As the sun moved closer to the horizon, so did Aeryun Han, sprinting with everything she had. She ran as fast as possible in the direction of Qyena Kwon’s house, possibly the oldest woman in town, who sold homemade chocolates through her windowsills. She spent five days a week preparing small batches of chocolates made with love and intention, and only sold them on weekends. To give you an idea of how famous her chocolates were, the waiting line started forming around 3:00 PM, even though the windows only opened at 7:00 PM.

While Aeryun was huffing and puffing on the way to Qyena Kwon’s house, Chaerin Sol kept calling and texting to ask where she was. Aeryun had told her she’d be back in fifteen minutes, but it had already been thirty since she left their study session at Chaerin’s house. It was only natural for Chaerin to worry because Aeryun was always on the run when it came to studying. She came up with events like visiting the butterfly’s grave in her backyard, deciphering the meaning of her made-up dreams, or celebrating the second anniversary of learning how to cook pasta sauce, basically anything to escape studying maths.

Aeryun answered the call and said, “I promise you, I’m not trying to escape studying for the stupid test right now. Just head to Qyena Kwon’s house. I’ll explain everything later.”

Without missing a beat, Chaerin got on her bicycle.

Meanwhile, Aeryun received a text from her elder sister, Seoha Han.

Is it done? I’m looking forward to it.

Aeryun was about to text back not yet while sprinting through the streets like a cheetah when she bumped into Medusa’s group, not the Medusa from Greek mythology, but the popular girl group from B section. In Aeryun’s defence, all the members had been standing at the corner of the block, which was a complete blind spot.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you,” Aeryun said quickly. “Are you alright?”

She closed her eyes for a second, mesmerized by the expensive perfume they were wearing. Though she couldn’t identify who wore it, she happily took a few deep breaths, enjoying the fragrance a little longer.

One of the members, Nohwa Rin, said, “Yeah, it’s okay. Keep running. Hope you get what you want.”

Aeryun laughed. “Oh, I wish. Thank you, and sorry again. Also, you guys smell amazing. I forgot for a minute that I had somewhere to be.”

Everyone laughed except Myeora Jin, their leader.

“Stop laughing,” she snapped before glaring at Nohwa. “Who asked you to say it’s okay?”

Myeora continued with a disgusted look on her face. “Her cheap and filthy clothes touched mine. She should be begging for forgiveness.”

Everyone immediately sided with Myeora because of the power she held. Nobody wanted to be on bad terms with her. It was easier to fake being her friend than to become her enemy in public.

Myeora asked if they knew the girl’s name. It wasn’t surprising that everyone did. Aeryun was a different kind of popular at school.

“Aeryun Han,” everyone answered in unison.

The fact that everyone knew her name visibly irritated Myeora. She ordered the group to follow Aeryun, find out where she was going, and keep her updated at all times. They all hopped onto their bicycles and scattered in different directions, searching every nook and corner for her.

Meanwhile, Aeryun finally joined the queue outside Qyena Kwon’s house, though she still wasn’t sure if she would actually manage to get the chocolates. She stood right behind a black Mercedes and spotted two other luxurious cars ahead of her.

That was when she realized people hadn’t been exaggerating.

The country’s richest businessmen, people who closed multi-million-dollar deals in minutes, stood in the same queue as high-school sweethearts celebrating thirty years together, friends trying to make birthdays extra special, and lovers of all ages. Everyone was desperately waiting to get their hands on the chocolates.

It wasn’t unheard of for Qyena Kwon’s chocolates to keep people coming back for more. People often compared them to a drug because once you tasted them, every chocolate afterward felt disappointing. The chocolates were wrapped in plain golden foil with no branding whatsoever, but it was the way they melted in your mouth and the aroma of roasted nuts and almonds that made them unforgettable.

Nobody judged parents who refused to share the chocolates with their children because everyone understood. Some parents in the queue were literally bribing their kids with four different chocolates while they waited.

Aeryun watched this happen, completely stunned.

Maybe it really is that good.

Qyena Kwon’s grandson, Zeon Kwon, also wanted to continue his grandmother’s legacy. Against his parents’ wishes, he was deeply passionate about baking. They believed it was a waste of time and that nothing but trouble would come from pursuing it professionally.

For now, he wore a mask and pretended it was “just a hobby,” but he knew that mask would eventually have to come off.

At the moment, he was working on fortune cookies for the upcoming after-school Holiday Bazaar. Though his grandmother approved of the texture, Zeon still believed it needed perfecting.

Since the queue started forming around 3:00 PM, Zeon handed out fortune cookies and fresh lemonade to people waiting in line during the summer. He had been trying to perfect the cookies for nearly a month and always ended up distributing the failed batches to the people outside.

Unknowingly, the cookies had developed a fanbase of their own.

Nobody knew it was Zeon handing them out except his close friends because, in his eyes, he still hadn’t achieved the texture he wanted.

The members of Medusa’s group recognized Chaerin and followed her. They knew Aeryun and Chaerin were always together.

And they were right.

Chaerin arrived just as Zeon started handing out the fortune cookies.

The second she joined Aeryun in the queue, people immediately got annoyed.

“We’ve been waiting for so long! Stand at the back!”

“She’s with me,” Aeryun explained quickly. “We’re only buying one chocolate.”

The crowd instantly calmed down and said it was okay.

At that point, Aeryun became completely convinced that Qyena Kwon’s chocolates were no joke.

The members of Medusa’s group informed Myeora that they had found her, and Myeora told them not to do anything foolish until she gave the order.

Chaerin became visibly excited when she saw Zeon approaching with the fortune cookies, partly because she had had a crush on him since kindergarten.

“Do you know,” Chaerin whispered to Aeryun, “people say you’re lucky if you even get the free fortune cookies because they taste just as good as the chocolates?”

