김채원 / RENDEZVOUS VER II

– ( PERSONALITY )
    CLOSED OFF, SECRETIVE
if one were to look at chloe's social media pages, and go through the various photos and videos of her that are posted across the internet, their first instinct would be to assume that she was an extraverted and confident person who was popular around town with loads of different friends. that's the kind of impression her instagram page gives off, since she's always posting about going to different cafes and restaurants and parks. however, looks can be deceiving, because chloe's not really any of those things. she's a closed off person, who doesn't like letting people get too close to her. maybe it's because she doesn't exactly have a big family, but chloe figures that if she keeps to herself more, she's less likely to grow attached to people she might lose. she has walls built up high and bolted doors to lock people out, and it's very difficult to actually get past her defences, which is why she doesn't actually have a very big social group. but it's not just because she has abandonment issues, it also has a lot to do with the fact that she's very secretive. to be completely honest, the people of jinhae don't actually know much about chloe, because she knows how to keep her lips sealed. she kind of just appeared one day, and that was that. so, naturally, rumours are whispered about what happened to her before she moved to jinhae, about her parentage and her childhood, but chloe's keen to keep people guessing, because she doesn't want people all up in her private life. in her opinion, her childhood is none of their business, and while it's nothing bad, she doesn't really want it whispered throughout jinhae. besides, some of the rumours that people come up with are ridiculous and amusing, and a great source of entertainment. chloe is definitely the sort of person that you'd want to trust your secrets with, because you can be assured that she won't tell anyone. if you tell her a secret, she promises that she'll take it with her to the grave, and nothing anyone says or does will ever get her to spill it.

    QUIET, SOFT SPOKEN
with her closed off and secretive nature comes her quiet manner. because, despite how loud and extraverted chloe looks, she's actually a very quiet person. she can't count how many people have actually mistaken her for mute, simply because she rarely talks unless she feels the need to (however, the look on peoples faces when they realise that she does talk is always priceless). she doesn't often talk to people outside of her friend group, simply because she's not good at starting conversations. this makes her a very difficult person to talk to. chloe's not usually one to start up conversations with strangers, and she often relies on other people to start talking, and to continue their conversations. she's just not always the best and keeping it running, because she tends to stay quiet when she doesn't know what to say, and she's not good at mindless chatter and filler talk. it's why she tends to get along with extraverted people better, because they're always better at talking to people, and they always know how to bring chloe into conversations. she's also a very soft spoken person, in the way that her voice always sounds dreamy and kind whenever you speak to her. she has a very calming tone, and she's not usually one to raise her voice at anything. even when she's mad, she never seems to raise her voice, and to some people that just makes it all the more terrifying. people have seen her get mad and her voice remain as a calm and stable whisper, and anyone who's witnessed it will agree that chloe is scary, and she is not someone that you want to get on the bad side of. she'd probably be a lot less scary if she just yelled and threw things out of anger like everyone else did, instead. but chloe's the type to bottle up her emotions a lot, because she doesn't like to show weakness to other people. she usually tries to keep her negative emotions buried deep inside her mind, and it's part of the reason why she's so calm even when she's angry, because she's spent years trying to bottle up her emotions, and she's not going to let them overflow now. she supposes that her quietness is often mistaken for shyness, but it also supports the whole mysterious and secretive vibe that she gives off to the rest of the people in jinhae. she has yet to work out whether it's a good thing or not.

    INDEPENDENT, RELIABLE
growing up with a single father meant that chloe was raised to be independent even from a young age. she was forced to grow up with she was still a child, following the death of her father and her abrupt relocation to south korea to live with her grandfather. but even then, it became clear that her grandfather was not someone who would dote on his granddaughter, and coddle her, instead throwing her in hopes that she'd learn how to fly. as a result, chloe's grown into an independent young woman, and she's fully capable of fending for herself, without needing to be supervised or accompanied by someone else, just like her grandfather had hoped. she's had years worth of practice looking after herself, because her grandfather continued to work right up until the point where he was forced to retire, and chloe remembers coming home to an empty apartment after school, being responsible for doing her homework and cooking and cleaning herself. now, she never feels the need to rely on anyone else. maybe it's a result on her mother walking out on her as soon as she was born, but chloe's hesitant to trust people, so she much rather prefers to be independent. she had to learn the hard way that nothing is ever given to you on a silver platter, because while her father made sure to buy her things whenever they had spare cash in the house, her grandfather made it very clear that chloe was to work for everything and anything that she wanted. it's the reason that she currently works two jobs, in order to pay for any of her expenses (because asking her grandfather for anything is a nerve-wracking experience, and she's not brave enough to actually ask him for money). she's also extremely reliable, because she'll always do what she says. she's not one to drop out of plans at the last minute (unless it's an emergency), and if she says she'll do something, she will do it (even if sometimes it make take longer than she anticipated).

