“So I had this dream,” Taeyeon says.  “I opened my door and there stood a package that was marked A.I.  I opened the package and a life size man was inside.  He had a note with him that read:  Here is your perfect boyfriend.  He is programmed to take care of all your needs.  He is your ideal man.  Handle with care.”

“Wait, Taeyeon-nie,” I laugh.  “Isn’t that from a Japanese comic?”  Tiffany laughs with me as she spits out her soju. 

“Is it?”

“Ya!  It’s totally from that comic!  The girl is given a robot that looks absolutely real and is programmed to be the perfect boyfriend for her.  He has like super strength and powers, but also has endearing human qualities about him so she gets confused from reality and fantasy.” 

“Evey’s right!  It’s that comic where the robot, or boyfriend, malfunctions in the end.  It was SO sad.”  Tiffany begins crying. 

“He malfunctions?” Taeyeon’s eyes were getting misty.

“It was a sad ending.”  My friends are getting a bit tipsy, they are crying over a robot. 

“That is so sad!”  Taeyeon begins to bawl her eyes.  I give her tissues to blow her nose.  Tiffany joins.  Yup, this is my Friday night, and Saturday night too.  For the past 3 years, my girls and I have probably spent the majority of our nights dreaming of would-be boyfriends and fantastical romance. 

“When’s the pizza getting here,” Tiffany asks, finally over the death of the robot. 

“Gary, from the concierge, hasn’t called telling us it’s here.  Maybe another few minutes.”  Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I stayed in London.  Would I have been the songwriter for some big shot British popstar?  Would Tiffany be the Hollywood actress she’s always wanted to become?  Would Taeyeon be the nation’s vocalist spreading the Hallyu wave all over the world?  The three of us attended Seoul School of Performing Arts together.  We had big dreams and our families would have supported us the best they could to follow them, but it didn’t turn out that way.  When we graduated, Taeyeon stayed in Seoul and attended classes at Korea University.  Tiffany moved to California to study at UCLA and I lived in London attending Oxford University.  Then for some reason, destiny brought us back together, here in Seoul. 

We live in a high-rise luxury tower in Hannam-dong, Seoul.  But it wasn’t because we achieved our dreams of being stars of our respective fields, it was because of a tiny business that we inherited from our headmaster’s daughter.  She owned a small fashion studio that sold one-of-a-kind merchandise in a boutique in Cheongdam-dong strip.  Slowly through the years, the small studio became a large studio and the small boutique became a large boutique, and with Tiffany’s and my connections from the US and Europe our company grew.  It was still small, but it has made a tiny fortune and so here we are, three best friends with big dreams halted by one fashion studio/boutique. 

We were always competing at the top of our art classes when we were at Seoul Arts.  Fashion was just a hobby, but our headmaster and teachers continued to place our pieces in competitions and we became recognized.  Our parents decided that it was meant to be for us to walk away from our other dreams and pursue this.  We’ve accepted our fate, besides, after our first year of auditions we realized that the entertainment business was too harsh for us.  I do have to say, that I enjoy getting up everyday and working with these two girls.  But something was missing in our lives.  And for 3 years in Seoul keeping our boutique and keeping up with the cutthroat fashion industry, we’ve forgotten what it’s like to be loved by a man.  All girls will say it, they want to focus in their career, they don’t need a man to get in the way, but you know what, those are lies.  All women need to be loved, after it’s all said and done, being in love, being loved, falling in love, feeling loved, were all emotions that women yearn for.  And now that the three of us has pretty much gotten used to the fashion industry and have our careers in place, isn’t it about time for us to experience love? 

I get up from my inner rant, and stand on the coffee table.  “What the heck is wrong with us?!  We are strong, beautiful, and independent women!  Why are we spending our nights alone!?” 

Taeyeon answers, “I think I’m just too picky.”  Tiffany agrees.  “I mean, I know we are all too picky.  If we weren’t picky, we’d be in relationships now.  But look at our clientele, look at the people we work with, they are all gorgeous and put together.”

“But with little personality, Tae.” Fany adds. 

“You two are both right.  We are surrounded by models, good looking, hard bodied, gorgeous men that are at first too good to be true and later too dense to even approach.”

“Seriously, when is the pizza getting here?” Tiffany interrupts.  The door rings.  And she runs to the door. 

