At the end of their brief telephone conversation, Mina said she’d call Seolhyun once she got home Sunday evening. Although it’d been an offhand comment, Seolhyun was surprised when she didn’t hear from her. Apparently Mina’s last-minute meeting with her friend had turned into more of an event.

Seolhyun didn’t think much about it until Mina showed up at the lab Monday morning. Her friend’s face radiated…joy. Unmistakable joy.

“Well, well, well,” Seolhyun said, watching Mina closely. Something was up, and it didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that someone else was involved. Clearly Mina had met someone special. The “old friend” from yesterday evening?

“Stop looking at me like that,” Mina said, blushing.

“You’re in love, aren’t you?”

Mina’s eyes widened. “You can tell? Really?”

Seolhyun nodded. “You’ve got the happy look. You know, the one we all get when we first realize we’re falling for someone.” She knew it had to be the “friend” Mina had seen last night.

Mina shyly glanced away. “The most incredible feeling came over me this morning.” Her voice fell to a whisper. “It’s like…a sixth sense, a knowledge, that this could be the one.”

“That’s the feeling I’m talking about.” Seolhyun had never experienced it herself, but she’d seen it again and again with her friends. A wistful happiness shone from Mina’s eyes, but she didn’t say anything else. After several minutes Seolhyun couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Well?” she asked. The reflective look disappeared and was instantly replaced by one that was far more guarded.

“Well, what?”

“Aren’t you going to give me details?”

Mina hesitated. “Of course…but not yet.”

This confused Seolhyun. First, there was very little they didn’t tell each other—except for Mina’s meeting with the matchmaker and it was easy to understand why her friend hadn’t mentioned that, since Hyejeong had rejected her as a client. If it’d happened to her, Seolhyun wouldn’t have announced it, either.

But this was an entirely different matter. For some reason, Mina preferred to remain tightlipped about this man in her life. Well, so be it. When necessary, Seolhyun could be patient. If Mina wanted to keep this mystery man to herself for a while, Seolhyun would respect that.

“I’ll tell you everything soon,” Mina said. “It’s just that I’d like to hold on to this feeling for a little longer.” Still, Seolhyun couldn’t help being curious.

“Can you tell me how you met?” Mina’s face relaxed into a warm smile.

“You’ll love that part. We sort of stumbled upon each other. We dated for a while ages ago and decided it wasn’t going to work. Or rather, they did, not me. So I began the search again.”

“So this is the person you’ve been in love with all along?”

Mina nodded. “You’ll meet them,” she said a second time. “I promise.”

“Will you be seeing them soon?”

“No. It’s a bit…complicated at the moment.”

“Complicated?” Seolhyun didn’t like the sound of that. “They're not married or anything, are they?”

 Mina shook her head. “Oh, no! Nothing like that.”

“Good.” Seolhyun smiled, then glanced down at her feet. “Actually,” she said in a low voice, “I was hoping to chat with you last night. I had a couple of questions.”

“What kind of questions?”

“I wanted to ask you about Hyejeong.”

“What about her?”

“Basically…I was curious. Other than the information on her Web site, what do you know?”

Mina shrugged. “Not much.”

“How did you hear about her?”

“She was a birthday gift—at least, the first consultation was.”

“From who?”

“My older sister. She knew how brokenhearted I was when…the other relationship ended. She heard about Hyejeong when she did a radio interview.”

“Hyejeong did a radio interview?”

“I don’t think she does them often. This was around Valentine’s Day a few years back.”

“Oh.”

 Mina cocked her head to one side. “Why this interest in Dr. Shin all of a sudden?”

 Seolhyun didn’t want Mina or anyone to suspect how intrigued she was by the matchmaker. She found her thoughts drifting toward the brunette far more often than was comfortable. She told herself that once her curiosity was satisfied, she’d drift into the background where she belonged. While she’d gone on to her Web site—the address was noted on the business card—she hadn’t searched further.

That evening, she did. She logged on to the Internet and immediately typed the name into Google. There wasn’t a lot, but enough to answer some of her questions. She’d been an incredible student, attending Seoul University. She’d lectured at a prestigious college and written political articles. Just as she’d realized earlier, Hyejeong had opinions about everything and didn’t mind sharing them.

Seolhyun had tried to find out if Hyejeong had ever been romantically linked to anybody, but wikipedia had been of no help. She coudn't help but feel a bit...bothered by that hidden knowledge. Intent as she was on reading her computer screen, the phone startled her.

“Yes,” Seolhyun said, snatching it up. Her gaze stayed on the screen for fear she’d miss a single detail. “Ms. Kim?” The female voice was vaguely familiar. “This is Dr. Shin’s office.” A chill raced down her spine.

Hyejeong knew she was online, reading about her! She was about to inform her that she’d forfeited her thirty thousand dollars. “I won’t do it again!” she blurted without thinking.

“Excuse me?”

“Were you phoning because—” Seolhyun stopped abruptly, aware of how absurd she’d been. How paranoid. “Can I help you?” she asked sweetly.

By now Sojin sounded utterly confused. “Would it be convenient for you to stop by tomorrow afternoon at four-thirty?” she asked.

“Ah, sure.” That meant leaving work a bit early, which wasn’t really