Bae Joo-hyun, Oh Bae Joo-hyun

After obtaining all the passports, visas, and other documents he needed to go abroad, Xu Junyan had nothing left to deal with at home.

Since that was the case, Xu Junyan acted decisively and booked a 7 a.m. flight for the next day. Early the following morning, he left the private cubicle at the internet café where he had lived for nearly two months.

When he left the internet café, the young female attendant looked reluctant to see him go. Her little mouth was pouted so far out that she could practically hang a soy sauce bottle from it.

What was interesting was that the moment Xu Junyan stepped out of the internet café, he heard the attendant sobbing as she called to resign from her job behind him. It left him both speechless and amused.

He took a taxi to Shanghai International Airport, handled all the necessary procedures in the departure hall, and boarded at 6:30.

Xu Junyan had chosen a window seat. Although he had gotten up early, he was not sleepy at all. Through the plane's small window, he watched shuttle buses constantly coming and going, carrying off batch after batch of arriving passengers.

When I come back, who knows when that'll be? At least half a year, after MSI is over?

Xu Junyan muttered to himself inwardly, unable to help recalling the video call he had had with his parents the night before.

When they learned that he planned to develop his career abroad, his parents had been extremely understanding and supportive. His mother, especially, had grinned and wiggled her eyebrows at him, saying that the girls next door in South Korea were pretty, so since he was heading out there, he had to bring back a daughter-in-law somehow. Xu Junyan had not known whether to laugh or cry.

His father was an ordinary university professor, while his mother was a housewife. The two of them shared one exceptionally open-minded trait: no matter what he did, they never restrained him. They only supported him.

Xu Junyan did not know whether his parents had learned about what had happened recently. Perhaps they had not, or perhaps they had and were pretending otherwise, worried that bringing it up would upset him.

I might not be able to bring back a daughter-in-law, but I should bring back plenty of local specialties and show my parents some proper filial respect. But...

As Xu Junyan reflected, he suddenly remembered an extremely helpless reality: South Korea was a goddamn culinary wasteland! What local specialties were there? On this trip, he would have to seriously figure out his future meals. Of course, the good news was that he could cook. If he truly could not adapt, he could make his own food in his spare time.

Lost in thought, a great deal of time slipped by before Xu Junyan suddenly felt someone poking his arm.

His row was a multi-seat section, so at first he assumed a neighboring passenger had bumped into him by accident. He did not pay it any mind and continued letting his thoughts wander. But then someone poked his arm several more times. It did not hurt, and there was barely any force behind it. It was clearly meant to get his attention.

Xu Junyan raised an eyebrow slightly and turned his head, only to meet the gaze of a girl with her hair in a bun, bent over toward him with large sunglasses perched on her nose.

When the girl saw that Xu Junyan had finally turned around, she flashed a pretty smile and asked, "Seat, switch, okay? I pay! More!"

She was speaking Chinese, but every sentence was full of inverted phrasing and Korean-accented pronunciation. It was instantly obvious that she was from South Korea next door.

As she spoke, the bun-haired girl lowered her head and dug through her pocket, pulling out a 100-yuan bill.

Xu Junyan was speechless, but he did not make a fuss over it. If she wanted to switch, then they could switch. He had finished letting his mind wander anyway; it was time to catch up on some sleep.

But just as he was about to stand, he found something strange about this short girl bent over before him, dressed in a black T-shirt and blue jeans with her hair in a bun...

"Hey~!!"

"Is it you?"

Before Xu Junyan could remember, the bun-haired girl bent over before him cried out in surprise first. Because of her shock, what came out of her mouth was no longer clumsy Korean-accented Chinese, but pure Korean.

"Shh!"

Xu Junyan raised his index finger to his lips and shushed her.

The fair, pretty girl's face immediately reddened. She hurriedly bowed in apology to several passengers in the seats ahead who had turned around to look, then bent at the waist again.

Behind her huge sunglasses, her beautiful eyes had widened as well. In a voice lowered in disbelief, she asked, "How could it be you?"

She was speaking Korean. Xu Junyan struggled to make sense of it for a moment, then gave up. He could not understand complete sentences at all!

"Sit."

Xu Junyan spoke in Chinese, unfastened his seat belt, and gestured for the bun-haired girl to take his seat.

"Oh, thank you."

The bun-haired girl nodded reflexively, squeezed past Xu Junyan, and finally sat down in the comfortable window seat.

She was still speaking Korean.

Xu Junyan understood that sentence. Smiling, he replied, "You're welcome."

A middle-aged balding man seated in the third seat from the left, now next to Xu Junyan, stared at Xu Junyan in shock, then at the bun-haired girl sitting by the window, his face full of confusion.

Wait, weren't these two speaking completely different languages? How were they communicating so easily and smoothly in two languages?

That was ridiculously insane!

The middle-aged balding man's mouth twitched. When he saw Xu Junyan looking over at him, he quickly closed his eyes and stopped glancing around.

Xu Junyan let out a soft breath, fastened his seat belt, folded his arms, and closed his eyes, preparing to rest as well. Then someone lightly poked his arm twice again.

Xu Junyan turned his head and opened his eyes, a hint of interrogation in his gaze.

The bun-haired girl had now removed the huge sunglasses from her nose and replaced them with a pair of round, clear-lens glasses.

Without the sunglasses concealing her, her nearly perfect, delicate face was completely revealed. Fair and exquisite, she was like the most finely polished jade in the world. With looks like hers, she was no worse than any celebrity—or rather, she was even prettier than any female entertainer Xu Junyan had ever seen on television.

Unfortunately, Xu Junyan had no intention of getting to know her better. The language barrier was a serious problem. His Korean was only good enough to understand a few words.

"You... really don't know me?"

The bun-haired girl seemed to be confirming something again. She pointed her slender fair index finger at the tip of her own nose, her clear eyes mixed with surprise, delight... and perhaps a tiny bit of something called frustration?

Xu Junyan looked at her extraordinarily beautiful face without saying a word.

"Pfft!"

The bun-haired girl suddenly laughed. She pulled out her phone, opened a translation app, typed in a line, and showed it to Xu Junyan.

Bae Joo-hyun, oh Bae Joo-hyun. My name is Bae Joo-hyun. Remember that name. Yesterday, you knocked me down and walked away without even helping me up. You really are a heartless man!

Xu Junyan finally understood. So she had come to settle a score with him. If he handled this poorly, would this woman try to extort money from him? After thinking briefly, he took out his phone and typed a response for translation.

Who are you?

Bae Joo-hyun parted her lips slightly in astonishment, tilted her head, and looked at the frowning Xu Junyan in confusion.

Xu Junyan took back his phone with a blank look on his face. It did not seem like an act.

He continued typing.

Have we met?

You must have mistaken me for someone else.

If you're trying to hit on me, this approach is really too low-level. I'm going to rest now. Sorry.

Bae Joo-hyun's head was instantly filled with a string of question marks and a string of black exclamation marks!