He loosened his tie around his neck, grasping his briefcase as he waited impatiently for a break in the traffic. With his crisp black suit, his clean-shaven face and the stern expression he wore, Jiyong was the epitome of the young, successful lawyer so many Korean boys aspired to be.

 

His phone was flat out of battery, something that rarely happened to the usually prepared man, and he was running late for work. Hence the decision to use the shorter route to his office - and as there was no iPhone to detract his attention, Jiyong simply looked forward as he walked. 

 

Many years later, he'd be grateful for the absence of his phone - if it had been there, he would not have seen her. 

 

The woman who stepped out of the bookstore, holding a second-hand book in her hands, black hair free from the constraints of an elastic band, skin wonderfully tanned, a wide grin on her face as she lifted the book to her nose - sniffed it once, and grinned once again, as if the scent of the book had conveyed a secret only she was privy to.

 

Jiyong doesn't know why he stopped in his tracks. Or why his heart is suddenly beating loudly in his chest, so loud he was afraid the whole street would hear it. 

 

The girl turns in his direction, and Jiyong momentarily loses control of his breathing. 

 

The full-frontal view is more breathtaking than Jiyong had imagined it would be. Her slanted, expressive eyes that lent her a slightly feline aura. Her smooth, tanned skin - a stark contrast to the fair, porcelain skin that Korean women seemed to covet. Her outfit - a tie-dye shirt, and frayed denim shorts, donned by legs that seemed to go on for miles. The way her black hair is wild and free in the wind, and how refreshing she was compared to the perfectly groomed, coiffed women Jiyong had been accustomed to seeing at his law firm. 

 

By the time he's snapped out of his trance, the girl has begun walking in the other direction - away from him, Jiyong realizes with a start. 

 

"Excuse me..." He says dazedly, quietly at first. 

 

"Excuse me!"

 

For the first time in his life, Kwon Jiyong chases after a girl. Without any regard for his surroundings, the people around him, or the fact that he was late for work, Jiyong broke into a run fueled by fear of losing her - whoever she was. 

 

When he finally catches up to her, he's red in the face, and sweating buckets. She's still oblivious to the disheveled lawyer chasing after her, shielded from the world by her earphones, and the phone in her hands. 

 

She is viciously yanked out of her own little world as Jiyong grabs her shoulder - the girl turns around, shocked, to face a wheezing man clad in a business suit. 

 

"Excuse me..."

 

"Do I know you?" She asks confusedly.

 

"No, but would you like to go out on a date with me?" 

 

She stares at him, and for a split second Jiyong is lost in the hazel-brown irises of her eyes. 

 

The girl blinks in surprise, jolting Jiyong from his reverie. "What?"

 

"I know this is all very sudden, but-" He coughs, and gestures behind him at the length of the street, "-I've been chasing you for a couple of blocks now. So would you like to go out on a date with me?" 

 

She blinks again, and Jiyong's heart does a little skip at this. But she's taking way too long to reply, and the annoying little voice at the back of his head is whispering, "Dude, you look like a pig right now, why would a total babe like her want to go out with you?"

 

"Okay." 

 

"What, really?"

 

He feels stirrings in his upper abdominal, threatening to form themselves into dance moves and Irish jigs as she smiles at him. "Yes, really." 

 

She's scribbling something on the cup of coffee she's holding - the girl proceeds to push the cup of coffee gently into Jiyong's left hand, and smiles at him briefly.

 

And then she was gone, leaving behind the smell of strawberries in the air, and a cup of coffee in Jiyong's hands. 

 

He glances down at the scribbled phone number, and Jiyong's lips split into a wide grin as he saw the name written beneath the number, accompanied by a smiley face.

 

A name. A pretty name, as would befit the pretty woman Jiyong is hellbent on making his now, despite the fact that he knew next to nothing about her.

 

"Chaerin."

 

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This one's been sitting here for quite some time now, so I went ahead and posted it! Comments are much appreciated (seriously guys, you have no idea how much writers appreciate comments).