Jinyoung hummed as he got ready for work. He tousled his hair one last time before checking himself out in the mirror. When he grew content with his hair, he dusted off his white t-shirt before slipping his shoes on.

“You seem happy this morning. What’s the good news?” He directed his attention to his father who rolled over to him in his wheelchair.

“Just happy that I can go to work.” His father raised an eyebrow, “You’re happy to go to work? You’re not on drugs are you?” The young man laughed at his father’s words.

“No, dad. Can’t a man be happy?” His father eyed him suspiciously, “Who is she?” Jinyoung stopped tying his shoelaces, “Who’s the young lady that’s making my son so happy this early in the morning?”

Jinyoung cleared his throat and continued to tie his laces, “No one. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just happy because I’ve been blessed to live another day. I’m late. I have to go. Make sure you take your medicine and call me if something’s wrong. Bye, dad.”

He scurried out of his dingy home and slowly made his way to the Song residence. A part of him felt horrible for keeping a secret from his father, but a part of him felt relieved that he had decided not to tell his father about Iseul. It was best for no one to know.

I wonder if she’s awake. Whoa, calm down. If you can’t control yourself just thinking about her, how are you going to control yourself when you’re around her? Come on, Park Jinyoung, get yourself together!

---

L is for the way you look at me
O is for the only one I see
V is very, very extraordinary
E is even more than anyone that you adore can

Love is all that I can give to you
Love is more than just a game for two
Two in love can make it
Take my heart and please don't break it
Love was made for me and you

(L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole)

Iseul sang along to the record as she put a light layer of foundation on her face. She stared at her reflection and smiled. She grew giddy and light, it felt like she could float away on Cloud Nine.

When she finished putting on her makeup, she skipped down to the dining room for breakfast. Her family stared at her as if she were up to no good, “You seem happy this morning.”

She stared at her mother, “Why do you say that?” Iseul grabbed her knife and fork and cut into her vegetable omelet. Her brother smiled to himself, knowing well enough as to why his little sister was happier than ever.

“Well, you’re usually glummer in the mornings, and just now, you came over humming and skipping.” Iseul sighed contently, “Oh mother, you wouldn’t understand. When was the last time you smiled like I did? When was the last time you hummed a lovely tune? Was it when the dinosaurs went extinct?”

Iseul’s mother scoffed, used to her daughter’s jokes. As for Iseul, she ignored everyone’s stares and enjoyed her healthy breakfast.

“Did you go shopping in the men’s section?” Her father sipped his coffee and pointed to the plaid shirt on Iseul. She looked down and smiled, “No. You can see from all the way over there, old man? I thought you were blind.”

“Iseul.” Jiho warned her to watch her words. He knew that, although their parents took her words lightly, Iseul meant everything she said. Jiho was well aware of the fact the Iseul disliked their parents slightly. But Jiho understood why: they barely cared about what she did. Never have they asked her what she was doing late at night or if she had an interests. He knew that they favored him more, but tried his best to direct their undying attention towards Iseul.

The younger child looked at her brother, silently telling him not to hold her back. She was going to leave the table and go back to her room, but a sudden presence made her want to stay.

“Over there. The living room chandelier’s light bulbs are out.”

“I’ll have it fixed in no time.”

Iseul averted her attention to the familiar voice. When she saw Jinyoung setting down his toolbox, she grew happy once more. She intently watched him as he prepped the ladder and changed each lightbulb of the chandelier.

Jinyoung, who could sense someone watching him, swiftly looked over to the dining room and locked eyes with a smiling Iseul. His face grew warm and he tried to look away and focus on the task at hand, but her outfit caught his attention.

She was wearing his blue and black plaid shirt from the day before. His heart began to beat faster and harder just thinking about how she looked gorgeous in his clothes.

“Young man, could you fix the front door? It’s been squeaking for the past few days.” Iseul rolled her eyes and glared at her father.

“Yes, sir.” Jinyoung politely answered.

