CHAPTER 13

Awkward.

I felt really awkward, shy and weird wearing the pair of shorts I bought from Gangnam. As much as I was excited when I bought them I don't think I was confident enough to go around wearing them. Yes, people here totally rock shorts and skirts, many girls rock it back in my country as well, but not me.

See I was never allowed shorts, crop tops, sleeveless t-shirts, dresses.

Conservative much? Absolutely.

These rules were just so people would look at me and think, 'oh yes, she's wearing clothes that hide her entire body that means she must be from a respectable family'

Yep! wearing full sleeved tops with ankle length pants meant that I belonged to a good family, which ultimately meant I was a good and respectful girl.

'No. I can't spoil my mood and rest of my day thinking about such negative things. Just have to gather the courage and go out, I’ll get used to it eventually right?' I had thought, trying to comfort myself.

A bit of my anxiety washed away when I stepped out of the room and saw huge thousand mega watt smiles on both Baek and Grace’s faces. There was a lot of squealing from me and Grace, lots of compliments about how great I look and how 'my legs are very sexy' making me blush super hard, so hard that my face must’ve resembled a ripe tomato for sure.

An hour later I had checked out from my AIRBnb and was on my way to my new home.

Home.

The word had never sounded so good before.

Poor Baek. Me and Grace left him with all my luggage and went off for some grocery shopping and items she said she would help me buy for decorating my room.

We stopped at this small handicraft store first and picked up a beautiful traditional lantern that she wanted for the living room and I got myself a smaller version of the same lantern.

This one was like a fairy light just with small lanterns instead. The minute I saw it I just knew what I would do with it, this would grace my bedroom wall and I was going to attach so many Polaroid pictures on it. I could already see this vision in my head and I wanted to scream with joy.

We decided to stop by a café and unwind before going to the last stop of the day which was a grocery store close to home. I felt more comfortable wearing the shorts too, no staring , no weird looks, no obscene comments.

After getting our order of a plate of chocolate waffles, a caramel frap for Grace and a simple strawberry soda for myself we made ourselves comfortable in chairs near to the windows.

I initiated the conversation by asking her something that I had wanted to ever since I met her, “Hey Grace why do you call yourself that instead of your real name? Is it because its easier to say or something?”

“That’s part of the reason” she said before going quiet. She looked deep in thought as if she remembered something unpleasant and I did not want to pry and make her uncomfortable.

“Its fine I understand, you don’t have to tell me” I told her with an assuring smile on my face.

A few minutes of silence and then Grace spoke, “my family also lives in Daegu, that’s where I met Baek. It was love at first sight for the both of us. I met him at this café he used to work at, he was very new to the street fighting scene back then. He never lied to me about it. He wasn’t from a very rich family but that never bothered me whereas I on the other hand came from an upper class business owning family. My father and his brother own restaurants in Daegu and Busan, maybe even in Seoul by now. I wouldn’t know.

They found out about us, one of my so called friends snitched on me and I was put under house arrest.”

Stopping, she took a sip from her drink before she began again, this time with a stupid love sick puppy smile on her face. Whatever it was the memory was good enough to bring a beautiful blush on her skin.

“So I managed to make a call to Baek and that was the first time I said I love you to him, the first time I had said it to any guy and so he asked me if I was willing to leave everything behind and go with him to Seoul.

He had gotten a good offer from a match fixing guy here, he would get really good pay if he fought in the matches prepared by him. I didn’t even have to think twice before saying yes. So like the hero he is, he came to my house, punched my uncle, threatened him and my father that if they won’t leave us alone he will send his street fight buddies to the family restaurant’s and took me away on his bike.

It was all very filmy and romantic. The looks on my family members faces was priceless.” She said and laughed out loud enough to gain attention from a few other customers in the café, even I couldn’t control the chuckles that left my mouth.

“When we were on the train to Seoul, he told me that I was the saving grace of his life. He doesn’t have good relationship with his father just like you and that statement meant so much to me, even more than an I love you. So well since then I’ve called myself Grace and ask everyone to call me Grace.”

It was perfect. Just perfect.

She is indeed Baek’s saving Grace.