Kris was late, and that didn’t surprise her one bit. She knew in the back of her mind that he wasn’t going to come. He had no reason for coming. It wasn’t like the wedding meant anything to him.

After the events of last night she doubts that he will even speak, yet alone stand in the same room as her.

“He’s late.” The wedding planner, a woman in her late thirties, Jinra, muttered under her breath. Sarang gave no reaction as she stared at the wall of mirrors in front of her. Here she was, dressed in a stunning princess-like wedding dress, with crystals and pearls lining all the way down the corset of the dress.

“You look like a princess.” One of the workers at the dress shop mumbled, clearly star struck at the beauty standing before her. Sarang looked good in anything, it didn’t matter which dress she picked, she would look beautiful.

“This isn’t it.” Sarang declared as she stepped back into the dressing room. This was already her fifth dress. Sure, Sarang wasn’t excited about the wedding, but every little girl once dreamed of finding the perfect wedding dress. Sarang wasn’t excluded from that list, she just wished that she was getting married under different circumstances.

Sarang stepped into another gown; this one was a mermaid-tailed dress that modestly hugged her curves. An array of crystals lined the waistline. Sarang did a double take of the dress, knowing that she would never walk down the aisle in this gown. Hell, she didn’t even want to be walking down any aisle.

She heard a male voice coming from outside the dressing room, she heard a reply and she recognized the voice which belonged to Jinra’s. She stepped over to the door and pushed it open before stepping out.

Standing in the middle of the large room was the one man she thought wouldn’t show up. Kris. Along with him, were his friends. She only recognized Tao, The other faces were familiar as well. She made eye contact with the man who had a gun pointing at her, less than 24 hours ago.

“Ah, you’re out. Your fiancee is here.” Jinra exclaimed when she saw Sarang. The attention of the group was shifted towards her.

Sarang eyed each of them, trying to process as many details as possible. There were six of them, including Kris. All extremely handsome. They all had the same guarded look in their eyes which told her that they didn’t trust her. She was fine with that, she didn’t trust them. They were all cautious, yet they look like they wanted to bombard her with questions at any moment.

“Wow, doesn’t she look beautiful.” Jinra exclaimed sensing the thick aura that surrounded them. Jinra knew the wedding was arranged. The bride and groom didn’t even know each other, and she surely doubted that there were any romantic feelings between them.

“You look really beautiful Sarang-shi.” Tao was the first to speak up. She gave him a small nod, thanking him for the compliment. Slowly, one by one each of the guys introduced themselves to her before they were dragged away by Jinra for fittings.

“Sorry about yesterday.” Chen whispered softly to her making sure no one else heard, before he was dragged away. Sarang stood there dumbfounded for a good 30 seconds before snapping back to reality.

Well, they were…friendlier than she had expected. She glanced over to them at the other side of the room where they were supposed to pick out suits. They were all laughing, and cutely arguing about what looked good and what didn't. Who knew picking out suits was such a difficult task. She had to do a double take to make sure this was still the same group from last night. They seemed so different in this light, kinder, warmer. She felt butterflies flutter in her tummy when she saw a smile on Kris's face. She noted that this was the first time she ever seen him smile.

He still hadn't spoken a word to her, maybe he was still upset. Of course he was still upset.

All of  them were oblivious to her stares. Slowly and dangerously a small but powerful emotion started rising up in the pit of her stomach, one she hadn't felt resurface for the longest time.  

She silently cursed at herself for this before rushing back into the dressing room. Once contained in the small four corners of the room she collapsed on the ground, the white gown piled under her like a pillow.

She took a deep breath before picking herself up and spilling out of the gown. She stood there in the dressing room in her under garments, trying to untangle her emotions.

This was exactly what Sarang was scared of. She was scared of the stings holding her emotions together snapping. If one snapped, the others would follow. It was a push and pull system, one of which she had learned to control with the utter most care using the best of abilities since the accident.

There was only one more dress she still hadn't tried on. It was actually the only dress she actually kind of, sort of, liked. All the rest were chosen by the workers. Apparently Jinra had noticed Sarang eying the dress and had brought it for her to try.

She put on the dress and for the first time all day, she felt pretty. Sure, Sarang was physically beautiful, but this dress made her feel beautiful inside out. She knew she didn't need to step outside for the others to gawk over her, giving small praises of how good she looked. However she knew Jinra would never let her buy the dress without seeing her in it first.

Silently she open the door, secretly afraid that that little enemy of hers, called her emotions, would take over. Luckily they didn't. Masking on her cold poker face she stepped out.

