Ten minutes later, however, Eunji regretted that she agreed to the offer, all for the fact that she was certain she wouldn’t be able to contain herself from fainting any longer.

As if the things would turn out for the best, Sung gyu decided to do number two of the list before number one, and at that moment they were in a rather fancy and quite expensive tailor shop where Sung Gyu was trying out his customary tailored tuxedo suit. Despite the facts that the material was expensive and that she couldn’t imagine how an indie band singer was affording it, the rest of the things considered, Sung Gyu was, in fact, a true work of art. If Michael Angelo’s David was kept in a museum and Obama was made into a wax statue, Eunji decided that Sung Gyu deserved a museum, a statue and even an entire city monument for himself to represent the unbelievable beauty that he was. The dark blazer of the suit fit him perfectly in all angles and the pants were truly made for him; the shirt underneath was a crisp white, paired with a thin red tie which brought out the fine quality of his skin very much. And together with his dark locks and perfect proportions of his body, Sung Gyu could really work himself to be a model, or run for mister Korea if he had to. Eunji was fazed, pulled off her feet, mesmerized, and had a really hard time not fainting like he said. It was a trick.

Her daze didn’t wear off for a long, long time. She was still not in a clear state of mind, the image of Sung Gyu imprinted in the back of her eyes like a haunting trajectory, and when they had finally come to number two, Eunji wasn’t doing very well, which garnered Sung Gyu’s immediate attention.

“You alright?” He asked as the chef placed a slice of lemon cake on the table in front of them. Eunji just stared at it and felt her stomach turn; she nodded absent mindedly and finally took a deep breath. She really had to pull herself together, she was on work. “Yeah fine….ugh…”

“Lemon cake with lemon curd and raspberry frosting” the chef announced, interjecting them and both turned to face him.

“What the hell is lemon curd?” Sung gyu questioned as the other took a fork full of the cake.

“I have no idea” Eunji managed to reply.

The cake was fine, though it didn’t suit her taste buds, so patiently and politely she set it aside and tasted the next. Likewise Eunji tasted a total of six flavors of cake, starting from lemon cake to carrot, almond, vanilla bean, tiramisu and red velvet; and finally opted to chocolate champagne which came with a wonderful frosting that she immediately fell in love with it.

“Oh my god, oh my god” She mused to herself, her fork clean, “Gosh I got to make this at home”

“You can’t make unhygienic champagne cakes” Sung Gyu said from his side, having a piece of champagne cake himself. “And wedding cakes at that!”

“Oh shut it” she grumbled, off a dollop of frosting, “Pepper is not unhygienic and-,”

It all happened so suddenly then. Eunji was sitting there, and soon she was sent to a nether land when something warm moved by her lower lip. Eunji returned to her state of utmost daze, her heart beating in frenzy and her mind all over the place; by the corner of her eyes she could see Sung gyu wiping his thumb off on a paper napkin with a smile. Eunji, in reflex, suddenly had the urge to hit her head on the nearest wall repeatedly. Sung Gyu just wiped frosting off her lips with his thumb. Sung Gyu touched her lips, Kim Sung Gyu who looked like he had stepped out a ing fairy tale just touched her lip! It might even be the previous incidents tolling in her mind, however, Eunji couldn’t help but feel a mixture of overwhelming emotions. And all she could say was that it was not going to end up nicely at all.

*

The third on the list was visiting the wedding location which turned out to be quite a drive away from where they lived. Both Sung Gyu and Eunji were quiet throughout the drive, Eunji looking at Pepper’s photos on her phone and Sung Gyu listening to his crappy music over the stereo. While number four still remained a secret, number three itself was rather exhausting for her. She couldn’t understand why they had chosen somewhere far off in the countryside as the wedding location; yet all her doubts were answered once they had finally arrived at their destination.

 The location of Sung Gyu’s sister’s wedding was their family house. And that explained how he could afford to be an indie band singer and afford a bloody expensive tuxedo suit and branded clothes. The house was at least as big as Eunji’s old school. Kim Sung Gyu was bloody rich.

“This isn’t much but…” He began, shyly scratching the back of her neck once they had gotten off the vehicle and were traversing the massive lawn through the cobble path.

