For a week she checked on her bank account balance and saved as much as she possibly could to cover up for the additional expenses. She didn’t come across her neighbor for a week, which was a good thing, and her business was going down since it was the autumn so things weren’t exactly well for her. Every evening she’d return home, completely dejected and recite all her problems to pepper who always looked like he couldn’t care less. Eunji wasn’t flayed by it, in fact, she was pretty convinced that it was only Pepper’s natural expressions which made him look like he loved her only for the Noms. She was certain that deep, deep down, Pepper was a wonderful cat with a very warm heart. As for the catering, she was at a point where she’d agree to give their service to any kind of occasion. They’ve never taken up anything extremely large scale due to the lack of workers they had, but one evening, she discussed things with her mother and came to the conclusion that they will take up large scale orders and hire workers if they had to. It was their only choice.

The same evening, Eunji came home with two bottles of Soju, sat down on a futon behind the wrong-sided sofa with Pepper his face on her right and began to drink. Her alcohol tolerance was low and a single bottle was enough for her to pass out, which happened to her under regular basis, only to wake up and find herself sleeping on the floor and Pepper napping on her . That particular evening, things would have turned out to be the same, but it didn’t, for while she was halfway through her first bottle, there was a relentless knock on her door. She looked at Pepper who looked bored as though it was physically possible for him to go and get the door. The knocking went on so she called out from her spot “Who are you!” and climbed up on her wobbly feet, regardless.

At the foot of the door was her annoying, stingy neighbor Sung Gyu, staring straight into her eyes., his naturally uninterested expression on his face.

Eunji, despite herself, began to giggle. “It’s you!”

Sung gyu frowned in response. “You’re drunk”

“No I’m not!”

Sung Gyu, who wasn’t buying it, simply ran his rather sculptured fingers through his hair and let out a sigh. “I came to discuss something important…I’ll come back later”

“Is it a catering order?” Eunji asked excitedly, without thinking. And for her utter surprise, Sung gyu gave her a rigid nod. “Unfortunately yes”

Eunji’s smile became grander, and slowly her drunkenness began to fade. She opened the door wider for him to step into the house, which he did, looking wary and anxious as though he was stepping into a military base. Eunji didn’t take notice of his dubiousness, so she shut the door behind him and skipped her way towards the futon. She propped down on her usual spot while he watched her in horror, then she began to talk to the cat. “Pepper! Pepper my boy!!! Look who is here!”

Pepper didn’t bother taking a single glance at him. He just sat there, staring ahead, being his usual arse-hole self. Eunji who wasn’t convinced by it dragged the cat towards her by his fore legs and squeezed him out of his breath. Sung Gyu just couldn’t take it anymore, he couldn’t merely leave either so he loudly cleared his throat, garnering her attention. She then released the cat and looked up to him. And she giggled. “Ah! You! Come come…sit here!”

Sung gyu wordlessly followed, and Eunji crawled off on her all fours, only to return with a note pad in her hands. Then she settled down in front of him, Pepper climbed into her lap and curled in.

“Okay, sir….let’s discuss about the order”

A few hours ago, Sung Gyu got a phone call from his sister. Since she had certain circumstances, it was him who was handling the entire wedding for her; starting from the dress to the venue to sending cards and ordering food, it was all his responsibility. His band itself was supposed to play at the reception and he had to see to both his and his sister’s requirements, so being informed that the catering couldn’t make it, just a month before the wedding was liable to mess everything up, it was an emergency situation and the only solution he could think of was his neighbor, Jung Eunji.

He and Eunji sat on the futon and he recited to her his situation while she listened in a half drunken state. The fact that she still eagerly responded to him was the only thing which gave him heads up that she was listening. He told her everything regardless, assuming that she was taking everything in. After he was done she gave him this half-drunken-half-seriously-concerned look and asked; “But why are you planning the wedding?”

As much as he didn’t want to respond to her question, he figured that it couldn’t really hurt.

