APOV

It was almost four and Barom hadn't arrived yet. I was kind of hoping he was joking about the party thing. It really did made my heart flutters about this but when mother told me that the Yu family were going to be at this house around six o'clock, the butterflies in my stomach had turned into unidentified creatures who ate my stomach walls. Ugh I hate that goddamn son of a gun.

I lay down onto the king-sized matress. It was fluffy and comforting in a way but those traits weren't able to outstand my current emotions. I tossed and turned and again, hoping that all of this was just a dream. I pinched myself and found out that it was the harsh reality I'm currently facing and it hurts a lot. After a few more moments of behaving irrationally, I went to the bathroom and took a shower. Afterwards I found myself standing in front of my closet. There were too many pretty dresses but too little time to choose as when I took a glance at the clock, I had to take a double take. It was five thirty. My eyes widened and I hastily took a classic white dress. I put some light make-up on my face and went on to do my hair. It took the remaining thirty minutes for me to get ready and I was just in time for the dinner party.

I grabbed the appropriate pair of shoes that matched with my dress and darted towards the living room. I stumbled when I ran down the stairs as I tried to put my heels on. I did had the feeling of nearly falling for a few times but I managed to maintain my momentum. As I reached the front door, I heard the bell rang twice. Mother hollered at me to open the door as she was busy in the kitchen. I grunted and started to wonder where were my father and that stupid brother of mine.

"Hello Ahreum! My goodness. Is that really you? Look at how much you've grown! The last time I saw you was when Rome brought you home after you cried a lot when your precious necklace was gone," Mrs. Yu chuckled. I felt a hot flush spread on my cheeks and so did Barom. He hissed at his mother to stop talking about that moment. To be honest, I still remembered that day until now even though it was weird in a way.

Flashback

"Stop crying Ahreum." Barom comforted me. It was almost evening and night soon fell. I lost the necklace father gave me as a gift. He told me to take good care of the necklace as if it was something precious that I valued so much. Now I failed him. Tears streamed down from the corner of my eyes continuously.

"I failed him Rome. I failed him."

He didn't replied anything but he moved away from me. I thought he was leaving me alone but instead he continued to search for the necklace until it was around nine o'clock. When he came back to me, he shook his head and gave me a sad face. I started to cry again but this time, Barom hugged me. He wrapped his arms around me and lead me to his house. Mrs. Yu was the first person who saw me in the dreadful condition and motioned me to go to the living room. She called my mother to tell her I was in the Yu residence.

By the time my father had arrived to pick me, I avoided to have any eye contacts with him. I felt guilty. The necklace was white gold and it had a butterfly charm. I was so depressed about the necklace that I felt I wanted to tear up again. I excused myself to the bathroom and looked through the mirror. My eyes were red and swollen. My hair was tangled and a mess no matter how much I tried to make them look nice. I washed my face with water and smiled at the mirror. Everything is going to be OK, I thought. I was in the midst of drying my hand with a tissue paper when there was a gentle knock at the door. As I opened the door, I saw nobody but a small plain box with a little piece of paper stuck on top of the box.

Ahreum,

I found this necklace when I walked outside to the backyard. I guess it fell off from your neck when we were playing tag earlier.

Rome.

I smiled. He found the necklace and I felt eternally grateful for it.

End of Flashback

I invited the Yu family inside. As the three people already went inside, Mrs. Yu darted towards the kitchen to help my mother while Mr. Yu sat down beside my father and started to talk about how time had gone so fast and bla bla bla. Meanwhile, Barom was standing beside Junho, who was helping my mother to set up the dining table. On the other hand, I was sorting the wine glass on the table and sometimes, I caught Barom was glancing at me. I gave him my death glare and mouthed at him to continue his job. He did obeyed my orders but I still saw him glancing even more at me.

As soon as the dinner had commenced, I observed a peculiar pattern of seatings. I found out that the seatings were arranged just like the last time but only with a little bit of a change. Rome sat directly in front of me which made me uncomfortable everytime I shifted. It really felt like he got security cameras at every angle. Every single time when I looked front, Barom winked at me. I almost spit my red wine out when I felt something rubbed my calf. I glared at him and a smirk crept across his mouth.

After the dinner, everything else was going well except for Junho who excused himself to go to sleep early as he had to do some important work on the next day. We decided to sit at the living room and talked about various of things. Life, marriage, friends and other things. When the atmosphere was heated up with -content conversation, I hurried myself to the backyard as I felt disgusted even though I am legally an adult. As I bent down to smell the sweet scent of the flowers scattered at the garden, I heard the sliding door opened. I thought it was Junho (as he was so good in sneaking out without detection) but I changed my mind when I heard somebody wolf-whistled me.

"You're smoking hot tonight babe," He stated with amusement in his voice.

"Nobody asked for your opinion Rome." I started to walk away but he blocked my way.

"I see you still wore the necklace I found," He stared at the stunning necklace wrapped elegantly around my neck. I looked at the charm for a moment and looked straight at him. He was looking back at me as well. I blushed as I never looked at him this close and I got to say, he looked kind of cute. I absent-mindedly stared into his dark brown eyes. They were so deep that I wanted to dive in. Wait. What am I thinking?

"Um I got to go," I said awkwardly.

"Wait,"

"What now?"

"Why do you walked out from the talk? It was a good topic," I rolled my eyes. He didn't know that I clearly hated that type of conversation.

"I'm just not comfortable with that kind,"

"Well. That's what we're going to do anyways when we're married and it all starts with this,"

He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me into a kiss. My eyes went wide, clearly I was caught off guard. His lips somehow radiated some warmth which spreaded across my lips. He broke the kiss and smiled at me. My cheeks turned rosy and I felt the hot and cold sensation all over my body.

"See? That wasn't so bad," He said as he walked his way back the living room, leaving me think like a fool.

It's applecandy- again and I wanted to say sorry for not updating.

I've been busy these week and I couldn't make any time to continue the story.

Since I didn't have anything to do today, I decided to make this! :)

Again, I'm sorry for the slightly rated M content in this chapter.

Because honestly, I feel weird to add it in (but I did anw lol)

So I hope you enjoy this chapter! :D

Until next time, bye-bye~