Iseul grew upset that her father was asking Jinyoung to do something when he was busy with another job, so she walked over to the toolbox, grabbed the WD-40, asked Jinyoung if this was the right spray for the door hinges, walked over to their front door and sprayed down the hinges with the lubricating spray, placed it back in the toolbox, and went back to enjoying her breakfast.

All the while, her family, Jinyoung, and the other workers watched her, surprised by her actions. She placed her fork and knife down, “What? He was busy with the chandelier. And it’s not that hard, dad. All you have to do is use that spray. If you paid attention to the stuff that Mr. Park did, you’d be cool, too.”

Everyone was at a loss for words. “Honey, you don’t have to do stuff like this. That’s why we pay people to fix things around the house.” Iseul scoffed at the typical words of a rich woman who couldn’t do any sort of housework, “Have you thought about what everyone does here? They work their butts off to keep a house, that isn’t theirs, clean and well-kept, and all you do is make them do pesky little things that you can do yourself. You own this house and you’ve never scrubbed on speck of dust off of this table. Do you know who does? Ms. Lee and Ms. Byun. Do you know who tends to the greenhouse and fixes the broken stuff? Mr. Park and his son. Do you even know the name of everyone who helps us around the house?”

Iseul watched her parents try to find something to say. They stumbled with their words and grew embarrassed that their young daughter had exposed them at the table.

“Go up to your room.” She looked her father dead in the eyes, “I was done eating this delicious breakfast made by Chef Kwon anyways.” Without looking back or feeling bad, she marched upstairs to her room.

---

“What was that?” Her mother sipped her coffee and stared at Iseul’s unfinished breakfast, “Take away her plate. What is wrong with everyone today? It’s like they don’t have their heads screwed on correctly.”

“Mother, stop.” Jiho bit off a piece of his toast, “Try to keep your comments to yourself today. Yoojung is coming by, remember? I at least need my parents to behave like adults.” He checked his watch, grabbed his car keys and left.

His parents sat silently at the dinner table before looking at Jinyoung who was still changing the lightbulbs. Curiosity brewed in their heads. Why would Iseul get so upset just because her father asked the young boy to do something he was supposed to do anyways? She had never done something like that before. She had only scolded her parents to stop being so picky about every little mistake and problem. So why would she take matters into her own hands this time around.

“You don’t think our Iseul has developed a childish infatuation with that young boy, do you?” Mr. Song looked at his wife as if she were about to lose a business deal, “Why would our daughter stoop down to that level. She has many possible options in our class, she wouldn’t dare look at anything below the upper-middle class.”

Mrs. Do¹ smiled at her husband’s assuring words. She didn’t like the idea of her daughter associating with the lower class as if they were her friends or anything more than acquaintances.

“Young man, when you’re done with that, go dust the bookshelves, they’ve been looking a little gray lately.” Jinyoung stopped screwing in the last bulb and looked at Iseul’s mother, who just gave him a small smile before getting up from the table to leave for work.

“Yes, ma’am.” He stepped down the ladder and bowed to the adults who were leaving. He looked around and blew air into his cheeks. “I…don’t…have… a duster thing.” He folded his ladder in half and left to go put up his things in the garage.

On his way there, he couldn’t stop thinking about Iseul. He grew disheartened thinking about the possibility that he was just a charity case to her or even just a play thing. But strangely enough, he would still let himself be just that: a play thing – if that was the case. He would let her play with him and throw him away and he wouldn’t feel ashamed at all. To him, she was his first love. She was someone special even though they had met a day ago. So, to keep her close, he would do anything. But a voice in the back of his mind told him just the opposite. The voice told him to stay away, that he was no good for a girl like her. He was a poor and had nothing to offer her. She didn’t need him when she could have anything in the world. She could find a nice young man from a family that was well off. Someone better than him.

He turned the corner and saw a pair of smooth legs swinging on the table. Trying not to make things awkward, he casually put up the ladder and toolbox. “I thought you got sent up to your room.”

“I snuck out. You know there are a lot of secret little paths that lead to the garage and greenhouse. I’ll show them to you one day, if you want.” Iseul hopped off of the little work table and walked up next to Jinyoung.

