Maria is walking on the streets of New York City, hurrying to work as she's late for work. She takes time to think aloud. "Life can sometimes be crazy I guess. Seemed just like yesterday dad passed and mum's health deteriorated, now the doctor says she needs money for surgery because the pills are no longer working. Grandma works so hard and late at the restaurant these days, things are so hard for all of us. I can't even afford to pay my tuition for college, besides mum and Manuel,my brother and Grandma are more important...wait why does that sound seem to be getting louder? Aaaahhh!" Maria is almost runover by a limo, she falls to the road but instantly gets up apologises to the driver with her palms clasped and her head bowed. she quickly runs off looking at her watch and running. The driver returns to the car and a young handsome Korean man, his boss begins to question him. "Who was that? why was she in such a hurry?" "Sorry sir, she apologized, she said she was terribly late and was too much in a hurry to notice the car. There were no damages to the car sir and she thankfully wasn't injured either". "Hmph! she's probably one of those poor people getting themselves intentionally involved in accidents with the rich just so they could make a big deal of it and make a fortune from rich people, common scumbags". "Pardon my audacity sir but she seemed genuine". "Funny your taking sides with an absolute stranger. you know what? Forget it! just get me to the Conference meeting with the shareholders and investors before I become late as the girl", "Yes sir, sorry sir". The Young man begins thinking quietly, "How strange she was, maybe he's right. Maybe she was genuinely late", he looks in the direction she ran to, sighs, shakes his head and quietly shuts his eyes to meditate.

Maria gets to her workplace, but she's ten minutes late and her boss, Philippe, doesn't seem happy with this. "Your always late, this is the third time this week Maria! what are you always doing that keeps you so occupied? Are you always sleeping in?" Philippe doesn't know that Maria doesn't even have time to sleep talk more of sleep-in as she has to work five jobs daily just to sustain her family, pay the bills and buy her mum's medication. Maria quietly takes the heat. With head bowed she profusely apologises to her boss. "I'm sorry Maria but if this keeps up your going to loose your job here, understood?", Philippe storms off angrily, leaving a sad Maria fighting to hold back tears. She wipes her face and lifts her head, "Don't worry Maria you got this, it'll be fine. As dad always says 'When life gives you lemons, make lemonade' ". She smiles and looks at her locket. It was a parting gift from her dad on one of his trips, that was the last trip he ever went on. On his way back he got involved in a huge accident and died. Tears oozed freely from Maria's eyes, she quickly wipes her tears with her palms and heads to the kitchen to grab the broom and begin working.

It's the rich Korean Man again. Whose name is apparently, Kim Jin Seok. He seems to be in a rotten mood due to how horribly his meeting with the investors and shareholders went, he meets up with his friend, Jeon Ji min, who is Korean American and has lived in New York far longer than Jin Seok. He waves at Jin Seok and runs to him from across the street. "Seok hyung, it's been so long. How is Korea? I trust you find this city quite fascinating", "If by fascinating you mean annoying then Yes!", Jin Seok has an accent that shows he's not too familiar with speaking English though fluent at it. "Huh? I know that tone, Hyung, what's wrong?". "It's the shareholders, they said we are yet to obtain full legal license to do business in the States, and many of the American investors are skeptical about my competency in leading the company, apparently they feel I could run away easily with their shares since I am not a legal citizen of the United States". "Hmmm...Hyung, this is quite simple but strange. it's actually a common practice between immigrants and indigenes. You could just have a contract marriage with a Citizen, get your Citizenship papers, obtain your green card and license, then get divorced and give her anything she wants. So it's a win-win, you get what you want and she does too. If your on-board I can help you find a girl", "Wait Min, you know I'm engaged to Wang Son Ha". "Like I said, it's simple you could talk it offer with her, besides it's not permanent you will get a divorce anyways. I also know your a 'Mama's boy' so you can talk it over with your mother too, I'm sure she'll give you the go-ahead since it's Work related" Seok gives him a queer look but then smirks and finally agrees. "So problem solved, now let's go have some fun I know a nice bar nearby, I'm sure Son Ha won't mind" They both laugh loudly and the limo speeds off. Maria is in a bar preparing for her last shift, after working four jobs during the day she's exhausted but has to work this last one before heading home. "Phew! almost done, just get through this one and your home free Mari. You can do this" Her boss walks into the changing room, "Now girls, remember to smile and be nice to them", he grins meanly and all the girls asides Maria respond in high pitched tones, "Yes sir". "Now go out and make me some money". Maria manages to get into her bar hottess clothes. She hates how short and revealing they are but she has no choice. She does look adorable dressed in Black and white dress with a short poofy black skirt and and an off shoulder top half with knee high boots and funny ears.

