Disclaimer: We don't own Boys over Flowers.
A/N: Thank you to all those who are still reading this story. We really appreciate the support. Special thanks to glorialopezgl534.03, the Guest reader, Kumi, Sunny and Kola93 for your reviews. We are so glad you all liked the chapter. Your reviews make our day and give us the motivation to continue writing.
Note: For anyone who doesn't remember: The SoEul binder is the binder containing Jae Kyung and Woo Bin's matchmaking plans for the SoEul couple. It was introduced in chapter 15. Ji Min is Ga Eul's childhood friend and Jae Kyung's current neighbor. Jan Di thinks he killed Ga Eul's fish.
I hope you all like this chapter. Enjoy!
"Where are you going all dressed up?" Gran asked Woo Bin.
"A date." He checked his reflection one last time and made for the door. "Don't save me dinner."
"Oh, alright. Have fun," she said. "But Woo Bin, bring her home next time. Okay?"
"Far too soon for that."
Gran rolled her eyes. "She lived with us. It's far too late to 'take it slow'."
"When did that happen?" Then it hit him. She wasn't talking about Ji Ah. "Have you been talking to Yi Jeong?"
"Once or twice, since he left. Why?"
"I don't know what lies he's been feeding you. But Jae and I are just friends."
Gran stared at him in disbelief. "I wasn't born yesterday."
He took a deep breath. "I know you love Jae."
"She's such a sweet child."
"But I don't see her that way. Okay. So focus your matchmaking energy somewhere else."
She folded her arms. "Then why exactly were you holding her hand?" As if reading the confusion on his face, she continued, "The day we returned from Fiji."
"We should get your eyes checked. You're clearly seeing things. That never happened." He dusted his coat. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm getting late."
"At this rate, I'll never have great-grandchildren."
He poked his head through the door. "For god sake, Gran, I'm twenty."
_oOo_
Tomorrow marked Yi Jeong's seventieth day in Sweden.
He missed home.
He missed the cherry blossom trees outside his studio. He missed his overgrown armchair from the F4 lounge. He missed the loud singing of his next-door neighbor. He missed Woo Bin's terrible jokes. Jun Pyo's melodramatic antics. Ji Hoo's sarcastic wit. And Ga Eul...
He spun the wheel.
Of course, his father didn't care about that. The only thing that mattered to Master So was the funding his heir had secured.
Fifty new permanent clients. Three hundred different pieces sold. See what you can do once you are away from unnecessary distractions.
Yi Jeong shut his eyes in a futile attempt to get his father's words out of his mind.
He could feel a headache coming. Gulping down an entire bottle of water, he returned to the wheel. He pressed his hand down on the clay, shaping the pot, letting the familiar motion soothe his nerves.
He took a step back to admire his half-formed creation. The center could use some smoothening. And the edges—
Ring, ring, ring, ring. The sound of his laptop going off interrupted his thought process.
"Ga Eul." He grinned. "Wait. Isn't it like five in the morning there?"
"Thought I would get an early start. Maybe take up yoga. Do some pottery." She brought her wheel in front of the camera.
Why look a gift horse in the mouth?
He smiled. "My creativity was always highest in the morning."
Yi Jeong returned to the pot, molding it along with her. Occasionally, he would look up from his work and guide her movements. But for the most part, they worked in silence.
He snuck a glance at her. She worked on her pot with a determined expression on her face, the same one she wore when she tried a new recipe.
She looked up—a warm smile on her face.
He pretended to be busy with his work.
"How's the weather there? Don't you have twenty-four hours of daylight in May?"
He composed himself. "That's later in the summer. But now that you bring it up. The weather cycle has affected their pottery in such interesting ways." His face lit up. "The pieces made in winter have this essence—this serenity. Like it's asking you to slow down and feel the world." He rested his head against his palm. "While the summer pieces—they're more upbeat. More lively. Almost like a celebration of the long-awaited dawn." He combed through his hair. "Sorry. I'm rambling."
