Tomorrow turned into days and days into weeks, but Ji-won seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth.  Tae-yang hadn't been able to catch a glimpse of her and according to Seung-ri, he had ceased to see her as well.  According to Seung-ri, the only proof he had of her existence was their daily trash routine; Ji-won left by her door and Seung-ri picked it up.  She had also recently left some packed food for him in a bag on his door as well.  Tae-yang , just a lot jealous, wondered if she would do the same for him if he lived just as close.  He also wondered what had been keeping her so busy.  Normally, they would at least meet on the way in or out, but for the past couple of months there was nothing.  He enjoyed his best friend’s company but was not up to another reckless party.  Unlike Seung-ri, he only looked the part and didn’t quite like to fool around as much, albeit Seung-ri might say differently.  He left Seung-ri's apartment one more time without the chance to talk with her. 

Again, she was out at a nearby café working on corrections.  Being good friends with the owner Art, he often let her pull all-nighters after the café closed.  She even had her own key to the place.  Lately she had turned into a recluse.  The endowment planning was a huge undertaking.  She needed to spend day and night working on this project and sometimes when she was too focused, the rest of the world ceased to exist.  She tried to convince herself this was the reason, but she knew there was also that other underlying issue picking at her brain.  Seeing Seung-hyun again made her want to close herself off from the world.  As always work helped her to do just that.  It had also helped her the last time.  Instead of pondering on the matter any longer, she continued to sip away at her caramel and vanilla crème coffee.  That was the other reason she liked being here.  Art always let her have as much coffee as she wanted.   Tonight, she was in charge of closing because he had to leave early. 

It was just past one in the morning and Tae-yang was again standing outside Ji-won’s door.  He was leaving Seung-ri’s but wanted to see if she was home, again.  He was starting to feel a little like a stalker.  After leaving the first time, he had decided to return to the party.   Everyone he knew had been there and so he would have had no one to hang out with if he hadn’t come back.  It didn’t help much because his mind still continued to wander to the door across the hall.  Dwelling on Ji-won, he recalled again that they hadn’t spoken to each other for so many months, and he was starting to miss seeing her around when he was over at Seung-ri’s.  He felt so, well, odd.  Seung-ri was suddenly becoming an excuse and not the reason.  After that spontaneous kiss, however brief it had been and if you could really even call it that, he found that Ji-won began to occupy much of his mind.  He missed her presence.  He missed her laugh.  It was so strange.  He still wasn’t sure how to tell Seung-ri.  

Without success, he exited the building.  He looked up at the fifth floor and not so much as a single light was on.  It used to be the light would be on until two or three in the morning.  Silently, he walked home but his mind continued to stray back to the dark apartment.  Was she seeing him again?   It didn’t make much sense though.  Seung-ri would have mentioned something, wouldn’t he?  Tae-yang was driving himself insane.     

The bustling of cars had ceased although there were a few cabs still driving here and there.  The sky was rather clear tonight but lights from the skyscrapers overshadowed what little stars could be seen.  He passed by a couple drunk school girls followed by a few of their fellow drunk classmates.  He wondered what kids were coming to these days, drunk on school nights.  He and his friends at least waited until the weekend to do any kind of partying. 

A lone glow from a dark window caught his attention.  He was drawn to it and couldn’t help but walk over to see what was inside.  He had never paid much attention to this lone building before.  It looked miniscule, like an ant, next to the towering apartment complexes surrounding it.  He peered in to seek out the source of the glow and there she was before him, the one person he had wanted to see for the past few months, the one person, if he had it his way, he would see every night.  His heart beat quickened and he even had to take a few deep breaths to calm his nerves. The light came from her laptop but she was asleep. He couldn’t quite tell but it must not have been long.  There was paper scattered all over the table.  Her head lay on one arm while the other was still holding on to a cup of coffee. 

As if on cue, she startled awake and wiped with the back of her hand.  A habit she had picked up after Seung-ri told her she drooled.  She tried to slip her hand out of the mug handle but ended up spilling it instead.  She jumped out of the chair and immediately shuffled paper around and mopped it up with her documents.  Immediately after she let out a scream when she realized what she was using to soak the coffee. 

She was entertaining even when she didn’t mean to be.  Tae-yang smiled at her clumsiness and knocked on the window.  He had never seen her with her glasses off; she was gorgeous to him either way. She fumbled for her glasses to see who it was at this time of night.  It took a few minutes before her mind registered who it was.  She smiled and waved.     

