Taekwoon walked into the restaurant, his eyes scanning the room for a person in particular.

Already, he'd met three prospective women this week, and literally seven in total. None, absolutely none of them had clicked with him. They were either not ready to settle down and were coerced into this, or they had extremely high expectations when they heard about his job and the things he'd accomplished at a young age. Many of them simply expected him to shower them with gifts, or take them for long vacations. Other didn't get the nature of his job and others expected him to earn the big bucks so they could "follow their dreams."

Needless to say, after the seventh, Taekwoon had simply taken down his matrimonial profile and given up on finding someone through the website.

It was then that his mother had approached him, telling him that a friend's cousin's daughter might be interested, and that she would set up the meeting, despite his protests. 

In the end, he was convinced to just meet her and then make his decision.

And that was how Taekwoon found himself leaving work early, embarrassingly telling his colleague that he had a date and showing up at a five star hotel in Seoul.

Walking in, Taekwoon took a minute to adjust his blazer before walking over to the seats.

The waitress pointed him over to the table where a young woman sat, mulling over the menu. Saying a quick thanks, Taekwoon quickly patted his blazer down before approaching her.

"Excuse me," he said, grabbing her attention. "Are you Kim Nayoung?"

She got up, straightening her skirt. "Yes, I am."

"I'm Jung Taekwoon," he said, holding out his hand. 

"Yes, yes, come sit down," she told him, gesturing to the table.

He took a seat opposite her, letting out a breath. She looked up at him. "Long day?" she asked.

He nodded. "Sorry, I came right from work," he softly said. "I-uh-hope I didn't keep you waiting?"

She shook her head. "Not at all," she assured. "I was only here five minutes before." 

He sighed. This was getting off to an awkward start.

"So what do you do?" she asked him after they'd ordered.

"I...I'm in service," he explained. "Transportation, logistics."

"What's your designation?" she inquired.

Not one of these people again. "Uh...Regional manager for the Asia sector." 

She frowned lightly. "Isn't that a pretty high position?" she asked. "How old are you even?"

He sighed. "I'm twenty-seven." 

"Really? I'm twenty-three." 

A strange silence fell over them. She paused before shaking her head and releasing a breath. "I'm sorry, I can't do this."

Saying so, she began to push back her chair.

"Why?" Taekwoon asked.

She sighed. "I promised my mother I'd give this a try because she wanted me to settle down before it was too late, but I don't think I'm ready for that kind of a responsibility yet. I thought I'd at least come and see what you were all about, perhaps humor you for a bit, but now I'm not too sure about what to do."

Taekwoon stayed quiet as she pulled herself up to her feet, making to leave.

"Wait," his quiet voice made her stop right in her tracks, turning around to look at him.

He then finally looked up at her. "I know how you feel," he softly told her. "Off all the women I've met these past few weeks, you're the only one who's been honest with me." 

He sighed, looking down at the table. "I was convinced into doing this for similar reasons as you were. Now that we've established that neither of us actually want to be here, why don't we forget that this was a marriage setup?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, we're already here, aren't we?" He gestured to the rest of the restaurant. "The food here is pretty good. So why don't we just have a meal together, with no promises, or expectations, or anything?" 

She considered for a couple of moments before sitting back down. "Heh, I thought you'd either give up or try to stop me like something out of a drama," she admitted.

He shrugged. "I didn't need to," he simply said. "Was that some kind of test? To see whether I'd let you go or go after you?"

She shook her head. "I just really didn't want to be thinking about marriage." 

"Then don't," Taekwoon said.

"Then what does this mean?" Nayoung asked, referring to the two of them.

"It means whatever you want it to be," Taekwoon replied.

"Even a date?" she asked, bringing the glass of water to her lips.

He lifted his eyes to meet hers, and for a full second, he looked into her dark brown eyes, so big, and beautiful.

He leaned back against his chair. "If that's what you want it to be." 

***

To Hakyeon's surprise, she came back the next day.

"You're back," he stated.

She nodded. "I sure am," she replied.  

"Well, welcome back." Okay, not the smoothest. "What can I get you?"

He took her order, which was different than the day before, and she returned to the same seat by the window she sat at. 

