chapter 1

The Empty Space for You

A young lady was seen standing patiently behind the AREX platform, waiting for the train to arrive. To everyone else, she may seem proper and calm. In actual fact, she was currently having a major nervous bug attack, that she was already shaking inside of her.

 

She was already having second thoughts; Perhaps she should turn around, lug her luggage back towards the departure gates of the Incheon airport just three levels above her current location, and into the cabin of a plane that heads right back to Indonesia, her home country.

 

That's right. She had finally stepped foot onto the soil of the Republic of South Korea.

 

Looking around, she noticed that she wasn't the only foreigner around. That calmed her jittery nerves a little.

 

'Didi, you must believe in yourself. Break out of your shell and run towards your ultimate goal. This is all for your own good. Your mother is going to watch over you, so don't be afraid!' She mumbled to herself, holding tightly onto her precious necklace - a pendent of a mini whisk and baking tray. It was her last birthday gift from her deceased mother who had recently left her after losing the battle to lung cancer.

 

Her patisserie mother apparently had a best friend whom she had went through thick and thin with during their studies in France.

 

And that's where she was heading towards right now. To that unknown uncle. To learn 'the art of baking' from him.

 

She pray hard that he would be a kind, gentle uncle who will take her in. As friend's daughter, as a student, hopefully as a housemate too, since she had completely forgotten about preparing for accommodation.

 

The intercom suddenly rang out with a string of confusing Korean words, with the announcer mentioning that the train is arriving at the platform. Didi heaved a sigh of relief.

 

'Guess my mother's decision to make me learn Korean since young is useful at a time like this.' She secretly smiled to herself.

 

Despite the difficulty in learning a completely new language, Didi had found herself mastering the language pretty quickly.

 

'Maybe i am a genius. Oh! Maybe it's in my genes!' She recalled joking about it back then.

 

Shaking her head from the amusement of her adolescence, she finally made her way into the cabin of of the AREX.

 

'This is going to be a long one hour plus ride...' She thought, browsing through the tour pamphlet that she had gotten from the airport concierge earlier on while asking for directions.

 

 

 

To her amazement, she had found the place she wanted to head for quite easily.

 

"Thank you, Google Map." She uttered, looking gratefully at her smartphone before turning her attention towards the quaint looking shophouse in front of her.

 

"So, this is it huh?" She asked herself, unconsciously combing her bird nest hair in a last minute attempt to let herself look more tidy for a better first impression.


When she was satisfied with how she looks, she finally reach out for the door handle. A clear ringing of the bells just by the door echoed into the shop.

 

"Can i help you?" A middle aged man appeared out of the blue, most probably from behind the kitchen since he had unintentionally gotten flour onto parts of his face.

 

"Oh, urm." She stuttered, wondering if she should use English or Korean to converse. 'Of course you should speak in Korean! You're in Korea right now!' She mentally reprimanded herself.

 

"Hi, i'm looking for Uncle Gong." She finally said, mentally hoping that her pronunciation was good enough to understand.

 

"That's me!" He smiled, walking nearer to her. "And you are?"

 

"I'm Diandra Harso. You can call me Didi." She replied confidently.

 

"Harso? I had a friend with the same surname as you..." He said in a low voice, seemingly in deep thoughts. Within seconds, his eyes were enlarged to at least one time bigger than usual, easily overturning the stereotyping that Koreans have small slitted, single eyelid eyes. "Could you possibly be..."

 

Didi nodded excitedly. "I'm her daughter. Nice to finally meet you, Uncle Gong."

 

"Same here. Didi, are you alone? Is your mother here with you as well?" He asked, looking around for traces of his best friend ever. In fact, he had never once forgotten about her ever since they returned to their respective countries to fulfill their own dreams.

 

"She has returned to heaven."

 

"She... what?" He asked, his eyes getting larger than it already did. His eyeballs were practically on the verge of falling out.

 

Didi nodded sadly. "Yes, she did."

 

"Oh... i'm so sorry about your loss..."

 

"It's ok, Uncle Gong." Didi said, a faint smile appearing on her face.

