Disclaimer – ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

It was turning out to be one of those days. The sort of day where every little thing seems to go wrong all at once. And because of the fact that I was in a bad mood already, the little problems seemed a lot more irritating than they normally would.

The shower decided to douse me with cold water.

I got soap in my eyes.

My warmest coat was in the wash.

My right glove—the only one I could wear—was missing.

I somehow managed to forget to open the guest room's door before I attempted to walk through it.

I stubbed my toe on the banister while I was going downstairs.

My hand got pinched in the seat belt in the car Chen, Jiao, Shuang and I were riding in.

I realized after we were already out on the road that I forgot my scarf, so my neck was very cold.

Regardless of my protests, Shuang decided that I wanted ice cream, making me even colder.

I burned my mouth trying to drink my tea too fast in a want to warm up.

Shuang wanted to go to the park after we had ice cream, and there I clobbered myself a second time on the playground equipment. Naturally, it was on the same spot that I hit myself with the door earlier. I had always been very clumsy as a child, but I thought I'd gotten over my awkwardness. It seemed that I was having a relapse today.

Sitting very rigidly on the bench placed at the border of the playground area, I attempted to stop glaring at nothing while I drank the rest of my cooled tea, feeling very irritated all the way from my aching head down to my aching toe. Even my left arm was starting to hurt, although nothing at all had happened to it. Though, given my track record for accidents today, I wouldn't have been surprised if something happened to it later. But the cast was so thick, to the point of not even fitting into most of my clothes' sleeves, it would probably take a very spectacular accident to hurt it.

Not wanting to jinx myself, I quickly shifted my attention from my aches and grumbles to Chen as she tiredly walked over and flopped herself down beside me on the bench. "Oh, goodness," she sighed, stretching out her legs and partially unzipping her thin, blue jacket. "Shuang always manages to have so much more energy than I do."

"At least you lasted longer than I did," I told her, forcing myself to smile faintly while I watched Jiao and Shuang crawl into a plastic tunnel. I had barely been running for five minutes before I'd been completely out of breath. I was far more out of shape than I'd thought. Although I had been eating a "normal amount" for every meal the past month, and had thickened up a bit, simply walking around the house didn't really give me much exercise, thus the other three easily out-paced me.

"Well, I try." She laughed and smiled warmly at her daughter. "Parents only have a little while before their children grow up and become independent. It seems like such a long time at first, but the years really go by so fast. She's already four, but it feels like a small fraction of that."

I slowly nodded, eyes following the tiny girl, then gave a surprised glance at Chen. She and Delun certainly hadn't wasted any time starting a family. She was only three years younger than I was, meaning she had only been seventeen when she'd given birth to Shuang, and I assumed she'd already been married to Delun at the time…They probably hadn't even been out of high school yet. I couldn't imagine having children at eighteen like Delun had.

Feeling a bit curious, and also wanting to keep my mind off other things, I asked her about it.

Chen laughed again, blushing a little. "Ah, yeah…we married really young. As soon as we could, actually. But we'd been dating for forever, so we didn't really see any point in waiting. Our families live really close to one another, so we've known each other since before we were even out of diapers."

Delun in diapers…somehow, that sounded absurd.

Tapping a finger on the top of the lid of my tea, I sighed and shook my head. "You both definitely have my respect for being able to handle a child and your studies. I'm already out of school, yet even now the thought of having a child is somewhat frightening." Even the thought of being married was a bit daunting. I couldn't even take care of myself. How was I supposed to take care of a whole other person? Not that Jiao was incapable of handing herself, but still…

Chen gave a pat to my shoulder, smiling encouragingly. "I'm sure when the times comes, you'll be a wonderful father."

I gave a somewhat hollow laugh, rubbing at my eyes. "I'm not so sure about that," I whispered. Simply observing how Jiao interacted with Shuang, it was obvious she would be a good mother. But me, a good father? The image wouldn't come to mind. I already knew that children turned out to be similar to their parents, and that was a horrible thought.

