" 𝘐'𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 "
❝ You're a regular here? ❞
"ARE WE DONE?" TAEMOO SIGHED, dropping the shopping bags he's been carrying for the last two hours, into the pink backseat of the gray car.
"Not quite." Hyejin hummed, furrowing her eyebrows in thought.
Turning with a small huff, Taemoo noticed the girl eyeing the Luca Faloni store to their right. "Do you want to go in? We have some time before we have to get going."
"I guess I do, but I know you're ready to leave-"
"Don't worry about me, let's go." He said, shoving his hands into his pockets and beginning to make his way towards the small steps that led to the designer store.
Quickly following behind the quick man, Hyejin couldn't help but let a smile push at the corner of her lips. "You're the best." She smiled, walking past the door he held open for her.
"Hello, Ms. Choi." Two of the girls inside said in unison.
"You're a regular here?" Taemoo asked, raising an eyebrow as he watched the girl quickly move towards the dress pants that were hung up neatly on the wooden rack.
"I shop for my dad." She shrugged, pulling out a pair of beige dress pants and looking up at Taemoo for his approval. She watched as he walked towards her, judging the pants before his eyes met hers and they shook their heads in disapproval together.
"You must be here often then."
"All the time really." She replied just as her eyes lit up at the sight of black dress pants. "This would pair really well with a black knitted rib crew neck." Before Taemoo could say anything, the girl who was previously at the register was quick to hand Hyejin the shirt she had in mind.
"Perfect." Hyejin muttered, turning so she was face to face with the raven-headed. She handed him the clothes, pushing him towards the olive green curtains. "To the fitting room you go."
"Alright." He mumbled, taking the clothes with a small, discreet smile.
"Are you guys going anywhere special?" The cashier, Chaeyoung asked, nervously fiddling with her name tag.
"He's meeting my parents tonight." Hyejin sighed, moving her eyes from the green curtain to give the girl an anxious smile.
"I can't imagine how nerve wracking that might be." She sympathized, shaking her head.
"Tell me about it." Just as she said that, her eyes drifted back to the curtain as Taemoo made his way out.
Tucking his hands into his pockets, Taemoo's eyebrows pinched together in uncertainty. "Isn't this too cau-" Before he could even finish, he watched as Hyejin quickly fiddled with the clasp of her purse, never tearing her eyes away from his figure before blindly handing the worker her black card. "-casual?"
"It's perfect!" Hyejin clapped her hands excitedly.
"Okay." Taemoo nodded, assured by the content glint in her eyes before he walked over to the other side of the register. "Excuse me, put the purchase on this card instead."
Her smile dropped at this and Hyejin swiftly made her way towards the man, pushing his hand down onto the counter. "Taemoo stop. You've paid for everything else."
"Why would I make you pay for my clothes?" He asked, glancing towards the girl with furrowed eyebrows.
"Because I said I'd take you out shopping, not I'd go shopping with you." She explained, too occupied with the argument at hand to notice the cashier sneakily sliding the card from Taemoo's hand and paying.
"Thank you so much for shopping here." Chaeyoung began, biting her lip to conceal her laughter at the fashion designer's face.
"Are you kidding me?" Hyejin groaned, ignoring Taemoo's quiet chuckle and Chaeyoung's giggles. She huffed, crossing her arms as she watched the girl across the counter pull out the printed receipt and handed it to Taemoo along with his card.
"Good luck to you and your boyfriend, I hope your parents like him." Chaeyoung said, giving Hyejin a small smile.
"Oh he's-" Hyejin began to slip up but was quickly cut off by said "boyfriend."
"Thank you." Taemoo politely smiled, interlocking his hand with Hyejin's just as one of the other employees handed him the clothes he was wearing before he changed. "Let's go?"
"Uh, yeah." Hyejin mumbled, attempting to ignore the redness on her cheeks as she glanced at the soft smile he was giving her before looking down at their interlocked hands as they walked out.
✧༺♥༻✧
"Anything I should know before we get there?" Taemoo asked, glancing at the GPS on Hyejin's phone which stated they were five minutes away.
"Nothing really, my parents love your grandfather so they're bound to love you as well. You'll also definitely win my mom over with the bouquet of a hundred roses you somehow got thirty minutes before." Hyejin explained, glancing at flowers on Taemoo's lap.
"And your father?"
"You took over your family company, you're educated, and business smart. I don't think it can get any better for him." She shrugged, pulling up towards the front of the property, glancing at Taemoo who leaned forward, staring in slight shock at the large mansion.
"I know." Hyejin sighed, driving past the gray concrete gates as they opened automatically and made her way to park in one of the marked spaces near the fence. "My parents have that go big or go home mindset."
"It's really nice." Taemoo assured, watching as the girl tilted the rear view mirror to pat down any flyaways and reapply her lip gloss.
Letting out a small sigh, she grabbed her phone from the phone holder and unbuckled her seat belt. "Thank you. I know my mom would love to hear that. Are you ready?"
"Yeah."
