The Age Of Love

Prologue

It had been months. Long miserable months since that night in Vegas, He had gone back to his life, just as she had wanted him to, but it wasn't the same without her in it. It had never been the same without her in it. Never.

He had moved on after she broke his heart at her graduation. When he moved to London, he threw himself into his work. He dated, here and there, but nothing stuck. Not like it had with her. He made a few friends, but it somehow didn't come as easily to him as it used to be. He worked on developing his contacts and grew their own little start-up.

His father said he wanted to put their family back together. Jeong Hyeok could stay at his company. J One would just take them on as an umbrella corporation. Jeong Hyeok had his doubts, but honestly, he was lonely. He was always lonely.

And so, slowly, he might as well let himself get sucked in until, a few years later, he found himself as the Vice President of J One Group.

Then he met Hye Jin. The first girl who made him feel anything close to what he felt with Se Ri. She was smart and witty, strong and independent, and quite honestly, she was gorgeous. Their relationship grew, and Jeong Hyeok felt happy-- or at least as close to happy as he had since Se Ri. He could make this work. He could build a life with Hye Jin. Yes. He could do that.

And then he went to Hamburg. The Global Journalism Conference. He was immediately drawn to her in her bright red dress. He was pretty sure he would have noticed her even in a potato sack, though. There was electricity, an undeniable connection. He just sensed her presence almost immediately.

As he made love to her that night, he felt something he hadn't felt in a long time, a piece of old Jeong Hyeok he had lost years ago, the happy, carefree, spontaneous man he used to be. Which was odd because she had always been the one to temper those traits in the past.

He hadn't set out to cheat on Hye Jin. He'd always been faithful to her before. But this was Se Ri. He was helpless around her. Always.

So when she suggested their no-strings Vegas arrangement, he accepted without even a slight of hesitation. He would take whatever he could get from her, whatever stolen moments of happiness he could find.

Jeong Hyeok leaned back in his chair with a sigh, too distracted to work. Se Ri was an addiction and he was in withdrawal. He was desperate. Yes, he was.

So he was going to internet stalk her.

He pulled up his fake Facebook profile-- the one he created just to connect with her. With a few keystrokes he figured he could have her feed up and his addiction quelled, but she was gone. No posts, no friends list, no profile at all. She had blocked him.

He checked Instagram next, but her profile was set to private. Even her Twitter account was suddenly protected and she only ever used that to tweet about politics. He even tried Snapchat, thinking maybe she had finally decided to join the rest of the millennial population, but she hadn't. She ghosted him.

He felt a flutter of panic. Was she okay? Was she hurt? Was she totally fine and really just that over him? He gripped the edges of the desk, taking deep breaths to calm himself. This was insane. He was insane. She wasn't his to worry about anymore. Even during Vegas, she hadn't been his. And he wasn't hers.

He belonged to Hye Jin. A woman he loved but had treated horribly. Her only crime was not being Se Ri. He was going to start treating her right. He was going to start being the fiance she deserved. And he was going to start immediately.

He picked up his phone and went to Se Ri contact and deleted it. He never kept her texts or voicemails, but there were still logs of their calls, and he made sure to get rid of them. Then he pulled up Hye Jin's number, his thumb flitting over the screen.

Dinner tonight? Something special. I love you.

****

Chapter One coming very soon! 💙