From the day she walked through those school doors, Park Gyuri worked hard in her studies until the day she earned her college diploma. She had a bright future ahead of her. Classmates admired Gyuri for her studious persona and companies loved her confidence in her work. That was how she managed to become hired at a well paying salary fresh out of college. 

Gyuri didn’t grow money on trees but she made enough to live a very comfortable lifestyle. She lived by herself in a spacious and cozy single bedroom apartment in a nice location. Gyuri generally spent her money modestly but splurged in some areas of her life. She was young, and that meant she had an excuse to be broke and fabulous. And her brand new white Audi A5 made her just that, broke but fabulous. Her car represented the reward for her hard work after all these years; she paid for it out of her very own pockets. 

Every time she walked out of the store and saw her very own Audi glistening in the sunlight, her insides would feel all tingly. It had only been a week since Gyuri had gotten her new car and she already fell in love with it. 

“Is that your car outside?” the Starbucks worker asked.
“Yeah, it is,” Gyuri replied with a proud smile on her face.
“It’s really nice.”
“Thanks!” The worker handed Gyuri her morning coffee. She paid for her coffee and headed towards her car. She had parallel parked between two other cars on the side of a road. 

Like millions of other ordinary people, Gyuri had a nine to five job every day of the week sans the weekends. Today was a Monday morning, explaining her current state of lethargy, so she decided to take a little detour from her usual path to work this morning to Starbucks for a little caffeine pick me up. Otherwise, she would have trouble doing her job. 

She inhaled the fresh brew and savored the scent. Already the aromatic fumes of coffee made her day a little easier. Gyuri enjoyed the scent more than the taste but she needed to drink the coffee for the caffeine to actually kick in. She took a sip of her hot coffee with a touch of caramel before placing it in the cup holder. She couldn’t indulge too much in her coffee; she still had to go to work. Gyuri pressed the button to start her car and strapped on her seat belt. After making sure her seating and mirrors were positioned perfectly, she placed it in drive and –

BAM! 

Before she knew it, she felt her body suddenly jerking towards the right. She didn’t even have enough time to close her eyes upon impact, but even with her eyes open, she still couldn’t process what happened. After what seemed the longest thirty seconds of her life, the momentum finally stopped. Her hands were shaking violently and just sat their paralyzed from all the shock. 

Gyuri closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and thanked God that she was still alive with what appeared to be no scratches on her body. Sadly, she could not say the same for her car. Once she regained her senses, she opened her eyes and looked out of her front window and saw that a Range Rover collided into the front of her car. Her car wasn’t totaled but because of the massive size of a Range Rover, the SUV left a big dent on the front left side. The two cars collided together to form a V shape. 

When Gyuri realized what he had done to her car, her brand spanking new car, not only managing to completely ruin the outside but also managing to cause her coffee to spill all over the floor mats, she got mad. Very mad. 

She picked up her purse and opened the door making sure to slam it against his own car out of spite. Why did she have to deal with some bastard who thought he owned the whole road just because he drove a big ass SUV? Ugh. What a great way to start your day.

She walked around the back of her car to meet with the man who wrecked her car. Lucky for him, his Range Rover only suffered a few scratches that a quick paint job could fix. Unfortunately for Gyuri, her front bumper started coming off as well as the side panels. Great. Just great. 

The stranger had his hands on his head as he inspected the damages to both cars. He seemed to be mumbling curses under his breath. He loosened his tie and rolled up his sleeves to his dress shirt. The morning sun was rising. 

“Are you okay?” he asked after Gyuri made her way to him.

“I walked over here perfectly fine, didn’t I?” she retorted. Whenever she felt any irritation, her sharp tongue automatically came out. “Have you called the police yet?” Gyuri asked without hiding the impatience in her voice. 

“Yes, and I’ve already called the tow truck as well,” he answered. 

“How nice of you. . .” Gyuri stared at the wreck with complete disdain, seeing that her beautiful car was ruined. She couldn’t look away or otherwise she might glare at the man who wrecked her car to death. 

Song Seung Hun observed Gyuri and saw her menacing eyes glaring at the wreck. He realized that he could possiblybe the reason behind her glower. He did feel apologetic for what happened and felt completely responsible. He didn’t see her coming out of her parking spot and needed to change lanes. “I’m really sorry for what –“ 

“Save it for the police.” What else could Gyuri say? Could she just respond to his apology with “Oh, I understand. It was an honest mistake. Let’s build a campfire and sing kumbaya.” She did not want to hear any explanations. All she wanted to do was have her car in perfect condition once again so she can drive herself to work and back, and that obviously was not going to happen any time soon. 

Seung Hun had a busy day today, probably a reason for why he crashed into Gyuri. He definitely did not need this setback in his schedule and her sarcasm definitely did not help contain his patience. “I’m not appreciating your sarcasm. It’s not like I wanted to ram into your damn car! I just want to be civil about this.” 

