Part One of the triple update! A special gift for my oldest readers who’ve loved me since Frozen Daffodil. XOXO

“Eojebam kkume bada ape isseo

Huimihage boyeo

Eojebam kkume bada ape isseo

Huimihage boyeo”

Jisoo couldn’t help but smile when she saw the young man singing his heart out while driving. Jongin paused his song for a moment and glanced at her. “I did my best to look good today. Guess it had worked.” He turned back to the road ahead with a smirk. Yet Jisoo continued to stare at him. “You can even sing. Why didn’t you become an idol?”

Jongin let out a hearty chuckle and shook his head. “Being able to sing to my girl is more than enough for me. But to tell you the truth I got tons of offers from agencies since middle school days.”

“What a waste...” Jisoo leaned back on her seat with a sigh. “By the way Jongin, where are we going? Where in Ulsan?”

“Where do you wanna go?” he asked back. “Name any destination and I’ll take you there.”

“What about the business trip?”

“We have the whole day left. It’s enough to get the work done and go wherever we want to. So where to? Miss Jo Daya?”

Just like every other time, a chill ran down her spine when Jongin called her by her friend’s name. “First... first let’s get your office work finished. Then we can see where to go.” Jisoo answered, and turned her head to stare out of the window. Jongin pouted in disappointment, and continued to drive along the highway out of the capital.

“Under the cool ocean breeze...

On the wide waves we surfin’ Yeah yeah...

With you like summer,

I picture this winter Tonight,

We’ll be at the beach I can faintly see it tonight,

We’ll be at the beach I can faintly see it...”

“The beach? We are NOT going to the beach at night Jongin...”

“Aish...” I was just singing okay?” Jongin huffed at her warning tone and grinned back at the road ahead. “Eojebam kkume bada ape isseo huimihage boyeo...”

Jisoo woke up as something soft and plush pressed against her cheek. Turning her head, the girl opened her eyes to find his face right in front of hers, smiling broadly with the lips that had just kissed her. “We’re here. In Ulsan.”

“Oh...did- did I fall asleep?” she straightened up in the seat, with her face rapidly turning pink. “How long did it take for us to arrive here?”

“Four and a half hours. You slept for more than three hours of it.” Jongin chuckled. “I stopped at a resting area but couldn’t get myself to wake you up. Bought you some cream puffs.” he reached for a paper bag at the back seat and gave it to her.

“Thanks.” Jisoo muttered, opening the bag to take out one. “By the way, where are we?”

“Ever heard of Yeon Misook?” he asked, watching the girl munch away at the pastry. Jisoo shook her head, and he continued. “Will you remember if I say Miss Korea Misook?”

Her eyes widen. “Ah...that Yeon Misook. That famous movie actress from 80’s right? That very pretty one.” And she chuckled to herself. “What am I even saying. How can she not be pretty if she became Miss Korea?”

“We’re going to visit her today. Jongin smiled.

Jisoo blinked in return. “She lives this far from Seoul? And why are we seeing her?”

“You know we’re planning a joint project for the 2021 spring and summer collection between our two companies. How can you forget that Miss Planning-Team-Head?” He sounded slightly mocking when he gently flicked her forehead. Instead of bursting out with a curse as she would do to Johnny, the girl remained silent, blushing and chills running down her spine.

How am I supposed to forget something I didn’t even know in the first place?

“Ah, yes.” She muttered.

“So the project,” he took her hand with the cream puff and took a large bite off it. “We thought it would be great if we could get her as the chief designer from our side.”

“She’s a fashion designer as well?”

“A very authentic and rare type of one.” He replied. “Once she retired from the cinema industry, she chose this path but the woman’s quite huddled up in the far corner of Ulsan and doesn’t accept half the offers she receives. God knows why.” He huffed in the end.

“So we’re here to convince her to work with you? –I mean, work with us?”

“Exactly. Shall we move forward now? From here we have to leave the car parked and climb that small hill.”

“A hike was not in our agenda was it?”

“Just received her actual whereabouts.” Jongin smiled sheepishly. “She’s been living in that area since about two years, experimenting natural fabric dyeing and designing summer outfits for an Austrian company.”

“Let’s go.” Jisoo opened the door and hopped out of his car, and glanced at the small mountain covered with hedges and spreading upwards in front of her eyes.

“Let’s get her to say yes by any means!”

I’ll do that much for Daya, for the time I get to spend with him.

The walk uphill wasn’t easy, especially given how both of them weren’t dressed in anything Suitable for hiking, and given how steeper the hill and narrower the path became with each five minutes passed.

“Break…please…” Jisoo leaned on a nearby eucalyptus trunk after climbing up nonstop for twenty minutes since their last break. And Jongin stopped to turn around and run back to her. “Is it difficult? Should we return? I can send someone else here if it’s too hard for you.”

“It’s okay…” the girl straightened, and gave him a grin. “Let’s just get this done before sunset.”

And he blinked, feigning curiosity. “Why before sunset? What are you planning to do?”

“Returning home of course. What else?” she gave a knowing smirk and started walking uphill again, only to hear him groan in despair and follow here. “You promised to stay with me for a whole day! As in a square twenty four hours! Yah Jo Daya! I’m not letting you go home that early!!!”

* * *

After nearly two hours of panting and dragging their feet along the foot path, the young couple finally reached an open area in the woody mountain. It appeared to be a spacious garden, with bushes of Azalea edging the short fence in all shades of pink, centring a small yet well built house hidden behind a several cloth lines, laden with freshly dried fabric drying in the afternoon sun.

“Unnie would love this.”

“Who?”

Jongin’s question brought Jisoo back to earth and drained all the blood out of her face. “Ah, I mean, my friend Jisoo’s sister would love this. She’ll do anything if she gets to live in a cottage like this after getting married. Instead she’ll be living in a million dollar mansion.”

“Getting married to a rich guy I assume?” Jongin asked, not knowing that ‘Rich Guy’ he mentioned was one of his closest hyungs.

“Yeah, filthy rich.”

Like you Jongin. And unlike me.

“Let’s go. She must be in.”

First, they had to stand by the door for longer than fifteen minutes, occasionally knocking on the