She laughed. "I like it when you talk pottery. Your face lights up. And your voice gets all animated. "
He averted his gaze. "How is uh—how's your list coming along?"
"Great. I finished three more items."
"That's a total of"—he did the math in his head—"ten?"
She nodded. "Crossed of Confessing to a childhood crush, Spending an entire day by myself, and witnessing my dad's favorite football team win the championship."
He vigorously spun the wheel. So she met up with her crush after all. Should he ask her about it? No, it was best he didn't know the details. Especially since he was too far away to do anything about it.
"The Foxes finally won a game? That's great," he said instead. "It's been what, fifteen years?"
"Yeah. My dad hasn't stopped celebrating."
An hour later, once Ga Eul hung up, Yi Jeong sat on the bed beaming. What a wonderful way to end the day.
He checked the wall clock: eleven-thirty. That left just enough time to complete his nighttime skincare routine.
Yi Jeong was in the middle of applying his eye cream when his phone rang.
"So. I heard you were missing me," said Yi Jeong.
"I don't know what you're talking about. Like I told your girlfriend, I was there purely for the pots," said Woo Bin.
"Admit it. You're counting down the days until my return."
"Pound sand."
_oOo_
Woo Bin peered through his binoculars. The suspect was still in his yard, hard at work. While the forty-five-year-old man, living a few blocks from Yi Jeong's studio, looked like a regular Joe—he was far from it. There was at least one dead body buried in his backyard. Woo Bin was willing to bet all of Yi Jeong's pots on it. What else would explain the loud thud and the blood-curdling scream he heard two hours ago?
"Maybe he is digging a garden," said Jae.
Woo Bin scooted further into the bushes to give her some room. "At night?"
"Duck," she said, pushing his head down. "Stop stretching. He'll spot us." She peeked through her binoculars. "I don't know. He doesn't look like a murderer."
"Neither did Ted Bundy." He passed her a bag of nuts.
She stuffed some in her mouth, then passed the bag over to Woo Bin's bodyguard.
"Thank you, young miss. Perhaps you could instill some manners in young Master Song as well," said Mr. Young.
"Nobody asked you to be here."
"You did," Mr. Young replied. "Besides, young Master, on the off-chance that Mr. Kim is a serial killer, we've to be."
Woo Bin rolled his eyes. He had a caustic remark ready for launch when Jae touched his arm. "He is gone back in. This is our chance."
They tiptoed out of the bushes to the dumpster in front of the house. "Let's get digging."
Jae put on a pair of plastic gloves and began sifting through the trash. "Woo Bin. When we were in the bushes earlier, I overheard Mr. Young mumble something about a bag of cocaine, a high-speed car chase, and being mission leader?" She removed a banana peel from a stack of crumpled paper. "I take it he's not your run-of-the-mill, typical bodyguard?"
He looked up from the pile of receipts. "Don't tell Gran. I don't want another lecture about everything she's done to keep me safe. She wouldn't shut up about it when we returned from Fiji. 'I let the world whisper about how my own grandson was adopted. How he wasn't really my blood.'"
"Gran started those rumors?"
He nodded. Gran had gone to great lengths to hide his true parentage from the world. Abandoning her husband's home in China for her girlhood home in Seoul. Forging fake adoption papers. Limiting when, where, and how he saw his father, lest they be recognized. Even though the chances of that were near zero. His father worked from the shadows. Apart from his own crew, less than twenty people had seen his face. And the number of people who knew he had a child could be counted on one hand: his two best friends (whom Woo Bin had met in Fiji), and the three mafia men disguised as Woo Bin's bodyguards.
Not that any of that assuaged Gran's paranoia. If she found out that three of Woo Bin's oldest bodyguards were mafia men in disguise, he would never see his father again.
Jae smelled the bottle she found in the trash. "Bleach. Maybe you were on to something."
She yanked Woo Bin's shirt, pulling him towards a nearby tree. In a second, he knew why. Their suspect walked out of his house clutching a baseball bat.
"That must be the murder—"
Jae covered his mouth.
