The next morning when Seohyun appeared at the top of the steps, she said, "Let me do it for you. Good morning, Seohyun. You look beautiful this morning. Why, thank you, Luhan. Good morning to you too." She walked down the steps. "Then you‘ll extend your arm to me and ask to me to breakfast." She reached him and wrapped her arm through his and waited.

He smiled. "You called me Luhan this morning."

She blinked. "Haven‘t I been doing so?"

"No. Usually, I have to remind you to call me by my first name or you call me Mr. Xi."

"Really? I hadn‘t noticed."

He studied her for a moment. It suddenly occurred to him that she wasn‘t aware of how she was gradually opening up to him. He decided to ask her the same question he had asked her the past two days during breakfast. "Will you have lunch with me today?"

To his shock, she agreed. When he didn‘t comment, she wondered, "What‘s wrong? Was I supposed to say no?"

"You have been saying no every time I asked."

"You keep track of what I say with amazing accuracy."

He shrugged. "It comes with years of dealing with clients." He turned to her and pulled her close to him and kissed her. "I don‘t think of you as a client, but a good memory sure does come in handy. I‘m glad you‘ll be having lunch with me today." He let go of her and held her hand on the way to the dining room.

Unfortunately, his victory in getting her to agree to lunch was short-lived for a half hour before he was supposed to pick her up for lunch, his uncle notified him that Mr. Jang, one of the more notable clients at their company, had to meet with them in fifteen minutes.

"He‘s considering going with the Kims," his uncle concluded.

"But I promised Seohyun I‘d take her to lunch in half an hour," Luhan protested.

He sighed. "Mr. Jang is a difficult man but he also has a lot of connections in town, and where he does business sets a trend for others to follow. I‘ll give him a call and see if he‘ll agree to just meet with me."

Luhan nodded as his uncle left his office. A couple minutes passed before his uncle returned. By the look in the older man‘s face, he already knew what he was going to say.

"He‘s adamant that you must be there," Cheng solemnly informed him. "His son is your age and will be joining us. He wants you to talk to his son while I talk to him. I explained the fact that you are a newlywed, but he refuses to budge. He even threatened to meet with the Kims instead."

Luhan groaned and threw his pencil on the desk. "And if he goes with the Kims, then he‘ll take a third of our clients with him."

"If you want, I‘ll call Seohyun and explain how important this particular client is and that he told us to meet him for lunch at the last minute so you had no idea this was going to happen."

"No. I‘ll call her."

His uncle nodded and left the office.

He called his house and Sulli went to get her for him. He sighed again. He had met Mr. Jang‘s son, and though the young guy was a decent enough man, he was nowhere near as exciting as Seohyun. When Seohyun greeted him, he explained the situation to her.

"Oh. I understand." She sounded disappointed but he doubted that she was as disappointed as he was.

"I‘m sorry. I was looking forward to having lunch with you today."

"It‘s alright. We‘ll just do it some other time."

"Thanks for understanding. I‘ll see you tonight when I get home."

Then they said good-bye and he hung up the phone. Mr. Jang didn‘t care that he wanted to spend lunch with his wife, and Mr. Bhong had to meet with him even though it meant he had to leave his own engagement party. He hadn‘t realized how much the clients were demanding of him before he found out he was getting married. In the span of one week, he had already put Seohyun on hold twice. He had a sinking sensation that the clients‘ demands weren‘t going to get any easier to deal with.

Since Luhan couldn‘t meet her for lunch, Seohyun decided to visit Heran. As soon as she entered the nursing home, she overheard several whispers about her.

"Is that The Cold Bride?" one elderly woman asked her friend.

"Yes. That light blue dress compliments her quite well. The color is just as cold as she is."

"Mr. Xi goes out of his way to please her but she doesn‘t appreciate anything he does."

If she didn‘t appreciate Luhan, then she wouldn‘t have minded the rumors so much. But the truth was she did appreciate him. She was growing to like him and did enjoy his affections. Had they been there to see the way she responded to his touch and kisses, then they would understand that she wasn‘t quite so cold after all. In fact, he made her feel very hot. She had stopped talking about an annulment because it suddenly dawned on her Wednesday morning that she didn‘t want it anymore.

She was relieved when she reached Heran‘s room. Heran was a great source of comfort and stability. She sat next to the old woman by the window. Heran rocked back and forth in her wooden chair and looked expectantly at her.

"What?" she finally asked.

Heran chuckled. "Is the gossip rattling your cage?"

She rolled her eyes. "Don‘t people have anything better to talk about?"

"Around this place? No. It gets boring around here and there‘s only so many books old people can read before they go crazy. Try not to let it disturb you. You can‘t help what people say. You can only help how you react to it. If you get defensive, it‘ll add more fuel to the fire. If you act as if it doesn‘t bother you, it‘ll die down faster."

She could only hope that was true. "Well, I wanted to know if you would like to go to lunch with me today?"

"Yuri already invited to take me to lunch, but there‘s no reason why we can‘t all go together."

Since Yuri was due to come over to her home at two that afternoon, Seohyun figured it was just as well that they have lunch together too. She was surprised by how disappointed she felt that she wouldn‘t be going to lunch with Luhan. A week ago, she didn‘t want to have anything to do with him and now she actually looked forward to seeing him. She had no idea her feelings could be so volatile.

"How are things really going between you and that good looking husband of yours?" Heran asked.

"They‘re fine."

She raised her eyebrows in interest. "You‘re blushing."

Seohyun subconsciously touched her warm cheeks.

The woman grinned. "Next thing I‘ll know, you‘ll be telling me you‘re expecting your first child."

"Oh really, Heran. All we‘ve done is kissed."

"You should be doing more than that since you‘re married."

Seohyun had the sudden inclination to throw a blanket over herself so her friend couldn‘t see her cheeks go from light pink to bright red.

Yuri tapped on the door. "Good afternoon, Heran."

Seohyun breathed a sigh of relief as her other friend entered the room.

Heran didn‘t hide her surprise. "Why are you dressed so poorly?"

Yuri smoothed the apron on her pretty but lower class rust colored dress. Seohyun thought the color went wonderfully with her naturally pink cheeks. Her hair was under a white bonnet that matched her apron.

"She‘s the peasant lady in the upcoming play," Seohyun explained. "I‘m going to hem the dress for her later this afternoon. I didn‘t realize she‘d wear it all day."

Yuri shrugged. "I didn‘t have much of a choice. After I went to the costume designer‘s house, I helped Mrs. Bae get the luncheon ready for the Mother Daughter banquet at the church. Then I had to come over here. Between going to lunch with Heran and going to your place, I won‘t have a chance to change. I‘m afraid I will be sorely out of place at our usual restaurant."

"We can go somewhere else instead," Heran suggested. "It might be nice to try something new for a change. That old restaurant on the corner of Granny’s Bossam and Spicy Galbi Jjim. Others say it’s a very old school Korean experience. Let‘s go there."

The decision was made and, unlike the other restaurant, they were seated right away. Seohyun felt oddly out of place in one of her best dresses. She had picked the dress becaus