Jung Hyerim, aged twenty-five, the only daughter of the Chairman of Jung-Shim Constructions, decided to run away on her wedding day.

As cliche as it was, she probably always aspired to be a runaway bride. They were spoken of so highly in books and movies- the bride, insolent and high-headed, shedding not a tear as she sat in the subway carriage, still in her rented wedding dress. The rented dress and the subway carriage were of course not on her list tonight. But the courage of an unknown runaway bride gave her the strength that she very much needed. It’s their legacy that made the impossible, possible. And Kim Sung Gyu was probably right. There was a way when she thought enough about it.

So she returned to her dressing room, off her tiara and her four-foot imported silk veil. Then she sprayed it with generous amounts of perfume and hairspray until it lay damp and splayed on the ground. She lit the snake-embossed lighter, it's flame small but bright and promising, then she let a tiny edge her veil burn.

The room lit up like wildfire.

It was complete pandemonium thereafter, but Hyerim took her own sweet, sweet time. She changed out of her rhinestone wedding dress, not because she cherished it, but because it was just too heavy to run in if it was running that she was doing  tonight. She changed into another one of the dresses hanging in the cupboard; flowy, silk, flower printed in pastel colors. It was supposed to be what she’d wear tonight, at the after-party of the wedding reception. But what could she do? There would not be one, after all.

As the fire spread across the carpeted floor of the dressing room, the veil liquified and disappeared into nothing, just like her desire to stay in this marriage of hers. She allowed the fire to consume every bit of her past bit by bit; the veil, the dresses, the perfumes, and expensive cosmetics. They would later have to compensate their wedding dresser heavily, but that was nothing for her to deal with.

Carrying the pride of the unknown runaway bride, Jung Hyerim cooly walked out of the dressing room, and down to the corridor by the bathrooms close to the fire escape. Then she broke the glass to the fire alarm with the heel of her shoe. That was when she let hell break lose. It was incredible. It was the best day of her life. 

The next few minutes were like waiting for the bomb to drop. There was silence before the storm, despite the fire alarm blaring warning sirens. She watched as hotel workers started running in every direction, and gave a non committal smile to that one who stared at her for a second, completely dumbfounded. It was that waiter, the one who’d offered her champagne. Perhaps he would understand what was happening tonight.

It wasn’t long before somebody realised that the dressing room was on fire. If she stayed long, she would be caught and tossed in jail for arson. It would happen now or later, of course. Preferring the latter, Hyerim made her way down to the fire exit, pushed open the door and made the flight two storeys down.

At the foot of the fire exit was a man standing one foot down on a motor cycle. Taking in his leather jacket and the dark, completely concealing helmet, Hyerim wondered if the word had circulated and her father’s guards were already down chasing her. But then the man’s face shield lifted. In the dark little space of the full-faced helmet, Kim Sung Gyu’s glorious two eyes smiled.

“Come on,” his voice, muffled called for her. He gestured with his leather clad hands.

Hyerim took one quick glance behind her. Footsteps were already echoing down the stairs. They would be chasing after her before too long. She gathered her skirt and ran down to her knight in shining armour.

“I didn’t think you would come” 

He handed her a helmet, a jacket. 

“Thought you would like a helping hand”

Hyerim helped herself into the jacket, strapped on her head gear. 

“I could compensate you for half the night you miss, Sung Gyu-Ssi”

“Yeah?” He said breathlessly, raving the bike to life. “What do you have in mind?”

“Well, I could-”

The hundreds of footsteps in the stairwell grew closer, and Sung Gyu’s bike pushed forth.

“Hold on tight, Jung Hyerim-Ssi”

Hyerim’s arms wrapped around his torso, her cheek pressed on the slope of his back. It was the most dependent she had ever been on a man, a complete stranger; but it was a dependence she felt safest in the most.

“All good?”