“She has a baby” Sung Gyu simply replied.

Eunji gave him a confused look. “But I thought she wasn’t married”

“She isn’t” He said, getting slightly annoyed. “She had her baby during the time of wedding planning, and she has to keep it a secret until the wedding, that’s why her wedding gifts are delivered to me, and she also can’t find time to do the planning, so I’m doing it for her”

“Oh” Eunji blinked absent mindedly. “Okay…”

Sung Gyu carefully peeked into her face to see if she really was listening to him. “You heard all I said, didn’t you?”

“Oh yes, I did!” She giggled and noted something down. “I’m not entirely drunk you know.”

Together, the two put down the order list and the guest list and everything else which required their attention regarding the wedding while Pepper napped soundly in Eunji’s lap. Despite the occasional bickering, both Eunji and Sung Gyu found the company of each other quite endearing. Despite being irresponsible and at times borderline insane, For Sung Gyu, Eunji was actually a wonderful person to be with. He seemed to get along with her ways pretty well, and he actually found her conversing abilities to be rather alluring. She never bored him and always kept him on his toes; while he enjoyed their conversations, Eunji was deeply captivated by the attraction she suddenly happened to find in her neighbor. His eyes were particularly attractive, and he actually did have quite a nice voice. He wasn’t entirely spiteful when he was being himself either; all in all, for the both of them, the meeting was rewarding as well as enthralling.

As night approached, the conversation topics changed from wedding planning to jobs and then finally to relationships. The two soju bottles were half drained at that point, and the two were still sober enough to understand what each of them were saying.

Sung Gyu, as it happened was in an on and off relationship with the bassist of his indie band (Who was a girl) and at that point of time, it was off.

“Eh why?” Eunji slurred through her giggles. “You guys are like torch bulbs!”

Sung Gyu laughed at her response and pondered his reasons himself. “I don’t know…its like, we both want it at one point, and then we don’t…One moment we’re fighting, the next we’re having passionate ”

“You sure are torch bulbs!” Eunji pointed out with a laugh. “But how old are you now? Thirty? Thirty five?”

“Nah, I’m still twenty seven…”

“Right” a pause. “You’re not hoping to settle down though?”

Sung Gyu took a moment to ponder upon it as though it was a matter between life and death, and finally he replied; “Is it important though? Like, I’m still twenty seven, and if I decide to settle down right now, I’d be settling down all my life…”

Eunji poured herself a shot and poured one for Sung Gyu with a wobbly hand. Then she was silent for a long time, staring at the content in her glass as though it held all the answers and let out a sigh. “I’m never going to settle down though…”

“You make it sound like a bad thing” Sung Gyu pointed out to her.

“It is…” She murmured in monotone. “It’s like…sometimes I don’t know what to do with my life…where will I be in another ten years? What should I do? At least I get paid from my own family business right now, but how will the things turn out in the future? I really haven’t thought of that…” Another deep sigh, and she began to Pepper’s neck. He purred soundly in her lap, looking up with hooded eyes and she realized that she was truly utterly alone. She really felt like crying. “It’s only Pepper and me now…and I do realize that Pepper too…” Eunji gulped heavily at the thought and covered her face with both her hands. “Ah…I don’t know…”

Just as she was considering breaking into tears behind her palms, another set of hands reached out and peeled them off her face. She was greeted by a Sung Gyu who was giving her a charming smile, and she could swear she felt her heart skip a beat. “Here now, there’s no reason to cry…”

Eunji sobbed, and whether it was because she was genuinely sad or because she was drunk, she couldn’t tell.  “I don’t know…I feel alone sometimes”

Sung Gyu retrieved his hands and rested them on his lap, then he moved closer to her, as if being physically close would actually help them speak mind to mind. “Listen….things happen when they are meant to happen, right things at the right time…and your time will come….besides, though you are irresponsible and though you have a dirty stupid cat, you’re really a nice charming person, so don’t really give one about the future and live the moment the best you can…” He raised his hands and gestured at the situation they were in, sitting on the floor, drinking and having heart-to-heart discussions. “See, we’re living it…do you feel lonely now?”

