Chapter 6 - Is It a Date if You Bought My Time?

His voice rang out. There was the predictable gasp from the audience and Ga Eul looked a little embarrassed. But Yi Jeong didn't care. The bidding war for Ga Eul was over. He gave a nice charitable tax-deductible donation that his father wouldn't object to; and most of all, because he bought her time, she couldn't refuse to see him.

Ga Eul stewed silently. She thought that her sarcastic speech would at least make him take pause, maybe reconsider his renewed interest in her. Annoyingly, Yi Jeong did exactly what he said he would do, which was to buy her time with money. Ga Eul grumbled to herself. This wasn't going to be the end of it. She'd make sure Yi Jeong would be miserable enough that any romantic notion would go out the window. She set her jaw tightly and saw the insufferable cad waiting outside.

"Yi Jeong sunbae. I will see you next Saturday."

He had his hands in his pockets and he leaned back to bounce on his heels. "Can the future of Korea wait that long?"

Ga Eul stepped closer and brushed a little piece of dust from his shoulder. The calm, intimate gesture caught Yi Jeung's attention.

"Just be ready, sunbae. It will not be what you expect."

"You never are, Ga Eul." He caught her wrist as she pulled it away and drew her close, his eyes daring her to show any sign of weakness. Ga Eul eyes snapped. He knew that look.

Ga Eul was weak. She was just doing an exceedingly good job of hiding how Yi Jeong's firm grasp on her wrist made her feel like she was eighteen again. She might as well be decked in bows, knee socks, with a headband, stammering her confession to a distant Yi Jeong four years ago. With the force of the his smile upon her again, she grew wary.

A loud honk startled them both. "Sir, you needed a cab?"

Yi Jeong released her wrist and threw an angry glance at the taxi driver. "You have awful timing."

"Aigoo! I got here in less than three minutes."

"Goodnight Ga Eul." He opened the cab door. She was surprised when he didn't get into the car with her. He tapped her window and smiled, "Sweet dreams."

"Pabo. Idiot. ." She repeated to herself and winced at the Yi Jeong sized headache she had caused. Ga Eul knocked her head against the back of the cab seat and blew a raspberry at the ceiling. She knew that the dress meant Yi Jeong wanted to maneuver her. He never did anything without a reason. She bit her fingernail. She didn't think that Yi Jeong would lose pride by pursuing her after she had told him so firmly that she was no longer on the table. It wasn't his style. The lights of Seoul sped past the cab. From her vantage point, the contours of the city felt foreign, the lights brighter, the buildings more imposing-was it because Yi Jeong was back?

Ga Eul sighed. But, there was the issue of Yi Jeong confessing to her that he had come back to Korea for her. She still wasn't sure if that was Yi Jeong trying to make good on the promise he had made four years ago. When it came to feelings, Yi Jeong was a black box. She was never on firm ground with Yi Jeong. She thought about the flush of blood to her face whenever he got too close, his heated gaze making her words dry in . Yi Jeong's face was more angular now, and today she spotted the shadow of his beard, neatly outlining his full upper lip and contouring his chin. Ga Eul shook her head. She had been able to get closer than most, but then again, he had also never said something true without leaving her to deal with the consequences.

She took a deep breath. The real problem was that she didn't much like herself around Yi Jeong, sharp with words, her nerves on the surface of her skin, alive with static electricity. She thought about Anders, with his cool green eyes and easy gripe, how different he was from Yi Jeong. She wanted the former and she didn't know how she felt about the latter, except to dislike the untethered feelings he aroused in her. Even with Yi Jeong's confession, she knew she had done the right thing for the both of them by refusing. His family, his work, everything would be more important than she was. And it wasn't like Yi Jeong understood how much of her life was bound up in her work now. Ga Eul suddenly stopped herself. Why was she even entertaining the possibility?

She groaned.

"Miss? We're here. I've been waiting for you to get out for 5 minutes."

"Oh. I'm so sorry!" She paid the cab and walked to her house. After kicking off her shoes, she slumped in her vanity chair. After she had finished her routine, her bare face stared back at her in the mirror.

"You're doing the right thing."

Her face didn't respond.

She stared at the ceiling of her bedroom until her tired mind finally willed her to sleep at five a.m.

The week whipped by in a whirlwind of activity. Ga Eul had been so busy wrapping up the activities of the Shinsue fundraiser that she barely had time to really think about Saturday. Sooner than later, Saturday morning came and she found herself at the front steps of the Eunpyung public library.

"Seonsaeng-nim!" Her little charge, Park Dong-won, practiced on the bike she had rented. She looked up at the building. It was lovely, with a sloping windows that invited light in. It had odd little square turrets on the top, almost making the place feel like a fortress. She smiled to herself at the joke. Knowledge didn't need defense, it just needed to flow out to whoever needed it.

