In this chapter:

"Stay with me," she says again, pressing her body firmly against his and running her tongue along his sharp jaw, made even sharper by his evening stubble. "I don't want to say goodbye… not yet. Don't leave me, pyeha…"

After seeing Myunghee off early that morning, Hajin immediately goes to work, trying not to think too much about the situation she's in. Her parents had been horrified by the articles, but were advised not to give any unnecessary statements as of yet.

"I know it's hard, and I'm truly sorry something like this has happened, but trust that we are doing everything we can to remedy the situation," he had told them the night before, just minutes after they had returned. "We have to work as one in this. Multiple statements will only serve to confuse the public and escalate the issue further. Anything you say now can be distorted and used against you and Hajin."

"So we just let this go?" Hajin's mother shrieked, pacing restlessly about the room. "These… these lies! Are we supposed to just pretend they're ok?"

"That's not what we're saying, umma," Hajin said in a conciliatory tone. "We just have to be careful that the issue does not become bigger than it already is. Like So said, anything we say can be used against us. We have to be careful."

"The people we are fighting against have much power in the media," Myunghee explained quietly. "They are influential and widely connected."

So nodded. "We have already built up a pretty good case against them. Soon, the courts will decide the outcome of this battle."

Hajin's father had been silent the whole time, but at that moment, he sighed, "When she came back home all those years ago - crying, devastated after losing everything to those two people she had considered her friends, I told myself: never again . Never again did I want to see her being hurt and used like that.

"And so the first time we met you, I was equally wary. Could I trust you? I had my doubts, however happy she looked in your company. Then we watched you get engaged to that woman on TV, and when you left all those cameras to go after Jin, I felt the burden in my chest ease a little. At least you were not a two-timer, and you showed us early on that you could be depended upon to look after her, even in tricky situations. And when you two got engaged, I had a genuine smile on my face, because then I knew you were serious about her and I felt she could really be happy with you.

"I understand that all of this scheming and public shaming is part of business, but it does not sit well with me. She is subjected to this kind of controversy just for being your fiancee. What will happen when she becomes your wife?"

Hajin could hardly breathe. Was he saying what she thought he was saying?

So felt her slip her hand into his. "I share your concerns, abeonim . That is why I gave up my claim to the company yesterday. Once we are able to resolve all these issues and make the company stable again, all eyes will be on my eldest brother. Hajin…" he squeezed her hand, "will no longer be subject to controversy."

.

As Hajin nears the office building, it's to find multiple reporters already waiting outside. Whether they're waiting for her or someone else, she does not know, and she does not want to find out.

"This way," a female voice whispers into her ear, making her jump. Turning her head, she sees Chaeryung, who smiles. "Good morning, agassi . There's a back entrance that only employees are allowed to take."

"You're early," Hajin remarks as they go around the building. She does what Chaeryung does and takes out her company ID, and they're immediately let in.

"I always come to work at around this time," she replies, "Won-nim is very specific about how his coffee is made and relies on me to make it for him every mor-" she stops then and gives an awkward laugh, "but I'm not- I'm just used to waking up early and coming to work early."

Hajin recognizes it's a sore topic and simply nods to show she understands.

"So why are you so early, agassi ?" Chaeryung asks her after a moment's pause.

"Oh, you know… controversy and stuff… all those articles…"

It's like a switch was turned on, plunging Chaeryung into immediate fight mode. "I know all about those. It's disgusting what rich people are willing to do just to get what they want! I helped dig up dirt against them, agassi, so you needn't worry. We'll make them pay for sure!"

Hajin scratches her temple, embarrassed. "Yeah, but that's why I'm here. So's stepmother wants to talk… and I think it's to do with those articles." She sighs. "It's okay. I've been mentally and emotionally preparing myself since last night."

The moment they reach the topmost floor, Hajin's nerves are close to breaking point. She's so nervous, she's shaking by the time she steps into Lady Oh's private room.