    SNEAKY, MANIPULATIVE
for someone who has had a full head of red hair since she was sixteen, chloe's actually a very sneaky person. given her eye catching hair, one might assume that people would notice her wherever she went, but she's actually really good at sneaking around, and disappearing for a good few hours without anyone noticing that she's missing. given the fact that she grew up with an overbearing grandfather watching and nitpicking at her every move, chloe's actually gotten pretty good at sneaking around with her grandfather's knowledge. and as it so happens, it's starting to come in handy, now that she has a secret boyfriend that she's trying to keep quiet about. chloe's actually a very sneaky person, and because of it, she's developed quite a talent for lurking and eavesdropping. and she's so good at sneaky around, it has gotten to the point where if chloe kim doesn't want to be found, no one will be able to find her. she has a whole list of places that she can go to whenever she needs to escape the overbearing presence of her grandfather, and more often than not, he won't even notice that she's gone – and even if he did, there's no way he'd be able to find her anyway. but she can also be very sneaky in the fact that she's sly and cunning. she's far more manipulative than people realise, becuase she looks far too innocent to be good at manipulating people, but as it stands, she has a talent for always getting what she wants. for someone who doesn't talk very much, she's actually very good with words, and she's not a good person to get into a verbal fight with, because while she won't yell or raise her voice, there's a next to zero percent chance you'll actually be able to beat you. she has a personal talent for being able to twist people's words and getting them to say things that push themselves into a corner with minimal effort on her part. and the best bit is, she always ends up victorious, and no one thinks any less of her, because she hasn't said anything that can be held against her.

    PERFECTIONIST, POISED
chloe kim is a perfectionist to the core, and she's been like that for as long as she can remember. everything she does needs to be completed perfectly, and she won't settle for anything less. she's never one to half ass things, and once she starts something, you can bet that she will continue it until she's finished it to the best of her ability. and if her best still isn't good enough for her, she'll probably scrap it and start again, ready to repeat the process until she deems it perfect. she doesn't like it when things don't go as planned, and she's never really been a fan of surprises either. she's a lot more hardworking that she looks (her grades are representative of that, because she actually tends to do decently well in her classes, all things considered), and she will not settle for second best. chloe won't accept anything less than perfection, whether it be the clothes she's wearing, the pictures she's posting, or the last line of the poem she's been trying to write for weeks. she also tends to walk around with an air of elegance, her shoulders straight and her head held up high. her grandfather wasn't one to tolerate slouchiness and laziness, and he made sure to get rid of that habit of hers, and now years on, it's still instilled in her that she needs to walk around with good posture. she's the type of person who is always standing up straight, no matter what kind of weight she's lugging around on her back, and she always keeps her head held high, because in her grandfather's words, their family did not show weakness, and he had no intentions of chloe growing into the family weak link. however, her elegance only seems to aid in her constantly calm nature, that goes hand in hand with how quiet and soft spoken she is. she's definitely the type of person you'd want to have around in a crisis, because she never loses her cool, and she can always be relied upon to calmly come to a solution without panicking or losing her head over anything, whether it be trivial or significant.

