Chapter 2 

3 years ago... 

“Good morning to all the wonderful people in Korea. Looks liked we are going to have another scorching day. According to our weather forecast bureau, the temperature will rises all the way up to 39 degrees C today. Wow. If any of you are planning on spending the day at the beach, make sure you bring plenty of sunblock.” Jaejoong turned off his car radio. The DJ’s over enthusiastic voice so early in the morning was more than what his barely awake nerves could handle at the moment. He eased his Lamborghini into a parking slot marked ‘President’, reached to the passenger side to grabbed his briefcase and thankfully walked into his well-cooled-down office. 

He proceeded with his morning routined of going through all the faxes and other correspondence that required his attention. Jaejoong started the business 5 years ago and all the hours he invested in building the company, all the hard work, dedication and sacrifices were starting to payoff but for some reason, instead of feeling a senses of fulfillment, he had been restless and edgy lately, making it hard for him to concentrate on worked, making him noticed that there was a gaping void in his life. 

“Mr. Kim, Mr. Choi is on the line for you.” Jaejoong's secretary, Tiffany, paged him through the intercom. 

“Put him through.” Jaejoong welcomed the break. He waited until the red light on his phone started blinking before picking it up and answering cheerfully, “Hey Minho. To what do I owed the pleasure of this called?” 

“Huh? Are you sick or something? How come you sound so pleasant?” Minho asked suspiciously. 

“What do you want?” Jaejoong pretended to sound gruff and harass and then he grinned as he looked longingly outside, “Is that better?” 

“You really are in a strange mood. I'm more used to your succinct style of ‘tell me what you want and leave me alone’ manner of conversation.” Minho and Jaejoong had been through a lot since high school. At one point, they even went after the same girl in their class. Neither one ended up with her, resulting in the two becoming best buddies due to their mutual commensuration. Minho had just gotten happily married to a wonderful girl a year ago and since then, had made it his life’s mission to introduced his friend to different girls. 

“Is that your run around way of telling me that I’m usually rude on the phone?” Jaejoong teased. 

“Well, if the description fits. Anyway, let me tell you why I’m calling before you get another one of your important business calls. The wife is out of town for the week and I was wondering if you want to do some guy stuff tonight?" Guy stuff? What the heck was Minho talking about?! Jaejoong couldn’t even remember the last time he’s done any guy stuff, “What do you have in mind? You know it’s hard for me to find time for anything else other than worked right now." 

“Come on man, you have been a workaholic for too long. It’s time to pulled your head out of the hole you have created and realized that there is more to life than worked.” 

Jaejoong knew exactly where this conversation was heading, “Just because you are a happily married man doesn't mean that everyone else has to get married.” There it was again, that senses of restlessness. Maybe he does envy his friend’s newfound happiness. 

“Ok, ok. I won’t pressure you into meeting any girls but I’m telling you, you don’t know what you are missing. Tell you what; meet me at the usual place tonight, around 8. We can shoot some pool and have a couple of drinks." Despite his insistence that this was going to be a relaxing evening for the two of them, Minho still couldn’t resists adding the last part for Jaejoong's benefit, “And it’s a popular hang out for singles.” 

Jaejoong was about to say no to this foolishness when he happened to catch a glimpse of a young couple, holding each other’s hands, walking by. His restlessness started stirring full force again, “Fine, I will see you there later." Jaejoong tried to concentrate on worked again, but the sun shinning through the window distracted him. Maybe he might end up meeting someone tonight. What was he thinking? He didn't have time for a serious relationship at this stage in his life; he needed to make sure that the business could run on its own before he could spared time for anything else but Minho's constant reminder about looking for someone was starting to wear out his resolved. That might explained his discontentment lately. He leaned his head back tiredly, took one more looked outside and decided to take a break. 

It took all of Jaejoong's self-control not to laughed out loud at his secretary’s dumb-founded expression when he told her to cancelled all appointments for the rest of the day. Had he really gotten that predictable and entrenched in his routine lately? 'A bit of a change is good for anyone.' Jaejoong thought, as he tried to eases his guilty feeling of leaving worked early. 

He drove around aimlessly until a park caught his attention. The lushness of the greeneries appealed to him and he decided to take a walked. The first thing he noticed when he got out of his car was the fresh clean smell of new cut grass. He inhaled deeply, wondering when was the last time he even saw grass. The vastness of nature assailed his senses, making him forget about all the problems associated with worked. 

The heat was starting to get to him and he found an empty bench under a shady tree. He closed his eyes and for the first time in years, thought about his dream vacation. He imagined an emerald colored ocean and endless clear blue sky. Maybe it’s about time he booked himself a flight to somewhere but what’s the uses; the tripped would be boring without someone to shared it with. 

The sound of delightful sequels of laughter made him opened his eyes. It was a couple of little boys playing with water guns, 'To be a kid with no worries again.' He thought, with envy but what really caught his attention was a beautiful young woman playing with the kids. The two boys looked as if they were ganging up on her, spraying her with water and she played along, not seeming to mind getting wet at all. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Was she the boys’ mother? She seemed far too young for that. Maybe she was their sister or aunt. 

It took a moment for Jaejoong to gathered up his courage to talked to her but the loud rumbling sound from the sky, signaling a summer thunderstorm made everyone run for covered so he missed his opportunity. He hurried back to his car and headed home with the company of pouring rain while he scolded himself for not approaching the girl sooner. 

His dog, Vick, barked enthusiastically, wagging its tail happily and jumped all over Jaejoong the second he exited from the car. Jaejoong felt a wide grinned spreading across his oval-shaped face at his pet’s exuberant greeting, “What’s up boy?” He played with Vick a little bit and he happened to glanced up at the sky. A picture perfect dazzling rainbow was magnificently stretched across the horizon and Jaejoong couldn’t helped but feel that maybe life has something wonderful in store for him.