LOST • Seulrene

• chapter three •

Irene crouched behind the counter of the quaint little café, her heart thudding loudly in her chest. Of all the most ridiculous things to happen in her life, hiding from her mother while simultaneously trying to decide the best course of action between a potential career as a secret agent and the complete overhaul of her social life was the kind of drama she had hoped to avoid after college. Yet here she was, two drinks deep into a calm Wednesday evening that had morphed into chaos.

Wendy, her trusty partner in crime, crouched next to her, eyes glimmering with mischief as she sneaked glances above the counter. “You do know how ridiculous this whole thing is, right?” she whispered, barely able to contain her giggles.

Irene sighed, slumping against the counter. “You think I don’t know that?”

Joy, who was stationed a few feet away, poked her head over the counter, straining to look through the café window. “I’m pretty sure the only thing we’re going to be talking about at brunch next week is how I was hiding under a table in a café while my mother interrogated my one-night stand,” Irene muttered, colors rising toward her cheeks.

“Whole new meaning to the term ‘family matters,’” Joy quipped, deepening the ridiculousness of the situation.

A few moments later, the frantic pacing and tap-tap of heels echoed outside the café, making Irene jump again. This time, however, Wendy had pinched her to get her attention. Jooyoung, managing to maintain her composure amidst the chaos, signaled from her perch at the window. “I think they’re leaving!”

Irene peeked above the counter, her stomach doing a backflip as she saw her mother’s car pull away. “The coast is clear!” she exclaimed, scrambling to her feet and brushing off the remnants of flour from the café’s pastry counter. “I need a drink. No, wait, I need to be at the beach, screaming like a banshee.”

“Why don’t you just take a moment to breathe before you do that?” Wendy suggested, wiping a tear of laughter from her eye. “Who was that fine man, anyway?”

“Oh, you know, just my one-night stand,” Irene admitted casually, earning gasps and wide eyes from her friends.

“Wait… what?” Joy exclaimed, eyebrows shooting up in confusion. “You mean to tell me that you hooked up with a dude who happened to pop into this café during a random weeknight?”

“Well, let’s be honest, it felt kind of… magical,” Irene said, looking off into the distance, a dreamy smile creeping at the corner of her lips before she burst into a fit of laughter. “But then I remembered my mother hasn’t stopped sending me wedding brochures for six months!”

“Hold on…” Wendy held up a hand, trying to process this absurd tableau. “So you have a one-night stand guy, and now you’re supposed to marry… what was his name again?”

“Jeonghoon,” Irene sighed, suddenly feeling the punch of reality. “He’s a good guy and all, but I certainly didn’t expect to have a whirlwind affair or discover this amusing love triangle.”

“Or a love quadrilateral if we count you being in the middle of it.” Joy winked mischievously, her words prompting another round of groans from the group.

“Essentially, I have two paths before me,” Irene said with mock gusto, raising her hands dramatically. “Either date a fuckboy who leaves me questioning my life decisions or settle for a guy whose hair looks like it’s been constantly licked by an angry raccoon.”

Wendy broke into a massive grin, clutching her sides. “It’s like you’ve made the choice for us, actually.”

Irene flashed a crooked smile as worry prickled at the back of her mind. Was she genuinely ready to meet Jeonghoon and navigate the mess of future expectations? The idea of hopping back into her life before her late-night escapades with a certain stranger felt daunting.

“Let’s just finish these drinks and call it a night,” she said, brushing the thoughts away as the rest of the girls nodded in agreement. About an hour later, they emerged from the café to the cooling dusk air, the laughter from their earlier banter lingering in the air like dessert lingering on their palates.

As Irene arrived home, she expected the usual calm of their manor. But instead, she was met with a sight she hadn’t anticipated: a man sitting on the couch with his back to her. The moment she spotted him, her heartbeat quickened, dodging the familiar rising tension.

Her mother emerged from the kitchen, clearly pleased with herself. “You’re here! Meet your husband,” she said, waving her hand toward the man, completely oblivious to the panic that struck Irene’s heart.

As if sensing her presence, the man turned slowly, revealing a face she hadn’t expected to see: the guy from the café—the one who had ignited a heated frenzy in her own life and suddenly felt like the universe had decided they were the same person.

“Irene, we meet again, Ms. Bae,” he said with a smirk, eyes dancing playfully.

In that moment, she thought she could hear a dramatic record-skratching sound as her brain screamed, *No way.* No way! This was not happening. It couldn't be real. A strange combination of disbelief and the lingering echoes from the café left her feeling both flustered and absurdly amused.

“I thought…” she stammered, utterly dumbfounded. “I thought you were… who are you?”

He raised an eyebrow, taking delight in her confusion. “I’m Jeonghoon, your fiancé, remember?”

“Fiancé?” The word felt strange and foreign in her mouth, spinning in dizzying circles as the truth thudded in her chest. It was the same cheeky man who had her jumping through emotional hoops just days before. The memory of that wild night in the café now had another layer of complexity—a dimension of shared intimacy she never wanted, or at least didn’t believe she was ready for.

“Oh, just wait,” she said finally, gripping the edge of the doorframe for support. “This isn’t where the heartbreak ends. There’s still that little matter of you being my—”

“Fancying husband?” he interjected cheerfully, grinning. “Yes, I seem to have scored pretty high on that front.”

Irene fought the absurd urge to laugh amid this inexplicable turn of events. “I can’t believe I just told you about my one-night stand—”

“To be fair,” he interrupted, leaning back as though they were already in the midst of an ongoing debate, “you did make that pretty clear while hiding behind the counter.”

“That wasn’t exactly my ideal ‘meeting the parents’ scenario.”

“Who needs a fairy-tale introduction when we can kick it off this way?” Jeonghoon said, bemused.

Irene’s head spun with a hundred realizations, each one colliding with another like bumper cars on an amusement ride. This was the last thing she had signed up for, yet somehow, it seemed the only option on the table.

“I should’ve figured it was you,” she mumbled under her breath, her brain already mulling over the absurdity of her life choices. What was once a simple case of mistaken identity had turned into an impromptu wreck of romance and chaos that could only be described as a comedy of errors.

And just like that, the warmth from the drinks and laughter flooded back into her mind as an urge bubbled up: to embrace rather than flee. Grinning back at him like she was about to chuck everything to the wind and join him on an unexpected, wild ride, she teased, “What’s next? You’re going to swoop in on a white horse?”

He laughed, a deep, rich sound that filled the room, creating a weave of battered yet beautiful moments—all laced with a sense of familiar daring. Admittedly, it wasn’t what she envisioned but then again, when had life ever gone according to plan?

With a heart full of laughter and adventure, Irene took a step closer toward the enigmatic figure meant to accompany her through twists and turns she had yet to untangle. A new world awaited them, steeped in unpredictability, and she was ready to navigate it—one chaos choice at a time.