It had been a week since she moved in and Jihyun had never expected anything in return for the red bean rice cakes she distributed to any of her neighbours, but she was surprisingly delighted to find a basket filled with assorted bags for candies, jelly worms and gummy bears at her doorstep that morning. As usual, she stepped out her front door at 7.30 a.m. sharp to head for work, but she almost knocked over a basket filled with various sweet treats placed neatly on the welcome mat on her way out. She lifted the basket in her arms and pulled out the yellow stick-it-note peeking out from the pile, a note from the sender:

Thanks for the yummy rice cakes. I didn’t have much at home, I was only able to give these. Let’s say hi if we bump to each other in the hallways next time ^^

–Daniel (your next door neighbour!)

“This is nice and cute,” Jihyun chuckled to herself, heart fluttering slightly at the sweet gesture and kind words. This past week she had been hoping to run into her mysterious neighbour, but she couldn’t even get a glimpse of him when she left for work in the morning or came back in the late afternoon, “He didn’t really have to return the favour though,” she smiled and stashed one of each bags of sweets into her purse, liking the good impression he had left on her even before they meet and increasing her anticipation on him by tenfold.

Since she moved in, Jihyun had been sketching an image of Daniel in her head based on the descriptions given by other neighbours; Mrs. Park said he looked like a perfect model while Mrs. Jung called him a handsome and polite puppy. His smiles are blinding, yet you’d want to keep looking at his beautifully shaped lips and crescents-shaped eyes. He has model-like proportions (Mrs. Park specially pointed out his broad shoulders) which was accentuated by perfectly crisped suits, his usual working attire. To top it all off, his kind personality complemented his attractiveness. In other words, Kang Daniel is an angel who is both hot and cute at the same time. She was quite sure that the two ladies had been exaggerating because she had never met anyone as perfect as him (both personality and appearance-wise) in her life, or maybe Kang Daniel would finally prove her wrong.

“Jihyun, there you are!”

Jihyun turned around at the sound of her name, facing the owner of the cheerful voice after placing the basket inside her house and locking the door, “Morning Mrs. Jung,” she bowed politely at the elder lady.

“I just wanted to tell you we’ll have all the neighbours gather at my apartment tomorrow evening for a potluck dinner. This time, you get to meet all of them! I hope you’re free,” Mrs. Jung explained.

She took a short pause, checking tomorrow’s schedule after work before answering, “For dinner? Of course,”

“Each of us have to bring some food to share with others. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just enough for around ten to fifteen people,” the elder lady continued after counting the number of potential guests with her fingers.

Jihyun pursed her lips while thinking of a suitable food she could bring for the approximate number or people, considering the duration she has to prepare the dish ahead of time, “I’ll bring some desserts then,” she replied, nodding confidently because she knew baking would take her shorter time compared to other types of cooking.

Mrs. Jung clapped excitedly, “Lovely. See you tomorrow!”

***********************

Jihyun reminded herself to reevaluate her skills in predicting people’s expected behavioural response or else she would be out of employment soon. She had also thought she knew her cousin Sunmi well, but her reaction concerning the damaged car Jihyun had borrowed a week ago was completely different and unpredictable. Sunmi was quite optimistic about it too when Jihyun cautiously explained the predicament over lunch, perhaps her bribe to pay for her meal worked, “Tell me more about that hot guy,” Sunmi prompted, staring intently at her younger cousin in anticipation.

Jihyun paused mid-sip, almost choking on her strawberry smoothie as she raised her eyebrow at the girl sitting on the opposite side of their small table in a diner, “I didn’t say he was hot,” she replied, dabbing the corner of her lips lightly with a paper napkin.

“Yet, your description was super detailed, I can’t imagine otherwise,” Sunmi teased, wriggling her eyebrows playfully before sipping on her iced lemon tea.

Jihyun sighed and rolled her eyes, she was not in the mood to talk about Kang Man-in-Black’s physical appearance or his snobbish personality, “Can we focus on the problem here?”

“My old car only got a scratch, a thin coat of paint will fix that. Jisung’s not in the hospital due to panic attack after finding out that his beloved sister got into an accident, thank god. Also, I’m glad that it was a minor accident and you were unharmed,” Sunmi rephrased Jihyun’s twenty minute explanation into three simple conclusion, counting and solving the problems with her fingers one at a time, “Now can we focus on this mysterious guy?” she dismissed the topic and clasped her hands together, ready to move on to a more interesting subject.

“He’s a rich jerk who doesn’t know anything about being a gentleman,” Jihyun replied plainly, refusing to elaborate on the matter, “Besides, You’re missing the point here. How am I supposed to pay for his repairs? It’s a freaking BMW X6!” she cried out a little too loudly, attracting the attention of the tables in their surrounding as other diners glanced at her from the corner of their eyes.

Sunmi sighed, despite her cousin’s amazing job in providing mental health services to those in need, she would sometimes ignore her own mental health and act like she hadn’t spent years studying and honing her skills in the field, “Simple, you have his number right? Give him a call and ask for installments,” she calmly responded, encouraging Jihyun to think rationally.

The girl was resting her forehead on the table as she spoke, sounding depressed, “It’s not as easy as it sounds, I don’t want to talk to him and I’m pretty sure his feelings are mutual,”

“He’ll talk because he needs you to be responsible,” Sunmi continued prompting, her left hand reached over to shake the girl gently on her shoulder, “Call him, maybe he’ll compromise,”

Jihyun groaned in frustration and rummaged through her purse for his business card, she found her phone first and the business card a few seconds later which had turned into a black crumpled paper ball. Sunmi snatched the small ball from the girl’s hand and did her best attempt to smooth out the creases, before reading the golden words written on the black card, “I can’t see his name, it faded because of the crumples. Yeongdo Group, Creative Director, Kang… something,” she read aloud.

Jihyun grabbed the card once she heard the familiar company name and studied the information provided on the small piece of paper. She hadn’t even bothered to read it on the day of the accident and had absentmindedly threw it into her purse, along with other miscellaneous items, because she was furious and didn’t want to feed his ego if he was to notice her reaction. Now that she had perused each word on the card, her heart started to beat faster, “I’m dead, this is worse than I thought,” Jihyun looked up to meet eyes with Sunmi, “He’s not just any rich guy, he’s…”

“Jisung’s boss!” Sunmi gasped. Meanwhile, Jihyun started to panic as she tried hard to sort out her thoughts; she had gotten into an accident with her brother’s employer and the last time they met, he was extremely furious with her, “This is so exciting!” Sunmi plucked Jihyun’s phone out of her hand and proceeded to dial the phone number provided on the card.

“What are you doing?!”

“Calling this guy, or should I call him Director Kang?” Sunmi answered rather enthusiastically, easily passing through the security lock on the girl’s phone with the most predictable birthday date password. Jihyun exclaimed in horror, her hands outstretched as she tried her best to retrieve her phone. Her cousin stood up from her chair, succeeded in dialing the number and evading Jihyun’s hands simu