Chapter 103 - Mr. Perfect

"Well… Mr. Perfect gave you a bag! And where is he now?" Jun Hyeon could hardly believe Ye Rim's shamelessness. Dr. Kim was astonished that she had met the man who passed Queen Maeve's quality test!

Ye Rim seemed to back off, putting the bag aside, "Well, oppa, I didn't say he was perfect. OPPA was almost perfect. But… Unfortunately our story didn't work out."

And the icing of the cake, Mr. Perfect was OPPA, all in capital letters! Even the way she said it put the guy on a level reserved for the deities. He closed his eyes, trying to erase it from his mind, and took a deep breath,

"Ahem ... Well, considering our incompatibility, I'm really curious as to how you found the 'perfect Oppa', and why it didn't work out."

"Forget it, Jun Hyeon. I just said to tease you a little…" She started to pack the bags carefully in their packages, turning her back on him. But Dr. Kim would not let her get away with it. She was probably just making it up, and that's what he threw at her,

"You're making up this relationship, aren't you? You purchased this bag yourself."

"If I had, do you think I would hide it? I would be very proud, in fact," she sassed back. "But no, Jae Wook gave me on my birthday."

Kim Ji Hyeon felt a twinge of pain in his temple, and sat down,

"Okay, where is the great man who won Queen Maeve?"

"I told, and it's obvious: it didn't work! Will you be teasing me? I don't want to talk about that! That's just the past," Ye Rim reacted in an exacerbated way, going back to what she was doing and turning her back on him.

"Aish how annoying! I don't understand at all! How can a man understand a woman? You women are always starting a subject and then giving up on it; and ending unilaterally. 'It's nothing, it's nothing!'" 

Ye Rim pursed her lips, holding back her reply.

Jun Hyeon stood watching her for a while, hoping she would end up revealing more, but she didn't. ' She still likes this guy. '

"This is ridiculous. You have an attachment to that bag because you still like that idiot."

"Who is saying he's an idiot?" she reacted.

"I'm not seeing him here by your side."

"It was nobody's fault. We ended up in mutual agreement.'

'Ah, of course. And she's all hurt just because I'm asking where he is.' "Is he married?"

"No!" She reacted indignantly, and Jun Hyeon was confused. Ye Rim always played tough, but she was really realizing that this issue bothered her. And to be honest, it also annoyed him,

"Okay, okay, keep your secrets. Leave me thinking that you got kicked in the arse by a married guy." Dr. Kim stood up, picking up his luggage, "Just tell me his name, in case I find him, I'll punch him in the face for you."

Ye Rim looked him up, surprised,

"I'm telling the truth. He doesn't deserve a punch. He did the best for me."

"Does that make any sense?"

FLASHBACK ON

Ye Rim desperately got out of the taxi, grabbed the bulky skirt of her rented wedding dress the best way, and ran into the hospital lobby. The girl's hasty and turbulent passage, of course, drew people's attention. After all, it is not every day that a bride in character runs into a hospital. But she arrived at the information desk, and asked, almost breathlessly,

"Officer Ji, I was told he was brought here. Ji Jae Wook. I'm his..."

"His fiancee?" guessed the receptionist, and asked her to calm down while she checked the computer. Ye Rim had received the news that Jae Wook had been shot in a confrontation with thugs. She was trying on the dress for the photoshoot they were supposed to do that afternoon. He was late, which was not uncommon in their relationship. But when the upset singer called back to him, the person picking up his phone said he was being taken to the hospital. She couldn't get much information, and in desperation, Ye Rim just left the studio thinking of anything else than seeing her fiance as soon as possible.

But Ye Rim had to wait long hours before she could see Jae Wook. Her fiance's police friends talked to her. Eun Ha came as soon as she heard the news. But Ye Rim only calmed down when she learned that the surgery had been successful and Jae Wook would recover well. When at last she was able to enter to visit him, Ye Rim found him understandably ill and pale, quite different from the handsome man who made her heart flutter just because he was in the same room as her.

"Ye Rim ah," he called her name without opening his eyes. Jae Wook used to say he knew how to recognize her perfume.

"Jae, you can't do this to me ever again!" she came closer, trembling. Ye Rim's agitation made her want to hit him, and hug him at the same time.

He tried to laugh, but it seemed to hurt, and he stopped. Officer Ji Jae Wook opened his eyes, and looked at her,

"I was told that you were beautiful as a bride, waiting for me in the waiting room for hours. It's true. You look gorgeous."

"Of course I'm not. I'm rubbish. And you always choose the worst moments to praise me."

"You always look beautiful to me, Ye Rim ah. From the first day I saw you, being mugged. I thought, 'You son of a bitch, you can't rob such a beautiful woman! It's doubly a crime!'"

Ye Rim ran a hand through her fiance's hair, starting to get worried. Jae Wook was not a man used to making jokes. Except when he had something very serious to say next.

"Well, I'd ask to be robbed again, if I knew you were going to save me!"

"I wish I could choose to meet you again and again, Ye Rim, but my work has these other parts too. The parts you hate."

The bride felt her eyes water, because they had an argument about it a few days ago. Ji Jae Wook had refused the opportunity for a more bureaucratic work career into police, away from the Special Crimes Investigation team, and that had upset Ye Rim. They would be married in a month, and she had accepted the idea of never trying to pursue a career as a singer again. She would be a housewife, the wife of a police officer. Because she loved him and was loved in return. Why couldn't Jae Wook give in too?

"Ye Rim ah," he called her name softly, again.

"Yes?"

"Let's end things here, okay?"

She was slow to understand her fiancé's words, and when she did, she looked at him in shock. Jae Wook tried to smile,

"Look at you over there. Dressed as a bride. So disheveled and yet, beautiful as the star of a movie. How can a girl have her eyes swollen from crying, and yet, look like a goddess? I don't deserve you. We fight because I can't be a cop who's married to a talented and beautiful celebrity. We fight because you can't stand the idea of me returning home bleeding or else. What are we doing with each other?"

"Ji Jae Wook, listen to me."

"Let me finish, my dear. I love you. I love you. Listen to that. Today I went to work thinking about how much I was being unfair to you. When we first dated, I learned about your dreams. And you knew me, that way I am. The thing you love most is singing. The thing I know how to do ... That's it," he showed the results of his profession with his hands. "I wanted to see you tonight, take you out to dinner and say that I was going to try to be a less possessive guy. That you still have time to try your career. And then…" once again he showed his current situation, his chest bandaged and several abrasions.

"...!" Jae Wook's words touched her. Their lightning passion began in a stupid incident, and it blossomed in a way that both of them never imagined. They were very different, but they managed to like each other, anyway. However, the marriage proposal, which Ye Rim readily accepted, began to show that the couple's incompatibility occurred where they least expected it. Their career choices were the thing that scared each other the most. Ye Rim thought it was part of her role, as a woman, to give in. She imagined it had to be this way. She just didn't realize that Jae Wook could see that she was still yearning for things he couldn't give her.

"You said you couldn't bear to be abandoned, Ye Rim Ah. And when I was coming here, before I passed out, well ... I thought of you. I thought how sad, angry and confused you would be. And I felt bad. I can't do this to you, Ye Rim. Not if I love you. I don't want to be that selfish guy who demands everything, but I don't even know for sure that he will come home alive."

That's how it ended. Ji Jae Wook took on the debts they had made together for the wedding, and helped her financially until she asked him to stop. They loved each other, and it was love that separated them.

Yes, Ji Jae Wook was Mr. Perfect.