Sungmi and Jongin have been dating for several months ever since Jongin knocked over Sungmi on her way to work one morning. It was one of the rare mornings she slept in and was running late. She bolted out of the subway doors the minute they opened running up the steps onto the busy streets of Seoul. She wasn’t really paying attention to all the people around her only bowing quickly and apologizing to every person she bumped into on her way.

    Jongin seemed to be in the same predicament as Sungmi, though in his case it was not rare for him to be rushing to work in the morning. He was running down the streets of Seoul trying desperately to make it to his first dance class of the day not wanting to make his students wait for him, even if they were used to it.

    Sungmi and Jongin were running down the sidewalk with their heads bowed just trying to get to work on time not even paying attention that they were heading right towards each other. Jongin was holding a cup of tea trying not to spill it when he ran straight into Sungmi knocking her over spilling his tea all over her blue blouse.

    “Oh my gosh,” Jongin exclaimed holding out his hand to help Sungmi up. “I am so sorry. I’m running late for work and didn’t even see you.”

    Taking his hand Sungmi got up off the good dusting off her skirt with her hands, a scowl on her face about her blouse. Luckily, she had a jacket in her office she could put on.

    “It’s alright,” Sungmi replied. “I wasn’t exactly looking where I was going either. I’m running late as well.”

    “Here is my number,” Jongin said handing her a piece of ripped paper. “ My name is Jongin. Let me at least pay to have your blouse cleaned. It is my tea that ruined it.”

    “You don’t have to do that,” Sungmi responded. “It’s not a big deal”

    “No, really I insist,” Jongin countered.

    “Alright,” Sungmi conceded. “I’m Sungmi. I’ll give you a call later.” Sungmi collected her bag from where she dropped it walking away towards the building not even a few feet from where they were standing. Jongin watched her for a minute before quickly heading towards the dance studio he taught at cursing at himself for once again being late. He may be the owner of the studio but it was still not professional to be late to his first class of the day.

    Later that day Jongin heard his phone ringing quickly going to the phone he realized he didn’t know the number, then again he never saved phone numbers anyway.

    “Hello,” he said hesitantly as he answered the phone.

    “Jongin,” Sungmi said. “It’s Sungmi. I was just calling you because you said you would pay to have my blouse cleaned. You really don’t have to do that. It’s old and I was going to throw it out soon anyway.”

    “Oh,” Jongin sighed. “Well, if you won’t let me get your blouse cleaned at least let me take you out for dinner. It’s the least I could do.”

    “Is this your way of asking me out on a date,” Sungmi asked quizzically.

    “Maybe,” Jongin whispered nervously. “Is that a yes?”

    “I guess it is,” Sungmi answered. “How does Friday sound?”

    “Friday is great. I’ll pick you up where I knocked you over around 7.”

“Sounds great, Jongin. I’ll see you then.”

After that date, Jongin asked Sungmi out again and after the second date, he officially asked her to be his girlfriend. Who knew that knocking over Sungmi would bring Jongin one of the best women he had ever met.  

Several months later Jongin and Sungmi were walking down the streets of Seoul hand-in-hand staring up at the beautiful lights the illuminated Seoul for the holiday season. They had been walking in silence for a little while playfully bumping shoulders and pointing to show something interesting to each other. They eventually strolled into a park and Sungmi pulled Jongin to the nearest bench she saw sitting down and patting the seat next to her signaling Jongin to sit down with her. As Jongin sat down Sungmi rested her head on his shoulder snuggling up against him.

“How do you feel about going to my parents for Christmas,” Sungmi inquired. “They really want to meet you.”

“I’ll go if you want me too,” Jongin answered. “It’s about time I met your parents anyway.”

“Thank you,” Sungmi exclaimed pecking Jongin’s cheek quickly turning bright red. She was not one to usually show public displays of affection. Sungmi stood up grabbing Jongin’s hand walking back towards their apartment. They walked quietly back to the apartment looking at the lights surrounding them swinging their arms. With Christmas only a few days away Sungmi was running around the apartment trying to get everything together before they went up to her parents house Christmas Eve.

The drive to Sungmi’s parents’ house on Christmas Eve was generally uneventful besides the large amount of traffic they hit on their way out of Seoul. It seems as if everyone had the bright idea to leave Christmas Eve thinking no one else would be on the road but instead spending time with their families. Sungmi slept most of the ride exhausted from all the preparations before they actually left. Jongin had the radio on softly trying not to wake Sungmi up but just enough to help calm his nerves about meeting her parents. He had no idea how they would react to him. It’s not everyday your daughter dates a dance teacher, especially since it’s not considered a good profession.