“Are you ing kidding me?” Eunji returned, the previous feelings completely drifted off in thin air. “If this is your house, you should ing deduct seventy five percent of the compensation!”

“Yah! My family house and living expenses aren’t mutually correlating!”

Eunji wasn’t buying it; in fact, she wasn’t even listening to him. The front lawn of the Kim’s mansion was indeed humongous, and also beautiful. The grass was trimmed and flower beds were well tend to; there were a several workers engaged in their duty to keep the garden at perfection and the wind which traversed across and blew through her hair smelled of earth and jasmine, it was nice.

Soon Sung gyu brought her to the side of the garden where he said that the wedding reception would be. For now it was only a cobble path through the greenery which he said would be set up with flower arrangements and tables and the like. A small stage was to be put up in the front and the band will be playing on one side; the other side, as he claimed they had planned, would be the buffet table. Sung Gyu had booked a simple western lunch menu together with soup, appetizers and desserts, fruit punch and a separate table for liquor. Since the lawn was quite spacious, arrangements didn’t come to her as a problem, therefore, without trouble, both Eunji and Sung Gyu planned out the arrangements and then Sung Gyu led her to a summer hut which was placed somewhere close to the main house under a Sakura tree which had put off its beauty for the autumn. Then he revealed his fourth thing to be done, which was a secret but not one anymore.

He had a bottle of expensive French plum wine in his hands along with two shot glasses which he produced from under the bench. Then he winked with a smile. “Wedding gift”

Eunji couldn’t remember the last time she had a glass of good wine, an expensive kind at that; She decided that it was indeed one of the best days of her life.

“Oh my, what did my horoscope say today?” She asked, more to herself, watching as the dark golden liquid splashed into the glass. The sour but sweet scent of the wine wafted around them in the air.

“That you’re getting some good wine maybe?” Sung Gyu suggested, lifting his glass. “None for pepper”

“Yah!”

He pretended to not listen to her and raised the glass for a toast. “For pepper, the arse-hole”

“I second that!” Eunji said fondly and raised the glass herself. “For pepper!”

*

“You know” Sung Gyu was saying after a couple of rounds of wine shots. “Though my impression on Pepper that little wouldn’t change one bit, he is actually a nice little ”

Eunji was drunk, yet her mind was working perfectly fine. “Eh, stop calling my baby that”

Sung Gyu ignored her and went on. “Like, they say that every bad thing happen for something good eh? So you see…the jerk creeped into my house, and I met you, and the jerk crapped on my coat, which is a double reward! Now I get a new Ralph Lauren jacket and a scarf and also got to hire you and save the day!” A pause and a gulp of wine, and he added in a slur; “Philosophy is a ”

“You talk too much” Eunji commented from her side. “Are you usually blabbering when you’re drunk?”

“Don’t know, don’t remember” Sung Gyu answered, dropped his head and smiled at his glass as though he was in love with it. “Ah…Your cooking….” He finally said.

Eunji, who wasn’t as drunk asked, “What about it?”

“Your cooking is so dreamy you know…I was thinking about what you said that day, about not knowing what to do with your life…” He took another gulp of wine and turned to her. “The problem is, Eunji, you haven’t realized your potentials. You don’t have to be something big to be successful, you can do what you can do the best and what you enjoy the most and be successful with it….my parents gave me good education, I hold a degree in economics, but what do I do? I do music. And like that, with your cooking…you can do wonders….”

Eunji was silent for the moment, and being overwhelmed by a mixture of emotions, she almost wanted to cry. It was as if, after hiding from the entire world for too long, he had stripped her mind and seen all through her like an open book. In just two days he had seen her, not just outside but right through her. The very thought made her realize that what really matters is never on the surface but in depths of the truth. “Thank you…for your kind words” Eunji managed in the end, in a soft voice and took a deep breath. “It isn’t like…it’s just that…the world out there is so big you know…and for someone like me, I can hardly step out and survive…and that thought itself is scary. It isn’t like I don’t want to, it’s just that I can’t…”

“Who says?” Sung Gyu asked, his eyes focused on the furthest depths where a bed of tulips danced in breeze. “You can start small; start a small restaurant, move into an apartment where cats are allowed, meet new people, travel the country, meet someone to love, travel the world together….life is too short for meddling about the future you know…live it now, or you never will…”