When I tried to imagine myself being different from my own father, I wondered if it was even possible. I certainly didn't want to be like him, but I still found many affinities between he and I. My impatience with other people, my rather short temper, my ceaseless work ethic that I get angry over if anything becomes muddled…Would I have enough control over myself to be a father my children would need? One they would want? What if I made a mistake and they came to hate me like Gui Wen hated our father?

Hopefully, I wouldn't have any children for several years yet, but that last thought made me scared all the same. Being such an unlikable person that my own children would run away from me and never come back.

"I bet you will," Chen assured confidently. "You just have to start off with a simple decision; 'I will be a good parent.' It's not at all easy. Just look at Delun; he's so gruff and cranky all the time, but he still keeps careful hold on himself to be a good daddy. The effort is definitely worth it.

"And anyway," she added, giving my shoulder another pat, "you're already getting in some practice with Dib! You're very gentle with him."

Gentle. The word almost made me laugh. Just the other night, I'd punched him for crying too much after Doll stole one of the snacks he'd left laying around. I'd told him over and over that I'd get him more food, but he'd relentlessly demanded that I go scold Doll for it, which I had, but apparently it had been a very unsatisfactory scolding and he'd continued to cry for nearly an hour until I'd finally hit him and yelled at him to stop whining. He'd punched me back, much harder than I'd hit him, and then he'd stomped off, no longer crying, but had been very sulky and completely unreasonable for the rest of the night, even when I'd apologized for being mean.

"That may be true for the most part, but Dib's not a child," I finally pointed out.

"Well, not physically, of course," Chen allowed, "but really he's just a big kid. Although he does act much more adult-like in real life. I still feel a bit surprised whenever he comes over to visit."

"I know what you mean," I murmured. Although Heng treated me completely differently than he had at work, I was still trying to adjust my view of him from "employee" to "friend." It was rather easy to talk with him and relax around him, since he was being so amiable and all, but I still felt a bit nervous whenever he was visiting. He and I may have been close friends, but all I could remember was the first four months we'd worked together and the past week or so.

Even if we were friends, it was like I didn't even know him.

"Jiao-mèi mentioned that you two had a fight this morning," Chen carefully said, sounding concerned. "Was it really bad?"

"He just yelled a little is all," I replied, shaking my head. "Said mean things, as usual. I suppose I over-reacted." It made me very uncomfortable that he knew all the stuff about me that I'd kept secret from everyone. Perhaps that unwanted exposure was part of the reason he'd upset me so badly this morning, although in the past I'd barely batted an eye at all of the vicious things being said about me at work. Then again, the things said at work were usually completely silly and false.

The corner of Chen's mouth twitched as if she was trying not to smile. "Well, he does tend to say whatever happens to pop into his head, without thinking first. He probably didn't mean to be cruel." She fell silent, eyes going back to watching Jiao and Shuang, who were now on the swings. I wordlessly gave my reluctant agreement with her observation. Unlike myself, Heng and Dib both never seemed to find themselves with a lack of things to say, whether what they're saying is kind or not.

"If you don't mind me asking, what was the fight about?"

Although unwilling to discuss it, I took a moment to compose an answer that was vague and descriptive at the same time. "He was involving himself in my personal affairs, like he has some sort of right to do so."

"Doesn't he?" she quietly asked. "He's your best friend, after all."

"No, he's not," I denied at once, my tone harsher than I meant it to be, but at the moment I was too mad at him to really care. "Maybe he was before, but not now, yet he still acts like he has some sort of say in the decisions I make when it has nothing at all to do with him. It's irritating."

Chen fell silent again as she stared at me with a slightly helpless look. "You have to keep in mind," she slowly began, "that even if you can't remember the time you spent with him, he can. He can't help but think of you as his best friend, just like you can't help but think of him as nothing more than the man you used to work with."

"…I know." I sighed, tilting my head back a little to stare up at the cloud-cluttered sky. "But before this, I've always dealt with everything on my own. It will take me some time to get used to having a…having a friend around for the first time."

Smiling widely and chuckling, Chen nodded. "But those sorts of nosy people are the best to surround yourself with, don't you think? The people who stick close, like Heng, are much better to have around than 'friends' who turn and run whenever you need them."

