It was 8pm sharp when Seung Hyun was ringing the doorbell in Eun Ji’s apartment, just to be received by Min Young at the door.

“Oppa! So you are the visit that Eun Ji has being expecting. Come in!” Min Young said.

“Hi Min Young-ah, I didn’t knew you were going to be here” he said while taking off his shoes and walking into the apartment.

“I wasn’t supposed to come, but tomorrow we have a dinner with Young Bae’s parents and my family, we are finally going to set a date for the wedding; so I came to pick up a dress I wanted to wear” she said while smiling and leading Seung Hyun to the kitchen, were an amazing smell was coming from.

“Finally! Congrats! I truly hope you two don’t change it again, I mean I really want to see you wearing that wedding gown”.

“My words exactly! Hi Seung Hyun-sshi” Eun Ji said turning from the stove and smiling at him. There she was wearing a simple green tshirt and some jeans, with her hair up in a messy bum and her navy blue apron, while Seung Hyun was styled perfectly in black pants and a grey sweater.

“Annyeong Eun Ji-sshi” he replied back while placing three bottles of wine on the kitchen island where a spread of various foods were placed.

“You only have met a month ago and are already ganging up on me. And Oppa what’s with all that wine? Are you planning on getting my donsaeng drunk?” Min Young said eyeing them, she was surprised that Seung Hyun had let his guard down so quickly with Eun Ji, since he was extra cautious around women and that Eun Ji was smiling at the sight of him despite what had recently happened to her.

“Oh, I didn’t knew what you were cooking Eun Ji-sshi, so I brought two red wines, a cabernet sauvignon and a Pinot Noir and a white Riesling wine, I forgot to ask you about the menu for tonight, so I thought I should at least cover the basis”.

“It’s ok, I only decided on the menu today at the market after I saw what was fresh, but either wine will do ok, I missed French cooking, so today we are having Coq au vine, parsley potatoes and a mix green salad, too bad I couldn’t find a place that sells baguette” Eun Ji said smiling at her menu since it had taken her almost all morning to find all the ingredients.

“Given that I already beg her for some food and she said no and I only understood wine in that line, that’s my cue to leave” Min Young said picking up a bag and her purse “Take care of my place Eun Ji and don’t let Seung Hyun drink too much, he begins to act like a kid”.

“Don’t worry, I already went furniture shopping with him Unnie” Eun Ji said laughing a bit “Take care and I promise to cook for you and Bae next Friday night, I will do Pho like the one you used to loved I made for you in New York”.

“Ne, take care” Min Young said while closing the door and leaving them alone.

“So Coq au vine… is being a long time since I had good French food, since you work with that for the last years I expect something remarkable, otherwise I am still on time to find a new chef”.

“Please, wait until you taste my Chocolate Gateau for dessert, you are going to be begging for extras at the end of the night and will consider giving me a raise” she said with a smirk while serving the food on the plates and setting them on the living room table, since Min Young’s apartment didn’t had a proper table.

Seung Hyun popped open the wine while she was doing that, letting the wine breathe before pouring it on the glasses.

“Dinner is served” Eun Ji said while taking a seat on the one of the pillows she had placed on the floor and Seung Hyun soon followed her.

The minute Seung Hyun glanced at the food; he knew he was in it for a treat, not only the food smell fantastic, the way it was presented truly lived up to the reputation that Eun Ji’s résumé had presented. 

Eun Ji was eagerly looking at Seung Hyun waiting for his response to her cooking and like she had expected, the minute he placed a bite of food in his mouth, he couldn’t resist letting out a small grown expressing his satisfaction.

“I am really glad you like it, I felt like I really had to step it out, considering it was an apology dinner” she said and finally letting herself dig in.

“It is really good, I think I am definitely accepting your apology” Seung Hyun said while he kept on eating.

“By the way, you picked a great wine” Eun Ji said and saw that Seung Hyun look pleased.

They kept on chit chatting over the main course and it wasn’t until she presented dessert and they crack open the second bottle of wine that they finally began talking about the story they had left pending from the night before.

“So, what is the story with the infamous fiancé?” Eun Ji finally asked.

“Well… I dated her since high school, she was a former classmate of Jiyong and Bae” Seung Hyun said now seating more comfortably on the coach and filling up his glass with more wine “We were together for around 7 years, she waited out for me to go to the army and finish my major, she even stuck it out with me when I was struggling to get a job.

