Ring~ The sound of the school bell rung and kids began to pack their backpacks and dash out the classroom door along with strings of “Bye seonsaengnim” being chorused. Park Chaehwan smiled and began to pack up her things and walked to the office. Finally seated in her swivel chair at her own desk, she takes off her heels and heaves a satisfied sigh of relief.

“Had a long day with your students today Miss Park Chaehwan?” a voice said besides her.

Chaehwan turned to see the new male teacher that had just started at the middle school she was working at. They had gotten close as they are the same age. She smiled at him with a nod, “Ne, but I love them. What about you Mr. Yoon Doojoon?”

He chuckled, “I am tired as well. I have some papers to correct, but before that, I have to follow my duties as a husband.”

She stared jealously up at him, “Married life must be fun. Having a companion by your side your whole life.” She pouted at the thought of being single her whole life.

“Don’t worry. You’ll find someone special one day.” He encouraged and went to his desk to gather his belongings. “I’ll see you tomorrow!” he bowed and left the office area.

Chaehwan inwardly sighed. Doojoon mentioning his happiness to be with someone has made her feel all types of emotions. She had the time to have relationships with men, but she feels like the right didn’t come along yet. Should she just try blind dating or just continue to wait for Mr. Perfect?

She collected her things and got ready to leave. As she was headed out the school’s main gate, her phone buzzed in her purse. Struggling to retrieve her phone as she had her students’ work to grade, she finally answered after the fourth ring. “Yoboseyo?”

“My darling daughter Chaehwannie~ How are you my dear?” her mother cooed.

Moving to a different part of Seoul away from her family was difficult. She misses them terribly, but to be closer to where she worked this was the sacrifice had to face. “Annyeong umma~” she giggled. “I’ve been good. Just finished work and on my way home. I have a lot of papers to grade.” As she conversed with her mother, she arrived at the bus stop and noticed that the sky was getting dark at this early hour. “Hmm… It looks like it’s going to rain. I should hurry home.”

“Ah yes. Go home safely. I’ll call again tonight to check up on you.”

“Ne~” Then she quickly put her phone and waited for her bus to come. After five minutes of waiting, her bus came. It was usually a half an hour ride to her neighborhood, but it seems like the bus had taken a detour. So she got off the next stop and had planned to just take the scenic route home, which was through the park.

~~~~~~~~~

At the same time, Kris Wu was on his way to the park. He had been set up on another blind date by his friends, which he refused to go on as it was the tenth one he went on that month. His friends told him that he will remain the cold, heartless guy his whole life if he didn’t start venturing out into the world instead of being holed up in his apartment all the time. Well, taking a walk at the park was an adventure to him. It was also a way to get away from his friends so they can’t find him.

After the death of his late girlfriend three years ago, he had been become a recluse to everyone in his life. He had shut his family and his friends out of his life as he wanted to mourn alone during that time. As he slowly opened up again, much to his friends’ perseverance to enter his empty life again, they suggested to finding another woman in his life. Of course he was highly offended by the suggestion, but after a tearful intervention from his family, he agreed.

 Kris parked his car and looked around. He hadn’t noticed the gray clouds looming in the skies. Should he stay or should he go back home? And be bothered by those brats? No thanks. He put on his jacket and started his walk on the pathway.

At the opposite end of the pathway, Chaehwan began her walk and smiled at the beauty of Mother Nature’s creations. Just as she began to enjoy her time, droplets of water began to sprinkle on her. Then they became raindrops and started to get harder. She shrieked as she began to run while hugging her students’ work to prevent them from getting ruined. Kris cursed as rain pelted him. He was too far into the park and away from his car, so he had to find shelter nearby. Chaehwan thought the same thing as she continued to run. Both their eyes landed upon the gazebo that was placed at the center of the park. There!

With his long legs, Kris arrived there first. He shook his head to take away excess water from his hair. Then he heard clicking of high heels hitting the wooden floor. He turned his direction to a woman that had entered the gazebo. Chaehwan quickly went to a bench and placed her things down. She was breathing heavily because of running as well as carrying a lot of things. As she tried to catch her breath, she noticed that she wasn’t alone. Lifting her gaze up to the tall stranger, her eyes flickered in recognition. “Kris? Kris Wu?”

Kris stood there confused. Who is that? She does look familiar. Then he had a flashback of high school. She was a girlfriend to one of his old high school friends. “Park Chaehwan?”

Chaehwan smiled widely, “It is you! I knew I recognized you!” She made her way towards him. “You were caught in the rain too, huh?”

He stood there silently before answering, “…Yeah. I was just taking a walk to help clear my head.”

She nodded her head in understanding, “Ah, I see. It was such a nice day earlier in the day, but I wasn’t expecting a storm.” Chaehwan looked back at her belongings on the bench, “Do you want to sit?”

Knowing that the rain wouldn’t be stopping anytime soon, he followed her to the bench. Moving her purse to the floor, Chaehwan began to fix the important papers and place them back into the manila folder and placed it also on the floor. Kris eyed them as he took a seat, “What are those?”

She looked down at them and smiled, “Those are my students’ homework I have to correct.”

His eyes widened with surprise, “Students? You’re a teacher?”

“I’m a middle school teacher.” Chaehwan said proudly. “I don’t know if you remember, but I always volunteered at nearby schools when we were in high school. Well, I don’t know if Joonmyun even told you guys when we were dating at the time.”

Kris nodded his head, “I remember. He used to always talk about you whenever we hung out.”

Chaehwan laughed, “That’s nice to hear even though we’re not together anymore.” Then she gasped, “Omo, are you still together with Minyoung unnie?” At the mention of Minyoung’s name, he froze. “How is she? I haven’t seen her since our high school graduation.” He clenched his fists, to which Chaehwan took notice of. “If you two aren’t together anymore, mianhae for mentioning her.”

“Aniyo, it’s nothing like that.” Kris reassured. He took a deep breath, “It’s just that…Minyoung passed away.”

Chaehwan’s eyes widened at that fact. She felt severely guilty for mentioning her. “Oh no, Kris… M-Mianhae. I-I didn’t know.”

As she continued to apologize, Kris smiled softly. “It’s okay Chaehwan ah. You didn’t know. I’m doing fine now, unlike the time it happened.”

She carefully asked, “How long ago?”

“It’s been three years already. She was hit by a drunk driver.”

When she suddenly took hold of his hand, his heart reacted in a weird way. It felt like it jumped. What the hell? As Kris looked at Chaehwan, he could see the sympathy in her eyes. “I’m really sorry for your loss Kris. Minyoung was a great person. She’s in a better place now. She must be watching over you right now.”

In a long time, Kris finally managed a real smile, “Komaowo Chaehwan ah.”

She smiled back as a response. Then she looked around, “Oh! It seems like it stopped raining.” Chaehwan began to gather her things. Kris stood up and watched her. As she was ready to go, Chaehwan turned to face Kris, “It was good to see you again Kris. Maybe I’ll see you around somewhere.”

Just before she turned to go, Kris grabbed her by her elbow to stop her. Chaehwan curiously looked back at him. “Let me drive you home, as a thank you for listening and for your condolence to Minyoung.”

“Oh, no you don’t have to Kris. My apartment isn’t that far from here.” Chaehwan politely declined.

“Please let me drop you off home. I want to make sure you get home safely.” He urged. She was hesitant at first, but she end up accepting to his proposal. Chaehwan told him the directions to her place and he was off. They began to converse some more, which was strange as Kris hasn’t talked much in the past except to Minyoung. “So you’ve been feeling down because you feel like you’re going to be forever alone?” he asked.

“Wouldn’t you be?” Chaehwan argued to prove her point. “My last relationship ended on my first year of college, which was with Joonmyun oppa. So that makes me single for about what…six years? Yup, that totally spells out forever alone for me.” She let out a dramatic sigh, which cause Kris to laugh loudly. She stared at him, “Are you seriously laughing at me right now?”

Kris tried to hide his smile with his right hand, “Aniyo.” Chaehwan slapped his shoulder and crossed her arms over her chest with a pout. He turned to look at her and found her strangely cute. This is weird. I’m letting myself go when I’m around Chaehwan. Does that mean something? Before he knew it, he was at Chaehwan’s apartment complex.

“Thank you for the ride home, Kris.” Chaehwan said along with a bow of the head. “Please go home safely.” All he did was nod his head and sped off. She let out a sigh and placed a hand over her fast beating heart, “That little crush I had on him in high school is coming back.” It felt wrong to be feeling this way as she knew that Kris is still mourning over Minyoung’s death. “I wonder if I’ll ever see him again.” She looked up at the cloudy sky and then began her way to her apartment.

