Ki-joon walked into the café the following day and saw Joon working on the account books.

“Did we make any money?” Ki-joon asked as he tied his apron around his waist and prepared to open for the day. He had always wanted to run a coffee shop but because he didn’t know anything about business, he had hired Joon to be his manager/accountant.

“We’re not doing too badly, there’s room for some improvement though. This month is a lot better than last month.” Joon replied as Ki-joon placed a cup of coffee in front of him.

“Can I afford to hire some help?” He asked taking the seat in front of his friend.

“Only a part-timer, perhaps a college student willing to work for minimum wage.” Joon replied and Ki-joon sighed.

“Sometimes I wonder if it wasn’t impulsive of me to quit my job as a lawyer to do this.”

“Come on now, not everyone is brave enough to quit their job and live their dream. I’m sure business will improve.”

“Thanks for saying that. I suppose I better get started for the day.”

“Are you going to tell me why you broke up with Ma-ri? You seemed so crazy about her and made lots of people jealous with your relationship.” Joon said.

“I already told you, her personality was too strong for me. I couldn’t handle it.” Ki-joon replied and walked away before Joon could ask any more questions.

Hae-kyung was preparing the documents for the campaign that Hwan-gun had selected the day before, she was going to go over some things with him at their meeting later, when her desk phone rang.

“Yes Secretary Jung?” She said.

“You have a call on line 1 from Seo Hwan-gun.” The secretary replied.

“Okay thank you. Neh, Seo daepyonim.”

“Are you feeling better today?” He asked.

She held the receiver between her ear and her shoulder and continued compiling the documents. “Yes thank you, I’m feeling much better.”

“I’m afraid I can’t make our meeting today; I think I’m suffering jetlag. Is it okay if we postpone?”

“If you’re not feeling well, there’s nothing we can do about it. I was hoping to go over the action plan for the ad campaign with you but we can do it when you’re feeling much better.”

“Alright, I’ll see you on Monday then.”

“Take care of yourself.” She replied before hanging up. She hoped he was okay. ‘He’s such a nice guy even asking how I was feeling and I was such a jerk to him yesterday.’ She sighed to herself. She sat back at her desk and worked but as the day wore on, she found herself wondering how he was doing.

When she looked up from her computer, it was already lunch time. She got her bag and her jacket and after telling the secretary that she’d be out for a while, drove to Ki-joon’s café.

“Ki-joonah.” She waved at him when she entered and took her usual table in a corner of the shop, and he brought her a sandwich and some coffee. “Why did you leave without telling me this morning?” She asked when he placed the plate in front of her.

“I didn’t want to wake you since I figured you might have been really tired from yesterday.” He replied.

“Did you have lunch yet?” She asked.

“This is the busiest time of the day for me, I don’t have time to sit down.” He replied.

“I don’t want you to skip meals, you have to take care of yourself.” She said.

“Aigoo, you sure do love to nag, don’t you?” He patted her hair with a smile. “I have to go back to work, enjoy your sandwich.” He left her to go and attend to some customers who had just walked into the shop.

Just then, Hae-kyung’s phone rang. She swallowed her food and answered. “Yeobseyo.”

“Hae-kyungah, it’s me Hong Ah-reum.” Ah-reum said excitedly.

“Eo. How are you?”

“I’m fine. Do you want to have lunch together?”

“I’m having lunch right now. Do you want to come here?”

“Okay, text me the address and I’ll see you there.”

Ten minutes later, Ah-reum arrived at the shop and looked around for Hae-kyung. Hae-kyung called out to her and waved to let her know where she was and Ah-reum joined her at the table.

“You look nice.” Ah-reum said immediately she sat down and Hae-kyung smiled.

“Thank you. You don’t look bad yourself.”

Ki-joon came over to their table to attend to Ah-reum.

“What would you like to have?” He asked.

Ah-reum looked up from the menu and noticed him. She squinted at him a bit. “I think I’ve seen you before, you look a little familiar.”

“I have a pretty common face.” He replied but he also felt like he had seen her before but he couldn’t remember where. “What would you like to have?”

Ah-reum gave up on trying to remember and decided to order instead. “I’ll have a cup of coffee and a tuna sandwich.” She said and he took her order and went away. “It’s so nice to see you again. What have you been up to since middle school?” Ah-reum asked when Ki-joon left.

“Not much, just this and that.” Hae-kyung replied, pushing her hair behind her ear.

“How’s your father? I remember how he always dropped you off in the morning and picked you up after school every day like clockwork. All the boys would want to talk to you after school but they’d see your dad and get so scared they’d run away.” Ah-reum laughed.

