Hello to everyone and to everyone, hello! I’m KoReAn13fan and I’ll be your narrator-slash-tour guide; feel free to call me whenever you wish and please feel at home.

I would like to welcome you to the wonderful Evergreen Suburbs! This is where our story takes place, where two young lovers— oh wait! We’ll save the best for last, yes?

No? Well that’s a problem I’m sure you all will be able to take care of. I’ll be showing you around our finest facilities to help you get familiar here. Now we shall begin!

Here at the Evergreen Suburbs we provide only the best for you, our prized tenants, here up front is our grand yet humble entrance, it is –of course guarded by the highest end security systems and the most efficient security officers around to ensure maximum safety.

Right over here is the main yard; it is addressed this way because all the apartments and houses are strategically built around this large area. There are picnic tables, benches, fountains and a few barbeque areas scattered along. This is where most of the residents, young and old, come to relax and unwind, by themselves or with one another.

Near here is the medical clinic; we don’t always get any major injuries but it is always good to be safe, so we’ve provided medicine and medical care readily available for anyone needing them; and for those cute little ones are Power Rangers and Hello Kitty band-aids in stock.

Here comes our crowd favorite: the pool area! There are many small Jacuzzis surrounding the large Olympic sized pool for everyone to enjoy. The residents often throw pool parties and even have a little bit of barbeque once in a while.

Finally, the last yet the most romantic of our facilities are our grand flower gardens. From young couples to age old lovers, come here to enjoy one another’s company amongst the beautiful flora. Many confess their love, some propose but most savor the moment they have with their loved ones.

In a neat little 1-storey house, rented near the main yard is where out story begins, with a certain wavy haired brunette who everyone thought knew everything there is to know about relationships. It certainly seems that way because of the sheer number of young love sick couples, who in one way or another find themselves in a deep conversation about their private (and some not-so-private) love lives with her.

Everyone surely believed that she was wise and all knowing in this field was because of the countless string of lovers she’s had over the years. Tall, dark and handsome to short, loveable and cute, everyone was thoroughly convinced the she had not only seen but dated them all.

Most of her female ‘clients’ (as the preferred to call themselves) often think this and sometimes get quite envious of her, but as ironic as it may be, the infamous barely in her twenties love-adviser was never in a relationship herself, nor was she interested in getting into one.

Reserved and quiet, she wasn’t really fit for being all out there unlike what she advises her clients to be.

She didn’t really choose this path for herself; it was her close friend that sort of pushed her into the business of love-advising because of the frequent conversations they had about her flirty and flighty boyfriend.

The woman’s name was Kang Jihyun, 21 and proudly independent. She is most commonly called through her nickname: Soyou.

Soyou works in a nearby entertainment company, as a stylist to the stars and that is all thanks to a hairdressing certificate she obtained when she was quite young. Many considered her a prodigy, a genius even, for finishing the courses at such an early stage in her life and she was proud of that achievement.

She currently has a pretty close to a regular social life going on; a few parties here and there and a handful of blind dates that she never bothered to show up for nothing extraordinary really.

“But unnie..” she pouts as answered back.

“No Soyou! You’ve rejected so many guys already! At least get to meet a few of them before you stop attending these dates?!” her unnie, frustrated, tried to persuade her, but was getting close to nowhere.

“I’ll think about it.” She breathed through the phone, like she has done several conversations before.

“You always say that, but then you end up not going anyway! Do you know how many guys were disappointed that you stood them up? And they were looking forward to meeting you after I told them almost everything about you.”

She was grateful, of course she was. But to put it bluntly she didn’t really want to date. She was more of the adventurous kind of girl. Soyou always had her mind and heart open to opportunities to travel and see more of the world, which she personally thinks she’s been terribly deprived of ever since she was born.

Soyou only ever got to see more than Seoul or rather Korea (since she never really considered leaving the capital ‘travelling away’) when she got chosen as one of the few stylists to accompany the company’s new rising boy group to the states for a series of concerts.

“Ok let’s have a deal” abruptly halting her rant, Soyou perked up.

“I’ll give up setting blind dates for you… If you attend this one last date”

“Yes!  I mean.. ‘Yes’, I’ll go, but this has to be the last one.”