~~~~~~~~~

Days passed after that meeting of two old friends. Chaehwan was sitting at the teacher’s desk in one of the classrooms she was teaching in as she read over her students’ journal assignment. As she was about to start on another, there was a knock on the open door. “Excuse me, Miss Park.”

Chaehwan looked up to see Mr. Yoon at the door. She stood up and bowed her head to him, “Ah, yes?”

He smiled, “You have a visitor waiting for you at the office.”

“A visitor?” She followed Mr. Yoon as he led her towards the office. Could it be umma popping up for a surprise visit?

“I think you should hurry in and meet him. A lot of the female teachers are eyeing him.” Mr. Yoon said.

“Him?” It couldn’t be him. Could it? As Chaehwan walked into the office, she collided right into someone that she fell back. Arms quickly wrapped around her before she could fall back. She looked up and stared right into a familiar face. “Kris?”

He smiled and stood her back straight. “Hi.” Chaehwan could see a lot of female teachers in the office as they stared at Kris in awe. They giggled as she embarrassingly fixed herself.

“Would you like some privacy to talk?” Mr. Yoon suggested. Without them answering, he quickly ushered the other teachers out of the office, much to their protest, and closed the door behind himself.

Chaehwan awkwardly looked around. “Um… Please, take a seat.” She took a swivel chair from another desk for Kris and sat at her desk. “So, what are you doing here?”

“I wanted to know if you wanted to grab some coffee. Do you have anything to do after work?” Kris asked.

“Moh?” Chaehwan stared at him. “You came all the way here just to ask if I wanted to get some coffee? How did you even know that I work here?”

“This is the only middle school closest to your apartment, so I took a leap of fate and came all the way here just to see you.”

Chaehwan softened, He came all the way here just to see me? “To answer your question, yes, I’m free after work.”

Kris stood up, “Okay, good. I’ll pick you up then.” Then he swiftly took out his cell phone from his pocket and handed it to her, “I’ll need your number to contact you.”

“Oh!” She took his phone and began to punch in her contact information. After handing it back to Kris, her phone began to buzz on her desk. She looked at it and saw an unknown number calling, knowing that it's Kris.

“I’ll call you when I’m outside in the parking lot.” He walked towards the door and did a two finger salute, “See you later Chaehwan ah.” Then he left.

Chaehwan sat there as she tried to register what just happened. Did Kris…just ask me out on a date? No, he couldn’t have. It must just be a small get together to get some coffee, right? Her lips unconsciously began to hitch upwards as she thought about Kris. She saved his number on her phone: Kris:)