A/N: This is a little set-up chapter. As mentioned in the summary, Jan Di did not attend Shinwa High School, but she did stop the guy from jumping. Joon Pyo is single and very much a cold chaebol with no interest in love.

Prologue

It would have been a cute meeting even without the media involvement.

Joon Pyo went to the Kyobo bookstore because it was the largest chain and his brain retained that sort of commercial information. Nothing but the best for the Shinwa's prince. This particular store had been around when he was a kid and he went here with the F4 to find the most recent comics. Of course, the drivers or bodyguards of any of the F4 boys could do that for them, but they liked the experience and it was something that stuck with him. At times it felt a bit like home. And they had an amazing selection of rare and used books, which he wanted to scour to find a suitable gift for Ji Hoo. He was in the middle of perusing a book about traditional Korean musical instruments, thinking that Ji Hoo might like something like that, when his phone went off. It was a message from his secretary summoning him back to the Shinwa tower immediately.

Jan Di, on the other hand, was on her way to Kyobo to spend her last free hours of freedom (before starting her job at the Shinwa tower the next day) at the famous bookstore she had heard so much about. After landing a part time job that paid better than she expected and relocating to an apartment of her own (nothing too extravagant, of course), and starting her medical studies at the Seoul University, Jan Di was looking for a bit of break.

They both reached the door at the same moment and ran into each other. Jan Di's purse fell to the floor with half of its contents falling out. She wobbled for a moment, trying to regain her footing, until two arms caught her at the waist and she placed her hand on said arms to steady herself. They remained interlocked for a few seconds, just looking at each other and then gingerly released each other.

"Watch where you're walking!" Joon Pyo bit out as his mood soured at the prospect of sitting at another one of the emergency business meetings. Thanks, Mom, he thought sarcastically.

Jan Di reared back, instantly regretting the automatic apology that slipped out, "I'm so sorry." What a jerk, she though privately.

The said jerk, who was exceedingly tall as to tower over her, huffed something about peasants knowing their manners. But she was already distracted by her stuff on the floor and looked down, without glancing at the jerk. He must have noticed and maybe felt a little bad, because they both simultaneously bent down to retrieve the fallen items from the floor.

"I think this is yours," Joon Pyo said, thrusting the iPhone into her hands.

"Thanks," she smiled up politely at his chest, which was about as high as her eye level was, stroking the screen of her phone. "My precious." She was quite relived that her phone survived. Poor as she was, she couldn't afford a new one and her life was busy enough that she needed her communication device to be working.

"I hope it's not broken…" came a gruff voice.

"Trust me, it's had worse," the girl's tone was light and he relaxed that she wouldn't be stuttering in awe of him - which happened often enough as to be annoying - or maybe expecting him to replace the broken item.

"You should take better care of your things," he asked, looking at her face searchingly, noticing large bright eyes and an easy smile, and then realized that he was still holding her hand. He promptly let go. Then he thought again, "And yourself."

"Yup, takes a bit more than a collision with a very muscled chest to break me," she chirped unthinkingly and then furiously blushed.

He grinned smugly at her comment and opened his mouth as if to respond, when his phone started ringing again, the caller ID indicating that it was Secretary Jung.

"Right. I really have to take this. You good here?" He asked already thinking about the meeting.

"Don't let me keep you."

He went outside and spoke in very clipped tones walking quickly down the sidewalk and out of her sight while she looked after him for a moment and then went inside the store.

So they both went their separate ways. The next day Jan Di might have told Ga Eul about her meeting with the totally tall, dark and handsome guy at the bookstore but would have quickly forgotten about it. Joon Pyo might have remembered the brunette with the big eyes for a few more minutes until his business meeting required all of his attention. Jan Di would have laughed about it weeks later when she walked by the news magazine vendor and spotted a picture of Goo Joon Pyo, who would turn out to be said mystery bookshop guy.

But as it were: Neither of them could guess that Park Yi Gi, intern at the Daily Ledger, who had caught the whole exchange on camera, was ready for his first big scoop.

The entry on the newspaper's website less than two hours later with embedded grainy pictures of Goo Joon Pyo holding hands and being generally very touchy-feely with a mystery brunette read as follows:

Prince of Shinwa Embracing Eager Beauty!

Intrepid Daily Ledger reporters caught our notoriously romance averse bachelor out and about with a mystery brunette in tow! It's good to know that he has found time from bending the business world to his will and enlarging the sprawling Shinwa empire and gotten himself a real life girlfriend. As you recall, dear readers, Goo Joon Pyo is not one for dating or marriage. All attempts at relationship, be it business alliances or best society dates, have failed spectacularly. Goo Joon Pyo's heart remains unassailable and it seemed that only business profits ruled his mind and heart. Official statements on their relationship status are of course as of yet unavailable. But seeing these two in a loving embrace, it's clear that we will see a lot more from them in the future.

So fate had already conspired against them once, it seemed. It further added to the conspiracy, because all the celebrities that were usually good for a scandal or two must have simultaneously gone on holiday. There were no unexpected divorces, no surprise pregnancies, no cheating scandals, no alcohol excesses or drug stories to report. There was nothing to take away the spotlight. So the unexpected story about Goo Joon Pyo's love life was taken up by all the major news outlets.

Editors began to scramble, photos of Goo Joon Pyo were taken from the archives, the historical knowledge about Korea's favorite bad boy and hardhearted prince was freshened up and when the name of the lady love was finally revealed, the hunt for the perfect nickname for the two lovebirds began in earnest.

And when Geum Jan Di looked at her phone the next morning, she had 173 new friend requests and 68 missed messages.

A/N: I know this is a little short. Let me know if this is an interesting premise for a story. I have a few chapters outlined already.