“Of course it is! I promise” Grinning from ear to ear Soyou quickly jot down the time and the place that she and her mystery companion was to meet.

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Meanwhile…

“I’m extremely ecstatic that you decided to move into our houses in the area! The place is simply magnificent!” the hyper real estate agent grinned as she shook the hands of the client who just finished signing the final contract.

“Yeah, I can’t wait to move in…” he gave her a charming gummy smile as proceeded to gather his documents before leaving through the main entrance’s sliding doors with a pleased smirk plastered on his face.

Turning his back on the small building he jogged happily to his above average condition black Volvo his older sister gave him as a –hand me down— celebratory present for passing his driving test after his 4^th try. He swiftly pulled out the keys to the vehicle and unlocked the driver’s seat before stepping inside.

Starting the car with a soft purr of the engine he started driving on; everything was going great for him. He got accepted to his dream job of being an official songwriter of an esteemed rookie group that he personally thought would probably change the whole criteria and all expectations of being an idol in Korea.

Yeah, those guys’ll make it big.

He also got permission from his parents to move out of their considerably larger villa estate in the country to find a place of his own in the big city, preferably near his work place and if things couldn’t get any better that’s exactly what he got.

An on sale house inside a well-respected area was up for grabs the same day he dropped by the office to check for available houses and since then he was fixed on getting that house. Of course being a single male no older than 23, he would’ve preferred a nice large condo or apartment block where he can work freely and with ease especially being only body to care for.

But he decided that he could skip that milestone and go straight into buying his first real house; and if everything processes smoothly he could even be looking forward to starting a life there, like a family and kids. Yeah, he’d like that but of course still being young, his mind didn’t process very far into the future and simply thought of it as an amazing of luck.

“Honey, how’d it go?” he can hear his beloved mother from the speaker of his handphone.

“I got the house.” He said with a rather smug grin, but in reality there wasn’t really the slightest chance that he wouldn’t get it.

“Oh! We are so proud of you! Come home soon~” his chuckled at his mother’s quick attempt to hide her enthusiasm.

She would most probably go and tell dad and Nam about it now,

he thought in his head as he made his way over to his friend’s house, which is coincidentally where he’d been staying for the past week.

Taking the key out of the ignition hole her took all his stuff off the passenger seat and made his merry way to the 6^th floor where a slight havoc could have been brewing and he wouldn’t even be the slightest bit bothered.

“Yah! You little brat come back here!” was what immediately greeted him the moment he stepped foot in the old yet stable 2 bedroom apartment and so was a flying bright pink slipper that barely missed his head.

A flash of bright blonde and black race through his vision but he paid no attention to it as he made his way to the small dining table.

“I got the place guys. I finally got my own house!” he grinned as he looked over the papers as more proof of his statement.

“What do you mean by ‘finally’?!”

“Yeah hyung, you’ve only been here 5 days..”

Behind him was the comical brother duo that he’d bunked with for what the other has mentioned ‘5 days’. It was the older brother he was close to, especially since they went to the same middle and high school before going their separate ways for university. But he was rather close to the younger brother too, although it was a 6 year gap, he treated the not-so-little one with brotherly affection and in turn was admired greatly by the boy.

“Himchan, let go of Junhong” he said without looking back, knowing the man probably has his hands on the child in a death grip no less.

“But—“

“Aish, hyung. All I did was use the bathroom.” The soft thuds alerted him that the boy was now free and was probably going over to the table.

“YOU FREAKING LEFT THE LID UP AND ON TOP OF IT YOU MISSED!”

“Don’t be such a girl hyung!”

“Why you little—“

“Hyung!” the boy ran for the table ducking underneath the wooden table top which is quite a feat considering how small the table was and how large the boy is. Not to put it rudely though, Junhong was large but not in the sense of being wide, rather he grew the other way; the 17 year old was roughly 186cm and still growing.

“Himchan, take a look at this” he said casually as if another brawl was not going on around him.

With his face slightly scowling the black haired man sat on the chair next to him (not without kicking the boy situated under the table), his piercing eyes read the text on the white paper swiftly.

“What about it?”