The sound of footsteps grew closer. But neither of them dared to check. Instead, they stood as still as mannequins. Pressed against each other. Behind a tree that was inches away from a prospective murderer's house.
The footsteps receded.
Woo Bin snuck a look. "He went back in. That was the most harrowing three seconds of my life."
Jae put a hand to her heart. "Still going. Faster than an hour of intense cardio."
"Let's get something to eat. Ice cream?"
"Sure. Once I take a long shower." She smelled her shirt. "Make that two long showers."
_oOo_
When Woo Bin reached Ji Ah's Introduction to Marketing class that evening, he almost had a heart attack.
Two feet away from him stood Ji Ah, involved in a lively discussion with a certain curly-haired F4 member.
"Hi, Woo Bin." Jun Pyo greeted him. "I can't believe you haven't shown Ji Ah our F4 game room."
Woo Bin tried to hide his annoyance. Jun Pyo was the one who insisted that the only girls allowed in the lounge were common friends or serious girlfriends.
Jun Pyo checked his watch. "I should go. Have to pick up Jan Di. But do stop by the lounge sometime. You would love it—comfy armchairs, the best-rated games, a gumball machine."
Woo Bin took Ji Ah's arm. "Let's walk around for a bit."
He led them outside to the university lawn. Hopefully, the fresh air would distract her from the game-room talk. Four years ago, when Jun Pyo banned Woo Bin's flings from the lounge, they fought. But now that Woo Bin was older and wiser, he considered the rule sensible. After all, inviting a person into your private spaces was neither keeping things casual nor taking it slow.
"I learned quite a bit about you today," said Ji Ah.
He shuddered. Whenever the self-proclaimed romance guru, Jun Pyo, got involved, things got overly complicated. God knows what kind of things he had been saying.
"Which got me thinking. There seems to be a whole other side to you I don't know about. Like you're obsessed with grape juice?"
"Not obsessed. I like it a normal amount."
She gave him a fond smile. "What I'm trying to say is—whenever we go out, we do things I like."
"That's not true."
She sat on the grass. "Humor me. What kind of things do you usually do with your friends."
"Play sports. Video games. Take trips." He sat next to her. "Sometimes we go to clubs. Whenever we can convince Ji Hoo."
She picked at her braid. "What about with that friend of yours? The one you eat lunch with."
"Jae?"
He took a minute to gather his thoughts. They did a lot of different things. Some mundane—like removing cobwebs or sorting his music collection. Some more adventurous—like last weekend, they tailed a potential murderer. Some complicated—like the SoEul Binder. The first thing might make her angry, the second would freak her out, and the third—the third was Yi Jeong's personal business.
It was best to keep things vague and simple. "Nothing much. We mostly hang out at the porridge shop. With friends."
"What did you do yesterday?"
"Karaoke."
She scooted closer. "That sounds fun. Maybe we could do that sometime."
He looked down at the grass in a feeble attempt to hide his expression. Karaoke night was their thing. Inviting Ji Ah seemed wrong somehow. Besides, they mostly sang from the point of view of other people, modifying the lyrics to fit the situation.
Yesterday, Woo Bin delivered a soulful rendition of Taylor Swift's I'd Lie, from Yi Jeong's perspective. Jae sang Coldplay's The Scientist, from her grouchy Prof's perspective. She dedicated it to his ex-TA, whom he kept comparing her to. They ended the night with a duet of True Colors (for Ji Min from Jan Di). How was Ji Ah supposed to join in on that? She didn't know the F4, or Jae's professor, or Ji Min.
But he wasn't dumb enough to say these things out loud.
"But I like our dates," he said instead. "You're the only person I know who can hold their own against me in Fortnite. Yi Jeong always loses."
"And Jae?"
"She doesn't game."
Ji Ah rested her head on his shoulder. "I suppose you've got a point."
_oOo_
On this lovely Sunday afternoon, when Woo Bin opened his career-search binder and chose salesman, he expected to make a quick buck. With his stunning good looks and irresistible charm, the clothes should sell like hotcakes.