Eunji looked around herself and smiled. He was right, she didn’t feel lonely at that very point. Rather, she felt very much alive.

*

It was another Sunday morning; the warm autumn sunrays were seeping in through the parting of the curtains and the cold wind rustled the golden leaves of the surrounding trees. Generally, Sunday mornings for Eunji meant long hours of sleep and staying in in pajamas just watching TV or cuddling with Pepper. She’d give him baths once in a while, or carry him to the vet if she had time in hand, and in the evenings she’d go out and have tea with her mother, making plans for the next day. On that particular Sunday, however, there was a certain Kim Sung Gyu, standing out in her living room interrupting her usual weekend plans.

It was Pepper’s bathing day, and she wouldn’t miss out on it even if she were to die on that day. She filled the bath tub with warm water while being on phone with her neighbor who was calling to inform her that they were going to visit her mother to check with the menus and the like, and by the time Sung gyu actually arrived, she and Pepper was having the third world war in the bathroom. Pepper hated having baths, though Eunji liked giving them. So basically, baths for pepper involved him screaming murder at the top of his lungs and Eunji slopping around with her hands tightly grasping the shower head and the cat’s legs. Sung gyu who was standing impatiently in the living room was not impressed.

“What is taking so long!” He called out, making his way towards the bathroom. He figured that Eunji’s apartment was not much different from his own, but the place was a living hell hole, and everything he touched smelled like cat pee.

“I-am-struggling! Ahhh!! Pepper let go!”

Eunji’s scream was followed by a series of cat screaming and splashing water; and so Sung Gyu walked into the bathroom. Eunji was in the bathtub, the cat was on the floor, completely drenched, and Sung gyu could see Eunji’s strawberry printed underwear. He cleared his throat and looked away. “Did anyone die?”

“He bit my ear!” She spewed from inside. “Bad boy Pepper, bad boy!”

Sung gyu sighed and pulled a fluffy pink towel off the hanger. “Here you go”

Eunji made a disgusted face. “That’s Pepper’s”

“But it’s pink!”

“It’s Pepper’s” Eunji repeated sternly, sounding as though he should have known it all his life. “He can’t get my germs on him, you know”

In the end, Eunji had to get all her wounds treated by Sung Gyu himself. He was rather good at it, although she squirmed around every time he dabbed on the cotton drenched of spirits to her injuries; then he made fun of her crying when it hurt and also of her cat printed plasters. After everything was done and done, Eunji locked up Pepper inside her bedroom with the litter tray and his Noms, and together they set off to her mother’s office.

The catering was named as “Misseu Jung’s” and was quite a decent place for a small scale catering service. Judging by Eunji and her traits, Sung Gyu expected it to be rather fancy and maybe even quite disorganized; but the truth was that, starting from the petite office to the restaurant and the rest, everything was of the complete opposite. The staff wasn’t much but friendly and welcoming, and the atmosphere of the entire place was quite endearing. He liked the soothing quality of it, the silence, the tranquility and the warmth; in fact, he had no second thoughts on hiring the service for his sister’s wedding.

Eunji’s mother was a calm, composed and outwardly strict lady who gave nothing away for one to assume let alone believe that she was truly Jung Eunji’s mother. She was a petite middle aged woman with a long dark main of hair put up in a bun and dressed in a lime green suit; her smile was warm and her way with words was of someone who truly knew her way around with speech. Everything she did was well organized, and Sung gyu could tell that she did not tolerate any kind of inconveniences. All in all, in Sung Gyu’s eyes, Missus Jung was no Eunji, and what was more surprising was that around her mother, Eunji was no longer herself but the exact resemblance of her mother. Sung Gyu, despite their rather serious discussions, actually wanted to laugh.  It seemed as though the only person who could keep Eunji under control and make her behave like a proper human was her mother.

And it was the truth.

