“Honey….”

“Honey… wake up…”

She squinted her eyes when she feels something soft on her cheek. Hye Ran then smiled upon seeing her mom sitting by her side.

“Umma.. Good morning..”

With that messy hair, she changes her position from sleeping to sitting position. “I feel so sleepy. Yesterday got 2 surgeries.” She complained with her eyes still closed. Mrs. Park slowly shook her head and smiled.

“I bet you forgot your appointment with your friend. He has been waiting for almost half an hour. Are you going anywhere today?”

When she heard her mom said, she quickly sits up straight and yells! “OMG!!! I TOTALLY FORGOT!!” She took the towel and quickly dashed into the bathroom. “Umma, please tell him that I will be down in 15 minutes. NO! Make that 13 minutes!!”

“I’ll be dead meat!” She said before stepping under the shower.

Mrs. Park smiled widely and helps to make her bed. She then closed the door and went downstairs. “Young guy, please, have a seat. Unfortunately, she forgot her appointment today. She will be down in 15 I guess.”

ChangMin smiled and land himself on the couch. “No worries. We are not rushing though.” He takes a look around the living room and stop when he saw Mrs. Park is staring at him. “Mrs. Park, is there anything on my face?” He touched his face.

“No.” She let out a smile. “Are you Hye Ran boyfriend?” Now is ChangMin turns to smile. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m just her friend. Where are the others?”

“They already went to work. 3 of them got early schedule today.” Mrs. Park then looks up to the flight of stairs. “Where are you going actually?”

“We are going to my hometown. I got some business there and need Hye Ran to assists me.”

By the time he replied, Hye Ran is coming down while brushing her long hair and swiftly tied it into ponytail. “Umma, I will be going now. Bye!” She walked to the door and immediately stops when she notices someone at the living room.

Mrs. Park and ChangMin stand up. “Hye Ran ah, how you want to go if the driver is right here?”

Her umma pointed to the young pilot there and Hye Ran dropped her bag. “ChangMin sshi? Wait, I thought…..”

“I explained it to you later.” He immediately stopped her. He then turned to Mrs. Park. “We will be going first.” He bowed and grabs Hye Ran bag on the floor. Hye Ran went forward and hugs her mom. “We might stay there ok.” Mrs. Park kissed on the cheek of her daughter and look at them both enter ChangMin car before she going inside her house.

“So, now tell me. Why are you the one taking me? Doesn’t this suppose to be YunHo job?” She questioned once they both step into the car. ChangMin starts the engine and fasten his seatbelt before hit on the pedal. “His parent wants him to be in Seoul today. They got some family business. He asked me to take you as you only free for today and tomorrow.”

She nodded her head. “Still, he needs to informed me. Luckily, I met you before. If not then I will not going anywhere.” ChangMin looks at her, “you know me before you knew YunHo.” He mumbled.

When they are in silenced, listening to the radio DJ talks about random news, she feels her phone vibrate. “Finally, a word from him.” The driver besides her slightly looking at her and let out a smile. “You know, you didn’t change at all. In the past, after waiting for so long for his letter, you will say the same thing.” 

“I’m sorry I didn’t fulfill my promise. I got something to do with my parent. Have a good day with ChangMin. And Hye Ran, whatever ChangMin tell you after this, I hope you can calmly accept it.”

She reads it and look at ChangMin. “It seems you have something to tell me.” She showed him her phone and all ChangMin mutters is, “YunHo you pabo!”

“Umma, you better have something that extremely important for making me stay here instead of hanging out with ChangMin.” YunHo walked down to the living room. Mrs. Jung who flipped the magazine just now smiled when she heard YunHo voice.

“Get ready; we are going out in 5 minutes.” She walks to the door, “I’ll wait for you in car.”

YunHo sighed and walked up to his door. After satisfied with his simple attire, he walked down and told the maid to lock the house before he hops into the car. “Where are we going?”

“Bridal store.”

“But why?” He confusedly looks at his mother. “Are you going to buy yourself a wedding gown?” YunHo chuckled on his own joke and even the driver suppressed his laugh. “No stupid!” His mom pinched his right arm. “You are meeting your future wife.”

YunHo widened his eyes. “Since when do I agreed to this wedding? Umma.. listen, I….” His mom cuts off, “No, you listen.. I want Shin Hye be my daughter in law, no matter what.”