So I told myself, Choi Seung Hyun she is definitely the one for you; so I asked her to marry me on our 6 year anniversary and she said yes. She was an intern in a cosmetic company and at the end they had offered her a job there. But, like I told you yesterday, two days before our wedding, I saw her arguing with someone in front of her apartment building; little did I know that when I went away to the army, she had actually cheated on me with one of her co-workers and he was the one she was arguing with” he said picking up his glass of wine and took a drink.

“No, she didn’t… She had being cheating on you all along?” Eun Ji said dumbfound.

“Yes, she was. They kept it on and off, despite him knowing she was supposed to marry me. I confronted her and that’s when she finally came clean and told me that she no longer loved me, that she only said yes to marry me because she felt comfortable with me; but that she could not marry someone over comfort, that she wanted to feel the rush that the other guy made her feel, like when we both started dating.

That she had thought it more thoroughly and that we should just faced the fact that no one marries their high school sweetheart” he ended up while finally taking a bite of the chocolate dessert, in a way, it was a small piece of comfort after a story he wasn’t that eager to share.

“I can’t believe someone can act in such a despicable way towards a person they had spend so much time and so many things together… I mean, you just don’t stay with a person for so long just out of comfort, what about loyalty and love? Seriously I could just punch her in the face” Eun Ji said gulping down the remains of her wine.

“I said the same stuff, especially since she literally bolted from everyone’s life. I had to face the reality of having to break the news to my family, our friends and cancel everything we had ready for the ceremony, even return some of the stuff we had already bought for the apartment we were going to move. That’s when actually Min Young stepped out to help along with Bae, they help me cancel the place, help me return the wedding gifts to her parents and to move out to a new place since I was already living in the new apartment.

To be honest, I even ended up living in this same place for about a month until I could get my deposit back and find a new place to live; Min Young crashed at Bae’s in the mean time”

“Wow, I mean she didn’t face anything… what a nerve! And I know what you mean, Unnie is just like that, if she had to give up an arm to help out a friend she would. And guess this place is popular for after break ups recovery” Eun Ji said while Seung Hyun filled up her glass again.

“I guess so, although I have to say the food has improved considerably since my last stay” he said with a smile “ok, now, let’s hear yours”.

Eun Ji took a deep breath, after Min Young, none in Korea knew about it and the fact she was about to spill it in front of someone she had only met a month ago was something completely out of her comfort zone, but what the hell, she had nothing to lose.

“Well, you weren’t wrong when you said you had gone through a bad breakup, I think I will lose a screw if something like that happened to me”.

“Yes, but I am still here, last time I heard from her she had also broken up with the guy. But enough about me, common, what did he do to you? He had to do something pretty bad by the way you acted yesterday” Seung Hyun said.

“I dated him for about 3 years, I met him when I was just starting in my former kitchen, we remained close friends until he finally asked me out. He was my first boyfriend; I had dated in the past but nothing serious, until I met him.

He was what every girl could ask for: nice, funny, handsome, smart, had a solid job in a business management firm and he also was Korean American. Everything was great between us, well until I found him banging my older sister when I went visit him at his apartment for his birthday” Eun Ji said and chocked up a bit.

“The motherer did what? And your sister what the hell, how could she date your boyfriend?” Seung Hyun said raising his voice, he didn’t know why, but he felt his blood boiling and it wasn’t just the wine. In the month he had spent with Eun Ji he had seen her as a sweet woman and the way she was respectful to everyone had made a deep impression on him.

“Well, to be honest I don’t have a good relationship with my family, let’s just say is very complicated… I am the daughter of my father’s mistress, my older brothers and sister are all blood related, I have lived on my own since I finished high school so they actually didn’t knew who I was dating, they only knew I was dating someone” she said revealing more that she had intended to.

“I am really sorry to hear that, I don’t know what to say” he replied in an apologetic tone.

“Don’t worry, that’s water under the bridge, ever since I was little they never treated me like a part of the family, I was under presented as the distance cousin in family gatherings, so I was used to that from them… But Jay was my beacon when I had difficult times, so it shook me to the core when I found them like that, especially since well… we haven’t done it” she said in a murmur, definitely the wine running through her was making her more outspoken than usual.

Seung Hyun nodded trying to remain calmed and continue to listen to her.

“That day I immediately left, I felt like a fool, I was dress up, had even changed my shift at work and I felt everything I had hang on to was crumbling down. He called me about an hour later and asked to meet in a small bistro we used to love to hang out in SoHo, you will think he was going to be apologetic for being caught, he only came over to broke up with me and he even got the nerve to tell me why he had began dating in the first place with me.