Hae-kyung swallowed her coffee and replied. “He passed away.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry about that. I hope I wasn’t too insensitive.” Ah-reum said.

“No, it was a long time ago.” Hae-kyung replied. She didn’t like to dwell on the circumstances surrounding her father’s death. It was a part of her life that was over and done with, locked away in a tight chest. “What about you?” Hae-kyung asked, changing the subject.

“As you know, I immigrated to America in the second year of middle school. I went to college there and graduated with an IT degree and I’m currently working at a cyber security company. Oh, and I got engaged.” Ah-reum replied.

“Ah that’s right, Seo Hwan-gun daepyonim. So how did you two meet?”

“Our fathers went to high school together and they were friends since then. Gun and I meet when I immigrated to America though his family lived in Japan for a long time. On one of the summer school breaks, he came to America with his family on vacation and we met at a barbecue party. I think we were about sixteen at the time. It was easy to become friends.”

“Ah, I see.”

“What about you? Are you seeing anyone?” Ah-reum asked with a smile.

Hae-kyung pushed her hair behind her ear again and replied. “Er no, not right now.”

“A woman as beautiful as you are? Given how popular you were in school I’d have thought you’d be married by now.”

“Well, it just turned out like that I guess.” She rubbed her palm against her skirt, it was beginning to get sweaty again.

“I wanted to be friends with you back then, I was dying to talk to you.” Ah-reum said.

“So why didn’t you?” Hae-kyung asked.

“I don’t know, I probably thought you’d be stuck up since you were so pretty and popular.”

Hae-kyung raised her eyebrow at her. “Really? Why would you even think that?”

“You had this air about you. You didn’t hang with anyone of us and you didn’t really talk to people. Boys thought you were a fairy and the girls thought you were arrogant. You held yourself with such elegance that everyone just had to look at you when you walked past.”

Hae-kyung let out a loud laugh. “I wish I was half as amazing as this girl you described. Me? Elegant? Arrogant? I didn’t talk because I was painfully shy. I didn’t know what to say to people so I always minded my own business.”

“Really? You were just shy? If I’d known that I would have talked to you.” Ah-reum laughed in return. “Well, I would like us to be friends now, if you don’t mind.”     

“That would be nice, the only friend I have lives down in Ulsan so I’m all alone in Seoul.” Hae-kyung replied with a smile.

“Oh boy, you don’t know what you just got yourself into. I’m going to be calling you up randomly and wanting to do things with you. Do you think you can handle that?” Ah-reum asked goodnaturedly.

“There’s no going back now.” Hae-kyung replied with a smile. She glanced at her watch and realized it was time for her to go back to work. She rose from her chair. “I have to go now, call me anytime.” Hae-kyung waved at her. When she got to the door of the shop, she called out to Ki-joon. “Ki-joonah, I’m leaving.” She said and he waved at her as she stepped out the door.

Ah-reum heard Hae-kyung calling out to the barista so familiarly and wondered what their relationship was. She got up to leave too when suddenly, she remembered where she had seen him before. “Ah, the man from the Gun’s apartment complex yesterday.” Thinking of Hwan-gun, she pulled out her cellphone and called him as she went to her car.

“Yeobseyo.” He said when he answered.

“Mwohae?” She asked, getting into her car.

“Getting ready to go for a jog.”

“Did you eat?” She asked.

“What are you, my mother?” He laughed.

“So you didn’t eat then.” She tsked.

“I woke up a little while ago. I think the jetlag is getting to me finally. It’s a good thing I took your advice and didn’t go to work today.” He answered pulling on his running shoes.

“I thought about what you said yesterday...”

“Let’s forget I said anything. I was a little sensitive yesterday because I was so tired.”

She started the engine and the speakerphone so she could talk and drive at the same time. “Did you find your way okay yesterday? I haven’t followed that shortcut in a while so I wasn’t sure the road was still there.” She figured he was getting uncomfortable so he changed the subject and she decided to go with it.

“Ooh yes, I was almost late for my meeting otherwise. I kinda got into an accident while I was talking to you on the phone yesterday.”  He laughed as he remembered Hae-kyung’s furious face.

“Are you okay? Why didn’t you tell me?” She asked as she pulled up at a stop light.

“I’m fine. It wasn’t anything serious. Where are you by the way?”

“On my way back to work, I just got back from having lunch with Hae-kyung.”

He stopped jogging at the sound of her name. “Lee Hae-kyung?”

“Hmm.” She replied.

