Chapter One – The Lucky Ones

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            “JIYEON, OPEN THE DAMN DOOR! WAKE UP!” I slithered in my bed and turned my body so that my face was planted onto my pillow. “JIYEON, I NEED YOU!” I kept hearing a loud voice yell outside of my apartment door. I tried covering my ears next. “JI, YOUR NEIGHBORS MIGHT COME OUT, HURRY!” I then heard loud knocks on my door.

            I decided to open my eyes and grabbed my phone from my nightstand to check what time it was. I pressed my home button and saw that it was 8:00 am. “What the hell, man.” I groaned as I got up from my bed and walked towards my front door.

            “Ji, open-“ before the owner of the loud voice could continue, I opened the door and cut her off.

            “Shut up. Why are you so loud?” I mumbled and let the girl walk into my apartment. “Do you know what time it is?” I asked with my eyes half open.

            “8:00 am. That’s not even early,” the girl pouted.

            “What day is it?” I sat on my couch in my living room and asked with my eyes closed.

            “Saturday… Oh . I’m sorry, Ji. I forgot it was a Saturday, I know you like to sleep in on Saturdays since you’re so busy during the week…” the girl gave me a guilty look of regret.

            “It’s okay, Nari.” Feeling bad, I decided to just wake myself up by giving my face a quick pat with both of my hands. “I’m awake now. What’s up?” I gave a smile to give Nari assurance that I was okay with her waking me up.

            “Sorry, Ji! I didn’t mean to-“ Nari kept looking down as she played with her purse.

            “Stop, Nari. It’s fine! I can just take a nap later. I mean it. Come and sit down next to me.” Grinning, I patted the seat next to me.

            Nari came over to sit next to me. “Ji, I need advice.” She looked at me with a serious face. “I need your words of wisdom. You just always know what to say.” She gave me a pout. It looked like she was almost about to burst into tears.

            “Aww, Nari, what happened?” Worried, I brought her into a hug and rubbed her back. “Tell me everything.”

            “Well, I feel like Jonghyun is over our relationship.” I let go of her and gave her a look of shock.

            “What? What do you mean?!” Jonghyun and Nari have been dating for about 3 years and to be honest, they are a perfect match. It might be too early to think about marriage at our age of 22, but I have always pictured them getting married in the future. To keep it short, I have always been a supporter of their relationship. I guess that is why Nari always comes to me first about her relationship.

            I met Nari during our first year of University. We both took Theater together and through fate, we became partners for the acting activities. We became close enough to attend the mandatory plays we had to watch, and one day, after watching a play about a boyfriend cheating on his girlfriend, Nari cried. Shocked, I brought her to my place after the play and offered to make her tea and cake to calm down. Thankfully, it worked. She then told me about her boyfriend, Jonghyun. She speculated that he was cheating, and that she was thinking of breaking up with him before he could break up with her. I asked her what made her think that Jonghyun was cheating on her and she replied that he would act secretive. I asked her more questions and after deliberating, I didn’t find anything odd that would make me think Jonghyun was seeing another girl. Curious, I asked her when her birthday was, and she replied that it was the next week.

            I advised her to keep calm and to wait for her birthday to come to see if he goes back to normal. I figured that Jonghyun was secretive because he was probably trying to plan something for her.

            Turns out, I was right. Nari couldn’t thank me enough for that night, and ever since then, we’ve been close friends.

            But now, Nari was coming to me with another problem.

            “Well, remember the first year I met you? And I cried after that play? He’s showing those signs again.” Nari started to tear up. “But this time, he’s more secretive!”

            “Hm… Is he doing anything new?” I tapped my chin in thought.

            “He’s been texting someone. And every time I would ask who he was texting, he would try to change the subject.”

            “Damn… that is odd.” I started to become worried for them. “What else?”

            “He keeps telling me we need to talk.” At this point, Nari started crying.

            “Hearing those four words are never a good sign.” I sighed. “But, Nari, don’t give up yet. Hear him out first. The worst thing you can do right now is assume. And you shouldn’t do that. Hear what he has to say first.”

