Xu Mey woke up early in the morning to make breakfast herself. After taking a shower, she tip-toed out of the bedroom. By the time she came to the kitchen, Azalea was already there looking through the fridge.

  "Do you need something?" Xu Mey’s voice startled Azalea as she jumped in surprise and clutched her chest when she saw that it was just Xu Mey.

  "You just scared me," she said trying to calm her breathing.

  "I’m sorry about that." Xu Mey apologized and helped Azalea taking a seat at the kitchen stool. "What were you looking for? Tell me and I’ll get it for you." Xu Mey offered with a smile.

  Azalea was almost starstruck by the way Xu Mey smiled and mumbled, "You have a beautiful smile."

  Azalea’s words reminded her of Ye Jie’s words when he said that he loves her smile the most. ’Indeed, they are blood-related.’ She thought.

  "Thanks, I guess!" Xu Mey retorted with uncertainty.

  Azalea waved it off and got back to business. "Oh, I want to eat something. I’m really hungry." She told Xu Mey and placed her hand over her stomach to stress further that she was really hungry.

  "I’m gonna prepare breakfast, can you wait for a while?" Azalea nodded her head to agree. "But I can cut some fruits for you to munch on for the time being." Azalea again nodded her head with force this time.

  Xu Mey immediately cut some apples for her and got busy with preparing breakfast. While cutting veggies, she turned to Azalea and asked, "Why did you wake up so early?" Azalea’s face fell and Xu Mey went on, "And don’t say that you’re hungry that’s why you woke up. You can tell me anything."

  Azalea pondered for a while and replied, "I don’t want to sleep anymore."

  "Why?" Xu Mey scowled.

  "I’m scared that if I closed my eyes then I won’t be able to open them again. I’ve been lying in the bed for almost 2 years and now, the thought of bed makes me cringe." Azalea explained with a heavy sigh.

  Xu Mey paced up to her side and stroked her hair affectionately. "I was scared of life once."

  Azalea lifted her head to glance at Xu Mey. "Aren’t you scared anymore?"

  Xu Mey smiled softly. "I am. I’m still as much scared of life as I was before. But something changed in that fear."

  "What changed?" Azalea inquired.

  "My sensei once said to me, ’Fear lies in the unknown. And the fear of the unknown can never vanish. It’ll exist right beside us for as long as we are alive, it’ll follow us like a shadow. But that doesn’t mean that for that one shadow, we have to ignore the rest of our reality. Fear of reality and unknown is as strong as we let it become.’"

  After a pause, Xu Mey added, "You don’t have to concentrate on the fear anymore. Converge on the fact that there are loads of people around you who wants you to rise above that fear and who are ready to hold your hand just to guide you through life."

  "You’re an interesting person," Azalea noted while gazing into Xu Mey’s eyes.

  Xu Mey went back to preparing the breakfast and said, "Your parents really miss you. When are you planning on seeing them?"

  Azalea scrunched up her face. "I’m not sure. At least not until I’m absolutely fine."

  Xu Mey looked at Azalea through her peripheral vision and said, "It’s your parents anniversary next month. Are you not planning on joining them?"

  Azalea was surprised that Xu Mey knew about it. "I want to and I hope that I’m fine by then. But how do you know that it’s my parents anniversary?" She inquired curiously.

  "Well, apparently both your parents are in sync. They both came to me yesterday to discuss the gift designs for each other with me." Xu Mey told her honestly.

  "Ohhh!" Azalea nodded her head in realization. "Well, that’s true. They really are in sync. They always had been. I’ve never seen them apart from each other. Sometimes, they can even make me feel unwanted." She was complaining but smiled brightly at a memory after a while. "But I love their relationship. They love each other so much that there is hardly room for me in them. They really set my bars high for a life partner."

  Xu Mey chuckled but didn’t say anything. Azalea went on again, "How did you and Jie-Ge get together? Was it a love marriage?"

  Xu Mey arched her brows. "Does it look like love-marriage?"

  "It does. It really does seem like one." Azalea replied.

  "But it’s not. We got married because of our respective families. Love had nothing to do with it." Azalea was really surprised by her answer. The way she saw Xu Mey and Ye Jie interact, she really thought that they got together because of love.

  "What about now? Is there still no love?" Azalea probed.

  Xu Mey contemplated for a while and replied, "I think now love has a lot do in our relationship." Seeing the sweet smile that lingered on Xu Mey’s lips, Azalea felt relaxed.

  "It seems that fate really played you both," Azalea commented.

  "Someone once said to me that destiny has its way to play with us. No matter how much we think that we chose the path we wanted to. In the end, it was actually destiny playing with us. We can’t shake it ’cause destiny knows better what’s right for us and what’s not right for us." Thinking about a distant memory, Xu Mey said, "At the start, I really thought that I chose Ye Jie for myself. But now I think that it was really our destiny that brought us together."

  "Suddenly, I feel like falling in love with destiny," Hearing that familiar voice both Azalea and Xu Mey looked to the side to see Ye Jie leaning against the kitchen wall.

  Earlier when he didn’t find Xu Mey beside him on the bed, he was tensed for a moment before running downstairs. And when he came to the kitchen, both the girls didn’t notice his presence and he felt like eavesdropping for some reason and so he did.

  He trudged towards Xu Mey and kissed her head before turning to Azalea to give her a side hug. "Is it fun talking about me behind my back?"

  Azalea poked the fork in her hand in his stomach and said, "Jie-Ge, eavesdropping is a very bad habit."

  Ye Jie was about to open his mouth to retort but Xu Mey didn’t give him a chance. "Ah Jie, go freshen up. I’m done with breakfast."

  Ye Jie could only listen to Xu Mey obediently. He really didn’t want to make her angry early in the morning.