After a few hours, it was time to call it a day.  It was a little past dinner, actually, but there were still a few people at work.  So-eun waved goodbye to her colleagues and passed by Ha-na’s office.  “Anything you want me to look over before I go?”

Ha-na shook her head and smiled in appreciation.  “Aniya, So-eun-ah.  You have a good night.”

“Araseo,” So-eun replied good-naturedly.  “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She took a look at her phone, just as she was going down the elevators.  She hardly had time to check her personal messages due to meetings and emails and strategy planning due to work. 

She had completely forgotten that it was her best friend’s bridal shower party tonight!

“So-eun, where are you?” the bride-to-be, Ae-ra, was texting.  “Everybody’s here!”

“Coming!” She messaged back in a panic and rushed to board the elevator.

It was times like this when she wished she already had a car. 

When she could set up Ha-na’s cousin that he would be completely happy with, she might finally well afford to.

For now, hailing a cab was the way to go.

On the way, Ae-ra was still angrily messaging her.  “You stayed back for work again, didn’t you?”

“Just a little bit,” So-eun messaged back in pacification.  “I’m in a taxi right now.”

And she took a quick selfie and sent it to her as proof.

In return, Ae-ra sent her a short video of her bridal party already partying.

So-eun shook her head, laughing, and told her she would be there in a few minutes. 

When she arrived at the club, she was about to walk straight in when the bouncer stopped her.

The beefy, burly man sneered and gave her a once-over, to which So-eun frowned. 

“Miss, the corporate office is that way.”

So-eun blinked a few times and realized that the bouncer was making a joke about her attire.  She looked down and was aghast that she was still wearing her gray blazer and her hair was tightly secured in a bun. 

She laughed flirtatiously at the bouncer and let her wavy hair down.  She slid her gray blazer off her arms and stuffed it quickly to her oversized purse.  “Now, can I come in?”

“Of course,” the bouncer told her graciously, giving way as he attended to the next few people in line.

She heaved a few breaths to regain her composure and pulled out the hem of her silk white shirt from her gray pencil skirt, tying the ends in a miserable attempt to make her outfit trendier.

A tall woman bumped into her at the entrance and took one look at her, not so subtly laughing.

She cringed, as she got an eyeful of the wild bunch that was her college friends on the dance floor.  Each one of her girl friends were on point with their y, tight clothing while she looked like an uptight teacher who would scold them not to party so late on a school night. 

Either stand out like fish out of water, or not be forgiven by Ae-ra if she didn’t show up. 

“So-eun-ah!” Ae-ra called out, summoning her over.

The rest of the bridesmaids—all four of them—said hi and continued dancing, with drinks in their hands. 

“What are you wearing?” Ae-ra observed, sounding just a little bit tipsy.  She put her drink down on the table and reached to give her a kiss on the cheek. 

“I didn’t have time to change,” So-eun admitted, chagrined.  Well, that was at least a half-truth.  Had she remembered to pencil this in her personal calendar, just as she did her work appointments, she would have brought a change of clothes. 

“It’s okay,” Ae-ra acquiesced, suddenly handing her a paper bag among other paper bags that So-eun assumed were bridal shower gifts.  “Change into this.”

“What?”

Ae-ra motioned her over to the toilets.  “Come back out when you’re done!  I need my maid-of-honor beside me, especially for the pictures, okay?”

And with that, Ae-ra put on a short white veil secured with a tiara that quite loudly announced that she was getting married. 

So-eun sighed.  Just as she turned, a splash of red wine stained her silk shirt.

Her jaw dropped, completely horrified.

“Oh, my God, I’m so sorry!”

And a man was frantically wiped her chest with napkins.

So-eun instinctively slapped him on the face. 

Just then, another man, taller and stronger, pulled back the guy who accidentally ruined her expensive blouse. 

“My friend got off-balance,” Taller guy explained, though not a tad apologetic.  “I’ll pay for your shirt, which doesn’t look like it would be fixed by dry cleaning.”

So-eun’s eyes blazed at the blood red blot now soaking her front and looked up to glare at the taller guy.

Who turned out to be her neighbor.

He lived one floor above her.

That was the extent of what she knew of him.

Oh, and that he jogged down the street every morning.

Without a shirt on.

So it flustered So-eun now to hear his voice—so that was how he sounded like!—and to see him this close—which only reinforced her impression that he looked like a refined cat with that impressive jawline and small handsome face and angled slits for eyes.

Those angled slits narrowed even more.  “How much do I owe you for the shirt?”

So-eun opened but no sound came out, as her neighbor was now audaciously reaching behind his jeans for his wallet. 

Jerk!

She straightened up and squared her shoulders, hopefully her four-inch stilettos would help to get her point across.  She was not one to be intimidated, despite being a small yeoja over this towering, albeit extremely attractive, namja. “Nothing.”

Her handsome neighbor’s perfectly sculpted eyebrow arched quizzically. He probably didn’t expect to hear that kind of reply.  “Nothing?  Jin-jja?”

So-eun nodded, even throwing him a sweet smile.

A waitress passed by at that moment with a tray with liquor as So-eun grabbed a glass of red wine.

The club was brought to a standstill when she did the unthinkable.

She could distinctly hear Ae-ra’s high-pitched gasp from a close distance as So-eun’s neighbor’s pristine collared polo was now, too, dripping with red wine, clinging stickily to his broad chest and hard abdomen.

“Now we’re even.” So-eun declared in twisted satisfaction, walking past him to change into something more appropriate.