Beep. Beep. Beep.

Park Sojin rolled over and groaned as she smacked her alarm clock a few times before it finally shut up.

The harsh sunlight from the cracks of the blinds were shining directly onto her face. She pulled the covers over her head and pressed the side of her face into the pillow.

Oh, how she loathed mornings.

Eventually cracking one bleary eye open, Sojin waited for her vision to focus on the blurry numbers.

7:27 am blinked up innocently at her.

“NOT AGAIN!” The messy haired woman shrieked as she scrambled to untangle herself from the blankets. Sojin rushed to the bathroom, knocking over the glass of water she kept by her bedside in the hurry.

Exactly seven minutes later, Sojin emerged from her room. Grabbing her bag, she ignored the rumbling in her stomach and continued to concentrate on slipping her shoes on while desperately trying to fix her hair into a somewhat decent state.

One month into her internship at Sole Mates Co. and Sojin had already overslept twice.

Pathetic, she thought.

She dashed to the bus stop half a mile away from her apartment, not daring to stop. The sounds of her uneven breathing and footfalls were all that could be heard in the early morning.

Straining her eyes, Sojin could see that the bus had not yet arrived. She would have breathed a sigh of relief had her lungs not been busy pumping back the lost oxygen into her system.

When she took the final steps to her destination, Sojin rested the length of her arm against the pole of the bus stop, allowing the heavy bag to slip off her shoulder and onto the ground. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the pole. It was moments like this where she truly wished she had more free time to hit the gym. Her recovery time was getting worse by the day.

The tinkling sound of giggles interrupted Sojin’s reverie and prompted her to turn toward its source; or sources actually. Three young girls, who looked to be related, were off in their own world as they squirmed on their bench seats.

The eldest of the three, a pretty girl with bright eyes and a heart-shaped face, was making faces at what looked to be her thirteen year old sister. However, the teenager’s face showed no signs of laughter. She simply stared back blankly at the older girl.

“Unnie, unnie! Look at me!” The third girl, presumably the maknae of the group, demanded, turning the emotionless sister’s face toward her own.

Sojin found herself stifling a chuckle as the maknae proceeded to make weird monkey screeches and wave her arms around wildly. And she wasn’t the only one amused. The middle girl’s eyes reconstructed themselves into moon crescents, her head tilting back as she chortled in mirth.

“Hah! I win again, Yura unnie. You owe me five bucks.” The little monkey impersonator stuck her tongue and hand out to her eldest sister.

Yura blew out a frustrated breath, her own hand already digging into her purse. "Pabo, Minah. Hyeri's humor is elementary material!"

"She still is in elementary school. Who's the pabo now? Anyway, maybe I just like her more than you." Minah leaned to Hyeri's side and stage whispered, "Unnie's always so bossy, ya know?"

Hyeri nodded empathically, scooting away when her sisters started wrestling.

A shrewd trill alerted Sojin to turn away from the scene and answer her phone, not realizing that the ringing also attracted the attention of someone else.

"Yoboseo?"

"Sojin-ah! Where are you? Why aren't you here yet?! Hurry up!" The questions currently being fired at her came from her friend and co-worker, Eunji.

"Aish, calm down. I just overslept. Again." Sojin couldn't hear the next words Eunji spewed because people were starting to shuffle over to the bus stop. "The bus is coming, I'll be there soon. Cover for me, please? I owe you!"

Sojin hung up and began to board the bus. Strangely, though, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched.

It was her. It had to be her.

Yura steadied herself on the grab handle after the bus had lurched forward unexpectedly. She was only half listening to her sisters argue about the superiority of red bean versus mung bean, her focus on the dark-haired woman sitting near the front of the bus instead.

She looked so much like her physically; the baby face, the almond eyes ‒ even the nose was exactly the same.

Yura glanced at their "babysitter" and rolled her eyes. The chic woman was sleeping with open, a fashion magazine resting on her lap. While Yura still couldn't understand how her dad entrusted the lady to bring her and her sisters to Seoul for a surprise visit for their aunt, Yura knew that this could definitely work to her advantage.

"Listen," Yura said, stopping her sisters' debate midway. "Do you guys trust me?"

The bus finally screeched to a halt. As the driver opened the doors, an influx of people commuting to work boarded the bus while a number of passengers got off.

Sojin was among those who had arrived at her destination. She had remembered her manners and quickly thanked the bus driver but booked it out of there as soon as she could.

