“Sang-hee, I think I like Jaejoong oppa,” Ae-young timidly said.

 

“What!?  But I thought you two just met a few days ago!” exclaimed Sang-hee in surprise and shock.

 

“Well, I don’t know.  It was just a chance meeting, but I felt something in my stomach when I was talking to him.  I think that’s what they call the ‘feeling of being in love.’  I’m sure of it,” Ae-young reasurred Sang-hee.  “Now it’s just a matter of me gathering up the guts to confess to him.”

 

“I highly doubt it, Ae-ya.  Are you sure it wasn’t just the expired milk you drank that day?” Sang-hee sounded skeptical.

 

“It definitely wasn’t, and that milk wasn’t expired anyway.  It still had a week!”  Ae-young was clearly annoyed at Sang-hee’s doubt of her feelings.  She told Sang-hee about her initial and secondary encounters with Jaejoong at school.  She was hoping that of all people in the world, Sang-hee would be the one who would cheer her on in her love affairs and encourage her to confess her feelings.  Instead, Ae-young found herself defending her feelings for Jaejoong while Sang-hee questioned all of it.   

 

“You don’t know what Jaejoong is really like.  I mean, I know that you think he’s all nice for helping you out with whatever happened that day, but that doesn’t mean that you should just confess your feelings for him.  If you didn’t know by now, he’s the ‘Cold Prince’ … he’s been known to have rejected any girl that has gotten to close to him.  Think this over again, Ae-young.  What if it’s just infatuation?  It’s probably just a minor crush…nothing to get so worked up over,” Sang-hee advised.

 

“Aiya, you worry too much!  Everything will be just fine, and I’m sure of my feelings.  It’s not everyday that I fall in love with a guy,” Ae-young cheerfully replied in an attempt to rationalize her decision.

 

“Well…if you’re sure about it, Ae-ya, then I will support you.  But I must warn you that your chances of success with Jaejoong oppa are low…in fact, they’re closer to zero than even one percent,” Sang-hee concluded in a matter-of-fact tone.

 

As if you haven’t stated the obvious Ae-young thought.  Of course I, of all people, would fall in love with the coolest guy at school.

 

“I’m already aware of that, Sang-hee.  I just want to give it a go and try my luck.  I’m not expecting too much from this, anyhow.  But if it matters at all, my horoscope said that something good will happen to me this week, and I’m pretty sure that it could be this.”

 

Ae-young gulped.  I hope it’s this, or I’m just going to end up making a fool out of myself.

 

The rest of the school day went by in a blur for Ae-young.  She kept drawing little hearts in her notebook whenever she didn’t feel like concentrating on the lesson at hand.  Ae-young tried to separate her brain into two parts; one part to understand what was going on in class, and the other part where she stored all of her thoughts of confessing to Jaejoong.  However, her mind was like the Leaning Tower of Pisa; it just couldn’t focus on one thing.  Her thoughts of Jaejoong kept spilling over into her mind when she was taking her notes.  The fact that she was learning Statistics, the subject that she found the most difficult, didn’t help either.

 

Great…now I have to review these math notes again Ae-young grumbled to herself.  But if Jaejoong is really the genius he is acclaimed to be, then I’m sure he’ll help me out!  She smiled at the realization that all it took was one confession; from there, she would be driving on the route of love and happiness with Kim Jaejoong by her side at the steering wheel.  What could possibly top that?

 

Finally, the last bell rang, indicating the end of the evening classes.  Ae-young was relieved to finally make her way back home.  She was just too tired to sit through another lecture on the human reproductive system and the process of reproduction.  She’d already had enough of those lessons back in high school Biology 101 classes.

 

All she wanted to do now was go home, take a nap, and start planning out the details of this confession.  It would take a lot of preparation, but that was to be expected, considering the fact that she would be confessing to the most popular and respected guy in school.  She knew that no matter what she did during her whole university life, this was the one thing that she just couldn’t afford to screw up.

 

“I’m home!” Ae-young announced as she opened the front door to her house.  She didn’t hear a single sound in her home.  She peered into the kitchen, the living room, and the two bedrooms; not a single soul was present in the house.  She even checked the backyard where her annoying younger sister, Hana, sometimes hung out with friends- but not a soul was in sight.

 

Where the hell is everyone? she thought to herself.

 

As she took a second look into the kitchen, she noticed a sheet of paper taped to the refrigerator door.  It read:

 

Ae-young, Papa and I are at an important meeting.  We will be back home late at night. Hana is at Auntie’s house and will be back tomorrow morning.  Please eat whatever is left in the fridge. 

Love,

Mama and Papa.

 

That’s strange she thought.  They usually don’t have anything to do during the weeknights.  I wonder where they are…

 

But Ae-young knew that she didn’t have any time to waste thinking about the peculiarity of her parents not being present at the moment.  She needed to rehearse this perfectly so that she wouldn’t mess up when the moment of truth finally arrived.  She stepped into her room and set her books down on the old hickory desk in the corner of the room.  She her light pink lampshades, and got ready to work.

 

 

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Hours must’ve passed before Ae-young passed out in exasperation.  She plopped unto her bed, frustrated with the fact that she kept stumbling with her speech patterns.  Although she’d written down exactly what she waned to say, she kept stuttering and fumbling for words.  No matter how many times she had already ran through the conversation, progress was clearly not being made.

 

Aiya!  I’m such a failure at this.  Maybe Sang-hee is right.  I shouldn’t confess to Jaejoong  she whimpered to herself.  How on earth was she going to get through this confession?

 

But then, a surge of energy came over and she shook her head.  No…I can’t do that.  She knew that she couldn’t just stand by and let Sang-hee’s warning get to her.  She needed to get through this confession, whether she liked it or not.  But How? was the question.

 

Ae-young turned over on her side of her stomach to face her study desk.  She noticed a magazine had been resting on the surface of the desk.  Underneath the luminescence of the light, at the top of the page the magazine had been turned to, she could make out the words: 

CARAMEL COOKIES RECIPE

 

This is just great! she thought.  This was just what she needed to save her from her state of desperation.  Making cookies!  What could be a better way to appeal to a guy than by through the desires of his stomach.  What guy could resist a home-made caramel cookie, or any sweet for that matter?  Yes, this cookie recipe would be her savior. 

 

 

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Several hours later, the cookies were sitting out on the dining room table, their fresh and sweet aroma luring Ae-young in.  It took every bit of self-control and restraint within her to not succumb to the temptation of nibbling on one these mouth-watering delicacies. 

 

As she arranged the cookies into a little plastic bag and tied a pretty pink ribbon to hold the bag together, she felt her long-awaited catharsis-the moment of relief she needed to put all the pandemonium of her life at ease.  She was happy to finally be able to sit down by the dining room table and relax.  Of course, there was still a lot of homework to get done and the initial exams of the year were lethargically approaching; however, none of this mattered to her at this point. 

 

All Ae-young could do was dream about Jaejoong and her being together, and with that image in mind, her head slowly nodded and wandered off to sleep, with visions of caramel cookies “dancing in her head.”

 

♥♥♥

 

 

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