True or False? Operation Soulmate part deux is underway.
HA! It's more soul sucking than soulmate
Details?
The brat is switching off her phone.
Goddammit!
Does it call for intervention?
Stupid fiancé said they are going for a drive out of town tomorrow
.
And Jun Pyo is useless as usual. Please tell your stupid fiancé to use his James Bond-like skills to find out about Casanova's plan
He passed out already. I am thoroughly disgusted at him now.
I think Casanova secretly fed him alcohol throughout dinner to shut him up.
Shall I put him under the shower?
And I'm still pretending to not know her coming and going just in case he asked, you know. Argghhh what's with the drama with those two!
I KNOW!

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Yi Jeong stole another glance at the girl sitting beside him. She fretted for a while at the beginning of their journey, repeatedly touching her jeans, flicking imaginary dust from her otherwise perfectly ironed shirt. A number of times she would stretch her legs before at last she sat quietly and looked outside the car window. He knew better than to drive her orange lotus, instead he chose the most inconspicuous black Audi from his collection.

He had shown up a little early from the agreed pick-up time in front of her apartment building, ready to park the car and made his way to her unit. But was sitting at the lobby area already, reading her tablet with her big messenger bag and camera backpack piled next to her chair.

'Do you do your own photograph?' he asked curiously after they seated themselves in the car and put on their seatbelts.

'Not really. I'd like to but I'm not that good. We'll have someone come to take your picture in the museum and your studio next week. But I like to have camera ready whenever I have field assignment.'

He raised his eyebrows.

'Am I a field assignment?' he watched her bemusedly and happy to see her face blush a little. She told him how she did two years of photography course when she was still working at the kindergarten. It proved to be beneficial for her line of work now.

'That reminds me,' he said, 'why did you change job? I would never picture you as a journalist. Ever.'

'Never?' she laughed a little, her whole face lit up.

'I'm more of a writer-editor, though. I don't do news reporter. It's a whole area I rather not touch. So I wouldn't consider myself a real journalist, not really,' she said after a small pause and smile at him, and he was struck again at how different she looked. Gone was the shy and quiet Chu Ga Eul he knew, instead he had this seemingly more carefree and confident girl with feisty eyes but still retained that innocence that drew him to her years and years ago. He was struck again at his foolishness to let her pass from his life. As it turned out, he never really learned from past mistake, even if the reason was vastly different.

They stopped to get coffee and petrol on the way. She excused herself to go to the rest room while he waited in the car. Yi Jeong wished she had been wearing sundress and sandals, hair loosely tied in a bun, perfect for a summer outing, not jeans and white shirt with hair pulled tight in a ponytail.

'I didn't even see you at JunPyo and janDi's wedding,' he said later as they headed toward their destination.
'No, I suppose you didn't,'
'You were there though?'
'Of course I was there, Sunbae.' She smiled quietly at him before swiftly deflecting attention from her answer and asked him about his family resorts.

He wondered why his question seemed to rattle her and tried to think about that day, but came up with nothing.

'Stop calling me Sunbae,' at last he chided her and concentrated on his driving.

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She did go to JanDi and JunPyo's wedding, of course she did. She remembered worrying about whether she looked sophisticated enough, presentable enough for such event. After switching her dress choice for the seventh time, she decided that it really didn't matter what she wore, she'd never be in the same playing field with most of the guest anyway. And so she picked a chic summery pale salmon color sixties dress she found from a vintage shop and be done with it.

Jae Kyung had called her that morning to say that she was going to arrive with the rest of the F4 gang, such as the life of Song Woo Bin's girlfriend, she lamented. Ga Eul told her not to worry about it and that she'd be fine coming by herself. Which she did.

She came early and congratulated the groom and bride, especially the bride who looked calm enough from the outside even though she whispered in Ga Eul's ear how she wished she could have just eloped to Las Vegas and be done with this party. Jan Di looked lovely, though, she had thought fondly. 'You'd be OK,' she laughed at JanDi again before they took a picture together and she retreated to the guest area.

She was in the middle of a conversation with a rather handsome guest when a sudden excitement travelled the hall. As usual, there's a bit of commotion amongst the girls when Yoon Ji Hoo, Song Woo Bin and So Yi Jeong arrived. They all looked handsome in their formal attire, with Ji Hoo dressed in his usual white, while Woo Bin and Yi Jeong came in dark colors. Even with Jae Kyung in tow, the chatters from Woo Bin fan girls didn't stop.

Ga Eul noticed them from a safe distance. He looked good, she conceded, more than just good, really. Her eyes couldn't move from one person and one person only. But she had distanced herself enough from the group at that point that she didn't feel like to come up and mingle with them.

'That Jae Kyung girl is so lucky to have Song Woo Bin as her fiancé,' a girl with pretty blue dress gushed at her friend. Ga Eul smiled at herself. It was Woo Bin who had been lucky to have level headed Jae Kyung as his fiancé; she mused and shook her head.

'Rumor has it, Yi Jeong is single again now.'
'He always is'
'Nah, he had that little girl tagged along for a while, didn't he?'

Ga Eul felt her face started to blush.

'He had enough common sense to get out before it got messy though. Lucky him.'
'I heard she's the bride's friend.'
'Ugh. What's up with them mingling with those kinds of girls?'

Those kinds of girls?

'I know, yikes. They'd do anything for money though…' she winked at her friend before burst into quiet laughters.

Ga Eul felt like something sharp tore her heart. She wished she had been more like JanDi and stood up for herself. High kick all those girls into oblivion if she had to. But the point was, she was not her best friend. Instead, she quietly left the venue and went home feeling absolutely wretched and distressed. Was that how the outside world saw her? A leech and a moocher? Did she have to prove herself worthy before going after someone like Yi Jung? She didn't even want to be in the same room as him.

