"Excuse me, Miss. I'm here for the pair of rings that I ordered yesterday. Would you please check and see if they are ready now?" Without answering Kevin's question, Shannon turned to the saleslady behind the counter. She took out a receipt from her handbag and handed it to her politely as she asked the query.

  "Sure, Mrs. Gu. We've prepared the pair of rings for you already. We were waiting for you to come and receive them. Please wait a second. I'll take them out for you right away," the saleslady replied, throwing Shannon a professional smile. She turned to face the others and nodded to them, before bending down to take the rings out from a locker.

  "Mom, what are the rings for? And why a pair of them?" Claire asked in confusion. Her questions drew the attention of the rest of them onto Shannon. As they gazed at her curiously, each one of them wanted to know the answer too.

  "There is no 'why'. I bought the rings because I like them. Do I need a reason to buy something I like?" Shannon said as she gave Claire a hard look. Claire hadn't talked a lot on their way here, so Shannon thought she had finally decided to stop being so hostile to Leena. It was so hard and rare to maintain an easiness between them. However, Claire had begun with her questions once again, so Shannon knew that the hard-kept easiness would soon break. She didn't know how, but it wouldn't take long.

  "But this is not like you! You never bought this kind of things before. Like Kevin said, you never liked these luxuries before. Why are you suddenly so enthusiastic about them now? Have you changed your mind?" Claire asked eagerly. After all, she, like Kevin, knew about their mother's attitude toward jewelry. As far as she could recall, she had never seen her mother pursue these material desires, especially jewelry. She was deeply surprised at Shannon's unusual behavior today.

  "Mrs. Gu, please take a look at these. These are the pair of rings you sele

  ness their precious moments. Shannon could only respect their choice.

  "I know, Mom. Don't worry about that. We will arrange it as soon as possible," Kevin replied quickly, assuring her. An affirmative smile spread across his face. He turned to look at Leena and made eye contact with her. After all, he had wished to give her a wonderful wedding too. Getting married to a wife as good to him as Leena without an official ceremony to be witnessed by others, was not something he wanted to do as a responsible and loving husband. Plus, the situation was not the same as it had been in the beginning, when they had gotten married for their own personal reasons, without harboring any love for each other. But now they were in love, and Kevin regretted their past. He kept trying to bring up the idea of such a wedding to Leena. But to his surprise, every time he mentioned it, Leena gave him a clear cut 'no'. The reason for it, from her point of view, was simple. She said that a wedding ceremony was just a ceremony, like some kind of a show, a performance for others. Her life had nothing to do with these people. The most important thing for her was to live a happy life. She did not want to live it for others. So why bother to invite trouble arranging such a fancy wedding? That would be exhausting.