“Hm” Hyerim nodded. “Let’s go”

For the first time in 25 years of her life, Jung Hyerim was flying through Seoul city, its cold, sharp wind on her face. The whole town passed by her in kaleidocopic colors; and vehicles were closer to her, almost touchable. When it drizzled, just the slightest, she felt goosebumps raise on her skin; when they stopped in the traffic, she could see the dew splayed on their windscreen, droplets of rain racing each other in a different direction. In that moment Jung Hyerim realised there was so much more to life than she had ever lived before., She had never sat on the back of a Motorcycle with the wind in her hair, flying down the roads with her arms around a singer that sang like he knew love to its last thread and smiled with his eyes. Perhaps it was how damsels in distress felt being rescued by her knight on a horse and in shining armour. Hyerim never thought of herself a damsel in distress, never wanted to be rescued. But if this was what it felt like, she’d be a damsel in distress any day.

“Where are we going to?” Hyerim asked him when they stopped for the red light. Sung Gyu turned to her the slightest. His voice was muffled and distant when he spoke.

“Do you have anywhere in mind?”

“Me?” Hyerim laughed. None of the things happening tonight was planned out for her. Even if it was, she would have no idea where to go. “I literally only know my house and where I work”

“Then I think I know where to start” He said, and pulled down his face shield when the lights turned green.

It was quite a lengthy ride, but every bit she felt like she was flying through a dream. She had never seen so many people, so many vehicles, so many trees. Sitting in the comfort of her own black-shuttered car, listening to the local radio playing the same songs over and over again, Hyerim had never really paid attention to anything that had happened around her. She’d never seen the bikes slipping through the narrow paths between cars, she had never seen people putting their hands out to stop the taxies on the road. She had never seen couples parting ways, waving goodbye to their lovers boarding the bus. It was a wholly different world.

And soon, Sung Gyu’s bike was pulling through vibrant narrow streets, flamboyant and bursting with nightly street goers. So many young people, chatting and laughing and living their best lives. Everything that Hyerim had wished she had, but never had the chance to. Little by little, Kim Sung Gyu was showing the ordinary world to her.

The bike stopped after ascending quite a slope of a narrow road, and Sung Gyu set the bike up on its stand. He climbed down and held a helping hand out to her. Hyerim took off her helmet and placed it in his waiting arm.

“Please don’t tell me you brought me here to sell to an organ farm”

“Worse” Sung Gyu widened his eyes in emphasis and took her jacket from her. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you”

“I’m scared now”

He smiled, his narrow eyes glinting, that she immediately trusted him like a fool.

 “Don’t worry, you will only lose one arm. Come on”

They appeared to have stopped at a shop of some sort. There were clothes on white plastic manequins; hanboks of different colors and modern designs, costumes of super heroes and cartoon characters and even a lacy bridal dress. There were handbags and wall hangars and other fancy little trinkets made of cloth hung on display. And among all of that were several massive posters of whom Hyerim recognised as Kim Sung Gyu performing on stage.

“Wait” She stopped at the foot of the store. “Why are you hanging on the walls” She glanced at the front door and was shocked to find another, close up image of him greeting her like a mannequin. “Why is there another one on the door?” She turned to him. “Is this a shrine made by your most loyal fans?” Then, gasping at the realisation. “Did you bring me here to be murdered?”

Sung Gyu let out a heavy sigh and buried his hands in his pockets. “I’ve told them to stop hanging me all over the store-,”

“What-?”

He walked ahead of her, climbed the few short steps in a hurry and pushed open the door. A bell tinkled overhead of him and he entered, yelling over his lungs “Omma! Why is there a poster of me on the door!”

‘Omma’ His mother. A flurry of comforting butterflies fluttered inside her. Of course, his mother would hang Kim Sung Gyu, a celebrity son, all over her little clothes store.

But then she paused as soon as she followed his footsteps and came inside. Kim Sung Gyu had brought her to see his mum. 

“Omma’s not home, why are you yelling?” A voice of a woman emerged from somewhere, and Hyerim was glad, for a moment, to hear that the mother wasn’t available. But that didn’t help the fact that she was a complete stranger, in a bridal dress, standing in the middle of presumably this woman’s mother’s store, having been invited in by her brother.