    CREATIVE, LUCKY
creativity is something that runs through chloe's veins, and it tends to manifest itself in two ways – her photography, and her writing. as someone with a high social media following, chloe's gotten pretty good at taking pretty pictures, and styling her social media pages to fit a theme. aesthetic is her middle name, and you can bet that her instagram profile is pleasing to look at. however, she's also not too bad at written forms of creativity, and she's actually a decently good writer, even though she tends to stick with poetry, and very rarely lets anyone read what she's written. but as well as being a creative person, she's also extremely lucky. despite the fact that she didn't seem to luck out in the family department, all of chloe's fortune has manifested itself in other ways. she wouldn't call it a talent, because it's not exactly something that chloe can control, nor is it something that she understands, but she's actually really lucky when it comes to competitions. she doesn't know what it is about herself, but she's always winning various competitions that she barely remembers signing up for. clearly, the world is trying to make up for the fact that her family situation was rather unfortunate, chloe has an increasing number of fancy appliances neither her nor her grandfather use, won from various different competitions. there's a full china set on display in the glass cabinet in the dining room, and a flat screen television in the living room, with replaced their years old television that was on its way out. she even won two ticked to a cruise once (which she ended up giving to the kind couple across the hall, because her grandfather was not keen on going on vacation on a large boat, for whatever reason). even in card games, chloe always seems to win, managing to land herself a lucky hand. she can't count how many card games she's lucked out in, ending up with a lucky hand despite not entirely understanding the rules, and it's part of the reason that she's been banned from playing cards with her friends (chloe just likes to think that her friends are sore losers). chloe kim doesn't need lucky charms, because apparently, she's a lucky charm all on her own.


    IMPATIENT, PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE
despite her quiet and passive nature, and ability to always keep her cool, there are things that piss chloe off, and the biggest one is being kept waiting. chloe is an extremely impatient person, and if she has to hang around waiting and doing nothing for more than ten minutes, she's going to get restless, and a restless chloe is not fun to deal with. she can't stand tardiness, and she hates people who are late, especially if they've made plans. chloe herself is the type of person who is always early to everything – she's at school half an hour before the first bell rings, she gets to work with fifteen minutes to spare, whenever she has to meet up with people she's always there ten minutes in advance. she's never been late to anything in her life, she was even two weeks early to her own birth. but chloe just can't stand waiting. she hates long lines that never seem to be moving, and unmoving traffic on the main road during peak hour is a nightmare. she gets bored really easily, especially if she's stuck in the same place for extended periods of time with no form of entertainment, and honestly, an impatient chloe is very difficult to deal with. but despite how impatient she can be, she's actually really passive aggressive and petty. she tends to keep her thoughts and opinions on the people she doesn't like, and doesn't actually seek out direct confrontation. instead, she's petty enough to find subtle ways to inconvenience people instead, and her level of pettiness is both admired and detested, depending on which end of it you end up. she's not really a fan of confrontation, whether it be verbal or physical, but she's much more likely to come out victorious in a verbal confrontation (because chloe really can't throw a punch to save her life, and she's really glad she hasn't needed to do so yet), and would honestly prefer to just keep quiet and not make a scene. she's also really good at holding grudges. she might look all calm and collected, but chloe holds grudges for a really long time. she remembers the annoying things you did ten years ago, and she'll probably still be nursing a grudge over than when she turns eighty.






– ( BACKGROUND )
ACT I, OSCAR AND HALLEY
chloe's story begins long before she was born, and it starts with her parents, oscar kim and halley joo, two completely different individuals. oscar kim moved to the u.k. when he was in college, eager to experience the world, and looking for a chance to escape his parents, even if just for a little while. he adored his parents, and appreciated everything they had done for him, but he was ready to be independent and learn to fend for himself, and studying overseas seemed like the perfect opportunity, even if his own parents hadn't been too pleased. halley joo, on the other hand, was the complete opposite of himself. she was known as a carefree soul who enjoyed travelling around and experiencing new things. unlike oscar, she'd spent majority of her teenage years in london, and had become known by the people who lived around her as someone who was impulsive, always acting without considering the consequences, and didn't like to share much about her personal life. halley joo was a wild card, because people actually didn't really know much of her life behind what she shared (now that she thinks about it, it's probably where chloe gets her own secretive nature from), but her mysterious past was what made her more appealing to the men that she came across, including oscar kim. they're relationship was most definitely not conventional, and in all honestly, could not even be considered a relationship. they met at a bar, during one of the free weeks that oscar had away from college, not having to worry about drowning in course work, and after far too many alcoholic beverages, things escalated, and they ended up in halley's apartment, clothes sprawled across the floor. their spark of romance burned hard and fast, but it was diminished completely by morning, and when oscar kim stumbled back to his own apartment, hung over and with a pounding headache, he'd assumed that would be the first and only time he'd ever see halley joo. he was wrong.


