The Year is 2011 – and Dara is 25 years old:

There was a soft knock on her door. Dara saved the document she was working on before she stood to go see who it was. A smile lit her face as she saw the person outside her door.

“Jiyong!”

Jiyong stepped into the apartment and immediately swept her into a kiss. Dara was caught off guard, but she responded just as eagerly, her arms encircling his waist as she opened and allowed Jiyong to deepen his kiss. She heard the door close, felt the wall at her back, and heard Jiyong whisper her name. “God I’ve missed you…”

“When did you get back?” Dara asked, when they finally broke apart. He wasn’t due back from the medical conference he had gone to for another two days.

“This morning,” he said, pressing his forehead to hers. “I doubled up on the workshops so I could end early and get back.”

She raised a hand and caressed his cheek. “Does that mean you have the next two days free?” she asked hopefully.

Jiyong smiled and nodded. “Yes. I was hoping maybe you could take some time off and we could… you know…”

Dara chuckled, then sighed with pleasure as Jiyong pulled her closer and pressed his hips to hers. “Ji,” she whispered, her breath catching in . In answer he swept her up in his arms and carried her to her bedroom.

The two of them have been together officially now for almost two years. It started shortly after Dami’s wedding when Dara, as the maid of honor, got her first glimpse of Jiyong in nearly three years and felt her heart catapult in her chest. My god, is that Jiyongie? He certainly wasn’t the young dongsaeng she recalled from before. He too, had seemed captivated by her.

The two of them had exchanged secret looks throughout the ceremony and at the reception that followed but barely had a chance to speak to each other. Dara couldn’t get over how ‘grown up’ and manly Jiyong looked. Jiyong had always been slim growing up. But now his stint in the army had hardened his muscles so that he was toned, his face more sculpted. And his eyes, which Dara had always found beautiful, mesmerized her. So much so that she found herself mentally chastising herself for practically drooling over her best friend’s younger brother. This was not good. She sipped at her champagne and kept her distance from Jiyong throughout the afternoon. And when it was finally over and Dami and her husband left for their honeymoon, Dara hightailed it out of there and went straight home and collapsed on her bed.

‘Dear god, what’s happening to me?!’ She could not believe that her body had reacted that way toward her little Jiyongie! And then as her memory replayed how fine Jiyong had looked in his suit and combed back hair, Dara groaned and rolled over.

The next few weeks she buried herself in work and didn’t allow herself to think about Jiyong again. But then Sanghyun called her one day at work and asked if she wanted to have dinner with him. “I hardly see you, Noona,” he complained. Dara felt bad and so she agreed.

“I’ll pick you up and I’ll treat,” she told him, looking forward to taking him to a nice restaurant and enjoying a quiet evening between the two. Everything went to plan. But then afterwards Sanghyun convinced her to go with him to a bar to get a drink. Dara didn’t have to work the next day so she agreed. They hadn’t been at the bar drinking for more than ten minutes when in walked the one person Dara could have done without seeing – Kwon Jiyong.

Sanghyun called him over and the two man-hugged with a clasp of hands and a bump of their shoulders. Then Sanghyun sat down again in his seat on the right side of Dara while Jiyong sat on her left. Dara felt her heart flutter and struggled to maintain her cool. The conversation focused mainly on Sanghyun and Jiyong’s military service and the units they served in. Dara was keenly aware of Jiyong leaning toward her, ostensibly to get a better view of Sanghyun and hear what he was saying. But Dara couldn’t help but feel like he was crowding her purposely as his shoulder leaned against hers.

“Oh Noona, I forgot I have to meet some friends,” Sanghyun suddenly said. “Do you mind if I cut out? Jiyong can see you home, right hyung?”

Jiyong readily agreed. “Go. Dara and I are fine. I’ll make sure she gets home,” he promised, while Dara looked at her brother in surprise as Sanghyun waved and hurried away.

“I can’t believe he just left me,” she muttered. Beside her Jiyong smiled. Dara noticed that he hadn’t moved away but was still sitting very close to her.

“I looked for you after the wedding,” Jiyong said, his voice low, eyes focused on the drink in his hand. “but you left right after.”

Dara fidgeted in her seat. “Oh, yeah, that’s right. I… uhm… had something I needed to get done for work that day.”

Jiyong nodded. He looked around the room. On the opposite side a few couples were slow dancing as a man in a suit played the piano, and a young woman wearing a long black silk dress sang.

Jiyong reached for Dara’s hand and enclosed it in his, causing Dara to stare at him in surprise. “Let’s go dance,’ he said to her, and pulled her to her feet.