"I suppose," I muttered, sighing again. I already had plenty of the Runaway Friends, I definitely didn't need another. And thinking about everything in that way, I was a little bit less angry with Heng. Even if it felt like he was being meddlesome, he was supposedly just worried, although why he would ever be worried was beyond me. But in the past I'd trusted him with all of that secret stuff, so I must have had some reason or another. But still, he and I were going to have to have a talk about personal boundaries next time we saw one another, which was hopefully not going to be soon.

Chen stood up, stretched herself out and gave me a quick grin. "Well, I hope you two make up with one another quickly. Now then, we've been lazing around for long enough. Let's go play some more before Shuang tires out."

I nodded and reluctantly got to my feet, legs still pathetically aching from the puny five-minute-long burst of running earlier. Shaking the empty styrofoam cup at Chen, I took a few steps in the other direction. "I'm going to throw this away first."

While she gave an energetic "Okay!" and hurried off toward the swings, I turned and slowly walked toward the garbage can near the park entrance, taking a deep breath of the cold air and running Heng's sharp words through my mind again and again. It was nearly uncontrollable. Other than my father and Gui Wen, Heng was the first person who had been able to draw out such an emotional response from me with only a few sentences. The fact that he had such a strong impact on me only confused me further.

After tossing out the empty cup, I turned back around, stuffed my hand into my coat pocket to keep it warm, and strode toward the other three, smiling faintly at the sight of them playing together so happily. Moments like this was something I'd never experienced until I'd gone to live with them. In such a short time, they had already given me everything I could have asked for in a home. Happiness, warmth, support, comfort, and a million other priceless things I never thought I'd gain. Things I'd never even considered. Things that made me feel, for the first time, almost complete.

Only months ago I'd been empty, blank, alone, yet I truly hadn't been discontent at all. Bored and restless, but I hadn't thought that was a bad thing. It was normal. I had so much, why would I complain?

But now that I knew what I'd been lacking, I was determined never to take moments like this for granted.

My eyes drifted to Jiao as she swung high into the air, cheerily laughing, and my smile stretched further. Moments like this. I knew I was only going to get more, and that was a wonderful thought that made me feel warm, regardless of of the brisk December weather. Although still afraid of the future and what I might become, I had people here with me now to keep me on track whenever my own strength wasn't enough. The strength not only to build up my own family, but the strength to keep it together and help it thrive.

"You just have to start off with a simple decision; 'I will be a good parent'…The effort is definitely worth it."

Taking another deep breath, I broke out into a light jog and covered the last stretch of grass in a few moments, only slowing once I was directly behind the three while they swung back and forth. Making sure I was a proper distance away—I didn't want to get bonked a third time—I came to a halt behind Shuang's swing and eyed one of her little feet, clothed in ruffly purple socks and white sports shoes.

Ignoring the suspicious glance she gave me when I stepped closer, I smiled brightly and waited until she was about to swing forward again when I prodded her ankle. She gave a playful shriek and started kicking her legs as she flew away from me, then stared at me with wide eyes and wider smile over her shoulder as she swung back, feet sticking straight out in front of herself and out of my reach.

Having no feet to bother, I poked her neck instead. Knowing how cold my fingers were even in the summer, the scream she gave afterward was completely expected. And painfully high-pitched…

"Gēge! Stop that!" she firmly ordered, although her excited face was telling me the opposite. When she came rushing back toward me, she had her shoulder tucked against her chin, warding off any neck attacks. I ran my fingers over her side, wiggling them as I went. "WA-A-A-A! MOMMY, HE'S TICKLING ME!"

"Oh no!" Chen answered, sounding very worried while she kept on swinging, not moving to help her distressed daughter.

Thus, with no outside interference stopping me, I continued to tickle and poke Shuang until she finally jumped out of her swing, making me feel extremely horrified—she was flying in the wrong direction for me to catch her. But then she landed her fall perfectly well, a meter in front of the swing set.

Heaving an extremely relieved sigh that she hadn't hurt herself, I watched as she gave me a challenging grin, then shot off over the grass. Feeling a bit annoyed over the fact that I was obviously expected to chase her, I carefully pushed her wildly flopping swing out of the way, then ran after her as fast as my weak legs could go, which was not fast at all.

