Never

One day before Juan and Joel's birthday.

Tara was biting her nails in nervousness. She was finally going to confess her feelings to Juan. She was so damn afraid of the result now. Lyra pulled her hand away from her mouth and patted the back of her palm.

"It will go well. Don't worry." Lyra comforted while plastering a smile on her face just like she did until now.

"You think? Will he like my surprise? Will he hate it because it's very simple? Should I do something that is extravagant?" Tara rattled.

Lyra just smiles slightly but didn't reply. She was hurting every passing second now. She thought she will be able to act "NORMAL". But she seemed far away from it. She couldn't even reply to her. She is on the verge of collapsing.

Seeing this, Oona immediately pulled Tara near her, "Juan doesn't lack anything. Thoughts are what matter."

"Yes, right!" Tara nodded and leaned her back.

Lyra grabbed a pillow from the couch and buried her face as if she was very tired and resting. But Oona and Lyra knew that it was just her suppressing her cries so that Tara doesn't notice.

-----------------

On the other side,

Aiden was massaging his temples and sighed. Currently, he was sitting in Joel's office barging into the Liu conglomerate.

Joel couldn't bear his annoying sighing anymore and lashed at Aiden.

"What the f*** do you want? Why are sighing as if the roof above has collapsed? Shut up. You are distracting me stupid. I have to review all these documents. If you sigh again. I will throw you out."

Aiden glared at Joel and walked toward him, "Do you really not know what is going on?"

He asked while trying to catch any expression on his face. But Joel just looked confused.

"What is happening?" Joel asked him back.

"You really don't know?" Aiden asked with squinted eyes.

"What the h***? If you don't tell me, How am I supposed to know?" Joel spat back at him.

"... About Tara..." Aiden said after thinking for a moment.

Joel immediately sat upright, "What about her?" He questioned seriously.

In Joel's mind, if it has something with Tara's safety then he was responsible for it. If anything happened to her under their territory the consequences will not be good.

However, Aiden was talking about Tara liking Juan.

"Tara... likes Juan," said Aiden dropping a bomb on Joel.

Joel sat there stupifies as if he had grown another head.

"W-What?" Joel asked, as he nowhere expected this.

"Yes, Tara is planning to confess to Juan," Aiden said dropping another bomb.

"What? When?" Joel asked standing from his chair.

"Tomorrow, on his birthday," Aiden said softly while sighing again.

Joel stood speechlessly for some time. Then he was brought out of his stupor as he heard his friend sighing again!

"What the hell are you talking about? Are you out of your mind? Who did you hear this from? Did you tell this nonsense to Lyra too? Are you mad, Aiden?" Joel shot questions at him one after another.

Aiden sighed for the nth time and told Joel of everything that happened until now.

Joel was so shocked to hear everything. He understood why Oona decided not to tell him. Obviously, between Lyra and Tara. Lyra is important to him. Lyra is like a sister to him. In his heart, Lyra is his family. Tara is their friend but if he had to choose, no questions asked they will choose Lyra.

"This is not right! What is she taking her as? What the hell is wrong with her? We all know how much Juan means to Lyra. Even if Juan takes care of her because of us growing together, she is giving up without even trying now.

This is not right. I am going to talk to Tara. She needs to know that she is destroying her own friend. Juan can't be together with Tara."

Aiden stopped Joel, "She has already made up her mind. She will let us mess now. She doesn't want this. Even I am frustrated. But I respect her decision

And who knows, maybe we are thinking a lot. Juan might not accept Tara. He didn't for Lyra too. He knew about Lyra seeing him as a man. But he pretended not to know. He might turn down Tara too

Aiden speculated. Joel shook his head.

"No. He won't. I know that If Tara approaches him... He will accept her." Joel said with furrowed brows.

Aiden looked at Joel, "How do you know?"

Joel sighed, "I know. He will do just like I said to avoid... leave it." Joel said and walked away to fetch a glass of water for himself.

'He will accept her. He will do that so he can't give in to his wishes later. If he gets together with Tara, he is basically destroying all chances of him with Lyra.' Joel thought as he drank water.

While Aiden looked at Joel suspiciously, 'Why do I feel that there is something going on that I am not aware of?'

Aiden thought. The Lu family is also involved in the underworld so he is very much aware of the happenings. Unline the Liu brothers. Aiden manages the company and underworld both by himself. So he was wondering if he missed out on something. But that seems not to be the case.

"Is there something you are hiding from me?" Aiden asked Joel.

Joel looked back at his friend but didn't reply to anything.

"There is something going on. I am sure of it now," Aiden concluded.

But he didn't ask any more as he knew if it was something he should know, Joel would have told him.

Suddenly, Aiden's phone started to ring. He picked up the call and saw that it was his assistant calling him to attend an important client meeting. Aidem sighed and bid goodbye to Joel and left the Liu conglomerate.

Joel sat on his chair and sighed. He so badly wanted to tell Juan to not accept Tara. As he can foresee him doing that tomorrow. Although his brother has his reasons, he was against his way of doing things. No matter how many he tried to change things with Lyra, he couldn't change Juan's mind over this. He would rather destroy himself than be with Lyra.