"Jenny-ya!" Mrs. Lee exclaimed when she saw me at the door. She was a sweet woman with unfortunate luck with computers. This was her third time having to fix it, but the company issued her a new one to salve her anger, and I was the only one willing to travel far to her house to deliver on a weekend.

"Hello, Mrs. Lee! I'm so sorry to be seeing you under these circumstances, but it's so good to see you again," I said to her, as I lifted the heavy computer into her house. It was my fourth time there, but she made me feel like it was my second home, always serving snacks and drinks every time I came by. Always making me feel like I was a visitor instead of a delivery person.

"Aigoo! Why did they send you on your own again? A girl should not be carrying too many heavy things at once. Let me call my son down," she persuaded me to put all the boxes down, and yelled "CHANG SUN-AHHH!" up the stairs.

"Ne, eomoni?"¹ a tall 20-something with jet-black hair darted down the stairs. It was only when he stopped moving that I realized he was one handsome son-of-a-gun.

What is it with my luck these days? I've seen two handsome men in a span of a few days.

"Help Jenny carry those," she instructed. "Jenny, this is my son, Chang Sun. Chang Sun, say hello to Jenny," she introduced us to each other with a big smile.

"Oh, annyeonghaseyo," he greeted me before picking up the boxes. I noticed his smile, its warmth reminiscent of his mother's. "Is this the agassi² you told me about, eomoni?" My face heated up at his question. Has Mrs. Lee been talking about me to her son?

"Yes, this is the Jenny I was telling you about, so get acquainted," she clearly had no qualms about it, and conveniently left us to finish everything in the computer room.

Putting up an awkward smile, I got to work in silence. I never knew what to do in situations like this. After I finished installing the computer with Chang Sun assisting me on the side, Mrs. Lee peeked into the room and said, "Come on down, I have snacks for you before you go, Jenny-ya."

A plateful of gimbap was placed on top of the dining table and I sat down as Mrs. Lee poured orange juice into two glasses. She faced her son when she was done, "Chang Sun-ah, go bring Jenny out on a date. You are single, right, Jenny?" she turned to me. Taken by surprise, the half-chewed gimbap I had put into my mouth involuntarily went down my throat.

"Eomoni! Stop it, it's embarrassing. She'll think I'm unpopular with the girls, and I don't think she wants to go on a date with me," he joked. "Please call me Joon, Jenny-ssi."

I could think of nothing say in front of the bickering mother and son, as adorable as they were. I could feel the heat creep up my face as it turned red, and I stammered as I excused myself to go.

"Geurae.³ You take care, Jenny. Chang Sun-ah, you show her to the door," I could tell it was Mrs. Lee's last attempt to bring us together.

"I'm really sorry about my mother. She really wants me to date. She seems to take a liking to you, though. She's usually very hard to please. I think it's the fact that you don't know who I am," he explained, walking me to the door. He had a cheeky smile on his face now, and his eyes filled with mischief.

"Huh? What do you mean? Am I supposed to know who you are?"

"Well... if you don't know who I am, then maybe we can get to know each other. Go on that date my mother mentioned. What say you?" his mischievous smile still in place.

Resistance was definitely futile when it came to this man. His charms could melt your skin cleanly off your bones.

So there I was at the bus stop, in the warm summer night, heading towards our meeting point for our third 'date': an ice-cream parlor near his apartment.

"You have an apartment? Don't you live with your mother?" I had asked beforehand. Apparently he lives with four of his best friends, but comes home occassionally.

I alighted the bus warily since I had never set foot in this part of Seoul yet. I was also nervous thinking about how fast it was going with Joon. Without realizing, we were already on our third date. Abrupting my thoughts suddenly, there were two hands on my shoulders and a loud "boo!" came from behind me.

"AAAH! KKAMJJAGIYA!"⁴ It was Joon. I unknowingly slapped his arm for surprising me, "You gave me such a fright!" He feigned hurt, but he seemed to find it amusing, and I could not help but laugh along. He was really the jokester.

We made our way to the parlor and ordered our ice-cream in humoungous waffle bowls. It was decided that we would eat our ice-cream at the children's playground at his apartment.

"Why do you insist being so close to your apartment, Joon?"

"Because it's the safest there," he responded, giving no further explanation. We were sitting in one of the playhouses, comfortably talking about our family, friends, beliefs and dreams.

One of the topics we discussed was insecurity. "I used to weigh a ton, Joonie," I confided. "I was bulimic at one stage of my life. Saying that it was horrible is just the tip of the iceberg. I was very insecure. I still am. I don't feel comfortable in my own skin yet, even though I have lost a lot of weight since then. Like right now, I don't know why you keep on wanting to meet up with me. Charlie, my housemate, says that I'm beautiful and men would love to date me if I'd given them the chance, but I rarely believed her."

"Jenny-ya. You really don't know who I am, do you?"

I shook my head as I shoved the last spoonful of cherry vanilla ice-cream into my mouth. Why he deviated from the topic, I never really knew.

"I just know that you're Joonie. I know where your parents live. I know when you're nervous. You stutter, by the way. I know you love to dance. I know you don't like to share your food," at that time, I tried to sneak my spoon into his ice-cream bowl, but failed as he pulled his bowl closer to him.

"I know that you have a mole right here," I touched his neck to point it out. "I know that --"

My sentence was cut off when he grabbed my hand and gave me a peck on the lips. It happened out of the blue, and I was completely taken by surprise. I my lips on reflex. All the while, his face was still close to mine. This reminded me so much of my encounters with Seungho. That experience was heart-racingly hot, and somehow full of passion even when nothing really happened. It was something I really wanted to forget.

On the other hand, Joon's kiss and close proximity at that moment brought tiny butterflies to my stomach and made my heart skip a beat. It was somewhat dark in that playhouse, but I could still see Joon looking into my eyes, as if searching for something.

He brought his lips down to mine again and let them linger. More than just a peck from before, he deepened the kiss and skillfully parted my lips with his tongue. I could still taste the lingering flavour of his ice-cream.

I knew it was Joon kissing me, but for a moment, my mind lingered to Seungho and wondered how it would be like kissing him instead.

1. "Yes, mother?"
2. Agassi is a way of addressing a young lady
3. "All right."
4. Synonymous with "Oh my God! You scared me!"