|The Acceptance Stage|

((Hours later...)) Many intervals of 60 minutes have passed by, and she has made no progress whatsoever in preparing herself for the blind date.

"What am I supposed to wear?! I have nothing to choose from."

She startled me, panicking even though she had an entire room filled with nothing else but countless expensive clothes...

"How about you just wear anything that you want? It is the type of date where you should be able to express yourself, is it not?"

I added, chilling on the sofa while Honey ravaged her closet-like room.

"HELP ME!" she gently screamed unintentionally, asking me for assistance.

"Alright, alright! I'm coming now." I laughed at her little crying session after struggling alone although, I came here saying that I would be helping her out.

I passed over a fit & flare cantaloupe-colored dress toward Honey as she tried on all kinds of dresses that seemed not too formal nor casual in a curtained changing room.

"Aha!" the sudden noise psyched me and so, I waited till she put it on properly so that we could check out if the dress fit her date.

"Did they not show you any photograph of him?"

The curtains suddenly slid aside, revealing Honey in the dress with her perfectly ruined hair after trying on so many dresses for almost another 30 minutes.

"I'm guessing that they didn't." she facepalmed right before taking off the dress.

She gazed at me with her eyes, making me feel very threatened, I couldn't tell why she reacted that way, I mean...

"Knowing what he looks like can help you a bunch. Doesn't it?" she was fuming in anger with what I spoke of, throwing the fit & flare cantaloupe-colored dress on me, and began to search for another kind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Is he there already?" Honey ended up dragging me along with her, she was peeking through the transparent glass near the entrance of the animal café.

Specifically with bunnies that can hop around!

'Did her date choose this place, or did their parents set this up so they can work out, thinking that all teenagers these days find this interesting..?'

"But in my case, I love this place!" I whispered to myself, seeing as Honey was still occupied in acting like a stalker of her supposed date for today...

"Why don't you just head inside and see for yourself? Not all men are like your father." I commented as I continued urging her to enter the place.

"Certainly, right? My date might also be unlike your friends." Honey seemed to be worried and had quite a bit of a trust issue with men...

'I surely agree, all men are fools.' or at least, most of them.

'Why does Song have to pop up in my mind at the wrong time possible??'

I panicked and pushed my dear friend inside the entrance, leaving her as I departed from the embarrassing thoughts I was having at that moment.

--Honey Lou's Point of View--

"Uhmm... This is awkward." I may have face blindness but that doesn't really keep me from recognizing the people that I am most certainly familiar with.

Is this seriously happening?

"Were you not informed?" he asked quite sincerely, reaching out his hand and getting up on his feet to pull out the seat for me.

'He is a very well-mannered gentleman.'

Unlike all those guys that I know of...

"No, I wasn't informed but does it even matter now?" my tone suddenly changed from being optimistic to an insensitive one, given the circumstances that they left us with.

"I hope my father's plane crashes into a huge graveyard that everyone knows about..."

I didn't intend to say that out loud but who cares?

Yun Oh chuckled so softly that I didn't even notice it sooner, he knew what or who I was referring to... "Do you mean the deep sea, in particular?"

He decided to check if he perceived it correctly in a single attempt.

"You pass the test!"

Even if I couldn't see the expression on his face, I could definitely tell that he was shocked to hear something like that from me, I never actually tell people that I test them, wanting to know if they'll pass on their first try.

'He is the first ever to do this, bringing out this side of me without breaking a sweat.'

We sat there in silence before he broke the ice, confronting me about what just happened.

"I've never really told this to anyone else but since I honestly thought that I didn't know you, at first... I tried to see if we were compatible in some way such as our humor perhaps." I smiled at him, feeling relieved that I could feel comfortable enough.

"Uh-huh. So, does this mean that I'm already the one you're choosing to marry?" his response made me freeze in my spot.

Obviously, that part of this date had slipped from my thoughts although, they repeated this discussion about marriage many times already...

"Catherine, I didn't mean to make you feel uneasy or anything." I dropped myself on the floor, feeling a little sorry for my friend...

