12 Until You Came

Arya walked out from Ryu with enough distance so he won't hear her voice. She answered the phone and heard her mom crying on the other line. "Mom what's going on? What happened?" she asked nervously. Panic struck her thinking that something must have been gone wrong.

"No dear, there's nothing to worry. I'm just so happy. It's my tears of joy. The doctor just told me that they already had a match donor for your sister. They confirmed the schedule of operation this coming Tuesday. Dear, your sister will now be fine." Her mom was stammering and still sobbing on a low tone.

Then her mom added, "And your dad called. The trial was at his advantage. New evidences were found to prove that he was just being framed up." Then she heard her mom cried out loud this time.

Her father was the CEO of Tan Corporation. He has been arrested for felony charges relating to Tan's collapse and bankruptcy and his trial was still ongoing.

Her family had encountered a misfortune in just a day. In that one day, everything was gone. Their mansion, their cars and their money were all frozen and will be confiscated once her dad is convicted.

She had asked for help but no one wanted to get involve. Her father even suspected her uncle t be the one responsible on what had happened. Her mom was just a simple housewife. She even struggled on her last year at college. Thankfully Kay helped her and she was able to graduate this year.

They become penniless without her dad. Then her sister Reese collapse because of another kidney failure. Reese was born weak from the start and had undergone already on an operation before. Right now, she needed a transplant and was an in-patient at the hospital for a close monitoring.

Then Rita's offer came, right in time, in that crucial moment…

Arya noticed Ryu was staring at her from a distance. 'I am so sorry Ryu.' She said inwardly as she gave him her sweetest smile as her tears fell down from her eyes. Those were tears of happiness for her sister and dad.

She was far from him so she was sure Ryu won't notice it. Then, she turned around from him to wipe those tears.

"That's good news mom. I am so happy to hear that. I have to go now. Please make sure you also take care of yourself and don't worry too much now. I love you." She said in a soft and encouraging voice before she hanged up the phone.

As she walked back to Ryu, the previous question on her mind popped up once more. Is she willing to take that risk on confessing everything to Ryu? The answer is NO.

Her family was her priority and she will not let a moment of joy with someone that she wasn't even sure how long can last swayed her over her family. No she won't take that risk.

Ryu smiled at her and asked, "Is everything alright?" Arya just winked and said, "Nope. She just missed me already. We do have a close family ties you see."

"Oh that's good so you probably can uphold a good family of your own in the future." Ryu commented. Arya shrugged her shoulders and said, "Maybe yes or maybe no. I think it will always depend on how the person will handle things but the environment do has a big impact on one's upbringing I guess."

Then she got curious on his so she asked, "How about you. Do tycoons like you had close family ties as well? Or it was really like in the dramas where siblings and relatives fight each other for power, position and money?"

Ryu laughed and said, "I'm not quite sure how to describe my family but yeah it's often the same. Besides, those dramas were based on real life aren't they? Though, they exaggerated some details for viewer's ratings."

During their sake drink, Arya and Ryu got to know each other more by talking about various stuffs about their life.

"So how many girlfriends did you have?" She asked out of curiosity.

"One?" he said grinning.

"Liar! Go and tell that to the marines instead. How old are you anyway?" She said with twitched lips. That's absolutely not true. He looked about on his late 20's or early 30's. Nowadays, even a twelve year old kid already had a girlfriend. What more him? Handsome, powerful and very rich plus his personality was pleasing so far.

"I just turned 30 this year. How about you, how many boyfriends did you have?" He asked in return.

"One?" Arya answered back copying his tone.

"I'm that one? How about the asshole, isn't he counted? I said one because believe it or not you are the first and only one I asked to be my girlfriend." Ryu said with creased forehead while he looked intently at her.

Arya's eyebrow arched in disbelief as she said, "Are you for real? Just me at that age? Jim was my first boyfriend."

"So I'm the second. You should say 2 before and not 1 instead. And yeah I am for real. What can I do when there's no one that caught my interest until you came?" Ryu said as he pouted his lips to show his grumpiness.

"Sorry, it was a bad joke. I'm just copying your answer since I thought you're just kidding." She said as she gave him her killer smile.

Ryu leaned forward to give her a quick kiss on her lips. "You look so lovely on that smile that I can't help but kiss you," he said grinning.

Arya pursed her lips. "Why are you so smoochy. It's our first day and you move so fast already. Don't you know Jim never even got to kiss me after our almost a month of relationship?"

"Well that was his loss. Why move slowly. I hate turtle moves. I want to do things fast." Ryu said then drank the cup of his sake.

Arya's eyes widened. 'What does he meant by that? Don't tell me he intends to make fast movements on her like bedding her?" Arya's face paled. That was not part of the deal was it? She had to call Kay ASAP.