“What’s the ‘Evergreen Suburbs’?” he asked hearing the name weird coming out of his mouth but one glance at the male in front of him he decided that it was just him who found the name strange.

“Oh! This place is great! They have a pool, a bunch of parks and I even heard they’re constructing a game center in there. Damn Yongguk this place is awesome”

“Can we stay over at hyung’s sometime?” the boy innocently asked from below.

“Of course you can Junhong, you and your hyung are welcome any time” he grinned his charming gummy smile for the second time that day.

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“…A-and then he told me… t-that we need s-some space!” the small girl cried in hysteric grief as she replayed ther seemingly tragic story of her and her recent boyfriend’s struggle with getting along.

The girl was a mere 16 years old, still in high school yet wailed in front of her as if it were her last chance in ever finding her other half. Soyou was tempted to advise her like she did with the older women she’d talked to but seeing how the girl had reacted to everything thing until now and the way she had just animatedly described her story told her that the girl was to be talked to differently perhaps a bit gentler and with more understanding.

A teenage girl’s heart is one of the most twisted things you can encounter; it will leave you in the dark wondering what the heck happened. It will have you thinking you understand its ways by observing her reactions and her habits but once you are face with the opportunity to test out your theory of whether she will react the way you assume her to, you are left dumbstruck and stumped.

If it matters, Soyou thinks a woman’s heart is just as twisted if not more.

“Oh Young-ah…” she began quietly, thinking over her words a final time before saying them out loud.

“I understand what you mean but not everything will bend at you will, no matter how hard you want it to. Sometimes you need to let things breathe and flow on their own, that’s how things work and that’s how you guys will learn if you’re really meant for each other”

“B-But we are meant for each other! I-I just know it!” her sad shouts were accompanied with a few hiccups as her way of coping with the lack of air from sobbing the entire time.

She looked at her shaking frame deciding to try and help her as fast as possible but still give her the attention the needs to pull her head up.

“Then why do you have to meddle in life’s way of working? If you two are meant to be together there is no real need for you to breathe down his back or watch him like a hawk. Young-ah, if you want this to work out you and him you have to let your boyfriend have a say in your relationship..”

She could see the girl visibly calm down but her eyes showed that she is still struggling with the words she just heard; the gears in her head still working to understand what Soyou means. So to help her with her struggle she put a comforting hand on the girl’s shoulder and smiled softly at her.

“You don’t need to over think this just let your love rule over all this negativity”

A few minutes after their meeting, Soyou had wished Oh Young goodbye, wishing that their relationship go smoothly from then on but deep in Soyou’s logical mind she knew it were only a matter of time until both parties eventually lost interest.

She predicted (and played in a rather cartoonish way in her head) that once the young couple were to meet again the girl you apologize and admit her mistake, maybe even shed a few sincere tears and of course the guy that’s previously determined to let the girl have a piece of his mind will melt at the first sight of tears, much more an apology and immediately forgive her.

The couple will stay strong for a while, keeping either small or large promises for a matter of weeks before a big occurrence sets their pattern in ashes. Be it an upcoming test, a friend, a movie, a date, a teacher, a parent the possibilities for anything/anyone to throw them off are endless and unless they really are committed, one if not both of them will crack from the pressure and eventually end the small puppy love.

No matter how many firsts they had with one another they’d move on and grow up, for better or for worse, that’s what Soyou thought. Some will take the heart break to their last breath whilst some brush it off as if it were just a part of their growing up.

She always believed in individuality; that everything and everyone was different. In size, in color, in attitude or whatever it may be; Soyou thought that no matter how alike they are there would always be something distinct and absolutely enthralling about them.

That could be a possible reason why she still stuck around the advising thing after months of battling on over herself as to why she still continued with this even though she had a nice paying job already and didn’t need the extra emotional baggage to carry from other people’s journeys. Though she thought, this way she could get know some of the many things people don’t about relationships.

Bitter people view it as the same old make believe fairy tale with the classic damsel in distress and the knight and shining armor and in the end is a happily ever after. But to her there are romances you’d never expect to start off the way it did and others you’d never wish to end as so.

Sitting on one of her high stools near her kitchen counter, Soyou breathed out a large gush of air. It was only 3 in the afternoon.

