The rest of the day went as normal as it normally does for Seunghyn despite this weird morning. Seunghyun went to his scheduled meetings, met his clients, and signed papers. Dara was getting used to living in Korea and felt the need to make her room feel like home. She spent hours on the IKEA website searching for furniture and ordering them to her new address. They were scheduled to be delivered by tomorrow afternoon, which would be perfect. After hours of debating on which lamp would look better at the side of her bed, Dara decided to give her eyes a rest and get some fresh air.

Dara stepped out of the house in her black jeans and white shirt with a pair of sunglasses covering her eyes. She was still paranoid that someone would notice her and news would get out where her new house was, even though she was in a different country. As Dara stepped outside onto the busy streets of Cheongdamdong she realized how much she missed her car, before leaving the Philippines she gave it to her sister as a present for turning 21. Because getting lost on the subway wasn’t a part of her plans for the day, Dara hailed a cab and took it to the nearest supermarket. She had checked the fridge that morning and noticed there weren’t a lot of groceries and it consisted mostly of leftovers of jajjangmyun and other take out. Dara thought it would be good for both her and Seunghyun if she bought some real food and cooked some real dinner. Despite living in the Philippines for most of her life, her mother was still very Korean and felt it was important to instill that factor in her children. During her very rare days she had off, Dara would spend the day learning a new recipe from her mother and it would fall under the category of Korean cuisine.

At the market she grabbed a cart and wheeled it along the different aisles. She put in different seasonings, sauces, salts, and sugars she felt was necessary for everyday cooking. She then chose the different vegetables, smelling each broccoli and cauliflower to make sure it was fresh. In the past Dara had very few encounters with raw meat, for she hated touching it but decided it was time she got used to it considering she loved meat too much for her to give it up. She took a deep breath and entered the meat aisle while scrunching up her small nose. The workers all silently laughed at the cute reaction she had to the very alive prawns jumping in the water and the slippery eels cruising their way through the water. The trip to the supermarket was finally over and Dara was tired but had to admit she had fun and finally felt like the 24 year old woman she was. In the car ride home she noticed the time, 6:56, and realized that she now had to cook when she got home. The day was much longer than she’d expected it to be and all she ate so far was toast with a glass of juice.

Now standing in front of her new building, Dara realized she had to carry all the bags upstairs herself, and she clearly was not happy. She gave herself a word of encouragement and was ready to pick up the 7-8 bags when she heard a man’s voice. She looked up to see a man in front of her smiling softly, he was wearing a similar outfit to hers, white shirt and black jeans, had a mohawk and also happened to be very good looking.

“Excuse me, do you need some help?” The man noticed at her first for how beautiful she was but then realized she probably needed help with all the grocery bags she had in front of her.

“Um, no it’s okay I can handle it myself, thank you though.” Dara knew it wasn’t right to accept a stranger’s help, no matter how attractive he was.

“Oh are you sure? Don’t worry I’m not some creep; I actually live in the same building so it wouldn’t bother me. Plus those bags look pretty heavy.” Dara’s eyes widened when she thought he could read her mind.

The man chuckled and said “don’t worry I don’t know how to read your mind, it’s just obvious that any woman would think that about a random man coming up to her.” Dara blushed upon his words and uttered a small, “sorry…”

The man started laughing again and didn’t say anything but grab most of the bags except one and started walking towards the building. He turned back around to see Dara still standing there not knowing what to do.

“You’re not coming? I guess I could just eat these packs of ramen myself” the man joked while peeking inside her bags. Dara blushed a deeper shade of red and picked up the bag following him. Together they entered the building quietly. Inside the elevator he asked her what floor she lived on and she replied with a short “11^th.”

“Oh really? So do I” the man now put down the bags on the floor and stretched his fingers while turning to face Dara, which caught her by surprise.

“How come I never saw you around? Are you sure you live here?” The man was teasing her again.

“Oh, I just moved in yesterday so yeah…” Dara ended up looking at her fingers at the last word.

“Ohhhhhhhh, that makes more sense. Which apartment did you move into? I didn’t know anyone moved out?”

“I moved into 11B.” The man was confused.

“Huh? You live with Seunghyun hyung and Hye Yoon noona?”

“Oh you know them?” Dara was surprised at the sudden connection.

“Yeah, I’ve known Seunghyun hyung since high school, but how do you know them? Are you family?”

“Oh no. Hye Yoon-ssi moved away to live with her husband and I’m Seunghyun-ssi’s new roommate.”

Damn, Hyung is lucky to have such a cute roommate. The thought went through the man’s head as the elevator doors opened to the 11^th floor. They walked over to Dara’s door when he put the bags down on the floor again.

“Thank you for helping me.”

“No problem, it’s what neighbors do right? I live right there, 11D.” The man pointed two doors down.

“No, I owe you.” Dara smiled and the man was mesmerized.

“Well you can tell me your name first.” The man smiled showing his cute eye smile and was now standing there scratching the back of his head. Dara laughed finding his attempt to flirt kind of cute.

“I’m Sandara Park but you can call me Dara.”

“Dara, that’s a nice name.”

“Thank you… well, what’s your name?”

The man smiled showing his perfect teeth and said “I was waiting for you to ask. I’m Dong Youngbae, it was nice meeting you.

“It was nice meeting you too; I should go now I have to make dinner. Thank you again.”

