Back to present day…

JaeBeom stands outside Gwen’s apartment and shuffles his feet nervously. It was a fine Saturday morning. He had just come back from his jog and a short stint at the gym. He decided that morning was the day he’d give it to her. He’d been holding onto it for so long, he couldn’t find the right time to present it to her. He pats the small package in his leather jacket and takes a deep breath. He leans into the door and knocks.

Tap. Tap. Tap. No one answers.

He presses his right ear against the door and hears music blaring in the background. Someone’s home but probably can’t come to the door coz they cant hear me.

He does a mental count to 10, then keys in the door code. As soon as he opens the door, he hears Sam Smith’s 'Too Good at Goodbyes' filling up the apartment.

“Gwen? Mandy?” JaeBeom calls out while taking his shoes off at the door. He’s hung out here so often; it felt like his second home.

He walks down the corridor to find Gwen in her bikini, with her back facing him, totally oblivious. He stops in his tracks when he sees her grooving and dancing slowly, while presumably stirring her food on the stove. Her brown streaked hair was wet, as it clung to the back of her neck and tucked behind her ears. Her moves were incredibly y, he thought, that it looked far more captivating than he wanted to admit. He watched her hips move slowly to the rhythm of Sam Smith’s beat. He had a scene playing in his head where he would dip his head into her neck to taste the succulent tanned skin that called for him. Wanting so much to reenact it, he took two steps towards her.

And the music stops.

A male figure emerges from Gwen’s room, clad only in board shorts drying his hair with a towel. “Uh…Gwen…”

JaeBeom is so surprised by the male voice that he jerked a step back. This must be Daniel. Why can’t I look that good shirtless?

“Hhmmm...?” Gwen turns around and suddenly realizes JB is standing in the hallway. “Oh !” she curses and drops the spatula on the floor. “JB!! Oh. My. God. What are you doing here?” She kneels down to pick the spatula up and proceeds to wash it.

“Sorry for interrupting… I should’ve waited outside…I didn’t know…you had… a guest…” JaeBeom tilted his head apologetically.

Gwen cleans up the food stains on the floor. “We just came back from a swim. This is Daniel. JB, Daniel. Daniel, JB.” Gwen introduces them dismissively while bent down on the floor.

Daniel eyes JaeBeom suspiciously but moves in to shake his hand anyway. “Nice to meet you. I should put a shirt on.” He points to Gwen’s room.

JaeBeom nods uncomfortably and shakes Daniel’s hand as he watches Daniel disappear into Gwen’s room. He walks towards the kitchen, to where Gwen was.

“I wanted to give this to you. I found it at Bookman’s Alley and I thought of you when I saw it.” He takes out the small package, wrapped in simple brown paper. “Don’t open it now. Wait ‘till you’re alone.” He pats the book and places it on the counter. He looks away, not wanting to meet her eyes, trying to not get distracted by Gwen’s lack of clothing.

Gwen puts the spatula down and walks towards JaeBeom. Daniel now fully clothed, materializes suddenly and swoops in smoothly behind Gwen and hangs an oversized blue shirt over her shoulders. Gwen mouths a ‘thank you’ to Daniel, pulls her arms into the shirt. Daniel then deliberately kisses her hair and heads for the stove.

JaeBeom clears his throat to wipe away the image of witnessing the unnecessary PDA before him.

“What book is it?” She asks, genuinely curious. It has to be a book, he said Bookman’s Alley, my favourite store. He knows this.

“Open it when you’re alone.” JaeBeom puts his hands in his jeans pocket. “Imma go now. I’m meeting Jinyoung for lunch.” He bites his lower lip. “Daniel, nice to meet you, bro.” He waves. “See you, Gwen. Say hi to Mandy.” He puts on his shoes and walks out the door.

Daniel turns around and sees JaeBeom leaving abruptly. He walks up to Gwen and slides both arms around her from behind, nuzzling her neck. “What was that about?” His voice is muffled, as he kisses her ears and neck.

Gwen stood motionless holding the book in hand, contemplating on whether she should open it. “I think it’s a peace offering.” She sounded dazed.

“Should I be worried about this?” Daniel whispers into her ear.

“No, it’s just a book.” Gwen assures him.

“Open it later, then.” He reaches over and guides Gwen to put the book back on the counter. “You and I, have some business to attend to.” He spins her around and pulls her close.

Gwen circles her arms around his neck and her head sideways. “And what business might that be, my dear Sir?” She smiled teasingly.

Daniel carried her onto the kitchen counter and his lips in anticipation. “Ma Cherie, our business involves…” He kisses her on the lips gently. “This…” Then he trails kisses down her neck and shoulders. “This… hhhmm….” While his hands moved from her waist to the small of her back and then up behind her neck. He pulled the strings, holding her bikini top together and tugs her bikini off. Gwen’s bare chest is now half-covered by her oversized shirt, s peeking through the cotton fibers, pleading to be touched.

Gwen moans into Daniel ear and bites his right ear gently, running her hands through his freshly shampooed hair. “Mon Cherie, we better relocate….” Gwen tries hard to form her words as Daniel’s hands found his way around her bikini bottom. “….our business dealings…mmmm….” Gwen’s head is swimming now. “…to my room…”

Satisfied with his mission to remove her bikini, Daniel catches on Gwen’s offer for a more ‘comfortable’ venue, he then hooks his elbows under her thighs and carries her effortlessly to her bedroom. Gwen wraps her legs around his waist, hugs his broad shoulders tight as she giggles softly into his neck. Daniel kicks the door shut and spins Gwen around so she could lock it. They both giggled nonsensically and continued their game play, not once but… enough times to tire themselves out for the rest of the day.

