Taeyong's grandmother answered the door with her eyebrows furrowed. "Why the hell aren't you in Seoul?"
Taeyong pushed his way in. "She doesn't love me."
Ellen slammed the door shut behind him. "Coward. I never thought I'd say that to my own grandson. But that's what you are. A coward. And a chicken. A lily-livered chicken." She flung her hands into the air. "A spineless, yellow-bellied coward."

He started laughing, his shoulders shaking silently. He headed to the kitchen, grabbing two beers and handing one to her, a smile still on his face.
He said, "It's karma, that's what it is. How many women have fallen hopelessly in love with me? It was my turn."
"What you're telling me is that you're not a coward. You're just stupid." She shook her head. "I don't know what's worse."
"I am everything she doesn't want."
"But she wants you anyway? I don't know what you think love is supposed to feel like but that's as good a description as any."
"She's too smart to fall for me."
Ellen snorted. "If those good looks you were cursed with, along with that charm you constantly deploy, and a copious amount of cash at your disposal can't get the woman you love to lose her mind long enough to get a ring on her finger, I don't know what the point was."
"You do know all that is why she doesn't want me, right?"
"She wants you. She just wishes she didn't." Ellen watched him take a swig of beer and shook her head. "Go get her, numnuts."
He choked on his beer. "Grandma! I haven't heard that word since grandfather died."
"Your grandfather was high and mighty and born with a silver spoon up his backside, just like you. Who do you think taught him that word?"
He laughed. "Then how come I've never heard you say it until now?"

"Because it reminds me of him."
He looked at her carefully, seeing the sorrow in her words. "You still miss him?"
"Of course I do."
He said, "So some love is forever."
She eyed him. "Some love is."
"Nari doesn't think so. She thinks forever love is luck."
Ellen smiled. "It is. It's luck and guts and not being dumb. Right now you're one out of three." She patted his shoulder. "But your grandfather only had one out of three at one point, too."
He raised his eyebrow. "You're saying grandfather didn't have any guts? Grandfather?" His grandfather had been a terror. Balls of steel when markets were crashing and others were cracking.
She tipped her head back, a far away look in her eye. "When it came to love. He'd seen his parents' unhappy marriage and thought there wasn't anything else in life. And even if there was, it wasn't worth searching for. He just wanted a pretty decoration for his arm and a woman waiting at home for him." She snorted. "Luckily, he wised up and realized before too late that there was something more than that."
She looked at Taeyong and poked him in the chest so he was paying attention. "There's more than that."
He took a swig. "I think I've realized that."
"So now it's time to go win her over."
"Did Grandfather have to win you over?"
"You bet your life he did. You think I'd just swoon as soon as he started chasing me?"

Taeyong sat down and looked into the beer bottle. "How did he win you?"
Ellen sat next to him and put her hand on his arm. "He gave me what I needed."
He looked up. "What did you need?"
She laughed. "Oh, I needed proof that he respected me as an equal. Now, that won't work for Nari because that's not what she needs."
"What does she need?"
"How am I supposed to know?"
"You're a lot of help."
She patted his arm. "You know. You're in love with her, aren't you?"
He shook his head. "I don't know what she needs, except maybe changing everything about myself."
She shook her head. "She already loves you. You don't need to change anything about yourself."
He blinked. "You think she loves me?"
Ellen barked out a laugh. "Looks like we're still working on dumb." She shook her head. "Come at this as if she already loved you. What else does she need?"
"She needs someone who doesn't remind her of her father."
"Mmm. But she already loves you, so that's not what she needs." She pushed herself up. "You think on it, numnuts. It'll come to you."
She picked up the phone, punching in a number.
He said, "What are you doing?"
"Getting the plane ready. You're not going to give her what she needs wallowing on my couch and drinking my beer."
He looked down into the amber liquid. What did Kim Nari need?

He had no idea. But he was pretty certain she'd say it wasn't him.
He looked up at his grandmother. "You really think she loves me?"
She patted his head. "Poor clueless boy."
She tried to pull him up and he helped her by rising. She started pushing him toward the door.
He said, "I still don't know what she needs."
She took his bottle and pushed him out the door. "It's a long flight. You'll figure it out."

 
Taeyong knocked on Nari's door six hours later. He knocked and he knocked and she answered by finally whipping the door open and shouting, "What!"
He said, "I was going to break a window to get in but I thought you wouldn't appreciate it."
"I don't appreciate you trying to knock my door down, either."
"I have something to say to you. I don't want to say it. You probably don't want to hear it."
"Sounds like a win-win."
"But if I don't say it I will regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomo-"
She started to close the door and he stuck his shoe in the doorway. "I knew you would never fall for me. I knew I could trust you. . . I just didn't realize I couldn't trust myself. I didn't realize that I would fall in love with you."
She sighed and closed her eyes. "Taeyong. How many women have you fallen in love with since you were sixteen?"

"None."
She opened her eyes, the disbelief clear.
He said, "I've loved them all. Still love them all. And have been in love with none of them."
She waved away the distinction. "And how many of them didn't fall in love with you?"
He didn't say it. Knew she would think he'd fallen in love with her only because she hadn't fallen in love with him.
She said it for him. "None. You don't love me. You just don't know what to do with a woman who doesn't fall all over you."
He took her hand. "But you pass my test. I'd give you half of Lee Capital without even blinking. If you wanted it."
She looked at him, so sad, and he dropped her hand. He said softly, "But you don't want it. Because you don't believe me. And won't ever let yourself love me if you don't believe it first."
He pushed something into her hand and she looked down. He said, "Don't get excited. It's not that half mil."
She took the envelope from him, opening it and finding a plane ticket inside. She looked up.
He said, "He won't trick you again. You're not a green kid anymore. And you can tell when someone really loves you."
Her eyes widened.
He said, "But you deserve to see if he'll choose you this time. I think you need that."
She stood speechless as he reached out and pushed her hair off her face. "Thank you, Nari. For helping me with the press. For letting me fall in love with you. A man should do it at least once in his life."
She was still staring at him when he walked away. When he got in his car and drove away.

 
Lisa found her crying into a pint of ice cream. "That bad, huh?"
Nari nodded.
"He said he loves you."
Nari nodded and scrunched up her face again.
"And you love him."
Noisy sobs answered her and Lisa let Nari cry for a few minutes before she said, "I'm not seeing the problem here."
"He's Lee Taeyong. That's the problem."
Lisa nodded. "Yep, yep. Le