“No, to your left! Okay, stop, that’s way too left. Shift it to your right a little… yeah, that’s it… wait, left a little more… okay, a little mor – Yah! What are you doing?”

Soeun glared at her best friend, Hana, when she threw the cutout wall decoration onto the table in frustration. They had been trying to put up the thing for the past twenty minutes, and the young accountant has had enough of Soeun’s ‘no, to the left. To the right, come on, do you not have a sense of balance?’

“I got tired.” She snapped.

“What?”

Hana rolled her eyes and flopped down onto the cream coloured sofa. “I got tired. Besides, why do you have to do all these yourself? You couldn’t just hire a group of professionals to help you, could you?”

“It’s more fun this way,” Soeun explained, picking up the black strip of cutout bride and groom that had taken her a few good hours to complete. “And it gives me a sense of achievement when the whole shop’s completed.”

“You do it yourself then. My arms are tired.”

Soeun huffed and flopped onto the empty seat beside Hana. “But your limbs are longer than mine!”

“Too bad for you, isn’t it?”

“Aish!” Soeun cried as she too dropped the cutout back onto the table. Perhaps a few moments of rest wouldn’t hurt. “You’re always so mean to me,”

Hana chuckled and slouched to her side, clinging tightly onto Soeun’s arm. “You know you love me. You thrive on my iness. There won’t be you if there’s no me. I’m the yang to your yin, the sun to your moon, the jelly to your peanut butter, th – ”

“Okay! I got it! Goodness!” Soeun pulled her arm away from Hana’s tight grip and scowled. “You’re so full of nonsense, sometimes. I don’t even know why I hired you. You’ll probably just mess my shop up and I’ll have to close it down within a month of opening it.”

“Yah, yah, yah! Excuse me?” Hana sat up from the couch and poked her friend on the arm with a slender finger. Her rose painted lips were set into a firm line at Soeun’s word and her eyes were narrowed into a glare. “I’m here because someone’s brain is obviously incapable of managing the simplest math problem. Without me, your shop wouldn’t even be able to make it to its grand opening.”

“I can do math.” Soeun mumbled indignantly. “I can do it well enough to survive.”

“Sure you can, honey. Sure you can.” Soeun opened to retort to the patronizing tone in the accountant’s voice, only to be interrupted by a loud buzzing coming from the table. Sighing, she reached over for her vibrating phone to see an incoming call from Lou.

“Yoboseyo?”

“Good afternoon, Miss.” Came the primp voice of the butler. “It’s Louis here.”

Soeun chuckled. “I can see that from the caller ID, Lou.”

“Ah, yes. It’s a tough habit to break, Miss. Anyway, I’m just calling to inquire if you will be having dinner at home tonight? If you are, I can inform Housekeeper Kwon right now so that she’ll have enough time to prepare the dishes.”

“Ah, okay, give me a minute.” Soeun pressed her hand against the mouthpiece and turned towards Hana, who was now flipping through her design sketchbook. “Hey, wanna have dinner at my house tonight? Ajumeoni Kwon’s cooking tonight.”

Hana shook her head with an apologetic smile. “Sorry babe, but I’ve got a dinner date with Eric already.”

Soeun nodded her head in understanding and pressed the phone back to her ear. “Lou? Can you just get Ajumeoni to cook some simple dishes? It’s just you and me tonight, again.”

“Yes, Miss.” Lou said. “I’ll be waiting for your call to drive you home later.”

With a few more parting words, the call ended and Soeun flopped back onto the couch with a huff. She threw her phone unceremoniously beside her, watching as it bounced on the soft material before turning towards Hana with a frown.

“I wish I’ve got a boyfriend like you,” She admitted truthfully and hugged the couch cushion to her chest tightly, as though doing that could fill the emptiness she felt in her chest. “That way my life wouldn’t seem so lonely and pathetic.”

Hana scoffed and mimicked Soeun’s actions with another cushion. “Single life’s way better.”

“That’s what people who are attached always say. But it’s not really the truth. Single life sometimes.” The half-Korean woman bemoaned. “I just wanna experience real love once, before I grow old and embittered by life.”

“Aish, you’re such a hopeless romantic, Eunnie.” Hana said as she pulled her shiny, dark hair into a ponytail. “You need to stop watching those Katherine Heigl movies and focus on reality.”

“I am focusing on reality! Love is reality!” Soeun defended.

“You sweet, naïve little baby.” Hana cooed, shaking her head exasperatedly at Soeun’s stubbornness. Despite the fact that they were born only 8 months apart from each other, Hana still treated Soeun like her little sister. “Love is not all that it’s cut out to be. Honestly. Not all stories end in happy endings where the boy and the girl ride off into the sunset on a magical chariot of their never-ending affection. Love is pain; it’s horrible and manipulative and it hurts. It catches you off guard. Someone comes along with a simple action like a smile or a kiss and then the life you’ve got control over isn’t yours anymore. It turns you into a hostage of your own emotions. When you open yourself up to someone, you give a part of you to him, even if they didn’t ask for it. However small and trivial or deep and dark it may be, it’s still a part of you that you’ve given away and will never get back. The more you give yourself away, the emptier you make yourself out to be when things don’t work out. Furthermore, you never know when he will turn everything around and throw your trust right back in your face. Humans are manipulative little s like that,”

“You’re so cynical and bitter.”

