Love To Hate Me

.....

At the Dance Floor.

Badum! Badum! Badum!

Soo Min's ears were completely deaf to the noises from the outside world, all she could hear was the loud beats of her racing heart.

Although she had mistaken it to be because of all the dancing, the real cause of it was actually something else.

Ryan's eyes were fixed on the light brown ones of the woman in his arms. For some reason, she seemed so different to him right now, way different from her usual annoying self.

There was no enmity or hostility between the two, but what was there were only two people whose hearts gleefully danced in sync.

'There's no way this man is Noah. That guy would never have the guts to come this close to me because he knows if he tried something funny I would beat the crap out of him.' Soo Min mused.

For someone reason, this man in front of her did not feel like a stranger, rather he felt familiar.

In fact, quite familiar, but then again who was he?

While Soo Min was in amidst of deep thought, she heard another familiar voice call out to her.

"Soo Min!" A woman voiced out loudly in order to not be outdone by the blasting music.

Almost instantly, Soo Min turned towards the direction of the voice and her eyes landed on two people standing at the very front of the crowd that encircled them.

It was none other than Olivia and Noah.

As soon as her eyes landed on Noah, her suspicions were confirmed to be true, but the answer to her question was still not found.

Soo Min turned her head back to face the man, and her eyes trailed across his face until it stopped at the dark blue orbs that were peeking through the eyeholes of the mask.

That was when the realization dawned upon her, and the answer to her question had been found.

'Then that means this guy over here is...' Her inner voice paused.

"Ryan." Soo Min softly called out to him, that it almost came out as a whisper, but was more than enough for Ryan to hear.

Although he didn't verbally respond, a soft smile spread across his lips, one that reached his eyes.

"Oh my god! Soo Min." Olivia squealed as she rushed towards her friend, with Noah trailing behind.

With more people starting to approach them, Ryan immediately pulled her back up and helped her stand straight again.

The two of them simultaneously cleared their throats from the awkward air between them.

Soo Min glared at her friend who kept giving her weird and dramatic facial expressions as if saying 'Someone was acting like this alliance was supposedly the worst thing that ever happened to her, but now look who was the one happily dancing with her so-called nemesis.'

"Wow! I didn't know brother-in-law could dance so well." Olivia started a conversation with Ryan, who only nodded in response.

Noah snorted from behind, who also seemed to have caught the attention of Ryan, but the two did not bother to exchange words, leaving only their eyes to do the talking.

"I must say, you and Soo Min were—mmph!" Soo Min immediately covered Olivia's mouth with her hand, preventing her from spouting anything that could potentially embarrass her and awkwardly chuckled before saying, "Please, excuse us!"

Immediately after that, she dragged Olivia off the dance floor and within seconds they were out of Ryan and Noah's viewpoint.

.....

A couple minutes later.

As Olivia picked up an appetizer from the snack bar, she unknowingly bumped into Daniel who was busy talking on the phone.

Olivia's eyes narrowed into a slit while Daniel had a deep scowl clearly evident on his face.

"Hmph." The two of them simultaneously harrumphed with disp.l.e.a.s.u.r.e upon seeing the other's face, and walked away in opposite directions.

Although, you would generally think that this was due to their bad start at that business party that night, but that was actually not the case here.

.....

A couple days ago.

At Starlight Mall.

After replying to Soo Min's text, Olivia put her phone away and started exploring around the store to look for a potential engagement gift.

The store she was at was called The Love Gallery, and it was well know for its incredible art works specifically made for couples.

This included everything from pottery, paintings, sculptures, beautifully decorated plants, collages etc.

She wanted to give Soo Min and Ryan a meaningful gift, something that they could cherish for life but also something that was useful.

Olivia walked alongside an aisle as she scanned across the one of many rows looking for a potential gift.

That was when her attention was caught by a specific piece of art. It was a couple coffee mug set, but not just any ordinary set.

It was a complete set that was carefully carved out in marble, and had a golden finishing at the rim of the cup.

The mugs were also decorated with the words 'Mr.' and 'Mrs.' on the respective cups and it came along with two long slender golden spoons and lids.

The look of it was simply beautiful and not to mention it was definitely quite useful and custom made.

Thinking that it would make a perfect gift for the couple, Olivia reached out her hand to pick it up, but for some reason it would not budge!

Then, her eyes scanned across the other end of the box to see another hand holding on to it.

When she turned her head to look at the person standing beside, her eyes landed on the familiar face of a man.