“What do you want to do today?” Gyuri asked as she walked into the room carrying in a bowl of pasta.

Looking up from her book, Victoria whined, “anything is fine by me, just not sightseeing. I don’t think I can handle another day being a tourist in my own country. ” They’ve been back to Korea for two weeks now and have been site seeing ever since.

Gyuri has never been to Korea before so she wanted to take a tour around different parts of Korea to get a better understanding of the culture.

“Hmm…” after a few minutes of thinking, she finally came to a decision. “Let’s go shopping today. I want to buy some new clothes and buy a few other things for my room.”

“Geez women, don’t you have enough clothes already? You took four boxes full of clothes back to Korea with you.” Victoria widen her eyes in amazement that Gyuri still thinks she needs more clothes.

“Don’t geez women me. You are one too you know…” Gyuri winked, “…and besides, a girl can never have enough clothes”

“At least give away some of your old clothes before you buy new ones. At this moment, our guest room is basically your second closet! There are clothes everywhere in that room.”

“I got it, neat freak,” Gyuri pouted then stuck her tongue out at Victoria.

It’s not like she’s a neat freak or anything, just really tidy. Thinking more about it, she came to a conclusion. Okay she admits it she’s a neat freak, but it’s a habit that’s hard to change, she tries to convince herself. “Yeah, yeah, I’m a neat freak so what.” Victoria stood up from the couch and started walking towards her room, “anyways, this NEAT FREAK needs to shower before we go anywhere.”

--------

“Wahhhh…Gyuri I am so tired. I can’t do this anymore.” Victoria whined as she scans the store for an empty chair to sit on. Find an empty spot on the couch, Victoria sat down. She slouched her body against the cushion, “ahh this is heaven.”

Scanning the shoes on display in front of her, Gryui reached for the red Christian Louboutin pumps and tried them on. “Geez, it’s only been 5 hours and you’re already complaining you’re tired?” Checking the pumps on her in the mirror, she teased Victoria in a playful manner “if you are this tired just by shopping imagine how you’d feel after .”

“Those are two different things! You can’t compare shopping to .”

Gyuri turned around looking at Victoria curiously she arched her eyebrow, “how would you know?”

Taking a sip of her coffee, Victoria shrugs her shoulders. “I just do” she answered smiling slyly.

“Tsk. You damn liar.” Gyuri scrunched her face, “don’t pretend you know what feels like you .”

Displaying an indifferent facial expression, Victoria rebutted “are you sure I’m still a ?”

Gyuri couldn’t help, but laugh at Victoria’s blank face. It looked so freaking funny, Gyuri thought. Walking towards Victoria until she was only a few inches away, she leaned down and whispered “you have the smell of a .”

Rolling her eyes, Victoria couldn’t hide the sarcasm in her voice, “oh yes, that must be it because, you know, s have such a different smell compared to non-s.”

“Now you get it,” Gyuri giggled while taking the pumps off her feet. “That and the fact that you’ve never brought a guy back to our apartment before also eliminates you from being a bed banger.” Putting the shoes back in the box, she continued “anyways, let me pay for this and let’s go grab some dinner.”

“Okay.”

------

While placing a few pieces of samgyupsal (pork belly) and kalbi (short ribs) on the grill, Victoria asked “Aren’t you starting work in a few days?”

“Yeah I am.” Gyuri pouted.

“Why are you pouting, I thought you’d be more excited.”

“I’m just feeling nervous about working in a new place and all.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Besides you’ll get to meet tons of new people and who knows, you might even find yourself a new love.”

“Love…that’s something to think about,” Gyuri nodded her head, “maybe this time around, it’ll be Mr. Right.

Victoria placed some rice, sauce and a piece of samgyupsal on top of a piece of lettuce wrapping it. “For that to happen, you need to stop going after bad boys and men who were no good. Now open your mouth and say ahhh,” she opened slightly ushering Gyuri to do the same, as she put the lettuce wrap in Gyuri’s mouth.

Chewing the lettuce wrap in , Gyuri thought of all the good times she has had with her exes, “it’s not like I choose to fall for them, it just happened that way. And besides, they weren’t that bad at in the beginning.”

“They WERE bad news from the start. You always disregarded their horrible personality, and somehow only acknowledge their good looks and bedroom abilities,” Victoria rolled her eyes.

