Our Story - Binjin

Chapter 23: First Real Date

Author's Notes: Hope you're all enjoying the story and thanks for following :) just wanted to heads up updates will be a little slow this week as it's a busy week for me. Stay safe everyone!

Ye-Jin's Apartment

It's going to be a beautiful day. Ye-Jin was sitting on the sofa, enjoying the quietness of dawn, with a hot latte. She had finished filming Something in the Rain two days ago and was looking forward to a nice break. She hasn't been idling the last couple of days though. In fact, she has been thinking very hard.

Thank goodness the dating rumors fiasco didn't create any major issues. And Ye-Jin didn't mean the public, she wasn't too worried about what the public thought since the truth will prevail eventually. She was glad Hyun Bin didn't appear to be affected by the rumors.

She had met him the following week on The Negotiation filming set. He held a cup of her favorite coffee and greeted her with a wide smile. The breath that she had unknowingly held was released in relief. They didn't have many opportunities to speak in private due to the tight filming schedule. All they had was the twenty minutes break on the second and last day of filming.

Yejin recalled their conversation that day. They were at the rest area waiting for the next shoot.

Flashback to the last day of re-filming for The Negotiation

Hyun Bin was the one who broke the silence, "Thank you for your message. Even though I didn't believe it could be real in my heart, it was still hard to be unaffected when I saw the news. The photos were well-taken," he grimaced.

"Director Ahn stepped out to take a call and we were left alone for five minutes. It was really bad timing. Hae In-shi is like a younger brother to me and a good partner, that's all." Ye-Jin explained.

Hyun Bin was thrilled by her explanation. It couldn't be clearer. Even more important, in Hyun Bin's opinion, was the fact that she had thought of explaining to him. She likely didn't think too much about it, which meant it was instinctive. That has to be a good sign.

"I'll finish filming for the drama in the second week of May. I can't wait to take a break." Ye-Jin exclaimed.

"Ye-Jin, let's go for a hiking trip that week then." Hyun Bin suggested. "You like the outdoors, we said we'll get to know each other better right? What better way than to go hiking. There wouldn't be many people on a weekday. What do you think? It'll be fun."

Ye-Jin thought for a second and nodded. It did sound fun.

Back to present

Today was the day they had arranged to go hiking. She also wanted to give Hyun Bin an answer. It wasn't fair to keep him hanging. Hence, she had spent all her waking hours the last two days debating with herself, trying to be honest with her feelings and fears.

Ye-Jin is a person driven by logic. She is usually objective and good at weighing pros and cons. She had thought she would be able to draw a conclusion once she had some time to analyze her feelings. She couldn't be more wrong. She spent two days arguing with herself but was still unable to come to a conclusion. Despite her best intentions, it looked like she would not be able to give him the outright answer that he's looking for. She's planning to be transparent about her feelings and fears with Hyun Bin. She hoped that he could understand and that it would be sufficient.

She looked at her watch, Hyun Bin would be picking her up at 7.30am. It was time to get ready.

7.20am, Lobby at Ye-Jin's Apartment

Hyun Bin was already waiting at the lobby when Ye-Jin arrived. She was carrying a large bag and he quickly took over. It was heavy. "What's inside?" he asked.