Love Began with the First Meeting

When Freya had read the report on the car accident that had happened to Manson and Gracie and found out that they had protected Ximena at the price of their own lives, she had stopped resenting them thoroughly. Her only hope had been that Ximena was still alive. Since she had been released from prison, she had visited many orphanages to search for Ximena. She had done that for so many years, but she had been disappointed every time. As time passed, she had felt more and more sorry for her daughter.

Hearing what Freya said, Ximena finally burst into tears, without any care whether her swollen eyes would go back to their original condition any time soon. Although Freya didn't say what she meant explicitly, Ximena was able to understand the underlying meaning of her words. Was Freya's past really so bad that she would be hurt once Ximena dug around and found out what had happened in the past?

Truthfully, Ximena didn't know.

The answer was like an endless stream. Despite following it vigilantly, Ximena still hadn't arrived at its end yet. Perhaps it was just as Aaron had said-new memories would one day remove her desire to know what had happened in the past. Life was like a long river that was made up of setting days and rising nights. 'What did you gain? What did you lose? What did you hope for?' she asked herself. Everybody had their own answers to these questions, depending on the path they chose to take.

For the longest time, Ximena thought that she and Aaron had attracted each other like the opposite poles on a magnet, without their knowledge nor their intervention. And now, they could not be separated by any external force. Perhaps it was because their love was met with too many barriers and obstacles. Since neither of them had chosen to leave each other despite those hard challenges, they no longer had any reason to part. Maybe everything was just determined by their personalities. To a certain extent, they were the same kind of person. They were eager to have a family but were subconsciously afraid of having a family at the same time.

Then, it was said that pressure would appear whenever a person's thoughts were inconsistent with what his or her heart wanted.

Ximena thought that it was true of her. She could live a happy life and forget the past, but in the depths of her heart, she knew that she still cared about what had happened before. As a result, sometimes she would space out, become restless or get angry without any apparent reason.

Time flew quickly. Things would usually change in a freakish way. One second, clouds would be white, fluffy, and beautiful, and the next they would be grey, despairing, threatening. Life truly was like a dream, during which a person might do something right, something wrong, love somebody, hate somebody... And finally, everything would just end in stillness. Things that a person could not give up could only be classified as impractical and extra.

Ximena closed the book in her hands. It was high noon then, and looking out the window, she felt the scorching heat the sun was blasting the world. The ending of the book she was reading was still echoing in her mind. From it, she has realized that truly, life was like a dream. What would be left when a person's life ended?

"Ximena," the shop manager gently greeted her while placing a document on her desk. It took her out of her deep thoughts. "This is the financial statement for this quarter. I'll put it here so you can review it."

Hearing that, Ximena turned to the shop manager. With a faint smile on her face, she nodded, signaling that she understood what he just said.

With that, the shop manager smiled back and quietly left her office. Slowly, Ximena leaned against the backrest of the chair and put the book down on a small round glass tea table by the side of the chair. The sunlight passing through the window glass illuminated the front cover of the book like ray of golden light. Under the bright light, the title of the book-"A Pure Accident"-popped out more, as if sending a message to Ximena.

The book told a love story between a man and a woman who met because of pure accident. The plot was reminiscent of her and Aaron's love story. They too had become a couple within the similar circumstances, and had developed their relationship in the same way the lead characters did on the book. Everything was because of pure accident, and she could not be more thankful about it.

With these thoughts in her mind, Ximena slowly closed her eyes and began enjoying the afternoon sunlight in her air-conditioned room. Somehow, the different temperatures between the inside and outside was a great reflection of her current contradictory mental state. On one hand, she was enjoying herself in her cool and comfortable room, but on the other hand, she was longing for the blazing sun outside.

Ximena's thoughtful relaxation was interrupted when her phone suddenly rang. Slowly, she opened her eyes, easing herself back to reality. After being in a daze for a while, she picked up the phone from the tea table. When she saw the name displayed on the screen of the cellphone, a smile gradually appeared on her lips and her eyes lit up in an instant.

"Hi! Molly?!" Ximena answered the phone in a joyful voice.

"Ximena!" Molly exclaimed in the same excited voice, as if the whole world only existed between the both of them, for them.

Hearing such a voice, Ximena could not help but chuckle and roll her eyes. "Listen to your own voice! Do you know how pretentious it sounds?" she said, laughing out loud. "Tell me. You've got Mr. Brian Long back. Right?" More than a year ago, the day after the hacking incident had happened, she had missed a phone call from Molly, who had been in Britain then.

Sometimes when a person missed one thing, he or she would miss a lot, regardless of whatsoever remedies taken afterwards.

Later when Molly had planned to go back to A City, she had called Ximena once again and told her that she was going to pursue her love and that she was going to take the father of her child back. "And I won't stop until I succeed!" she had even said back then. It was not until then that Ximena had found that Molly had changed. She was no longer the coward woman she had met in LW Hotel for the first time, and she was no longer the woman who had always been confused about whether she should escape from Brian's clutches or not. Molly had been reborn as a woman who was strong, as a person who would be able to do what was needed to take care and protect the people she loved.

"Yes, of course. That's really not a question, Ximena," Molly answered. Her eyebrows raised as she was fully delighted. The smile that she was already wearing on her lips widened even more. "Ximena... Our wedding ceremony is going to take place in Dragon Island next week. Would you like to be my bridesmaid?!"

While she uttered these words in a form of a question, her tone informed Ximena that she had already decided for her and that she had no choice but to agree. "You haven't even asked whether I would be free by then!" Ximena complained jokingly, without saying yes or

no.

"Well..." Molly said slowly, her tone still playful. "You will attend my wedding ceremony no matter what happens. It's a big event and I expect you to drop everything so that you and Aaron could be with us on that day!" Thinking of that, Molly's tone became low, as if she was purposefully trying to sound sad. "After all, you're the very first friend I made. If you couldn't attend my wedding, wouldn't you feel very, very, very sorry for me?"☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