He keeps his mouth shut. Shin Hye and Hye Ran face is in his mind now. Although he hasn’t made the decision yet, but what if Shin Hye is not his answer? He looks at his mom who is talking at the phone and stared out of the window.

“There’s anything I can do anyway….”

Tired listening to the boring DJ on the radio, he pressed another number and the radio changes to another radio station. Unsatisfied, she takes control of the number instead. She keeps pressing the number and the sound inside the car like broken record player.

“Yah!” ChangMin pushed away her hand from the panel. “What are you doing? Molesting my radio?”

She giggled. “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing interesting on the radio.” She puffed her cheek and stared out the window. The traffic light turns red and ChangMin took this chance to open the dashboard where he puts all the cd he bought. He found the one and slid it into the cd player. He hit on the pedal after the lights turns green.

Hye Ran who intends to close her eyes quickly widened her eyes after she hears the very familiar melody in the car. She turns her head to ChangMin and smiled, “You like them too?”

He laughed a bit, “Come on Hye Ran, it’s westlife, everybody loves them. I also knew you like them since you 10.” ChangMin then starts to sing along to the song. Soon after that, Hye Ran joined him.

“You’re great~” He said it in English and soon after that they are laughing out loud because after that, ChangMin voice cracked.

“Umma, I already tried on so many dresses but nothing comes to my likes.” Shin Hye plopped on the couch beside her mom in the bridal store. “It’s better if I designed it for myself.”

Mrs. Park turns to her, “are you sure you can finish it before next month?”

“Actually, I already done with the designed. I just need to make it.” Shin Hye blushed. Mrs. Park looks at her disbelievingly, “and tell me again why we are here?” She then stands up, Shin Hye joined her. But when they both walk to the door, Shin Hye saw her future mother in law and future husband are walking towards the shop.

“Umma, they are here.” She tugs her mom handbag and Mrs. Park quickly turns around, facing the door. “Hello Mrs. Jung.” She bows.

“Anneyonghaseyo omonim.” Shin Hye bows and that surprised YunHo because she already called his mom, omonim. “There’s no turning back…” He thought.

YunHo bows to Mrs. Park too. He then slightly smiled upon his eyes met with Shin Hye’s.

“So, are you done with the dress?” Mrs. Jung asked while looking around the shop. “I think the design is nothing near to your preferences am I right?” Shin Hye looked up and smiling brightly. “How did you know omonim? I end up choosing my own design.” She takes a look at YunHo but the quickly pouts her lips when she realized he keeps on looking around the shop.

“We got the same high taste.” Her future mother in law drags her, “come, we go see other preparation.” Mrs. Park follows the two and YunHo sighed. “I can’t believe this is the reason I’m not going to GwangJu with her.”

He turns around after Mrs. Jung asked her driver to honk the man for a few times.

“I’m coming~”

Another 2 hours, they will arrive to GwangJu. Their own private westlife concert has already end half an hour ago. ChangMin take a glances at the young doctor beside him and almost instantly, all the memories of them 3 gushing into his mind. He never told anyone that actually he have crush on Hye Ran at the first day Hye Ran register at his school but after that, he learned that YunHo and Hye Ran like each other. Choose to not letting his feeling get in the way his friendship with YunHo, he make the decision to forget his feeling.

She is playing with her PSP before she realizes that ChangMin is constantly glancing at her. “What is it? Do I have something on my face?” still not taking her eyes off her blue PSP, she asked.

ChangMin chuckled upon hearing the question. “No. I just feel weird why you are not sleeping at all. We still got 2 hours before we reach GwangJu highway. But you keep singing and playing your PSP non stop.”

Hye Ran pause her game and looked at him. “2 hours of sleeping is not enough for me.” ChangMin laughed. “ChangMin sshi, what are we doing in GwangJu anyway?”

“Please, call me Senior Shim like you always do in the past.” He saw Hye Ran nodded her head before continues, “I’m going to take you to our high school and try to find the reason why you can’t remember me and YunHo. But, you can remember Shin Hye. That’s really weird.”

She silenced down. This thing is bugging her too recently. These few days, she keeps having few dreams at a house where she is laughing with 2 elders that she didn’t know. She never once had those dreams before; it only does after she met with ChangMin and YunHo. Talking about house, she remembered she manage to grabs the picture of house in GwangJu where YooChun had accidentally left on the floor last few nights. She grabs her bag and searched for it.

“What are you searching for?” ChangMin asked.

