A typical day of customer service. Customers come in and out of the store and Jihyo gives them her best customer service throughout the day because that’s how professional she was. She’d smile and bow and speak with her best manners, even if they were disgusting and rude. “Come back again,” She’d say, but sometimes, she wouldn’t mean it.

But today wasn’t a typical day. A handsome man with wide, broad shoulders stepped into the store and asked for Jihyo. A coworker of Jihyo directs him directly to her.

“Hi, Jihyo?” He greeted awkward, “I’m Daniel. Do you have some time to talk?”

Jihyo raised her eyebrow in doubt. What in the heck was he alluding to? He seemed like some sort of pyramid scheming , but it was whatever. He was a customer, nonetheless.

She greeted him with a customer-friendly smile. “Of course,” She replied, “What would you like to talk about?”

“Oh, great,” Daniel cleared his throat. He seemed nervous. “It’s actually about your parents… Do you have time now, or should I come back later?”

…Her parents? Jihyo didn’t know her parents. She stared at him for a moment, puzzled. What did this man know about her parents? He silenced her – but just as she was trying to get her thoughts together, her manager began to signal death threats from his position, telling her to cut the business and get back to work.

With a deep breath, Jihyo brought her consciousness back together. “If it’s a personal matter, I’ll be off at 9,” She replied with a smile, but the focus in her eyes seemed to be elsewhere – the thought of her parents must have stirred something up in her. “If you have any questions about our products, then I’d love to answer them now,” she smoothly transitioned their conversation.

But he gave her an awkward, stretched smile as he waved both of his hands at her. “I’ll come back when you’re done with work,” He replied as he stepped away and out the door.

Who was that man? Jihyo was unfocused at work for the entirety of her shift because of him.

Finally, her shift was over. Jihyo unwound in the store’s break room. She took off her work shoes and switched them with her walking shoes and changed into her street clothes. She was a simple girl. A t-shirt and jeans with sneakers. She didn’t have much other choice with her budget. Honestly, at this time of the day, she had already completely forgotten about the cryptic man with the message about her parents and it was a startling reminder to see him outside of the back entrance to the store. She had wished he were only trolling.

Clutching onto her chest, Jihyo took a deep breath and smiled at Daniel. “What are you doing here?” She had asked him, despite knowing exactly what his intentions were. “Can we speak somewhere private?” She asked, not wanting any of her coworkers that would pass by through the back entrance any idea of her life.

It seemed that Daniel had gotten caught off guard by the way she reacted to him. He fumbled over his words, “I – er- My car is running right there,’ He said as he pointed to a fancy car with a driver already in it, “Come in with me.”

Jihyo was suspicious. It felt like she was about to get kidnapped or something. She interrupted his suggestion with a suggestion of her own, “How about we just talk somewhere in public?”

But apparently public wouldn’t work for this man.

He looked around before he proceeded to say what he was about to say, shaking his head gently. “I can’t tell you what I need to tell you in public,” He replied, “It’s a sensitive topic.”

But the more he tried to hide the information he tried to get across, the more sketchy it seemed to be.

“Look,” Jihyo replied, “I am not getting into a stranger’s car until I get a full, clear explanation on what’s going on.”

…Alright, Daniel knew this was going to happen, but the way she was going along with things earlier seemed to be like a homerun for whatever he was trying to do and he wasn’t prepared for this. “I swear,” He swore, pretty insincerely, “I’m not here to scam you or kidnap you or steal your identity or anything. I’m here to tell you something important about your grandpa – your biological maternal grandfather.”

Yeah, no, that actually was exactly what a scammer/kidnapper/identity thief would say. Jihyo was astonished that she actually believed him earlier. She bit her lip, unable to fathom that she almost fell for a scam because she let the subject of her parents stir her up. “Actually, you know what,” She sighed in defeat, “I don’t have the time for this.”

Jihyo turned away from Daniel, but there was somewhat of an impatient panic in his eyes and he touched her shoulder. “Wait, no,” He called out, “I have proof just-”

“Well then come back with the proof tomorrow,” She interrupted.

The door opened, illuminating the two in the midst of their conversation. Jihyo’s coworker stood there, looking guilty as if she walked in on something she shouldn’t have walked in on, then quietly stepped away towards her destination, minding her own business.

But Jihyo took this moment to escape the situation, her footsteps catching up to her coworker. “Let’s go home together,” She called out to her, leaving Daniel in her dust.

