After Dark (Prompts)

Spellbound - 3

A/N: This chapter is written with my beloved Grandma in mind as I am missing her a lot today. Please be kind =). Also, I just realized this was still tagged as Completed! I just changed the story status today.

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"Why are there so few good men?!"

Jung Ji-ho asked the heavens that was currently pouring down rain over the city. It was early evening when he finished speaking to Kang Yeo-ri. Though she invited him to stay for dinner, he did not wish to impose on her so headed home to start on their deal -- looking for a good match for her.

For the first time, he understood what his younger sister and other female colleagues kept lamenting. The lack of good men to be matched with.

After an hour of searching his social media connections, he decided to take a walk in his garden as the rain started to pour.

The rain.

He looked up and smiled. "How are you up there, Grandma?"

Jung Ji-ho sighed. For years since she passed, he had secretly been waiting for a response. After all, one of the last things she said to him was, "I'll visit you."

"Grandma, I don't think that's how Cloudland works," Ji-ho pointed out. (A/N: Cloudland is the term used in SYJ's movie Be With You)

"Psssh, I'll hop on the train and visit you just to check that you're okay. I might even find you a good match," she had told him. Even on her weakened state, she tried to make him smile.

He lost his grandmother on the year that he also had his toughest break up and he at times pondered about where he found the strength to pull through that year. His then girlfriend was the one he thought he would marry but he was not accepted by her family and soon those tensions took its toll on the relationship.

Then, the diagnosis that his grandmother was gravely ill followed. Jung Ji-ho had a good relationship with his parents and he was thankful for the comfortable life they provided. However, he was closest to his Grandmother. It was Grandma who took him to school from kindergarten until he was old enough to take the bus on his own. It was Grandma who picked him up so they could have a Treat Day every Friday after he got high marks in his exams.

It was also Grandma who gave him a good knock on the head when he needed one.

"I'm scared of school, Grandma!" a six-year old Ji-ho once cried, holding on to his Grandmother's leg.

"Don't be! It will be fun. I made sure the teacher is nice and she'll teach you lots of stuff you can tell me later," Grandmother replied. "Go meet your classmates. I'll be here waiting for you when you're done and we'll go to the market to get candies."

"Do you promise?"

"I promise."

Grandma never broke a promise to Ji-ho... except the one about visiting from Cloudland. Still, whenever it rained, he couldn't help but wonder if that was the time Grandma would be coming down to visit.