Shin walked into his apartment and plopped himself on the couch. The previous day had been exhausting so the minute he’d left Min Su in the bedroom, grabbed a blanket and lain on the couch, he’d fallen asleep. But that morning, when he woke up to the smell of eggs and bacon from the kitchen, instead of being glad to enjoy the rare occasion of someone taking care of him, all he could do was wish that she was someone else.
It wasn’t news to him that he’d fallen for Ji Won but perhaps seeing his past showed him just how much he’d moved on to her. So that morning, as his firmly rejected Min Su’s advances, all he could think was that he’d wasted far too much time playing games and now it was finally time to make his feelings clear to Ji Won. He wanted to be with her – not as a friend, but as someone special in her life.
Ji Won, for the most part, had accepted him as a friend and truthfully, had never really led him to believe that he was anything more but he planned on coming up with a speech that would blow her mind into such tiny bits that she’d be unable to think straight and would have no choice but to accept him.
Looking back at the previous night’s happenings, he understood why she’d rejected him and knowing her temper, expected her to be mad at him. But he didn’t think it was something an apology wouldn’t fix. So with renewed determination, he got off the couch and headed towards the shower. It was a new day and if everything went according to plan, it would also be the beginning of a new life.
***
Shin slowed down his car at the stop sign then waved at the pedestrian crossing the road in front of him. He was being an idiot and waving at everybody but who cared? He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so good. Okay, so maybe the first time his book had landed on the bestseller list came close but even that felt different.
Now that he was an old man in his 30s, scarred and more realistic about what life really was, he couldn’t believe that he was still able to feel so giddy about asking a woman out. But wasn’t love one of those ageless, timeless things that felt the same no matter how old you were?
Shin hit the gas pedal but just as he was about to speed up, spotted a lady selling flowers by the roadside.
“Ajumma, how much are your roses?” he said to the older woman as he approached her stall.
“2,000 Won per rose. But I can give you a dozen for two man won.”
He scratched his head as he looked at her collection. It had been a while since he’d tried to woo a woman in this fashion but flowers always sealed the deal, didn’t they? “Which is more romantic; one rose or a dozen?”
The lady laughed. “Of course I will say a dozen.”
He joined in her laughter. “But imagine you weren’t selling them to me: how many would you suggest?”
Another customer grabbed a bouquet of six roses and handed the woman some money. As she made change for that man, to Shin she said, “It depends on the occasion. Is it a celebration? An apology? A proposal? Or what?
He bobbed his head as he thought about it. “An apology and a confession.”
“The standard for an apology is fifteen. For a confession, it can go from one to one hundred.”
***
What’s for lunch?
Ji Won read the text then threw her phone on the bed. She got off the bed and walked over to her kitchen.
“What’s for lunch?” she said aloud as she grabbed a knife out of the block and looked at its sharp blade. “Your head on a stake, that’s what!” She threw the knife into the sink then opened her fridge. “WHAT THE FU.CK AM I GOING TO HAVE FOR LUNCH!?”
Hours earlier, irritated at the feel of tears on her cheek, Ji Won had quickly wiped her face and driven home. Thoughts of her stupidity, gullibility and blindness had filled her mind on the drive, however, it just somehow didn’t fit at all. Was it some kind of revenge plot? Did he do all this just to get back at her for leaving him in that hotel room over a year ago?
Or was he playing some kind of game and was just doing it for kicks? Did he sleep with that woman just because she’d refused to sleep with him or did they have a regular arrangement? And if he was sleeping with that woman, what in the world did he want with her? Why had he gone through all the trouble to get to close to her? What exactly was his deal?
She slammed the fridge door in frustration and went back to her bedroom. Her phone buzzed and she saw that she had another text from Shin. She sighed in annoyance. What was the best way to handle this bulls.hit? Ignore him till he got the message or confront him? But if she did that and heard the truth, would she be able to handle it? Especially as deep down inside, she knew that his tricks had begun to work on her? She wasn’t quite in the mood to hear confirmation that she was indeed a fool.
Her phone began to ring. She frowned at it. “How cute. Here come the famous Shin persistence,” she said to the phone. “So because I’m ignoring your texts, you’ve decided to call, huh?” Having reached another level of anger, she grabbed her phone and answered it. “WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?”
“Whoa. Relax. It’s me,” a familiar voice said.
“Oh,” Ji Won said, immediately feeling embarrassed. She cleared her throat. “Na Mi ah, what’s up?”
“Is that how you normally answer your phone? What wrong? It’s a little odd to see you all rattled up. Has someone been prank calling you?”
Ji Won frowned. Of all people to catch her like that – her nosiest, most gossipy friend. “Don’t worry about it. What’s up?”
“Ji Won ah, you need to help me.” Her friend went into a long explanation of how her boyfriend’s parents were coming over and how she’d planned to impress them with some foreign recipes she’d downloaded from the internet but somehow, something went wrong and now her kitchen looked like a disaster zone. “Chingu, you have to help me here. I’ll bring over the ingredients.”
“I don’t even know how to make any French dishes. How do you expect me to help you?”