Civil? CIVIL?! Your car looks perfectly fine and mine is completely dented! I don’t want to be civil! Gyuri shouted back in her mind to justify her fury. Instead, she just gave Seung Hun a dead stare because if she opened now, her sharp tongue would destroy any civility she had remaining for the day. 

Her heels were killing her. She walked over towards the sidewalk and sat down on the curb. If she stared at her ruined car any longer, she might cry. She rummaged through her purse and pulled out her phone. She had to call into work and explain that she was going to be late. “Hello? Mr. Im? This is Park Gyuri and I am going to be late today. . .” 

Seung Hun glanced at the girl sitting on the curb. He understood her anger towards him so he took all her smart comments. Her remarks weren’t blatantly rude, but they made him feel. . . inferior maybe? Whatever she made him feel, he did not enjoy it. Seeing her call into work made him realize he needed to do the same. 

Gyuri hung up her phone. Thank goodness her boss was understanding; he allowed Gyuri to take the rest of the day off. After staring back at the accident once again, she realized their collision would cause some unneeded traffic. She grabbed her keys and headed towards her car. “Hey! I’m gonna move my car. You should do the same,” she shouted at the man who was currently talking on the phone. Once she got inside her car, she could smell the coffee stains. Luckily, the ignition of her Audi was still able to turn on. However, as soon as she started moving her car, she heard a huge screech. Her bumper was scraping along the road because part of it detached from the car. It sounded worse than nails on chalkboard. She let out a heavy sigh. All of her fighting spirit left her. 

Seung Hun cringed at the unbearable noise. He noticed so many people were watching her parallel park her car; the noise drew a lot of attention to her. People came out of the shops to find out the source of the racket. The girl came out of the car only to have a million of pairs of eyes on her. She didn’t seem to notice though. She just let the cool breeze blow her hair softly. Still, Seung Hun felt sorry for her. People were giving her judgmental glares when it was his fault in the first place. He followed suit and got into his own Range Rover and parked behind her car. 

They heard sirens coming in from the distance. Finally, this was about to be over and they could get on with their lives. Seung Hun got out of his Range Rover and walked over to stand along side Gyuri and waited for the police to appear. 

“Hey, let me take care of everything, okay? I’ll pay for all the damages. It was my fault so I should,” Seung Hun offered. He wanted to lessen his burden he caused her as much as possible. 

“It’s not the cost of damages that’s an issue for me. It’s the inconvenience of not having a car so I can get to point A to point B, for however long it takes until it gets fixed.” 

“Just rent a car then.” 

The whole point of Gyuri getting an Audi was so she wouldn’t have to drive another run down car again. She knew of the feeling of driving a run-down car, she drove one for the past six years of her life. And the idea of a rental car didn’t settle too well with Gyuri. They always smelled like smoke or someone made dinner in them or just felt plain dirty. But Gyuri had no other options and did not want to sound pretentious, so all she could reply with was, “I know. . .”

The police car and the tow truck came at the same time. The tow truck parked in front of Gyuri’s Audi and the police car came to a stop next to them. The cop came out of his car and made his way over to Seung Hun and Gyuri. 

“Alright, so what happened here you two?” 

Seung Hun took control of the situation and told the cop what happened while Gyuri listened in to make sure he was telling the truth. After telling the cop the whole story, he made his judgment and wrote Seung Hun a ticket for speeding and not paying attention to the road. 

“Are you sure you don’t want me to pay for anything?” Seung Hun offered again. “I can pay for the rental. You can rent another car exactly like yours and it will be like this whole thing never even happened.” 

Gyuri felt strange taking a stranger’s money like that, even if it was his fault in the first place. He could be the richest man in the world and have millions to spare, but Gyuri was more about principle. She had too much pride. So before she walked off towards her car, she replied “I don’t even remember this happening already.” 

Seung Hun would have laughed if it wasn’t for the situation between them. He took it as a no to his offer. 

The tow truck was already finished hitching her car onto the back. Gyuri got into the tow truck so the driver could take her to the mechanic shop where they would fix her car and she could get an estimate of how long it would take while also looking around for other cars she could rent for the time being. Gyuri never looked back at the man who crashed into her. She didn't know that she would meet him again in the near future, and that he would be the one she would marry. 

Seung Hun got into his scratched Range Rover and was ready to continue on with the rest of his life. He sat in his car until the tow truck pulled out with the girl’s car and the cop car left as well. And for the rest of the day, for some reason he was distracted but he didn't know what. Something was bothering him that he couldn’t put his finger on. It wasn’t until he laid in bed at night alone with his thoughts and went over the events of the day when he realized what bothered him so much. 

“What the hell was her name?”