Her Uncle Yee hugged Yubin for a long full minute before releasing her. A far cry from Taec's hug at the airport.    

"Honey. You are gonna break her bones." Will chuckled at his partner rocking Yubin's small body in a long tight hug.

Uncle Yee finally released Yubin and held her shoulders for a thorough check on his niece he had not seen for 4 long years. "You have lost so much weight, Yubin!"

"In a gorgeous or non-gorgeous way?" Yubin asked her uncle as they took their seats at the table.

"Of course in a gorgeous way! You are after all a chip from the House of Jin!" Uncle Yee declared. He mostly remembered the days when Yubin was a chubby little baby till she was 14. When he had reunited with her in her early-20s, she was slightly less chubby then but now, she probably had at least lost 5kg and developed some firm abs.

"She's engaged to the Song Dynasty casino king, Yee." Will reminded his partner. "Of course your niece have to look gorgeous as the queen next to her king."

"So I heard." Uncle Yee added. "The wedding is set in 3 months?"

Yubin took a bite from her salad before quietly nodding to her uncle.

"You don't look like an ecstatic I'm-going-to-marry-a-man-every-woman-wants bride-to-be, sweetheart?" her Uncle noticed. "Is he cheating on you already?"

Yubin almost choke on her food upon her uncle's direct question. Weird thing was, she prepared herself long ago when she started dating the playboy of the casino world that he might cheat on her one day but she realized she did not care much of it. It was mostly an uncompromising business relationship where they bonded over casino management knowledge more than anything else. So she was happy as long as their business relationship continued to blossom, rather than their romantic relationship. But Seungheon seemed to have changed his playboy ways and probably loved her so she guessed that maybe one day she could love him back.

"He doesn't have time to cheat on me.. He's too busy running his casino." Yubin gave her fiance at least some benefit of the doubt.

"Oh sweetheart. That's really naive. Trust me, with you away for 2 weeks, he will get itchy very soon and look for a scratch close by." Uncle Yee added. Taec was quietly eating his food but he was enjoying every bit of Uncle Yee's honest witty relationship advice to Yubin.

Yubin laughed and shook her head at her funny uncle. He was definitely more of an auntie than an uncle and she wouldn't mind having girl talks with him. "I'll keep that in mind, Uncle Yee. Honestly, I was actually glad my fiance couldn't make it to this trip."

Uncle Yee looked surprised. "Really?" Even Taec looked surprised.

"I don't want him to get in between my family-bonding vacation." Yubin was telling the truth. She had not seen her family from the other side of the world for 4 years and Seungheon being all over her in front of her family was not going to be a comfortable sight.

Uncle Yee stared proudly at his niece who went through that sad tragedy of losing her dear parents and brother at a young age but still got through her life well with her new family. He missed his family but he chose love over his family several years ago. He could feel a sudden flush of guilty emotions building up in him.

Uncle Yee took a gulp of wine from his glass and as he tried to hold his tears. "You know, Yubin. When you didn't visit us the past 4 years, I thought it's because you hated me. And you have every right to! I was a coward! Back then, I should put family first instead of giving up everything for someone whom I fell stupidly in love with!" Her uncle added. "I wasn't there when my father died and I wasn't there when my brother died! And my niece could have died too! All this happened when I was away with that Adam in a faraway land. Because of him, I even let my father disown me! And what did Adam do? Cheated me and my money! And because I was too stubborn to go back to my father and beg for forgiveness, I wasn't the least bit aware when the enemy took everything away from my family!"

His current life partner, Will, who was a far cry from his cheating ex comforted him with gentle on his back.

"I don't hate you, Uncle Yee. I never blamed you." Yubin assured, holding her uncle's hand. "And you are now helping us so much already. You have given whatever you have to help us build the casino and you groomed Taec to this well-qualified legal advisor now. And you have Will now, who loves you dearly."

Uncle Yee started to feel better by Yubin's words. "You are right, sweetheart! You are here to enjoy a vacation and I shouldn't be a wet blanket now." he turned at Taec and asked. "Did you prepare everything at the cabin already?"

