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1. As dirt-biking competitors
Seo Eun Gi took off her helmet and dismounted from her motorcycle. They'd just finished the warm-up leg and she was beginning to feel the familiar thrum of adrenaline beneath her fingertips, as she bent over to adjust her boots.
"All ready for the competition?" A voice inquired behind her.
Eun Gi snapped up and spun around, recognising the voice even before she set eyes on his face. Kang Maru smiled back, already suited up in his own gear, helmet in hand. He looked impeccably put together, as always. It annoyed her.
Her face arranged itself into an automatic scowl, and she grated out, "If you're trying to shake my nerves before the race, it's not working."
Kang Maru held up one hand in a placating manner, as though trying to calm her. "I come in peace," he said. "I just wanted to check on you." He looked around at the other bikers, who were all conducting their final checks on their bikes. Which we are clearly not doing, Eun Gi thought, disgruntled. "Competition's tough this year, isn't it?"
"No thanks to you," Eun Gi said without thinking, and then cringed. She'd let it slip that she regarded Kang Maru as her greatest competition for the race. And why shouldn't he be? In the past three dirt biking races they've had together, they'd always come in within seconds of each other. She'd improved tremendously over the past year, it was true, but she would bet anything that Kang Maru's perfectionist streak had not let him skive off on his training either. This race was up in the air for either of them.
He noticed her slip, and his lips quirked in a smirk. "I'm honoured that you would regard me as your rival," he said.
More annoyed at herself than at him, she snapped, "Do you have something to say, Kang Maru, or are you just planning on wasting my time here?"
Kang Maru cleared his throat. "If I win this competition, will you go out with me?"
Eun Gi was certain that she must have misheard. She eyed him suspiciously, and then made a show of looking around him. "What's this, some kind of prank? A hidden camera for your adoring fans?"
He looked incredibly put upon, and frowned. "Is this all you think of me?" He might have pouted slightly. Eun Gi couldn't be sure.
"I wouldn't put it past you," she muttered, determinedly looking anywhere but at him. Kang Maru's puppy-dog look could melt the coldest heart. Eun Gi had been on the receiving end of it before.
"Would it be such a stretch to believe I might really be interested in you?" he said, looking faintly hurt. The tips of his ears were growing red. Eun Gi watched them with some fascination. Kang Maru shifted uncomfortably under her gaze, and Eun Gi realised he was still waiting for an answer.
"Yes, it would be," she said, emphatically, but his face fell, and God help her, Eun Gi's heart gave an uncomfortable twinge. She relented, just a little bit. "But if you win, you can spend the evening telling me what strategies you've been practicing since the last time we met."
Kang Maru's face lit up again, and Eun Gi hurriedly added, "It'll be a professional meeting. I'll let you know what I've been working on too, it's only fair -- "
"I won't let you down." A kind of determination had crept into Kang Maru's eyes, and Eun Gi wondered if she'd made a mistake in agreeing too quickly. He reached forward and gripped her shoulder. "Good luck for the race." He flashed her one last smile and turned around.
As her shoulder tingled where he had squeezed it, Eun Gi wondered absentmindedly if her manager would mind terribly if she didn't win this race.
~*~
Maru slid the folder across the table, showing his teeth in a careful smile. "And these are the drafts we've come up with so far, for the new soju advertisements. Our concept," and he neatly displayed the glossy prints of their chosen ambassador for the project, "is sleek and sexy."
He let himself smirk a little at the quiet sound of approval. Images of the actress they had chosen, with her seductive femme fatale image from her last drama, would inspire awe in anyone. More than just presenting an idea, he was selling a performance, and Maru knew the game well.
He leaned slightly across the table, letting his eyes meet and hold the client's. Judging from the hitch in her breathing, it had probably worked. "Soju is something to be shared in the night to wind down with, something smooth and dark, bringing that idea of lovers whispering over a drink, or strangers who could become lovers from that chance meeting."
A delicate snort from the corner where Taesan's representative was sitting, with her own thick cream-coloured folder, made her impression of that idea very clear to Maru. Maru chanced a glance at her, but her face, but for the faint scowl nudging her eyebrows, gave nothing away. Her eyes were focused on him, unwavering as he continued the presentation he had prepared.