-------

 "Lee Sarang. Born in Busan, South Korea. Currently lives in Gangnam, Seoul. Graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in Business. Granddaughter of CEO Lee. Seems like her grandfather is her only living relative. Her parents died when she was 14." Lay stated in a robot-like tone.

Kris's ears perked up when he heard the last part. "Her parents are dead?" He asked. He didn't know that her parents were dead. He wasn't aware of this. Nobody was aware of this. The Lee family had always stayed hidden from the media and the news. No one had even seen the face of the CEO's son and daughter-in-law. Now he knew why.

“You don’t need to worry about my parents. They won’t be around.” Those were the exact words she said to him to him when he had asked about her parents when they were discussing issues involving their marriage life. Now he knew why she seemed so...different when he asked that.

"Wow." He heard Chen, who was standing next to him, mumbled. They had been arguing non-stop about the suits. If Kris had a say in this, which he should since he was the groom, they would had been out of here by now.

But no, they weren't because apparently his opinion was excluded. Someone wanted bow ties, someone wanted ties, someone insisted for classic black suits, while someone wanted someone different, like navy or white suits. If this wasn't a public place with workers stumbling around, he would have killed his friends by now.

His attention flickered across the room when he realized his friends had grown silent, and damn, he could see why. He felt the eyes of his friends gawk over his fiancée. Sarang always looked beautiful, but now in her wedding dress, she looked stunning.

He knew he was lucky to get stuck with someone was beautiful as her. Then he remembered everything from yesterday, and took back his previous thoughts.

He continued to stare at her and thought to himself, how can someone like her could be so dark. How could she be so cold and stubborn? How was it that someone with a face as angelic as hers be able to throw back witty remarks and mock him without even flinching.

"You can blink now." He heard Tao whisper to him and he elbowed his friend before bringing the attention back.

Secretly though he threw another glance towards Sarang's direction. This time he was caught off guard. He saw something flickered in her eyes. He realized that through the reflection of the mirror she was standing in front of, Sarang was staring at another bride behind her.

That bride was happily looking through a booklet of dresses. Beside her were two friends, and her parents. Kris realized what that look in Sarang's eyes were. He never thought he would see that sort of emotion from Sarang. Envy.

Then she blinked, and all emotions washed away from her face.

"You should tell her how good she looks." Luhan stated. Kris threw an angry glare at the male. Luhan snickered at his reaction. "You're still the groom, at least be civil, and I know you know she looks beautiful. We all know it."

He didn't give a reaction, but apparently that was the sign signaling his friends to make their way across the room over to her, giving out praises and compliments. She gave a few thanks to them, but her face remained cold.

He stepped towards them, and setting aside everything that happened between them, which still bothered him greatly, he told her what he really thought, "You don't look ugly." He commented and felt seven pair of eyes throw draggers at him, EXOM, and their wedding planner.

"Of course I don't." Sarang responded smoothing out the front of the dress. It was a rather simple strapless white dress, no crystals or diamonds, it hugged her curves beautifully and the simplicity of the dress brought out her beauty. He groaned inwardly wishing she didn't look so damn upset. Couldn’t the woman have any other expression right now? Sarang looked rather miserable. His eyes kept flickering to the bride on the other side of the room. He noticed that the bride, along with her group was gazing at Sarang, envying how beautiful Sarang looked right now.

Sarang didn't see this, and he kind of wished she would realized that she was too god-damn beautiful, if that was even possible. He wished she would smile, or at least look content. She was in a freaking wedding dress; shouldn't every bride be happy in their wedding dress?

“This is the one.” He heard Jinra as she was busy gawking over Sarang, along with everyone else in the room. Sarang nodded before moving over to the changing rooms.

“Not ugly, really Kris, that’s the understatement of the century.” Luhan hissed.

------

Sarang exit the shop, waving a good-bye to Jinra she began walking away. Her dress was going to be picked up a few days before the wedding, which was approaching to quickly for her liking. All the arrangements with the decoration would be done by Jinra, but Sarang would have a solid input in everything.

Sarang secretly wished that it was her mother doing this though. Her mother always said she was going to make sure her little angel had the most beautiful wedding. Sadly, neither of those things was going to come true. Her mother wasn’t the one planning her wedding, and her wedding wasn’t going to be beautiful because she was miserable.

She heard her fiancée and his friends exit the shop as she made her way down the sidewalk. She could hear Kris’s friends say something, but she wasn’t sure what it was, that was until she heard a pair of footsteps follow her.

Great. She didn’t want him following her. She just wanted to be left alone to soak in her thoughts. She knew he didn’t want to be following her. But he was because of his friends.

