It was a cool but sunny and blue-skied day. A few people were milling around the outlook to the city, bundled in coats and scarves.

“Where is it?” she said to herself quietly, her breath visible in the brisk air.

Stepping up in front of the Locks of Love at Namsan Tower brought a lot of memories flooding into Paula’s head. She had visited the attraction more than once of course, especially when she decided to keep residence in South Korea: she brought friends and family who visited her over the decade to the mountain and leave a lock in the area.

Now, however, she was here to say goodbye to the city she fell in love with. After 12 years, the now 34 year old thought it was time to move on. She accomplished a lot in her time in Seoul, most prominently the English teaching service she started for Korean celebrities and companies. Five years into her experience as a friend and teacher to idols made Paula realize that she wouldn’t be able to supply all the demand on her own, so she came up with a solution…Her own agency. Since she wanted it to have the same principles Park Jin-young laid out (known only between CEOs and herself in the beginning, groups that debuted a while ago but gradually moving onto more recently debuted and almost debuting groups, etc), her company was more underground and less known to the public. She also got backing from JYP in the beginning, since she didn’t have her own funds to hire people, but she got there eventually.

She employed people like her: people who started out teaching ESL, who didn’t know much about the Kpop industry, who wanted to learn to speak Korean fairly quickly, and who would be willing to teach English in the capacity of being a friend. The process was as natural as possible as Paula became friends with the teachers first, and then introduced them to one or two artists over their friendship. Since he/she wouldn’t know the person was a celebrity in the beginning, it wasn’t really a problem for him/her to fanboy/girl over the singer/actor/comedian/etc. And it took off from there.

Since she would be leaving, Paula left the company in the very capable hands of her friend and partner, Ha-eun aka JYPE’s former receptionist. Ha-eun was an invaluable help to Paula over the years; they eventually teamed up for the whole affair. At the start, Ha-eun would deal with the business side of the agency (like arranging the partnerships, the finances, the first meetings between CEOs and Paula), and Paula would go out and actually hang out with the clients.

When they started getting more friends and teachers, Paula would help Ha-eun out with balancing the books and being the liaison between Ha-eun and the people they hired, occasionally checking up on the "teachers" to make sure everything was going well. With Paula leaving the country now, it would be a little different, but she would still manage a bit of the business’s finances, the hiring, and pressing internal issues if they ever did arise.

“We’re still going to keep in touch,” Paula told Ha-eun on their last lunch date.

“Absolutely,” Ha-eun teased, “How else would I be able to threaten everyone who works for us?” since it was well known that Paula was the stricter one out of the two partners.

Paula shook her head with a smile on her face as she recalled the memory, still turning over every lock that looked like the lock. She probably looked like a crazy person going through hundreds if not thousands of people’s messages.

“They wouldn’t have cut it off…right?” she asked herself, now a little worried and digging a little bit more frantically into the locks.

But then, her gaze froze when she saw suddenly her name on one, the hint of blue buried in at least five layers of different coloured locks.

She enveloped her hand over the lock, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath before opening her eyes, removing her hand, and reading what was written on it:

Paula. Be mine.

“How’s that for mind reading?” a voice said behind her.

She smirked, her heart still pounding, when she turned to confront the voice.

“I think I’ve gotten used to it over the years, Taec,” Paula replied.

Taecyeon grinned, pulling her into a bear hug, which she reciprocated.

Then he brought his face down to kiss her lips sweetly, which she also returned.

“So,” he said, finally putting some space in between them, “We off to find yours?”

She smiled and nodded, taking his hand to lead him to where she locked her lock all those years ago. She looked on as he searched through the mess of metal for a hint of purple, contemplating how the two of them got to this point.

After that day at Ingkigayo, they hung out at least once every two months, alone or with someone else or with a group of people. It was like old times, being able to hang out and not worry about anything. Paula’s company got started within those years as well, and Taecyeon was a great help, since he had his OKCAT business up and running…and he and the other 2PM members had the muscles to do the heavy lifting when she and Ha-eun were setting up their office.

Seven years into her residence in Korea is when the beastdols started talks of going on hiatus, and even disbanding. The five Korean members still hadn’t done their mandatory military service yet, and all six of them were finding that they were enjoying their solo activities more as they were aging. Paula was aware of it all, since they each brought it up with her at one point. Even JYP himself called her to discuss it, which meant there was a high possibility of it actually happening. A year and a “farewell” album later, they all enlisted in the army (Wooyoung, Taecyeon, and Chansung in active duty; Jun. K and Junho in non-active duty) with Nichkhun going back to Thailand for some well-deserved R&R.

“You better visit,” he warned Paula at the airport.

“Like I’d ever skip out on white sandy beaches and Thai food,” she teased, promising that she would see him very soon and giving him a kiss on the cheek and a hug.

The next few weeks consisted of a lot of 2PM press conferences and more goodbyes as the rest of the guys left for army training and service.

“Will you wait for me?” Taecyeon had suddenly asked before getting into the van.

“What?” Paula said, shocked.

He took a silver ring out from his pocket, one she had seen him wear before, and presented it to her.

“Taec…”

“Will you wait for me?” he asked again.

“I…I can’t promise you anything,” she said.

“Then just think of me when you look at it,” he