 

"So, what's my best friend's daughter doing here? Did your mother..."

 

"Yes, she did..." Didi answered, even before he could complete his sentence. She carefully pulled out the letter that her mother had left for her and passed it over to him. "My mother wanted me to learn baking skills from you."

 

Elder Gong immediately agreed without the slightest hint of hesitation. "Of course! Your mother had helped me a lot back then. This is my time to repay her for her help."


Didi gave a shy smile and a nod in return. Although it was the first time she had met him, she didn't feel like she was talking to a stranger. It felt like... as if she had known him for forever.

 

"By the the way, where are you staying currently?" Elder Gong asked. "If you have not found accommodation yet, you could stay with us! We have an extra bedroom anyway."

 

"We?"

 

"Oh, i haven't mentioned that, have i? My son is staying with me. Although, he is not home most of the time due to his work."

 

Didi nodded her head in understanding. "But, won't i be disturbing you?"

 

"You coming over to stay is a good thing. At least, i have someone to accompany me for breakfast and dinner." He shrugged, "My son is too busy for me."

 

"In that case, i shall accept your offer! Thanks Uncle Gong!" She grinned, totally relieved that she had finally solved the deadly problem of accommodation.

 

"Great!" He beamed, skipping towards the phone. "This calls for a celebration! Let me get my son home for dinner then!"

 

 


Dinner with the Gongs was extremely enjoyable. Perhaps it was due to the jovial nature of the two males that Didi had found herself fitting into the family almost immediately. It had been a while since she had last experienced such joy.

 

Before her mother got diagnosed with her sickness.

 

“Didi, do you want a second serving of the cake?” Elder Gong queried, and before she could even reply, he had already started nudging his son out of his seat. “Gong Yoo, go down and get another few slices of cake for Didi!”

 

Gong Yoo made an annoyed face. “Dad! I’m tired, you go down yourself.” He complained, plastering himself onto the wooden table of their rooftop garden.

 

“You are such a lazy bum!” Elder Gong sighed, slapping his son’s bare arms. “I wonder what are your biceps for. You don’t even utilise those fats of yours.”

 

“These are purely for viewing.” The son replied, sticking out his tongue and started flaunting his perfectly sculpted arms to further annoy his father. When he caught the girl silently giggling to herself from the corner of his eyes, a small grin appeared on his face. “See, Didi agrees with me!”

 

“Hey, i’m innocent. I haven’t even said anything!” She retorted, waving both hands up in the air, her eyes wide open. Although, the faint smile was still hanging on her face.

 

“She’s laughing at you.” Elder Gong rolled his eyes. “Come on, act your age. You’re already 35! Stop acting like a child!”

 

“Dad!” Gong Yoo was speechless. How could his father gang up with someone else to bully his one and only son?

 

The once silently giggling Didi suddenly burst out into laughter, not even caring about how red Gong Yoo was.

 

“Dad! See! Even Didi is laughing at me!” He pouted, furthering proving his father’s words about him being childish. He stormed over to the dog house a few big steps away at the corner of the rooftop garden and started hugging the overly hyper golden retriever, which started its favourite owner.

 

“Cassy, you’re the only one i have now! Everyone else is bullying me, i don’t have any say in this household anymore!” He complained.


Didi shook her head, clutching her stomach in the process as she tried to calm herself down from the extremely entertaining scene in front of her. It was a good thing that Cassy had a leash on her, if not Gong Yoo could have been flattened right away. She casually strolled over to him. Almost instantly, Cassy removed itself from Gong Yoo and ran right into Didi’s arms.

 

“Cassy! You traitor!” Gong Yoo’s jaw almost dropped at the scene in front of him.

 

“Yooppa, you should come home more often from now on. I will easily snatch away your number one ranking from Cassy.”

Yooppa. The short form of Gong Yoo oppa, that the younger Gong had insisted for Didi to call him by.

 

“No way.” He pouted, sitting with his back facing her.

 

“Yes way.” Didi grinned.

 

“She’s right, son.” Elder Gong laughed heartedly. “You are too busy recently, especially after you got out of army.”

