Where to begin…I suppose the beginning would be a good place.

It was a cold and rainy October day. I had worked a long and torturous 10 hour shift and all I wanted to do was crawl into a warm bed filled with blankets and pillows. Instead, I forced myself to travel forth to the stable where my y, rebellious and yet reliable horse was waiting for me. After 2 ½ hours of riding in the sloppy mud and mucking out his wonderful and extremely dirty stall  I was finally going to be on my way home to a hot shower and a warm bed.

 *ring*ring* shut up phone *ring*ring* “sigh”

“Yea?” 

“And hello to you my darling daughter”

“Yea, hello, that’s what I meant. However can I help you my dearest mother?”

“We are out of milk…”

“Gotch ya. I would love to pick some up on my way home.”  I was being as sarcastic as possible. Why would I want to pick up stupid milk, it’s not like I drink the stuff. “ I will be home in 30 minutes. Bye.” 

Okay Okay… Off to get milk I go!  As I pulled up to the empty convenient store parking lot I couldn’t help but be happy that there was only one car in the lot. I got out of my car and gave myself a quick downward glance. I had muddy horse poop boots, my chaps and breeches were full of dusty horse hair and my sweatshirt was filled with dirt that I had previously brushed off my oh so beautiful muddy horse… Oh and yes I was wet from head to toe from the rain that just wouldn’t stop…I could only imagine how I looked and smelled... I did not want to be seen by anyone but thanks to the almost empty parking lot this should not be a problem.

I was a woman on a mission. I walked in, went straight to the back wall where the milk was, grabbed the milk, turned around, continued walking till… SPLAT! Apparently the giant yellow “caution wet floor” sign was not bright or big enough for me to see and I slipped on the cold blue slushy that the previous clumsy costumer must have spilt. And now my milk had joined the fun, for it too had spilt all over the floor. “Aish” 

I just laid there for a second with my eyes closed, trying to figure out the most graceful way to recover from this most ungraceful act. Just when I thought that perhaps no one noticed, I heard a frantic voice asking me if I was okay. I opened my eyes to see a familiar face; a face that I never thought would be two feet from my own. Never mind that it was two feet away from me as I lay in a puddle of blue milk and smelt like mud and horse poop. I instinctively closed my eyes again, my heart was racing. Did I hurt my head and now I’m in some dream world? I took a long deep breath and gave opening my eyes another shot.

“Are you okay? On behalf of my spilt slurpee, I apologies. Can I help you up?”

He reached out his hand, grabbed my arm and pulled me up. I stared stunned at his gorgeous, goofy and extremely lovable face. I gently sandwiched my face with a couple of slaps. Oh I must look so foolish…If I don’t say something soon he is either going to think I’m a mute or that I have brain damage.

“I fell”

Maybe that wasn’t the best response. Let’s try this again.

“Of course you know I fell, well it was more of a slip, you see, I was going to buy milk … Oh crap the milk…I’m Rae Cheol.”

He was smiling during my whole rant; I suppose that’s a good sign.

“Haha I saw that, perhaps grace isn’t your strong suit.” He laughed a nice long staccato like chuckle. I had to give it to him… Graceful was not me. “Oh I’m Dongwoo.”