While Sung Gyu was off to deal with payments and orders and the like, Eunji’s mother ordered her to prepare lunch for her ‘friend’. Eunji was hell terrified of her mother at times. She was, at most times, way too composed that it was almost robotic and inhuman of her. She wasn’t sure whether it had always been this way or she had another side to herself. But it was also understandable. She was the single mother to one uncontrollable child after all, and for years she had brought up both her and the catering to the state they were now by herself. There were occasions that Eunji actually realized her mother was a wonder woman indeed, and that thought would make her feel even more miserable, looking back at herself and at how much of a disappointment she had turned out to be. At the moments she wasn’t feeling miserable and she wasn’t in wonderment of her mother, however, Eunji was simply and utterly terrified, and following her orders as she was told.

So Eunji prepared lunch as she was told to. She was rather skilled at her cookery and one could say that she was indeed a brilliant cook; she was also the head of the main course section, which was, in fact, a prominent role of the kitchen. There weren’t many orders that day and half of their other cooks weren’t present, therefore it took her quite a while to put together a decent lunch.

When she delivered it to the lunch table of their rather small expanse of a restaurant, Sung gyu was already seated in his place looking all eager and smug. The lunch consisted of a Chinese rice dish and a few side dishes. Since her mother informed that she was heading out for something, it was only Sung gyu and Eunji around, and she was having lunch with him.

“I like your mum” was the first thing Sung gyu said the moment Eunji sat down on the table before him. He seemed pretty satisfied himself, which was a good thing. Eunji was finally seeing potential in herself after having brought in a good customer.

“I like her too” Eunji said halfheartedly and meddled with her food.

“I really like her. She’s so calm and organized and knows her way around things” Sung Gyu went on as though he didn’t hear a word she said. “She’s nothing like you eh?”

“You should marry her then” Eunji said, her complete focus on the plate before her. “If you like her so much”

Sung Gyu just laughed and dug his fork into the steaming fried rice. He already had a good feeling about them; the food, the service and even Eunji herself, so when the food reached his taste buds and the mixture of wonderful flavors overwhelmed him, he couldn’t help but cover his mouth in delight. Eunji, through this, was watching him expectantly, her eyes bearing holes into his face.

Finally, once he had gotten over himself he said, “Oh ”

“Eh what?” Eunji said, unimpressed. “I brought you here and I did so much and practically saved the wedding-,”

He wasn’t hearing her, he was taking none of it but started to shovel the food into his mouth as though he had been starving for months. “Wah, this is so good! Oh god”

At that point Eunji finally stopped bickering and just watched him. Sung Gyu really seemed to be enjoying himself; and the best thing about it was that he was really verbal about how he felt, and his expression was saying it all, Sung gyu liked it. There was nothing which made her happier than seeing someone enjoying her cooking and appreciating her efforts, and Sung Gyu, he was making her feel absolutely gratified. He didn’t speak a word but let himself be drowned by the pleasure of the tastes. It had been a while since he had had a properly cooked meal, and having one now, he couldn’t help but feel at home. He almost wanted to cry. Eunji, on her part, put down her fork and just watched him, a ghost of a smile across her lips. Sung Gyu was generally a rude, arrogant jerk in her eyes and she doubt if that impression would ever change, but this new side of him truly made her heart swell. ‘Maybe he isn’t as bad as I he seems” Eunji thought, silently returning to her food once more. And if anything, Eunji was quite sure that she’s going to enjoy the company of her new-found friendship very, very much.