Attempting to beat down my jealousy over Aeolus' absurdly high stamina level, I kept my eyes on Shuang's feet while the rest of her disappeared around the edge of the twisty playground equipment. Redirecting my steps to the other end of the play area, I walked as quietly as I could, listening to her footsteps come nearer while she obliviously raced in my direction.

Right before she was about to run past me, I jumped out in front of her and made a roaring noise. Her face went from somewhat confused, to absolutely terrified, to amused in the span of a few seconds as she fell over backward, screaming and laughing. Dropping to my knees in the grass beside her, I smiled and started tickling her again, although it was difficult to do so when she had two arms and two legs to swat me away.

When her little fist connected with my chin, I dramatically fell over backward and groaned, closing my eyes like I'd been knocked unconscious. Shuang, either not believing that I was really taken out or simply wanting to continue to beat me, clambered on top of me and started punching my chest with yells of "Take that! And that! And that!"

Feeling like my poor chest was about to cave in—children never seemed to know just how strong they were—I opened my eyes and started blocking her wildly waving arms. "I surrender!"

Although Shuang didn't stop for nearly a minute, she finally paused and seemed to be thinking, then smiled in a superior way and gave a nod. Feeling very relieved that she wasn't going to pummel me anymore, I carefully sat up, drew my legs underneath myself and stood, taking her with me. Rather than carrying her back to Chen and Jiao, I climbed up the wide steps on the play place and headed for the big, twirly, purple slide.

Shuang suddenly poked my neck, like I had done to her several times earlier. I paused in my steps and gave her a narrow-eyed stare, challenging her to do it again.

She did, this time with a giggle.

When she lifted her hand a third time, I bent down and lightly chomped on her finger. She made an "Eek!" noise and laughed. "Don't eat my finger!" she ordered.

"Well, you were holding it out to me," I commented, "so I thought you wanted me to chew on it."

"No, I didn't!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, I see. I'll remember not to next time," I mumbled, quickly continuing on toward the spiraling slide. Setting her on her feet, I crouched beside her and stared down at the curved slope of purple.

"Bet'cha you're too scared to go down backwards!" Shuang suddenly challenged.

I sent her an "Oh, yeah?" sort of look before placing myself in the opening, turning around, and smiling. "Bet'cha I'm brave enough to go down backwards."

Without any hesitation, she pushed me and I toppled over, sliding down head-first on my back. "Too bad!" she called after me, her face disappearing around the plastic edge of the slide. "There's alligators at the bottom!"

Spreading my legs while I grabbed the side of the slide with my hand, I stopped my descent about halfway down. "You tried to get alligators to eat me‽" I demanded.

"Yep!" she replied.

"Well, that's not very nice."

There was a slight scraping noise from above me, then Shuang suddenly appeared around the edge of the slide. She stopped herself before she could slide into me, then gave me a very determined frown. "Don't worry, Gēge! I'll save you!"

First she sends me to my death, and then she comes to rescue me…

Putting on a worried face, I held out my hand to her as if she would be able to pull me to safety. She took it and started tugging as hard as she could. I tugged back, wrapped my arm around her, and let myself continue sliding. "A-A-A-AH!" Shuang started squirming around in my grip. "THE ALLIGATORS WILL GET US!"

Laughing to myself, I turned to watch as the end of the slide came into view. Instead of alligators, Chen and Jiao were both there. "Shuang-mèi!" I cheered. "They've driven off the alligators! We're saved!"

"Wrong!" Chen declared, a fierce grin on her face as Shuang and I toppled to the grass. "We are the alligators!"

Letting out a yell, I scrambled to my feet and followed Shuang as she raced away from the two women—or, well, the two alligators that had camouflaged themselves to look like women—as they chased after us, making growling and roaring noises.

Thus we passed the entire afternoon. By the time we finally left the park, I was about to die from exhaustion and dehydration. Although I very much wanted to go straight back to the Lin house and take another shower and maybe have a nap as well, instead Jiao first had us stop at a huge multi-story mall. After a quick look at the large map fixed to the wall near the entrance, she took us up to the next floor and led us into a sporting goods store, full of gear, clothes, very buff and hairy men, and a few teenage boys who were crowded around a display of aluminum baseball bats.