Seok walks in with Min into the bar where Maria works. Maria stands in a corner trying to avoid getting noticed while the other girls rush out to meet the other men, hovering around them like pitiful dogs. Maria loathes the sight of this. Min notices Maria and immediately calls for her as she approaches them he leans over to Seok and whispers, "I'll let you have this one I can tell she's new, she'll treat you right. Besides you deserve the best Hyung" he pats Seok on the Shoulder grabs Maria's hands and shoves her at Seok. Maria is obviously reluctant and uncomfortable but can't do anything as her greedy mean boss glares at her to do her job. She forces a smile at Seok, he only stares at her with furrowed eye brows. Maria sets to pour him a drink. Min walks over to the Maria's boss, slips him some cash and orders him to get Maria and Seok a private room, this he instantly obeys and slips the money into his pocket. Maria is not comfortable being in the room with only Seok. Seok doesn't recognize Maria from the morning incident and she doesn't either besides she only spoke to his driver. Seok begins to undress and lies on the bed, a startled and disgusted Maria runs to the bathroom. She sits on the wet cold floor and cries wishing her dad were here so she wouldn't have to endure any of this. She gently whispers to herself as she washes her face, "Make lemonade" with that she wipes her face with a towel, flings open the door and sits on the bed next to Seok. He gently moves in closer and holds her waist,he has her in a deep embrace and begins nozzling her neck from behind. Maria trembles and tries to keep calm but suddenly snaps and pushes him away. "No! stop it! I don't want to do this". Seok gets up rather upset. "If you knew your not comfortable doing this then why work here?!" Seok screams angrily. Maria is scared. Seok gets up and walks towards her. Maria is alarmed and begins screaming, "Stop! don't come any closer or I'll sir you for assault". Seok still walks forward. Maria is frightened as the distance between them is less than a centimetre. He then reaches for his clothes by the dresser and wears them and leaves the room quietly. Maria is surprised that he didn't force or hurt her. She stands there in shock expecting the worst. Min is surprised to see Seok walk out of the room. "Finished so soon? Hyung". "Let's just leave" said Seok sternly. "What happened?", "The girl was useless, she said she didn't want me and even threatened to sue me for assault". "Wow! the nerve of that *****. Who does she think she is?!" yelled Min angrily. "I'll teach her a huge lesson, she'll pay for this!? how dare she disrespect you like that the insolent b@*#h!". "It's ok, let's just go, I'm tired anyways". Both men march out briskly to leave, the manager sees them and runs after them. "Leaving so soon, why you haven't even had maximum fun in my bar and I don't like dissatisfied customers". "Oh really! why don't you hire better workers then who do their job right!" yelled Min. "What are you talking about sir, all my girls are beautiful and efficient", "Maybe you should ask your useless newbie!" With that he gets in the Limo with Seok angrily and the chaffeur quietly shuts the door and begins driving. "I'm so sorry Hyung, she was meant to relieve your stress and yet she..", "It's fine Min, it's not your fault. Just do me a favour and help me find out everything about her. I want to know what drives her insolence", he then meanly smirks and orders the car be driven to his residence.

