Her side of the story. Again.

Two weeks.

It had been two weeks since her grandpa dragged her to this island.

On the bright side, she felt completely refreshed. The stress had gone, and she felt fully rested.

On the other side, though, for two weeks straight, there was nothing that could've distracted her from thinking about her darling...

Helen sighed. She spent two weeks trying to understand what went wrong in their relationship. She analyzed everything, even from multiple angles!

And she still couldn't understand. Everything was going perfectly, but then, one day, he just left. Without so much as an explanation!

He ghosted her so thoroughly that she couldn't even meet him.

Yet, this analysis had made something clear: whatever happened, she still wanted and needed closure. If she wanted to move on, she needed a sign.

Her train of thought halted. Not even a meeting, since that man was so hard to get a hold of. Just a message. Just a read status.

What if… She let herself dream for a moment that he would want to rekindle their spark. She knew it wouldn't happen, but that traitorous part of her heart still fluttered at the mere thought of it.

Ah, how low she fell...

Making up her mind, she went to find her grandpa to beg—to demand her phone back.

***

"Hào, what the fuck do you mean by this?"

Helen heard her grandpa's voice roaring from behind the closed door.

"And that witch of a wife of yours as well—what is wrong with the three of you?"

Another roar followed.

"I've said this many times before and will repeat myself again. It's a matter of her choice and nobody else's."

Since her grandpa stopped yelling, Helen had to lean on the door to hear his words clearly.

"Hm. I guess that makes some sense. I will ask her. But know that if she won't agree, this will be the end of this talk."

It seemed like it was something concerning her.

"Yes. Yes. When? And until? Hm. Yes, I will try to meet you as soon as possible. Give me a day at least. Yes, I will meet you soon."

She heard her grandpa ending the call and cursing quietly.

"Helen, since you're already here, come inside." He called out to her.

Still, she waited for a minute more before knocking on the door.

"Grandpa, there is something I want to talk about."

"Yes, yes. Come in already."

She did just that.

Her grandfather was sitting behind his favorite desk and reading through some sort of paperwork. After Helen walked into his study, he raised his head to look at her.

No matter how many years went by, she still felt like a little girl again under this heavy gaze. The feeling lasted for only a moment, as her grandpa let out a tired sigh and started massaging his temples.

"How much did you hear?"

"I don't know what you are talking about, grandpa."

"Helen, please."

"Since you asked Elder Hào about the meaning of his words."

Her grandfather doubled his efforts at massaging his temples.

"This old geezer and that old witch..." he groaned. "Helen, I have two pieces of news for you: good and not-so-good. Which would you like to hear first?"

She mulled over his words.

"Then how about a good one first?"

Her grandpa stopped his actions and looked at her.

"Well, you better take a seat first, anyway," her grandpa gestured toward the free chair, and she did as he told her. "The good news is: from now on, the stream of marriage proposals will most likely reduce significantly, if not stop outright. And there will be, most likely, quite a number of withdrawals as well."

This was indeed good news.

"What's the catch?" She caught his meaning.

"The not-so-good news is that both the Long and Kouzuki clans just got official male heirs of the main bloodline. And both families sent an official marriage proposal."

Huh? Helen felt the inside of her mind go white for a moment.

"The main problem here," the Head of the Smith family continued his words, "is that I can't outright refuse this. Whether it's about family status or my personal friendship with all three of them, this meeting shall happen."

"But, grandpa..." she whined.

"Helen, sweetie. Sorry, I can't. Just this one time, please, you need to attend this marriage interview. Or, I guess, two times."

Her grandpa bowed his head, a tradition he got from his best friend, the head of the Long clan, Long Hào.

"I understand. I will do as you say, grandfather."

"Well, whether you choose one of them or not, it's up to you. All I need is for you to attend the event itself."

Huh? Helen felt the inside of her mind go white for a moment. Again.

"Grandpa!"

She pouted.

"You should've seen your face there, young lady."

The old geezer started laughing boisterously.

"Oh, right, another thing. Sadly, I will need to cut this vacation short as I need to meet with Hào to discuss this whole situation. Two clan heirs—it's too important for me to ignore. Will you stay here for a week more, or..."