They didn't sell like hotcakes.
"This T-shirt featured in Parasite. One extra wore it," said Woo Bin.
The old woman threw the shirt and ran.
He picked up the fallen T-shirt. "Wait. Did I say Parasite? I meant When the Camellia Blooms." He turned to Jae. "Man, I really thought I had that one. Maybe this is not the career for me."
Jae gave a customer back his change. "Nonsense. It has only been half an hour. I'm sure your sales would pick up."
"You seem to be doing remarkably well."
She had sold twenty shirts. He had sold zero.
"You had a rough start. It happens."
A young woman strolled towards their stall. That was his demographic. He waved her over.
For the first time since he started this, he had a customer who was engaging. Unfortunately, her attention wasn't translating into a sale. She shuffled through his entire stash, put each T-shirt against her chest, and asked for his opinion, only to repeat the cycle all over again.
"I think red is a lovely color for your skin tone."
"I don't know. I look a little chubby."
"Not in the slightest." It had been ten minutes. At this point, he just wished she would pick one. Any one.
"Ok. I'll take it."
He took the money and swung his arms in the air. "Yes. Finally. I was beginning to think I'd lost all my charm."
Jae smiled at him. "Told you. Just a rough start." She tapped her fingers against the table. "So… I was wondering... how are things with your girlfriend?"
"She's not my girlfriend," he said. "We're taking it slow."
"Fine." She leaned towards him. "How are things with your lovah?"
He put a hand on his chest. "Language, young lady."
She laughed. "But seriously. How is it going?"
He didn't answer immediately. "She's fun. Pretty. Charming. But sometimes—sometimes the slightest thing sets her off." He folded the T-shirts into a neat pile. "Like. Few weeks ago, we went to this concert. Everything was going great. But at the end of the night—she's like, 'We don't spend any time together.' It was a four-hour concert. Then the after-party was another four hours."
She thought it over for a second. "Whose idea was it? To take things slow."
"It was mutual."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Mine."
She chewed her bottom lip. "I don't think the fight was really about time."
"Do you have this in red?" A customer asked her.
"No. But we have this beautiful shirt," she said.
Jae went on to explain the merits of the red floral-printed shirt, ultimately convincing the women to buy the red top. And three others.
He smiled down at the table. She really was a natural.
She added the money to the jar. "As I was saying, maybe Ji Ah wants to speed things up." In a voice barely above a whisper, she asked. "Do you?"
He picked up another shirt to fold. "I do like her. A lot. It's just... I haven't had a girlfriend since I was sixteen."
She scooted closer. "Bad breakup?"
"No. Kiarra was wonderful. Fun. Understanding. A genius prankster." He looked up at the sky with a wistful smile on his face. "High school was a tough time for Yi Jeong. His good-for-nothing brother abandoned him. Again. And his mom was"—he paused—"the details don't matter. Point is, he wasn't doing well. So sometimes, I had to cancel dates. Last minute. With minimal explanation." He turned to face her. "She never complained. Not once."
He haphazardly folded the remaining T-shirts. "Anyway, near the end of ninth grade, she moved away. We tried to make long-distance work. We tried so hard. But we were fifteen. And she was on the other side of the word. And Gran refused to buy a private jet." He clapped his hands together. "She said it was because they're stupid. But I know it was to prevent my dad from taking me on impromptu trips."
Her forehead creased. "I'm sorry."
He shrugged. "It was a long time ago."
He drummed his fingertips against the table. He hadn't thought of Kia in ages. But with that door now open, memories flooded in.
Spending their second date at trash pickup. Because she had detention, and he didn't want to postpone.
Kia asking: 'Is it a family thing or a Yi Jeong thing?' when he had to cancel date night. Then a simple: 'Do what you have to do. We'll meet up later.'
Kia cooking up a revenge plan against the teacher who called him a spoiled F4 brat: she punctured his tires. Everyday. For a week.
Jae touched his shoulder. He gave her a half-smile.
"Looks like you had something really special."
