16 2.3

(A/N: I apologize for the delay I've been busy in therapy. Now though, I was diagnosed with being on the autistic spectrum, which explains a lot ;;;. Also, I have a new story called Don't Leave Me Loving You, about a woman transmigrating in a novel she read before she died. https://www.wattpad.com/story/265219244-don%27t-leave-me-loving-you This Chapter in unedited. )

There's a bit of silence as Stephan grips the steering wheel.

"Third wheel? Hana-Ya, we've always been friends, the three of us." Hana looks at him, while he's focused on the road. She, herself wanted to say, 'Not since you and Areum got engaged when we were in high-school. Stuff changed them. People wondered why such a kid was hanging around as a nuisance of the campus couple.' but her words seemed to get stuck in her throat. Instead, she looked at the passing scenery. Stephan's home had been the same place, a quiet, calm neighborhood.

Despite being from a rich household, Stephan had not originally been the heir, his older brother had been. Even though him and Areum were arranged by their families to be married, there wasn't a rush for them to be married, so they'd only been formally revealed to be engaged when they both turned eighteen. He'd worked as a catalog model for uniforms for a while before deciding to go into acting.

Knowing his relationship with his mother, Hana suspected he went behind her back on getting the place. She recalled staying over his house, wrapped in a large sleeping bag whenever her and her father fought. Eating fried chicken, watching their favorite movies...

Five years her senior, she met Stephan when she was five years old. Her mother had just died, and her father went to work for a girl she knew for college--she happened to be Stephan's mom.

She remembered the summer she met his family very well.

When she was a young girl, her and her father had just moved to a Seoul suburb following the death of her mother. Hana was only four, a tiny, chubby little thing. She had her father's round, mono-lidded eyes, and her mother's button nose. She was quiet and didn't get along much with the children at her daycare.

The little girl's name was Hana, and like her namesake, was her father's, In-Sung's favorite person. It was just the two of them after his wife's death, so the two became closer. As a single father, every morning he walked and dropped his daughter at daycare--then he'd go out to do a job, probably a contracted one for a person with much more money than him.

He was thirty-years-old.

Still young, still able to do manual work.

One day, with his daughter in tow, he checked out about a job inquiry he connected with a man by the name of Ahn Dae Hyun.

The Ahn family, consisting of Chae Yoona, her husband Ahn Dae-Hyun, and their son Ahn Taehyun. She was the daughter of a wealthy man who inherited his business and married through an arrangement. She and Hana's father had attended the same college, which he ended up dropping out from. They were very good friends, despite their class differences.

They hadn't had contact after building families, sand were surprised to see each other

"Oppa!"

"Dog Poop!"

She smacked upside the head--even as a child she knew that this woman had to be pretty strong.

Yoona after hugging her former classmate and close friend tight, notices the little girl beside him.

She did indeed look like her goofy friend.

She was much younger than her son, but she decided in her heart that they'd be good friends like their parents. The boy, hidden behind his mother glances at the little girl propped up in the tall man's arms with his round cheeks flushed.

"Hello Little Hana. I'm Auntie Chae, and this is my son, Taehyun. Taehyun-Ah, say hello."

The boy squeaks out a soft hello, while the girl gives a small wave in response.

And like that, they had their first meeting,

"Ha, you still have the place you got after graduating college?"

Stephan grins, taking off his shoe and slipping into a pair of slippers.

"Seriously, why did you marry me?"

Stephan's dark eyes glance over at her from across the table, he eats the pasta she's made.

"If I didn't marry by now, I wouldn't have a standing in my father's company--plus, for the reason on why it had to be you, there's not one person at the moment that I trust more than you."