He was 24; she was 22.

She watched him with a slight frown on her face as the male in front of him poured himself another glass of soju. He was the one who asked her out for dinner but instead of eating the meat Nayeon had grilled, Mark was busy pouring himself more soju.

"Stop drinking." Nayeon finally spoke up as she reached out, attempting to take the bottle from him, which he allowed, thankfully.

She then placed the bottle by the side and sighed. She knew that Mark has been troubled and upset because of his unemployment. Two years ago, a job was offered to him soon after his graduation. However, throughout one year, the company was in a bad state and in the end, they went bankrupt. That's how Mark became unemployed.

It's been almost a year, Nayeon mentally calculated. The stress is probably building up in him day by day but this is the first time she's seen him this broken.

"My parents called today."

Nayeon raised her head and placed the tongs down onto the table, giving Mark her full attention as she waited for him to continue.

"They are giving me another 3 months. They said if I still can't find a new job by then, I would have to go back to LA."

Nayeon widened her eyes slightly at his words, keeping her eyes on him as he finally looked up.

"You know how they've been asking me to go back since I've graduated. If not for that first job, they probably would have dragged me back." He continued and this time, Nayeon's the one who lowered her head.

Silence took over their table.

"How was your interview today? You had one, right?" Nayeon's the one who broke the silence as per usual.

"It wasn't that bad."

"Well," She took in a deep breath then smiled widely, "I'm sure you did well! I have a good feeling about this and my intuition are mostly right!"

He scoffed.

"What, it's true!"

"You're not always right."

"Can you please have faith in yourself?" Nayeon rolled her eyes in a playful way then picked a piece of meat from the grill, bringing it to Mark's lips.

He raised an eyebrow at her; she brought the meat closer and poked his lips with it, which he finally bites it off her chopsticks.

"Good boy."

Mark snorted, shaking his head as a small smile formed on his lips. Nayeon smiled too as she watched him pick his chopsticks up from the table for the first time that night.

"You're scared too, aren't you?"

"Scared of?"

"Me going back."

Nayeon's hand hovered the grill for a moment before she looked up at Mark, their eyes meeting again.

"I am," She muttered quietly and breaks into a wide grin after. "But I'm believe in you more than I'm afraid. You will definitely find a job by then!"

Finally, a proper smile formed on Mark's face.

One week later...

"Nayeonie!"

"Mark ahjussi, it's only 8am, I slept at 3am." Nayeon rubbed her eyes and sat up on her bed groggily as she held the phone against her ear.

"That's why I told you to sleep earlier. But, that's not the point. I got that job!"

"That's good-" Nayeon mumbled then paused for a moment. "Wait what?"

Her eyes are fully opened now as the sleepiness in her disappeared right at that moment.

"I said, I got the job! The interview you said you had a good feeling of? You're right, I got the job!" Mark rambled then broke into a soft laughter when he heard the 'yahoo!' on the other side of the phone.

"So you won't have to go back to LA?"

"Nope." Mark laughed again when Nayeon cheered.

"Come to my place during the evening!"

"For?"

"It's a surprise!"

You can treat this as a prequel to Chapter Two. A very simple chapter, pretty short too but I still hope you enjoyed it! It will be great if you guys can leave some feedback or at least tell me which chapter you guys enjoyed the most! And with that, 5 more chapters to go!