"Ah, Hajin-ah, you're here."

"Yes," Hajin nods, closing the door behind her.

"Come light this up for me."

"Yes."

They work in silence for a few minutes and Hajin can't help but be surprised. She had expected Lady Oh to plunge into a tirade immediately. She'd never known Lady Oh to circumspect or delay. She had always been upfront.

"So, while that's heating up, there are some things we need to discuss."

There it is. The attack.

Hajin braces herself and takes the seat offered her, but she doesn't say anything. She knows she needs to hear it first, whatever Lady Oh has to say. Clasping her hands together, she sits quietly and waits.

"Your mother and I have agreed that three months from now is ideal," Lady Oh begins, much to Hajin's confusion. "The winter would have given us much better pictures, but seeing as how you're already knocked up, we can't afford to wait long. Anyway, the colors of autumn will provide excellent contrasts in the pictures. Baek Ah's already agreed to help us with all the planning, so we can consult him whenever we need to…"

Hearing the words knocked up had wiped all sense and thought from Hajin's mind. "I'm sorry… what are we talking about?"

Lady Oh looks at her like she's stupid. "The wedding. Your wedding. We need to start planning if we're to have it in three months. And So will be leaving for Japan, too, to deal with all that business nonsense. What terrible timing…" she mumbles, rifling through a cabinet and pulling out magazine after magazine.

Dumbfounded, Hajin sees they're all about weddings. "Wedding?"

Lady Oh straightens up and snaps, "Or did you and So manage to break everything off after one night?"

"No, no, of course not," Hajin waves her hands in negation. "It's just… I thought you were going to lecture me on those articles. I hear… I hear CEO Wang Geon is very upset."

To her surprise, Lady Oh snorts dismissively and drops more books onto the table. "That old fox is always upset these days. He really needs to start watching his blood pressure."

Hajin can hardly believe it. She had spent all night and all morning worrying… over nothing? "Aren't you upset with me, too?"

"Why should I be?" comes the offhand reply. "I'm not the one being lied about and presented as a gold digger to the entire world."

The bluntness makes Hajin blush. "But… it's made everything worse. Everyone's working even harder now to repair the damage. And it's my fault. I understand why abeonim is angry… I thought you would be, too."

"Well, I'm not," she sighs and takes the opposite seat. For the first time that morning, she looks straight into Hajin's confused eyes. "The boys have assured me of your innocence in all this, and I have no reason not to believe them. You are a victim here - the biggest, in fact. If anyone has a right to be upset, it's you."

She's right and Hajin knows it. She blinks back her tears and clears her throat with a little nod. "I was… am… pretty upset about it. But everyone I care about believes me, so I'm grateful… at the same time, I'm very sorry for the inconvenience I have caused."

"None of this is your doing," Lady Oh shrugs, flipping through a book and showing her a picture of a wedding cake. "Chaeryung proved most useful yesterday. I asked for these and didn't expect to receive so many in such a short time. She has already contacted each supplier and gotten a list of prices. What do you think of this color scheme? Sister-in-law has already volunteered to make your cake."

"Eunnie's mom? Yes, it's beautiful."

Lady Oh gives her a blank stare. "Well, don't get too excited. We're only discussing your wedding."

Hajin blushes and buries her melancholy so she can focus on the conversation. "Since it'll be in autumn, won't it be better to use cool colors? Like purple? Not dark colors, but pastel colors."

"Hmm…" Lady Oh doesn't look convinced, but all she says is, "We'll discuss this another time. Now for the invitations. We need to send them out by next week, two weeks from now at the latest, so that our guests can reserve the date. We already have a list from our side of the family and your mother has volunteered to list down everyone from your side of the family, but I imagine you have friends you would want to invite as well?"

"Er… not really. I sort of lost touch with most of them after my accident. And my best friend betrayed me, so I can't invite her. I only really have my workmates."