The manager barges into the room to find a tired Maria waking up startled from her sleep. He grabs her arm and screams at her furiously, "Your trying to ruin me right? This isn't the first time that you have turned down a customer nor the second. Your so beautiful yet absolutely stupid and useless, GET OUT!" he flings her across the room. He grabs her by her collar and drags her out of the bar throwing her belongings on the street. Maria picks up her things and begins to walk home. She cries until she gets to the street of her house. On the street some men are standing in the corner when they see her pass by they cross over to her side of the street and begin following her, making money sounds and touching her body. She turns around and yells at them to leave her alone and begins running but sprains her right leg due to the heels she's wearing. The men circle around her and Maria is frightened. Just then a young man grabs one of the men from behind and shoves him away and begins pummeling the others after they few minutes of punching and kicking the men run off. And Maria looks up to see a handsome guy with a warm smiling face and hands stretched out to help her up. She blushes and smiles with joyful tears in her eyes as she takes his hand. He helps her up. And takes her to his house and applies ointment to her feet. Apparently he was Antonio, her neighbours second son. He was Latin American. They basically grew up together but Antonio was older than Maria and he just got back from College. He had never looked more cute with his tanned skin, curly black hair, green eyes and broad shoulders. Maria literally couldn't help but stare as he applied the ointment and helped her to her door. They both waved eachother goodbye as she walked into her house. Maria smiled as she heaved a sigh of relief and landed happily on her bed, remembering her knight in shining T-Shirt, Antonio and admitting that truly it seemed she had a crush on Antonio. With this happy thoughts she happily drifted into a peaceful sleep forgetting all about her horrible day at work.

Maria has once again slept in, she's late but doesn't know it yet 'cause she's dreaming of Antonio rescuing her and they both getting married. She's awakened by her Grandma, Abuelo's, loud yelling from the kitchen, "Mi ha! Maria! aren't you going to work today?". She's instantly jolted from sleep, rushes to the bathroom to freshen up and dashes out of the house running. Antonio lends her his bicycle so she could ride to help get to work faster, she thanks him and hastingly leaves. Min is waiting nearby on Maria's residence street, he instantly spots and begins tailing her to get the information Seok asked for. Maria arrives almost thirty minutes late, her boss is very upset and decides to cut her pay for her incessant late coming to work. Maria only apologizes to him and marches off to the kitchen. She begins brooding over her mum's health and how she's to raise the money for the surgery, but her thoughts are interrupted by loud screams from the dining hall; she goes to check it out. A rude customer with dark shades and an expensive designer suit is yelling at a waiter and is about to hit her until Maria intervened grabbing his arm and shoving him. The manager emerges from his office and the rude wealthy customer begins exaggerating what happened and the manager turned and hit Maria and told her she was fired and he returned to face the rude customer and began profusely apologising to him. With teary eyes Maria just stood still and secretly began to loathe wealthy people as they always seemed to cause her problems everywhere she met them, she remembers the bar incident and storms out of the restaurant, mounts Antonio's bike and speedingly rides away, wiping tears from her eyes as she rides. Once again she got fired from a second job, this really only further complicates things for her. She gets off the bike and begins dragging it with her as she walks down the street close to her house, she's almost run over but Antonio quickly grabs her in time. She doesn't even seem to care that she was almost hit. Antonio is furious at her and questions her for not being careful, "Maria, are you trying to kill yourself?what's wrong with you?". She doesn't say a word she just bursts into tears and Antonio gives her a hug, trying to calm her down. Meanwhile Min, is closeby watching them and secretly taking photos wearing a nasty grin muttering to himself, "Seok will like this". Antonio takes Maria to a park and buys her Ice cream, Maria thanks him and begins to tell him everything that's been going on and her mum's poor health. Antonio sympathises with her, he takes her hand and promises to help her in any way he could. They both stare at eachother and blush, Maria quickly looks away as Antonio stares at her. He looks at his watch and says he has work to do so he has to go, she agrees though she's sad. He apologizes and promises to check up on her and maybe they could go for dinner when he gets back, she smiles and they both leave. Min also gets up and removes the newspaper he used to cover his face and smiles wickedly as he heard all they talked about. He enters his car and drives off to Seok's company to give him all the information he gathered.

