Time went by.
Her status was still Jin Yang's girlfriend. And she was being honest when she said she cared about him. They spent a lot of time together. She began to see him as someone she'd be able to spend her future with. However it would be.
Being with Jin Yang felt comfortable. Real. And definitely not forced.
Call it vanity. Call it selfishness. But in his eyes, she saw what she wanted to see in a man's eye. She saw adoration. She saw affection. She saw love. Surely someone like that would be right to spend your life with.
But it's Ki Joon that colored her days with laughters and happiness. In her deepest heart, she envied him because he's living his dreams. Doing the only thing he ever wanted. Now that they were going to different universities, they mostly communicate daily through instant messaging. But they still met at least once a week.
They watched movies together. Cartoons to laugh their heads off. Horrors to scream their lungs out. Romance to cringe at the disgusting romantic words. They had meals together in whatever famous restaurants their friends were talking about, challenging each other to eat the most food. The loser would pay. Mostly he won. But he ended up paying for his food anyway.
He accompanied her to her university's library, where she typed paper after paper for hours. She listened to his random talk about this dress he was designing whenever she sat at his room.
"I make clothes for you, by the way," Ki Joon blurted on one of the lazy Saturday afternoons she spent in his room.
"Huh? For me? Why?"
He shrugged.
"No idea. Maybe cos I've known you for so long. I see your face when I design clothes."
"Hmmmm...don't blame me when your designs are considered bad...."
He threw an eraser at her. "I don't make ugly clothes!"
"I know. I like all your sketches."
"If you like it so much then walk the runway for me."
Ga Eun looked up from her diary, "What?"
"Walk the runway for me, Ga Eunnie."
"You're joking, right?"
"I'm not. Starting this semester, we'll have a runway show, presenting our clothes. My designs will really be made into reality and we're all assigned to find our own models. Everybody is asking their friends for favor. Some hired professional models, but you know I can't afford it right? So help me."
"You mean—you want me to walk wearing your dress in a catwalk, with everyone staring at me, with your lecturers on the front row?"
"Yeah," he answered, crossing his leg under him.
"What if I say no?"
"I won't participate in the runway show."
"You can't be serious!"
"I'm dead serious "
"I'll ruin it. I'll slip and fall!"
"I'll help you get up if you fall. "
She was having a series of negative thoughts in her head. He was staring at her, preparing arguments in his head before she started spewing her worries.
"You'll do okay. It's just a walk for less than one minute."
"But a lot of people are going to look at me!"
"Even if you fall, there won't be a big problem. Some of the models are newbies. They fall on the runway sometimes. And it's fine," he shrugged. "Everybody is learning, starting something. Nobody's hoping anyone to be perfect."
"Why can't you hire the girls from modeling major?"
"It's your help that I need. I made the clothes with your measurements. "
She frowned. "Ne? But you never measured me!"
"I'm good in guessing."
"You really need me to do this?"
"Yes"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah"
She looked at Ki Joon and considered once more.
"Ahrasseo," she finally said.
"You're going to do it?"
"Ne. Teach me how to do it."
He held up his fists high above his head in victory.
"Yeah! I'll get an A again for this, I just knew it! "
"Jjinjja?" she smiled, "I didn't know you could see the future!"
"Oh. I always have a good feeling of this. The dress I made will look great on you," Ki Joon said confidently.
**********************************
The runway show was completely nerve wracking, but she got through that because it's for Ki Joon. She'd do anything for him. It was not that bad afterall.
She just had to walk, pretending she was a model, pretending she was alone there, and no one was looking at her. And it lasted less than 30 seconds. Thankfully she didn't fall, and she heard people applauding at the end of her walk.
That was the time when she could go to the safe backstage.
He watched everything from an LCD TV, and was ready with a comforting hug. "You did great! And no, before you asked, you didn't look stupid. You don't have to do this for six months, until I have another final again."
It was a relief to hear. Six month after this, she'd argue with all her might again, but she'd do it again anyway.
The event passed normally, as did her days.
Everything that was meant to happen, though you wanted it not to with all your heart, whether you acknowledge it or not, would happen if it have to.
Recently, Ki Joon has raving about a girl. Her name was Jung Soo Jin, or famously known as Crystal. She was the only daughter of the owner of the biggest manpower supply and outsourcing company in Korea, and also the owner of "Clover," one of the most popular cosmetic brands in Korea.
Ki Joon liked her for her sense of fashion. She currently lived in New York and often hung out with celebrities, so she often graced Korean gossip platforms with candid paparazzi photos, one of the most famous was her picture talking animatedly with Kendall and Kylie Jenner.
That one picture gained her a celebrity label for herself in Korea. She also wrote a blog about her interest in fashion and recently she replaced other models as the brand image of "Clover."
Ki Joon faithfully followed her blog and news, asking Ga Eun to join his interest. She admitted that she was pretty and attractive. Her pictures ranged from showing the image of sexiness, innocence, elegance, and youth.
Ki Joon said, "She's so cool!" at least three times when they were together each week, reading Crystal's news on his tablet.
Ga Eun was not really interested. Fashion and celebrities had never been her interest. If people asked her favorite idol, she'd answer Ban Ki Moon. The favorite actress would be Lee Young Ae.