The client, Ms Han Jae Hee, had chosen to have both of them present at the meeting—a way to judge the product through the confidence of those selling it. His company had sent the best. So had they.
Maru knew who she was, of course. Meticulous in everything he did, he'd done an early check-up on the competitor for the deal. Director Seo Eun Gi of the up-and-rising Taesan Group was as focused and determined as the rumours had promised. There were people who called her the "crazy dog" of the advertising industry. Bold and daring in the risks she took, yet with a keen eye for quality that made her risks pay off, Director Seo was a critical factor for making Taesan as big as it was today.
When she finally stood up and began speaking, Maru could understand why.
"We've gone in a slightly different direction from Iltto Group." Their concept is trite and overused, the unspoken message was. Maru cracked a smile in spite of himself.
Director Seo spared him a glance, then shifted her gaze and carried on smoothly. "Our concept is fun, trendy, and modern. It runs like a romantic comedy, showing versatility of soju—shared between not just couples, but also amongst friends. Not just at night, but in the day as well."
Damn. The concept was good. Maru eyed Taesan's representative with new respect.
"The demographic we're targeting is younger, and encompasses both males and females. While Iltto Group's proposal seems to focus on the male population," and here Maru thought he detected the slightest curling of her lip, "we tend to favour a less exclusive stance." At a nod, her assistant laid out the pictures on the table, of a couple sharing soju in different scenarios: playing a drinking game with friends in one picture, sitting at a roadside stall after work, eating in a fancy restaurant.
"We feel that the female population has long been left out in advertisements such as these," Taesan's representative was saying, "but yet they are a valuable consumer base. We feel we can bring them in without cheapening their image." Misogynists, her eyes accused him.
Maru could appreciate beauty when he saw it. Ms Han Jae Hee was beautiful. But he had a weakness for those with beauty and brains and a streak of devil-may-care directness.
By the end of the meeting, the deal was squarely in Taesan's pocket. The representative—Seo Eun Gi, he thought to himself—smiled a smile of victory, and made the obligatory spiel about hoping they would work well together. Maru, on his own part, could admit defeat when he had to. Besides, he had a new target in mind.
As they bid farewell to the client, and were in the midst of packing up to leave, Maru seized the opportunity to approach the Taesan side of the table. Maru tried on the winning smile that usually worked on the ladies, and dropped his voice an octave, aiming for smooth seduction. "Good work, Director Seo," he said, sticking out his hand to her. "Your concept was the better one."
She barely glanced at his hand, eyes fixed forward instead. "Perhaps next time you might want to consider other methods of selling your—" The barest pause, "—product. A quality product should stand for itself. Director Kang Maru." One glance in his direction, and she was sweeping out of the door, leaving Maru's hand still poised in mid-air.
Maru retracted his hand awkwardly as her assistant shot him a dirty look, heading out behind her. Crazy indeed, he mused to himself, picking up one of the photos she had left behind. One he had subtly covered with his file.
A smile curved his lips. He guessed he would be seeing her again.
~*~
He doesn't know if it would be too forward to call. After all, they'd just met on the train, a chance encounter, not to be repeated.
The card says, "Seo Eun Gi, Artistic Director." She's clearly made it in the world, unlike Maru, who's still struggling to make enough to pay his loans from med school. The part-time bartending job he found is barely enough to cover the interest, not counting Choco's medical bills.
He remembers puking over her shoes, and cringes at the memory. Had that been before or after he'd spilled his life story to her? He couldn't quite remember. He'd been so drunk, after Jae Hee had left him. He couldn't support "her kind of lifestyle," she explained, while not explaining anything. She'd found someone "better, more suitable." Seven years, abandoned in a few minutes.
Maru drank himself silly after that.
After that, stumbling home, he was distantly horrified to find his face wet. The passers-by were giving him a wide berth. He didn't blame them; he probably would have done the same, at this blubbering, drunken mess.
She hadn't, though.
He sank into the seat next to her on the train, and she didn't shrink away or change seats. Neatly put together in a sharp cream-coloured suit and her hair tied back in a ponytail, Eun Gi had been looking through a sheaf of what were probably incredibly important business papers when Maru had misjudged the distance to the seat, and nearly landed in her lap.
"P-pardon," he stuttered, trying to right himself, and almost sending the papers to the floor.