            Nari nodded and wiped away her tears. “Even if it hurts to wait?”

            “Yes, even if it hurts. You guys are both old enough to be mature. There is no need to assume. If you assume something now, you’ll hurt yourself even more. Knowing Jonghyun, he’s not a . He’s not going to hurt you on purpose. Trust in him.” Seeing her nod at what I said, I stood up and walked towards my kitchen.  “Tea and cake?” I smiled.

            “You’re honestly the best, Jiyeon.” Nari smiled and clapped her hands together. “I have no idea why you’re single still!” Nari huffed and my tv. “These guys must be blind. You’re pretty, smart, hardworking, caring, and you are the master of giving relationship advice! I don’t get it…”

            Yes, my name is Shin Jiyeon and I have been single since birth. I am 22 years old and I currently attend Seoul University and am majoring in Literature. I think Nari may have exaggerated a bit, but I will admit that I give damn good relationship advice. The ironic thing is that I have never been in a relationship. I think it’s pretty sad. I can deal with other people’s relationships, but I can never start my own. Ah, what a sad joke.

            How do I give great relationship advice if I have never been in one? Well, I have listened to many other people’s stories and have gained knowledge from their experiences. Also, I’m not sure if this is good or not, but I watch too many dramas and read too many romance novels and I guess I have learned from them. Either way, whenever someone comes up to me and asks for advice, I always tend to consider everyone’s point of view and conjure up my advice from that.

            “Nari, I’m not that pretty, smart, and all those things you are saying,” I shook my head as I prepared the hot tea and cake.

            “Oh, shut up Jiyeon. You’re a natural beauty. Ask Jonghyun, he’ll admit it too.” Nari suggested.

            “Nari, that’s weird.” I laughed.

            “It’s true! Every time I hang out with his friends, they always ask me about you. I always tell them about how sweet and smart you are. Then I showed them your picture and almost all of them tried to fight for a blind date with you.” Nari giggled. “They all fought, so they ended up saying that they wouldn’t risk their friendship but individually, each one would always tell me that I should have introduced them to you first.”

            “Nari, please don’t make me seem like some kind of goddess, because I’m not.” I laughed.

            “You’re pretty, smart, and hardworking, but you need to gain more confidence!” Nari pouted. “Or are you just that dense?”

            “Hmm… I’m awkward, shy, and I don’t really care for relationships. That’s why I’m single.” I admitted. It’s true. I’m a bit awkward and shy, but the truth is, I want to try falling in love. I wonder how it feels.

            “Should I set you up on blind dates?” Nari asked.

            I started walking towards her with the slice of cake and hot tea. “No!” I put the food on my coffee table.

            “Why not? I know you, Ji… you say you don’t care for relationships, but I know you want to know how it feels to be in love.”

            “I’m too awkward for blind dates.” I rubbed the back of my head. “And, I know it’s kind of cheesy, but I want to meet someone in a natural way. Like those scenarios in books and dramas.” I blushed and put my head down. This is so embarrassing to admit!

            “What do you mean?”

            “Like I would naturally bump into a cute guy, he would spill something on me, apologize and he would fall in love with me right there and then.”

            “AWW~ YOU’RE SUCH A ROMANTIC!” Nari pinched my cheeks. “So adorable! It must be because you’re a Literature major. But to be honest Ji, those things only happen in books for one reason… they’re super rare. That’s why you got to work for a relationship! You have to try online dating and blind dates! That’s how people are getting into relationships nowadays.”

            As much as I hated hearing it, Nari was right.

            These “fairy tale” first time meetings in books barely exist. 

            Even though they don’t exist, I didn’t want to give up hope. “Eh, I’ll skip on the blind dates and online dating.” I grabbed my cup of tea and started watching tv.

            “Alright, but don’t come to me crying when you’re a fifty-year-old cat lady!” Nari wagged her finger towards me and in response, I rolled my eyes.

            Monday came along and I walked towards the bus stop to catch the bus for scho