*

Regardless of how Eunji had assumed for their acquaintanceship to turn out to be, along with their busy lives, Eunji and Sung gyu began to slowly drift apart. After he had hired their catering service, the businesses raised miraculously and despite being totally elated (and also not taking into account the fact that Sung gyu may or may not have contributed to their success somehow) Eunji barely had time to take a breath. She left home early, much to her dismay and returned home very late after completing dinner services and even serving the restaurant visitors, the number of which had drastically raised, and it was killing her since she barely had time to spend with her beloved life partner-pepper. Pepper, of course, didn’t seem like he could care less. His days were as boring as ever, Eunji could tell that much, all for the fact that they hadn’t time for cuddles, but every night when she had returned home, he would shower her with snuggly kisses and they would drift off to sleep together. As for her neighbor, she couldn’t remember the last time they had a proper conversation. She was collecting money to compensate him and making sure that her cat didn’t enjoy another one of his escapades and raid in Sung Gyu’s bed and the like; though it didn’t matter much, she did feel somewhat dejected for not meeting him much often. Once or so often, his smiles would appear in her mind, and at night, when she’d feel really down, her mind would naturally drift off to how he looked on the day she first let him taste her cooking. In the course of this, she did also realize that she would very much like to speak to him again, but only he was hardly ever around. There were times she had peeked out the door to see if he were coming across the hallway, but later she assumed that he had probably forgotten all about her and in turn it also implied he had forgotten about the compensation. Since it would save her trouble, she no longer bothered to meet him again.

Two weeks later, however, Kim Sung Gyu happened to magically appear at the foot of her doorway with a charming smile which sent her heart in frenzy. Eunji was just returning home after a visit to the vet, Pepper tucked away in her back pack which she hung on her front, and seeing the tall lean yet the familiar figure of her neighbor loitering about in front of her house, Eunji couldn’t help but be filled by a strange sense of delight.

“Went to visit your sister with lung cancer?” Sung gyu asked rather seriously as Eunji entered her passcode, trying not to seem too happy. She was certain he had noticed the moving lump in her bag and heard the meows coming from inside, so she kept shut and simply stepped inside, Sung Gyu followed after her.

And after she had safely locked pepper up in her bedroom, and after she had gotten herself a cold glass of water, Sung Gyu emerged from the kitchen doorway and asked; “You’ve got time?”

He was dressed in tight-fitting jeans, a black and white striped cardigan over a V neck. His skin was whiter than hers, and by the look of it she can say he was toned and well, nice. After all this time of not appearing before her, he had now, looking as though he were a runway model, so she couldn’t help but agree.

“We have four things to do today” Sung Gyu announced once they had loaded into Sung Gyu’s car. It was an old model of a Hyundai and the dashboard was covered with stickers of various rock bands she had never heard of; there was rather revolting heavy music blasting from the stereo set which took up almost the entire rear area of the car. Eunji’s head was pounding. So not being able to take it anymore, she switched off the radio and asked; “Which are?”

With one hand poised on the steering wheel (Which also had a serpent-like sticker of some metal band coiled around), Sung gyu began to count off on his fingers.

“One, cake tasting, two, tuxedo fit-on, three, we’re going to check on how the arrangements will be for the food table, number four is a secret”

“Except for number three, the rest are not of my concern” Eunji said, smugly and looked straight ahead.

“Your concerns and nots are not my concerns either…”

“Then why am I-?”

“Ah huh!” Sung Gyu put up an index finger of which the finger nail was prettier than hers. “You, my dear, have benefits of doing this”

Eunji pondered this for a while, and not being able to come up with an idea about the so called benefits, she said; “Let’s hear them first”

“There’s one” He said in his false professional manner. “Twenty percent of the compensation will be deducted”

After having Sung Gyu standing about near her entrance after two weeks of disappearance, this must be the best news she heard or came across for the week.

“No !” she cried in pure bliss. If that’s what she’d get, she’d eat thousand pounds of cake if she had to.

“Don’t be too flattered” Sung Gyu said, a smile creeping up his lips. “That’s just a complementary offer”

“Am not!” Eunji exclaimed, defending herself. “But I’ll take it”

“But there’s one condition” Sung Gyu added, much to her chagrin.

“And which is?”

The small smile which lingered on his lips became wider, his eyes disappearing into crescent moons, and it was obvious to her when her heart really, virtually skipped.

“You can’t faint when I come out in the tux” he replied.

*