Hakyeon, in the meantime, couldn't believe his eyes.

She came back. She actually came back.

This ran through his mind as he brought her the sundae she'd ordered.

"You actually came," slipped out of his mouth as he placed the tray down on her table.

She chuckled. "Why are you so surprised?"

"Well," his voice seemed to leave him at that moment, "I mean...uh...many beautiful women like you...er...hardly visit again."

She looked down, biting her lip shyly. Oh God.

"I don't see why I shouldn't visit again," she told him. "This place is really good. It's calm, quiet and the food is good. I can easily spend hours here." 

Please do, he almost said but covered it up with a cough. "I'm really happy that you like my creations." He bowed in thanks.

She looked at him, having taken a bite out of the sundae. "Creations?" she asked. "You call them your creations?" 

He nodded. "Yeah, I do."

"Why?"

He shrugged. "Well, I put a lot of thought into them, a lot of love, in order for them to become the way they are," he explained. "They're like...my children, little pieces of art I put my heart and soul into."

She chuckled slightly. "I think I can understand what you mean."

She returned the next day, and the day after that, until she had arrived every day for an entire week.

Every day she ordered something new, and sat at the same seat by the window, pulling out papers and working on them. While he kept to his place behind the counter, at times in the kitchen, his curiosity grew and grew until it nearly ate him up inside. 

One of the days, he'd been behind the counter, so Jaehwan had serviced her. The second he found out that she was in his cafe, he'd kept peeking out from behind the door, annoying Jaehwan to the point the younger wanted to change shifts if at all to get the work done. 

Even Hongbin had begun to notice it whenever he came over and she visited. Needless to say, he made his own set of jokes. Sanghyuk (the poor guy) couldn't show up since his exams were right around the corner, literally the next week, and he needed to frantically cram. 

As each day passed, Hakyeon's urge to talk to her grew, and he found it hard to keep up his owner-customer thought process.

He wanted to know more.

So one day, he worked up the courage to go and talk to her.

She came and greeted him as usual, with her beautiful smile that spread warmth in him, and ordered a slice of pizza along with two desserts.

He raised an eyebrow. "That's pretty heavy," he commented.

She sighed. "I didn't have lunch today," she explained, looking exasperated.

"Long day?" he wondered.

She nodded. "Pretty long," she agreed. "I had a deadline to meet."

He didn't push it further as she looked really tired, so when she took her seat near the window, he brought her a sugary soda.

She looked up at him. "I-I didn't pay for this..."

"I know," he said. "This one is on the house."

"Really?" she asked, stunned. "But why?"

"Because you looked incredibly tired," he admitted. "This will at least help you last till the pizza is ready."

She exhaled. "Thank you, so much," she told him gratefully before sipping the soda and letting out a satisfied hum.

"Feel better?" Hakyeon asked. He couldn't help but smile when she nodded. "You know, going that long without food is unhealthy."

She nodded. "I know, but I couldn't help it. I was stuck and today was my deadline. I spent my morning finishing it so that I could get it to the artist and then I got stuck in traffic, not to mention the artist wanted to know 'how I pictured the scene playing out,'" she said using air quotations.

"What do you actually do?" he suddenly asked.

"Oh, I'm a manwha writer," she replied, reaching into her bag. "I write for this story 'Last Breath.' Have you heard of it?"

His eyes grew wide. "Heard of it? It's my favorite comic right now!" he exclaimed. "I wait for it every month!"

"You do?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, it's just the perfect blend of action and mystery, and the story is so gripping, and the art style is amazing," he ranted. "When I first started reading them months ago, I just couldn't put it down!"

She smiled. "That's great that you're a fan!" She put her half-empty soda glass down. "For the art style, you should be thanking the artist I was paired with."

"They've done an amazing job," Hakyeon praised. 

Hakyeon went on talking about his favorite characters in the comic, and the direction the story was taking. All the time, the young writer calmly finished her soda with a smile on her face, as she found a hardcore fan of her work.

Another thought then seemed to strike him. "It's strange," he commented. 

"What is?" she questioned.

"You've been coming here every day for a week, today you've told me what you can do, and I still don't know your name."

She smiled, pushing a lock of her hair behind her ear. 

"It's Kim Nayoung."