“Tae-yang!” she exclaimed after opening the door.  Then in a more solemn tone she added, “What do you want?”

“Let me in.  I want something to drink.”

“I’m not supposed to.  Go away.  I’m still working on some stuff.”  She tried to close the door but he stuck his foot in the doorway. 

“It sure didn’t look like it to me.” 

“I was just resting my eyes.  Do you know how late it is?  You need to go home.”  She tried pushing his foot out but he wouldn’t budge.

“C’mon, let me in.”

“No.”

“C’mon,” he begged. 

“Alright, fine but you have to leave after one cup of coffee.”  One cup of coffee turned into four as they sat and recalled the trip to the amusement park.

“How is Yu-ri?  Is she still with that guy?”

“Don’t remind me.  He turned out to be a decent enough person,  I guess, but she’s still in that honeymoon period.  She dances around the house and draws hearts all day.”

“Aww!  Tell her I said hi!  Tell her we can go on a double date again.  Well, they can do the whole dating thing and we’ll just tag a long.”

“Stop being a girl.  I like you better when you’re around Seung-ri,” he lied.

“Yeah, right.  You know you love me!” 

Ji-won meant it purely as a joke but Tae-yang blushed and she couldn’t stop laughing.  He had hoped she didn’t see anything but he never seemed to be that lucky around her.    

“Oh my god!  Did you just blush?!” she laughed and threatened to tell Seung-ri. 

“Noona, now you’re acting like a child.  What is this place?  Do you own this?"

"It's this little cafe that everyone just kind of forgot about, except for the regulars."

"How many times have I been here and I never noticed it?"

"Hello?  All the time."

No matter what he said, she always had some kind of smart remark.  He smiled.  His nervousness around her didn't completely disappear but he felt comfortable, like this was where he should be.  

"Wait, you want something other than coffee to drink?"  

"Sure.  How about a caramel macchiato?"

"Uh, I don't know how to do that."

"Okay, how about a mocha?"

"Uh..."

"What do you know how to make?"

She turned the light on behind the counter and got some grounds from the machine.  

"I only know how to make a latte.  Is a latte okay?"  she smiled.

"No, just a little."  

"Ha, ha.  That was just so funny and original."  He laughed at her sarcasm.  

She made the latte first packing the grounds and using the espresso machine.  Her hands were moving so fast.  She poured milk into the expresso and he looked on, amazed.  She laid in front of him a latte with leaves created just by pouring the milk like a true barista.

"I always wanted to do that for someone.  It's the only design Art taught me because he says I'm too impatient." She looked at it, just a little proud that someone would be able to drink something she made here, other than Art of course.

" Art taught you art?  That's pretty funny, don't you think?"  he chuckled to himself.  

They sat at the counter and talked about nothing in particular, catching up on the past few months.   

“Oh crap!”  Ji-won looked at her watch and it was already 6 A.M.  Where did the time go? 

“What?” 

“How good are you with letters of commitment?”

“Um, I know how to write letters?”

With a few clicks of her mouse she opened up a document on the screen and said, “Write two for me while I go back to the apartment and change.  Just sort of copy and paste and change a few words around so it looks like it was written by different people.”

“What?!”

“Just do it.  It’s your fault I’m late.”

“Who-who am I supposed to address it to?”

There was no answer; she was already out the door.

She didn’t think she had taken long but when she returned, Tae-yang was softly snoring and Art was standing over him. 

“Hun, you do hang around with the most delicious men,” he said with extra emphasis on delicious, “Too bad my heart is already set on a certain someone.”

Ji-won laughed because she knew exactly who Art had his eyes on.  Seung-ri couldn’t get away fast enough when she first took him to the café.  Art, in his usual way, always made sure Seung-ri was well taken care of.   She quickly gathered her belongings and tried to wake Tae-yang up but to her dismay he wouldn’t budge at all.  She had to leave him in Art’s charge.  As she left, she smirked and hoped that Tae-yang would be left unharassed.—highly unlikely of course. 

When she arrived at work, everything was already going awry.  Her executive director had called in sick and Ji-won was to take her place at a luncheon slash bidder’s meeting.  With dark circles under her eyes and a significant lack of sleep, she wasn’t quite ready to go out but when the boss called it meant she had to do the boss' bidding.  As soon as she was in, she was already out again. It may seem to other people that Ji-won was a people person, her line of work required her to network and create partnerships, but she was more of  an It's-okay-I'll-stay in my little cubicle in the corner person. This meeting was going to be a bit of a challenge.