She shot a sharp glare at him, which rapidly softened as her gaze roved over Maru's woebegone state. Perhaps the incredible heartache Maru was feeling had shone through somehow, or she just enjoyed consorting with strange, drunk men. But Eun Gi reached into her coat, pulled out a handkerchief and offered it to him. "Are you all right?"
Perhaps he'd just been bolstered by the thought of human company, but he found himself sharing his entire break-up stpry with her, from how he and Jae Hee had met as children, to losing contact, to finding each other and finding romance in each other -- to the news that had abruptly ended their relationship. One of Maru's bad habits; once he started talking, he couldn't stop, and drink had a way of loosening up his tongue.
To Eun Gi's credit, she hadn't run away I'm horror when Maru started blubbering. "It'll look better in the morning," she offered, instead -- and, "She probably didn't deserve you anyway," words that probably had no right to sound as reassuring as they had last night. But he'd felt better, however infinitesimally, just to have someone to listen as he poured his heart out to Eun Gi. And somehow, looking into her dark eyes and the quietly knowing expression in them, he'd felt she'd truly understood, like she'd gone through a similar experience herself.
Now he fingers the edges of the card, hates that he seems so cowardly and indecisive, wonders what she'll think if he calls, wonder what she'll think if he doesn't.
"Call me if you need someone to talk to," she had said, and her eyes had been so sympathetic. "Friends shouldn't let friends drink alone."
He glances at the paper bag containing the shoes he bought her that morning. Maybe it will lead somewhere, maybe it won't. Maybe he'll be Prince Charming, left with a pair of shoes that will never quite fit his Cinderella. Maybe there will be no happy ending, just like there wasn't, not with Jae Hee, who was his first love, and in many ways, his last love. Or maybe it will be the most romantic fairytale ever written. Or the best friendship forged through having lived through the same hard time. There are many ways to end the same story.
He picks up the phone and dials the number.
~*~
It was a dark night, save the lone moon that lit the path.
Pressed close to the rafters of a roof, Eun Gi waited for her prey. Her right hand drifted down to finger the blade tucked against her leg. Her mother had named her for benevolence and charity; now, she was known amongst those of her trade for her weapon of choice -- the silver that flashed in the moonlight. Most spies picked the bow and arrow. Eun Gi preferred the more direct approach. Even for an assassination in the dead of the night.
It couldn’t be helped, she told herself firmly. Evil could no longer be allowed to propagate here.
It was supposed to be a covert operation. No one should know she was even there. It was supposed to be quick; easy in and easy out. She just needed to wait for the right moment.
But Officer Ahn had either been prepared, or been tipped off.
The guards changed shifts, just according to schedule. The new guard was set to come in. This was her moment.
Eun Gi carefully released herself from her tight crouch, preparing to make the leap into Officer Ahn's private quarters. All of a sudden, she heard a strange whistling sound. Danger! Even before her mind caught up, her body was reacting, twisting desperately away.
Impossible. Eun Gi’s mind raced. How could they have known?
The arrow had been too fast, and pierced swiftly into her side; Eun Gi choked back a cry of pain. She staggered back, barely catching her footing, just managing to fall off in an ungainly dive off the roof of the house. There was no time for gracefulness, or even to angle the direction of the fall. Eun Gi hit the ground, left shoulder screaming in protest but there was nothing for it --
Shouts were rising, and a flurry of tight footsteps coming towards her -- not the regular guard, she realised. They had been trained; trained to take out an assassin they had been waiting for, an assassin they knew would attack not from a distance, but up close...
And now she was gasping, one hand pressed firmly to her right side, running for her life. The guards were hot on her heels, shouting after her, and it was all Eun Gi could do to swerve off the path of the incoming arrows and make a mad dash for the forest. If she could just shake them off there...
Her breathing was coming in laboured pants now, her left hand hot and slick with blood where it was pressed against her flank.
Out of the corner of her eye, Eun Gi caught sight of a house. A house? On the corner of the woods? It was probably abandoned. There was nothing for it; she decided to take her chances. Hopefully she had managed to lose her attackers sufficiently; if not, she prayed she wouldn't end up dragging innocent parties into her fight.
