She saw her grandparents as soon as she got off the platform. “Grandpapa, Grandmama,” she shouted excited, trying to catch their attention as she ran towards them. He followed her, carrying all their stuff, luckily he was used to this kind of manual work but still he found it hard to catch up with her in the midst of the crowd.

Her grandparents’ eyes lit up, seeing their only granddaughter. “Seong-Im” they were excited to see her as well. They recognized the well-built man following her granddaughter from the photo that she had sent. “Jong Kook, we are here” they tried to signal him, when they saw him getting lost in the midst of the crowd.Jong Kook saw them and hurried to their side. Seong-Im was already hugging her grandparents, she had missed them so much. “Are you hungry?” she asked them, they must have waited long for her.

“Of course we are, but we had come prepared! Let’s hurried to the car and we can put down the things and take our food to somewhere nice to eat.” Her grandmother had already it all planned. She had cooked some food and packed them for a picnic for the 4 of them.

“You did! Hurray! I had missed your cooking so much. You are the best!” this was better than she hoped. “Oppa, my grandmother was the best cook in the world.” She turned her head and told Jong Kook who was standing behind her.

Jong Kook envied their relationship and suddenly he missed his parents very much. He missed been looked after by someone older, he had to start looking after his younger brothers since 18. Till now, he hadn’t been able to have a chance to greet her grandparents, “Harabeoji, halmeoni, how are you? I am Jong Kook” he duty bowed to the two elders.

“Jong Kook, thank you for been here, come you must be hungry too. Let’s go find a place to eat.” Seong-Im’s grandfather wanted to help him with the luggages, but Jong Kook declined. He could carry all those things himself. They reached the car in no time. The grandparents took Seong-Im and Jong Kook to the seaside. Jong Kook knew Seong-Im’s favourite place is the seaside, “Your grandparents really doted on you” he whispered to her.

“Of course,” she smirked. The lunch boxes were distributed and Jong Jook eyes lit up when he saw the content. After the grandparents given them permission to start eating, Jong Kook attacked the food and devoured them, it knew the lunch box contained Seong-Im favorite food but it was his favourite food too. It was simply delicious. The grandparents looked happy as the couple polished off their food in no time.

“Grandpapa, Grandamama, why aren’t you eating?” Seong-Im asked after filling her stomach.

“I am, just not as fast as both of you. You need more food?” they asked, afraid the couple were still hungry.

“I am full” Seong-Im gave a satisfy burp and earned a stare from her grandmother for her unlady like behaviour.

“Me too, this was too delicious, halmeoni, you must teach me how to make some of this. So I can cook for my brothers.” Jong Kook said, he knew his brothers would like this, it was so much like what his mother would have cooked.

“ok ok , I will teach you. You cook for your brothers?” grandmother asked, she amazed that a young man like him would wanted to learn to cook something so traditional.

“Yeah, I lost my parents to an accident 4 years back, so now I am taking care of my brothers.” He answered respectfully.

The grandparents’ eyes were filled with admiration and pity for the young man.  They knew the difficulty of taking care of a family, and especially he had suddenly needed to do it. “I will pack some food back for your brothers too.” Grandmother offered that the least she can do. “from our own produce, it both healthy and delicious.”

“I want too” Seong-Im interrupted.

“OF course you would get a share. Don’t be so greedy.” Grandfather promised her.

The foursome left for home. Grandfather showed Jong Kook his room during the stay. It was a simple room with only the necessities, not much different from his own room but the room felt comfortable and warm. “Seong-Im, why not you show Jong Kook around, while I prepared dinner.” Grandmother suggested.

“halmeoni, let me help too?” offered Jong Kook.

“No need, I can hadnle it.” Grandmother shooed both of them out of the house.

Seong-Im giggled. “Come, let me show you around.” She naturally held his hand. Her hand felt small and smooth, unlike his, big and rough. His heart was beating way too fast. She felt a blush creeping up her neck, her hands naturally laid in his.

She took him a walk in the neighbourhood, everyone was friendly and greeted each other with new years greeting. Jong Kook was falling in love with this little town. “Hi, how about we cooked breakfast for your grandparents tomorrow morning? Do you do anything especial” he asked.

“We usually wake up early to pray for the ancestors and my parents. Other than that, nothing. Usually grandmother would then cook breakfast.” Seong-Im explained. 

“Why don’t we cook breakfast for your grandparents instead?” Jong Kook proposed. He felt bad lying to the old people and wanted to show some gratitude.

