Two chapters in one day! I'm feeling pretty pumped for this. n_n

And no spoiler for answering this question: Yes, I am planning on using the rival children. =)

Engaged

"Congratulations!" Mayor Hamilton shook the quiet girl's hand. She smiled warmly in return. Her fiancé shook the mayor's hand in his usual business-like manner. "Please sit! Let's get this happy occasion all sorted out, shall we?"

From across the room at the filing cabinet, Gill looked up. He couldn't contain his surprise. Jin was getting remarried? Already?

Mayor Hamilton brilliantly concealed his thoughts on the subject as he went about in his usual, bumbling manner. He hummed to himself as he scrolled down the calendar with his index finger, looking at dates in late summer and early autumn.

"Do you two have a specific date in mind?" The mayor smiled up at the pair.

Jin looked to his young bride for an answer. "I don't mind; what would you prefer?"

Anissa blushed, still nervous about having a fiancé. She was still nervous having people speak directly to her. Her problem was never timidity – it was simple invisibility. No one had given her a second thought. And then Jin came along.

"Um… I suppose I don't mind. Whatever works out best for you…" She addressed him indirectly, still clumsy and trying to avoid pet names and terms of endearment. She wasn't sure she wanted to use those anyways.

The man wasn't even divorced!

Hamilton voiced his son's thoughts a moment later. "Would early autumn be good enough? The annulment papers should arrive within the next month; should be plenty of time before summer's end if you're… eager."

God, Father… You're hopeless.

Gill's humiliation could be felt across the room and Anissa turned pink. She couldn't look at Jin.

"That should be fine—"

"Wait!" Anissa spoke up. All three men stared from her sudden outburst. Red in the face, Anissa tried to explain. "I just changed my mind…! Would it be alright with you if we… had a winter wedding? I've always thought it would be beautiful…"

Jin smiled at her. Anissa was so adorable – for all her practicalities.

"Then we would like to schedule a wedding in winter. Anytime would be fine as long as there's snow."

Anissa smiled, genuinely excited. Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad…

Her parents had more or less forced her into this. It wasn't the dream proposal she had imagined since she was a little girl. It was quite the opposite really. Anissa almost wanted to decline.

She remembered how her stomach fell. Like a rock.

When a girl pictures her marriage proposal, most do not picture a confrontation with her parents first, getting the news through them, and much less from her boss. It was all very awkward for her. Anissa always admired her employer, but she never took any romantic interest in him. Heavens, he was her boss! And the Goddess knows how shocked she was to discover he fancied her. It was worse than coming home to discover your favorite pet died. It was that same sorrow and shock only now it was combined with awkward explanations and confessions that didn't exist. It had been so terrible!

But her parents, especially her mother, were fervent to take this opportunity.

"But, Mother! He's my employer! I could never-!" Anissa stammered in the back room of Marimba Farm. Jin had proposed his thoughts yesterday before her parents and would be at the door any moment for her answer.

"Now don't be ridiculous." Her mother quipped.

"Listen, Anissa, your mother is right." Craig said, his wife nodding slowly beside him, her mouth a grim line. "Dr. Jin is a very fine young man."

"But the scandal—"

"Don't speak of that." Her mother cut her off before she could get another word out. "The doctor has nothing to do with it. It's behind him. He was a victim. It's a miracle he wants to marry again."

Anissa had tried every logical outlet for thinking this through. She had gone for a walk in the forest to clear her mind, she had made a list of all the pros and cons of marrying the doctor, and she even worked diligently in the fields to forget about things for awhile, almost wondering if she would ever work in a field after tomorrow again. Now tomorrow, her parents had practically pinned her to the wall, sitting her down in a chair in the kitchen giving her two options: marry the doctor happily or suck it up and marry the doctor.

Her mother was still talking, trying to convince her daughter, but Anissa wasn't listening. Her ears were buzzing from the stress and panic as she pictured the rest of her life. Jin wasn't romantic at all! Did she need romance? Did she even want romance? She barely knew herself – she was twelve years younger than him at twenty – she had barely lived yet!

"After all, dear, you may never have this chance again." Ruth said gently.

"You mean… to marry the doctor?"