“Since we are going to GwangJu, can we go somewhere too?” She found the house and looked at the address behind the picture. “Where?” ChangMin saw she is holding a picture. “What is that?”

He tries to grabs it but Hye Ran smacked his hand. “Focus on the road.” She receives a glare from ChangMin and she reads out the address. “I know that place. Sure, we can go there too if you want.”

They finally saw the big sign of GwangJu after 6 hours of driving, ChangMin pulled over when he arrived at the address where Hye Ran had mention before. “From the look in the picture, this is definitely the right place.” Hye Ran gets out from the car and bends down forward to do some stretching. They both now are standing in front of the beautiful lake house. The house is really big and beautiful. With the beautiful lake behind the house, they really mesmerized by it. Hye Ran confirms the house and massaged her neck and look at ChangMin massaged his too. Since he is taller than her, she asked him to bends down a little to make their height equal. “What?” He asked while facing her.

“I know you are tired.” She then massaged ChangMin neck. “Thanks.” They both smiled towards each other. They are massaging each other neck when suddenly there’s an old woman opens the gate. Surprised, they both stop and focus on the old lady. The old lady throws the garbage and surprised when she saw the two are looking at them. She squinted her eyes but realizes she still couldn’t clearly see them. She puts her specs that she hangs on her shirt and smiled happily. “Miss Hye Ran, you are back!” She throws her arms around Hye Ran and hugs her. Hye Ran who is dumfounded returns the hug back as her scent is somehow familiar. ChangMin who is standing there smiled upon the scene. By the way the old lady called her; he bet she is her old maid.

“Let’s go inside.” The old lady pulled Hye Ran hand and ChangMin quickly locked his car before follow the two. Once they entered the big house, Hye Ran suddenly remembered the dreams she had before. She scanned the room and confirmed to herself that this house is indeed in her dreams before.

The old lady brings 3 glass of water from the kitchen and sits beside Hye Ran while ChangMin takes a sit across of them. By the time the old lady holds Hye Ran hands, tears already forming in her eyes. “I miss you Miss Hye Ran. It’s almost 14 years of not seeing you. You grow up beautifully.” She once again hugs Hye Ran. “Are you coming back here for good? I’m sad how Master Park and Madame Park died but…..”

ChangMin stops her, “What do you mean Mr. Park and Mrs. Park died?” He looked at her and Hye Ran looked both of them confusedly. “You didn’t know? Last 14 years, there’s a scene in this house. The owner of this house, Master Park and Madame Park was killed.” She wiped away her tears.

ChangMin then try to recall his memories but failed. The old lady stands up and walked to the wooden book shelves at the fireplace. She reached out a few pieces of paper and hand it to ChangMin. “Here. The media is talking about this for almost 5 months since my master is quite a business man here.” He took it and read the old newspaper article. “That is them? I never knew…. Then how come you lost contact with Hye Ran?” He asked still not leaving his eyes from reading the article. “Miss Hye Ran best friend family willing to adopt her and therefore, to avoid Miss Hye Ran remembers about it, they moved to Seoul.”

Realized she had talked too much, she covers . ChangMin puts the article on the coffee table and look at Hye Ran. She sits there straightly, trying to digest what had she heard just now. “What do you mean that I was adopted? I’m their biological child.” She stands up. ChangMin hold her wrist, “please sit down. Remember what I told you before? I need to know why you only remember Shin Hye but not me and YunHo.” She gave up and sits. He turns his attention to the old lady. “Please ahjumma, if you know anything, please tell us.”

“YunHo oppa, how about this?” Shin Hye showed him a dress. YunHo yawned and nodded his head. “Anything looks good on you Shin Hye ah.” He commented and looks at his watch. If he is saying it for the first time, she would smiling like crazy but he already said it for hundreds time, since the time she choose her second dress. “Oppa, you keep saying that.” Feeling embarrassed with the saleswoman that keep following her, she left YunHo alone in the store. He saw that and quickly followed her.

“Where are we going next?” YunHo looked around the floor to see which store Shin Hye haven’t step in yet. The elders left them both to shopping for wedding and off to enjoy themselves with a spa treatment.

“Home!” She pouted her lips and walks ahead of YunHo, of course he didn’t see that. “Really?? Yahoo!!” He can help but yelp in excitement. She turns around, “Are you really that happy?”

Feeling guilty, he stops from laughing and walks to her. “Okay okay. Tell me, where you want to go? I will not saying the same answered I gave you for the last 3 hours.”

