he heard those words. Of course he knew that Ah-ra and Jinyoung were close, but it was said that they were only childhood friends. 

" They're only friends. Ah-ra said-" Sandeul tries to defend his girlfriend.

" Sandeul-ah! They're dating!" Dal-rae finally throws the final blow to her little brother.

Sandeul disappointedly gazes into Dal-rae's eyes. He couldn't believe it. Being the innocent and sweet person he was, he undoubtedly trusted his sister's lies and deceit.

" She's cheating on me?" Sandeul questions his sister.

" If you don't trust me. On her birthday, she's going to get engaged to Jung Jinyoung." Dal-rae tries to cover up her lie with an actual fact.

Ah-ra was indeed going to get engaged to Jinyoung, but Sandeul does not know that Ah-ra and Jinyoung were against the decision. This fact was unknown to Sandeul. 

" Sandeul-ah, do you trust me now? You can't keep her by your side. The Shin's must suffer..." Dal-rae continues.

" Even if it means, hurting your own mother, little sister and older brother?" Sandeul emphasises on the three people as they were really related to Dal-rae by blood.

Dal-rae only nods her head and avoids his gaze as he utters those words. She didn't want to get caught with her lies.

" Give me some time. Noona, let's put this aside. For now, let's only think of good thoughts. Alright?" Sandeul tries to calm himself and changes his attention to the beautiful view of the sea.

The sun was setting soon, he had wanted to spend the beautiful day with Ah-ra and create good memories with her. After hearing Dal-rae's story on how saddening and miserable her life was, Sandeul couldn't help but feel sorry for her. In the back of his mind, he wondered about Ah-ra's whereabouts and what she was doing. He really wanted to know whether it was really true. How could a sweet and happy girl like her turn out to be the evil one?

" Why would noona even lie to me?" Sandeul bit his lips as he thought hard.

By the end of the day, he was really convinced that Ah-ra was the one that lied to him the whole time. The only way to really find out the truth was to wait till her birthday.

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