“I’ve already changed my mind about the French stuff. His parents are a little country anyway so I don’t think they’ll even understand that stuff. So why don’t you just make one of your specialties?”
Ji Won’s frown deepened. Since when did she have any signature dishes? Her friend was clearly trying to butter her up. “Like what?”
“I don’t know. He said his mom loves seafood so that’s what I was planning to make. You can think about it on my way there.”
She hissed. “Do I seem jobless to you? What makes you think I want to spend my afternoon cooking for you?”
“Please, Ji Won, please. You have to save me.”
She sighed. The girl sounded really desperate. “I’m sorry, Na Mi yah. I would have helped you any day but today. I just don’t think I’m up to it.”
“You sound strange. Did something happen? I’ll come over and you can tell me about it while we cook together.”
“Are you deaf? I said….”
“I’m already on my way—”
“No, you’re not. I can hear the television in the background.”
After a short pause, her friend said, “Will you find me a new boyfriend if I get dumped today? See you in a few.”
***
“That was quick! With your crazy driving I am sure—” Ji Won’s words were cut short by the sight of Shin’s smiling face. She looked away to hide her surprise and gripped the door handle tightly. Her heart had begun to race like crazy so she took a few deep breaths in to calm herself. Why did he have to show up? She still hadn’t decided between confronting him or ignoring him for life but apparently, he just had to show up to make her life even more difficult.
She cleared her throat and gave him a pointed look. “What do you want?”
Shin smiled back at her with his hands behind his back, holding two bouquets of fifteen roses each. He figured that he needed to get two to show her just how sorry he was. Even though she was dressed in a t-shirt and sweats, she looked quite pretty, despite the clearly angry expression on her face. He licked his lips and smiled at her sheepishly. “What do you mean what do I want? I came to see you. Were you waiting for someone?”
It was bad enough that her heart was beating like crazy but why did she have to get a whiff of a mixture of his cologne and shampoo? And she wondered if he’d showered beforehand to get all traces of the other woman off him before he came to her. “What do you want?” she repeated.
“May I come in?”
She leaned against the doorframe leaving as little space as possible in the doorway. “Of course not.”
He nodded slightly, acknowledging to himself that she was just as angry as he’d expected. “I knew you’d be mad so I got these for you,” he said, whipping out the flowers from behind his back. “The florist said that it was standard to get fifteen roses to apologize. So I got thirty.” He held them out to her with a hopeful expression on his face.
Perhaps if she hadn’t seen him with another woman, she would have found his little act cute. But since her mind had begun to fill with images of them in a variety of positions, it only served to sicken her. Disgusted, she rolled her eyes, hissed then turned around to walk back into her apartment but Shin quickly grabbed her by her elbow to stop her. “Where are you going?”
She looked at his hand in disgust and that made him react by taking it off her. Then she looked at him from the side of her eye. “Stop wasting my time.”
The joy Shin had felt that morning slowly turned to nervousness. This was going to be a lot more difficult than he anticipated. “I said I’m sorry.”
She turned around, leaned on the doorframe again and folded her arms. “Sorry for what?” In her heart, she double dared him to tell the truth.
“Ji Won ah…”
She raised an eyebrow. “Ji Won ah?”
“Why don’t I come in so we can discuss this?”
“Discuss what? Who am I to you that you feel you need to discuss something with me? I have company coming over so please hurry up with whatever you want to say so that I can get ready for the person.”
“You have someone coming over? Who?"
“It’s none of your business. Anyway, I don’t want your flowers so you can just leave.”
“Don’t be like this. Yesterday…”
“What happened yesterday?”
“I had no right to take my frustrations out on you. So many things were going through my mind and I wasn’t thinking straight. Can’t you forgive me? Please?” He handed the flowers out to her again. On his way over, he’d come up with so many things to say but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember any.
“Okay, good to know. Have a nice life. Bye.”
As she turned to leave, instinct took over and he grabbed her once again.
She pushed his hand off her, knocking one bouquet on the floor. “Leave me alone for crying out loud! And stop touching me!”
Shin was stunned for a second before he bent down to pick up the flowers, wondering if begging her on his knees would be too pathetic. And if she was acting like this, how would he manage to tell her that he wanted them to try being together? How naïve was he to think that she’d forgive him and give him a chance to confess his feelings to her? Why did she have to be so difficult?
Ji Won frowned as she watched him pick the flowers, pretending to be all meek. What an as.shole. And to think that all this was just some game to him? Okay, that did it – she was going to have to let him know what she wasn’t someone to be toyed with.
“What did you say you were sorry about?”
Before he could reply, a family of four stepped out of their apartment on the other side of them and as they waited for them to pass by and get into the elevators, Ji Won leaned back, sending daggers at him with her eyes while he practiced his apology in his head.
The second the family was out of sight, Shin said, “I already told you what I am sorry for. Last night, I was out of line. Everything you did last night was right. Everything I did last night was wrong. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
“Are you sure that’s what you’re really sorry about?”
“I probably said some mean and rude things to you. I’m sorry about those as well.”