Trying not to laugh or smile, Gyuri shook her head in disagreement “nu-uh”

“Yeah, huh!” Victoria nodded, smiling. Her smile slowly curved into a devilish smirk, “Do you want to know why I wanted to move into a new apartment that time? It was because the walls were too thin.”

Gyuri opened shocked by Victoria’s statement. Eyeing Victoria suspiciously, Gyuri’s tone was one of disbelief, “You’re lying!” Thinking to herself she wondered I couldn’t have possibly been that loud, could I?

Victoria continued to playfully tease Gyuri. “maybe I am, maybe I’m not. Who knows?” Victoria changed her tone from a happy to a slightly more serious note, “anyways, this might sound like I’m nagging you, but whatever. When you do decide to date someone, pick someone who’s willing to put you first and love only you, unlike all your other exes, especially your last one. It was my first time seeing you cry so much after breaking up with someone. I don’t want to see you go through all that hurt again, so this time around find yourself someone more deserving of your love.”

[Flashback]

Gyuri has dated many guys throughout her college years, but this guy seemed different compared to the others. It was Victoria’s first time seeing Gyuri being so serious about a relationship and what’s even more surprising is that she’s been asking Victoria for cooking advice. The girl, who hates being in the kitchen more than anything, always saying she’ll marry a chef one day, now wanting to learn how to cook; the power of love is so strong that it’s scary, Victoria thought as she looked at Gyuri smashing the potatoes. “Gyuri don’t smash it so hard, it’ll spattering everywhere.”

Gyuri whined, “this is so much work! Wouldn’t it be better to just order some food and pretend I made it?”

“YOU were the one who said YOU wanted to impress him by making him a meal and now YOU want to back down because it takes more time and effort than you initially thought?” Victoria placed her elbows on the island table in the kitchen. Leaning forward she rested her chin in her palm, “food full of Gyuri’s love cannot be bought through ‘the Outback Steakhouse’ menu, my dear.”

“I know,” Gyuri pouted “he better appreciate all this.”

“He will” Victoria smiling through her words.

------

Slamming the door, “God damn it, I’m so mad” Gyuri yelled as she stomped her way towards the kitchen. Taking out a bottle of whisky out of the cabinet, she poured herself a cup.

“What happened,” Victoria asked as she puts down her book and walked over toward Gyuri.

“It’s Eric,” Gyuri replied, sounding furious. Taking a sip of whisky, she continued “this is the fourth time in the past two weeks he has canceled our date last minute and weeks before that, he said he was too busy with work to meet me. I let it slide thinking that it can’t be helped since work is important, but it’s been over a month since I last saw him. How much longer is he intending to ignore me for? I bet he’s even lying about work being busy.”

“Don’t think like that. I bet he misses you just as much as you miss him. What else did he say on the phone?”

“That’s the thing! We haven’t talked since last week. When I tried calling him, he doesn’t pick up. He would just text me back a few hours later saying he’s busy or was in a meeting. He always say he’ll call me later, but never does. Basically I can only reach him via text. I swear something’s fishy.”

“If he’s that busy why don’t you surprise him at his work place by bringing him lunch one day? Even if he’s busy, he still has to eat lunch some time within the day. This way you can see him and have lunch with him without any excuses.”

Thinking for a moment, Gyuri broke into a girlish grin. “You are a genius! Why didn’t I think of bringing him lunch? I’ll go visit him at work next week, once I get back from my work trip.”

------

“Are you and Eric doing anything fun for Valentine’s Day?” Victoria asked as she sat down on the sofa across from Gyuri.

“Not sure,” Gyuri answered uninterested.

Lately Gyuri has been acting strange since that day she went to visit Eric in his office. Gyuri came home that day looking pissed off, but when Victoria had asked her about what had happened, Gyuri would just brush it off saying there’s nothing wrong.  Victoria could tell that something had happened, but didn’t want to push the issue.

For the weeks that follow, Gyuri would often come home looking mad or unhappy and you could even hear her yelling on the phone in her room from time to time. Every time Victoria tried asking Gyuri about what’s going on, Gyuri would just change the subject. Victoria wanted to ask more, but she didn’t want to pry in Gyuri’s business if Gyuri didn’t want her knowing. All Victoria could do was wait until Gyuri wanted to talk about it and be there for her when she needs it.

------

Opening the door to their apartment the sound of ‘Someday, One Day’ by Christina Milian filled the room. Uh-oh, Victoria thought to herself, this is one of the songs on Gyuri’s heartbreak playlist. Gyuri has a pattern she tends to do after breaking up with her boyfriends. Gyuri would always mope around the house wearing these flannel pink pajama pants with white hearts all over them while blasting her heartbreak playlist or mope around on the sofa all day eating ice cream and watching romantic comedies.

