Hana's eyes caught a mirror. She peered at her refection unable to recognize herself at first glance. Her black hair sat sleekly above her shoulders. They were more voluminous than before now that they weren’t carrying the weight of their length. Her mane was parted from the side neatly and pleasantly accentuated her features. Her hair was cut shorter from the back and longer at the front. Hana swallowed taking in the transformation that was based on Yoon Rae Mi. 'I look, good!' The elegant figure smiled back at her from the mirror.

The new Hana stared back at her and she was unrecognizable! Her long hair had mercilessly been cut short. Rather than wistful misery she felt felicity creep into her almost as if she'd held a grudge against her hair this whole time and had just extracted revenge. There was a shine in her eyes, one that had never existed before and it blazed determination.

Hana then eyed her surrounding’s carefully with a hint of mistrust. Seryung browsed the clothes rails in search for something outstanding. She swooshed anything she felt was decent onto her arm and continued her search until her arm was no longer visible.

She scanned the articles on her arm carefully again discarding those she thought were unacceptable. Like this the load on her arm reduced to merely six articles of clothing. Seryung sighed at her own pickiness and hurried to the dressing rooms.

Hana regretted opening the curtain at the sound of Seryung’s voice. They had been window shopping and proper shopping and now Hana was fed up with the amount of clothes she’d tried. Seryung and rejected the majority of them saying they just weren’t right whereas Hana had believed they were fine. They’d argued about the t-shirt Hana had wanted but Seryung had immediately refused and threatened to burn it the minute they got home.

Hana had discovered more about Oh Seryung within a few hours of shopping than she would have ever known in a lifetime of being acquaintances.

Oh Seryung was an expensive girl, she preferred girlish clothes like dresses, scarves and tights when she was in a good mood and more comfortable clothes like baggy shirts and jeans paired with an expensive hoodie. Yes, Oh Seryung wore expensive hoodies too. She liked to litter herself in accessories without overdoing it and refused to wear anything except sneakers with her jeans. Her sneakers wouldn’t be the ordinary kind either, they were chunky and extravagant looking, not simply just black but black with white soles and rainbow-neon bungee laces that provided enough bounce for her to never run out of energy.

Hana groaned at the load Seryung was eagerly waiting for her to try on, they had argued over their own versions of what ‘chic’ was more than once and until the name ‘Rae Mi’ was mentioned Hana didn’t back down either.

“You brought more?!”

“Well yeah! Look at these they’re really cute.” She shoved them to Hana.

“Try them on and show me when you’re done, ‘kay.” She ushered Hana into the changing room and closed the curtains waiting in anticipation. Seryung softly tapped her foot waiting for Hana. She glanced at her crystal chained bracelet watch for the time until Hana finally emerged.

Hana watched as Seryung rejected four of the six outfits she’s personally hand picked for her. The two that remained were labeled as ‘decent,’ something she could wear while shopping for groceries. Seryung then discarded another set so only one remained because you didn’t need more than one outfit for grocery shopping.

Hana raised her eyebrow at the cream floral skirt and white, scoop necked sleeveless shirt and the heel studded high wedged white sneakers.

“Let’s go look at dresses, then we can shop for accessories!” Seryung cheered handing Hana the shopping bags.

Hana pursed her lips and pouted. “Can we not? I’m already tired and you’re not helping me carry these.”

Seryung stopped and whirled around. “Stop being a baby, we have lots of shopping to do!” She clicked her tongue and skipped backwards.

Hana shut her eyes as Seryung crashed into someone and spilled his iced coffee.

“OMG I’m so sorry!” Seryung apologized to the tall, dark stranger who was wearing sunglasses a cap.

The stranger cursed at the spilt coffee and glared at Seryung from behind his shades, “What the hell did you just do?!”

-

His familiar voice caused Seryung to stare up at him surprised, she had somehow managed to knock his coffee right out of his hands and splash onto his clothes.

“Huang Zi Tao?!” She exclaimed as he raised his head to scowl at her as he grimaced, “You’re lucky that coffee wasn’t hot!”

“I’m sooo sorry!!!” Seryung pressed her palms together in hopes of forgiveness before making a face, “Your clothes are ruined…”

“Clearly!”

Seryung shifted uncomfortably on her feet as Hana hurried over to them, “OMG Tao, are you okay?” She asked dropping her shopping bags to the ground and fussing over him.

Seryung clicked her tongue in confusion and pointed from Hana to Tao, neither of them were looking at her. Hana was insisting he buy new clothes whereas Tao was telling her not to worry.

“What’s going on?” Seryung asked waving her hand in front of Hana’s face to gain her attention. Hana paused for a moment and stared at Seryung for a moment with an expression of perplexity that told Seryung her existence had momentarily been forgotten.

“You know each other?” Seryung asked pointing from one to the other puzzled. Hana scratched the back of her head sheepishly while Tao laughed, “Yeah, we do, we’re friends from way back.” Seryung nodded uncertainly as Tao patted Hana’s head and played with her short hair.

“Isn’t this too short?” Tao asked as he fixed strayed strands.

Hana nodded and smiled as her hair bobbed along, she shook her head and giggled as her hair also moved from side to side, “It’s pretty short but I think I like it, it’s very convenient.”

