December, 8 Months Later...

Evie looked out the small window. Through the fluffy clouds suspended in the sky, she managed to catch glimpses of the city far below. Seoul. Half a year ago, she wouldn't have thought that she would ever set foot in Korea and not to mention be doing what she was doing. With her Psychology degree and MBA from Cambourne University, she could have easily secured a job in the US but then she had realized she wouldn't have loved her job the way she did now. Reminiscing about old times, she thought about the irony of how every meal she cooked back then had to be thrown away.

Enrolling in Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France was by far the best decision she had ever made. After slaving away and having no social life for 6 whole months, her literal blood, sweat and tears had finally paid off. It had been pure luck that her Grandmother knew someone at Le Cordon Bleu. Having no culinary background whatsoever, they had allowed her to enroll only because she had graduated from Cambourne with first class honors. Starting from the very pits of hell, she had worked her way up until her teachers had finally recognized her talent after learning the basics.

Three months later, they had supported her when she opened her first bakery on Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the most pretigious avenue in the world. Her teachers had done unofficial promotion by word of mouth, telling everyone they knew of Evie's bakery, Sweet On You, knowing and having confidence in Evie's skills. To Evie's surprise and hope, not a month later, her small little bakery was booming with business with queues extending to outside the bakery. Competing with the most well-known and popular bakeries such as Pierre Hermé which/who was famous for his macaroons, Evie knew she had struck gold with this venture. She hoped her Grandmother was proud of her and looking down from heaven.

The decision to go to Seoul had been a deliberated one but the idea had formed only after someone had suggested it to her.

Flashback

It was a bluesy Monday afternoon and Evie was sitting outside her little shop putting her MBA skills to use. Sweet On You was closed for the day, so Evie decided to complete some badly needed accounting and also do some therapy baking. At that moment, a Chocolate Cheese Brownie was baking in the oven. Her little minions now did the baking at Sweet On You so she rarely got to bake but today was their off day so she took the opportunity to indulge her itchy baking fingers. It had been almost 3 months since it had opened and Evie was thinking about opening another cafe, kind of like a 'Sweet On You 2'. She wanted it to be exclusive, so France was a no. Maybe London? But Paris wasn't that far. Where could she go? New York was too commercialized and besides there were so many bakeries there already and Americans mostly stuck to their own.

Thinking hard, she tapped her pen on her chin, staring into space. The sound of a metal chair scraping across the pavement brought her back to reality. She turned to see an Asian man about to sit at one of the tables.

"I'm sorry sir, but Sweet On You is closed for today," she called out in English from where she was sitting with an apologetic smile.

"Oh really? I really wanted to try their cakes but I couldn't come yesterday and I'm leaving later today. Ah... Thank you anyway," he said with an accented voice. He made a move as if to get up and Evie thought 'Ah, why not? I'd be less fat at the end of the day'

"Sir, wait!"

"Yes?" he looked at her enquiringly.

"There's a cake baking in the oven right now. If you could wait 10 minutes, it'll be done. I could make you a coffee in the meantime...?" she offered.

"I'll wait then. That's nice of you, miss. Are you sure you're allowed to do that? Won't your boss scold you for serving customers when it's closed?" he wondered.

Evie laughed and told him it wouldn't be a problem. "Would you like to sit inside? So that other people won't mistake it for being open."

He nodded and walked in. Evie guessed he was in his late 30s or maybe early 40s and wondered what he was doing in Paris all alone.

Collecting her books on her table, she carried them inside the small cafe. She smiled slightly to the man as she passed him and walked behind the counter. She made him a latte as per request with two biscotti on the side.

He thanked her for it and she decided to ask. "Are you Korean by any chance?"

"Yes, I am. How did you know? Most people would just assume that we're Japanese," he replied.

"Oh, I have a Korean friend and his accent is like yours," Evie explained.

Before she could say anything more, her oven beeped, announcing that her cake was ready. She excused herself and jogged over to her oven. A minute could make a difference when it came to cakes. Quickly taking out the cake pan, she removed the cake from it and put it onto a tray. She fanned it for awhile to make it cool faster then cut a slice for the man. She set it down on the table and was about to move away when he spoke.

"Why don't you join me? Since there are no customers today... unless you are busy. I want to know more about this bakery."