Daniel kicked his foot into the dirt. “I have the proof today,” He muttered to himself as he stumbled back to his car in frustration.

Tomorrow came and Daniel showed up at Jihyo’s workplace as soon as it opened with a fat folder full of documents. Again, he asked for Jihyo, but she supposedly wasn’t working today. He took a deep breath because he had work to get to and couldn’t waste all of his time chasing around some girl. He gave Jihyo’s coworkers his gratitude and exited the shop – only to make eye contact with Jihyo on her way to work.

Damn, who would have known her coworkers would have just straight up lied?

Jihyo did. She told them to. She just didn’t expect him to be there so early. Quickly, she averted eye contacted and avoided running into him.

But he kept walking in her way with his stupid broad shoulders.

“What do you want?” She asked with an attitude in her tone.

Daniel handed the folder to Jihyo. “You wanted proof.”

She looked at the folder, then at him suspiciously, opening the folder as if snakes were going to pop out of it.

And there it was. Proof. Her birth certificate, her mother, her father, her family, records of her adoption, baby pictures of her she never knew existed. Her hands began to tremble, she could barely hold the folder as she read through the papers. “I need to go inside,” She said after a long moment of silence, her eyes glued to the documents.

She closed the folder and handed it back to Daniel. “Don’t leave,” She directed, “I’ll be back in just a second.”  

The two of them sat in Daniel’s car. Jihyo kept reading the documents in the folder as Daniel sat there patiently, giving her time to let it all sink in.

Her mother was a rich, spoiled heiress who was given everything she wanted from her father as his only child. She would grow up to be a reckless teenager, invincible to the world. She could have anything she want and her daddy’s company was going to be hers when he died – there was nothing anybody could do about it. Not even her. Daddy was set on passing the company down the family. He wanted his descendants to live like kings, to never struggle like he did. But he never expected that living like kings had its setbacks. His daughter ran wild with rebellion. It was all , drugs, and rock and roll for her – she literally ran away to go on tour as a groupie for a rock band. A year and a half later, she found out she was pregnant with one of the band member’s child a little too late. Between all of the drinking, smoking, and needles, she miscarried. It was her wakeup call when nobody cared.

She flew overseas to admit herself into rehab. But honestly, it only made things worse. She was introduced to drugs she hadn’t even heard of before and rehab after rehab, she just kept spiraling down – that was until she met Jihyo’s father. He was a professor at an Ivy League who did drug and grief counselling. She felt like he was the only person in the world who understood her.

Professor Park. He was so perfect. He was smart, he was empathetic, he was so progressive. He was also married to the perfect woman with the most perfect children in a two-story home with a white picket fence. He was perfect until he met Jihyo’s mother.

When she found out she was pregnant again, she was determined to keep this baby. She wasn’t going to lose it again like she did the other one. Even as Professor Park begged her not to keep the baby so that he could continue to live his picture perfect life, she was determined to do all that she could to hold onto the baby. He didn’t need to be in the picture.

Park Jihyo was born on February 1^st, 1997 as Jisoo Park in Berkeley, CA. Her name was changed to Jihyo when she was put in an superstitious adoption home in Korea after her mother gave her up at two years old. This new name, although would give her struggle in her early life, would give her a long, prosperous life as opposed to the name she was born with, which would have given her easy fortune but a life of misery. Funny enough, it was this name change that had made the search for her take so long.  Although Jihyo’s mother tried her hardest to raise Jihyo on her own, she went back on a slippery slope of drug abuse when she returned to Korea and she only wanted the best for her daughter. After giving Jihyo up for adoption, she disappeared off the face of the earth.

Jihyo was adopted when she was five years old by an older couple who couldn’t have children. They treasured Jihyo like she was their own, but sickness overcame her adopted mother and she passed away when Jihyo was ten. Her adopted father began to work intensely to support Jihyo on his sole income, but began to show signs of dementia as Jihyo entered high school, and soon enough, Jihyo became the breadwinner of the family. Instead of studying, Jihyo dropped out of high school to work. Somebody needed to pay the medical bills – but eventually, even that stopped. Jihyo was now working just to support herself.

“Who are you?” Jihyo asked after reading the files thoroughly, “Who put this together?” She was distraught. How did anybody know more about her than she did?

“I- Well,” Daniel couldn’t think of a good way to respond, “I’m your fiancé.”