When she arrived, there were many people she knew already there but it still did not mean she was happy. She did manage to keep calm so as not to betray her true intentions, eat and run.

Everyone sat around the table and an all too familiar face appeared. She had let her guard down for too long. She really couldn't catch a break today.

“Hi, I’m Seung-hyun and I’ll be your program officer. On today's agenda..."

Ji-won, wanting to disappear from sight, was unconsciously sliding down in her chair.  It wasn’t until a gentleman sitting by her “ahemed” that she realized the table was almost to her shoulder.  She found that she couldn’t quite concentrate on what Seunghyun was saying.  As he stood in front of the screen, all she could remember was their last goodbye, his empty promises and her once idealistic belief that love could conquer all. 

"Will you email this out to us as well?" She had been able to find her voice after all.  That was strange.  

"Yes."

That was all she needed to hear. She flipped the pages of her legal pad back into place and closed her padfolio. As noiselessly as possible, she walked out of the meeting.  She would have loved to have been able to leave with a bang but she couldn't burn any bridges just yet. They were probably going to apply for the grant.  

Had that been too rude? She wondered as she was already halfway down the hall.  She continued walking until she was able to feel the breeze, never once looking back.  However, her hands betrayed her emotions; they were slightly trembling and freezing despite the warm weather.

With a sigh of relief, she sat down on the bus but a knocking on the window interrupted her thoughts.  She turned around and saw Tae-yang waving at her and so, like any normal person, she waved back.  He laughed while shaking his head and mouthed for her to get off the bus.  She shook her head, not wanting to lose her seat.

“I’ll give you a ride!” he shouted.

“Unni, your boyfriend wants to give you a ride!”

“Waah!  Unnie, he’s so good looking!”

“Unni!” 

“Unni!”

“Unni!”

“Ahn-ya.  He’s–he’s not my boyfriend,” Ji-won answered and to this all the girls screamed and pushed her out of the way to gawk at him.

“Oppa!  Will you give me a ride?”

“Oppa!”

“Oppa!”

“Oppa! I’ve never ridden a motorcycle before.”

Tae-yang smiled at them, which only encouraged the girls to shriek even louder.  Ji-won made a face, disgusted over how girls could be so enraptured by Tae-yang.  He was most likely enjoying the attention.  It probably made him feel like an idol. 

The bus driver had been waiting patiently for Ji-won to remove herself from the bus but she just sat where she was.

“You should just get off.  There are a lot of people on the bus who could use the seat.”  The bus driver smiled sweetly at her with no ill intention. 

“Go on.  Don’t keep a good looking young man like that waiting.”  She tossed her head toward the squealing girls and added, “Those girls would eat him alive if they could.”

Reluctantly she complied with the request and made her way to the door.

“I was perfectly fine on there, you know?”

“I know.  I just thought I could give you a lift since I was going that way anyway.” 

Tae-yang was still trying to get over the horrifying experience of waking up next to a man. Ji-won had left him without so much as a warning so when he reached out for a hand to hold it was the owners instead. Waking up next to a beautiful woman he didn't know was something he was used to but this last experience made him shudder. Art had been a nice guy in the end but he wouldn't like to experience it again. He had spotted her walking out of the meeting room and quickly run down the stairs to meet her in the lobby but he hadn’t been quick enough.  By the time he had gotten down she was already halfway out the door.  She usually took the bus to and from work so he grabbed his bike to persuade her to let him drop her off. 

Ji-won leaned in and whispered, “I’m not actually going back to work.”

To this he replied, “Don’t worry, neither am I.”

She smiled.  He immediately was able to brighten her mood, even if it was only temporary.   

“Hurry up.  Get on.  Quit making your boyfriend wait.”  He held out a helmet for her.

“Oh shut up,” she replied.  Those girls on the bus had gotten into his head just like she expected.

Ji-won tried to grab the helmet but he quickly drew it back.  She glared at him; he placed it over her head and buckled it on.

“You’re not very fun today,” he commented.

“Yeah, well…”

Seung-hyun abruptly paused in the middle of his presentation having caught a glimpse of Ji-won from the third story window.  He wondered who it was she was leaving with.