Besides that, she read celebrity news like looking at billboards when you're in a bus, just passing through.
But Crystal Jung finally got her full interest when pictures of her and Lee Myung Hwan spread all over the internet.
It was Ki Joon who pointed it out to her. Pictures of her and Myung Hwan at parties, shopping centers, and NYU flooded the internet like fire. The press loved this couple. Both the children of Korean chaebols, both good looking, and both were studying in NYU.
Ga Eun viewed the pictures to watch Myung Hwan's expression with this Miss Crystal. He was smiling, he was laughing, he held her hand in a carefree way, he bent down to hear when she whispered, he looked at her intensely like any normal guy in love.
Crystal was pretty. Very stylish, reeking "a wealthy girl" image from head to toe. Pretty smiles, pretty bones, and held Myung Hwan's hand like it's her life line.
The future Samonim. Ga Eun wondered, would she like the house or would she change the decoration? She hoped not. She loved the house as it was.
This, of course, was a thought she tried to focus on. She was breaking inside. Like a glass that fell from a high level and being crushed by people stepping on it over and over. Her heart broke and disintegrated into fractions.
How could she not, when Lee Myung Hwan was looking at another girl with that look she always dreamed he'd give to her. How could she not, when Myung Hwan seemed so happy beside another girl? How could she not, when she knew the girl was perfect for him and she's nothing compared to her?
Well, what am I hoping anyway? There was never any hope whatsoever.
Right. So why, oh why the heartbreak still happens?
Ki Joon had watched her for the last five minutes. She's not saying anything and he knew she's speechless with sadness. She must be so broken she couldn't say anything. Well, in his opinion, it's better to pour out your feelings. Or it'd be a cancer that killed you.
"What do you think?" he asked carefully.
"Hm?" she looked up from Ki Joon's tablet, Myung Hwan and Crystal's pictures displayed on it, clear, with high definition, and zoomed in.
"What do I think? Does it matter what I think?"
"It matters because I asked, silly. What do you think?"
"I think.....Crystal Jung is the perfect princess for the perfect prince charming....." she answered, smiling at her friend, without being able to hide the layer of wetness in her eyes.
"Gaeunnie....."
"He has great taste. He could find someone so pretty and classy, and at the same time, fits to stand by his side."
She clicked the tab to open Crystal Jung's profile. It surprised her to read that Crystal was as old as her. They were both born in the same year.
She sighed.
Well, if she's as old as me, then what? What change does it make? That Myung Hwan Doryeonnim could practically date someone four years his junior? Like who? Like me? Stop dreaming!
"I think Doryeonnim will introduce her to his parents when he comes back here. "
"Do you think this is serious?"
She clicked a picture and showed it to Ki Joon. It was Myung Hwan and Crystal in front of a restaurant. He was holding her hand and smiling at her.
"I know those eyes. He's not playing, Ki Junnie....."
The revelation somehow shocked Ki Joon. He believed she knew Myung Hwan more than anybody else.
The question was, "What will you do, Gaeunnie?"
"What will I do? What am I supposed to do, Ki Junnie?"
"Are you going to put up a fight or something?
"She laughed. And it sounded hollow and bitter.
"Why should I fight? What will I be defending?"
"You and Lee Myung Hwan are....."
"What, Ki Junnie? What? I'm his maid, he's my Doryeonnim. It has and always been like that," she said gravely, her fingers clicking the tab windows closed.
"I'll survive," she said afterwards.
"Are you going to be okay?"
"If I'm not okay, what will it change?"
He didn't answer.
"Nothing, Ki Junnie. Even if I cried a river, nothing will change. This is fate."
"It's not fate. You can stop this obsession of yours."
It was an old, over abused, over discussed topic. Ki Joon's wish of her to stop loving Myung Hwan. Ga Eun's explanation of "I can't, " so she chose not to respond to it.
"He's at a time to be serious with girls, I think. He's 27 now. He has a company to manage. An image to maintain. And a long life to lead. I have a feeling I will have to get used with this Crystal Agassi."
"Don't call her Agassi yet."
"Why not? I will have to, soon."
"He's coming back?"
"He'll graduate soon, and take his role in the Lee Corporation and Sang Kyu Hotels."
Ki Joon felt his heart got heavy, like being pressed under concrete.
"I hate Crystal Jung!" he announced.
Ga Eun laughed. "You're a hypocrite! Until an hour ago, you were her number one fanboy!"
"That and now are completely different! She's not that cool!"
"Oh yes, she is cool. You know that. You've been saying her fashion sense could surpass even Kendall Jenner."
"I changed my mind. When I think again, she has many imperfections. Her eyes are too small!"
"I think her eyes are lovely."
"She's also too thin"
"She's very elegant."
"She's done too much clubbing!"
"She's Doryeonnim's girlfriend," Ga Eun countered. Ki Joon gave a desperate sigh and gave up.
"And it's as good a choice as he could make it. Nobody can be more perfect. Look at her background."
"You sound like you're supporting this."
"I'm merely being rational," she smiled.
And with that, they decided to leave the café and return to their usual days.
************************************
Author's Note:
Yeah, this story is still that slow burn.
In my Patreon, this story has reached chapter 49. I used the names of Korean actors and actresses. You can find the links in my X/Twitter account: ladylia257