“Surely there a normal guys, outside our circle, that are gorgeous and kind and intelligent and has the potential to be our absolute boyfriend, right?” I continue my speech.  “Someone with light mocha skin, dark hair, full lips, a lean body with chiseled arms and abs and, and,” I was lost in my fantasies around this time. “…and someone who can dance, really well, like Rain, or like that kid from SHINee, except not as young, and did I mention he should be tall and fit?  Someone like…”

“Pizza is here!”  Tiffany yells.  I turn around and I am staring at the incarnation of my very fantasy.  My absolute boyfriend.

“Someone like him!” I point to the pizza delivery man…boy.  He lifts his head up and I see his dark eyelashes and refined jawline and full lips and sun-kissed skin.  “Oh my gosh, he exists!”

“Woah, he’s beautiful,” Taeyeon agrees to my description as I smile with my head cocked to the side and filled with very impure thoughts of the delivery boy in front of me.  Suddenly I feel goosebumps all over my body, and slight guilt.

“Ha ha ha! Oh my gosh, ha ha ha!  My girlfriends are drunk, don’t mind them,” Tiffany stares at the tall boy as he removes his hat, scratches his head and looks confused and cocky at the same time.  "Although, you are very good looking."  He puts his hat back on, exhales a long sigh, and holds his hands out.  Tiffany moves towards him uncontrollably, but realizes what she’s doing and standing behind him mouths at me, 'he is fine!" and fans herself.  She stays behind him long enough to take photos of the delivery boy before them.  He is still holding his hand out.

“Umm, he’s making contact,” Taeyeon breaks the silence.

“I want my money, for the pizza,” he is irritated and his voice resonates through my bones.  I was expecting a higher pitch, I mean he’s young, right, perhaps even a crack in his voice showing signs of puberty.  But his voice was deep, a little husky even.  Tiffany continues to take photos nonchalantly. 

[OK, this is probably where you all are reading this thinking, these three girls are crazy and set to molest this young man, but that’s not the case.  First of all he’s 20, and we are 23 (I'm 22).  And don’t worry, we will keep it PG-13…or maybe NC-17 at the most, depending on how much Soju we drank…I’m kidding.] 

“What’s your name?” I finally find my voice after losing myself in his aura.

“Pizza delivery guy,” he smirks. 

Clever little .  I jump off the coffee table, give the money to the guy and give him a generous tip hoping he’d never speak of this incident ever.  “So I’m sure you are going to go to your little boyfriends and talk about three crazy middle aged women who are actually only 23 years old, just so you know, and you’ll tell them these girls were drunk and out of their minds trying to get their flirt on with a high school delivery boy because we have nothing better to do on a late Friday night besides drinking and fantasizing of your lips and tan skin and obviously fit abs under that black oversized hoodie of yours that’s falling a bit exposing your attractive shoulders...”  How I manage to say that all in one breath amazes me too.  I am trying to make a point but got lost in his aura, again.

The pizza delivery guy stalks towards me.  His hands in his pocket, he just moves towards me and I back up finding myself pinned against the wall.  “My “little boyfriends” would love to hear about this.  Maybe next time you three can invite us over so you can practice your “flirt on” with 20 year olds and not spend your Friday nights drinking and fantasizing about my lips and tan skin and yes, my abs are firm, and if you let me I’ll even show you how many packs I have under this oversized black hoodie that purposely slides off my shoulders just so I can get hit on by gorgeous drunk 23 year olds when I deliver their pizza, and by the way, I dance way better than Taemin.”  He gives me a half-smile, a very intimidating half-smile.  The corner of his lips lower back to a scowl and I can’t help but bite my lips while staring at his full pink ones.  He remains thisclose to me.  And I fall into a hypnotic state.

“Daebak…” Taeyeon whispers.

“He’s. So. Awesome…” Tiffany agrees.

I finally stutter out a somewhat coherent sentence, “When do you work again?” He places his left hand next to my head, startling me, and leans in closer only to tease me and push himself off the wall.  He takes the money and waves goodbye with it and walks out of my penthouse.  I stand, defeated, by a pizza delivery boy.

Right before the door slams shut, Tiffany pleads like a little child, “I want someone like him.”  Then Taeyeon, “I want him!”  My bones were still trembling, this must be how it feels for a ghost to go through me, pierce through my heart right after it shakes me silly to the brink of absolute zero comprehension of how to react to what I just went through.

“What the hell was that!?”  I cry out loud.