She thought he was still mad at her. He had barely spoken to her, not that he did before. And she was pretty sure he thought she looked hideous while she was picking out a dress. His small comment from before proved that. What did she expect from him, she knew what she was getting herself into. It was time to get use to it.

“Can I ask you something?” He mumbled as he caught up to her. He was walking right next to her.  So now he was speaking to her. “Why didn’t you tell me your parents were dead?”

She stopped moving. Her legs froze and became rooted to the cement underneath her. She turned to look at him, only to see his perfect poker face stare back at her. Images flashed through her mind. Fire, tears, pain, blood.

“You’re been looking into my past.” She confirmed and that wasn’t a question. Of course he would, especially after what she did last night. She still couldn’t figure out who he was. Maybe a gang member, maybe just another rich heir looking for a good time, though she doubts he was.  Who was Kris Wu behind all the layers he put up?

“I needed to know who I was living with.”

“You could’ve just asked.”

“No I couldn’t. You wouldn’t have answered my question; you still haven’t answered any of my questions.”

She didn’t reply because she knew he was right.

Finally forcing her legs to move she began walking towards her favorite café. The same café she had requested to meet him at a few weeks ago. 

He continued to silently follow her as she made her way inside and sat herself down in the most secluded corner. Kris sat right across from her.

She made a quick and serious decision at that moment. She needed him to stop. She couldn’t continue doing what she was doing if he was hot on her trail. She needed to throw him off or at least feed his hungering needs to find out what she was doing.

“He did something a few years ago. I was simply paying him back.” She said softly, making sure no one heard their conversation.

“Eric?”

“Yes. They say karma’s a . Well, I was simply the who put a bullet in this head.” She continued indifferently. She watched Kris for his reaction, only to disappoint herself because the man had one good poker face.

“Who else is there, I know he isn’t the only one. Who else is on your hit list?”

“Who’s on yours?” She countered. He smirked, and she wasn’t sure that this was a good thing.

“What makes you think I have one?”

“Because you’re not stupid enough to think everyone likes you, and you’re not dumb enough not to keep tabs on those who are or could become a threat to you. You’re too careful to walk around with a target on your back, so you put one on everyone else.” She answered confidently.

She was rather proud of herself for figuring out this much. Kris was the typical, cautious rich boy who wasn’t sure if people liked him for him, or for his money. She knew his type. Hell, she was the same. The only difference was that he had friends, she didn’t.

He didn’t reply back, and she knew he had hit a soft spot, or at least managed to break down a layer or two of his walls.

She let the silence soak in as her eyes wondered around. Her thoughts went back to seeing him laughing and smiling at his friends. He seemed so different then and now. It was like two different people. With his friends he seemed so relatable and warm.

She had confirmed that she liked his friends, despite knowing that maybe they weren’t the brightest bunch. They were sinners. But hey, so was she.

She felt that little raw emotion begin to resurface again.

“I’m envious of you and your friends.” She mumbled softly, she wasn’t even sure if he heard. She didn’t know when she started getting all mushy with her feelings. She casted her eyes down on the table top. 

“Are you mocking me?” He questioned. She raised her eyes back up to see Kris looking at her in disbelief. She inwardly frowns. No, she wasn’t mocking him, she thought sadly. She was freaking jealous of him. He had friends; he had people who cared about him and people who made him smile.

“Sure, I’m mocking you.” She affirmed coldly. He didn’t need to know true her thoughts. He wouldn’t care anyways.

--

“I’m envious of you and your friends?” Really, she was envious. Who would be envious? Those brats loved making fun of him and making him look like a fool.

“Are you mocking me?” He questioned. Her eyes flickered up to meet with his. Her eyes were empty endless brown orbs that remained harsh and guarded as always.

“Sure, I’m mocking you.” She answered. He sighed; sometimes he thinks that she’s purposely trying to piss him off. No, he knows she is. Maybe she just enjoys seeing him suffer; she seems like that type of person.

“What’s it like? Having friends?” She asked quietly, and he swears that he sees the purest flash of naïve innocence flash in her eyes before everything turned cold. What is it like to have friends? She can’t be serious right? He realized that she was still mocking him, of course she would be.

“Stop with your games of mockery.”

Before she could reply his phone rang, grabbing his phone he realized it was Tao’s number, and not just any number. It was the number Tao only uses when he’s dealing with EXO issues. This couldn’t be good.

“I have to go.” He stated harshly before standing up and leaving. He got to the front door of the café, before turning around and glancing in Sarang’s direction. She was facing away, blankly staring into space. What crazy thoughts were spinning in that women’s mind?