Past

"Hey, baby? Where are you? I just landed." Tara's happy yet soft voice was heard.

"You are here? Cool! I'll come to pick you up at the airport. See you in 10 minutes." said Oona.

Oona rushed her way to her friend, who was sitting behind all the piled-up documents on her table.

"Lyra, Let's go. Tara is here." Oona said gasping.

"Already?" Lyra checked her watch and saw it was already been hours.

Lyra and Oona grabbed their coat and made their way to the airport. Both their heart was beating crazily in happiness to meet their friend after a decade.

"Lyra! Oona!" Tara shouted seeing their running figures.

Tara made a run to meet them in the middle.

"Tara!" Lyra and Oona shouted in unison pulling their friend into a tight hug. The trio hugged each other tightly silently shedding tears in happiness.

After what seemed like forever, they broke the hug. Lyra and Oona scrutinised Tara so deeply making her face go red.

"Damn this girl! Just look at her. Photos did no justice to you." Oona said while pulling Tara's cheeks.

"100000000 points! Emerald eyes, long raven hair, Cute little nose, full pink lips, 165cm tall, hourglass figure, My!My! She will make the guys here go cray with her visual!" Lyra added with heart in her eyes.

"Love, I am turning into a lesbian from now, from the moment I met you. Will you marry me?" Lyra asked dreamily making Tara's face get even redder.

"Don't spout nonsense, baby," Tara said with a red face and pouting lips.

"HAHHHHH! An arrow just pierced my heart!" Oona added dramatically.

"Oona!" Tara whined cutely.

The trio ended up giggling and went to the restaurant owned by the Zhou group. Almost all the famous restaurants and hotels are under the Zhou group. While going to the restaurant, Tara gazed out of the window taking in all the city has to give

"Everything is changed. The looks very lively. The buildings are vanishing into the sky." Tara commented

"More like suffocating," Lyra said while shaking her head.

The three reached their location and went inside the lavish restaurant. They sat and ordered and started talking while waiting for the food.

"Tara, How is it X country?" Lyra asked sipping her warm water placed there.

Tara looked at Lyra and sighed, "There are a lot of revolts breaking out to overthrow the monarchy. And on the other hand, the Yama organisation is trying to annihilate everyone in my family. It's chaos now."

"How did they allow you now? Are people protecting you in secret now?" Oona asked curiously.

"Hmmm. I don't know how many were there in the dark making sure of my safety. They won't show up unless necessary. I have seen them only twice. And my mom convinced my father to let me go. She realised that all these were all useless. Everybody already knows how I look. Whatever is happening is meant to happen.

Lyra gave her friend a comforting side hug.

"Someday everything will be fine. Let's just trust that. We are just nineteen now. Fate won't be so cruel to us" Lyra added trying to comfort everyone and herself.

"Okay, girls. This is too depressing. Let's not ponder about this. Tara, How long are you gonna stay?" Oona said making their girls nod their heads.

Tara smiled happily like the brightest star again as if she was not sad the second before, "I am gonna do my masters here, baby. And I am playing to major in design. I am already done with reading all the business and whatnot. I want to do something I like."

"For real? You will be here for at least 3 years then. And won't this be your first time attending classes?" Lyra asked her in anticipation wanting her friend to stay with them.

"Of course, baby. Yeah, I will be staying here in paradise residency. I have already an apartment here." Tara said cheerfully.

"Paradise residency? WOahhhhhh Tara, We are staying there too. We each own an apartment there. Not only us Joel, Juan, Aiden too." Oona added with smiling crescent eyes.

Hearing Juan's name Tara's face went tense. She bit her lower lip not knowing how to ask them about Juan. She wanted to ask so many things but she didn't know where to start.

"What is it? Why are you looking like someone aggrieved you?" Lyra asked her.

"That... Nothing big. I was just wondering about the boys. And it's been so long since I saw Aiden." Tara said awkwardly.

Oona and Lyra raised their brows hearing her.

"You already met Juan and Joel? How?" Lyra questioned with confusion etched on her face.

For as long as they remember, they never heard Juan or Joel mention anything about Tara.

Tara scratched the back of her head, "Actually I met them 1.5 years ago."

Oona's brows furrowed deeper. She had a very bad feeling about this. She wanted to ask if she met them because the Liu family is involved in the underworld. The Liu is basically on the top of the food chain in both corporate and underworld. While Juan operates the Liu conglomerate, Joel leads their underworld organisation. They are extremely powerful. Nothing who crosses them can see the next sunrise. She and Lyra knew about it since Joel and Juan let them know things. Things which will not her pose any threat. Things they should be careful of.

While Oona was thinking hard. Lyra just looked at her confusedly. But she too felt like things will bad now.

Tara looked down and continued speaking, "The Yamas kidnapped me before 1.5 years. My father couldn't locate me with his forces as they threatened to kill me if he don't let go of the throne. But it was all lies. They just want our family to die. So he joined hands with the Lius. Since we are all friends, I think Juan and Joel got involved personally. I was held captive there for 1 week without food just water. Juan and Joel along with their team rescued me. That's how I met them." she said with slight pride and joy in her voice

Lyra and Oona looked at each other. They both had no idea about this. Oona pursed her lips and observed Tara's expression.

'I feel like something is wrong! Definitely wrong! I have a very bad feeling about this.' Oona thought.

"Actually, I told you guys in the call before right, that I wanted to talk about something important," Tara said while taking a meek glance at the two who became silent the moment she said meeting the twins earlier.

Oona and Lyra just nodded their head and looked at her attentively.

"I... I like... I like Juan" Tara said with a shy smile on her face while fidgeting with her fingers.