“Oh” the woman’s voice went, much closer now. Hyerim looked up to see Sung Gyu’s sister standing in the middle of the store, a baby hanging on her front.

“Sung Gyu, you brought your girlfriend?”

Sung Gyu took to stand beside her, made the necessary introductions. “Hyerim, this is my noona, noona, this is Jung Hyerim. She is not my girlfriend”

“That’s what they all say” The sister muttered and greeted her with a small bow. The baby in her arms said some gibberish in her baby voice. Although Hyerim bowed in return, she felt like she was put in some alien world. She had never come to shops like this before. She had never seen women with actual babies hanging by a little hammock on their chests. It was not how she had imagined running away to be like.

“Look at her, she’s terrified” The sister reprimanded Sung Gyu who was now walking around the store, haphazardly going through clothes on hangars. 

“She’s just terrified of you” Sung Gyu gave her a knowing look across the store and held out a long sleeved, puffy collared blouse. “Do you think this fits you?”

“Why would she need other clothes, she’s-” The sister turned to her, looked at her up and down and blinked, taken aback. “Oh,”

“She’s a bride” Sung Gyu called from behind them. “And she’s running away from her miserable marriage” There was a strange but playful glint in his eyes. “I’m just helping her”

The words seemed to echo in the quiet of the store, and his sister took a moment to register them.

“Bride? Running away? Miserable marriage?” she exclaimed as if they were all completely alien concepts. She glanced between the bride and her brother in bewilderment.

“Sung Gyu, what on earth have you been doing?”

Sung Gyu shrugged, said nothing as if he kidnapped people’s brides on a daily basis. Not wanting her saviour to be reprimanded for supporting her crazy, ill-thought plans, Hyerim finally stepped in. 

“He’s just helping me, it’s true”

His sister looked back at her, her eyes widened like dishes. 

“I wanted to run away from my wedding” She continued, her head lowered apologetically. “It’s crazy, I know, but after I saw Kim Sung Gyu-Ssi singing tonight…I realised I had so much I have never lived”

The sisted looked at her as if she had grown two horns. “And you decided to elope with him?”

It was taking an unexpected turn. Hyerim looked at Sung Gyu for support, freaking out a little. Thankfully, he filed in for her rescue for a second time tonight.

“No, she was just running away on her own” He came to her with a bunch of clothes in his arms. “I figured she couldn’t do it by her self, in a wedding dress and all”

The sister, still completely mystified, looked at the two of them back and forth as if they were a pair of exotic zoo animals. The baby broke the silence by starting to cry. Only then did she finally give in. 

“Jesus crist” She said, throwing her hands in exasperation “Omma will be so proud of you”

Hyerim had read a few books about runaway brides. They would just pick up their dress and take the next train heading nowhere, end up at some unknown rural village where they would meet a handsome farmer riding horses and trying to save the town from rich people planning to build a mall on top of it; she’d fall in love with him for his strong morals and strong arms; to later realise that the whole purpose of her existence was to marry him and stop the rich people from building the mall.  Perhaps that’s what she had expected when she spontaneously decided to run away tonight. Go to an unknown small town, fall in love with ths farmer guy. But instead she was in an a strange, unknown clothes shop decorated with posters of the famous singer she ran away with, trying on about dozens of skirts, blouses and pants while the singer and his sister argued outside in hushed whispers. 

Hyerim couldn’t really make out whet they were saying, yet she could tell she had put Sung Gyu in deep trouble. It was both a concern and a relief; concern that she had somehow put him into an unnecessary amount of pain and inconvenience, dragging him into this mishapen mess of her life, but also a relief to know that she was not potentially kidnapped and being trafficked for work. The problem was that Hyerim would never know how to tell a apart a good man from a bad one; she had known only a handful of men, and initially she had thought her husband to be was a good person, judging by his warm smiles and all…until he started showing his truest self. So how could she tell, rather than going along with her instinct?