Shin Hye smiled and grabs YunHo hands, “Let’s go over there.”

Although he was surprised with his parent decision, but Shin Hye is innocent, he thought. There is no way YunHo wants to hurt her. If it his responsible to married to Shin Hye then he can’t help it. One of the reasons he agreed to it because he can’t be sure with Hye Ran.

Hye Ran stared into the picture that hanging on the wall. The picture consists of 3 person, 2 of them are people that claimed to be her biological parent and the small her sitting between them both, smiling happily. ChangMin clears his throat when he saw that. She turned around and saw him. “Go shower first, we continue this after dinner. Ahjumma back to her house for a while but she already prepared the dinner for us.” She tried to flashes him her smile, but ChangMin stops her. “Ahjumma said your room is on the right.”

She nodded her head and climbed up the stairs. They both decided to spend at Hye Ran house as they want to know the behind story. Along the stairs, there are many pictures of her and her parents. From the first step, she saw the baby version of her and when she reached the top of the stairs, a picture of 12 years old of her is shown. The wall practically shows the time of her growth, from a cute baby until the small young lady. She saw the room ChangMin said earlier and take a deep breath before she twist the door knob.

She surprised to see the neat room. In the room, she can see 2 fancy book shelves that full of books and some type of books she couldn’t recognize. She walks towards them and take out a book that she didn’t recognize. “Manga…” She said above whispers.

She put it back and scanned the room. She then saw a tall wardrobe. Using her both hand, she opens it and revealed many clothes that maybe belongs to hers. All of them are young girl clothes. She then squats down to slide out the drawer. “Little girl …” She smiled.

Hye Ran stands up and lied on the bed. “What happen? It’s like I don’t recognize who I am already.” She changes her position and takes out her pajamas. “Oh no, I forgot to bring the towels.” She stands up and looks around the room. Unconsciously, she walks towards the wardrobe and opens the top drawer. She takes out the towel and walks to the bathroom.

While she is having her shower upstairs, ChangMin is reading thoroughly the article once again. “The couples are murdered by the thief that tried to robbed their house but fortunately, their daughter is safe. Rumours said that their daughter will be staying with her best friend instead send her to the orphanage.” ChangMin then scanned around the house. “Her family is quite wealth.” He takes out his phone and dialed up his best friend, Jung YunHo.

“Yoboseyo?”

“It’s me. What are you doing?”

“Having dinner with Shin Hye. Why?” Shin Hye signaling him that she is going to the washroom.

“Yahh! You told me you got family business. Then why are you with her?” ChangMin stands up.

“She is soon to be my family.” YunHo takes a sip of water.“How’s GwangJu?”

“What do you mean she is soon to be your family?”

“I’m marrying her next month how’s GwangJu? You know the reason yet?”

“You know what, I’m not telling you. Is you the one who should be busy with this kind of thing not me. It’s not like me who exchanged letters with her in the past.”

Before YunHo can say anything, ChangMin hangs up.

“Oppa, what’s wrong?” Shin Hye who came back from the toilet sits in front of him.

“Nothing.” 

He throws his phone on the couch and frowned. “What does he thinking? Accepting the marriage? Then what about Hye Ran?” he is too busy with himself until he didn’t realized Hye Ran is already standing beside him. “What about me?” She leaned in and asked. Because ChangMin didn’t realized her before, he jumped a bit and hit Hye Ran shoulder, Hye Ran who didn’t stand properly already closed her eyes as she knows in any minute, her will kissing the floor, however ChangMin is quicker, he manages to put his arms around Hye Ran waist. Unfortunately, ChangMin lost his balance and they both end up falling on the couch with Hye Ran on top. “Ouch…” She winced in pain and when she opens her eyes, she then realized the distance of their face is really near as she can feel the breath coming out from ChangMin on lips. Both of them blinked towards each other.

“Are you planning to get up or not?” He asked. Hye Ran laughed awkwardly and stands up. “I’m sorry.” He smiled to her, “Don’t worry, are you hurt?” ChangMin stands up. “Nope…” She shook her head.

“Come, let’s have dinner.”

When they are having their dinner, suddenly ChangMin’s phone rings. He takes a look at the caller ID and scoffed angrily. “Why are you not picking it up?” Hye Ran stuffed the kimchi inside . “I just don’t feel like to answer it.”

She shrugged her shoulder and they continue to eat and during that time, YunHo keeps calling. The phone is still ringing by the time Hye Ran finished washing the dishes. Feeling very irritated, she picks it up before ChangMin can stop her.