 

Gong Yoo took a long look at his father, Didi and then at Cassy.

 

“Fine, let’s go out on an outing tomorrow.” He finally spoke out after a long sigh.

 

“Count me out, i have a shop to tend to.” His father replied. “Bring Didi out, she has just arrived in Korea and is not familiar with this place.”

 

“But uncle, i’m here to learn from you. Shouldn’t i start as early as possible?” Didi asked, turning her attention away from Cassy, although she was still scratching its chin lovingly.

 

“Let’s get you settled in your environment before we start your training.” Elder Gong said, “Besides, it’s good to learn what kind of pastries your customers like. Treat your outing tomorrow as market research.”

 

Didi looked over at Gong Yoo with a questionable look, as if asking what they should do.

 

“Prepare some nice food for our picnic tomorrow.” Gong Yoo replied with a bored looking face.

 

“Yah! Gong Yoo, treat our guest better, won’t you?” Elder Gong reprimanded, throwing Cassy’s toy right at his son’s head.

 

“Dad! You know i can’t cook for nuts sake!” He responded, nursing his head injury. “Besides, our Didi here has been cooking since young, hasn’t she?” He asked, pinching her cheeks, indirectly taking revenge on her for snatching Cassy’s affection for him so easily.

 

Didi rolled her eyes, pushing his hand away. “Yooppa.”

 

“Yes Didi?” Gong Yoo called out so sweetly, that even Elder Gong had almost wanted to puke out his dinner.

 

“Yooppa, you will prepare the food for tomorrow’s picnic right?” She asked with an extremely innocent look on her face. “Ours and Cassy’s.”

 

Gong Yoo facepalmed himself. He then turned to his father’s direction as the latter gave him a look of pity. “Dad, where did you find this woman? She’s so unfair, using her innocence to manipulate me! Me, THE Gong Yoo, THE most desirable bachelor in the entertainment industry!”



 

 

A/N: 
Random fact - Uncle Gong's name in this story was supposed to be Gong Chan... but i kept laughing whenever i was typing the subsequent chapters cos it just reminded me of the other Gong Chan. Lols. (JY)


***____________***

So here it is the 1st chapter of TESFY *applause*
3subscribers already.. yeayyy!! ^^ thank you so much.. and also for all readers ;)
Get ready to have insomnia due to over curiosity for the next chapters, coz I have the best cliffhanger author-nim here *giggles*
Hava good time, everyone..
Leave ur comment ;)

Smooch
~D~

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namelessyun
NOTE: I'm taking a day off updating!

Comments

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chunnea #1
Chapter 37: thank you for writing such a nice and sweet story..it was well written...keep up the good work author-nim..pls write more of yc story..:D
anneanne #2
Chapter 37: omg... i cried at the end of the story. its really sweet that i cry. huhu what a way to end a fanfic. thanks again author-nim :'')
Samantha24 #3
Chapter 37: Its still A very romantic proposal with all the distractions hahahaha... ADVANCE HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
kimbap876 #4
The empty space (in my heart) is for Chunnieeeeee....
MivlaShun
#5
Chapter 37: Simply loved it! Read it in one breath(except a class I held for 1.30h) even though I have an exam tomorrow morning!! That much I liked it <3
MivlaShun
#6
Chapter 2: JYJ and GONG YOO!!! You fulfilled my dreams! :D <3
kimbap876 #7
I was reading this while waiting for my eye appt. this a.m., and was sad to see it end-but it was at least a happy ending. To namelessyun and dheeliciouz, many many thanks for a well written fanfic.
ashmita123 #8
Chapter 37: really loved this fanfic..its d end already....bt i liked it very much!! keep up d good work!!
anylia #9
Chapter 37: the end...
it's the end already. T___T
I'm going to miss their bickering so much.

and yes please.. after a good rest.. I'll be waiting for Storybook.

really craving for an update from that one.

thank you~~ thank you thank you for a wonderful journey yet again :)
Samantha24 #10
Chapter 36: so sweeeet.. hay...