"Let's get you some clothes to exercise in, so you don't have to borrow Dàgē's," she suggested, stopping beside one of the clothing racks and shuffling through it. She pulled a pair of black sweatpants and a matching jacket off the rack, held them up to me as if she was attempting to see if they fit properly, and then announced, "Looks like the size is okay. Do you like this color?"

"That's fine," I agreed, nodding. She handed the clothes to me, then began picking through the rack again, getting several pairs of the same thing.

"We work out every morning at five, except on weekends," she explained, "so you'll need a few outfits to give you something to wear while some of these are in the wash." Draping the pile of jackets and pants over my arm, she smiled in a very Yu Lian-like way. "Remember to set your alarm earlier, okay? Because if you don't wake up on your own, we'll come and assist."

Feeling a bit apprehensive at the threat, I nodded again, although waking up at five every morning didn't sound very appealing. Especially not when I was going to be dragged into the basement directly afterward.

She gave a small laugh and pulled me over to the checkout line. "This will be task number one in your To Do List to keep yourself occupied every day."

I made a noise of agreement while she began rummaging around in the large white bag she had hooked over her shoulder. Surprise washed over me when she pulled out a very familiar and longed-for object. One I thought was somewhere completely different. One I hadn't seen in so long.

Well, it felt like a long time.

"Isn't that my wallet?" I asked, feeling annoyed that it was getting passed from person to person.

"Yes," she replied at once, fingers tightening around it as if she thought I was going to try to take it back. "And in case you're going to ask; no, you're not allowed to have it back yet."

"It's not like I'm going to try to run away again," I mumbled, my tone as sulky as my expression.

"Sorry, but after you tried to sneak back to your father's house…how many times was it, Dàsăo?"

"Fourteen or fifteen? Maybe more," Chen supplied, laughing slightly. "All in the first week and a half, too, which was pretty impressive, with as difficult as it was for Gēge to move around."

"Ridiculously persistent." Jiao gave me a helpless smile. "After so many escape attempts, even without your wallet and keys, we're a bit hesitant to return them, you know? At least not until you're well enough to go back to work."

Sighing in resignation, I fell silent and watched while the person in front of us collected his purchases and left. Jiao began unloading the clothing from my arms, then the clerk rang it all up. I gave a curious glance down at my wallet when Jiao opened it. I knew Delun had used some of the money to buy my new Second Life helmet, but, as usual, I hadn't had much money in there to begin with. The game would have used up the majority, if not all. I hoped I actually had enough for the clothes. Then again, they could just use my bank card if I didn't have enough cash.

However, my eyes went very wide when I glimpsed the inside of the wallet. Jiao was extremely careful when counting out the bills, so the other contents were still hidden from everyone else in the store. And for good reason; there had to be at least fifty thousand dollars in there. How did it even fit? And where had it come from?

In the past, I had been very sure never to carry more than one or two thousand at a time, just in case I got mugged or something. Having so much money on us made me feel nervous. Then again, although I was completely useless, Chen and Jiao had told me they were both very good at self-defense, so I supposed we weren't entirely unprotected.

When we stepped out of the store, bags of clothes in hand, I sat down on a bench with Jiao while Shuang dragged Chen over to a small food vendor. Giving a sideways glance to Jiao, I whispered, "Why is there so much money in my wallet?"

She smiled in a bemused way, pushed her white bag further between us, then answered quietly, "Last month, your father sent us ten million dollars for your expenses. A few days ago, he sent us the same amount for this month. We just sort of stuffed your wallet with what it would hold. Dàgē also gave some of it to the chef for your meals. The rest, which is most of it, we put in the family vault for safekeeping."

Feeling very tired at my father's weird actions, I sighed again and leaned back against the wall behind the bench. Although a very small part of me felt a bit happy that it seemed he hadn't completely forgotten about me, the rest of me was angry that it felt like he was under the impression that if he gave me a lot of money, I would be perfectly fine. However, money was not on the list of things I wanted from him.