He picked up a yellow shirt and fiddled with the hem. "Like I said, long time ago."
Ten minutes went by, but he said nothing, still lost in her memories.
"It was unreasonable to expect," he said.
She turned towards him.
"For my dates to be that patient. That understanding." He drew circles on one of the T-shirts with his fingers. "I disappear for a week. With no explanation. When we finally meet up, I want to put Mentos in different drinks—to check which ones explode. Or steal the skeleton from biology class—to check if the bones were real." He folded his arms. "Turns out most sixteen-year-old girls don't consider these things dates. Or fun. Or safe."
"Does Ji Ah?"
Their last conversation echoed in his head.
There seems to be a whole other side to you I don't know about.
Whenever we go out, we do things I like.
"Maybe. She does want to get to know me. And does seem open to trying new things."
She squeezed his hand. "Then I think you owe it to yourself—to give it a real try."
He smoothed the shirt he had crumpled.
"So the skeleton? Were the bones real?"
He cracked a smile. "Never found out. It was a two-person job. Couldn't find any takers."
_oOo_
Woo Bin brought his phone closer. "And ever since Jan Di said it, I can't stop thinking about it. No horror movie has a naked ghost. Do they take their clothes to the afterlife?"
Jae mulled it over. "That explains the phrase Won't be caught dead in that. If I had to wear an outfit my entire undead life, I would be picky too." She yawned. "All this talk of ghosts is gonna give me nightmares."
"Don't worry. If you can sell three neon-green shirts to a grumpy old lady, you can coax a ghost to haunt someone else."
She smiled. "That was just dumb luck."
"You sold twenty shirts in half an hour." He flashed her a grin. "But sure. Just dumb luck."
She played with her earphone cable. "I should sleep. I've gotta be up in four hours."
"Goodnight."
He checked the clock. It was late, but maybe he could squeeze in one game of Demon Monkey.
A minute later, he was midway through an intense game. He swiped on his phone, narrowly avoiding his character getting butchered by the gorilla.
Then he saw it.
Worth one thousand points: the mythical green diamond. His avatar pounced towards it, but before he could make contact, the screen froze. A video call request popped up on the screen.
"Did you pick up Ga Eul?" Yi Jeong yelled on the other end.
Woo Bin rolled his eyes. "Yes. Just like I've been doing. For the past three months."
"Ate dinner?"
"It's 2 a.m."
"Made sure Ga Eul ate dinner?"
"Yes. I also ensured she reached home before midnight. Stocked the fridge with fresh ingredients for chef class practice. And prepared a care package per your detailed instructions."
"Did you put in those chocolates she likes?"
He nodded. "And had Jan Di deliver it so she wouldn't know it was from you." In a much fainter voice, he said, "Wuss."
Yi Jeong frowned but refrained from commenting.
"Chill out. I'm taking great care of your girl." He laid sideways on the bed. "Your mother's fine too, by the way. I've tea with her once a week."
"You didn't have to do all of that." Yi Jeong fixed his collar. "I checked out the club you suggested. It was bright, lively, and filled to the brim with women. You would've loved it. Totally your vibe."
_oOo_
Ji Hoo had witnessed some truly bizarre things in the F4 lounge over the years. Water-acrobats. A theater group dressed in Shakespearean costumes. Yi Jeong juggling. But nothing could prepare him for the scene in front of him.
Woo Bin was riding an elephant while a man chased him. Jun Pyo wobbled on a unicycle. And Jan Di was arguing with a parrot.
"Stop that," said Jan Di.
"Stop that," the parrot imitated.
"I'm warning you. I have a big test tomorrow."
"I'm warning you. I have a big test tomorrow."
Ji Hoo shook his head. It looks like Yi Jeong caved in to the popular demand for a circus. It was bound to happen someday. Yi Jeong was the most sentimental of the group.
A/N: Hi Guys! Did you enjoy the chapter? What was your favorite part? Are you enjoying the SoEul long-distance pining? What do you think of the developing Ji Ah/Woo Bin/Jae Kyung situation? Tell us in the reviews.