Chapter 1

“No! You can’t be serious?!” You groaned in exasperation at your friend.

“I am perfectly serious, Eunmi.” Jieun smiled sweetly, like she didn’t just drop a metaphorical bomb on you, and continued digging into the ice cream in front of her. “You asked for help and I delivered!”

“Out of all the people you know, it had to be him?!” You whined, burying your face into your hands.

“Listen, unless you want to show up at my wedding without a plus one and meet whatshisface and his new girlfriend alone, you’d better work with this.”

You looked at her once again as she raised a challenging eyebrow at you. She was right, and even he was definitely better than nothing.

“You should look more excited to have such a handsome date,” Jieun smirked. “Other girls would kill to be in your place”

“Well, those girls can have him. You know very well why I’m not excited, you remember what happened last time you tried to set us up!” You whined again, perhaps a bit too loudly as the passing waitress gave you a pointed look to shut up.

“Come on, Eunmi! That was ages ago and you went out on one date and it didn’t go that well, big deal!” Jieun continued, waving her spoon around, drops of ice cream falling on the table. “As far as I remember you were head over heels for him at the time.”

“Jieun, I fell into a pond because of him,” you grit your teeth just remembering the day. “I was stuck in the mud and had to crawl out like some sort of water demon.”

“He apologised a thousand times didn’t he!” Jieun defended, a low giggle inadvertently escaping her lips, making you glare at her. “He even sent you flowers at work!”

“Whatever,” you mumbled.

“I asked him myself - he was perfectly happy to be your lovely boyfriend for a few days. Even after what you did.” Your friend continued.

“Look, all I did was get back at him. I didn’t do anything wrong.” You defended, looking out the window. You knew you were pouting, but you allowed yourself that in extreme circumstances and this was definitely in that category.

“Eunmi, honey, you’re one of my closest friends and I love you you know that right?” Jieun asked as she reached for your hand, he small fingers clasping yours. You looked back into her big sincere eyes and a soft smile tugged at your lips. “You literally threw a handful of mud in his face, if he can forgive you for that, you can forgive tripping over your own feet and falling into that pond in the first place.”

“He tripped me!” You immediately fired back, although it your voice was weak with uncertainty.

Jieun sensed your defeat and gave your hand a squeeze as she smiled. She dug into her ice cream again and something in your brain finally clicked.

“Wait did you say ‘lovely boyfriend’ ?”

Your friend didn’t even look up from her food as she hummed a casual uh-un.

“You can’t be serious,” you hissed, leaning forward. You felt like you might actually jump over the table and grab her by the neck.

“Showing up with a new boyfriend is the best way to get back at an ex, okay!” Your friend clipped back.

You leaned back, heat already crawling up your neck. Could you do this? You weren’t sure. But you sure as hell were not going to the wedding alone.

“Well anyway, he’ll be here in about ten minutes so I’ll be leaving now.” Jieun quickly gave her spoon a final and picked up her bag.

“Wait what, I thought we were going to go shopping?”

“He’ll go with you, you’ll have some bonding time this way!” Your friend chirpily got up and went round the table to give you a quick kiss on the cheek. “Come on, Eunmi. He’s a good and very handsome guy, you’ll have fun together.”

You sighed, but considered your unfavourable circumstances once again.

“Fine, I’ll try.”