"As if I'm ever going to use all of that," I grumbled. "He could have sent only what's in the wallet, and I still wouldn't have used it up for a long time, unless it was all spent on food."

"My siblings and I were wondering what you were going to do with it all," she commented, chuckling, "but you turned out to be so low-cost. Is there really nothing you would use it on? Something you've had your eye on, but never got around to buying?"

I slowly shook my head. "No. I already have the necessities, and that's enough."

Jiao's eyes narrowed into an amused look. "Content with so little. You're turning out to be so different than we all imagined before we met you…We weren't sure if we were supposed to expect a cruel and domineering person like your father, or some sort of spoiled, rich brat who whined and complained when things didn't go his way."

Laughing, I shook my head again. "Well, I'm very glad I was able to change your opinion of me to a better one. Although I won't deny that I'm quite spoiled. It's a bit difficult to live such a privileged life and not start to expect the maids to clean my messes, expect the chef to prepare my meals when and how I want them, expect my clothes to be laundered and ready, expect tea to be delivered to me whenever I want it, and on and on."

It left me somewhat baffled when I thought of how Heng could still have so much energy after taking care of all of his chores at home. All I had to do was tell someone else to do it and it would be done, but since Heng wasn't dating anyone, engaged, or married, and thus had no significant other with whom he could split the housework, his "house staff" consisted of himself and his three younger brothers, who were, understandably, more focused on school than what had to be done at home.

Unlike myself, who was completely unable to channel any and all of Aeolus' amazing skills, Heng seemed to have the ability to access Dib's endless hyperactivity. Perhaps he was pushing himself to be so energetic all of the time, but it was quite impressive whichever way he did it.

"That wasn't really what I meant by 'spoiled,'" Jiao continued, "but you do have a very good point. It's easy to take all of those nice things for granted and start assuming life will always be like that." She fell silent for a moment, then frowned in a displeased way. "Thinking of it like that makes me feel lazy and ungrateful."

Laughing at her words, I nodded. "Ah…Well, technically, it is the house staff's job to do what we want. After all, we're paying them to do it. But yes, I suppose…it makes me feel quite lazy as well. Perhaps we should start showing our gratitude to them more prominently from now on."

When I attempted to remember a time I'd shown my thanks to the staff at my father's house, it made me ashamed of myself when my mind brought back nothing. They had always treated themselves as tools, thus I'd done the same. But they were living people, no matter how emotionless and inhuman they seemed on the surface.

That treatment was yet another similarity between my father and I that I didn't really want to acknowledge…

Thankfully, my attention was drawn elsewhere when Shuang and Chen came scurrying back, holding three cakes and a cup of tea. The tea was handed to me, and a cake to Jiao. By the time I'd finished thanking Chen, Shuang was already halfway done eating the cream-filled cake.

While I was marveling over how fast the little girl could down the dessert, Jiao suddenly stood up, eyes fixed on a spot near the escalators. My gaze followed a blob of white cake filling as it plopped to the tile floor after Jiao's grip had tightened on the poor snack. "You squashed your cake," Shuang observed somewhat pointlessly while Chen held out a napkin.

Jiao didn't move for several seconds, then said, "Huh?" and looked down at her fist and the mangled cake. "Oh." She took the napkin, wiped at her messy hand, then started walking away in the direction she'd been staring. "I'll be back in a moment."

I took a sip of the hot tea and watched her stride off. Much to my surprise, she didn't go to a garbage can or anything, but instead stopped in front of a young man in a green jacket and dark blue jeans. His short, sporty and light-colored hair was poking up every which-way—much like Heng's, although his was longer and wavier—and, as always, he was much thicker around than I was. Looked to be a little taller as well, although not as big as…

Pausing, I inwardly kicked myself. Why did I keep comparing everything to Heng…

Attempting to block the Annoyance from my mind, I refocused my attention on the two as they began, not conversing amiably like I'd been expecting, but arguing. I glanced up at Chen for an explanation, but she was too busy watching the two, a slightly worried expression on her face.