“Hm… I liked them long, long hair suited you but this is okay too, I guess, I’m not used to seeing your hair short.” Tao nodded and glanced at Seryung knowingly. Seryung blinked and arched an eyebrow silently asking what he was thinking. Tao shrugged and pointed towards the shopping bags, “Are all of those yours?” He asked Hana before picking them all up, “I’ll carry them for you then. Why so much shopping? Did your wardrobe catch fire?”

Hana pouted and slapped his arm playfully. Tao feigned and injured look and the exchange informed Seryung that she didn’t belong in the painting. She shifted uncomfortably on her feet until Hana called her name, “Are you coming? Didn’t you say we’ve got dresses to buy?”

Seryung nodded and furrowed her brows questioningly at Hana, ‘Is he coming with us?’
 

Hana shrugged as Tao looped arms with her, ‘I think so…’
 

‘Why?’ Seryung asked herself feeling uncomfortably like the third wheel that was somehow being forced to join the party of two. Having a male stranger latch onto her sister-in-law’s arm, made her uneasy, Seryung stole a glance at them, they were relatively comfortable with this level of skinship but it agitated her.
 

‘Heol~ Hana’s cheating on oppa!

‘What do you think you’re doing joining them?

‘I don’t know, what are we doing? I don’t understand anything right now.

‘Why is he joining us like we’ve known each other for years?

‘They said they know each other from way back.

‘That cant be right! Someone likes someone, we just have to find out who.

‘Oh… But why??? I was starting to like Hana as a sister-in-law.

‘Yeah, you even extended your hand in friendship, like that went sooo well the first time around.

‘OMG Oh Seryung stop talking to yourself!!!

‘Oh, that looks like a nice shop, we should go there!

‘We’re not going in there? Aww, why? Why are we going the opposite way? Heol~ A guy’s shop?’
 

Seryung unlatched herself from the pair, “Why here?”
 

Tao sneered quietly, “Did you forget you spilt coffee?”
 

“Oh… Yeah…”
 

Hana looked from Tao to Seryung and smiled meaningfully to herself, ‘These two would make a cute couple!’
 

“Let’s get Tao something, not coffee stained to wear, and then we’ll continue our hunt,” Hana suggested and hurried over to a couch to sit down and relax. Seryung ran a hand over her head and pointed to Hana, “Is she always like that?”
 

Tao shrugged and handed her Hana’s shopping, “She’s your friend, you should know that much Miss. Oh,” he stated plainly and rubbed his palms together as he looked around. “Where to start?” He asked himself before he turned to Seryung, “You’re buying because you spilled, right?” Seryung’s eyes widened in surprise at the question that was more of a proclamation. She sighed deeply and nodded, “As long as it’s not over priced,” she agreed unwillingly before dragging herself to the couch to sit beside Hana.
 

“He’s asking me to pay, where did you find a friend like him, unni?” Seryung asked crossing her arms and her right leg over her left as she leaned back against the couch and surveyed Tao as he inspected clothes.

Hana shrugged and massaged her arms which had taken more abuse than they were able from carrying lots of bags, “In China, I think, we’ve known each other since we were kids, our parents are friends.”

“Do you like him? Or does he like you? There’s a weird chemistry going on and you’re both making me feel like I’m imposing on your date.” Seryung knew her interrogation was based on unfounded claims, that her head was making, but she was worried. If she managed to turn Hana into Rae Mi, then Sehun would get hurt, especially with the arrival of Tao who could be a possible candidate in Hana’s heart.
 

Hana chuckled quietly and made a face. She suspected her arms would hurt tomorrow because she’d used muscles she didn’t normally acknowledge, “Something’s going on? Really? With Tao? No way! I’m engaged, remember, I can’t cheat on my fiancé.”
 

“Yeah, I’d like to think that you wouldn’t too. What about Tao? Has he ever showed an interest in you?”
 

“Oh Seryung! Why are you suspecting us? Did you forget, I just cut my hair so I could match Sehun’s ideal type?”
 

“No, that’s not it, it’s just... Something’s off.”
 

“I think you’re imagining it. Unless… Do you like Tao?”
 

“I don’t even know him, we met once, yesterday and that was it. He knew my name… Is that because of you?”
 

“Well, I do talk about you guys with him. We’re very close but not in the way you suspect.”
 

“Okay…”

Seryung’s questions were answered but it still made her uneasy more so because a ghost had just materialized and was following Tao, making faces at clothes she didn’t like and raising a thumb at anything she approved of.

“He’s true to his word, he’s not choosing anything overpriced. I thought he would but he’s not,” the ghost informed Seryung as she peered into Hana’s shopping bags. Seryung stared at the figure as it loomed around before deciding there was nothing more to do and dematerializing.

Tao had been busy browsing the aisles until he found something he thought would be a decent choice and not a burden towards someone he didn’t know. He hated owing favors and although he’d ventured into the Gucci shop out of habit, he hadn’t anticipated on Seryung accepting such a favor but she’d had. 

Tao grimaced, clothes, fashion, shoes, nothing seemed appealing to him after the ordeals he’d gone through. His fashion sense had muted to just black and white while anything with color turned him off. He eventually selected what he wanted and wondered why Hana’s calculating friend hadn’t told him off for trying to cheat her, after all, Tao was exchanging his average clothes for designer.