"Or!" she interrupted him. "The deal was that you must accompany me here."

The heavy gaze returned, but Helen met it with her own ultimate weapon. Puppy eyes.

"Fine. But I won't return your phone for a week more anyway."

"But, grandpa!"

"Don't grandpa me, young lady. We both know that you will dive headfirst into work if you get that cursed item."

Helen couldn't argue with that.

"But what am I supposed to do otherwise? I can't even contact my friends without the phone."

She felt that her counterargument was flawless. Of course, her main motivation was to check on that particular contact of hers.

"Friends? Ha, you're only ever meeting one-on-one with that one girl, and you know where she lives anyway. Just visit her; you know the address."

She pouted again.

***

Helen was standing in front of a closed door. She had done that for the last ten minutes already, ringing the doorbell from time to time. Nobody answered the door.

And what was she supposed to do now? She fought back a wave of rising irritation. She blamed Grandpa for this.

Helen knew better than to just go to her office, since that would be akin to breaking a promise, which was something of a taboo between the two of them.

She had no way, and no real wish, to be honest, to contact anyone else from her friend group. No, of course, Helen liked those people, but, frankly, there was only one with whom she felt completely at ease.

She rang the doorbell one last time and gave it two extra minutes before finally leaving. As she sat in the car, a business-class coupe two-seater, she let out an irritated scream. How unladylike.

Helen looked at the time, around ten in the morning, and decided that some coffee wouldn't hurt her. She slept a bit on board their flight, but still felt a bit sleepy due to jet lag.

"Coffee it is, then," she decided.

***

"Welcome… Oh, Helen, long time no see. How was your trip?"

Thank heavens it wasn't Jaime. She liked the guy as a friend, but his unwanted advances felt a bit tiresome.

"Hello to you too, Omar. I had to cut it short, but otherwise it was fantastic."

"Good to hear and my condolences at the same time. To go or a table?"

"The usual."

After saying this, she was about to go inside but noticed that her usual table was occupied. Which was pretty weird since ten a.m. on a Saturday wasn't exactly rush hour for this place. And the staff knew that it was her table... Well, hers and Claire.

Helen turned back to look at Omar, who actually shuddered under her glare.

"Um, Helen, you see, that's Claire's boyfriend…"

Huh? And wasn't this the most unlikely explanation she could have imagined in this situation?

Helen turned once more to look at the guy sitting there. Too bad she could only see his back. Wide shoulders, v-lining into slim waist. Powerful arms. Black spiky hair. Yeah, it certainly wasn't Daniel.

What exactly happened here when she was away?

"Your guess is as good as mine," said Omar, as if reading her mind. "One day about a week ago, Claire, almost glowing from being so damn happy, dragged this dude here for a date. And a few days later, she did it again. Glowing even more."

The irritation of the last two weeks finally reached its peak, as she felt a pang of jealousy. Even Claire finally found someone

An evil scheme appeared in the depths of her mind. Not to sound pretentious, but Helen was beautiful. Very much so. And it wouldn't be the first time that her friend's boyfriend would try to hit on her instead.

To spare Claire some future pain, how about testing him right now?

"Helen, you have a really evil smile right now, you know?"

Not bothering to answer the obvious, she sashayed to join the person occupying HER table.

"Hello, you must be Claire's new boyfriend. I am her best friend; nice to meet you."

She waited for a response.

"Oh, what a sight for sore eyes!" Just like she thought, this guy was just another player.

Her ears finally registered the familiar voice. Then the speaker turned his head towards her, and she recognized the face—the same one that she had wanted to see for so long. And at last, she had seen the familiar, yet so different, eyes.

His gaze wasn't quite as heavy as her grandpa's, yet, still, it made her freeze momentarily under its scrutiny. A traitorous part of her almost squealed in delight, recognizing the familiar appreciation in those eyes.

"It had been, what, a year and then some since we met last? How have you been, Helen?" Michael Roah, her darling and the new boyfriend of her best friend, greeted her.