Lady Oh looks dumbfounded, but she closes her mouth and clears her throat, "Your subordinates can naturally be invited. Five plus Chaeryung makes six-"

"I have six subordinates," Hajin reminds kindly. "Six plus Chaeryung makes seven."

She can tell immediately that she's wrong by the expression on Lady Oh's face which plainly says, "Oh, that's right, I forgot to tell you."

"That's right, I forgot to tell you," Lady Oh says with a little shake of the head at her forgetfulness, "Woohee resigned yesterday. That's why we were able to hire Chaeryung immediately."

"Resigned?" The information shocks Hajin, and before she knows it, she's dialing Woohee's number on her phone. "Unavailable. Did she say why, eomeoni ?" She sighs, her mind working. Baek Ah. There's no other explanation. But surely Woohee would have known that Baek Ah was a Wang descendent and therefore working under the Wang Ent. group? Isn't that why she had decided to apply here in the first place?

Lady Oh shrugs. "She says she had to go home and take care of her ailing mother. I couldn't say no, and anyway, Chaeryung had sent in her application letter. I saw no reason not to grant both their wishes."

"Oh."

"After lunch, we shall be visiting all the well-known tailor shops in the city to find you a wedding dress. Of course, we can also have one custom-made, but Baek Ah's too busy with work-related matters on top of everything else, and I don't know anyone who can design things as well as that boy…"

As promised, they get into a car with Chaeryung after lunch and leave the building. Hajin is pleasantly surprised when they first pull up at the place where her mother works part-time, and she can tell by the radiant smile on her mother's face that she's just as happy to be tagging along.

"This is all I've managed to remember," she says, handing Sooyeon a sheet of paper. "There are only a few of us, plus a few friends."

Sooyeon nods and hands the list over to Chaeryung, who has been busy on her phone the entire time. "Chaeryung-shi, there are about 40 people on this list. Including the 200 from our side, will the venue suffice?"

Hajin is surprised to hear that so many people would be attending the wedding. They can't possibly all be So's relatives… most likely, they're friends or acquaintances from work.

"Yes, ma'am," Chaeryung replies, taking the list and marking it with her pen before filing it into her folder. She really is a very efficient secretary. Hajin wonders how Won was faring without her. "We expected Hajin-shi's guests to reach 200 as well so we booked the largest ballroom. However, it might be too big now. Shall I ask for a smaller one?"

"No need," Sooyeon says, "We can use the empty space for decorations and other things. Anyway, a bigger venue means more room to move around. Eunnie says he thinks Hajin would look good in a large dress, and I agree." She looks Hajin up and down at this point. "Though you're well-built, you've a small frame. You would look good in a large, multi-layered skirt and intricate but light top."

Hajin's about to protest and point out that she would like to be able to move freely around on her wedding day, but her mother interrupts her before she can even draw breath.

"Don't worry, darling, we can request for light fabric for the skirt so you won't strain yourself and the baby with all that additional weight."

"I-" Hajin sighs. It's no use negating at this point.

"Speaking of baby, I know an excellent obstetrician," Sooyeon says, "We can go have you checked up as soon as we're able. Chaeryung-shi, do we have a free hour or two anywhere this week?"

"Unfortunately not, ma'am," she says, checking a calendar, which, Hajin saw to her amazement, was full of the tiniest scribbles. "I can free up two hours on the third day of next month."

"That's a little late, isn't it?" Hajin's mother says, looking worried.

Lady Oh looks at Hajin and before the latter can react, she presses a hand to her abdomen. "Have you been feeling ill lately? Breasts hurting? Sense of smell stronger than usual?"

"N-no," Hajin stammers, straightening up from surprise.

Lady Oh looks beyond her to her mother. "If she's pregnant, it's early. It can wait a month."

.

The dresses are beautiful. Between the opinions of Chaeryung, Hajin, and her mother, it's impossible to decide which dress they think is the best of them all.

