The next day, they woke up early and perform the necessary ceremony.  It was more elaborate than the one he did at home. The breakfast that her grandmother made was indeed as tasty as Seong-Im had recommended. He envied Seong-Im been able have to such a loving grandmother. After breakfast, they joined the village festivity, a lot of youngster had arrived the day before to celebrate the lunar new year with their elders. The celebration included dancing in the village square, Seong-Im dragged Jong Kook into the dancing ground and they began to dance with the younger folks. It was fun and laughter can be heard all around. They danced until they were tired, Seong-Im motioned to Jong Kook and they sat down by the side of the dancing ground. Her grandparents had gone home to prepare lunch.

“That was so much fun!” panted Seong-Im. “I had not joined in the dancing for a few years and I had forgotten how fun it could be.”

Before Jong Kook can say anything,  “Seong-Im!!” a group of girls shrieked Seong-Im name and Seong-Im shouted happily.

“It had been so long!! How are you all!” the girls hugged and jumped merrily together and they started talking and asking about each other's life. Jong Kook was quietly seated on one side, looking at the exchanges.

Seong-Im finally remembered him and turned to him, “Let me introduce my friend, this is Kim Jong Kook.” Jong Kook politely extended his hand to each girl, when Seong-Im introduced them.

The girls giggled, “You had bagged the most handsome I see.” One of them commented. “I wished my boyfriend had half his look.” Both Jong Kook and Seong-Im blushed.

“Seong-Im, I think I will go back and help grandparents prepared lunch. Why don’t you stay and catch up with your friends.” Jong Kook politely excused himself and gave Seong-Im some time to talk to her friends. “You want me to pick you up later?”

“There’s no need, I think I shall be long, why don’t you have lunch with grandparents first. I will go back by myself.” Jong Kook nodded and said goodbye to all her friends before he walked back to her grandparents’ house.

“Your boyfriend is not only good looking and so gentleman as well. I really do envy you.”

Seong-Im wished Jong Kook was her real boyfriend too. From all their interactions, she knew he would make a perfect boyfriend, but he had grown more reserve during this trip. She started to have a bad feeling but hoping that she was too sensitive. She and her friends talked till dinner time and they went back to their individual house to have dinner.

On the other hand, Jong Kook had spent the afternoon helping up in the house. He said told the elderly that it was the only thing he could do to thank them for their hospitality. “Grandmother, let me help out with dinner. I wanted to learn all your secret recipe.”

Grandmother chuckled, “Ok, young man, I would show you but how much you could learn, its up to you.” Both of them spend the rest of the afternoon prepared the foursome dinner. It was a spread. “Young man, I am impressed, Seong-Im was not even half a cook as you. I must say you really had the talent.”

“Haha, I used to cooking. These stuff tasted wonderful. My brothers would thank you for this.” He took photo of the spread he had made and sent it to his brothers. His brothers returned a photo of their would-be dinner, then their sad face. He showed the photos to grandmother, and she laughed at the pair.

“Oh no, the poor dear. They shouldn’t have instant noodle for dinner.” Grandmother exclaimed.

“They aren’t. I had left them enough food to feed an army, unless they did party yesterday and ate it all up.” Jong Kook explained, the possibility was quite high and he frowned. He immediately asked the pair and they quickly showed him the fridge to show him they didn’t party. Grandmother felt more relieved after that but still she thought they deserved more good food.

“I will make sure they had a nice dinner tomorrow.”

“There’s no need to trouble you, halmeoni. I could cook them all these food when I am back.” Jong Kook tried to stop grandmother from cooking a storm of his two cheeky brothers. He regretted the decision to show grandmother the pictures.

“No, I wanted to. These poor dears are too cute. Let me do it, I haven’t been enjoying cooking for so long.” Grandmother insisted, she really enjoyed cooking and there was no one to appreciate all her cooking.

“Ok, but you must let me help. I want to learn more.” Jong Kook wanted to help up.