ACT II, BABY BOOM
the next time oscar kim ran into halley joo was nine months later, and she wasn't alone. he hadn't heard from her at all since the night they'd slept together, and it hadn't been something that he dwelled on much, because it was a one night stand, and oscar hadn't left with the intention of ever actually seeing her again, anyway. while it was very out of character to have done something like that in the first place, oscar just liked to blame it on the amount of alcohol in his system and the time, and he was ready to pretend it never happened, and never run into the mysterious halley joo again. but his plans were shattered when halley turned up on the door step to his stingy, one bedroom apartment, a baby in her arms, announcing that the child belonged to him, and that she had no intentions of raising it. she hadn't intended to actually go through with the pregnancy in the first place, but she couldn't bare to give the unborn child up, so she gave birth, before making the decision that the father was going to be responsible. oscar had definitely been startled when she turned up on his doorstep, and had absolutely no idea what to do, because he knew nothing about this child, other than the fact that her name was chloe, but halley had already disappeared down the hallway, and by the time he came to his senses and chased after her, her car was long gone, and he was left to take care of an infant, when he didn't know the first thing about parenting. he didn't even know how to tell his own parents, since they'd been distant with him ever since he chose to study overseas and had avoided visiting south korea as much as his parents wanted him to. he'd barely finished his degree, he was struggling to keep on top of his rent, and his apartment definitely was not baby proof, but it took one wide eyed glance from his daughter that had him caving in, promising to do his best to raise her better than halley ever would have.


ACT III, IN A BLINK
her mother's absence from her life never really bothered chloe, despite being one of the few people she knew who didn't have a mother. because young chloe was naive and innocent, and all she really cared about was her father, who did everything in his power to make sure that chloe got to grow up like all the other girls in her classes. she knows that raising a daughter on his own can't have been easy, and for that, chloe is very thankful, especially since she knows that the entire town seemed to be all up in their business, gossiping about his illegitimate daughter, and lack of a wife. he raised chloe in london, and to this day, she still has hazy memories of a fireplace and a blue kitchen counter and floral curtains that weren't very aesthetically pleasing. maybe it was because her father really didn't want to go back to south korea, or maybe it was because her father seemed anxious of facing his parents after ending up with a daughter when he'd barely finished a degree, with no ties to a wife, but he and chloe lived in london for majority of her childhood years, and chloe didn't actually have much contact with either of her grandparents, anyway. she knew that her grandmother had died before she was born (in fact, the last time oscar returned to south korea was to attend her funeral), and from what she could understand, her father didn't seem to get along well with most people (and, now that she's spent almost a decade living with the man, chloe understands why her father spent so long hiding away from him in london). chloe lived in london up until she was nine, living with her father up until his death, about six months short of her tenth birthday. unfortunately, chloe had to learn at an early age that life can change in the blink of an eye, and when her father passed away in a car accident, that was the end of her life in london, and gone were the days where she could be a carefree young girl, because as soon as she was sent to her grandfather, there would be no such nonsense in her life.