✧༺♥༻✧
After greeting her parents at the front door, Hyejin and Taemoo followed her parents to the beautifully designed dining room. "Thank you so much for the roses, Taemoo. They're so beautiful. But, you know, I just still can't believe this. Both of my children are in relationships right now." Her mom exclaimed excitedly as her husband pulled out her chair for her, Taemoo doing the same for Hyejin.
Taking a seat, her dad laughed in agreement. "The other day Jihoon was just here saying he wanted to pursue Shin Geumhi, and now I have the pleasure of meeting your boyfriend."
"Trust me sir, the pleasure is all mine." Taemoo insisted with a small smile.
"So Taemoo, how've you been? I can't remember the last time I saw you!" Minhyun exclaimed, letting out a small laugh. "How's work?"
"I've been good, thank you for asking Mr. Choi." Taemoo smiled politely, watching as the chefs began placing down the plates and utensils in front of them. "Thankfully, work is good but ever since I reconnected with Hyejin, I've been trying to dial down my work drive."
"I'm glad you're prioritizing her. But I think it's nice for Hyein to have someone with so much self discipline in her life." Eunbi smiled. "How long have you two been together?" She asked, glancing between the "couple" across from her with pure excitement in her eyes.
"Our one year anniversary is this Saturday." He explained, reaching over to move a zoned out Hyejin's hand away from the piping hot bowl placed near her.
"You've been together for one year?" Minhyun asked in surprise, his eyes widening.
"Hyejin! Why didn't you tell us? If we knew, we wouldn't have made you go on all of those blind dates." Eunbi exclaimed, staring at her flustered daughter in shock.
"We didn't want to go public so quickly mom. You know how the industry I'm in is." Hyejin sighed, shaking her head. "I'm in the public eye a lot, I don't want them ruining something good for me."
"We're just glad you found somebody." Her dad sighed, leaning back in the white armless chair. "I almost lost complete hope in being able to walk you down the aisle in your white dress."
"Dad-" Hyejin sighed in a warning tone.
"No, no! It's true." Her mom cut her off before turning to glance at an amused Taemoo. "Hyejin here has always been a hopeless romantic, I think it was the worst when she was a teenager. She should take you up to see her bedroom after this!"
"How so?" Taemoo asked, raising his eyebrows curiously.
Rolling her eyes, Hyejin nudged the man beside her. "Taemoo stop. Don't listen to anything they say."
"Actually, now my interest has piqued. I've never heard about any of this before." He encouraged, gently moving the girl's elbow from his waist.
"Hyejin, how could you not tell him about the most shaping years of your life?" Minhyun exclaimed through his gruff laughter.
"I'm not really sure, maybe because it's embarrassing?" She replied sarcastically, leaning back in her chair.
"Hyejin it really isn't." Her mom said, reaching over to rub her hand comfortingly. "But, when she was a teenager, she was always talking about marriage, kids, all of that. But what scared us was how high her standards were."
"What's so embarrassing about that?" Taemoo chuckled, glancing at the red girl beside him.
"Wait for it." She mumbled, raising her pointer finger up.
"However, what we realized, the problem wasn't how high her standards were. The problem was how nervous she'd get when talking to a boy she liked. She'd stutter, and stumble and would switch out of Korean and into English and she'd just be a mess."
"There we go." Hyejin sighed, closing her eyes in embarrassment as the other three's quiet laughter bounced off the beige walls of the luxurious dining room.
"Honestly, if it wasn't for Yeonmi, we don't think she would've ever gotten out of that phase." Her dad explained, a smile still pulling on his lips.
"You're secretary right?" Taemoo asked in which Hyejin nodded.
"Oh that reminds me, is she seeing anyone?" Her mom asked.
Shrugging her shoulders, Hyejin sat up in her seat, thankful that they've moved on. "You know how she is. She kills herself with work and I don't even know how she does it. I don't give her much to do."
"What about the guy she dated in college? Lee Mingyu?"
"I don't really know." She sighed. "You know how their breakup was, I don't think she really ever got over him. Plus they decided to stay friends and keep in touch, and that's never good. Anyways, enough of that, let's please eat before the food gets cold."
✧༺♥༻✧
"Thank you so much for inviting me for this meal." Taemoo expresses his gratitude, finding that a weight he didn't even know was there had been released from his shoulders.
Waving his hand to dismiss it, Minhyun stood up, followed by his wife as they both had genuine smiles on their faces. "You treat our daughter the way she deserves to be treated, so consider our home your's, and her parents as your own."
"Thank you so much, sir." Taemoo smiled, standing up. He grabbed Minhyun's outstretched hand with both of his hands and bowed ninety degrees as he shook the older man's hand before doing the same to the older woman.
authors note;
❣️not proof read, but I wanted to release this bc idk when I'll be able to update next </3
I'm also very very veryyyy iffy on this chapter bc I don't really think I characterized Taemoo properly, but any criticism is appreciated! Please let me know if you enjoyed
alsoooo, new character alert!
- Byeon Wooseok as Lee Mingyu -
thank you guys for all the love, ily, mwah 🫶🏼