"And this is just the first of a dozen shops!" Chaeryung whispers in awe as they finger the delicately embroidered bodice of a floor-length silk gown. "What about this one, agassi? I think it'll look really good on you!"

"Yes," her mother agrees, turning the price tag over and dropping it in shock. "5,000,000 won! For a dress! My wedding dress cost only 70,000 won!"

"That was more than 25 years ago though," Hajin reminds weakly. "But you're right, five million for a dress is a little too much."

"It's ok, agassi. The budget for your dress, shoes, make-up and everything else is set at ten million," Chaeryung informs them brightly, smiling as she taps at her clipboard.

Flabbergasted, Hajin immediately says, "Don't be silly. That's too much! I'll only be wearing the dress once. It doesn't make sense to spend so much for it, just to lock it away in a box for the rest of eternity."

Chaeryung scratches her temple and consults her notes. "Then what amount shall I set for the budget? And where should I put the extra money?"

"What extra money?" Hajin rolls her eyes. "We spend as much as we can while still remaining practical, and just… don't use the rest."

"I'm afraid that's not an option," Lady Oh appears, a handful of ladies in tow, each of them with beautiful white dresses in their arms. "My husband wants a lavish wedding. He's using this opportunity to reinforce business ties, make new ones, and put up a strong front to the media."

Hajin eyes her grimly. "Business again?"

Lady Oh shrugs in a it's-not-my-call kind of way. "Now get inside a dressing room and try these on."

.

"I don't want to get married."

"What?" So's voice on the other end is shocked, almost panicked. "Soo-yah, what's wrong?"

She massages her aching shins with a sigh and lies down on her bed. "Sorry, I should have been more specific. I don't want to get married in front of all your business friends."

There's a short silence on the other end, then he simply says, "Ah. So you heard."

"Your stepmother is thinking of getting a monstrous wedding dress worth seven and a half million won!"

He listens silently as she begins to recount her day, starting from the surprising conversation with Lady Oh that morning, to the highly eventful and publicized dinner at Grandma Park's Grill, where they'd wrongly thought they would be safe from prying eyes. In fact, it was when the pictures of her and her companions surfaced the internet that So gave her a call to ask how she was.

"Oh, and Woohee resigned…" she says glumly, suddenly remembering. "Seeing Baek Ah that day must have spooked her a lot more than she let on… and worse, I can't get a hold of her on her cell. On the upside, your stepmom's really pleased about hiring Chaeryung, and I have to admit, I'm impressed by her secretarial capabilities."

At this, he finally chimes in, "I can tell. Won's been in a sour mood all day… something about no coffee and misplaced files. He fired his new secretary before lunchtime."

Hajin frowns. "That's harsh. It's a little too soon to judge her, isn't it? He should give her a few days to get used to her job."

He chuckles but it's without humor. "If you ask me, he's sour about losing Chaeryung. And I don't think it's all to do with her secretarial abilities."

"Oh?" Hajin's ears perk up at this. "You think he's in love with her?"

There's a short pause while he mulls this over. "I don't know about love… but I think he values her very much. He's gotten so used to having her around, he unconsciously calls her to ask her to do something before remembering she isn't there."

Hajin snorts, "If he really does care, then he shouldn't have pushed her away like that. She was really torn up about what he said. And no, I was sworn to secrecy, so I'm still not telling you."

He scoffs. "I have no interest in their private affairs. As long as it doesn't interfere with their work output, there's no reason for me to meddle."

"You're as bad as he is!" she whines. "What is it with you rich boys and not caring about relationships?"

"What?" he laughs, surprised by her sudden anger. "I do care about relationships, Soo-yah. If I didn't, I wouldn't be talking to you right now."

"Don't try to distract me," she snaps sternly. "Friendships are important. You need to build these types of relationships! You need to open up, to share your thoughts and let the other person know you care by listening to theirs. So-yah, you need to let people in."