Her thoughts drifted off with his words, but managed to come right back to her and she became conscious of him watching her. She suddenly felt so open, like a glass, and there he was, painting it. She let out a heavy sigh. “But they all sound like massive plans to which I’d have to adjust my whole life…I’m not ready for them…I like how things are now. I have to be there for my mother, and I can’t afford to move out; besides Pepper can’t get used to a new place now. And I don’t want to find love….in fact, though I feel lonely sometimes, I realized that it’s how I want things to be…I am independent, so independent that the thought of loving someone makes me feel weak and helpless, which I don’t want to be…I’m independent, which in turn makes me strong. I’ve lived that life up to now, alone but free and I know that it’s what I want to be….so yeah, I think now is good…”

Sung Gyu too, was silent for a moment, and for that moment the only sound between them was the wind and the rustle of the leaves. Eunji could feel her heart pounding, all his words ringing in her head, and all her revelations,  yet, naturally she put up the wall to surround her, the wall of independence over loneliness because her pride didn’t allow her to admit, and the wall of ignorance over whatever she felt for this perfect stranger.

“Making your own choices is a strength too” Sung Gyu suddenly said after a while and drained his glass in one gulp. Then he turned to face her, looking at her in a way that no man had ever done so in her life, and she had never felt so exposed and self-conscious. She couldn’t help but feel that he knew her too well, and it made her feel so vulnerable.

A few seconds passed with him just watching her then, and he finally turned away. “But it’s such a shame” He said, in a voice filled with such strange spite. “You’re beautiful, witty and talented…it’s such a shame that nobody can have you”

And it was at that point Eunji realized it, she couldn’t live behind her walls of independence and pride any longer. He had broken and shattered them through.

*

After that day, Sung gyu and Eunji, though they met up at regular occasions for work related matters, didn’t go into having heart-to-heart discussions. It was as though he had squeezed her soul raw like a lemon, and so every thought of him made her feel like a lemon herself. Every meeting after that day was brief and strictly work related. It was either about booking tables and submitting the edited list of guests and the like, and whenever they meet, he’d tease about Pepper, she’d ask him to shut up, he’d be a jerk and she’d be the independent cat lady, and that was that.

Soon, two weeks had passed, and came along the day of the wedding. Even while preparing for the wedding, with all the cooking and all the rush, Eunji couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the thought of having to see Sung gyu in tuxedo again, and even worse, for the whole day. The cooking was a success, and the food came out so incredible that her mind immediately drifted off to that time when he said about starting a restaurant of her own. In fact, many of her thoughts had been revolving around him lately. If she thought of wine, it’s Sung Gyu, about fried rice, it’s Sung Gyu and even cleaning Pepper’s litter tray, it was Sung gyu that she could think about. On the wedding day, it also occurred to her that their acquaintanceship would come to an end from this day of the wedding, only leaving her the compensation to be paid, the only one reason to see him again before, like he said, they stop crossing path again. But she wanted to see him, very much. It was like she was never enough, like it was with Pepper, like it was with caramel pudding and cat videos on the net every night on the couch with Pepper on her lap and a mug of coffee in her hands. Kim Sung gyu, without her knowing it, became an obsession.

It was also saddening to her that she had to be dressed in her chef uniform with the lime green “Misseu Jung’s” label on her chest and the tube-like cap while Sung gyu will be in his impeccable suit. And it was not until she reached the wedding location with her catering team in the caterers’ lorry and saw Sung Gyu’s band setting up on the stage opposite to the lunch table, did she realize it, there was Sung Gyu’s ‘turned off light bulb, which might even be on right now. Eunji has never felt so miserable in her life. She was beginning to think that she had just kicked away a perfectly fine chance which wouldn’t come along for a life-time, then in the course of this thought she also realized that there wasn’t a chance at all. She wasn’t in love. It was impossible that she would be. Jung Eunji was the single-cat-lady, the ultimatum of all the cat ladies in the world, and there was nothing stopping her.

Not even a handsome young stranger who was making his way towards her as while she carried a massive container of buttered shrimp in her hands towards the lunch table. Definitely not handsome young strangers. She wasn’t that weak.

“Uh-oh” Eunji muttered to herself when her heart flipped without warning and soon she the opposite direction and trotted away, but before even she could go any further, there was a warm hand on her shoulder. She rolled her eyes, irritated by the fact that her stupid, stupid heart actually wanted it and turned around.