Jinyoung stopped looking for a duster and faced Iseul, “Why did you fix the door hinges?”

Iseul stared up at him with an indifferent expression, “You were busy and it was something really easy. I saw your dad do it hundreds of times before.” Jinyoung wouldn’t look away until he heard the whole truth. Iseul sighed and gave up, “Okay, you want to know why I did it? I did it because I have a secret obsession with spraying things. It’s like a strange addiction.”

Jinyoung playfully scoffed in disbelief, “You know, you might be able to get some help. You could go to Sprayers Anonymous.” Iseul laughed alongside Jinyoung, “You’ve got jokes, huh?”

With the atmosphere between them being less tense, Jinyoung went back to looking for something to dust the bookshelves with.

“What are you looking for?” Iseul began to look around with Jinyoung, not even sure what needed to be found. “Something to dust the bookshelves with.” Iseul stopped looking and stared at Jinyoung as anger boiled inside of her.

“The bookshelves? All of them? Who told you to do that? Was it my dad? My mom? Both of them?” Jinyoung stopped looking as well when he detected the rage in her voice.

“It’s okay. It’s my job.” Iseul grabbed Jinyoung by his wrist, preventing him from searching for something to clean the many shelves in her home, “Don’t do it. I’ll get someone else to do it. That’s what Mr. Jang or Mrs. Kwon is supposed to do. This is something that you shouldn’t do.”

Jinyoung moved Iseul’s hand away, “I don’t think we should be talking to each other, Iseul. You should go back to your room.” She was taken aback by his words. She didn’t understand where this was all coming from. They were so genuinely happy and in love the day before, but why was he suddenly spouting nonsense?

“You and I shouldn’t be talking. We can’t be friends. We shouldn’t even think about being anything more than just an employer and employee. I have to work, so I guess if you need something to be fixed ask Mr. Jang to tell me. And I think it’s best if we tell ourselves that yesterday never happened the way it did.” Jinyoung started to leave so that he could ask one of the maids to get him a duster.

Iseul wanted to go after him, call out his name to stop him, but she just stood there. Her mind grew blank and her heart grew numb.

What was yesterday? What were the hours we spent in my room, talking and laughing? What were my lips? What was I? Is this what rushed love is? Painful and difficult to understand? What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to forget the way he looked at me? Or the way his lips felt so right against mine? How am I supposed to act as though he’s the stars and moon put together? Or how his smile has written an entire chapter on its own in my story?

---

All throughout the day, Iseul sulked and avoided everyone. She stayed in her room, playing her precious records and lying on her bed. Her curtains were drawn closed and the small Mason jar filled with baby’s breath began to wilt. She didn’t cry like the girls in the movies. All she did was lie on her back, thinking about how she was supposed to erase the past twenty chapters of her life story.

She closed her eyes, trying to rip out the chapter that was all about the way he looked when he smiled. When she couldn’t tear it out, she moved on to the chapter that was dedicated to just the way he let her name come out of his mouth as if he had been calling her name for eternity. But that chapter was impossible to destroy. She came to the conclusion that he was the chapters that were there to stay even until the day she died.

Tired of thinking, she rolled onto her side, her arms tucked under her head and her hair splayed all over her pillows. Sigh after sigh, she began to fall asleep. But just as her eyes began to close, a knock on her door woke her up.

“Come in.” Iseul used all of her strength to sit herself up.

Jiho poked his head in and saw nothing but darkness. He entered her room, worried. When he reached for the light switch, Iseul told him not to turn the light on.

“What’s going on? My baby sister isn’t upset, is she? Not on an important day like this.” Jiho sat on her bed, pulling her in for a warm hug, “What’s wrong, Iseul? Did mother and father say something to you after I left?”

Iseul shook her head, “It’s nothing. Is she here? Did you come up here to tell me to go downstairs?”

Jiho chuckled, “My little sister’s so smart. She’s been dying to meet you. On the way here, she got really excited at the thought of being able to meet her future little sister-in-law. I hope you like her just as much she likes you.” Iseul combed her fingers through her hair once before getting up.

