“I’m heading home for dinner tonight. Want to join me?”
Yeo Wool glanced up at Soo Ho. His face brightened. “A home-cooked meal! Count me in!”
He jumped up off his bed and followed Soo Ho out the door. “Being married must be kind of wonderful, huh?”
Soo Ho grinned. “You know it.” Then he grimaced. “Well, I mean, you don’t know it. But, yes, it’s quite wonderful. You need to find your own girl.”
Yeo Wool sighed.
Soo Ho glanced at him sharply. “What’s that sigh all about?”
“I’ve already found my own girl,” he muttered.
Soo Ho’s right eyebrow flew up to threaten a butterfly floating overhead. “You’ve already found your own girl?” he asked incredulously. “When did this happen?”
“You weren’t supposed to hear that.”
“But I did. So…who is she?”
But Yeo Wool decided to answer his earlier question. “It happened on my eighth birthday.”
“What?!” Soo Ho burst out laughing. Then he patted his friend’s shoulder. “You had me going there for a minute. But, seriously, Yeo Wool. At the very least, you need a girlfriend. What about that one girl who’s always checking you out?”
Yeo Wool sent a surreptitious glance his way. “What girl?”
“Mi Na or Ji Na or something like that?”
“Soo Ho.”
“Hmm?”
“Do I need to tell Jung Sook that she has some competition?” Yeo Wool asked with a straight face.
Soo Ho looked horrified. “Don’t you dare! It’s not true! I am not checking out other girls!”
“But you noticed Ji Na noticing me?”
“Hey! I’m not blind! I have excellent eyes in this head of mine.”
“And, apparently, you need to keep them on your wife.”
Soo Ho smacked him. “I am. Don’t you dare make Jung Sook think she has anything to worry about!”
Yeo Wool sighed. “I was just giving you a hard time.”
But it had worked. Soo Ho wasn’t teasing him about getting a girlfriend anymore.
But if Soo Ho had been paying any attention to Yeo Wool’s face after they returned home, he would have realized that Yeo Wool had been speaking the truth. For a few minutes later, they stepped through the doorway to Lord Kim Seub’s home only to be greeted by a delighted Jung Sook.
“Honey, you’re in time for dinner!” She glanced at her husband’s friend. “Oh, Yeo Wool! How wonderful to see you! Why! This is perfect!”
“What is perfect?” Soo Ho asked, completely in the dark.
“Come! We’re having a dinner party out back. I want to introduce you both to my new friend.”
Soo Ho glanced at Yeo Wool. Both men shrugged and followed the excited woman out to the garden where a table had been set up and laden with a feast. Yeo Wool came to a screeching halt as his eyes took in a familiar, tiny face. And the equally recognizable face of her older sister. Then his eyes flew across the table to find their original. The blueprint herself.
Sam Sook.
And he stopped breathing.
But thankfully, Soo Ho was too occupied doting on his wife to notice.
“Gentlemen, this is my new friend, Lady Jeong Sam Sook. And her daughters, Se Ri and Se Yeon,” Jung Sook announced. “Sam Sook, this is my husband, Kim Soo Ho…”
Yeo Wool took the opportunity to draw another breath.
But then Sam Sook glanced his way. And he was taken again.
However, she did not recognize him. He felt a moment of disappointment, but then he realized that the last time that she’d seen him, he’d been a child still. And he had possessed the unfair advantage of spying her two spitting images in the marketplace before he’d noticed her. And Se Ri looked exactly as she had as a ten-year-old.
Still, Sam Sook’s eyes seemed to get stuck to his when she looked at him.
“…and his friend, Kim Yeo Wool,” Jung Sook finished.
Then he had the pleasure of watching his old friend’s eyes widen in shocked recognition. “Yeo Wool?” Sam Sook gasped.
And that sound filled him with immense satisfaction. So did her movement in the next moment as she flew off the bench upon which she’d been sitting and headed towards him.
“Is it really you?”
His lips spread into a wide smile, and Sam Sook felt her heart flutter. Her childhood friend was an extremely handsome man now. She hadn’t recognized him at first. But as she stared into his eyes, she came to acknowledge that those eyes were still the same. Full of sweetness.
