That Night in Italy

Prologue

Ye Jin was standing outside of the wedding hall, her phone clutched in one hand while her eyes scanned around to look for him. 10 more minutes, she thought to herself. The entourage was already lined up and she was starting to get anxious that a certain man won't make it.

Did something to happen to him?

Is he bailing?

Her thoughts were going haywire when a warm hand took hers and gently wrapped it around his arm.

"You look pretty.", Hyun Bin said nonchalantly as he fixed his cuffs and straightened his tie.

Ye Jin discreetly pinched his waist that made him let out a short whimper, "I told you not to run late".

"Sorry, my meeting went longer than I thought. I'm here now, so stop fussing and hold your bouquet properly.", he said.

"Don't tell me what to do.", Ye Jin backfired.

"I won't let you trip.", Hyun Bin winked.

In front of them was Su Jin, trying so hard to stifle her laughter. If only you two could see how you look in the eyes of everyone else, she thought.

A few minutes later and the mahogany doors opened. When the organizer ushered them in, Ye Jin and Hyun Bin walked arm-in-arm into the wedding hall. There were a couple of familiar faces they saw within the crowd and they both served their best smiles until they reached the front of the room, where they parted ways and headed to their designated seats.

A little while later, the bride came in. Jin Ah looked ethereal in her simple white dress and Ye Jin felt the tears in her eyes as she watched one of her best friends walk down the aisle.

Back in high school, Jin Ah was one of her most loyal girlfriends. She didn't have a big circle, but Jin Ah, Su Jin, and Ji Hye were more than enough. Growing up in an affluent family, Ye Jin was well known in their small hometown. She was pretty, smart, and good-natured. Everyone seemed to love her as she always radiated positive energy to those around her.

However, her popularity was also the reason why she grew up to be more guarded than most people. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that there had been many instances in her life when her so-called 'friends' befriended her for rather selfish reasons. Girls would pretend to be close to her in public but talk crap behind her back. Boys would openly court her, only to parade her around like a trophy girlfriend then dump her after receiving the attention they desired.

The pain and humiliation caused by her experiences back then led Ye Jin to build an impenetrable wall around her. She had to learn the hard way that wearing her heart on her sleeve would only reap bad results, and she had only trusted very few people since then.

One of those was the man seated at the adjacent row right across the aisle, whose eyes were locked on the lovely couple reciting their vows in front of the guests. How did this motherf*cker get so lucky?  he thought as he watched Jin Woo, one of his high school buddies, put a wedding ring on Jin Ah's hand.

Like Ye Jin, Hyun Bin didn't have that many friends either but for a different reason. He didn't grow up in what the Korean society would call a 'traditional family'. He was a child born out of wedlock, with both of his parents in their last year of high school when he was 'accidentally' conceived. His birth mother nearly aborted him if it weren't for his aunt, Ae Ri, who volunteered to take him in and raise him for the rest of his life, even though that decision eventually left her unable to marry. Since then, he's never heard or met his father while his mother left for the States right after he was born and had her own family.

Despite Ae Ri's hard efforts to protect and raise him, their setup still didn't fit a normal family and that didn't spare Hyun Bin from the gossips around their neighborhood.