“That’s it?
“Yes.” He narrowed his eyes as he tried to read the expression on her face but couldn’t quite figure out what she was getting at. He went through all his memories and come up short. “I’m also sorry for wronging you in any other way.”
She pursed her lips and shook her head. ”See, I think that’s not what you’re really sorry about.”
“I’m not following you.”
Aren’t you really sorry that you didn’t get to seal the deal? Because if you had, you wouldn’t have needed to waste your money on those stupid flowers and keep up with this ridiculous act.”
Huh? “I’m really not following you at all. What are you talking about?”
“Where did you go last night... after you left here?”
“Home.”
“Alone?”
“Of course alone. Who would I have gone home with?”
“Hmm… let me see. I don’t know. This is a wild guess but perhaps the woman that spent in the night in your bed.”
His mouth fell open. “How did you…?” His voice trailed off as he stared at her in shock. How in the world would she have known about Min Su? Did they know each other? What the hell?
She burst into laughter. “You see? I’m not the fool you think I am. Oh God,” she continued with forced laughter. She slapped her knee and pointed at him. “I wish you could see your face right now.”
Shin stood still, feeling a little dejected. How could things get even worse? “Are we going to stand in the hallway all day?" he said softly. "Let me come in so I talk to you properly.”
Her demeanor suddenly turned cold. “Why would I let you into my home? Who are you to me?”
He looked directly into her eyes, hoping that she could see his feelings. “That’s part of why I came today.”
She scoffed and turned her face away. “This is just too ridiculous.” Especially as he was trying to look so innocent when she knew the truth.
“I guess I’m going to have to do this out here.” The flowers were beginning to look stupid in his hands so he laid them on the floor and stood up straight. “Yes, someone stayed over last night but it was completely innocent. Nothing happened.”
“So you expect me to believe that you spent the entire night having tea and crumpets while you sang lullabies as you watched the sun come up?”
“What?”
“You’re trying to tell me that after you’d spent last night on your futile attempt to sleep with me, you called another woman over who happened to spend the night and “nothing” happened? What does ‘nothing’ mean to you? Please explain what that word means so that it can make sense.”
Truthfully, Shin would have tried lying if he thought he could get away with it, but since he couldn’t even figure out how she’d known about Min Su, he couldn’t tell how much she really knew so he decided to come clean. “What I’m saying is that I stopped it before it could get too far. I didn’t sleep with her. She took the bed while I took the couch.”
Ji Won chuckled. “How so gentlemanly of you. So after making out with her you decided to sleep separately. How so romantic.”
Frustration began to build within him. “What I don’t understand is why you’re so mad about this. Why does it matter to you who I spend my night with?”
They heard the sound of someone approaching so they turned to see Na Mi walking towards them with a bag full of groceries. They’d been so engrossed in the conversation that they hadn’t even heard the elevator bell ding.
Na Mi, who was surprised by the scene, looked at them apprehensively and through clenched teeth spoke to Ji Won when she was within earshot. “Chingu, did I come at the wrong time? Should I come by later?”
Ji Won stepped aside so that her friend could walk into her apartment. “I’m almost done here. I’ll be with you in a minute,” she said before shutting the door behind her. She could already tell that she’d have a lot of explaining to do and didn’t need for her friend to hear too much. It would just lead to them spending the rest of the day talking about Shin and that was the last thing she wanted.
“As you can see, my friend has arrived so I’m done here. Take care.”
“Just answer my question before you leave. Even if I’d slept with her, why would you care?"
“I couldn’t care less if you slept with all the women and men in the world and caught a thousand STDs. It just irritates me that you involved me in your sick game.”
He shook his head. “What game are you talking about? There's no game here. I've always been honest about my feelings for you. I think you're angry for another reason. Otherwise, why would you sound so jealous?"
“Jealous?” She let out some exaggerated laughs then abruptly stopped. “That’s just absurd.”
Watching her display of exaggerated incredulity confirmed it for him. Did he suddenly turn perceptive or had he been so caught up in his own emotions that he’d never noticed how easy she was to read? “You are jealous.” A mixture of relief and a burst of joy put a smile on his face. “You really are jealous, aren’t you?” He grinned when he saw her cheeks redden with the angry look she gave in response. “You really like me a lot, don’t you?”
What the hell just happened? Instead of trying to defend himself, he was smiling? It was just too much for her to take so after giving him the sharpest and angriest glare she could muster, Ji Won turned around, walked into her apartment and slammed her door shut.
***
Shin was practically floating on air by the time he got to his car. “She likes me. She really likes me!” he yelled to the uninterested passers-by. By the time he was in the driver’s seat, he couldn’t control his laughter. “Oh my god, she freaking likes me!” he kept repeating in a mix of glee and disbelief.
His phone rang and after glancing at the caller-id, he answered it. “Halmoni, she likes me!”
But instead of his grandma to take the bait, she said, “Are you at home?”
Her grim tone snapped him back to reality. “No, I’m out. I went to see a friend.”
“Okay. You need to come to the hospital right now. I’ll give you the address.”
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