“Learn more of what?” Seong-Im just returned home and found her rented boyfriend with her grandmother in the kitchen.

“Something you need to refresh too. Jong Kook here is a better cook than you.” Grandmother grumbled at Seong-Im. Seong-Im shot a ‘what are you doing to me’ look to Jong Kook, he looked away, pretended not to see and understand.

“I am a good cook now,” she insisted.

“Ok, we will see about that tomorrow.” Grandmother issued the challenged. Seong-Im frowned and walked towards Jong Kook. She gave his hand a punch, grandmother caught it and smiled.

They ate their dinner, Seong-Im gave a vivid account of the session in the afternoon, she was glad that she met her friends and thankful Jong Kook had spent the afternoon with her grandparents. The younger pair did the dishes again before joining the older pair in the living room They watched a rerun of Running Man and laughed at the funny attics that the running man did.

“Do you think there is something between Kim Jong Kook and Song Ji Hyo?” asked Seong-Im.

“Something? What thing, they are colleagues.” Jong Kook replied and Seong-Im rolled her eyes. She turned to grandmother instead.

“Mmm, I think there are something more than colleagues, but it’s too early to tell. They sure are good friends but I don’t know if there was something more.”

“Really, there are something more?” Jong Kook wondered. He made a mental note to look out for it when he watched Running man. At least he could discuss with Seong-Im the next time… right there was not going to be a next time after this. He looked up and stared at the woman he had grown to love and he knew would break his heart. Most people don’t get to marry their first love, he reminded himself.

Seong-Im happened to look his way and they held their stares. She thought she saw love in his eyes, but she was not sure,  this expression could not be read. He had secretly sneaked into her heart and she found she wanted him to be her boyfriend for real. Jong Kook saw her eyes filled with a tender feeling, something he didn’t know but it made his heart raced and he found his breathing turned swallow. He forced himself to break the connection and look at the TV again.

“We are going to take a rest. You both have fun.” The elderly pair decided to give them sometime together.

“Good night.” Both of them greeted the grandparents. Then they fell into uncomfortable silence. This was the first time, they could not find a topic to talk about. They usually could chat non stop.

He broke the silence, “Tomorrow, we both cook for grandparents?”

“Of course,  I would show them how good I am!” Seong-Im agreed.

“You are sure? Halmeoni said you are not.” Jong Kook teased Seong-Im.

“I am so. Let me show all of you.” They discussed the menu and divided out the work before they went to sleep. Jong Kook had difficulty sleeping, he was tossing around in his bed, after tomorrow, he would forget about her, he couldn’t stop his heart from bleeding at the thought. But he thought it was the best for both of them.

Seong-Im wondered what was wrong with Jong Kook in her room, he seemed to distant himself from her. Did she do anything wrong? But yet, she would catch him looking at her longingly. She hoped he would talk to her instead.

They woke early and met in the kitchen, carrying out their plan. The pair worked in silent, both loss  in their own thoughts. A burnt smell caught Jong Kook nose and he turned to see the eggs getting burnt. ‘Seong-Im, the eggs!!” he exclaimed.

Seong-Im broke out of her trance and saw her eggs turning black. She quickly turned off the fire and threw the egg away! “That’s not my cooking, I was just out of sort.” She started to redo her eggs again and it turned out prefect. “See,” she purposely showed off to Jong Kook. Her grandmother walked into the kitchen and saw the food the pair had prepared.

“You two did this?” she asked amazed.

“Yeah, why don’t you relax and we can eat breakfast soon.” Seong-Im proudly show off the food she done and asked her grandmother to wait a while more.