Unbeknownst to her, three figures followed closely behind.

The sidewalk was packed with many citizens occupied with rushing to their own work or school. Sojin tried to avoid bumping into others, making a sidestep here and a quick dodge there.

Unfortunately, she made the mistake of checking her phone for the time while simultaneously power walking. A high schooler looking at his own phone crashed right into her.

"I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" The gangly boy didn't even bother to say anything, choosing instead to brush off the dirt from his uniform and continue on his way. Sojin, however, was stuck trying to collect the papers that had flown out of her bag when they collided. They were strewn all over the ground.

People were stepping around the sheets, or in some cases, on them, but nobody made an effort to help.

Yura frowned from her hiding spot behind a cutout sign of SNSD's Im Yoona.

"I feel so bad for her," Minah pouted. "Can we please go over there and help?"

"Not yet. I still need to figure out the right time to approach her," Yura responded. She suppressed her own desire to help the woman.

Hyeri was getting uncomfortable from being squished against the building. Her two sisters were taking most of the room to spy on the young woman. She whined, "Think faster. Minah unnie's shoulder is cutting off my circulation."

A sudden snap of Yura's fingers was heard as she victoriously gasped, "Look at the bag ‒ that's our way in."

Minah squinted, trying to read the small logo on the front. "So...Sole Mates Co.? Hey, isn't that Uncle's company?"

"Ladies, this plan just got a whole lot easier." Yura grinned.

Yura, Minah, and Hyeri ambled over to the familiar receptionist desk in the main lobby.

A large man typing away at the computer glanced up at the three. His fingers stopped their clacking as he exclaimed, “Well, look who finally decided to show up! You guys here to see your uncle?”

“Hello, Gil ajussi!” The trio chorused. “Is he in his office right now?”

“He should be. Go ahead and make your way upstairs. You know where everything is.”

Waving their goodbyes, they took the elevator to the highest floor of the building. Their uncle wasn’t in the room yet, probably taking a short break.

Hyeri occupied herself by spinning around on the fancy swivel chair while Minah was running her hands along the spines of the leather books in the bookshelf.

Yura paced back and forth anxiously. Now that it was time to put her plan into action, she was suddenly nervous. She only hoped that her uncle’s open mindedness would work in their favor.

Footsteps could be heard along the corridor before their uncle appeared in the doorway with a cup of his favorite Americano coffee in hand. He almost choked on the drink when he noticed his nieces greeting him cheerily from their various spots in his office.

“Eh! You guys almost gave me a heart attack!” Nevertheless, Kang Gary gave his favorite nieces ‒ his only nieces really ‒ a warm hug. It had been almost a year since he had seen them. He situated himself on the red armchair reserved for his client, insisting that Hyeri continue to have fun with his desk chair.

“So what brings you all here? I thought we were scheduled to meet at my house later. I was just about to leave the office, too.”

Minah and Hyeri peered at the leader of the whole scheme, waiting for her to answer on behalf of them.

“Uncle Gary…” Yura faltered. She tried to think of the right way to word her next phrase.

“I think I found our unnie.”

An uncomfortable silence followed. Yura could feel a bead of sweat forming at her temple.

Moments passed before Gary finally spoke up. “Yura, you and I both know that she’s gone. Your sister hasn’t been seen for seventeen years,” he emphasized. It was a tragedy the whole family rarely spoke of since that fateful day.

“I realize that it’s hard to believe,” Yura argued. “But I know it’s her this time. For sure. My heart tells me that she’s the one.”

Gary creased his eyebrows. “You can’t assume something based on what you feel‒”

“Yes, you can.” It was time to pull out the big guns. “You pursued Aunt Jihyo for three years before she agreed to go out with you. Tell me that you didn’t trust your own heart all that while.”

Their uncle rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “That was my own choice to risk my heart though. I don’t want to see you guys getting hurt again.”

“We’ll hurt even more if we’re prevented from going after the truth.” Yura stood in front of her uncle and crossed her arms. “This gut feeling can only be proved with your help.”

“Pleeeaaase, Uncle!” Minah begged. She had never seen her sister this determined before and her investment in finding their lost sister increased further. She was sure Hyeri felt the same.

Gary thought it over. Would he shelter them from the pain that was bound to come, or let them pursue that slim chance of happiness?

He knew what he would do.