Chu Ga Eul opened her eyes. She reminisced the random dream she had in where she was hanging out with Pororo on top of a large cloud. They were having a tea session when suddenly the penguin blurted out saying that things won’t work out well between her and YiJeong.

“I think I should put you away from my sight from now on” GaEul portrayed a disdainful grimace towards the Pororo soft toy she was gripping in her hand. “Why did you appear in my dream and hen-pecked me with nonsense?” she narrowed her eyes before shoving the medium sized soft toy into her closet.

GaEul was on top of the world and she doesn’t need a cartoon penguin to bring her down. She took a glance at the clock that showed 5:25 in the morning, an hour early before her alarm usually goes off. GaEul then shook her head and paced lazily towards her bathroom.

The memory of Langkawi still fresh on her mind, she can’t help but smiled at every flash back she got be it when she was brushing her teeth, putting on her soft pink formal dress, and while brewing her morning coffee. She was organizing her handbag when her doorbell rang, and she opened the door to a man in an all-black suit.

            “Good morning, miss GaEul” the man greeted.

            “M-morning.” GaEul said, perplexed. Before she could even ask about the man’s identity, she was handed a small box wrapped in gold foil wrapper.

            “What is this?” she asked gently, still confused and a bit suspicious.

            “Young master ordered me to hand this to you.” He answered, smiling.

            “Yo-young master?” she remembered hearing that words somewhere but she was a tad bit panicked to connect any memory puzzle at the moment.

            “Yes. Young master YiJeong gifted this to you. I should get going now.” He said simply before bowing and left the scene, leaving GaEul with her jaw half dropped. She actually forgot that she was dating a young master of a ridiculously rich family, and remembering that sends shiver down her spine.

            “Thank you!” she yelped even though she was quite sure that the man could not hear her. Sighed, she then moved her sight towards the gift box that she was holding. She closed the door and walked to the sofa before she sat and stared intensely at the box. What this could be? She slowly unwrapped the gold foil and found herself overwhelmed by the thing that resides in the box.

            “iPhone!” she took out the brand new iPhone 5S from its home, her jaw still was not intact. The phone was in white with gold trim, shining and screaming luxury. What in the world. GaEul thought while admiring the beauty of a phone that she had always wanted to own. She was placing the box on her coffee table when a piece of card dropped onto the floor.

GaEul bended to fetch the card before opening it.

‘Call me.’

 A simple note was written on the card in black ink. GaEul’s lips curved into a smile as soon as the words caught her eyes. She was just planning to go and report her SIM card loss and buy the cheapest phone she could find after work today, but his thoughtful gesture saved her a mass of work and not to mention it was sweet as hell too.

            “Do you have plan after this?” GaEul anchored her chin onto her palm, her elbow on the table while talking to MinSeok.

            “No. Why?” he replied nonchalantly, his eyes still fixed at the computer.

It was her first day at work after the sudden vacation at Langkawi but GaEul was still in a jet lag mode and YiJeong’s morning surprise did not give positive impacts to her work concentration at all. Her mind was filled with the unbelievable confessions YiJeong had made and his utterly short but sweet morning note.                   

            “I want to go and report my SIM card loss and get a new one.” GaEul shook her head from the interminable thoughts and continued to explain her plan to the young man.

MinSeok’s right eyebrow arched higher at her explanation.  

            “My phone fell into the pond, remember?” she reminded him of her lost phone.

            “Oh yea” his mouth rounded at the incoming memory.

Apparently MinSeok had no plan on that day, not like he ever had any plan unless if it is academic related. He was that type of guy wo would prefer watching documentaries while eating his own made pasta over social meetings.

They then went straight to Gangnam to get her phone life’s back before they headed to a sushi restaurant nearby to have their late lunch.

            “Lunch on me” GaEul said after enjoying something that felt like hundreds plate of sushi.

            “Keep dreaming” MinSeok rolled his eyes while munching on his last sushi.

            “Let me pay for once will ya” she ignored his antic and opened a step to the cashier counter.

            “I’ve paid. You don’t need to pay them twice” he showed GaEul the receipt he had between his fingers before he walked out of the restaurant.

            “Huh? When the hell did this guy paid” she mumbled before chasing him outside to start a debate over the paid lunch. GaEul practically nagged about ‘gender equality and how MinSeok was being too old fashioned by paying all the time’ the whole ride home while MinSeok ignored her blabber by listening to the classic song he had playing in his car instead. He drove nearing GaEul’s house and his eyes caught the silhouette of a man leaning against the frontal wall of her house gate.

            ‘YiJeong sunbae!” he heard GaEul yelped from where she sat in his car. He watched as she literally leaped out of the car to greet her boyfriend.

            “GaEul” YiJeong called softly, his body lifted from the wall.

            “Sunbae, when did you arrive?” her voice filled with excitement.

            “Three hours ago” YiJeong did not even try to conceal his anxiety. Only God knows how befuddled he was these past hours. He rushed to Shinhwa kindergarten right after his meeting with the British Museum’s curatorial staffs only to find out that she already left the premise. Concerned, he drove his new Chevrolet Corvette to GaEul’s house and ended up pacing left and right while wondering where she could be at for hours.

            “Th-three hours?” GaEul’s eyes nearly popped at his reply.

Actually YiJeong was also shocked at his own record. He did not even know he could wait for someone that long.

            “Sunbae, excuse me for a while” GaEul pardoned herself before returning to the car she stepped out from earlier. YiJeong tilted his neck to get a better view of the driver of the Honda Accord. As soon as he laid his eyes on MinSeok, YiJeong could literally feel his blood rushing onto his face.

