Chapter 1

"Okay, I'm ready," Ji Won said, taking off her robe. A few months earlier, she'd have been shy about walking around in her bra and panties but after three months of intense dieting and exercising, she wouldn't admit it publicly, but she wished she had more opportunities to show off her abs.

"I never get why brides always get their make-up done before wearing their gowns," her best friend, Eun Hee, wondered as she took out the hanger from the ivory satin spaghetti strapped gown. It had an asymmetrical beaded bodice that fell onto a full chiffon skirt and according to the dressmaker, was a one-of-a-kind. "Shouldn't they wear their dress before the make-up?"

"No," the mother of the bride said. "Because you don't want to mistakenly stain the dress. Which bride wants to walk down the aisle with a huge glob of foundation on her chest?"

"Plus wearing the gown has to be the last thing. How will you ooh and aah soon after the bride wears the dress if her face still looks like crap?" the bride's sister asked. "You need the full effect," she said dramatically.

"I'm still ready," Ji Won reminded them. She was just dying to wear her dress. "And Eun Hee has a point. What if my dress gets stained by all this make-up?" She pointed at her face. The artist had done a great job and she didn't want to undo it by mistakenly wiping her face with her dress.

Her mother sighed audibly. "Am I the only person with a brain here? Lightly place this towel," she said, handing over one of the hotel's hand towels, "on your face, stretch your hands out and we'll try to get this on you as quickly as possible."

After a few minutes of very careful tugging and stretching, Ji Won stood still as her mother zipped her up.

"Aww," the chorus began. She wasn't the first girl in their gang to get married but every bride was Miss Universe on her big day. "You look so beautiful!"

She laughed when she saw the tears in her mother's eyes then turned around and looked at her reflection in the mirror. At 5'8, she was quite tall by her family's standards and even though she argued that her figure fit frame, she was also normally a bit large in comparison to her sister and her mother. But not anymore, she thought, twirling around and laughing as the huge shirt created a breeze around her. She'd managed to drop one size to become a size 2/4 and was loving every bit of it.

"You're going to get dizzy!" her mother warned, grabbing her shoulder to stop her. She dragged her and put her in her dressing chair. "Let M-m…," she stammered, glancing at the make-up artist as she tried to remember her name. It wasn't that she didn't care to learn it but her brain was already brimming with the emotions created from seeing her first daughter getting ready to leave her. "Let her touch up your make-up so that we can head out to the church. We don't want to keep the groom waiting."



***

As the hairstylist teased her curls, Ji Won stared at herself in the mirror. After 4 years of dating and 1 year of wedding planning, she was about to get married to the man of her dreams.

She looked at her huge square cut diamond ring and smirked. Man of her dreams? More like the man of every woman's dreams. And she wasn't just saying that, after all, he'd been named one of Seoul's eligible bachelors by a publication. Granted, it was her college alumni's newsletter but it still counted. At 6'1, lean, handsome and generous, he was pretty much the type of guy romance novels were written about – and he knew it too. When they fought, she found his arrogance annoying but other times, she was proud of his self-confidence. He was smart, thorough and unyielding about his needs, which was why he was one of the rising stars at his investment bank and why Ji Won had worn her hair in curls for almost five years now.

"Ouch," she yelped as the tip of the curling iron touched her scalp. "I thought you were already done with my hair!"

"I'm just doing the finishing touches," the unsympathetic hairstylist said. The client's hair was much longer than she's expected so it had taken an unusually long time to do.

Ji Won turned her attention back to her reflection. She'd always been regarded as pretty and now that she'd lost some weight, her cheekbones had become more pronounced. She was a balanced combination of her parents – taking her mother's bright brown eyes and pert nose and her father's very distinct heart shaped but thin lips. Before meeting Joon Young, she'd always tried to create the illusion of fuller lips with her lip liner and lipstick but she stopped after he insisted that he loved her just the way she'd been created. How cute was that?

She readjusted her butt on the chair and sighed dreamily. He wasn't the man she'd have picked out for herself but apparently, God had much greater plans.

Their initial meeting had been one of those magical moments. She'd only just started working as a copy editor at her company, had stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and been delayed by the long line. As she ran down the street in an attempt to get to work before her demanding boss, she'd bumped into him and spilled her tall caramel macchiato down his crisp, white shirt.

Being the gentleman that he was, instead of becoming irate, he'd given her his card and been very gracious about letting her pay for his dry cleaning. The next day, when she'd dropped by his office to pick up his stained shirt, he'd insisted on taking her out to lunch and the rest, as they said, was history.

Her mother bent over and placed her head over her daughter's shoulder. "Ready?" she asked her daughter's reflection.

She nodded. "Yes, I'm ready."

As her mother stood up, Ji Won reflected on what she'd just said. After all the stress and aggravation that had come with planning the wedding, she'd found the perfect dress, perfect hall, perfect cake, perfect centerpieces, perfect flowers and they'd all complemented the perfect man.

She suddenly jumped off her chair. Hell yeah, she was ready. "I'M GETTING MARRIED!" she yelled before all the women in the room gathered around and hugged her.



***

"You're so beautiful," Kyung Ho said, covering his mouth with his hands as he started at her in awe. She'd just walked out of the hotel and was about to get into the waiting limo.

She reached over and hugged him. "Thank you, boo." She shook her head and laughed when she noticed the tears developing in his eyes. She'd always thought of him as her gay best friend even though he only dated women. Aside from that minor detail, he cried at movies, loved to go shopping, was always the first with the latest gossip, advised her on men, always agreed to pretend to be cultured at museums and art galleries and was always there to lend his shoulder when she needed it. Some people liked to call him a girl with a penis but Ji Won didn't quite agree with that description. Nonetheless, she knew that his assistance with planning the wedding had been invaluable and regretted that she couldn't have made him a bridesmaid - not that he would have agreed.

"Ready to take the deepest plunge of your life?" he teased.

She took a deep breath. "Ready as I'll ever be."

He took her hand and with the help of Eun Hee, got her and her yards and yards of chiffon inside the car. He shut the door and waved. "See you at the church!"



***

"What time is it?" Kyung Ho asked.

"Add five minutes to what I said last time," Ji Won's sister snapped.

It had been two hours since she'd arrived at the church and Ji Won's make-up had already begun to bleed. She looked at the cell phone Joon Young had given her a few months earlier and wondered if she should pick it up. She'd already called him at least fifteen times in the last hour and wasn't ready to hear his voicemail yet again. His parents were also bewildered by his absence and the groomsmen said that everything had been fine when they left him earlier in the day. So why weren't he or his best man answering their phones?

Ji Won drummed her fingers on the table as she tried to rack her brain for an explanation. She'd initially chuckled at the idea that he'd picked the worst time to prove to the rest of the world that he too could be tardy. But two hours? That was just plain ridiculous. Had they gotten into an accident? She'd suggested calling all the local hospitals but everyone had told her to wait a little longer. But if nothing was wrong, why wasn't he calling her?

The door creaked open and Ji Won's mother stuck her head in. She gave her daughter the thumbs up. "Hang in there, Honey," she encouraged, her shaky voice betraying her true feelings. "With the rain, the traffic must be hell now."

Ji Won nodded. "I'm sure you're right, Umma." It had rained shortly after she arrived at the church but it hadn't lasted for more than fifteen minutes.

"Of course I'm right." Her mother grinned. "Be patient. I'll just go out there and keep Joon Young's parents company."

As soon as she shut the door, the room once again fell into silence.

"What time is it?" Kyung Ho asked about two minutes later.

What time was it? Ji Won glanced at her watch. It was getting closer and closer to the time dread would begin to set in.