Chapter 3

I reached home an hour later, dragged myself up the stairs to my apartment, and collapsed through the main door.

“Onni, waseo!” Dae In smiled. Han Dae In is my room mate. She’s actually pretty rich and has no reason to be living in this dump with me, but she’d asked her father for a year of independence, before she was married off to some guy her family had promised her to. This was the last week of her independence.

“Oh… You’re home pretty early.”

“We closed up pretty early today, since the boss had some family matter to attend to.”

Dae In worked at a dessert shop nearby. It wasn’t a glam job, but she loved it.

“I can learn to make desserts for my future husband,” she smiled.

I salute Dae In. Here she is, enjoying her final year of freedom before she had to marry some ssagaji of a guy, and she talks about making him dessert in the future. I feared for Dae In. What if her husband turned out to be a horrible man?

“What do you want for dinner?” I asked her. I’d promised to take her out for dinner everyday of the week until her last day as my roomie.

“Can we go to that little bistro we saw the other day?”

“You wanna try out a new place?” I asked her.

“Why not?” she smiled.

“Sure, it’s your call this week,” I said as I plopped down on the sofa. “We have another 3 hours to dinner time,” I added after looking at the clock on the wall.

“Let’s watch a movie!” she said as she rustled through our collection of DVDs. She pulled out our favorite movie, ‘Ever After’. We loved Drew Barrymore. She’s such a great actress. To bad in real life, there are so many rumors about her being a nasty person. As we watched the ending, Dae In passed me a box of tissues. We always cried at the ending. It was so romantic, we couldn’t help ourselves.

“Onni…” Dae In sniffed. “How I wish I could have a romantic ending like that!”

“You can,” I said. “Your wedding is going to be as beautiful as the one Drew Barrymore had in Ever After.”

“Chintcha?” she asked me.

“Yes… of course,” I smiled reassuringly.

It was about 6pm and we started walking to this little French bistro near our place. I’d called Jun Su and asked him to meet us there for dinner. We spotted him, waiting outside with Yoo Chun, as we approached. I wrinkled my nose as I approached them; Yoo Chun was smoking again.

“Yoo Chun, you need to quit,” I said. He smiled as he dropped the fag on the floor and grinded on it with the heel of his shoe.

“Let’s go in,” Jun Su said as he put his hand on my back to guide me. I turned to look behind as we walked.

“Sorry, I forgot to introduce you guys. Yoo Chun, this is Dae In, my room mate.”

“Annyong,” Dae In said shyly as she nodded.

“Annyong,” Yoo Chun smiled at her. “Nuna, you didn’t tell me you had such a cute roomie.”

“Of course not,” I laughed. “I wouldn’t want her to fall into your clutches.”

Dinner turned out to be mediocre. This was probably the last time we were going to set foot in this bistro. However, the company was great, as usual. Whenever Jun Su and Yoo Chun were together, they've never ceased to crack me up. In the middle of one of their jokes, Yoo Chun's mobile phone rang. He picked it up and answered it without even looking who had called.

"Yoboseyo," he laughed into the phone and all at once, his face changed.

"Nae," he replied to the other person. "Nae," he repeated once again. "I'll be there," he finally said and he ended the call.

"Who was that?" Jun Su asked.

"My father."

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"No. He just called to remind me of my engagement, this weekend."