“YAH!! Why you getting angry at me? Why you feel so mad at me after knowing that I will be getting married to Shin Hye?” YunHo keep talking and didn’t realize the other person had already hung up.

ChangMin look at her, “what does he wants?” Hye Ran is surprised, but she quickly composed herself. “He asked why you are angry at him after knowing he will be getting married to Shin Hye unnie?” ChangMin widened his eyes. He wants to explain to her when suddenly the old lady opens the door.

“I will tell you both the truth.” She said while holding an envelope.

ChangMin and Hye Ran stared at the envelope before the old lady comes with 3 cups of tea. She sits beside Hye Ran and holds her hand. “Actually, I don’t know what happen because I was on leave on that day. But what I do know is that day Miss Hye Ran wants to go out to meet her friend, but she saw 2 thieves robbing this house. Maybe she went upstairs and told her parent, and then Master Park and Madame Park went downstairs to check. In few minutes, they were killed by the thieves. Miss Hye Ran ran to Miss Shin Hye house and asked for help. Master Park and YooChun sshi came later to confirm and they called the police.” Hye Ran eyes already filled with tears. ChangMin stands up and sits beside her. She takes his hand and holds it tightly.

“Since that day, I never see Miss Hye Ran, I only know her news from Master Park. One day, Miss Hye Ran was rushed to the hospital because she was hit by the car.” The old lady stands up and ChangMin puts his arms around Hye Ran body. “YooChun sshi took her to the hospital and Master Park told me to take care of this house because few years after that they are moving to Seoul to start a new life.”

“Why after few years?” ChangMin asked.

“Because Miss Hye Ran lost her memories about what happen before. She doesn’t remember anyone. So, Master Park wants Miss Hye Ran remembered it for herself but after she graduates, she still couldn’t remembers who is she. Coincidentally Miss Shin Hye and Miss Hye Ran got the offer to further study in Seoul, so Miss Shin Hye and family move to Seoul. That’s all I know. I’m supposed to hide this but seeing Miss Hye Ran like this is killing me.”

The old lady holds Hye Ran hand, “I’m sorry Miss Hye Ran.”

Hye Ran continues to sob and hold tightly to ChangMin hand. After a while, the old lady excused herself to going back her house. ChangMin offered to send her home but she refused. She asked him to take care of Hye Ran.

“Thanks for telling us ahjumma.” He bows.

“It’s my duty.” The old lady closed the door.

“Come, I take you to your bedroom.” ChangMin holds her wrist and slowly pulled her to her bedroom.

He tucked her in and ready to leave as suddenly Hye Ran holds his hand. “Can you sleep with me? I… I don’t know…..”

“Hush hush…” ChangMin sat on the bed. “Ok, I will. Don’t think too much Hye Ran. It’s late, we both should get a good sleep and if you want, we can talk about this tomorrow.” Hye Ran nodded her head and closed her eyes. 

Morning comes and she was disturbed by the sun rays, feeling irritated, she wakes up and scanned the room. The memory of last night came to her mind and almost instantly her mood changes. Hye Ran looked beside her and saw no one. “Where is senior Shim?”

She looked in front of her and saw that tall man is sleeping on the couch across the bed. Sure that is a comfy couch but with the height of him, only his body able to fit on the couch, while his legs are sticking out. “Thanks Senior” She smiled when she saw the sleeping face of him. “What time is it?” She turned to her bedside table and saw her iPhone. After touched the display, her eyes immediately fills with tears.

YooChun had called her last night for many many times. Maybe ChangMin put it on silence mode to avoid waking her up. She doesn’t know how she should face her family now when she already know the truth. The phone suddenly vibrates and she saw the called ID.

“Oppa….” She said above whispers.

“You want to answer that?” She jumped a bit when she realized ChangMin is standing beside her. “I don’t have anything to talk to him.” She touched the display and switch off her phone. “I don’t know how to face them all. It’s better if I avoid them today.”

He smiled. “Do what you think best for you araso.” He ruffled her hair. “Oh yeah, I found this under your bed. It’s really dusty.” He takes out something under the bed and showed it to her. “Seems like you hid it pretty well. Even ahjumma didn’t saw it.” Hye Ran stands up and sits on the floor. “Is it mine?”

“Of course. Who else?” He too sits on the floor. She takes the lid and surprised with the things inside it.

“Our picture.” They both mumbled.