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Kim Jiwoo had never fully trusted the concept behind love.

I mean, why should she? It was constructed purely from hope and trust, two things she'd never managed to find in herself, let alone a man. That's why, at the tender age of twenty years, she'd already given up on love. Her hope for a romantic future dissipated, and she wasn't necessarily upset over it. 

Relationships got in the way of other things in life, things that meant far more to Jiwoo then love. Through TV shows and movies, she'd learned that love was something designed to bring joy into your life, to light it up with thousands of colors and make you feel bubbly inside every second of every day. 

But, love didn't pay the bills.

That's why she chose to push love as far away from her life as she could, focusing only on her work and her few friendships. Her job was enough to keep her happy anyways, as she had managed to pursue a career in the field she'd always dreamed of working in. Photography. 

Jiwoo owned a studio in the more upscale area of Seoul, South Korea, where she held all of her shoots. It was a modest establishment, with the majority of it being scarcely decorated. The few decorations she did have were all positioned around the waiting area and consisted of an all-white, modern couch, a few basic pastel pink and blue paintings of flowers she'd done herself and faded old blue curtains covering the main window. 

In the physical studio section of her building, she had her camera setup, curtains surrounding the shooting area, and her giant light in the corner. There were also a few props scattered around the room that she'd constantly forgotten to pick up and eventually just left there. 

It was a small and simplistic three-room studio on the bottom floor of a gargantuan building, but it was helping Jiwoo live out her dreams thus she wouldn't have traded it for anything at all. 

She had already expected a mundane day when she opened the studio door this morning, as she didn't have any scheduled photo shoots and had only gone in today in the event of a walk-in, which she had never had before in her career. So she had planned on lounging around the studio, most likely reading a small romance novel she'd picked up a few days ago from one of her best friends, Choi Yerim. 

Yerim, who works at a small bookstore a few blocks from Jiwoo's studio, had managed to pressure Jiwoo into purchasing the book she was confident would never once leave her shelf. Except, she supposed she was wrong because here she sat on the plain white couch in her office reading it in the comforting silence.

As much as she would like to say it was a dull read that she thoroughly unenjoyed, Jiwoo found herself slowly getting absorbed with each gentle flip of the page. The plot had consumed her full attention, and she hungered to learn more about the characters relationship. 

This thin paperback novel, though, had made no significant impact on her view of love. It was nothing but writing, and the author had the power to craft their story with her own words; it was a work of fiction and she would be a fool to let fiction dictate her perspective on reality. 

She continued reading on the couch through the afternoon, immersed in the novel so intensely that she didn't hear the door to her shop open, and she surely didn't notice the young woman who was slowly walking towards her. 

"You like romance novels, eh?" 

The woman asked, beyond startling Jiwoo who shrieked and clumsily flopped off the couch in panic, causing the woman to giggle slightly. She extended a hand which Jiwoo took gratefully before dusting off her clothing and desperately trying to regain her composure. "Ma'am I'm terribly sorry about that, you startled me."