Okay. To be honest, Evie had gotten a little freaked out when he asked her. The guy was almost twice her age and old enough to be her father. Was he flirting with her?? But the moment he finished his last sentence, her wariness fled. Her bakery was her baby, her love. She'd worked so hard to get this far and when anyone asked her about it she couldn't resist telling them. So, she cut herself a slice of cake and sat down opposite the guy.

"Tell me about your Korean friend. There are not many in France. How did you meet him?" he asked first.

"Uh... I'm actually from the US and I met him in university. Although, since he moved back to Korea, we've both been pretty busy and it's hard to keep in contact. I email the guy but he hardly ever replies and every time what he says is so vague. The most he says about himself is 'I'm fine' Come on! Ahh... I probably said too much but it irritates me," she ranted. Damn. Did she just get angry about Seunghyun again? and to a stranger at that??

The guy laughed. "It's okay. Although I can't say that I know how you feel, I can probably know what is going on the guy's side. My girlfriend gets mad at me all the time when I stay at work overnight and don't call her. Especially with the baby and all you know. Want to see a picture? She's so cute. Her name is Yujin." He took out his phone and showed her the picture of a baby.

Evie cooed appropriately and agreed. It wasn't that the baby wasn't cute, it was. But she was just relieved that the guy didn't seem like he was hitting on her anymore with all the talk about his girlfriend and baby.

Suddenly, the guy was all serious again. They were both halfway through their cakes when he put down his fork. 

"Er... Ajusshi, you don't like it?" Evie knew very very basic Korean and she knew they were big on being respectful to elders and all so she decided to be careful.

The man looked a bit surprised and laughed. "No, no, it's not that. It's good. I just wanted offer you a business proposition. You're the owner of Sweet On You, yes?"

Now it was Evie's turn to be surprised. "How did you know? I thought I hid it well."

"You seemed very at home in the cafe and you were baking all by yourself. Surely no boss would allow their workers to use the cafe's things for their own. Am I correct? Also, you are young but have an air of competence about you."

Evie laughed and nodded. "So what is this business proposition?"

"How would you like to open another Sweet On You in Korea? I own a sort of office building and it needs a cafe for a finishing touch. A place where my employees can relax when they're not working. It would be exclusive to the people who work in the building. What do you think?"

"W-wow. Korea huh? It's a thought. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to turn you down. You see, I want Sweet On You to be exclusive but not thatttt exclusive. I would still want others to be able to buy my pastries and if your policy is such that only your employees could eat there, I'm afraid it's not what I want. Sweet On You is my pride and joy and I have always liked sharing such wonderful pastries and cakes with others. Like spreading the love of such food around. I'm sorry." Evie hoped she had explained herself enough. It really was a good offer because she would definitely have customers and won't really have to establish herself and promote there but it really wasn't her plan for Sweet On You.

"I understand. That's a shame but I know what you mean about spreading your love for such things that is your passion. Thank you for your time. Let me know if you ever open in Seoul. My offer still stands." He took a business card out from his wallet and offered it to her. "How much for the cake and coffee?"

"Oh. That's alright. It's on me. You've just given me a wonderful idea. I've been thinking a lot about where to expand and it seems that I've got my answer."

He smiled. "Thank you for the lovely snack."

"No, thank you, ajusshi."

He laughed and left Evie with her mind whirring.

Present Day

Evie stood up from her seat along with everyone else and tried to take down her hand-carry bag. It was really heavy with all the stuff she had in there so she was tugging at it in vain. Evie was about to call out for an air-hostess to help her when another arm reached out and brought it down for her.

"Oh, thanks so much!" She turned to thank the guy.

"No problem. You must have gold bars in your bag," he said jokingly with an eye smile.

Gawd. Why hadn't she noticed him during the flight? Probably too busy sleeping. He was gorgeous! And muscular. She had noticed that when he had carried her bag. Those arms... He had a very pleasant face to look at and had a nice jawline. His eyes crinkled up into two lines when he smiled. She wondered about the mohawk thought. Bad but... didn't they go out of fashion like 20 years ago?

He turned away while Evie was still staring stupidly at him. Flustered, she quickly slung her handbag, her laptop bag, her backpack onto her shoulders and pulled her carry-on behind her. The benefits of first class. She wouldn't have been able to bring in so many bags otherwise.