“ok,” grandmother walked into her room and woke up grandfather. After the pair was done washing up, Seong-Im and Jong Kook had done preparing breakfast. The grandparents ate with their eyes keep smiling. They felt proud of their grandchildren. The breakfast was nicely prepared, but Jong Kook did have better skill than Seong-Im. After breakfast, they started to prepared for their journey back to Seoul, the grandparents felt sad, they knew they would miss the pair. Jong Kook and Seong-Im helped the grandparents prepared their dinner and lunch. After lunch, the elders sent them back to the train station and the younger pair stayed and accompanied the elders till it was time for them to board the train.

They again fell in uncomfortable silent. Seong-Im broke the silent, “Did I do anything wrong?”

“No.” he answered, not wanting to elaborate, he couldn’t.

“Then, why?” she asked again.

He looked away, afraid to see the hurt in her eyes, hearing it was bad enough.

“Look at me! Tell me what went wrong?” she demanded and she forcefully tried to turned his head around.

Her touch brunt him and he turned and looked into a pair of hurting eyes. His eyes were already filled with sorrow and her eyes just made him felt worse. “It was not you, really, I cant explain.”

“I would try to understand what you said, just tell me.” She demanded. Tears threatening to fall anything, and they did, sliding down her angelic face.

The tears broke his resolve, “I felt so useless. I wanted to be your boyfriend but I couldn’t. Now it’s not the right time, I don’t have a job, I don’t have the money and I got to feed my two brothers. I just didn’t felt I am worthy of you. Seong-Im …” he couldn’t carry on, he couldn’t stop her tears.

“But I love you too,” she profuse her love. He closed his eyes, they were really in love and yet his useless self-worth was threatening their relationship.  A pair of warm lips met his, he opened his eyes in shocked and closed them back gently. The kiss was a short one but they could felt their love for each other.

He decided, he really did. “Seong-Im, I wanted to be worthy of you, give me a year. At least let me find a stable job, then I promise I would woo you, if you don’t find yourself someone. Give me a chance then.” He told her his plan.

“You will? You really will? If you don’t, I would hunt you down and make you suffer.” She intimidated him.

“Ok, my phone no, my address” he gave his identification card to him and let her take a picture of it. She giggled, he was so serious.

“And you too, better don’t change your phone number, I know where your grandparents live.” He warned her.

“Ok.” Her tears stopped. Their heart eased off, they knew they would have a chance together. They held their hands together and they avoided the topic they would not be seeing or talking to each other. They just wanted to enjoy their time together.

Half a year had passed; “dingding… dingding” a special ring tone went off on Seong-Im phone. She jumped, did she hear wrongly and she quickly reached for her handphone. “Let’s meet” the short message, sent ripples into her heart. He had finally contacted her. She wanted to scream but she was in office. “Ok,” she replied.

“This Saturday at the park.”

“See you.”

Saturday was slowed to arrive, she took great care to dress herself and she was full of anticipation. She reached the park before the time and she could already see him pacing around the area. She smiled, he was feeling anxious too.

She went up to him and they stared at each other, trying to ascertain if both of them are still the same.

“Hello,” he gave her his namecard. It said he was working in an established designer firm as a designer. “I am Kim Jong Kook, I had two brothers, both in university but they are on scholarships. They are good boys and I am taking care of them. I had a stable job, ok  face, nice personality and no bad habits. If I was your boyfriend, I would try to be the best boyfriend ever. Can I be your boyfriend?” Seong-Im was amazed how quickly he had asked his questions. She pretended to ponder.

“Well, the last boyfriend of mine left me because he said he felt inferior. I wondered would you also be like that?” she asked.

“I promised I would  not be like him.”

“Ok, I will give it a try”

“Really?” he confirmed again.

“Yes.” She assured him, he immediately embraced her, making sure she could felt all his thoughts.

“I missed you so much, Seong-Im, I was so afraid you would fall in love with someone else, I love you” he told her his internal feelings.

“I missed you too. I was scared you would love someone else, I am so happy you came back early.” She told him her thoughts too.

They looked into each other eyes and saw the love for each other. He bent and blushed his lips against her as a promise of their love.

The end. This one went much longer than i intended. hope you like it.