Shopping for a dress wasn"t as hard as Ha Eun thought. She just had to agree to whatever Do Mi and Soo Ryun suggested and in a matter of a few excruciatingly long hours she was able to find a spaghetti strap dress with silver lace.It was the first time Ha Eun ever saw herself in a wedding dress. She used to think about going into a wedding dress boutique and trying some on but she stopped herself from going because she thought that only desperate women did that, so she never thought of going into one again. Seeing herself in a white dress, she imagined what it would be like to get married to someone she loved and not her secretary.
As Ha Eun, Do Mi and Soo Ryun walked around the town, Ha Eun noticed Mi Jin through a restaurant window, drinking what appeared to be her third bottle of soju. She asked Do Mi and Soo Ryun if she could have some time to herself, the other two thought she was going through the whole cold feet thing and wanted to walk for a while, so they gave her some s.p.a.ce.
She went over to Mi Jin. When Mi Jin saw her, she scoffed "Out of all the people I"m going to see today, you had to be the first" Mi Jin said in a very drunken tone. Ha Eun felt Mi Jin had insulted her. She thought she didn"t like Mi Jin but it appears the feeling was, mutual?
"Don"t get me wrong. I"m glad its you. I wanted to congratulate you before the big day" Mi Jin told her and offered Ha Eun to sit down right across from her.
"Why are you even here? It"s not even noon yet" Ha Eun didn"t know why she was bothering herself with this woman but she couldn"t stop thinking about what she mentioned about Chang Wook when they first met, about something happening. What was that something? She was also curious about that expression he had on his face the day of the Cherry Blossom Festival. When she finally found him, before she beat his a.s.s with a bouquet, she saw he had a saddened expression on his face, it was an expression she had never seen him make before.
"Just thinking about how different life would have been if I had just said no and followed my heart"
"Isn"t it a little too early to be having an existential crisis?" Ha Eun commented. Mi Jin laughed, stating Ha Eun was funny.
"Have you ever loved someone so much that you"d settle for being just friends, just to keep them in your life?" Mi Jin asked "Did you ever love someone so much that even after he left your life, no matter what you did, somehow the memory of him would find its way back to you?"
"No" Ha Eun answered honestly.
She knew Mi Jin was talking about Chang Wook. It didn"t take a genius to put two and two together. She just never expected Mi Jin would come right out and talk about her remaining feelings for her ex, right in front of his fiancée. Well, fake fiancée but still a fiancée.
"Hyuk Jae was a great guy" Mi Jin said. Ha Eun"s brain had to do a refresh. Weren"t they talking about Chang Wook? Who the h.e.l.l is Hyuk Jae?
"He was so cool. He wasn"t afraid of anything, but he told me that there was one thing he was afraid of, and that was not having me in his life" Mi Jin continued "I didn"t like him at all, I had my eyes on someone else. Someone who rather stay indoors and read than play outside with everyone else. That guy was Hyuk Jae"s best friend. They were complete opposites but somehow the managed to remain friends"
Here, Ha Eun knew that she was talking about Chang Wook. So, she did have feelings for him.
"I liked Wook a lot. I thought that maybe I could get a reaction from him if I dated someone else…" Ha Eun could tell at that moment that she decided to date Hyuk Jae. Mi Jin hiccupped and asked for another soju bottle but Ha Eun whispered to the waiter to get some water instead.
"I thought Hyuk Jae was too frivolous, the type of guy I"m not good at dealing with, but he was surprisingly serious too and his spontaneous gentleness made me very happy"
Ha Eun was even more confused. Does she like Chang Wook or this Hyuk Jae guy? She wanted to ask Mi Jin straightforwardly, like she usually would, but she felt Mi Jin would just shut her down and not answer her question. So, she kept quiet and listened.
"The company wasn"t only run by Han Soo, it was also run by Hyuk Jae"s father"
Ha Eun sighed. She changed the subject completely.
"Since Wook didn"t want to take over the business, they decided it was okay for Hyuk Jae to do it, but Han Soo wasn"t happy about that. Their great grandparents founded the business, but the power slowly drifted Han Soo and Hyuk Jae"s father apart. They didn"t see each other as friends anymore"
"Wook didn"t want his friendship with Hyuk Jae to be ruined like that, but he was better at business than Hyuk Jae. In the meantime, I liked two boys. I feel like I would have saved everyone a lot of trouble if I just said no at the very beginning"
Ha Eun at this point knew that Mi Jin wasn"t going to talk about what this "no" was, but she guessed it had to do with rejecting Hyuk Jae and confessing to Chang Wook.
The first time Ha Eun saw Chang Wook and Mi Jin talk, she could see a slight glimmer in Chang Wook"s eyes "He liked you Mi Jin. He liked you a lot and maybe, just maybe, he still does" Ha Eun wanted to tell her but for some reason she decided to keep it hidden. It was so long ago. It"s not like he"s going to drop everything he"s worked for in Seoul to be with her. At least, that"s what Ha Eun tried to convince herself of.