"Yup. Everything's stocked up at the cabin since yesterday... but the food would be a waste now that you and Will can't make it." Taec disclosed. When Will told him they could not go to the cabin at the last minute, Taec had mixed feelings on how he was going to spend 5 days in the holiday cabin with Yubin alone.

"Its ok, Taec. More food to feed my skinny niece then." Uncle Yee then informed Yubin. " Tomorrow, you will go on a hiking trip with Taec to this beautiful cabin Will built for me some years ago. Uncle Will and I won't be joining you guys because of a big case we are currently handling at work. Don't worry, by the time your brothers arrived here, we should be able to join you kids for the ski resort trip at the Alps."

 -----

 Taec waited outside Yubin's room for 20minutes and lost patience.

"Yub! You ready? We gotta go." He knocked on her door.

"Just a second!" Yubin announced as she pulled on her high-cut Ralph Lauren boots. She took an hour to decide what to wear for the hiking trip. She could not help it. It was after all, her first hiking trip.

Taec turned around to finally see Yubin all ready, carrying a haversack, wearing a beige winter coat with a fur hoodie and skinny cream jeans with a pair of... high cut fashion boots?

"Why are you wearing shoes for a runway show?" Taec asked her.

"What? You said BOOTS!" Yubin reminded.

"I said HIKING BOOTS!"

"These are the only boots I have and they are NOT cheap, ok. So.. they should last and endure well in a hike, trust me" She stubbornly walked past him toward the exit of the mansion.

Taec shook his head, giving up. Yubin, the rising casino queen, obviously never did hiking before and obviously did not prepare any hiking gear. Which was why he came well-prepared as he had all the hiking gear they needed. He passed her a hiking cane and Yubin stared at it curiously.

"What is this for?" She asked.

"You need it, trust me. Some parts of the hike are quite steep." Taec explained as he led the way into the woods which was not too far from the mansion.

"How long is this hike to the cabin?" Yubin asked as she pulled down her beanie to cover her cold ears, following Taec.

"2 hours." Taec revealed.

2 hours should be easy. Yubin thought to herself. She did regular exercises like pilates or evening jogs and gym 5 times a week and a 2-hour hike would not tamper her.

However, after an hour, Yubin asked for a break to rest her sore feet when she found a boulder near a frozen lake. She removed her backpack and took out a bottle of water to drink. Taec joined her as he sat next to her on the big rock, grabbing a drink as well.

"Still hanging there?" Taec asked.

"Yeah. But my feet are so sore." Yubin admitted.

"I told you those boots are not helping." he reminded her again.

"I know! You don't have to repeat that fact to me a hundred times, Taec!"

"Seriously, Yub! What have you been doing all these years besides being the casino queen? Don't you go on adventure trips with the boys once in a while? Junho and Woo loves hiking and water-rafting and I would have thought you went to at least one trip with them."

"I don't have the time for trips, Taec. This trip is considered my first in a long long time."

"Or do you only go to relaxing expensive spa trips with the boyfriend only."

Yubin stopped drinking her water and looked at Taec. How the hell did he know? Of course, the boys probably updated him on this.

"They were day-trips he wanted me to take so I could have a short break from work!" Yubin defended herself.

He did not need to hear her defend her nice and romantic fiance. "You know, you used to be more fun, Yub. Until you met him."

Was Taec jealous?

"What? I am still fun, ok! And you are just jealous!" She retorted.

Taec laughed out loud, so loud it actually looked animated to Yubin.

"Me jealous?" Taec laughed again. Too fake a laugh indeed. "Please! Look at yourself! You are all Ms Princess! I purposely left you 4 years ago and you turned yourself into a spoilt high-end brat who don't even know what a pair of hiking boots looked like!"

Yubin stared at Taec long and hard. Did he leave 4 years ago because of her?

A/N: I have already written 15 chapters so I may still update. Yet I can't be sure if I can keep this writing inspiration, as it seems like I came back from hiatus not doing that great at all.