The place was filled with honey silk voice coming from the studio and Natalie felt like she just stepped in to the heaven. Choi Youngjae’s voice had that effect on lot of people. 

“Natalie?” she turned around when she heard a familiar voice. 

“Mark? What are you doing here?” 

Mark was dressed in casual clothes and has his permed hair covering his forehead. 

“I.. I came to see him. You know… we kinda knew each other from Germany,” he said while avoiding her gaze.

“Oh great, yeah I remembered he sang at your wedding,” she sat next to him in the couch placed in the corner. 

“So how is Melanie doing?” 

“Melanie… errh… she is… she is good” He scoffed as showed his gummy smile. 

“So you know him way back? You know he is my favorite,” she sounded like a teenager. 

“Yeah, yeah. We met when I was  in Germany. He had gone there to study music. He was really small at that time. I almost hit him with my car,” he said with a soft smile as he was reminiscing the time. 

 

Mark hit the brake making him jolt to the front in panic. The tires made a screeching sound as it stopped abruptly. The boy who was in the front looked terrified with the guitar case clutched to his tiny body. His forehead was covered with hair and his big eyes were shut tightly. Mark thanked, Jesus, Buddha, Allah and all the gods in the world for stopping the car before hitting the otter standing on the road. He got down from the car and slammed the door. “What the hell? Are you trying to die?” he snapped at the stranger. Stranger peeked a little and when he saw he was safe and collapsed to the ground. Mark jumped and held him before he hit the ground. “What the…” he swallowed his words when he saw the boy was crying his eyes out. “Ok hush now, nothing happened. You are alright. Don’t cry" he gently petted him on head trying to console him. “Do you wanna lift?” Mark asked again considering it was night and knowing there won’t be public transport on the road at this time. The boy nodded his slowly.

 

“Accidents are the best kind of meetings" Natalie chuckled at her inside joke.

“So why are you here?” 

“I have a meeting with him. I’m trying to get him for my summer project,” she said while taking out the file.

“don’t you have assistants for that?”

“I do, but I wanted to meet him in person,” 

“Right artist?” Mark . 

“Oh shut up” she playfully punched his arm, “yeah"

She stood up as she saw Youngjae coming out from the studio. 

“I’ll catch you later racer boy,” she bid goodbye to Mark as she went to meet Youngjae.

 

 

The meeting dragged on more than she expected and it was already seven o'clock when she parked her vehicle near the Seoul Arts Gallery. She touched up her make up again and sprayed her perfume. She was glad that she kept several dresses at the office when she realized she would not be able to go home to get changed. She was dressed in a dark green sleeveless tight dress with a high neck.  

She saw Jinyoung standing in front of the gallery with his hands inside the pockets. He waved his hand when he saw her walking down the road. 

“Did you wait for a long time?” she asked apologetically. 

“It’s ok, I know you are busy with work,” he said with a wink. 

Now that she saw him closer, he was dressed in a blue denim and a white long sleeve shirt tucked in his pants. Sleeves were folded up to his elbow and top two buttons were undone and the whole look screamed ‘boyfriend’ to her. 

“You look cute today,” she nudged him with her elbow. 

“what can I say, I’m adorable,” he shrugged. 

She laughed while clutching on to his arm and walking inside. 

The gallery was full with prestigious crowd admiring paintings with champagne in their hands. Natalie never enjoyed these kind of gatherings before but with Jinyoung, it felt like a new experience to her.

“There is my friend’s painting collection. Let’s check those first.” He pulled her to left side of the gallery.

“Hey, you came" 

Sarah approached to Jinyoung and engaged him a tight hug as he hugged her back. She released him from the hug and pecked lightly on his cheek. 

“Nat, this is my friend, Sarah Delamare,” he introduced her to Natalie who stood there with a firm look on her face. 

She lightly shook Sarah’s hand but she wasn’t happy about the fact that Jinyoung’s friend was a woman. An attractive young woman, who can’t keep her hands to herself. 

“Natalie Wang,” Jinyoung said.

Natalie waited for him to add another part in his introduction but he didn’t.

“Shall we?” Sarah tugged Jinyoung’s shirt. Jinyoung nodded as he nudged Natalie to follow him. Sarah went ahead of them while talking to another guest.

“You didn’t tell me your friend was a woman,” she whispered to him. 

“I didn’t? She is a friend from College,” 

“In France?” she whispered again. 

“hmmm… she is very talented and funny,” Jinyoung said while looking at Sarah. 

No, Natalie didn’t like the admiration in his ey