Beep, beep, beep, Yah, Park Sooyun! Quickly wake up and get your ass ready for today. I know you are just lazing around, so sveglia la bellezza.'
The alarm sound rang throughout the whole apartment located on the top floor of one of the most prestigious apartment complexes in South Korea.
The flat is finely furnished and composed of a large and bright bedroom with a king-size bed, a fully equipped kitchen, one guest bedroom, a study room, and a balcony that overlooks the whole city. The most attractive feature of the apartment is the huge floor-to-ceiling window facing the beautiful view of the Hangang River located in the living room. The interior and overall décor give this home a trendy and sophisticated style enriched by a feminine touch here and there.
Inside the master bedroom, there is a figure in a unicorn pajama sprawled across the bed. Under the disturbance of the alarm sound, Sooyun, who was peacefully sleeping, stirs up a little and tries to open her eyes. However, due to the bright sunlight on her face, she fails to keep her eyes open. Using her palms as a shield, Sooyun quickly reaches out her hand to the nightstand to grab her phone and silence the damn noisy alarm clock. After a few unsuccessful pats over the nightstand, she finally manages to grab her phone, and slide the alarm off.
Inside her mind, "Aish, who allowed Mia to set her voice as an alarm clock?! I keep forgetting to change it. How long has it been? Four weeks? Be glad that you are my favorite cousin, or else you will be a lump of dead meat the next time I see you," thinks Sooyun while propping herself up on her bed.
After adjusting her eyes to the sunlight, she suddenly screams, "Oh, shit! What time is it? No, no, no, I can't be late for the airport." Sooyun suddenly gets up and tries to get out of her bed but clumsily stumbles over her blanket and falls face down to the floor.
"Ouch, it hurts!" she complains while rubbing her nose, which unluckily already turned red from the unexpected smash.
"Today is supposed to be a superb day since I am going on my long-awaited vacation to Greece!!! It was one of my childhood dreams to visit Greece ever since I saw the movie "Mamma Mia." That beautiful scenery just took my breath away through the screen. Even though I have been to many other European countries, I never got the chance to visit Greece so now is a perfect time. But I can't stop having this bad feeling about the upcoming trip like something unpleasant is going to happen. It's maybe because I'm traveling alone this time. Whatever, I'm sure everything is going to turn out okay. "
As Sooyun gets up from the floor, she quickly checks the time, and thankfully, it says 9:28.
"Ohh, thank god! I still have plenty of time," thought Sooyun before quickly remembering that her flight got rescheduled to 1 pm instead of 4 pm.
"Why am I so clumsy today?" Sooyun questions herself while getting ready. She quickly takes a shower and puts on light makeup, including mascara and lipgloss. For breakfast, she toasts a bagel and checks her documents while waiting for the toaster to heat up. After making sure everything is ready, she makes her bed and eats her food while waiting for her taxi. Just as she puts her washed breakfast plate into the cabinet, the taxi company sends a notification. Knowing that the cab is outside waiting for her, Sooyun goes around her apartment fast and unplugs all the unnecessary electronics to save money and for safety purposes. She firmly believes it's better to be safe than sorry!
Sooyun, holding both pieces of luggage in her hand, sets out on her life-changing journey after locking the door.
During her taxi ride to the airport, she brings out her itinerary and sends the copy to her mom just in case. Even though she is 24 years old this year, Sooyun's parents still view her as a baby girl. It could be because she had been an only child for 14 years until she got a baby sister, Park Soomin, who is ten years old this year.
As for Sooyun's background, both of her parents are intellectuals. Her father, Park Jung Woo, is the current dean of the engineering school at Sky University, that's currently ranked within the top 50 universities in the world. He worked many years as a physics professor at Sky University, before becoming the dean of the school.
Her mother, Park Ji Soo (Seo Ji Soo), is also a professor at Sky University. She teaches interpersonal communication and language studies to graduate students. Many conferences like to invite her to give a lecture to the public. Besides being a professor, she is also an author.
