Sophie sat in the third row, feeling more uncomfortable than she ever had before. Her best friends sister was getting married and the wedding hall was packed with lots of people. Not only did she not do well in large crowds, she also hated weddings...hated them with a capital H.

The happy couple on the stage had just finished their vows and kissed when music started to play and a man came out from one side of the stage, a microphone in hand.

“Oh great”, Sophie muttered under her breath, “a wedding singer….. just my luck.” She wondered who, in this day and age, still hired wedding singers any more.

“Ah hello…..hi everywan, I’m Kim Dongwan, it’s nice to meet you”, the man said with a laugh as he struggled to not trip over the mic cord. The wedding guests laughed and he grinned.

“When Youngmi asked me to sing at her wedding, I almost told her no. I mean, it would be the third wedding this month. Maybe I might want some time to myself. To date…. Or climb mountains, you never know.” He shot a look at the bride, who let out a high pitched laugh.

“But lucky for her and you, I decided I could put off meeting Ms. Right just one more time and now I’ll do a couple songs to congratulate the happy couple”, he said and nodded at the guy in charge of the sound. The music changed and Dongwan started to step side to side to the beat of the fast paced trot song.

Sophie leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest, prepared for an off-key rendition of a cheesy trot song. When the man on stage started to sing, she leaned forward a little. To her surprise, he was good. Like really good and it made her wonder what he was doing here and not on some huge stage, performing for a stadium of people. Sure, he was a little cheesy as he pranced around the stage and made silly faces but all in all, he was very talented.

The trot song ended and he took a bow as the crowd applauded him politely.

“My next song”, he said as he took a drink from a wine glass of water and a man brought a stool out for him, along with a guitar,”is something a little sweeter, more romantic. I want to wish the happy couple all the love in the world.” He cleared his throat, looped the guitar strap over his chest, and sat down.

He started to strum the guitar, the melody was simple but when he started to sing, Sophia’s arms dropped and she clasped her hands in her lap and listened to him with her full attention.

He played and sang effortlessly, hitting high notes like it was nothing and Sophia’s toe started to tap against the floor.

“When I sing Du Du Du, repeat after me”, Dongwan called out during an instrumental section of the song and the crowd obliged. His audience participation pulled the audience into his performance and all to soon it was over. Sophia found herself applauding along with them and when everyone stood to leave and head to the dining area, she resisted the urge to go up and tell Dongwan how good she was.

In the dining area she handed over her meal ticket and got a plate of food. There were table set up and she looked around for an empty seat, finding one over by a window and went over there to eat. She had just spread her napkin on her lap and filled her wine glass from an open bottle that sat on the table when a voice behind her said,”Do you mind if I join you? I don’t really know anyone and the bride and groom’s table is full.”

Sophia turned and behind her was Dongwan, smiling. His eyes had faint wrinkles around them and his hair was swept off his forehead, revealing well shaped eyebrows over his sparkling brown eyes. She stared for a full minute before she nodded and he sat down across from her.

(I know it's a short chapter but I wanted to get started on this story. I've had this sitting around since I posted the foreword and I finally added to it and i really like it so far. I tried to find the video that inspired the story but I can't. It buried so deep in Youtube that I may never find it, but I will keep looking :)