ACT IV, NEW GIRL IN TOWN
being shipped back to korea to live with the only remaining relative that she could get into contact with wasn't exactly a great experience. for someone who'd spent their entire life in london, moving to a play like korea was very overwhelming, as chloe knew very little about the culture and the language. of course, her father had done his best to introduce some of the culture to her, but a lot of it was still very foreign to her. on top of this, her korean language skills weren't the best, and she only knew the bare minimum, and wasn't at the same level as the other children her age. the ten year old chloe had been both intrigued and scared at the prospect of a new school in a new country where she'd have to make new friends with people who spoke better korean than she did. and while she did have to take extra korean language and grammar classes in order to catch her up to the rest of her classmates (she only really knew the basics of the language, as she'd grown used to substituting english words in whenever she spoke her limited korean to her father while they were still in london), it wasn't as bad as it could have been, since at that point, most of the kids were more fascinated to know about her and what it was like living in a different country. however, the major difference was her grandfather, and the way he wanted to raise chloe. he was the definition of tough love, and in all her eighteen years of living, chloe has never met anyone as strict as her grandfather. it was a stark difference to the way she used to live in london, where she was much more free, and didn't have someone breathing down her neck and disapproving of all her decisions. but he wasn't always that bad, and chloe knows that he truly cared for her, even if he didn't often show it. obviously, he probably didn't expect to be left to raise his granddaughter, but chloe is thankful that he chose not to abandon him like her mother, even if he was very strict on her, and very rarely left her experience things that he didn't approve of.


ACT V, TO THE PRESENT
spending her teen years in south korea wasn't as bad as it could have been for chloe, because she managed to pick up the language relatively quickly (which could also be due to the fact that her grandfather hired her private language tutors to help her, and she spent hours memorising vocabulary at his insistence). but her closed off and quiet nature was enough to raise questions about her background, especially since most people didn't know much about her before she moved in with her grandfather. jinhae, being a small and tight knit town where everyone knew everyone, meant that gossip spread quickly, and it didn't take long until people were gossiping about chloe, while she made no effort to correct them. some people said that her mother died in childbirth (she didn’t, chloe might not have spoken to the woman in eighteen years, but chloe knows her mother is very much alive), and others gossip about her father being in prison for murder (they couldn’t be more wrong, not that chloe’s going to tell them that). instead, she preferred to keep to herself, which was a stark difference to people's first impression upon looking at her social media pages. social media wasn't something that chloe really saw herself ever truly getting into, as it simply started as a way for her to document her life through photos. she's nowhere near the best photographer in the world (her grandfather told her it was a useless hobby, and refused to let chloe take lessons for it), but she has a talent for putting things together in a creative and aesthetically pleasing way, hence why she has so many followers on her social media. it's chloe's way of documenting her life, because she hates how things can change in a split second, and she wants something to look back on. if she could make it into a career, she would, but she knows it's unrealistic. so instead, she'd like to be a part of telling other people's stories to the world, and she wants to work in the film industry.


ACT VI, EPILOGUE
the first time chloe meets jisung, she's not really sure what to make of him. she's heard all the things the people of jinhae say about him, and while she knows that she should be taking jinhae rumours with a grain of salt, she does know that han jisung has a big mouth, and he's usually the centre of starting rumours and gossip. and while she doesn't know much about him, or about what he prefers to do in his own time, she doesn't think hanging around a toy store is something that suits his image. chloe doesn't think much of it the first few times he rocks up during her shifts. it's only when it happens for an entire week. with the boy's tuffs of dyed hair visible across the store that she begins to think something is up. after all, while it's acceptable for him to turn up to her job at the supermarket, his frequent visits to a toy store are nothing short of questionable. yet despite this, it takes him a good two weeks before he can even approach chloe in the first place. unfortunately, his attempts are in vain, because every attempt of his to start a conversation is met with dead silence on chloe's part, as she doesn't seem to pay him any attention, too busy putting price stickers on toy sets, or fixing the various brightly coloured displays. jisung, to his credit, isn't deterred despite her lack of response to any of his statements (he's tried simply conversation starters, cheesy pickup lines, and customer help, but she has yet to say a word to him), and continues to try and get his attention, which does nothing but confuse chloe. she's not used to people trying so hard to get close to her, because most people give up after the first few attempts whenever they're met with dead silence, deciding that she's not worth it, so why jisung seems so determined to get close to her, chloe doesn't know.

