A shirtless Jong Kook was very distracting. Sure, Jong Kook in and of himself was distracting enough, but Ji Hyo was realizing and learning firsthand just how distracting a shirtless Jong Kook was. 

It did not help that he was standing merely half a foot away from her. The heat from his workout radiated off him somehow and made Ji Hyo's skin burn up. His sweat only served to make the skin of his defined and shapely body glisten under the rays of the morning sun. Ji Hyo tried not to stare at Jong Kook's muscles; especially not his delicious looking pelvic muscles that seemed to delve deep down...

"Ji Hyo? Did you hear me?"

So much for not being distracted. 

"W-What?" Ji Hyo looked up, trying her level best to maintain eye contact with Jong Kook. "Did you say something?"

Jong Kook chuckled. "I asked you how your date went, Ji Hyo-yah. What were you thinking about? You look distracted."

Ji Hyo decided that she was definitely never telling Jong Kook what she was thinking about. Because "If you were a horse, I'd ride you" probably wasn't something at all appropriate to say to her matchmaker, and was also probably a terrible pick-up line.

Although, what she actually said wasn't all that great either.

"I-I... It-it... Just surprised? You were wearing a shirt earlier... And a hoodie I think?"

Jong Kook's face reddened in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable-"

Well Ji Hyo wasn't exactly uncomfortable, per say. Uncomfortable didn't even begin to scratch the surface of how she felt. 

Jong Kook walked over to a nearby bench where his clothes had been kept, causing Ji Hyo's heart to lurch at the notion of him no longer being shirtless. It felt like those heartbreaking moments she saw in sad movies. 

"I was wearing a jacket before because it was still slightly cool in the morning- but I took it off to run because the exercise keeps me hot and the sun was slowly getting hotter. Still doesn't excuse my behavior though. Again, I'm sorry for not noticing I wasn't properly dressed."

Ji Hyo was only half-listening to Jong Kook drone on as he explained himself. She was just trying to keep the tears from falling as he toweled himself dry and slowly got dressed. 

"Don't worry, I'm perfectly fine with it actually. I had 4 male cousins growing up." Although none of them could ever prepare me for a body like yours.

"Still; it was rude of me. Thank you for being so understanding. So how was your date?"

Ji Hyo looked up. Apparently telling him yet another date had failed was inevitable.

"Erm... It's a long story?"

Jong Kook couldn't believe himself. As Ji Hyo recounted how her date was still hung up on his ex who happened to be jogging in the park, Jong Kook felt terrible for Ji Hyo who had yet another failed date.

Except- there was this lingering feeling of relief that Jong Kook couldn't stomp, couldn't get rid of, couldn't understand. Maybe deep down he thought that Soo Hong did not deserve someone like Ji Hyo? But that wasn't his place to judge, was it?

Or could it be something else? Jong Kook decided not to think about it.

So he tried his best to set Ji Hyo up with someone he thought would be suitable for Ji Hyo and be "deserving" of her, whatever that meant. He chose more carefully this time, even interviewing the potential date candidates personally to make sure Ji Hyo would get the best possible date. He didn't like that such a beautiful, attractive woman with such a great personality would have to go on a date only to get snubbed by some undeserving dude hung up on his ex. Ji Hyo didn't deserve that in the slightest, and as the matchmaker who set up the date, Jong Kook felt responsible.

Sure, it had never really been his style to interview potential dates for his clients, and Ji Hyo was the first client he had done this for. Jong Kook noticed he was doing a lot of things for the first time with his job because of Ji Hyo, but he didn't think too much about it. She had went out of her way to do nice things for him too didn't she? So naturally it wouldn't matter that he went the extra mile for her. Plus, there was always a first for everything.

Eventually, Jong Kook picked a man named Chen Bo Lin as Ji Hyo's third blind date. Chen Bo Lin was an immigrant from China, but he was fluent in Korean and had given himself the Korean name Jin Baek Rim. He gave off good vibes and through a few chats with him Jong Kook concluded that he would be the perfect gentleman to Ji Hyo. So he made arrangements and set up a date for when both Ji Hyo and Bo Lin were free.

There was just one small, teeny problem.

Bo Lin never showed up for the date.

He didn't do it on purpose of course; there had been a sudden family emergency and he had to rush to the hospital to visit a family member that had tragically gotten into a bad accident and their condition was seemingly unstable. Caught up in his worry and anxiousness, Bo Lin neglected to inform Jong Kook until about an hour into the date. But by then Bo Lin was so caught up with his family member's situation that he did not take into consideration the feeling