“It’s fine. Ok then, bye I’m sure we’ll see each other later.” The two waved goodbye and Dara entered the house with a smile. She couldn’t help but love the men in Korea; she was starting to think everyone here was good looking. First someone like Seunghyun and now Youngbae.

Dara set down the bags of grocery down on the kitchen counter and went into her room changing into a pair of black sweats and pink tank top. She tied her hair into a tight bun and began taking the food out of the bags and putting them into the different cabinets. She realized she should have checked the cabinets before shopping because there were already some bought items, but it never hurt to have extra. Dara cleaned the counter, took out some pots and decided to make something as simple as kimchi jigae because she was hungry and that happened to be her best dish. As she waited for her soup to simmer, she also broke some eggs into the pot and began to stir when she heard the door open. Seunghyun was home.

Seunghyun was tired from work, more than usual because one of his least favorite clients had decided to make an unannounced visit to his office and argue about how he was unhappy with the way his contract was going. It took over an hour to make the man happy and leave, so Seunghyun can go home as well. When entering his house, Seunghyun stopped at the door smelling something different. These past two weeks of living alone made Seunghyun accustomed to the quiet atmosphere and the lack of fragrance. But today, his house smelled good, and he heard some sort of sound coming from his kitchen. As he was about to take off his shoes to go inside and check what was going on, he looked down to see pairs of feminine shoes next to his sneakers and new pairs of pink slippers for the house, the size much smaller than his own feet, and that’s when it hit him. He had a roommate, a female roommate. He walked inside cautiously and was surprised to see Dara, with her hair up and slightly red from the heat in the kitchen, cooking real food. As she turned around to grab the carrots she’d neatly cut before she saw him staring at her and was caught off guard. Seunghyun now caught staring, also snapped out of the small trance and cleared his throat.

“Oh hi. I’m just making dinner…”

“Oh. Okay…” Seunghyun was about to turn back around to head to his room thinking about which type of food to order today, considering the dinner was only for Dara when she called him.

“Um, the food should be ready by the time you change so hurry, I’m hungry.” Seunghyun turned around in surprise.

“The food is for me too?” Dara wanted to laugh at his wide eyes reaction finding it cute.

“No. I’m going to eat all of this myself.” Seunghyun didn’t know if she was serious.

“I’m kidding, of course you get too. I made enough for both of us knowing you’d be hungry and wanting a change from jajjangmyun.” Dara at the end and let out a small giggle. Seunghyun let out a small smile too and said thank you and told her he’d be right back. He couldn’t help but think maybe having a female roommate wouldn’t be too bad.

As Seunghyun changed Dara set up the table with food enough for two people and drinks. He came out of the room and quietly sat down at the table, taking his first bite. Dara watched him hoping he wouldn’t hate the food. When he looked up he saw her watching him and asked “what happened?”

“Oh. Nothing I was just wondering if you like the food…” Dara looked down and took her own spoon to start eating. She couldn’t take him staring at her from so close.

“Oh, yeah it’s really good. Thank you for the food; it’s been a while since I ate some real home cooked meal.”

“I’m glad you like it” Dara said with a smile and continued “but two weeks isn’t that long… I’m sure your sister cooked.”

“Well… let’s just say she wasn’t the best cook.” Seunghyun let out a small smirk and Dara laughed.

“Was she that bad?”

“Yeah, one time she was boiling the water to cook ramen and she forgot so all the water evaporated and the pan got all black.”

“OH MY GOD” Dara exclaimed while laughing.

“I know she’s bad.” Seunghyun began laughing too and both continued on with their food. The room was quiet except for the sounds of them eating until Seunghyun brought up a topic he was curious about.

“I don’t mean to offend you or anything but I’m just curious about something.” He started out slowly.

“About what?” Dara looked up from her soup.

“This apartment is really expensive for people who do you know… normal average jobs, I was just curious how you managed to afford it… since you know I don’t know your occupation.” Dara looked up at him in surprise. She didn’t know how to answer him back. The rent for this apartment wasn’t expensive at all for her considering she’d saved up all her money back when she was in the Philippines but here she had no job to back her up, and she couldn’t tell him the truth.

When Dara wasn’t answering Seunghyun felt as if she was offended and quickly apologized saying she didn’t have to answer that.

“No, no it’s fine. I um have a family background that’s pretty well off so yeah…” Dara hoped he would believe it and move on.”

“Oh. Before this apartment where did you live?” Once again Dara was caught off guard and was cursing him for being so curious.

“I lived in Busan.” That technically was not a lie because Dara was born in Busan and had lived there for the beginning of her life.

“Busan? But you don’t have an accent at all.”

“I can cover it really well. I only speak with an accent when speaking to my family members… Um I’m done eating I’ll take your plate if you’re done too.” Dara needed to get away from that table or she might say something that would give away her secret.

“Nah, I’ll do the dishes. You made dinner it’s fair if I clean up right? Since we’re roommates now,” Seunghyun said with a smile while getting up and taking her plate as well. Thankfully he believed her and moved on from the topic.

“Okay then, thanks. Um I’m pretty tired I guess I’ll take a shower and sleep. Good night.”

“This early? It’s only 9:45.”

“Yeah… um I’m really tired. Good night.” Dara walked away quickly.

“Alright good night.” Seunghyun was now at the sink washing the dishes smiling to himself because after a long time he had a satisfying dinner. Dara wasn’t that hard to live with.