Eun Gi’s good intentions vanished when she all but fell into the house, dizzy and barely able to stand. She collapsed sideways on the floor, sweat beading on her forehead and arrow still firmly embedded in her side. Just a little while, her body begged. At least until she caught her breath again.
She almost didn't notice the startled exclamation and the sound of worry from behind her. Eun Gi vaguely noted that she must have made a frightening sight, all clad in black and bleeding out from an arrow wound. But the person didn't seem fazed.
"Are you all right?" the voice asked, laying a warm hand on her shoulder. The person turned and seemed to address someone else in the house. "Ji Hyun, go get some warm water and cloth." The squeaked noise of assent and the light patter of feet alerted Eun Gi to the fact that there was a child in the house, and she struggled up with renewed vigour.
The hand on her shoulder pushed her firmly down. "Stop moving, you'll hurt yourself even more."
"Can't -- stay -- " she gasped out. "Enemies -- "
The person stilled beside her, then got up, looked furtively around, and shut the door.
"Do you think you can move?" The voice was steady, but with an undercurrent of urgency. "There’s a place we can hide until they’ve passed by.”
Eun Gi’s vision was starting to blur, but she must have managed a nod of agreement, because there were arms helping her up and letting her lean her weight heavily on him. In the darkness, she could only make out a shock of dark hair brushing her cheek, and a warm breath against her face, as he patiently helped her stagger towards the back of the house.
There was a brief pause as Ji Hyun presumably returned, and seemed to be fiddling with something on the floor. By this point, Eun Gi was trembling with the effort it took to keep herself upright; her pride would not let her collapse onto the stranger, however kind he seemed to be.
She must have spaced out for a moment, because she was momentarily disoriented as they began moving again, and she seemed to be being manoeuvred downward.
The voice murmured words of comfort and assurance as she protested half-heartedly, and then she was lying horizontal in the darkness, and there was a thin body squirming into the space next to her, careful not to come into contact with her wound.
“This will help.” Ji Hyun's whisper came somewhere towards her left, and a careful hand pressed a damp towel to Eun Gi’s side. Eun Gi hissed with the pain, but the cloth was more effective than her palm was, and Ji Hyun’s hands, though small, were strong and firm.
“Where’s -- " Eun Gi managed, before a third body slid into the space with practised ease, and pulled the trapdoor closed.
A small lantern was lit, and Eun Gi found herself staring into a pair of concerned eyes in a boyish face. It would have been handsome if it hadn’t currently been creased in worry. She felt a blush coming on, thankfully hidden behind her mask, and fiercely berated herself for choosing the wrong time and place for this.
“I’m Eun Gi,” her traitorous mouth stuttered.
The face creased into a relieved smile. She stared, fascinated, as his eyes crinkled up. “I’m Maru.” Her heart made another hard thump in her chest.
It felt a lot like falling.
~*~
5. As childhood friends
Maru had always known that he would marry Eun Gi.
From the moment he'd met her in the neighbourhood playground, threatening a boy who refused to let her play on the swings because "girls can't swing as high as boys can," he was sure that he'd fallen in love.
Well, Maru didn't really know what being in love was like, but it had to be this awed, slightly scared feeling, like he wanted to approach her but at the same time didn't dare to. Jae Hee noona knew all about love though, of course, being a grown-up ten years old, and having the entire neighbourhood of boys alternately pretending that they were too cool for girls while simultaneously sneaking her love letters and putting sweets onto her table at school. Maru knew all about it, because Jae Hee seemed to regard him as her confidante, sharing all her secrets with him, and insisting that he followed her around the playground.
The unofficial council of the playground had always unanimously acknowledged that Jae Hee was the prettiest girl in the neighbourhood. Not Maru, though. Not since he'd met Eun Gi.
Eun Gi, with her brashness and no-nonsense manner, and the way she preferred to wear jeans instead of summer dresses, and had single-handedly turned the hierarchy of the playground on its head, by insisting and proving that she could give as good as she got. She stood up for Maru when he was picked on being too quiet and too gentle. By the time she had stepped in and stopped Choco from being teased for the smudges of chocolate on her cheeks, Maru had known, by the rapid beating of his heart, that he was certain.
Maru had always known that he would marry Eun Gi.
And from the moment a shy boy, with a fistful of flowers in his hand, had crept up beside her and stammered that he hoped she liked daisies, Eun Gi had known it too.