And her instinct was telling her that it was okay to put herself into those shabby-looking handmade clothes with no brand nor design and pretend to be somebody else for a night until she figured out what she did after this.

“Okay” Sung Gyu’s sister’s voice came from the other side of the curtain of the fit-on room. “We had a chat, he told me everything, and I know who you are. But Hyerim-Ssi, he will only help you to find a hotel room, and you will have to figure out the rest, okay?”

Anyone who knew who she was would never want to compromise the life of their loved ones, not even that far. It was only fair, and Hyerim could understand her.

She held a silk blouse against her strapless bra and stared at her half self on the mirror. “Okay” She said. “I understand”

“Noona” Hyerim heard Sung Gyu’s voice from a distance and the baby’s gurgles. He was whining like a child. 

“Sung Gyu, I’m six years older than you, you listen to me”

“I shouldn’t have brought her here!”

“Sung Gyu, I told you once-!”

As if in response, the baby started gurgling again. Hyerim imagined the baby in his arms, in the little baby hammock and all. Him smiling with his eyes, and making faces. Hyerim couldn’t help the smile breaking on her lips.

“And Hyerim-Ssi?”

Hyerim perked up and looked to the curtain as if she could see her on the other side.

“Yeah?”

The sister cleared . “Take as many clothes as you need…including underwear and all of that”

Looking back at her self on the mirror in the tube bra, the flimsy underwear and the garret she had put herself in, the sister was making a lot of sense.

“Thanks” Hyerim called back.

“Don’t mention it!”

It turned out you had to carry your wallet when you run away. She was learning new things every step of the way. Hyerim did not think of that because her finances and all her calls were always managed by somebody else (Hwayoung, poor girl would have to see hell for a few days) She had gravely miscalculated that segment of her spontaneous running away plans, and now she owed an unknown amount of money to this small town vendor who wouldn’t even share their bank number with her.

“You can’t get your assistant to transfer money, Hyerim-Ssi” Sung Gyu was telling her as he simultaneously pulled out his card from his wallet. “You’re running away, remember? You’re not supposed to give away your location”

“And you can’t use your cards” His sister put in as she swiped Sung Gyu’s card on the machine.

“Why not?” Hyerim looked between them, back and forth. Had she come along with her cards, she wouldn’t have fussed anyone with doing her purchases. She had large sums of money sitting in her accounts, waiting to be spent.

But that didn’t seem to be the case, because Sung Gyu was laughing.

“Hyerim-Ssi, you card would still give away your location”

Hyerim tilted her head, c contemplating how the hell the card did that, especially if the card was hers. Where was her privacy?

“That’s not nice” She commented, making Sung Gyu laugh even more.

“You haven’t done this alot, have you?” Sung Gyu’s sister pointed out as she handed the card back to her brother.

Hyerim shrugged. How often did one run away from their own wedding? 

“It’s my first time”

The sister gave her a tight smile. “There’s always a first time”

Hyerim could have expected her first time to be a lot worse than this; but thanks to Sung Gyu who was taking on a responsibility that he didn’t even have to, Hyerim had a backpack full of clothes to last for a few days and a blond wig on to hide her identity. They were in Itaewon, he said; a town she had only seen on the news and social media, and apparently there were security cameras and police officers in every corner of the street. Did he want to get caught by the police for possibly kidnapping the only daughter and heir of Jung-Shim conglomerate? Probably not, and it wasn’t even what he implied (“You would get caught if you don’t use a disguise”) but he probably really wanted to avoid jail-time; Hyerim could understand.

As soon as the two of them exited his mother’s clothes store (After an emotional goodbye from his sister although he insisted he would come back home tonight, and him hugging his baby niece for a moment too long that made Hyerim feel…funny things) she skipped her way to the bike in expectance of him driving her to the nearest hotel and bringing the night to an end. Much to her amazement, however, Sung Gyu pulled on his leather jacket over the suit he was still in and reached for her sleeve.

“Have you ever been to Itaewon before?”

Hyerim smiled. It was as if he had read her mind.