“Did you hear that Park Mina got engaged to Jeong Jaehyun this summer?”

“Yeah!  I mean, it’s only natural right? They both grew up as best friends and their dads both are best friends.”

“Not to mention now they get to merge their advertising and publishing companies together. Talk about power couple.”

“But wait, wasn’t Mina engaged to someone before this? Her high school sweetheart or something?”

“I remember now! His name was Choi Minho! But during her first year of college, his third, he passed away in a freak plane crash…”

“It’s been a couple of years. I mean, she’s about to finish the graduate school for business! Surely she’s moved on. I can’t imagine how it was like for her though.”

“To be honest, what does she have to complain about? She may have lost Minho but Jaehyun is also a catch.”

Mina clenched her hands into fists and bit her the insides of as she stood silently a couple feet from the gossiping girls. She was shaking with rage as she heard them talk about her life. Those girls hadn’t noticed that the very person they were speaking about was only a couple of feet away from them. Granted she was wearing sunglasses and had half her face covered with her hair, but even then they were being loud so anyone could hear their juvenile conversation.

They must have been undergraduate students at Seoul National University based on the information they did know, because anyone that was closer to her age knew that Choi Minho was the greatest love of her life and she did not just simply move on to Jaehyun. A mental breakdown in front of the whole school would cause anyone to close themselves away and Jaehyun was the only one to break through those walls and make her human again. Basically, he was the only one Mina could trust at that point in her life and things naturally progressed from there.

It was Mina’s last first day of graduate school, and all she wanted to do was get a cup of coffee before heading to her first class of the school year. The previous week before school was a busy one for her, as she not only moved into a new apartment complex to be closer to her soon-to-be husband but also had to attend her official engagement party with Jaehyun. Their parents had insisted on the party while they had a somewhat free schedule and her and Jaehyun being obedient children had no choice but to oblige. She was spent from the moving and festivities and the last thing she wanted to deal with was girls that didn’t know anything about her situation.

“Park Mina! Your vanilla macchiato is ready!”

The gossiping girls suddenly froze mid-sentence as they looked over in fear to where Mina stood. Silently they watched her walk up to the counter, grab her coffee, and walk over to where they stood.  With her free hand, Mina moved her sunglasses to the top of her head to show her stone-cold gaze.

“I’ll make sure to tell Jaehyun you all said hi,” Mina retorted before brushing past them, making her way to her first class of the day.

One thing the entire school knew, despite of how long they’ve been on campus, was that Park Mina was reigning ice queen. Ever since she lost Minho, she only knew how to act cold and distant, with the exception of when Jaehyun was around.

Others that had seen the whole situation unfold, how could they not when the girls weren’t exactly being quiet and Mina having the presence that she did, started to whisper about what just happened.

“I hope those girls aren’t majoring in business or else they just ended their career before they even got started,” Mina heard a bystander say as she made her way out of the school’s café.

“Damn straight,” Mina said to herself before sipping on her coffee, already compartmentalizing the last 5 minutes in an imaginary box in her head so that she could focus on the day ahead. One more year and Mina could finally escape the campus of memories that haunted her every single night. She just had to make the strides and finish her last year on a strong note so that her family wouldn’t be so resistant to her moving away from Korea.

Leaving Korea was all she ever wanted ever since Minho died because she felt, just like her campus, every corner of the city was filled with painful memories she couldn’t seem to erase from her mind. She couldn’t travel anywhere within this country without having her heart shattered as she remembered her first kiss, her first date, her first everything with Minho. His presence lingered and haunted her no matter where she went and she had to escape.

“You’re here earlier than anyone else, as usual,” a voice said as she entered the lecture hall, not even aware that she had walked all the way across campus already to her destination. That’s what usually happened though when Mina started thinking about Minho, she would go into autopilot mode.

She smiled at her fiancé, albeit it was still strange to her that they were anything more than friends at times. “Apparently not as you can see. What are you doing here so early anyways, Jaehyun?”

“I couldn’t sleep, had too much coffee yesterday while I was trying to help you move your things so that we can finally be floor neighbors,” he chuckled as he hopped off the table he was sitting on and made his way to Mina.

She bit her lip, knowing what was coming next. Jaehyun had always respected her space and was very patient with her when it came to showing affection, but he couldn’t help but do one thing every time they greeted one another. Before she could give a response to him, he gently took her into his arms and gave her a warm, soft peck on the forehead. “Good morning,” he said against her skin as his kiss lingered.

“Good morning,” she said back shyly as she removed herself from his arms and making her way to the table he had just came from, which was situated to be the professor’s table that separated the class from the lecturer. She knew his eyes followed her every move and her cheeks burned at the thought.

Jaehyun made Mina feel again, it was as simple as that. He had known her since they were children in the sandbox together and grew up as best friends. He watched her grow up into a stunning woman, watched her endless accomplishments, and eventually, watched her heart break into a million pieces on that fateful day. Jaehyun had always been the friend in the shadows to Mina in the past and he was content with it because he knew how in love she was with the upperclassman known as Choi Minho. While she was falling deeper and deeper in love with him, Jaehyun felt like his spirit was fading. All he wanted to was see her happy but he hated that he wasn’t the one to make her happy.

Everything changed, however, the day Choi Minho died in a plane crash. How he wished over and over that he could take her pain away, that Minho would miraculously come back alive, that if he could he would trade places with Minho so she could smile again. They had no control over that fateful day, however, and all he could do was to hold her, cry with her, and be there for her. Day and night he stood by her until she could be herself again, although he thought the old Mina would never really come back 100%. It didn’t matter though, because he loved Park Mina no matter what.

And eventually, after years of helping her mend her heart, she gave him the chance he had always been waiting for. Mina wasn’t blind, she felt his love too and was so thankful that he was always there for her. How could she not develop feelings for the man that has seen her at her worst and still managed to love her. She wouldn’t even know what kind of person she would be right now if it wasn’t for him. Apparently her parents also witnessed this development and not long after their revelation did they set up the engagement as a thank you to Jaehyun and as security for their only child.

“Are you ready for your first class, professor?” Jaehyun teased as he watched her get out her lesson plans and set them up on the table.

She nodded her head in amusement and smirked slightly, “How about you, co-professor? Are YOU ready to be up here with me?”

Jaehyun’s heart felt full as she , as it was rare she was so comfortable to say her thoughts out loud nowadays. It was probably because no one else was in the room yet, but he’d take what he could get. “Hey, I am no professor. I am more like the teacher’s assistant. You started this class. Me, Sooyoung, and Johnny are just following your lead.”

Park Sooyoung was Mina’s cousin and fellow graduate student classmate, while Johnny was just another fellow classmate. They both had invaluable connections to different business ventures, fashion and social media, that would help her pilot class run