“As long as she’s not like mom and dad, I’ll love the poop out of her. Come on, she’s waiting.” Iseul dragged Jiho by his arm and pushed him out of her room.

She could see a beautiful and kind-looking woman sitting on the sofa. Even from afar, Iseul could tell that Yoojung would be a wonderful new family member. As she approached Jiho’s fiancé, she spread arms wide open, trapping Yoojung in a tight embrace. She could feel a pair of small and warm hands patting her back.

Iseul pulled away and got a good look at Yoojung, “It’s nice to meet you.”

Yoojung smiled warmly, “It’s nice to finally meet the young lady that Jiho couldn’t stop talking about back in Africa.”

“I’m sorry about the rude hug. Our daughter doesn’t really know how to shake hands like a true lady.” Iseul suppressed the anger that was boiling inside of her. Her parents were always so worried about how she would ruin their plastic and fake image.

“Oh heavens no! I love getting hugs. You can hug me all you want.” Iseul smiled, feeling overjoyed by Yoojung’s tender tone.

---

During dinner, Iseul and Jiho’s parents began to ask many questions regarding Yoojung’s background and current life. Although she came from a wealthy family, she knew how to be humble and treat other equally. Iseul stared at Yoojung in admiration during the entire meal.

When everyone had finished their dessert, the older adults left for a business trip. They apologized for leaving such a wonderful young woman behind on their first meeting, but all was forgiven with Yoojung’s kind heart.

As soon as Iseul heard her parents’ car driving away from the residence, she let out a sigh of relief, “Finally, I can breathe! Unnie, do you want to see my room? Oh, I know! I can give you a tour of the house.” She linked her arm with Yoojung’s and looked at her expectantly.

“Iseul, she has to get back home. You can show her around next time. And why are you looking at my fiancé like you’re in love with her?” Jiho ruffled Iseul’s hair.

“I wouldn’t mind a tour. The night is still young, and I would love to spend more time with Iseul.” Yoojung allowed Iseul to begin her mini tour, following the younger girl around.

Jiho followed behind and smiled as he watched his two favorite girls get along so well. He was glad that they had accepted one another without any issues. Yoojung had always wanted a younger sister, and he could never forget the time he told her that he had one. She had begged him to let her meet his younger sibling. When he had told her that he would be meeting his family, she didn’t care much about what his parents would think, only what Iseul would think of her.

“And this is my room. It’s the smallest, but it’s the coziest.” The three of them stepped into the dark room. Iseul turned the light on, and Yoojung began to dote on how adorably sophisticated it was.

“Who’s that?” Iseul walked over to the window and saw Jinyoung walking out of the greenhouse, “That’s the guy who fixes stuff around the house.”

Yoojung observed Iseul’s expression, noting that the young girl could not take her eyes off of him, “You like him, don’t you?” Iseul was shocked at how she knew.

“You’re staring at him the way I stare at your brother.” She glanced over at Jiho who was looking at Iseul’s record collection. “Did you tell him?” Iseul remained silent.

“Should I have not asked?” Iseul shook her head and sighed deeply, “I met him yesterday. It was like love at first sight, unnie. No, it was more than just that; it was like our souls were becoming one as soon as we locked eyes. I could feel more than just my heart beating; I could feel my entire self, physical, mental and emotional, trembling when he looked at me. We talked. We laughed. We smiled. We kissed. But all of a sudden, he told me that we couldn’t do what we wanted to. He told me to forget that yesterday didn’t happen. And I could feel a piece of myself break off.”

Yoojung looked at Iseul pitifully, “Don’t let anyone hold you or him back from loving. You two obviously have something special and rare. Don’t let that go. Don’t give up. I’ll be supporting you two even when everyone else turns their backs. Go out there and talk to him.”

“Why are you doing this?” Iseul whispered. “Because you’re my sister now. And my little sister deserves love just as anyone else. If your brother and I are allowed to get married, you and that young man should be allowed to hold hands and tell each other ‘I love you’.”

Mrs. Do¹: In Korea, the wife usually does not take her husband’s last name (she keeps her last name).