“But I missed my grandmother cooking, ok, maybe not tomorrow ok? My grandmother lunar new day cooking cannot be match, how about the day we are leaving? We cooked breakfast for them?” she counter-proposed. That sounded good, he nodded his head.

“You had a beautiful hometown” barren farmland covered the whole land, but he can imagine during spring to winter, how the farmland would look. it was different from Seoul, the sky was blue like sapphire, and white clouds occassionally would drift past. The winter sun hang lazily in the sky extending its warm ray to the land. the snow had melted living the land brown. Another month or so, the freen buds would be showing itself.

“Yeah, it is a great place. Too bad, nowadays, not much youngster left. They were all like me, all left for city to work.” They walked down the path leading to a pond. “Hey, let me show you my favourite spot when I was young. She walked past the pond and into a small cluster of bamboos. Both of them enjoying the rustling sound make by the leaves. They finally reached a small open field. “In spring, this place will be filled with spring flowers. In summer, it is cooling, in autumn, it turns red and brown and in winter, it will be offered peace. Even my grandparents didn’t know about this place.” She didn’t know why she had shown him. it was like sharing a piece of internal thoughts. From the field they could see the mountain not far away and the evergreen forest on the side of the mountain.

“I like it”, he smiled. “You are lucky, my hometown is Seoul. See even that sound boring.”  Seoul as a hometown is a boring place, he often thought, he couldn’t escape the stress the city brought. He inhaled the fresh air around him, it made his lungs felt clean. His phone rang, his brothers had messaged him, informing him of their well being, he took photo of his surrounding and sent back to them. They were simply amazed by the scenery and ask him to take them the next time. His heart sank, how could he come back here without her. He looked at her, she looked so pretty and at ease eith her sorrounding. His heart fluttered and he forced himself to look away.

“Let’s go back for grand mama cooking.” She happily skipped back to her house. She even tried to get Jong Kook to do the same, but alas he wsa too muscluar to try something like skipping. Grandmother cooking was indeed delicious, he hadn’t ate something so delicious for very long. Jong Kook volunteered to wash the plates and everything else. The grandparents had initially reluctant to let him do it, since he was a guest, but he was so earnest, they had to agree.  He took great care to wash every piece of the utensils. Seong-Im was sent in by her gandparents as well, she looked quite displease, washing dishes is something she really hated.

“You can just dry them,” Jong Kook passed her the drying cloth.

“Ok, You do know you don’t need to do all this right?” she asked while drying the dishes.

“Yeah, but I wanted to. Your grandparents are so nice, I wanted to show my appreciation.” She looked at the man making sure every piece of dishes was washed till its sparkling clean. “They even chilled me for leaving my younger brothers back home and suggested I bought them along next year.” He chuckled. Ever since his parents died, there wasn’t anyone who had shown him such concern, he didn’t had that much relatives and almost of all of them were overseas.

Something stirred in her heart, although she was an orphan herself, she at least still have her grandparents doting after her. There was no responsivities of taking care of younger siblings like he did. Maybe she missed out the fun and laughter, but she still had it easy. She reached for his hands and held it in hers. “You have us now.”

He looked into her eyes and saw her sincerity. He smiled, “Thank you” but in his heart, a dragger pierced though it, he never had them, how could a rented boyfriend owned something that was not his in he first place. His smile never reached his eyes, she could see that, she wondered whether she was not sincere or was there anything wrong. “Let’s go join your grandparents,” he took her hands and led her to the living room. Her tiny hand warmed his heart, even for two days he was satisfied. The young couple told the old couple about their first date, which was their only date. The old couple enjoyed the story and told them about their first date long long time ago. The night was filled with laughter, they talked until the late of night, It had been a tiring day for the old couple and they retired to bed first.

“My grandparents like you a lot.” she pointed out something that was very obvious.

“I can tell and I felt bad. That’s why I wanted to help up as much as possible.”

“Actually I am the one who lied, not you. But I wanted to thank you for making my grandparents so happy.”

"You paid me for the job right? It was nothing really." his words rang an ugly truth.

They talked some more into the night, it was even better than they exchanging messages, they got to know each other better. The more they got to know each other, the more his heart get tangled in the love web. He was like making the hole that he was already in deeper, so he wouldn't be able to climb out and saved himself. They were so perfect together, if not for his liabilities, he would make her his. Maybe he just could indulge himself these two days, letting himself had the best memory, then like what he had promised, forgot about her, forgot about the deal and went back to his life. His brain agreed to his plan but his heart had refused to believe he could forget all these so easily as he thought he would.