Chapter 15

A few days later, the weekend is finally here. As what Lia had promised, she had followed Dan to the event where they would announce the winner for the photography contest. Before they announced the winners, both of them were walking in the gallery looking at the photos that was exhibited in the gallery. They were lots of beautiful photos with a beautiful meaning.

"Dan-ah, where's your photo?" asked Lia. Both of them were walking while holding hands. Dan was smiling without answering her.

"What's with the smile, huh?" asked Lia as she nudged his arms playfully.

As they were walking with Lia following behind him, she was looking at the other photos, suddenly, Dan has stopped walking making Lia startled and she almost bumped her nose into his back.

"Dan-ah, what's wrong?" asked Lia. Then, Lia turned to look at the front and the photo that has been displayed in front of her made her surprised.

"T-this photo…" said Lia as she went near the photo.

It was a photo of her looking at the sunset in the Han River. It was the same photo that Dan gave her the other day.

"Y-you-"before Lia could say anything, Dan took her hands and intertwined it with his hand.

"That's right, it's you." Smiled Dan as he turned to look at Lia.

"Why?" asked Lia and Dan pointed at the side of the photo asking Lia to read the caption.

"The Love of My Life"

"As the sun sets in Han River that day, the love of my life sat there on a grass with a smile. However, the lyrical smiles seemed to be burdened with a melancholic thought in her, hoping that one day, the burdened will be replaced with happiness. "

Once Lia done reading the caption, a tear escaped her eyes. "You were very thoughtful with the caption." Said Lia. Then, Dan brought her near him and caressed her shoulder. "That's how I feel when I saw you on that day…" said Dan.

*and that's how you captured my heart too* thought Dan.

"Come on, it's almost started." Said Dan and brought her to the hall where they would announce the winner. Lia and Dan was sitting at the front row, giving an applause for the other winner while waiting for Dan's name to be announced. After a few minutes of waiting, finally, his name was called.

"The winner for the Seoul Photography competition, 2021 goes to…. Seo Dan." Announced the MC and the audience was giving him an applause as Dan stands up and walked on the stage receiving the trophy.

"Congratulations, your photo will be exhibit with one of our famous photographer, Park Jungshin on his upcoming exhibition." Said the MC.

From below, Lia saw that Dan was smiling and she was really happy for him. She knows how much Dan loves photography and he even told her that he wanted to win so that he display his photo in the exhibition later. She even took a photo of him on the stage and shared it with their friends.

***

That night, while Dan was resting in his room, his father had called him downstairs wanting to have a talk with him.

"I got a news that you won in the photography competition, is that right?" asked Mr. Seo as he placed his cup of tea on the saucer.

"Yes dad, I won." Answered Dan

The conversation between both of them is always tense. Because Dan knows that his father disapproved his hobby and passion in being a photographer. All his dad's wants is for him so be on the same path with him and working in the same field as him. Dan has been following all of his instructions ever since he was a kid.

"If you're satisfied with it, I guess you can stop now and focus more with your internship. Once you're done with internship, come to my office and I want you to work there and that's final." Said Mr. Seo strictly.

"Dad, I refuse. Once my internship ended, I will focus more on photography and I will be in Time Studio with Jisung hyung." Said Dan firmly.

"SEO DAN." Called Mr. Seo loudly.

"What I said, is final." Said Mr. Seo "and your fiancée is coming next week and I hope you can be with her for the time being and be nice to her and her family." Added Mr. Seo.

"Dad, I have someone that I love and why would I be with her? I thought I've rejected her?" asked Dan in disbelief.

"Have I said yes about you are rejecting her? Whatever it is, you need to follow what I said." Said Mr. Seo as he gets up leaving Dan alone in the living room. Dan got so frustrated and mad at his father for not giving him any choices. He just hit the table so hard till Mr. Seo could hear on the stairs.

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

A week later, it's the weekend and Lia was getting ready in her room to meet Dan at Time Studio. She wanted to surprise him by going there without telling him as his birthday today. Yesterday, right after she arrived home from work, she had spendt her time baking some cookies for him.

Today, Lia dressed up in white loose long pants, with black sleeveless top and baby blue loose jacket as the outerwear. As for her hair, she let down her long wavy hair and pinned up her fringe to the side with white pearl hairclip. Once she's done putting on her rose matte lipstick, she went to the kitchen and took the cute box of cookies that she made yesterday.

As she was putting on her white sneakers, she got a text from both In Ha and Liyli. Now, the three of them have created a chatroom for three of them. The three of them talked a lot in the chatroom. Before, Lia's phone used to be quiet without any notification. The only notification that she got is only from her family, and Liyli. Now, as she gets to know them as their new friends, she keeps on receiving notifications from them.

"Are you guys celebrating his birthday today?" asked Liyli

"Did you managed to bake the cookies well? How was it?" asked In Ha

Lia shook her head while smiling reading their texts. Once she had locked the door, she replied to their text.

"Don't worry, I'm sure my cookies are good. I don't burn it." said Lia

"Yes Liyli, I'm going to the photo studio to surprise him :)" replied Lia.

***

The bus ride took a few minutes to arrive at Time Studio. Once she has arrived around the area, Lia stopped by at the café to buy some coffee and tea for them. Lia knows how much Dan loves coffee and while Lia is a tea person. Once she got the drinks for them, Lia straight away, walk to the Time Studio happily. One hand carrying their drinks, while one hand carrying a box of cookies that she made yesterday.

As soon as she reached Time Studio, she greeted Jisung who was sitting at the counter.

"Jisung oppa, annyeong~ is Dan here?" asked Lia

"Oh, Lia-ah, yeah, he's inside but he has a guest… maybe you can just go there and greet him…" said Jisung.

"That's okay, I'll wait for him." Answered Lia with a smile.

While she was waiting for him, Lia takes a walk around the studio looking at the photos, and others. But then, she has never seen what's on the second floor and decided to go upstairs while waiting for him. As soon as she got upstairs, she noticed that it was actually a bigger studio compared to the downstairs one.

*Might be this one they will use it for a professional models* thought Lia as she looked around the area. Suddenly, while she was looking around the area, an unfamiliar voice greeted her from the back.

As Lia turned the back on her heels, she saw a beautiful girl dressed up in a red dress with white outerwear looking very sophisticated walked near her.

"Hi, I thought they don't have any bookings for a photoshoot today…" said the girl.

"By the way, my name is Park Hae Ra, I'm Seo Dan's fiancée. He owned this photo studio." Said Hae Ra.

*f-fiancee?* thought Lia in surprised. Dan has never told her anything about he has a fiancée. Her heart was beating fast trying to deny what she just heard. She suddenly felt so weak and she could just fall in any moment. Suddenly, a familiar voice just came upstairs and it was Dan.

"Haera-ah I'm done here… let's go meet our parents-" said Dan and he was surprised to see that Lia was there too, standing in front of Hae Ra. "Lia-ah~" greeted Dan with a smile. But he noticed that tears were pooling in Lia's eyes not knowing the reason why she's about to cry.

Lia was trying so hard to hold her tears.

"I'm Han Lia, Dan's friend. Nice to meet you." Said Lia and shake hands with Hae Ra.

"By the way, I got a call from my mom so I need to go now… goodbye." Said Lia as she ran passed by Dan with tears pooling in her eyes.

"Lia-ah!" called Dan and ran downstairs. Then, he saw the two cups of drinks and a box of cookies on the counter. And judging by the handwriting on the sticky notes, it was from Lia.

"Happy birthday Dan, I love you."

"Oh no, Lia…" muttered Dan alone and ran outside trying to chase Lia.