“I’m just being realistic. Nobody cares much about love anymore. True love? Soul mates? They’re pretty much ancient legends in this society. Right now, it’s all about money, who looks good, who’s influential and who will benefit you the most.”

Hana popped a piece of gum into and offered the contemplating woman beside her one. She almost felt bad for shooting Soeun’s idea of love down so harshly. Almost. Perhaps she could have gone about another way of telling the naïve woman the kind of pain love can bring, but she still stood by what she had meant because that was reality. And reality is harsh, no matter how much you want to convince yourself otherwise.

“How about Eric?” Soeun finally asked, a small frown marring her smooth forehead. “Is he someone who will benefit you?”

“Eric?” Hana chuckled and tossed the bottle of gum back into her ivory Chanel purse. “Sweetie, we’re benefitting each other right now.”

“What?”

“What Eric and I have is not love, silly girl. We’re both using each other for . Nothing more, nothing less. Just pure, hot, crazy .”

Soeun wrinkled her nose and swatted Hana’s arm lightly. “You’re so crude.”

“It’s true though. with him is never boring.” The account grinned smugly and turned to the side, facing Soeun. “There’s this thing that he does with his hips where he rotates and oh… it’s making me blush even just thinking about it.”

“I wonder what your parents would say when they find out how big of a harlot their only daughter is.” Soeun laughed, remembering the kindly Mr and Mrs Choi who were still living in America. “I think Ajumeoni Choi would probably disown you. Or dunk you into a tub of holy water. Or both.”

“Well, then it’s good that they’re too busy with feeding their cows and horses to care much about my ual life, isn’t it?” The two shared a laugh, recalling the image of Hana’s parents in overalls and cowboy boots while they rode a tractor around their farm. “Besides, I’m still young, I can afford to be a hussy for a few more years before I have to settle down.”

Soeun shook her head exasperatedly at her friend before pulling her sluggish from the couch she went about on completing the decorations for her shop once more. She picked up the string of fairy lights from the box and moved over to one of the display windows.

“I’m still lonely, though. Even if Eric and you are just friends with benefits, I’m still jealous over the fact that you have someone to cuddle with.” She sighed. “Especially since the villa is so big and empty. It makes me even lonelier.”

“Why don’t you get a studio apartment instead? It’s not like you can’t afford it,” Hana suggested as she picked up the strip of paper cutout again and proceeded to arrange it on the wall, asking for Soeun’s directions.

“I would. But it’s my dad’s condition for letting me return to Korea.” Soeun explained and pouted thoughtfully when the lights looked a little strange in her window display. “He said I wasn’t allowed to return here unless I moved into our old family home. Something about being unsafe since I was alone and the villa being equipped with high-tech blah, blah, blah. It’s absurd really. Honestly though, who’s going to crawl into my 20-storey high apartment in the middle of the night and kidnap me?”

Soeun sighed and settled for draping the lights along the front of the window before moving back towards the table to put up the various other decorations. “It’s only been a little more than a month back in the house and I’m going insane. It’s so quiet and lifeless.”

“Get a pet then,” Hana suggested. “You love dogs, don’t you? Go buy one.”

“Well yeah, but it’s a little too soon, isn’t it? I’ve yet to really settle into the house and I’m still putting all my time into opening the shop.” Soeun said. “Besides, even if I were to get a dog, I’d adopt one.”

“Oh, oh! There’s this show right now – called Birth of a something, can’t really remember – where these two idol groups are fostering five puppies before they can be adopted by the public. The dogs are adorable. The idols are too.” The accountant added slyly. “Now, I’m not into younger men because I like my guys well-developed. But damn, this group of dongsaengs is giving this noona jail-worthy thoughts.”

Soeun shot her a disgusted look and grimaced. It was hard to believe how much of a floozy her best friend could be despite her angelic looks. “Will you stop that!”

“I’m just saying!” Hana rebutted innocently as she held up her hands in a surrendering manner. “Anyways, you can email them and send in your application for adoption. They’re looking for new owners, I believe.”

“Maybe,” Soeun responded dismissively as the memory of her being mauled by the white puppy called Dubu slipped into the forefront of her thoughts. “We’ll see.”

I'm back again! Hehe, I'm on a roll today. Been sitting in front of the computer for hours typing this (and the next) chapter out. Feeling rather accomplished tonight.

This chapter is sort of an interlude. Nothing special since the boys are not in this, but I quite like this one. 

I'm truly thankful for everyone who has subbed and commented and gave me pointers on making this story even better. You guys motivate me so much!
Hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Here's a gif of our very own greasestar Nam Woohyun's ageyo in a bid to earn your comments:

xoxo