Several minutes passed and they seemed to be nowhere near finished, so Chen finally sat down on the bench and gave me a crafty stare. "Go interrupt them."

"Why?"

"Because you should." She gave me a rough shove and took my tea away. "Tell them Shuang is about to die of hunger and wants to go home for dinner."

"But she just had a cake–"

"I'll stay here with Shuang and watch the bags, so go!" Chen repeated, shoving me harder. Why was everyone in this family so bossy?

Sighing, I gave her an indignant frown, then stood up and nervously walked toward the still-arguing pair. Neither of them noticed my approach, even when I stopped right beside them, glancing cautiously from one red face to the other while they snapped things about phone calls and canceled plans.

"Jiao," I quietly called when they both paused for breath. She jumped and turned to look at me, a terrified expression falling onto her face. "I'm sorry for interrupting your, um, conversation," I quickly continued when it seemed the man was about to yell something at me, "but Chen-mèi says Shuang-mèi is hungry and wants to go home."

"We're not finished yet!" the man snarled, glaring furiously at me. "So go the hell away!"

I fell silent for a moment, staring at him in bewilderment, then returned his angry look with one of cold irritation. "Well then," I added, pointing my hand back to the other two, "perhaps you would care to go over there and explain to the hungry four-year-old why your argument is more important than her dinner. I am sure she will be completely understanding."

His face turned a shade redder at my sarcastic finish, but at least he closed his mouth.

Jiao turned and grabbed my arm. "Okay. Let's go."

"Jiao, wait!" He hastily took hold of her other hand and pulled her back, nearly causing her to topple over backward as she hissed in pain.

Feeling extremely angry, I stepped between the two and upped the icy expression on my face, grabbing his wrist. It took all of my strength to undo his grip on her. "I would very much appreciate it if you would not treat my fiancée so roughly," I requested, fighting to keep my voice level. Slipping my hand into Jiao's, I took a few steps away. "I assume you both have each other's contact information, so please continue your conversation at a later time."

"I just–" he started, but Jiao cut him off with a promise of "I'll call you later," then tightly gripped my hand and dragged me back to the bench. A quick glance over my shoulder told me he was thankfully not following.

Jiao slowed her steps halfway there, gave me a morose glance, and murmured, "Sorry about him, he's just in a really bad mood. He's almost never like that."

"Oh, good." Although a tiny bit assured that he wasn't a thoroughly horrible person, I was still very angry with him for hurting her. If he hadn't stepped down, and if I was stronger, I probably would have hit him.

"And," Jiao added softly, smiling a little, "thank you for intervening."

I thought about saying, "Chen-mèi forced me," but settled for "You're welcome," instead and gave her hand a slight squeeze. After another backward glance—I was very relieved to see that the irritating man was gone—I looked forward again and asked, "Who is he?"

A moment of silence passed as we stopped beside Chen and Shuang. "No one, just a friend." Her tone told me that that was the end of the conversation.

Judging by the way she was obviously avoiding looking at me and the redness creeping back onto her tense face, she'd just lied to me. But, seeing how agitated she already was, I didn't press the matter, although I was very bothered by it. It wasn't like I was expecting her to share every little thing with me, but honesty between us was something I wanted to keep hold of. Plus I didn't like that person at all.

Chen shot me a grateful look, hooked two of the shopping bags onto my arm, gave back my tea, then cheerily suggested, "Well, let's go home now, shall we?" and took the slightly grumpy-looking Shuang's hand as she hurried off toward the escalators. My bad mood, forgotten after playing in the park, started to creep back when I watched Jiao rub the spot on her wrist where that man had grabbed her. Taking a long drink of my tea, I held in all of the things I wanted to say, and instead silently followed after her.

One Taiwanese dollar is worth about three cents of an American dollar.

So 10 million TWD (the amount Kuo Li sent every month) is around 330,000USD, 1,000-2,000TWD (the amount Zian normally carried) is around 40-60USD, and 50,000TWD (the amount in his wallet) is around 1,600USD. (Information for those of you who are American. If you're not, there are calculators online with which you can figure out how much money was being talked about earlier.) And of course, these are present-day exchange rates, not 22nd century exchange rates. lol.