"Please give me a push!" Dong-won screamed as his bike swung dangerously in one direction. Ga Eul ran up and grabbed the seat of the bike just in time. She steadied the bike and gave Dong-won another push that sent him free like a bird around the park.

"Ga Eul."

She noticed the new Yi Jeong wore more leather. Today, he wore a cognac leather jacket that made him seem more rakish than all those pristine suits; he felt so new to her, cracking like untanned leather. Dong-won waved to Yi Jeong as if he were guiding a Boeing 747 for a landing. The motion finally distracted him, Yi Jeong moved his gaze from Ga Eul and frowned at Dong-won.

"Who's the tike?"

"He's our guide for the day." She smiled sunnily. "His family lives in Eunpyung. I thought there was no better person for the job."

"Seonsaeng-nim." Dong-won skidded to a stop in front of them. "Is this your boyfriend?"

Ga Eul laughed. "Park Dong-won, this is my friend So Yi Jeong."

Yi Jeong dropped to a crouch to Park Dong-won's eye level. He needed all the help he could get, and this kid looked like he could swing things in his favor.

"Park Dong-won, you are a very observant young man."

"That's why Seonsaeng-nim chose me for this job." Dong-won whispered with fierce pride to Yi Jeong. "I'm pretty sure that I can become her boyfriend after you break her heart"

"So, you're my enemy, Park Dong-won."

Ga Eul rolled her eyes at the macho posturing going both ways.

"Neither of you two are my boyfriend." She mocked gently.

Yi Jeong clutched his heart and sprawled onto the ground in a very good imitation of deathly heartbreak. Dong-won, seeing his competition already outperforming him, swung his hand to his heart dramatically and fell on top of Yi Jeong. The two would-be suitors looked up from their pile of heartbreak.

"Seonsaeng-nim. You have broken us both." Yi Jeong opened one eye. Ga Eul was twisting , but one more raised eyebrow from Yi Jeong and a peal of laughter escaped.

"C'mon Romeos. Please. Sunbae was promised a tour and I never break a promise." She swung onto her bike effortlessly. Her skinny jeans wrapped her curves and nipped at her tiny waist. Her small rounded rear end looked like dessert sitting in the bike seat. She turned around and frowned at him. Yi Jeong felt the breath catch in his chest.

"Yi Jeong. Do I have something on my face? Stop staring and come on!"

He shrugged and dusted himself. "I can't help it if you're followed by really good lighting." He walked over to Ga Eul and leaned on her handlebars.

"Ga Eul, I don't know how to ride a bike."

"Wae? Yi Jeong-shi, you are definitely not cool enough to be Seonsaeng-nim's boyfriend then." Dong-woo was too smug. Yi Jeong decided that the twerp needed to be taken down a few notches.

"Yah!" Yi Jeong chased Dong-woo, who hopped on his bike and sped to the opposite site of the library, "Is that any way to speak to your senior?"

"Sunbae?" Ga Eul was laughing too. "Is it really true that you don't know how to ride a bike?"

Yi Jeong shrugged off his jacket and glared at Ga Eul. "Looks like I'm going to need to get my money's worth today. Teach me how to ride a bike, Seonsaeng-nim." He bowed, too deeply to be polite. She resisted the urge to pull his hair. Yi Jeong really brought out the baser instincts in her.

The bike lesson turned out to be a far better play for Yi Jeong than Dong-won. The boy rode his bike listlessly around the fountain, doing half-hearted tricks in attempt to get attention. Yi Jeong was the clear winner. Ga Eul ran alongside him, steadying his handlebars whenever the bike seemed to have a mind of its own. He could still feel the imprint of Ga Eul's hands on his shoulder when she pushed him forward. He leaned back so he smell her perfume. It was different than the citrusy scent he remembered, she smelled like orange blossoms and sandalwood.

Yi Jeong was moving like an erratic clumsy snail, but he felt like a jet plane. When he finally started letting the natural athlete in his body take over, the bike felt like a part of him. He circled the library plaza in four complete loops. On his last loop, he heard Ga Eul let out a huge "fighting!"

It felt like four years had never happened. Maybe this was his wish world, where he wasn't a man doomed to ruin the women he loved. Ga Eul would always run to him, the way she did now, her face beaming like a pale planet.

"Sunbae!" She stood a little distance away from the bike, but her body leaned towards him. "You did it! I can't believe how fast you learned." Yi Jeong wanted nothing more than to hook his arm around her waist and bury his face in her soft chest. He imagined the delicate skin there, fragrant and silky. She would run her hand through his hair, she would lean down and kiss him in the afternoon sun. He would spend hours with her, lost in their own time, without a notion of the outside world.

"Now, can we go?" Dong-won's voice cut across the plaza.

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A/N: Please read the rest of chapter 6 at: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8663756/6/Love-and-Luck

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