"Great advice!" he says brightly, cutting into her passionate speech. "I think your parents may be asleep so there's no one else who can open up."

His words make no sense whatsoever. She says as much, asking if he's drunk or tipsy. She should have asked him where he was.

"My darling, I didn't have time to eat all day, much more drink," he says dryly.

"It's almost midnight! You need to eat something or you'll get sick. I know you still have instant noodles hidden in your kitchen somewhere. It's not healthy, but it's better than having you starve yourself."

He hums his agreement. "In that case, the sooner you open up, the better."

She's about to ask him what he means when a thought hits her. It creeps in through her sleepy mind and forces her to walk to the window, where she looks down and sees…

" Pyeha ?" she whispers into her phone, squinting at the figure on the grass below. She can tell it's him, even before he looks up and waves at her. She can tell by his stance, and the way he carries himself. For a moment, she's rooted to the spot, too shocked by his sudden appearance to do anything but gape. And then, she comes to her senses and moves as quickly and as quietly as she can, out her room, down the stairs, and to the front door.

He had been leaning against the hood of his car, but the moment the front door opens, he straightens up and, seeing her sprint, gets ready to catch her.

"You're here!" she whispers, launching herself happily into his arms. She hadn't seen him all day and she misses him terribly. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming? I would have cooked something for you!"

"You're tired. You've been walking around all day, going from place to place," he explains, accepting the little kisses she's planting all over his face. "I only came to say goodbye. I'm leaving tomorrow."

That douses her fire immediately. Of course she had remembered his trip to Japan… but she'd always assumed he would be leaving in the evening. She'd purposely asked for her lunch break to be free tomorrow just so she could have a meal with him before then. "What time do you leave?"

"Before sunrise," he replies quietly. "Both of my older brothers will be coming along, and the three of us will need time to get everything ready."

Which means that after tonight, she won't be seeing him for another few weeks. She's upset, but she doesn't want to show it, so she bites the inside of her cheek while she tries to think of what to say. Unfortunately, he knows her too well by now.

Stroking her cheek with his thumb, he murmurs, "Don't be upset, Soo-yah. It'll only be a few weeks. I promise I'll call whenever I can."

But he'll be busy and she knows it. She'll be busy too, what with work and all the wedding preparations. It suddenly dawns on her that she might end up planning their entire wedding without him, and the thought depresses her. She's so deep in melancholy that she doesn't realize he's been talking for the past two minutes. "Stay with me tonight," she cuts him off softly. There's surprise in the way his eyes widen ever so slightly, but there's also uncertainty in the quizzical frown he gives her. His eyes glance unsurely towards the upper floor window of her parents' bedroom. But she's quick to reassure him, "They sleep like the dead. And anyway, we'll be getting married soon. Everyone even thinks we're having a baby. There's nothing wrong with having you sleep over."

He purses his lips. "Your father was pretty upset yesterday. I don't want to push my luck. I'd hate to meet his frying pan right before my flight."

"I promise you, they won't wake. Stay with me," she says again, pressing her body firmly against his and running her tongue along his sharp jaw, made even sharper by his evening stubble. "I don't want to say goodbye… not yet. Don't leave me, pyeha… "

Her plead stirs something within him and he finds he doesn't want to leave her either. He's never wanted to leave her.

He kisses her ear. "Okay," he says simply, holding her against him. "I'll stay."

.

He tries his best not to wake her, but the moment he gets off the mattress, she groans and rolls over to find that the area next to her is empty. She props herself up on her elbows to look for him, feeling slightly panicked, thinking that he'd already left and she hadn't been able to see him before he did.

But he hasn't left yet.

He leans over her until she's lying down again, savoring the feel of her tiny hands on his face and scalp, the smooth skin of her body beneath his hands, her warm breath licking his lips as she sighs into his slow kiss.

"I have to go."

She knows and she feels miserable. "Drive safely," is all she can say.

"I love you."

She smiles. "I love you, too."