It only took them about two hours to get out of Seoul with all of the traffic they ran into. Once they were out of the city, it was smooth sailing until they reached Busan. While Jongin was nervous to meet Sungmi’s parents, he was excited to see where she grew up. He had been to Busan many times in the past but this time he was seeing it in a whole new light, as Sungmi’s hometown. It took Jongin a few minutes to figure out exactly which house belonged to Sungmi’s parents when he found their street. When he found their house, he parked in front and gently began to shake Sungmi awake.

“Sungmi,” Jongin whispered nudging her shoulder. “We’re here.”

“Huh,” Sungmi mumbled rubbing her eyes. “Oh, we’re at my parents house. They are so excited to meet you. It’s all my mother has been talking about whenever we are on the phone together.” Sungmi stretched as she got out of the car trying to wake her muscles. She yawned as she went around to the back of the car to get her bag. They were only planning to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with her parents, with Jongin’s busy work schedule this was all that would fit in their schedule.

Sungmi and Jongin walked up to the front door, Sungmi giving Jongin’s a hand a reassuring squeeze knowing he was nervous about her parents. Before they could even knock on the door, the door flew open revealing Sungmi’s parents both with big grins on their faces.

“Come on in,” Sungmi’s mother insisted hugging both of them before pushing them inside the house.

“Hi, mum. Hi, dad,” Sungmi greeted giving her father a hug.

“You must be Jongin,” Sungmi’s father stated holding out his hand. “You can call me Injung.”

“It is lovely to meet you, sir,” Jongin replied shaking his hand before turning to Sungmi’s mother. “It is also lovely to meet you, ma’am.”

“Please call me, Eunae,” Sungmi’s mother cheered before pulling Jongin into another hug.

“I think we’re going to head upstairs and get settled in, mum,” Sungmi called taking Jongin’s hand along with their bags leading him up the stairs and towards her old bedroom.

“Dinner will be done in about 10 minutes,” Eunae called after them. Sungmi and Jongin placed their stuff down on the bed before heading to the bathroom to wash up before dinner. They had had a long day in the car and need to wake themselves up a little bit.

Sungmi and Jongin headed down stairs a few minutes later and walked into the dining room seeing the table set with all kinds of delicious foods. They sat down directly across from Sungmi’s parents. Dinner started out kind of awkward mostly because whenever Jongin was asked a question he usually gave one word answers.

“Jongin,” Injung started. “How did you meet my daughter?”

“It’s actually a kind of funny story,” Jongin replied nervously. Sungmi gave his thigh s reassuring squeezing under the table to try and ease his nerves. “We were both running late for work and not paying attention to where we were going. I kind of ran into her and knocked her over spilling my tea all over her blouse. I insisted on paying to have it cleaned and when she refused I asked her out to dinner.”

“That is the most adorable little story I have ever heard,” Eunae gushed. “Sungmi’s father just asked me out in high school.”

“Yea,” Sungmi said sighing. “It is a great story. And a funny one to tell people.” They all finished eating dinner, Jongin much more comfortable with Sungmi’s parents after telling them how they met. Injung and Jongin seemed to bond over a love of music and after hearing what a terrible cook Jongin was Eunae offered to teach him a thing or two, claiming every man should know how to cook something.

“Why don’t you two go sit on the couch in the living room,” Eunae suggested. “I’ll clean up.”

“Are you sure,” Jongin asked getting up from the table. “I can help if you would like.”

“No,” Eunae insisted. “I got this.”

Jongin took Sungmi’s hand leading her towards the living room stopping in the doorway.

“Sungmi, it seems I stopped underneath the mistletoe,” Jongin whispered feigning innocence. He had seen it earlier and planned on using it as a ploy to get her to kiss him. “It seems you have to kiss me now.”

“Oh darn,” Sungmi sighed her voice laced with sarcasm. “It seems I do.” Sungmi wrapped her arms around Jongin pulling him close. “It’s so terrible. I have to kiss my boyfriend.”

“It is,” Jongin chuckled teasing her. He cupped Sungmi’s cheeks kissing her gently. The rest of the evening went beautifully all of them enjoying a cup of hot chocolate by the fire opening the presents they had gotten for each other. Sungmi was relieved her parents seemed to like Jongin.