it takes him almost a month to get a reaction out of chloe, and it doesn't come in the way he hopes (he was kind of aiming for something suave and cool, but unfortunately things don't really go to plan). he's already gone through a range of cringy and ridiculous nicknames to try and get her attention, and nothing's worked, but he doesn't expect wonnie to be the one that get's her attention. when he whines again about how rude she is for not helping a paying customer (even though he's never actually bought anything), throwing the nickname wonnie on the end, he doesn't expect for chloe to turn around, exasperated, and ask him what he wants. in fact, he's so surprised that she actually spoke to him after ignoring him for so long that he accidentally knocks over a toy display that one of chloe's coworkers spent an hour working on that morning, and somehow ends up going down with it, while chloe just watches him from behind the check out counter, trying (and failing) to hold back a laugh at the way jisung scurries off and tries to look busy before someone else comes and yells at him for disrupting the workplace environment or something. when he comes to chloe's checkout five minutes later to pay for a random toy that he picked up because he felt obliged to buy something after knocking over the display, he makes up some rubbish about it being for his nephew (which is a total lie because he doesn't even have a nephew). he definitely doesn't expect chloe to lean over the counter when she's finished scanning the toy to fix his hair, running her fingers through the dyed strands and trying to flatten the tufts that were sticking out at odd angles, no doubt from his scuffle with the toy tower ten minutes prior. he leaves the toy shop in a daze, some toy that he's probably never going to use in his arms, while chloe watches his figure disappear in the distance, extremely confused, but also mildly amused.



– ( WHAT IS HE LIKE )
han jisung is a name whispered in between the rumours that circulate jinhae. except instead of always being the talk of the town, he’s often the person who starts the rumours. he's a bit of a blabber mouth, and ever since he was a child, he seemed to have a lack of a filter, and a knack for always being honest. and admirable trait, for the most part, except for the fact that he can sometimes be a bit blunt, and often tells honest truths that don't need to be voiced. like the various whispers that circulate around jinhae – all of which are true, or at least, based off of a truth, since jisung can't control how warped rumours get once they begin to spread. he has a personal talent for always being in the know when it comes to the latest gossip around town, and it kind of terrifies people how he always knows so much about the things that are happening behind closed doors, because surely there's no way that he could have overheard your hushed conversation with your ex in the deserted hallway. it’s not his fault that he seemed to be born with an uncanny ability to always be in the right place at the right time (or the wrong place at the wrong time, depending on how you look at it) to overhear things that most people definitely don’t want him know, especially with his reputation. it wouldn't be a probably if you didn't have such reputation destroying secrets.

however, despite his loudmouth and borderline blunt honesty, he's actually a pretty good natured guy, unless you get on his bad side. it's always the people that he doesn't like that get rumours spread about them, and never the people that he considers his friends. he always seems the have a lot of energy, and can never sit still, which goes hand in hand with his tendency to talk a mile a minute at speeds that often make it hard to decipher exactly what he's saying. he's extremely chatty, and finds it easy to strike up conversations with anyone, whether he knows them or if they're a complete stranger. he doesn't even have difficulty starting a conversation with chloe, who often spends conversations nodding along and making noises of agreement every so often. he could probably talk for the entire country if he needed to, and chloe has no doubt that he could strike up an entirely one sided conversation with a brick wall (after all, it can't be that much difficult that trying to talk to her.) he also tends to come across as confident, which works for his favour, and doesn't really have any shame. he's the type of person to engage in flirty banter with the person he likes (chloe never seems to talk back, but that doesn't seem to deter him at all). han jisung may be many things, but he most certainly isn't a liar, and while the town claim that the things he says cannot be trusted, jisung's never told a lie in his life. he's withheld truths in order to benefit his own argument, but he's not a liar, and he's not the one warping the rumours he spread. the people of jinhae are at fault for that.