She had finished her shift in her station over at the company at noon, she always preferred the early morning work rather than the night shift for more than obvious reasons. She works from as early as 3 in the morning and by the latest 4 in the afternoon but that’s usually only to cover the schedules that the idols have in the morning, like a photoshoot, an interview or a fansign.

 Those kinds of schedules are usually during the day and precisely why she has to be ready in the wee hours in the morning to prep up and make the idols look picture perfect for the day. After all they will always return later in the day for a hairstyle change or a retouch for a different event.

The later shift was the hardest for the hairdressers and stylists, this is because during the evening the idols perform weekly at the nation loved music programs such as Inkigayo, Music Bank, Music Core and M!Countdown. Soyou had a switch with one of their company’s stylists who was fighting a cold on that day and had to fill up for her on the night shift.

It was hectic and messy; and the more the idols the busier they are trying to find time to doll them all up perfectly. She was glad that the company’s stars always did comebacks and promotion cycles consecutively that the stylists and hairdressers would not get so over worked.

Mentally adding up the hours to her impending embarrassment, she had roughly 4 hours until the dinner that she’d unconsciously been worry over.

Soyou wasn’t a stranger to dating or hook-up and whatever the term could be called but she herself never really wanted to go out and find someone to share her everything with. Sure she thought of it as cute and romantic whenever it was anybody else but if the conversation were ever to spiral back to her and her love life.

She never gave anyone the satisfaction of making her go out and find ‘the one’.

This is ridiculous.

She said to herself in mid-thought.

Out of all the guys I avoid, she still won’t give up. I don’t even know where this place is much less know who the guy is! Okay, so if it is a blind date it doesn’t mean she leaves me completely in the dark? How does she expect me not to run away if I don’t know who I’m supposed to be looking for?

The incessant tapping of her well-kept finger nails echoed in the small abode as she continued to over-work the possibilities.

How would I even know how to introduce myself? ‘Um, yeah, hi we were set up by my loud stubborn friend as a last resort to fixing me up with other guys that I’ve failed to meet because I never really had an interest in dating, I’m Soyou and you are?’

Looking up in deep thought she didn’t actually see that line as a bad thing, it could help her get through the what she feared would be an excruciatingly slow dinner to be finished quite soon.

I could work better if along the lines I could say something like: ‘Wow! You’re my last blind date and now I won’t ever have to deal with guys my friend sets me up with now! Congrats!’

If only it hadn’t been so long she could have easily said that first than the former.

A distant ring of the house phone brought her out of her daze, looking over the couch she indeed saw the black  cordless telephone standing tall and proud on the low coffee table, its monitor blinking a bright yellow. Soyou stood up before stopping half way to the living room.

“I wonder who it is though..” she considered letting the voice mail get it after all it was there for a reason; that or she’s just prolonging the time until she has to have human contact, specifically male.

Before she could decide on it, the seconds ticked on the electronic clock built in the telephone and at the 10 second mark the voice mail played.

“Hey, it’s Soyou’s. I can’t get the phone right now so leave a message! *beep*” a standard and rather monotonous version of herself played out to the currently unknown caller before ending with a beep signaling the voicemail had begun.

The actual Soyou standing a few feet away jumped on the couch eagerly awaiting the message, to discover the identity of the caller. She heard a few breaths come from the other line suggesting the other was probably wondering why she didn’t answer the phone.

“Umm.. yeah” Her eyes widened at the sheer surprise of hearing such a low pitched voice come from the other line.

“I guess this isn’t Evergreen –uh— Suburbs main office? My bad ma’am.” The deep voice person hung up immediately after the apology and cut the connection with a silent beep.

Taking the closest guess that he mistakenly dialed her house phone rather than the office is a completely honest mistake. She had had several past occurrences of that, mostly because all the numbers in the suburban area had the same 6 numbers (this is because the cable and telephones was part of the house and was ready to be used by the owner if pleased) and the only varying ones are the 3 at the end.

The only thing that left an impression on her, was how incredibly bass deep the man had sounded. She was struck, that it couldn’t be someone pranking her… Well because who really can lower their voice that low without showing any sign of a struggle.