“I didn’t realize you guys were close.”

“We just decided to become friends. Or rather, I bulldozed her and because she’s such a sweetheart she went along with it.” Ah-reum smiled.

“Oh really?”

“Hmm. She’s a lot different than what I remember of her from school. She was so aloof from everybody but so popular. I wanted to be friends with her back then because I thought it would make people want to hang out with me more, but now that I’ve met again she seems really sweet.” Ah-reum said pulling into the parking lot of her office.

“Are you going to be hanging out with her often then?”

 “Hmm, I hope so. I’ll talk to you later I just arrived at the office.” She said.

“Okay, bye.” He said and she hung up.

Hwan-gun placed his hands on his hips and looked up to the sky. He let out a deep sigh, for some reason he was uncomfortable with the idea of Ah-reum hanging out with Hae-kyung.

Later that day, Hae-kyung rounded off her work and shut down her computer. Just as she picked up her purse to head out of the office, her phone rang.

“Yeobseyo.” She answered without looking at the caller id.

“Lee Hae-kyungssi?” The voice answered back.

She pulled the phone away from her ear to look at the id, it was Hwan-gun. “Neh Seo Daepyonim.” She said turning off the light and shutting the door behind her.

“Are you busy?” He asked.

“I’m just heading on home. Are you feeling a little better?”

“Oh yes. I’m sorry to disturb you when you’re going home, I was hoping we could meet and go over the campaign documents.” He replied.

“I thought you wanted to shift the meeting till Monday.” She replied, getting into her car.

“I know but I figured that we need to get started on it as soon as possible since we don’t have a lot of time left before the grand opening of the hotel.” He said.

She sat in the car for a few minutes, trying to decide if she was too tired to meet with him or not.

“Yeobseyo, Lee Hae-kyungssi, are you still there?”

“Where would you like to meet?” She asked finally.

“How about we discuss over dinner?” He asked.

She narrowed her eyes at her phone, ‘Why is he always trying to buy me food?’ she thought to herself. “I’m sorry I can’t do dinner. I can do coffee.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you at the hotel restaurant. It’ll also give you a chance to look around. I’ll text you the address.”

“Alright, see you then.” She said and hung up. The text came in and she started the car and headed to the hotel.

She was surprised and impressed when she arrived at the building. She was expecting a huge building but instead there were little buildings like separate little houses. It looked more like an estate than a hotel. Just then, Hwan-gun pulled up behind her and stepped out of his car. He was wearing a pair of black trousers, a green V-necked shirt and loafers. He approached her with a smile. “I’m so very sorry to have you come all the way out here after hours.”

“It’s okay, I would do almost anything for a client. I have to say I’m impressed with the idea here; it was not what I was expecting at all.” She said.

“Well, I thought instead of having a generic looking hotel with long, windowless hallways why not make it feel like home with each guest getting a place that opens out to nature to themselves. The restaurant is this way.” He said and continued to talk as they walked along the pathway. “We have different types of spaces for different types of guests. One bedroom, two bedrooms or three bedrooms and they all come with their own kitchens fully equipped with state-of-the-art appliances.” They arrived at the restaurant and she stopped at the entrance.

“Wow!” She said.

Instead of a door that led to a hall, they were standing at the edge of an open space with a small gate that opened to a field of individual gazebos. “I wanted a place that people could come to get away from the confines of the city without having to actually leave the city especially for people who come on business. It’s easy for them to get to their meetings on time and they still get to relax too.” Hwan-gun explained proudly.

“There’s not much promotion needed, this place practically sells itself.” Hae-kyung said as she sat at the chair he pulled out for her.

He made some coffee and placed a cup in front of her. “Cream and sugar?”

“Lots of cream and sugar please.” She replied and he obliged her. She brought the documents out and laid them in front of him. She explained to him how they were going to go about the promotion. When they were done, Hae-kyung got up and picked up her purse.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for dinner?” He asked.

She glanced at her watch, it was 8 o’clock. “Aniyo. I need to head home now; I have to be somewhere tomorrow so I need to go to bed as soon as possible.”

“Okay then, I’ll walk you back to your car.” When they got to her car, she got in and he spoke to her through the window. “So, I’ll see you on Monday?”

“I’ll have to call the media and have them come and sit down with you. I think it would be a good idea if you were involved in the campaign rather than hiring a model. You can talk about your vision for the hotel better than anyone else could.” She replied.

“Alright, call me as soon as everything is figured out.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll make some calls as soon as I return from my trip tomorrow. Good night Seo Daepyonim.” She said and he waved at her as she drove off.