Hours later, Gwen woke up breathing warmly into Daniel’s chest. She snuggles in comfortably but was unable to continue sleeping. She planted a light kiss on Daniel’s nose, he grumbles softly, and she smiles at how gorgeous he looked with his eyes closed, deep in slumber under the covers. She turns around and checks the clock – 3pm and suddenly realizes that the mid-morning snack she cooked earlier still had not been eaten.

Gwen takes a quick shower to freshen up and slips into the blue oversized shirt she wore earlier and denim shorts. She suddenly remembered that Amanda had told her that she’d be out all day volunteering at SPCA and meeting a friend. I HAVE to remember dig that story out of her. She peeks into her cupboard trying to decide what to wear for the concert that night. Daniel had two tickets to a new age music concert. She saw the list of artists on the brochure and they were all new, she wasn’t familiar with any of them but she was excited to go to her first ever outdoor concert with Daniel and she needed help with her wardrobe.

Imma text Ira. I seriously need help.

Gwen sends a quick text to Ira, signaling wardrobe SOS. Ira doesn’t respond immediately so she puts her phone away. While flippin’ out over her wardrobe predicament, Gwen suddenly remembered the package JaeBeom gave her earlier. She turns around to check on Daniel, he is still sound asleep, snoring softly into the pillow. She creeps out her room, shuts her room door quietly and walks to the kitchen. She scoops the cold scrambled eggs she made earlier and places two pieces of bread on her plate. She sits herself comfortably on the kitchen barstool with her snack and proceeded to open JaeBeom’s package.

She gasped when she saw the book cover. It had a picture of a girl in a blue dress running through a closed walled-up maze.

Paulo Coelho, The Zahir. In hardcover.

She placed her palm over , muffling a cry. He remembered.

The book tells a story about a man, whose wife leaves him to search for her true self. It takes many years for the man to realize what was going on, he ends up with many women in between, still unable to divorce his wife but he finally finds his way to her many years later, as she patiently waits for him in a small obscure village in a foreign land.

Gwen sniffles quietly, staring at the book, choking on the memory of her conversation with JaeBeom over this very book. She had been looking for the hard cover version all over town and she had refused to purchase the paperback version, settling only to purchase the eBook until she would one day find the hardcover copy. She remembered whining about her search for the book, over lunch break at Uni. She sat at one of the park benches outside of the cafeteria with her nose glued to the laptop, searching online to purchase the book.

JaeBeom saw her that afternoon and joined her for lunch, she recalled.

Sigh. That was so long ago, how could he have remembered?

She stared at the book and smiled appreciatively. I must remember to thank him properly.

Just then Shirtless Daniel clothed only in the same board shorts earlier, walked out of her room, rubbing his eyes. “Morning Ma Cherie.” He joins her in the kitchen and helps himself to the scrambled eggs. He notices Gwen is holding a book in her hand with a faraway look on her face.

“Is that JB’s package?” He asks and sits opposite Gwen.

“Yeah…” Gwen trails off, indifferently.

“What’s it about?” He starts munching and looks at her questioningly.

Gwen then gives him a summary of the book, not leaving out the story behind her journey in search for the hardcover copy.

“Sounds like the book meant a lot. Can I read it?” Daniel genuinely wanted to get to know her better. If I have to read a book to do it, I’ll read a book! “It’s not a chick flick, right?”

“No it’s not. Don’t worry. I don’t read chick flicks.” She smiles and puts the book down. “I’ll let you read this copy if you promise me you’ll take good care of it.”

“Promise, scouts honour.” Daniel puts up three fingers and chuckles.

Gwen laughs heartily at Daniel’s attempt at a light-hearted joke. She pinches off a piece of her bread and throws it smack on his nose.

He looks up and throws her a playful warning look. “Stop or else…”

She throws another piece of bread at his face and he’s fast enough to catch it in his mouth. He pushes his chair and gets up, his eyes threatening to punish her for teasing him. Gwen is prepared for this and screams while jumping out of her bar stool and ran towards the living room. Daniel catches up with her and they both fall over the couch giggling in between fits of laughter.

“Gwen? Mandy.” A female voice calls out from the front door. It was Ira.

“Ira! Hellppppp!!!” Gwen screams in between giggles from the living room.

Ira could see a male figure, peeking over the couch tickling Gwen and laughing helplessly. “This is a PG zone, kids.” Ira takes off her shoes and places her bag of clothes on the bar stool.

Daniel hears Ira and straightens himself up. He pulls Gwen off the couch and she mirrors his actions.

“Ira you’re here! Thanks for coming!” Gwen runs to Ira in the kitchen and digs into her bag.

Ira couldn’t help but peek over Gwen’s shoulder to admire the sheer physique of Daniel Kang. Gwen struck the lottery with this one. Damn girl!

Embarrassed, Daniel waved a ‘Hi Ira’ and disappeared into Gwen’s room.

Ira whispered to Gwen. “He looks so damn fine!”

“Stop ogling my man. He’s mine….” Gwen said flippantly. “Why don’t I see dresses in here?” She peers into Sierra’s bag for more options.

“I thought I packed that hoodie dress for you…. The one you saw me wear that day....” Sierra reaches into her bag and pulls out a zipped up dress, which Gwen mistook for a long hoodie. “This, my dear, is a hoodie dress. It’s too tight to be an oversized hoodie.” She puts the dress over Gwen’s body and mentally gauges the size.

The dress was made out of navy blue jersey material, which made it casual and perfect for the concert. The zip started at the front of th