He told me I was just the stepping stone to manage to get closer to her, he didn’t intended to date me for so long when we first met, but he was comfortable around me while he managed to get into my sister’s radar. That’s why it piss me off when I heard your ex fiancé said she stay with you for being too comfortable with you” she said and took a drink.

“He has a lot of nerves to act like that so what did you do?”

“I told him that in honor of the time we spend together I will give him 24 hrs to break it off with her. Instead the ing bastard gave her an engagement ring” she said and finally felt a tear rolling down her cheek, she felt like she was reliving every little detail all over again.

Seung Hyun handed her a tissue and spoke out “He didn’t do that… He couldn’t… What happen after that?”

“I went back to the house after I saw the picture announcing their engagement on instagram and I told her all about him, about us”

“And?”

“She told me she had known all along, but he was too good to lose him and besides it was not like I ever meant anything to him or more importantly to her…” she said and felt another tear rolling down that she quickly whipped out.

“That …” was all that came out from his lips “She is your unnie, you were raised together, and how she could act like that?”

“Her mother always let my siblings treat me like that, for her I was a constant reminder of her marriage failure” she said finishing up her drink, she couldn’t remember how many glasses she was on, but she still welcomed Seung Hyun filling up her glass.

“Did you just let them humiliated you like that? You must have done something”.

“I did, I went straight and told my parents the whole deal”

“And…?”

“My stepmother told me that I was delusional, that they had personally met Jay and that never in a million years a guy like him will date someone like me, that I should get a grip and remember what was my place in the family. My father didn’t said nothing like always, he just stood there in silence and let her further humiliated me”

“They did what? You have to be kidding me, but they are your parents. Even if she hated you, your father had to do something”.

“At that moment I kindly informed them that they didn’t had to bother with anything else related to me, I thank that women for reminding me my place in the family and that since I was just a distance cousin I was going to further distance myself from them and never show my face in front of them ever again, even if it was someone dead bed. I didn’t even let them react, I grab my bag and left that place for good, although I almost swore that I made that woman’s day with that decision, she was so eager to get rid of me ever since I was little”.

“Damn… I got to give it to you Eun Ji, you story is a primetime makjang drama, all that was missing was the truth reveal and you standing triumphal in the end” Seung Hyun said with a small chuckle.

“Actually…” she said and a mischievous smirk showed up in her face.

“What did you do?” he asked like an excited kid.  

“A hell was broke loose in their engagement party courtesy from my close friend and roommate. I didn’t plan the deal, I just told her what happened the minute my world fell apart and she took matters in her own hands.

You see Seung Hyun-sshi, my friend works as an event planner and she just happened to be the one they hired for their engagement party. My older sister just happened to love cheesy things and she decided to show a video montage of some of their photos together, titled: Our year long journey, since that’s how long they had being dating and she wanted to share that joy with others. The thing was that my friend was kind enough to exchanged the video montage of their photos together with a video of us dating back in 2013”

“She did what? Wow… but how would people will know that he cheated on you, that they trick you and that you didn’t seduce him?” he said clapping at the amusingness of that deal.

“Easy, the video was taken on the day he had a party celebrating his graduation from business school, half of the people on that party knew him from years and knew that back then he didn’t knew my sister, they made that pretty clear by announcing that they had only being dating for only a year.

The only thing I regret was not being there to see everything burn down. I was already on the plane coming here, but my friend was kind enough to let me know what she had done. She had never liked him, but boy… she outdid herself” Eun Ji said and finally let out a good laugh, she knew it was cruel but it felt like a small payback after the hell she had endured.

“I got to say I really like that friend of yours, tell her that if she ever comes over to Seoul she can eat for free on the restaurant on me as long as she stays” he said and laugh his heart out as well “So that was the reason you agreed to take the job here? As a getaway?”

“In a part yes, I was eager to start fresh somewhere when not a soul knew about my family background, where every corner didn’t remind me of all of the things I had gone through, so when Min Young Unnie wrote me to ask me to do the interview, I felt like it was life throwing me a chance. I gave up a lot and I took a big chance, this could kill my career forever but I still took the risk” she said fidgeting with her hands.

“I am glad you took it, I will try my best to help you to not regret it” he said giving her a warm smile and she inadvertently smiled back, surprised that her heart was hurting less and less with each day she spend by his side. 

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a/n: so their backgrounds are out in the open, all what is left is to see what happens..
And look who managed to update on the weekend! hahahaha... I will try to go back to my regular friday-saturday updates schedules like in my past stories. I hope you enjoy this update, thanks to my friends Elleally and creyes1978 for making me smile despite my small crisis. Love you both!!! 
until next week 
~sayurimei