By the time she arrived at her destination, she was panting hard and nearly breathless. Whether it was from excitement or exhaustion...honestly, she didn't know. She didn't care either. Jieun allowed the bicycle to drop to the ground in the middle of the road, despite several angry drivers beeping at her. Some of the pedestrians strolling down the sidewalks stopped to stare at her. 'A runaway bride', they were all thinking, awed. It was the type of the thing that ordinary people like themselves had often read about in stories or seen in movies, yet had never truly witnessed.


Jieun made her way into an ice cream parlor and got herself a seat in an empty booth. She ignored the curious glances people shot at her. A young waitress approached her, looking just as astonished as the other customers. Jieun estimated that the girl was probably about five or six years younger than her. The girl had probably already experienced more freedom than Jieun herself had ever known though, she also though wistfully to herself.


"May I take your order, Miss...?" The girl, unable to take her eyes off of Jieun, reached blindly into her pocket for a notepad and a pen. Still not looking at the notepad, she flipped to a random page and then stared expectantly at the strange customer that had just entered.


"I'd like a chocolate sundae please." Jieun smiled.


"Right away!" the girl responded, scribbling furiously into the notepad. She turned away, then turned her head back to stare at Jieun, and then continued on her way, incredibly perplexed.


"Wait," Jieun called. The waitress immediately rushed back.


"Yes?" she asked eagerly, as if expecting Jieun to explain why in the world she was sitting in an ice cream parlor ordering a chocolate sundae when she was dressed in a wedding dress that also happened to be rather torn and dirty.


Rather than to explain, Jieun simply inquired, "Do you suppose you can have Wooyoung bring me my order?"


"Uh..." The girl blinked, wondering if she had heard right. "Wooyoung? But he washes the dishes."


"Yes, I know," Jieun laughed. "But please...if it is possible at all, it would be really great."


"Sure...I guess." The waitress turned as if to walk away, but then suddenly stopped. She turned again to Jieun with a mischievous grin on her face. "Only if you'll explain to me what's going on with you."


"Well...let's just say that I'm a real-life fairytale. Somewhat of a parallel universe's Cinderella who just rescued herself, with the help of a Prince Charming."


The waitress raised an eyebrow questioningly. She then set her lips together and walked away with a "hmph". Jieun only smiled. She folded her hands together on her lap and her mind started to drift away.


Things would be different now. She would have to learn to live life independently and to make decisions for herself. She would have to manage to somehow support herself financially. She knew that it would be difficult, but she also knew that it would be the only way she could truly find happiness. Perhaps she would become poor. She technically already was since she had disobeyed her mother and walked out of the wedding.


She would encounter hardships, but she would do it courageously and willingly. She would find love, and no matter where her decision to live for herself brought her, she was more than happy to follow that path. It was a path she had carved out for herself, and though it was not a road that was paved with gold or jewels and was not surrounded by cherry blossom trees, she knew that along this new path, she would find happiness.


Jieun glanced up at the sound of someone clearing his throat. Wooyoung smiled down at her.


"Your chocolate sundae, Miss."


"Thank you."


After a few seconds of staring at each other, he spoke again.


"Well, aren't you going to try it? The great chef might be insulted," he teased.


"Okay then, I guess I will try it."


Jieun took in a deep breath as she stared down at the chocolate sundae before her. This was it. There was no turning back. The spoon shook slightly as she raised it to her lips. She stared at Wooyoung thoughtfully as the dessert melted in , and a smile broke out on her face.


"It's wonderful!"


Wooyoung laughed and slid into the booth across from her. "So...you left your wedding and you ate chocolate for the first time. I guess this makes you a rebel now."


"Yes, I suppose it does..." Jieun placed another spoonful of the ice cream into .


"There's no turning back," he reminded her lightly. She placed the spoon down.


"I know."


"Things aren't going to be so easy from now on," he pointed out. She stared into his eyes. It was strange how she had never noticed before...they were such a lovely shade of brown. And it was rather adorable the way his bangs fell over his eyes and how he had to blow them away every few seconds.


"I know."


"What made you change your mind?"


She reached across the table for his hand. It felt warm in hers, and the tingling warmth seemed to travel up her arm and into her heart.


"Someone that I love told me to stop living for others and to start living for myself."

Author's Note: Hello! As you might've guessed, this is the end of the story, haha. I apologize for it dragging on when the whole story only took place in a single day... If you were disappointed with the way that things turn out, then I apologize, but there was no way that I was going to change the ending, haha. (It'd be too disrespectful to the past me.  ;]  ) Thank you for taking the time to read this story! ^^

If any of you are interested, I've included below (with changed character names) the author's notes from when I first posted this story on Winglin (as a SuYin fanfic) three years ago:

I interpreted the song (Off I Go) as one that Jieun's character would be able to relate to. She's finally going to do what she wants to do for the first time in her life, and although she's uncertain about what her future will bring her, she's going to accept it.

Where she falls is where she lands.

As for the chocolate...that was just to make it sort of 'fluffy' and more fun to read. But on a deeper level, it symbolizes Jieun taking control of her life.

The part in the letter where Wooyoung tells her that he is just a boy and she is just a girl is supposed to explain that no matter how much people age, deep inside, they're still uncertain children with their self-doubts. It's meant to contrast with how Jieun sees a beautiful young woman when she looks in the mirror, but how beneath all that makeup, she's just a frightened little girl who still has much to learn about life. No matter how old people grow, there's always so much more to life than what they already know.

The reason I didn't use Jieun's name until much later into the story was to convey how she felt as though she had no sense of identity. She was never really Jieun until she realized that it was her life and not her family's. Prior to that, she remained the obedient little Jieun who wanted nothing more to her life than to please her family.

I made the mother seem stern and uncaring towards her daughter and I should have put more explanation about Jieuns parents' relationship, but the reason her mother is so cold is because she's worn out from trying to obtain the affection of her husband. She raised Jieun to be the perfect housewife in the hopes of her daughter being able to receive the love from her husband that Jieun's mother herself had never received from her own husband. She truly does care for Jieun, but she also is so adjusted to being in a marriage void of love that she doesn't deem it as being that important, but merely a desirable and preferred option that a bride may also do without.

The love between Jieun and Wooyoung was rather subtle and I didn't have them kissing or marrying in the end because that would be too soon, but as you can see, Jieun does share the same feelings for him. It wasn't something she realized only after reading his letter, but if you read between the lines, she also kind of mentioned how deeply she cared for him while she was reminiscing, and the part where she mentioned that he was one of the rules she broke is intended to be somewhat of a 'foreshadowing' of how he'll later lead her to break all of the rules she's been forced to live under.