Walking towards Gyuri’s bedroom Victoria could hear sobbing coming from the room. Victoria knocked on the door then pushed it open, “I’m coming in.” Victoria walked over and sat down on the bed where Gyuri was lying with the covers over her head, “what happened? Why are you crying?”

Gyuri pulled down the covers, revealing her swollen red eyes. Through sobs, Gyuri spoke “….we…broke...up.”

Patting Gyuri on the head, Victoria looked at her friend sympathetically. “Want to talk about it?” Gyuri didn’t say anything. Victoria wanted to know what’s going on with Gyuri, but didn’t want to force her friend to talk. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but it’ll make you feel better getting it off your chest and you know I’ll always be here for you when you need me.”

After a few more sobs Gyuri tries to control her crying, until only sounds of soft sniffles were left. In a low mumble, she spoke “…he’s…he’s…married.”

Victoria’s eyes widen upon hearing Gyuri’s words. She couldn’t hide the shock in her voice, “WHAT? HE’S MARRIED?”

Gyuri slowly nods. In a soft voice, almost close to a whisper she spoke again “I met his wife at his work place on the day where I went to bring him lunch.”

Victoria thought for a moment then her eyes widen as she recalls the date when Gyuri had brought lunch to his office. Trying to control how shocked she is, she spoke “that was…uh...two months ago…so when you found out he was married, you decided to STILL stay with him?”

Gyuri hesitated for a moment then nodded her head reluctantly feeling guilty. Victoria was speechless not knowing what to say. After a few minutes of silence, Gyuri spoke “I know it was wrong to date someone who’s married, but I really love him. I know it was foolish, but I just thought that, you know, if he loved me enough he’d leave his wife for me one day, but in the end he just strung me along for the ride…I’m a fool, huh?” Gyuri wiped the tears that were slowly falling down her cheeks, as she looked over at Victoria for her reaction.

Victoria wrapped her arms around Gyuri and hugged her, “Oh Gyuri.” Rubbing Gyuri’s back to comfort her, Victoria’s tone was warm and gentle “we’re all foolish when it comes to love.” Pulling away from Gyuri, Victoria wiped the tears falling from her best friend’s face. “You’ve been holding it in for this long…why didn’t you tell me about it earlier?”

Gyuri paused for a few seconds before she spoke, “I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me.”

Patting Gyuri’s head like she was a child, Victoria frown “oh geez Gyuri, why would you ever think that?” Victoria cupped Gyuri’s face in her hands, “Listen. There will be times when I get mad at you for your choices and there will be times when you get mad at me as well, but no matter what you choose, I’d always be here for you. I might not agree to all the things you decide, but you’re my best friend. When I’m weak you’ll be strong for me and when you’re weak I’ll be strong for you. In the end, the choices you make, right or wrong I’ll still support you because you’re my best friend. So don’t ever think that you can’t talk to me because of something as trivial as being scared I’ll be disappointed in you. GOT IT?” Victoria pinched Gyuri’s face.

“I got it.” Gyuri smiled then let out small laugh, “I think you’re right when you say, I only attract bad boys.”

“Well DUH! I’ve been saying that to you since three ex-boyfriends ago,” Victoria smiled.

[Flashback Ends]

Steering away from Victoria’s nagging, Gyuri wanted to change the topic, “So how about you? When do you start work?”

“I’m going to go visit the hospital in a few days to talk to the director about my work date and I’ll probably take a look around the hospital at that time too.”

Letting out a girlish giggle, Gyuri spoke “love affair in hospital, how .”

Victoria made a face at Gyuri, “What the heck are you talking about?”

“Well since you are working in the hospital, you should date other doctors and you guys can start a love affair in the hospital.”

Rolling her eyes at Gyuri, Victoria coolly replied “I don’t like mixing work with please. And besides, I’m not into the whole role playing, doctor and nurse game, like you…” Before she could continue, a voice called out to her from behind.

“Victoria?” Turning her head around, Victoria locked eyes with the owner of that voice.

[Author’s Note] I bet most of you are frustrated because the male characters have not appeared yet, but don’t you worry, they’ll appear within the next few chapters. I just wanted to build a setting for Victoria and Gyuri before having the male characters enter. Anyways, I hope you guys have enjoyed the story so far :]