She lied on her bed restless that night. Taking stock of her life. She decided to completely overhaul her life. And got away further from him.

The next day she put in her resignation letter at the kindergarten and called her current boss. Ga Eul had taken a creative writing course as a hobby where Jung So-In taught a class. She had been impressed with her works and asked Ga Eul if she's interested to write full time for the media. She never thought about changing her career before, but after the shitstorm she had the night before she felt like she needed to reinvent herself. She needed to get rid of her old self completely and forgot about her humiliation.

Did it work?

Maybe.

But apparently not enough to completely erase his presence in her life. Life was never fair, she sighed sadly and kept her eyes on the road.

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They drove in silence before Yi Jeong started to peel off from the traffic.

'I need to drop by a colleague's house to sign some papers first. Do you mind?'
She told him that she was perfectly fine with it.
'This is still a secret though Ga Eul, so not a word in the article OK?'
'Are you doing something illegal?' her eyes widened at the thought. Yi Jeong laughed at her question.
'Do I look like someone who doesn't obey the law?'
'Well…'

He gave her a mock hurt look. 'No, nothing against the law. It's just a potential museum collection. He wants to donate one of his collections that had been a part of the family estate for centuries. '

'Why is it a secret then?'

'Because it's going to be a surprise addition for the museum, of course. At least once the boring paper works and legal insurance are done. It's a lot of work to secure the artifact. Moreover, words on the street are that many art dealers want the painting for their collection. And they are prepared to pay for it. They are not a happy bunch.'

'It's a warzone huh?' she let out a smile at him.

'Are you mocking me? Art world can be as cruel as anything, Ga Eul yang.' He looked pointedly at her with humor and slowed the car down as they entered an old and leafy suburb. After a few hundred meters he stopped the car outside a fairly big house with tall hedges surrounding the property.

Swiftly he cut off the engine and opened the car door. Ga Eul followed his suite and walked toward the house. The gate was open wide, showing a gravel path to the front door. They were halfway toward the house before she remembered leaving her handbag carelessly in the car.

'Umm, can I borrow your key, Sunbae? I need to get something from the car.'
'Sure,' he handed it over. 'I'll go first. Don't take too long or I might think you're trying to run away from me.' He winked at her before continued walking toward the house. She gritted her teeth at her suddenly hammering heart. He's really not that great, Ga Eul, she muttered to herself. Stupid, stupid heart.

She was just reaching the gate when suddenly from behind a motorbike lurched to almost hit her if she had not jumped in time to avoid the collision. Her wedges however caught the strayed gravel and she felt her body slammed onto the hedges as her feet gave way.

'What the….?' She crossly watched the assailant as she desperately grappled for something to grab and failed. She fell hard on her butt and shrieked indignantly as the bike skidded on the asphalt, before the rider managed to keep the balance and rode away. How rude, she mumbled string of curse words as she lifted her body from the ground. Her shoulder where she slammed the hedges hardest felt sore. She was still busy inspecting the damage on her wedges when Yi Jung ran quickly away from the house toward her.

'Are you OK?' she took in his pale appearance when he failed to say anything at all.
'Yeah,' he paused a little. 'This is bad, Ga Eul. Hang on; I need to call the police.'
'What? What's the matter?' her hand rubbed the right elbow to clean up some gravels still stuck on her skin. Damn that careless bike rider. Lucky her skin seemed all right.

Yi Jeong shook his head and started to punch the number on his cell phone. He spoke with quiet and tensed voice while Ga Eul waited with increasing curiosity.

'Is your colleague OK?' she asked when he finally hang up.
He shook his head again. 'This is really horrendous, Ga Eul.'
'What happened?' her curiosity started to get the better of her. 'Sunbae, did anyone get hurt?' she started walking toward the house even when Yi Jung half shouting told her not to.

She strode quickly into the building but had to halt suddenly as she took in the pool of red on the floor. Her eyes followed the trail of red with heart beating erratically. It was too much, she covered her mouth when at last her eyes fell on the source of those red liquid. A man slumped on the desk, clearly dead even from afar. She couldn't see his face but his left arm hung lifeless on his side, blood dripping from his hand onto the floor.

'Oh my God,' she whispered in horror through her clenched fingers. For all the years she worked for the magazine, never had she thought of encountering such a scene. What should she do, her hands clenched tightly, what was appropriate? Was there a standard operating procedure in her office when encountering this kind of scene?

This was inexcusable, she thought, but really, she worked for the media and her boss would never forgive her if she fainted right there and then.

She took her mobile phone from her pocket and tried to take pictures before feeling a huge tide of panic attacks building inside her. Ga Eul never saw a dead body before. This was too real; she's not cut for this kind of job. It's summer and yet she shivered almost uncontrollably. From behind she felt someone turned her around, took the mobile phone from her hand, and enveloped her in a hug.

'Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God' she whispered against his chest repeatedly.

'Don't look,' he said in her ear softly. And when she couldn't stop feeling cold he tightened his embrace and ran his hand on her back over and over again, kissing her hair and whispered words of encouragement until she felt more in control of herself.

'I'm OK,' she said at last as Yi Jeong led her outside into the warmth of the sun, sat her down on the porch and waited until two police cars showed up

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Notes : shocking?

Let me know what you think!

P.S : thank you guys for all your kind words and warm welcome. Much appreciated!
I will try to update this story weekly, hopefully there's no writer's block looming in the near future :)