This guy again. YiJeong’s thought was running wild. What’s up with them? He tried to calm his mind down but his fickle imagination refused to cooperate. He was so distracted that he didn’t respond properly to MinSeok’s greeting and almost did not realize that the lad’s car had drove past him few seconds ago.

            “Sunbae. Come in”

YiJeong uttered no word as he tailed GaEul towards her living room. He was in a state of pure annoyance but he could not apprehend the cause of his mood imbalance. It could be the summer heat, the best friend guy that loomed out of nowhere, or the fact that GaEul kept calling him ‘sunbae’ even when he already told her not to but one thing that he was sure about; he was dysphoric.

            “Here’s some strawberry milk. I’m sorry but I don’t have, tea, here, at this moment. I hope its drinkable for you, sunbae” GaEul inveigled while handing YiJeong a glass of pinkish milk. “It might be too sweet for you,” she placed a big sized pavlova on the coffee table before taking a seat next to her boyfriend. “Is it?” she added, her eyes narrowed while surveilling his reaction. Knowing So Yi Jeong all these years, she had almost never seen him drink anything sweet and judging from the furrowed brows, she kind of got the hint that he does not enjoy taste of the drink.

            “Sunbae, I’m so sorry I’ve kept you waiting” she blarneyed. “We went for late lunch after getting my SIM card replacement” she took her handbag from the coffee table and ransacked it for the new SIM card. She then took out the brand new iPhone and tried to put in the card but to no avail. “Thank you so very very much for this phone,” she giddily smiled although she was struggling with the gadget.

            “C’mere” After a silent sigh YiJeong held his hand out to help her. YiJeong could now rest assured that he was out of his mind. Just few seconds back he was all gloomy and morose but a short explanation and a frivolous smile from a lady named Chu Ga Eul ridiculously healed them all. Without him even realizing, he was smiling ear to ear while his hands were working to set up her new phone.

            “Thank you so much sunbae” she hugged the phone and winked at her boyfriend, almost killing him with her adorability. “I’ve always wanted to have this phone” she smiled. “But you don’t have to buy it for me though. This phone is expensive,” the smile transformed to a pout. “Not like I’m saying that you can’t easily afford it, but . . .” her chatter paused as soon as YiJeong’s hand landed on softly her head.

            “GaEul ah, it’s just a phone. Forget it” he smiled while patting her head

A helium ‘sunbae’ escaped GaEul’s lips before she could feel herself blush uncontrollably.

            “Tss,” YiJeong suddenly hissed. “Are you gonna be like this?” he faked a frown.

            “Eh?” GaEul replied, confused.

            “Are you gonna call me sunbae all your life?” he scrutinized her blank expression.

            “Ahhhh” GaEul bit her lips in contrite. “Ah, I’m sorry. It has been a habit, I guess. So sorry,” she let out a remorseful sigh. “Let’s eat this, oppa.” She then awkwardly took the almost forgotten pavlova from the table and handed the dessert to her boyfriend.

YiJeong smirked before taking a full fork of the meringue-based dessert. He had his sight on his girlfriend who was busy munching and sighing at the same time. At that moment, he just could not fathom the reason why he did not find her this adorable earlier.

Nowadays, being with her brought out the child in him such that he did not understand how, or why. Like how his hand automatically reached for the whipped cream on top of the pavlova and smudged the cream on her nose.

            “Sunbae!” she yelped as a response.

            “Oohh? Sunbae?” he swapped his finger on top of the pavlova to get a second dose of the whipped cream.

            GaEul immediately shoot up from her seat as she saw him flinging his finger towards her. “Oppa! Okay sorry, oppa!” she did a brief reverse walk before she literally ran around her small living room to avoid his attack.

YiJeong did not even know that he enjoyed teasing her this much. Seeing her adorable reaction somehow acted like a miracle vitamin to his heart. He did not even know that such simple acts could make him this delirious and contented.

She stopped after few seconds of running and held his wrists to prevent them from reaching her face. With that position, she pushed him apace, not cognizant that there was a stack of CDs scattered on the floor and before she even realized, her face already landed on YiJeong’s chest.

For few seconds YiJeong could not feel his body, his eyesight suddenly became blurry. The numbness on his torso started travelling to his throat slowly. Few moments back he was pestering his girlfriend and now he was on the floor, with GaEul right on top of him.  

            “Sunbae. Sunbae, are you okay?” YiJeong heard GaEul called but he could not get his voice out of his throat. “YiJeong sunbae!” he gradually felt his body back after the second call, slowly realizing how heavy GaEul actually was, still on top of him. Only her palm moved, warm against his cheeks.

            “Urgh.” Sound finally escaped his pharynx when he thought he could not talk ever again. “I’m fine.” His sight tardily became clear and he could finally see GaEul’s face vividly. Her worried face hovered over his chest while her body unseen from his angle of sight. “I’m fine. Are you?” he repeated.

            “Yeah. I’m fine too” GaEul softly replied. She just came to a realization that she had pushed YiJeong too hard that he tripped on her CDs and they both fell pathetically on the floor. She was fine, totally, because she had landed on his torso instead of the hard floor. It took her a while to realize that she was on a controversial position and she immediately turned scarlet at the thought but she could not bring herself up because her eyes have somehow locked on his.

Until she heard a very sharp yell coming from her front door.

“CHU GA EUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Abeoji?”