He nodded his head. “Hello, Sam Sook.”
She came to an abrupt halt in front of him. He had the fleeting feeling that she’d wanted to throw herself into his arms. But surely that was just his own desire rearing its unruly head. He simply beamed down at her. Instead of pulling her into his embrace. This act of self-control took a mammoth amount of effort. He was overjoyed to see her. And to speak with her.
“Yeo Wool! It is so good to see you!” she exclaimed.
And his smile grew.
How I have missed you.
His eyes slid over that lovely countenance. She had grown only lovelier with the passage of time. She’d matured. The features that had been soft in her adolescence had sharpened slightly into adulthood. But she still had the wide, sensuous mouth that had always been quick to curve into a smile in his presence. And her innocent, obsidian eyes still crinkled at the corners when that smile appeared. Those beautiful, almond eyes slanted slightly.
She had pulled the front of her hair back to reveal her wide forehead and two slightly arching dark eyebrows. Her straight nose came to a soft point, rounding adorably above her plump lips. Those lips formed a perfect Cupid’s bow. Which instantly seemed to invite his kiss.
He cleared his throat and dragged his eyes from that tempting mouth. As his gaze met hers again, his eyes slid along her left cheek. That tanned cheek boasted three large freckles. Almost like she was carrying her own constellation on her countenance. He smiled at the fanciful thought as he fell into the liquid depths of those stunning eyes once more.
Sam Sook stared at him in wonder. Really, it wasn’t so fantastic that she’d met the man in his own hometown, was it?
So, why was she so shocked?
But she knew why she’d been so startled.
The man was beautiful. His thick eyebrows barely arched at the bottom of his deep brow. Though the left one still quirked upward slightly more than the right. His great, ebony eyes remained the type to haunt her dreams. Intense. Kind. They gave way to his straight, slender nose. It rounded nicely above the skinny divot that separated it from his mouth. Drawing her eyes towards his smooth, thin lips. They still curved sympathetically in a face softened by his sweet spirit. Yeo Wool’s character had always shone through his countenance.
He had been an adorable, little boy, so it was really no wonder that he’d turned into a gorgeous young man. But she hadn’t really considered the effect that maturity would have had upon her childhood friend. Any time that she’d thought of him, she’d pictured him more as a voice and an essence than a face.
“Are you still singing?” she breathed suddenly.
Catching him off guard.
“Singing?” Soo Ho echoed her. He glanced at his friend. “Yeo Wool, do you sing?” Then he laughed and took his seat at the table.
“Um. Not really,” Yeo Wool responded.
Her face fell. “What? But…I missed your voice so much! Don’t you remember what I said to you about your voice?”
He remembered. He would never forget those precious words. They had been burned into his memory.
“You have a heavenly voice. You were clearly born to sing. Don’t ever let anyone silence your gift.”
He nodded.
“Then why did you stop singing?” she whispered, suddenly stricken.
His quirked his eyebrows in surprise as he studied her distraught face. He leaned towards her and uttered softly, “There is little need for a songbird amongst the hwarang.”
A wave of sadness flowed over her countenance as she closed the distance between them a bit more. “That is truly a shame.” She sniffed then gazed solemnly up at him. “Still. I’d like to hear you sing again some time.”
He bowed to her. “Your wish is my command, my lady.” He paused. Then he continued, “But I’m pretty sure that my voice changed drastically a few years after I last saw you. I imagine that I’ll disappoint you the first time I open my mouth to sing.”
“Yeo Wool,” she whispered as they turned towards the table, “you could never disappoint me.”
As his eyes connected with hers again, he acknowledged how very much he had missed that encouraging tone of hers. He was shocked a moment later by an instant zing as her finger seemed to skim his as they both headed towards the same side of the table. Jung Sook had seated him right next to the young mother.
He glanced up at his hostess. Had she known?
But Jung Sook wasn’t even looking his way. She appeared to have eyes only for Soo Ho. She did, in fact, seem to be glowing as she gazed up at her handsome husband. Yeo Wool wondered if any woman would ever look at him that way. He sure wished Sam Sook would.