– ( HOW THEY STARTED DATING )
they don't actually start dating until after one of her shifts at the local supermarket (because he spends a good portion of his time at both of the places chloe works at), which he's taken to hanging around during, pretending to be busy going through the various different aisles of food, while chloe's busy scanning things at the cashier as fast as she can, while trying to keep up with the mindless chatter of customers waiting to pay, as it's during peak hour, and it feels like every man and his wife has chosen that particular moment to go grocery shopping. and when she's finally nearing the end of her shift, after the peak hour seems to have died down and there's only a couple of customers milling around, minding their own business, she's ready to relax for a bit, while she waits the twenty minutes until her shift is over and someone else will come in and replace her. however, jisung chooses than moment to get into a pretty loud and distracting argument with someone that chloe thinks goes to her school, but she can't remember the name of. she doesn't know what they're arguing about, but it seems to be able some rumour that's going around town, and if chloe knows anything about jinhae, then she knows that jisung is automatically the number one person suspected of spreading it. but the pair causing a large commotion, and she can see all the customers trying to steer clear of the two boys, because things are getting pretty heated, and their insults are getting more explicit the louder they yell. chloe secretly hopes that a customer will come to the checkout so she can busy herself at the till, but she can already see her manager eyeing her, giving her a look that tells chloe that she should intervene before one of them remembers that they're in a supermarket and has the bright idea to start throwing apples or something at each other, but chloe really doesn't get paid enough to deal with this. chloe thought dealing with screaming toddlers was bad, but dealing with angry teenage boys is far worse. sighing dramatically, she approaches the duo tentatively, and quietly informs them that if they don't stop arguing, she's going to have to call security, which only seems to annoy the unknown boy further, if the way his eyes narrow is anything to go buy, giving jisung the chance to do the whole, step in front and protect chloe from harm in typically kdrama male lead fashion, despite chloe being in absolutely no immediate danger, but the other boy seems to decide that continuing this verbal fight in the middle of a supermarket isn't worth it and storms off, before chloe's manager finally decides to make an appearance, and tells jisung he has to leave, too.

when chloe leaves her shift, fifteen minutes later, she doesn't expect him to be waiting at the bench outside the store, close enough for chloe to notice him when she walks past, but far enough away that her manager won't notice him and try and chase him away. she kind of just stands there for a second, maintaining eye contact with him, until he stands up and shoves his hands in his pockets and begins to walk in the direction of chloe's apartment without saying a word. he's kind of upset, since his plans were ruined by the idiot that tried to pick a fight with him, while he was trying to work out the best way to approach chloe and ask her out, and he's a lot more quiet than usual as he trails alongside her as she walks back to her apartment. but chloe's also gotten pretty good at reading him over these past few months, and she's far more perceptive than she looks, so when he turns around to leave, she simply reaches out and grabs the back of his hoodie and pulls him back, asking him what's wrong because she knows he's been acting weirdly all night, and there was no point even trying to deny it. she she kind of ushers him inside her room quietly, knowing that her grandfather is still asleep, and probably wouldn't wake up if a bomb were to go off, and insists that he tell her what's wrong "because we're friends and friends tell each other stuff". which kind of makes jisung cringe, because he's just been indirectly friend zoned, and he really doesn't feel like getting rejected. but for someone so closed off and reluctant to open up to people, chloe can be pretty insistent, and refuses all of his attempts to brush it off and try to leave. after at least ten minutes of hushed arguing back and forth (because she doesn't want to wake up grandfather up), he kind of just admits that he has a crush on her, and the whole reason he started turning up during her work shifts was to try and work up the courage to talk to her. he doesn't expect her to reciprocate his feelings, and he definitely doesn't expect her to grab him by the nape and kiss him without any warning.





– ( RELATIONSHIP TIMELINE )

	ACT I, BEGINNING
honestly, it took chloe a while to fully trust him even before they started dating, because she's not someone who lets people in very easily especially not people with reputations likes jisung's. it's a slow jounrey of trust, but during that time, he doesn't actually spread any of her secrets. chloe doesn't like talking about her past because she doesn't think it's anyone else's business, but it's not as if she goes out of her way to hide it, especially not the first time jisung actually walks into her apartment for the first time and asks why it's so quiet, only for chloe to tell him it's because she lives with her grandfather, because her father is dead and her mother is off frolicking around someone in europe. and when chloe's parents aren't the talk of the town by the next morning, she thinks that maybe he's not as bad as the rumours make him out to be. he's also talked down several toddlers from tantrums before they could spiral out of control, which is a bonus and chloe's extremely thankful for it, because screaming toddlers are hands down the worst part of her job at the toy store. but after they start dating, she starts to notice that whenever people start saying particularly vicious things about her family, a major dating rumour suddenly spread throughout the town, and whenever she brings it up while spending time with him, hidden in her bedroom, he just says he has no idea and changes the topic (but chloe can always tell when he's lying). they don't really have an awkward phase to their relationship, because not much changes once they start dating, other than him not following her to work as often, and spending more time together when no one else is around – after all, she doesn't think people would take it too lightly if they discovered that the town's biggest loud mouth was dating the girl with the most secrets. it makes them both anxious, because they're not keen to be involved in jinhae's biggest dating scandal, because despite the face masks he's taken to wearing whenever they go for walks at nighttime (when chloe tells her grandfather that she's "studying at the library"), chloe's red hair is pretty eye catching, even in the dark.