Before Aeryun could respond, Zeon had already reached them, extending his hand with the cookies.

Chaerin grabbed both.

“Thank you,” both girls said in unison.

Zeon smiled warmly before moving to the next person.

Aeryun immediately turned to Chaerin.

“I’m pretty sure he heard you.”

Chaerin’s face went cold. “Of course. I’m doomed.”

Both of them burst into laughter.

“Let’s open the fortune cookies to confirm that,” Aeryun said.

Chaerin cracked hers open first.

Yes, he heard you and he knows everything.

Chaerin slowly looked up at the sky before turning to Aeryun with genuine fear in her eyes.

“I think the angels wrote this.”

“Most probably,” Aeryun replied immediately. “And they’re right.”

That only made Chaerin groan louder.

Aeryun finally opened hers.

You will meet someone who will change your life, the love of your life.

She laughed loudly, opened her front camera, and looked at herself dramatically.

“You’re the love of my life. It’s finally good to meet you.”

Her hearty laugh caught Tae Minwoo’s attention. He leaned slightly to the right side of the queue to see who was laughing so loudly.

There she was, Aeryun, throwing her head back and laughing like a little kid.

Aeryun and Chaerin started laughing again. Her laugh was so loud it probably could’ve been heard two kilometres away. Soon, people around them started laughing too because her laughter was ridiculously contagious.

Even Tae found himself smiling.

Does this girl know how adorable she really is?

As Aeryun and Chaerin moved closer to the grandma’s windowsill, Aeryun noticed people saying phrases like (seoroui ansikcheo), each other’s safe place, and (unmyeongjeok sarang), destined love.

Panicked, she suddenly remembered her sister mentioning some phrase over a phone call ages ago, one she had confidently taken a mental note of, assuming she would remember later.

“My sister is going to be heartbroken if I don’t get the chocolate,” Aeryun said dramatically to Chaerin. “It’s the only thing she wanted me to get for her. I really should’ve come months ago when she first told me to.”

She quickly turned to Chaerin.

“Do you remember the name of the chocolate my sister wanted me to get?”

“How would I know?” Chaerin replied. “But you can thank me because I wrote it down in your to-do book the day before yesterday while you were talking about it during studying.”

She pointed toward Aeryun’s bag.

“I know you always carry that notebook around because you feel weirdly accomplished every time you tick something off your list. I knew you’d forget, and honestly, so would I, so I added it as tomorrow’s task.”

Aeryun gasped.

“You’re the kind of best friend people write songs about.”

She immediately pulled Chaerin into a hug.

“Check your notebook already,” Chaerin urged.

The second Aeryun started flipping frantically through the pages of her to-do book, the members of Medusa’s group informed Myeora about it over the call. Myeora instantly realized it had to be the name of the chocolates since Qyena Kwon named all her chocolates after phrases.

She ordered them to snatch the notebook from Aeryun and bring it to her.

The members of Medusa’s group grabbed the notebook from Aeryun’s hands.

“This is what happens when you mess with the wrong people,” one of them mocked.

Tae glanced toward the commotion and heard Aeryun apologizing yet again.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t bump into you all on purpose. See? I was literally running because I didn’t want to be late buying chocolates.”

Myeora listened to everything through the call before casually instructing them to toss the notebook in the air.

“If she’s that desperate for it, she’s probably dancing around like a monkey,” she said coldly before telling the others to record the entire thing.

Aeryun immediately shouted at Chaerin.

“No matter what happens, don’t leave the queue! I’ll go after them for my notebook!”

The members stopped near Tae while Aeryun desperately tried to grab the notebook back. She stood trapped in the middle while the two girls kept throwing it over her head from either side.

“Buy everything, Chaerin!” Aeryun yelled.

The crowd instantly got annoyed again.

“It’s limited to two chocolates per person!”

“I’m sorry!” she shouted back once more.

Out of nowhere, Tae stepped forward and caught the notebook mid-air before handing it back to Aeryun. Nobody could properly see his face because he was extremely tall and wore a denim baseball cap pulled low over his eyes.

Relief instantly washed over Aeryun’s face.

“Thank you,” she said sincerely.

She quickly opened the notebook and flipped to tomorrow’s date.

Only one word was written there.

Destiny.

Before she could process it properly, the members snatched the notebook from her again.

At the same moment, Tae received an emergency alert on his phone. He frowned while trying to load the details, but his internet was painfully slow.

“Does anyone know which chocolate name has the word destiny in it?” Aeryun shouted desperately toward the crowd.

The members immediately turned toward everyone around them.

“Whoever helps her is going to have a hard time,” one of them warned.

A businessman nearby was just about to answer when another member cut him off.

“I know your daughter Euna studies at our school. I’m sure you don’t want to make things difficult for her.”

The man immediately fell silent.

How do they know about my daughter?

Then suddenly, Aeryun heard someone say:

(Neoneun nae unmyeongiya), You are my destiny.

At the same moment, Tae finally managed to load the emergency alert and realized it was from his little sister.

Meanwhile, Aeryun froze completely.

For one horrifying second, she thought someone had just confessed to her in front of the entire queue.

“Thank you,” she replied awkwardly out of reflex.

An older woman standing nearby leaned closer and whispered kindly, “That’s the chocolate’s name.”

When Aeryun looked around to find the person who had said it, he was already gone.

“Looks like he left in a hurry,” someone else in the crowd commented.

By the time Aeryun looked around, Tae was already gone. It was no one else but Tae who screamed (Neoneun nae unmyeongiya), you are my destiny.

Frustrated, the members of Medusa’s group tossed the notebook into the grandma’s backyard.

Myeora then ordered them to follow the person who interfered and gather every bit of information they could about Tae.

She wanted to make sure Tae understood that he had messed with the wrong people.