Both Sooyun's parents are 47, and they got together in their college, so they like to identify themselves as college sweethearts. In honesty, nearly everyone in her family is a college sweetheart except for her, of course.
"Ohh, I hate to think about him (aka. Kim Minjoon)!" thought Sooyun while reminiscing about her family tradition. Her aunt and uncle from dad's side both met their spouses in college. Her mom's older sister also met her husband in grad school. Even Sooyun's elder twin cousins are engaged to their college boyfriends and girlfriends. How is this possible??
Just remembering what happened when she came home after finishing college brings shivers through her whole body. Those eyes filled with anticipation nearly suffocated her back then. If not for her loner cousin's help, she would have died back at the family house.
Her cousin Mia is her archangel, who is there for her, all the time! She is half Korean and half Italian, and she is gorgeous. What model? Mia can beat any of those models with her body and looks. Ahhh, she is simply a DIVA. However, she doesn't like being photographed, but instead, she loves taking others' pictures. In the fashion world, there is nobody who doesn't know who Mia De Luca is. She is the photographer for Vogue, Cosmo, and many other world-class magazines. It's impossible to catch her in one place since Mia is always traveling around the world taking pictures. However, every time Sooyun needs her, Mia always makes sure to be there for her. She is not only Sooyun's cousin but also her best friend!
"We are here." the taxi driver's voice wakes Sooyun up from her daydream.
"Oh, have we arrived? Okay, thank you so much." Sooyun says while getting out of the cab. She grabs her luggage from the open truck and quickly heads into the airport after saying goodbye to the driver. Luckily, she managed to arrive on time, and it didn't take more than 30 minutes to pass the security and sit down by the gate. Sooyun still had another 30 minutes to kill, so she opens her laptop and starts checking her secretary's report on the new project that they are planning.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please start boarding the plane," announced the flight attendant. After hearing the announcement, Sooyun calmly collects her belongings and heads to the check-in area. Once she scans her ticket, the attendant brings her to the business seat area.
"Assa!" Sooyun thinks to see that her seat is on the window side. Since she found her location, she decides to put her carry-on into the overhead bin. Just as she was putting away the luggage, she suddenly loses the strength in her hands and watches her luggage fall on someone's head that was standing right beside her. Without fully realizing what happened, she subconsciously grabs the head of the innocent man and starts tugging and patting his head without looking at his face.
"Are you okay, sir? I'm so sorry about what happened! Does it hurt?" Sooyun exclaims while tugging down that person's head towards her since he was much taller than her. As soon as she got him to bend his neck, she starts blowing into the top of his head.
While she was doing that, she starts noticing that people around her are looking weirdly in her direction. She rotates her head and sees nothing unusual until she looks to her front.
Only then does Sooyun realize that she is pulling some stranger's head painfully. For some reason, she felt like she smelled this scent before, but before Sooyun was able to detach her hands, she hears him say calmly, "Are you done? Would you mind letting go of my hair?"
"Oops, I didn't do it intentionally." Sooyun tries to explain in a soft voice while loosening her hands from his hand. "I didn't mean to drop my bag on you and then tug your hair" every letter she spoke, her voice got quieter and quieter. After she finishes speaking, she waits for the man to say a word, but after waiting for a while, Sooyun's patience reached its limit.
"Hey, I already apologized to you, so in case there is no injury, I will excuse myself," Sooyun says and lifts her head to look at that person's face. The determination-filled gaze of hers suddenly changes, and her pupils start to dilate due to shock.
"Yyyouu, wwhat are you doing here?" She questions the guy whom she can't be any more familiar.
"He is the reason for my heartbreak, the one and only Kim Minjoon. No wonder I felt like something bad was going to happen this morning."
"I never expected to meet him again under such circumstances after three whole years. No matter how much I made myself believe that I got over him, my fast beating heart seems to hold the true answer to this question."