"Is that true?" Joe panted from the door. His trusty old bike gave up on him halfway to Ariel's house. He ran the half kilometer distance while cursing confinement in his office. He lacked real excercise since he took over. But what he overheard runeth over the anxiety, uncertainty and tiredness.

She looked aghast as she befuddled with the thought that he overheard everything. "J-joe?" Her eyes danced in longing for a split second before the curtains of coldness fell onto each again. He wondered if was just imagining things just now. Then he noticed the piles of boxes and suitcases around.

"Where are you going?" His brows furrowed.

"As far from you as possible." Saika countered. Her eyes and her voice foreign to him. She's no longer the mild-mannered and thoughtful mother he knew she was.

"But--"

"I am sure your father can explain to you the reason why Ariel wouldn't and can't marry you." She said in the same authoritative tone he distinctively remembered from his Uncle Toshiya, as they fondly call him. Both and him and Ella favored being locked down inside Kami in Kyoto when they were kids. Until now, their almond pineapple cake's still their personal favorite.

"Mama, I won't go with you in Kaoshiung." Ariel stated firmly. He watched as her mother's eyes narrowed into angry slits.

"All because of this boy who can never be a man?" She asked in a gruff tone. "Well then, I won't insist. You can stay wherever you want and you can forget about me."

"Mama!"

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"This is how you'll make me pay for what I did to your McLaren? Lock me up here? Then maybe I can hit it everyday." Ella looked around appreciatively.

He laughed. "Like it?" Chun was pleased by himself. He transformed one of the large VIP suites to Ella's new office as she assumes the position of the hotel's Marketing Director. The room was emptied of its bedroom furnishings and was painted sunny yellow and all trims and edges a warm brown. The only furnitures are those necessary and suggests a homey feel to it that's very unfamiliar to a power office.

Ella nodded. "Thank you. It's beautiful." She said sincerely.

"That's not all." He walked to an adjoining door and opened it. "Come and see." Ella sauntered doubtfully but she gasped when she saw what's inside the room that she originally thought as the bathroom. It was a working studio!

"I thought you might want to take a break from being the director once in a while and get back to your designing. I sought Aunt Hui Wen's help for this." A large display rack occupied one wall. Her bags were arranged from her earliest to the most recent designs. The wall behind the drafting table was a collage of her pictures from magazines and society pages, sketches and notes and scribbles she made herself.

"Oh my god! Is that my old sewing machine!?" She dashed to the side of the ancient-looking ensemble that took him two days to run again. He asked permission to raid the Cheng mansion's stockroom to fish things he might need for the renovation.

"It is. Say hi." He grinned.

"This is wonderful! Do thank the designer for me, okay?" She gave him a real smile.

"Ehem. You're welcome." He could swear his ears're pink at the moment.

"You. . .did this for me?" She didn't know he has a creative streak on him. He too has an MBA from Harvard and not once did she see him with a pen of paper or whatever.

"I figured this is the only way for you to agree working here in this otherwise boring room."

"Chun, whatever happened to us?" She asked sofly after a companionable silence. "I've known you since we were in diapers but I don't KNOW you."

"My fault. I was a such an ." He prepped his hips onto the edge of the drafting table. "So, friends?" He extended a hand.

"You're not gonna put Coke on my shoes again?" She asked disbelievingly and he had to laugh out loud.

**********************************************************************

"You can't do this! We had an agreement, remember?" He was trying to reach for Ariel's hand to give the ring back but she just stood there unmoving with an expressionless face. "You can't just back out on your words!"

"Let us revert the situation then. What if your parents tell you they would disown you just because you're marrying me, what would you do?" She looked at the ocean with raging black waves.

"They won't do that!" He yelled.

"Don't let my mother do what her father did, Joe. It wasn't a sight to behold." She walked away from him for one last time, leaving the only person she had loved. Maybe the only person she'll love for the rest of her life. She realized just now that she wasn't lying when she told Saika she love him. But she won't give up on her mother. She's the only one she had left.

***********************************************************************

"I just wrecked my whole life chew damnation. Let's chelebwate!" Joe was standing in the middle of his friends holding a wine bottle. They just arrived but he already consumed enough to slur his words.

"Whoa, man! Can you stop it?" Jiro tried to get the wine bottle from him but he won't allow him.

"Let him be. Tomorrow he'll wake up and realize it wasn't a good thing to do." Danson knows Joe hates hangovers. "What happened to him?" He eyed Chun.

"He's engaged to a girl he just met two weeks ago." He said.

"An arranged marriage?!" Ethan coughed and the wine spilled to his pristine white shirt. "Oh, !" He yelped and dashed to the bathroom. They were in Joe's St. Regis's penthouse. He called them a couple of hours ago for an 'emergency meeting'.

"Tell me about it." Calvin shook his head. He too's being introduced to this certain girl this coming weekend. And his father already threatened him that he'll disinherit him if he won't appear. "Can't we choose who we want to marry?" He downed the contents of the wine glass in one gulp.

"Hey, hey! One junkie's enough for tonight, okay?" Vic, the most silent in the group reprimanded Calvin gently. "What were his parents thinking?" He can't embrace the idea of getting married before someone takes full reign on each business. For him, business and women are like oil and water.

"On the contrary, he's in love with the girl." Chun shook his head in incredulity.

"What?!" Ethan emerged from the bathroom shirtless. "Manager, call laundry service." He nudged Chun. Qiao En will definitely beat him up if she sees his shirt with wine stain. Qiao En's his live-in partner for four years. Both of them were allergic to marriage but both can't live without each other.

"I am still here. In case you chint notice!" Joe slumped beside Vic who can't take his smell and kicked him off the couch.

"Who's the girl?" Danson asked.

"Yamato Toshiya's estranged granddaughter." Chun answered. He still can't believe Ariel's heiress to an immense Japanese fortune.

"Yamato Industries?" Jiro's eyes were wide. "That's--that's--"

"You've got to be kidding me." Vic muttered. He eyed Joe's who's already sleeping on the carpeted floor. Zhou Corporation, the company that his father built, was lobbying greatly for a merger with Yamato Industries' conglomerates. In fact, that's what makes him all irky these past few weeks. The old man was a very difficult thing to handle.

"And then?" Ethan prodded. "What happened?"

"I don't know." Throws came flying off to Chun's direction. "What? I really don't! We arrived here just about the same time, remember?"

"Then what shall we do? We can't just let him die like that." Calvin said.

"I think I have something in mind." Jiro said.

"Sel will surely be proud." Ethan earned a whack from Jiro because of that.