'He doesn't even have any clue that I have no intent in actually following my so-called father's last will, not even if he passes away.'

No one would respect his wishes.

Hence, I will continue living the way he wants me to live while he is still around.

However, that doesn't mean that I'll let him keep on pulling my strings as if I'm some kind of a puppet. "Now, I get why my stepmother automatically chose me as the lead for the final performance before the next school year begins..."

"What?" Yun Oh was flabbergasted by my behavior, leaving him speechless in this situation we were in.

"Don't mind that. Why don't we just order something for lunch, and cuddle with those bunnies?" I excitedly remarked at him.

Holding his hand to place him back on his chair as I returned to my own, contemplating if I would interact with the cashier or not.

"I'll do it, what do you want to have?" he leaned in, staring at the digital display of the menu while recommending some of the most famous yet low-cost beverages and a variety of pastries to choose from.

"I'll get whatever is easy to make." he nodded and checked if I was certain of my decision before he left, heading to the counter.

I looked at the little bunnies in the pen, they were either playing or munching on some crunchy vegetables other than the fruits that were given earlier.

"Here!" the sound of the girl taking Yun's order had me taken aback because of her high-pitched voice, I believe she is also a foreigner...

'That usually happens when someone speaks in another language.'

"Don't you find them cute?" my date returned as soon as I thought about approaching the little creatures.

Their paws were as white as snow and some were also as dark as midnight.

"I can't really relate..." I whispered to myself as Yun Oh took one of them in his hands, bringing it over toward me and insisting that I caress it.

"Please don't. I am not fond of their feet and nails." however, he didn't stop there.

"Oh? She's well-groomed though."

It didn't convince me enough to hold them with my own hands, I admit that they are soft and comforting to touch, and yet, from what I heard from my father...

"There are times that they act a bit rough."

I tried to overcome my discomfort when it comes to animals, they may appear to be sweet on the outside but they can possibly be dangerously ferocious.

I mean, who wouldn't be when the world is clearly unfair..?

'Life can really be cruel...'

"Come on, simply put your hand over its head or back, and then, pet her." Yun Oh shyly took my hand in his own, putting it on the bunny as it played with me.

"I can tell that you don't fully accept the will of your father, am I wrong?"

We both briefly made eye contact before I pulled my gaze from him, thinking to myself if I should also accept our fate as it is already written...

"You know, I've read this fictional book where the saying goes 'lies only in the hands of a pair' and it really became my motivation from that day, and so on."

He shared, looking at the bunny.

"I have been waiting for someone in the same league as me, or in other words, the same level and circumstances. To put it simply, someone who knows the feeling."

He rested on his palm.

"I don't see how that relates to any of this." I tried to be honest and slightly open up to him since there was going to be a huge chance that I'd choose him, and marriage sounds like we do need to get to know more about each other's minds.

"What I ought to say is that if we're going to be together, either by force or on our own accord... We should accept it in a way that we are comfortable and happy. There is nothing wrong when it comes to negotiating, you know?"

Those last words made sense to me, business isn't all about power and control... It is also about negotiation as well as manipulation just like how they manage to make me do things.

"Other than having the ability to overpower, control, and even manipulate me... They negotiate about things to make it seem fair." he sadly added.

"We have a lot in common... We're rich, smart, and everyone pays attention to us, or at least that's what we think." he laughed at my response.

Brushing the thought off before bringing back the bunny to its spot.

"Going on a single date doesn't really mean that we're going to end up marrying each other. I have a ton of other choices, you know?"

I tried to mimic his voice, wanting to lift up the atmosphere as it felt quite gloomy.

'That is not the ideal mood that I wish to have on my first date, and will probably be the last...' we both finished up the desserts as couples would usually do together and brought our drinks with us, leaving the place with elegance.

He opened the door for me and we both made our way outside, heading inside his car as his driver went away when we settled inside the vehicle, driving off to another destination that our parents had reserved for us both.

Life really is like a book whereas your life ahead of you is already written by someone else. 'Having to live in a world, where there is just something we cannot control.'

One of those is our ending, the important last piece of the process.