	ACT II, MIDDLE
by this point in there relationship, jisung's taken to straight up flirting with her all the time, this time without any sense of shame. at lest before they started dating, he'd cringe at some (read: most) of his poor attempts at nicknames and pickup lines, but now, he doesn't seem to care, even though they only have about a 50% success rate. his attempts will either be successful, and make chloe flustered and blushy (his personal favourite look on her), or he'll get no reaction at all, other than an eyebrow raise and a judgemental stare. but it's also now that they're more comfortable around each other, it's easy to make to other flustered, and jisung's not the only one with an arsenal of romantic gestures. she's not one for pickup lines and cringy nicknames, but instead tends to go for sneaky kisses to get him to shut up, or randomly grabbing his hand when he least expects it and refuses to let go, and despite them being very mundane things, they never fail to make him tongue tied, and promptly forget whatever it is that he was about to say (chloe's found that it's a very effective method to get him to shut up). but this is also the period where she becomes a little bit more open with jisung about her family and what she wants to do, telling him things that she hasn't really told anyone else. he already knew the gist of her background, but chloe never really went into detail about it, and he knew better than to push, in case he destroyed the trust they'd built up. but since they're hiding their relationship from the entire town, their interactions are limited, and they spend most of their time hidden away in chloe's bedroom when her grandfather is out golfing, or at bingo, or visiting his friends in nursing homes. they've spent so much time in chloe's bedroom that jisung knows where she keeps all of her stuff, and even her dog has grown used to his presence (it's an understatement, because muffin has all but fallen in love with jisung, probably because he never fails to pay attention to the puppy).


	ACT III, THE END
getting found out by the citizens of jinhae was something that they both dreaded, both for different reasons. chloe had enough people talking about her already, without the added news of being a secret girlfriend of one of the towns public enemies. jisung, on the other hand, doesn't want chloe to be a target for all the pent up frustration that really should be aimed at himself, because most people are wise enough to not go after jisung when he knows things that could destroy them, but chloe's not quite as threatening. but there's no denying the looks that everyone in town keeps giving them whenever they're within so much as ten feet of each other, and it's enough to make jisung feel really awkward around her, even though chloe never seems to pay any mind to it (it bothers her just as much as it bothers him, but chloe happens to be very good at ignoring people). having a relationship in the public eye can be kind of overwhelming, even if the spotlight is divided because there's eight other couples who've been keeping hidden relationships, too. (it actually makes chloe feel slightly better to know that she's not the only person in this boat). however, it quickly becomes clear that neither of them are people you want to mess with, because jisung happens to know a lot of blackmail worthy material on a lot of people in jinhae, and he's willing to reveal your deepest, darkest secrets if you so much as look at chloe the wrong way. what surprises chloe the most, though, is her grandfather's approval of jisung, and the fact that he doesn't disown her on the spot when he finds out, because chloe had half been expecting a verbal lashing, and to be kicked out of the apartment, not for her grandfather to actually invite jisung around for dinner with the intent to get to know him better. but as it turns out, being exposed to the entire town might not be their biggest problem, because jinhae certainly isn't the town it once was, and there are bigger problems plaguing the town than secret love affairs.




– ( NOTE TO AUTHOR )
so i redid the personality, tweaked the background, and completely changed the relationship part, but i think the rest is pretty similar to the original, so if she ends up sounding too much like my pace i'm sorry. i'm just going to straight up apologise for this because it's probably really bad, and i don't think it was as good as the first one, but ily