She didn’t dislike the voice, no, she found it interesting. Especially since all she ever works with are prepubescent pitch conscious idols, which only either had voices that could go as high as the sky or as husky as someone smoking a pack of cigarettes.

They sounded good, but just not the kind she found endearing.

Quickly deleting the strayed message from the phone’s history, she dismissed the deep voice man from her mind and went towards her wardrobe looking for something to pass for a blind date.

A stylist for the stars who doesn’t know what to wear, oh the irony.

She played with the thought and dug through heaps of clothes waiting for the day to be over.

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“But hyung~~~!!!” The younger boy bellowed from him room when his older brother walked over with his nicely styled hair and fresh clothes only to tell him that he wasn’t allowed to come.

“No, means no Junhong.” Himchan carelessly answered back when the boy went running over to his side and look at him with wide eyes, as if it were to plea to the elder. This however went to no avail; the boy merely got tired with the lack of attention and/or response from the black haired hyung and went to ask the other as to why he wasn’t allowed to tag along in what the elders called the ‘First House Party’ dedicated to Yongguk’s new purchase.

Of course the name wasn’t that inviting but their close friends agreed anyway and told them that they’d be there on time.

Junhong found the tall male by the bathroom mirror either checking his teeth for anything stuck in them or is trying to imitate some kind of popular face expression. As to which one it was the boy never figured out because the elder quickly halted at looked at the boy with shocked eyes.

“O-oh Junhong~ah.” He let out coolly his deep strong demeanor wavering a bit in front of the maknae’s judging gaze.

“Hyung, why can’t I come with?! Jongup hyung’s going to be there too!”

“You can’t Junhong, you’re still too young” Yongguk knew that what he said was part lie and part truth.

Yes, Junhong was under-aged but it still didn’t mean that he couldn’t get in if he wanted to. The boy is tall enough to pass up as a graduating college senior if it weren’t for his cute face; which conveniently he could always manipulate to make him look older than 17.

But Himchan although being a complete to his younger brother is really very protective over him and has sworn (multiple times) that he would protect the little brat and keep him as innocent as a baby until he was in the healthy age of 35. That was no promise to be broken so soon.

“But hyung—“

“Stop it Junhong, Jongup’s not coming anymore. His brother said he was grounded.” Himchan scolded the maknae for even trying to persuade the celebrant to let him come to a bar.

“You all are kill joys..” he glared nastily at the hyungs and stomped oh angrily to his room to sulk over not being able to come.

The man in the bathroom felt slight guilt creep to his heart but he had to support Himchan on this or the other man would never let him off the hook for ‘ruining his baby brother’s innocence’, luckily he had more than enough sense to just go along with everything and so far he’d been out of trouble.

“You ready?” A small ‘eung’ answered him and he shot himself another confident look through the foggy bathroom mirror before leaving the house with Himchan; wallet, keys and phone in hand.

“The guys said they’ve all arrived” The man on the passenger seat spoke up after blatantly ignoring the driver/ celebrant for the first half of their drive because he was far to occupied reading and answering the endless stream of messages that he received from people Yongguk neither knew or care to know about in particular.

“Seems like they haven’t been out in a while, huh?” Knowing they’re friends, it would be too much of a betrayal for them to party and enjoy without the eldest two although they both declared that they’re absolutely ok with it.

“Yeah” the short answer didn’t bother either of them for the silence was welcomed. It always was for it was never an awkward kind of silence. It is simply the elder being an introvert as usual and the other occupied with something other than talking the ears of the older.

Parking at quite a distance from the bar they hopped of, lock the doors and jogged down the lit sidewalk until the bright neon disco lights reached their line of sight and as usual one of their friends’ cars parked obnoxiously in front of the establishment as if it were an even bigger proclamation that he was the son of who owned the place but they figured the people passing by probably just thought he’s a snob.

The music boomed and drinks and lavish cocktails were passed around in a quick precise way. Their friends were huddled at their usual corner a few bottles already placed on the table and once they caught the eye of one of them the cheers erupted and congratulations were said. Yongguk grinned and half ran towards to the table in concealed excitement.

so, what do you guys think?