Seok looks at the file Min gave him on Maria. After reading through it he concludes. "I wonder why I had interest in her in the first place? your right,Min, she's useless and her life is just sad and boring. Just dispose of all the information you found. Thanks anyways". Min raises his eyebrows and furrows them at Seok and finally explains it to him. "Actually Hyung, she isn't as useless as you think. I mean, she's naïve, poor and currently desperate, plus she's a citizen of this country. she's perfect for the job. We finally found the perfect person for your arranged contract marriage", he grins looking closely to get Seok's response. "I don't know Min, she looks difficult. What if she becomes too hard to control?", "Hyung, trust me, at this point she is choice less. She can't do anything against you at all". "Fine, if you say so Min. I would say a job well done, you deserve something. Just take any car you want from my garage except my latest model Lamborghini, the black one". "Wow! Hyung you are so generous, Kamsahabnida (Thank you)". Min happily runs off to claim his prize, while Seok ponders on Mom's suggestion and looks at the file and pronounces her name outloud, "Maria Elizabeth Andreas. I guess you'll just have to do", he grins. Just then Seok's secretary walks in with a worried and frightful expression on her face Informing him of his mum's visit. Seok sighs and buries his head in his palms and grumbles and replies,"Thank you, you may leave" to his secretary. Shortly Mrs Kim Ha ri, Seok's widowed mother,walks in and Seok rises to respectfully greet her, bowing ninety degrees as their culture demands. She nods approvingly and begins speaking in Korean. "It's been months since you arrived in the States yet you didn't see it necessary to keep in touch with your mother? even if you couldn't consider me what about poor Son Ha, your fiancée, she thought something terrible happened to you". Son Ha emerges from behind Mrs Kim and rushes to hug Seok. Seok isn't very happy to see either of them, he intentionally blocked Son Ha's number from his phone so she wouldn't bother him. Seok mutters sarcastically, "Just great" under his breath as he rolls his eyes. Son Ha leaps on him and refuses to let go until Seok has to personally pry her off his shoulders. She kisses his cheeks and he pulls a fake smirk. Son Ha tells him she missed him in Korean (Pogoshipo Oppa). He coldly replies, "Me too". He then asks her to quietly wait outside, she turns to him mother and begins to wail that she is family too and should be allowed in on the conversation. Seok is becoming angry and becomes more irked when his mum signals for him to allow her stay. He reluctantly agrees. Just then Min walks inside, His eyes closed and swinging a bunch of car keys in his hand he loudly says, "Thank you Hyung...!" he finally notices Mrs Kim's presence and instantly becomes uncomfortable and nervous. He bows to greet her and quietly takes a seat. Seok begins to pitch Min's idea to his mum. Mrs Kim is obviously not fine with it. She already loathes Min as it is, it's basically an open secret that Seok's aware of, infact everyone knows she's terrible at hiding it. "Mum, the idea seems good. Atleast we get the needed approval and gain the trust of the foreign investors", " But I don't like it Seok. Where did you even get such a crazy idea from". "Well mum, you see, Min pitched the idea it's actually normal over....", "Oh! I see, Min pitched this ridiculous idea. That explains a lot", she meanly glares daggers at Min. He shrinks with fear and begins to perspire. Son Ha finally catches on and yes "NO!" loudly. She's afraid of loosing Seok. After much minutes of yelling, numerous hysterical and over dramatic displays of Son Ha and promises, Seok's mum finally agrees and Son Ha reluctantly does as well, when she is promised an instant wedding with Seok immediately after he divorces his contract American Wife. She could be so annoying to look at, she was so dumb; atleast in Seok's eyes. He didn't entirely hate nor like her, his relationship with her was one of convenience. Her family had money, not that he needed any part of it but her mother was his mother's childhood friend so they basically did the match making themselves. Infact, Son Ha was the one who needed his money, it was after all the only thing she ever asked him for. He knew that she didn't truly love him but he didn't care as it was mutual either ways. Mrs Kim goes as far as saying that while Seok is married, Son Ha will be like his concubine having free access to everything he owns still as though they were married. Seok isn't too comfortable but he has no choice, his mother's words are final.

Seok was happy to atleast have gotten his mother's approval, he asks Min to arrange for him to personally meet Maria to make the deal with her in hopes that she'll accept. Min collects the file and dials Maria's number.