“Hey, need any help with this?”

Sung Gyu was in pants and a crisp white shirt, which she could tell were from the suit that he almost killed her with, and got even angrier when butterflies fluttered inside her.

Though she was sure they were spiders or something inside.

“No, I’m fine…” She said, and for her surprise, she actually did sound angry, even Sung Gyu was taken aback. He just gave her a light chuckle in response. “Oh, okay then…I’ll be around if you need anything”

Eunji just nodded and simply walked off.

And for the rest of the day, Eunji decided to try her best to ignore him and then her constantly failing heart. She was completely focused on her cooking, and since they were doing the frying appetizers on set, it was a massive convenience to keep her mind focused solely on her priorities. There were occasions where Sung Gyu would pass by and come around to check on them, to see if everything was going as planned, and at these moments she would do a giddy chant by herself to not to be overwhelmed by the very existence of him. In fact, Kim Sung gyu was being a massive distraction to her. If not for her great will to keep herself focused and sane, Eunji would have seriously fallen off of her wobbly knees.

The wedding ceremony was to begin at nine in the morning, nevertheless they’ve been preparing the place since six in the dawn. Eunji had had two sleepless nights consecutively that she could barely keep her eyes open even while doing her thing. By eight thirty in the morning, however, things began to heighten up and an ocean of crowd emerged as though a ship had just sailed to the mansion. Sung gyu, who was now fully dressed, rushed over to her and informed that she should join them for the ceremony.

Knowing that joining the Kim family for the ceremony itself would certainly shatter her perfect stance, she replied rather casually; “No it’s fine…I have to set the champagne flutes”

“Aiee, come on, Eunji” Sung Gyu said in his usual nonchalance. “Allocate one of your people for it, you’re one of the guests too…besides my mother invited you to join us”

Eunji let out a heavy sigh and looked past her neighbor towards the front of the audience where Sung Gyu’s mother, a short, elegant lady with a kind posture and the same smile as Sung gyu himself, was standing, and Eunji could see that she was watching them expectantly. Eunji wanted to ask if Sung gyu had told them something which would encourage them to regard her as a wedding guest, but then she decided against it since she supposed it hurt her pride. “Okay, fine” She finally said and agreed. “But only until the end of the ceremony”

“But of course” Sung Gyu said with a grin, and seeing how his simple smile reached his eyes, how he seemed much more brighter than the autumn sun itself, Eunji almost wanted to huddle in a corner and weep.

The ceremony, in her honest opinion, was boring and long. There were the prayers where they had to sit and stand and sit again for couple of times, and by the time of the vows, however, Sung gyu who was sitting way up in the front seat with his parents was suddenly occupying the seat beside hers.

Eunji decided to completely feign ignorance on the fact that he smelled like men and cinnamon and that she liked the scent of cinnamon very much. But then he was talking to her, right into her ear.

“Months of planning and commitment ending here…” He was telling her with a rather victorious smile. “Though I’m going to miss her and the baby, I’m so glad she finally got what she wanted”

Eunji, who was irritated that he chose her of all the many people to talk to, said; “And the point of telling me all this is…?”

“No point really” He said, and she noticed that his smile of accomplishment never seemed to leave him, in fact, this was the happiest Eunji had seen him ever since they met. “I just wanted to talk…you know, the thought that your closest companion is finally going away reminds you that you’re really truly alone now…” Eunji felt him looking at her by sense yet she stared ahead. “I suppose you’re too independent to understand that”

“I guess?” Eunji said, not entirely being true to herself. “What about the torch bulb?”

“She’s coming after the ceremony” Sung gyu said.

“No, what I mean is, what about her? You got her, how come you are alone…?”

There was a long moment of silence from Sung Gyu’s part, and his sister (Who looked so much like him, which was strangely beautiful and beautifully strange at the same time) was repeating the vows after the pastor. The wind blew through, carrying her favorite scent; Eunji remained silent and still, expectantly waiting for his response.

After the couple had finally ended saying their vows and when the groom lifted the veil to kiss the bride, Sung Gyu finally found the moment to give his reply.

“Because I found the light that I always wished for, but then it refuses to shine”