Getting off the plane, she took in her surroundings. Fortunately for her, she had a high IQ and managed to complete a one month crash course for the Korean language so she could read most of the signs but at second glance she realized that there were English words too. She face palmed herself and looked for the directions for the immigration counters. She thought she saw Gorgeous-Guy going through the Korean Passport Holders counter but couldn't be sure. Getting through immigration without problem except for a few glares at her tremendous amount of hand carry bags, next was collecting her luggage.

Panting with the effort, she finally reached the baggage claim area. She looked around for a trolley but there didn't seem to be any. Evie didn't want to put down her bags just in case when she went to the conveyor belt for her luggage, someone would snatch one away so she just stood there hunched under all that weight. Gosh. She was regretting bringing so many things with her.

After tying up loose ends in Paris and leaving Sweet On You in the care of Rachelle, her best friend and fellow Le Cordon Bleu graduate, she had flown back to the US to her grandmother's old place. Since she had a PR in France, she rarely ever came back since her Grandmother had passed. So she had decided to sell the house and take everything of use with her. Old junk thrown out, collectables and mementos into boxes that were being sent to her once she settled in.

Soon, she saw her bright pink luggage bag coming towards her on the conveyor belt. Uh oh. Now how was she going to take it off the conveyor belt? Backpack on her back, laptop bag slung across her shoulder, handbag on the other shoulder, carry-on next to her, she had her hands free but her main luggage was mighty heavy. Like really heavy. She had bought the 40kg weight limit and even then she had to pay for being overweight. She stepped toward it and with what she hoped was a burst of strength, pulled the bag off the conveyor belt and... it didn't budge. As she was still clutching her bag, she had to walk together with it as it was still moving. It was hilarious really and she would have laughed as terrible as that may have been if she wasn't the one in the situation.

Not fun. Her laptop struck the metal side of the conveyor belt and she winced. It was brand new. She was gulping in air and grumbling in her head about unhelpful Asians when she felt someone come up next to her.

"On the count of three,okay? One. Two. Three!" They both heaved and to her surprise it came off the conveyor belt. The momentum caused her to bump into him but they both managed to remain upright.

"Thank you... again. I really couldn't have done it without you." It was Gorgeous Guy and he had come to her rescue once more. Maybe she should call him Muscle Guy from now on.

"This time I can't say it wasn't a problem," he laughed. "But you're welcome. Did you bring your whole house with you? That's a lot of things you're carrying."

"I kind of did. I'll be staying in Korea for a few months so I brought all my stuff," she smiled back at him. "Oh! My carry-on! Where is it?"

Just at that moment another guy came up to them and had her bag with him. She thanked him and he moved away. Evie realized she hadn't been fair when she said they were unhelpful. They were probably too scared to help after seeing a white girl who was taller than almost all of them who couldn't carry the bag. They were just smaller build and probably knew their limits.

"Well... I better get going. Bye!" Muscle Guy waved at her with that cute eye smile and left. 

Looking around her, she saw that a lot of people were staring at her and whispering about god knows what. Uncomfortable with so many eyes on her, she grabbed her bags and wheeling both behind her, she left the baggage claim area.

Oddly enough, she heard screams coming from in front of her. They weren't screams of panic from what she could tell but more like excited screams. Fan screams. She turned her head this way and that but couldn't tell who could be the celebrity in all the chaos. There were tons of girls swarming around one of the doors to her left so she guessed it was a male celebrity and he was somewhere there. She didn't envy him right at that moment. 

Suddenly, a bunch of girls who weren't looking where they were going, bumped into her. Evie fell, bags and all and they didn't even stop to help her up or even apologized. She huffed. She got up by herself  and picked up her bags. Nothing seemed to be going right ever since she got onto the plane. First she had spilled champagne on her blouse on the plane so she'd had to change, then she had gotten airsick which she had never got in her life, then there was the bag thing on the plane, and then there was the bag thing off the plane. Was it a sign? Should she cancel all her plans and go back to France?

Oh wait. One thing went right at least. Evie had met Muscle Guy. Heading to her right where all the fans weren't, she wondered if she would ever meet him again.

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I"m soooo sorry about the late and lame update. I had a bad case of writers' block if you could even call it one. I had no inspiration whatever. This was kind of a filler chapter so I apologize if it was sooo boring. But as you can see, she opened a bakery. Out of the few (T_T) of you who responded, most asked for bakery so here it is! 

Hmm.... I wonder who Muscle Guy is... Do youu know? Will she meet him again? :D