"No, to get married at all." She bluntly stated.

And that had jostled her enough to say yes when he arrived.

That was three days ago. And Jin had certainly proved himself much less scary than she originally thought he was. She was still stuck in the mindset that he was a stony loner who only liked books and herbs and the indoors. Anissa was nature's child – she loved the outdoors and needed open space and freedom. The doctor fully complied and actually told her straight that he would respect whatever she wished and would make it his job to make sure she was perfectly comfortable and content. What more could a girl with no hope of love ask for?

It still hurt. But Anissa would have stability – something every woman her age in town envied her for.

The mayor was laughing jovially and Anissa was snapped back into the present after her short reminiscence. "I don't think I can schedule snow, but I'll see what I can do! First snow and we can prepare for your wedding bells. Sound good?"

"Perfect; thank you, sir." Jin nodded respectfully.

Gill watched from where he was lingering, still holding a folder that hadn't been filed. What was going on inside Jin's mind? One might say he simply wanted to move on. Start over before he felt he was out of his prime. But taking a wife twelve years his junior? When he wasn't properly divorced from his faithless wife? Perhaps it was preceding circumstances that made it more difficult to comprehend, but Gill couldn't shake the feeling that Jin had something more in mind. And Angela was somewhere in the center of it.

Holding the door open, Jin allowed Anissa to pass him on the stoop into the sunshine outside the Town Hall. Eyes peered at them and faces gaped from closed shop windows. The town was already buzzing with the news. Whatever the citizens had to say didn't matter to him anymore. He had suffered the worst of their scrutiny. And he genuinely admired the girl before him. He was determined to make this work… Unlike the first time.

The two walked beside each other, a person apart that made it comfortable for Anissa. Jin knew she would grow out of it eventually and come to accept him one day, but he wasn't going to rush her. He had to remind himself of the age difference – something he couldn't believe was already slipping by him – and the obvious transition from their professional relationship at the Choral Clinic to their current one.

Anissa watched the cloudless sky and walked at an energetic pace. She was beaming with youth and promise – clean and pure. Come to think of it, she was everything Angela was not. And could have been.

As they crossed the bridge away from Harmonica Town – Jin was going to return her to her home where she would live until winter – Jin paused halfway out. "Hold a moment – let's take a rest here."

Anissa obeyed and walked back the way she came to meet up with him. Jin casually leaned on the stone ledge and looked out over the waves. Anissa paused in the center of the bridge, not quite sure what to do.

Jin smiled and turned his head to her. "I promise I won't push you."

Anissa laughed at her foolishness and stepped up to stand beside him. The distance was too great she decided, so she scooted slightly closer. Another person could easily still fit between them, a ghost of Anissa's boundaries that separated them for the present.

"Are you afraid of me?"

Anissa looked down at the water. "No…"

"I understand that this must be strange for you—"

"I'm fine." Anissa shook her head. She looked up and bravely smiled at him. "I shouldn't be so distant with you; I'm sorry. I should be thanking you. You're a generous man, …Jin."

Jin looked out at the orange horizon surrounded in blue. The sun was starting to set, but because it was summer, there would be hours of daylight left. It felt earlier than it was.

Although it came as a surprise to him at first, Jin preferred the winter wedding day. It would give him a chance to properly court the girl at least. She might even love him by then. But love was never really a part of the equation. It would give him time, too. He could use time.

Anissa watched the brow furrow between his eyes and did her first bit of reading into her fiancé. She forgot about her silly thoughts and fears and tried to see him without previous prejudices. He was a very strong man. And he was quiet. She wouldn't have much trouble with him other than the obvious fact that Angela was still plaguing his mind. He could be a great man.

But…

"J-in?"

"Yes?"

"…I don't expect you to let her go, but I want to remind you who you are: a brave, intelligent, kind man. Don't… lose sight of yourself on your way."

Jin reflected. She was much wiser than how her years unfairly stereotyped her. The girl had seen right through him. He could appreciate that.

He held out his hand to her. "I promise."

Anissa hesitated at first, pushing her long dark hair behind her ear, but she took his hand. Hands linked, they walked back to Marimba Farm together.