Hey I've been calling you. No answer.
Don't forget dinner tonight at my place
Can you get those mini cupcakes from the bakery next to your office?
Double chocolate chips please…Strawberry cream.
And red velvet. Lots of.
Ugh, don't forget the blueberry ones
Hellooooo
Hellllooooo?
And sorry but JanDi said she and JunPyo can't make it.
Anyway. Call me. Skype me. Text me. Whatsapp me.
Your whatsapp said last seen yesterday. WHERE ARE YOU!
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Ga Eul woke up with something like a gigantic elephant sitting (she believed shitting was befitting too) on her head. She cracked open her eyes and instantly regretted it since it only worsened the pounding on her brain.
'Oh God,' she groaned. She must have had an unholy amount of alcohol last night.
'What's the time,' she croaked and blindly searched for her alarm clock. She must have slept like a dead last night because she didn't hear a thing this morning, or the damned clock decided to bail on her.
She stretched her tired muscle and felt a merciful creak on her neck. Whatever the time was, it's definitely not the time she should have woken up at. Her room was brightly awash with natural light from the large window facing indoor garden. 'Oh shit shit shit,' she whisper-cursed her missing but obviously dead clock. She sat herself up, waited until her body cooperated with her enough to make gentle movement before slipping out of the white blanket covering her.
With much force she dragged herself out of the bed (funny, because she couldn't remember getting into the bed in the first place). Her pounding head, though, made her sit back down and closed her eyes. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, thinking back of the night before. Just how many glasses of wine she had last night? Friday was usually lax at her office but her boss always made sure everyone got everything done by the end of the day.
Damn So Yi Jeong for giving her those wine (but oh so gorgeous wine), she would never listen to him ever again. Giving more effort, she opened her eyes again. On her peripheral vision she spotted a large piece of paper on the bed side table. She hesitated and then reached over and picked it up.
'I have morning meeting at the museum, sorry for leaving you here by yourself.
Take this white pill with water before breakfast, then the yellow one after.
White one for hangover, yellow one is vitamin.
Please have breakfast before you leave.
Butler Kim will prepare you anything you ask.
And you're free to use the driver.
I'll see you this afternoon.
Yi Jeong.
P.S. dinner at Woo Bin and Jae Kyung tonight. I'll pick you up from the office.
P.P.S. we need to talk.'
She stared at the paper and read it over again. He said we need to talk. Oh God, did she do anything embarrassing? She hoped against hope that the worst thing she did last night was fell asleep during some harmless conversation (please let it be harmless conversation). Or drooling, that's OK too. Even dancing, she could take that one as well. Oh no, what did she do?
Ga Eul decided to forgo going to the office altogether. By the time she felt human enough to leave the house, and that included a long session in the shower stall, a bowl of chicken porridge, two full steaming mugs of tea, and those two pills Yi Jeong left her on the bed side table, the clock short and long hands had pointed to number twelve and eleven respectively.
She called her boss, claiming a gigantic headache (which really did not veer too far from the truth) and asked for a day off.
'That's fine,' her boss said, 'But can you talk to Reporter Lee? He called me this morning since he couldn't get through you.'
Reporter Lee Sung Ki was the crime news reporter who reported the art murder case on the paper. She wondered why he needed to talk to her.
'Sure, I will call him straight away,' she said before ending their conversation.
As it turned out, Reporter Lee was just leaving the police office and on his way to lunch. He asked Ga Eul to join him and talk about the case.
Sure,' she said. Still bewildered of what she could have contributed to the case.
Thirty minutes later she was sitting in a small cafe just outside the police station. She had asked the driver to drop her about a hundred meters from the café. If there's one thing she didn't want anyone to make assumption of, it's that she had any relationship whatsoever with So Yi Jeong. Getting around Seoul in Yi Jeong's car certainly would make some people think certain way of her.
Reporter Lee told him about the latest development of the case. Which apparently, no development at all. 'That's disappointing,' he said. She nodded in agreement.
'But words on the street is, someone is out for So Yi Jeong.' He gauged Ga Eul's expression carefully. 'Do you know anything about this?'
'Me?' she flabbergasted. 'I swear, this is the first time I heard such theory.'
'But you're staying with him, though,' he said matter of fact.
She massaged her forehead tiredly. Did everyone in the office know this piece of information now?
'Yes, but I'm not familiar with his business deal at all. What is this all about anyway? I thought it was just a random coincident?'
'Ah, but that's what we want to know, Ga Eul.' He looked at her intently. 'Do your really not know anything?'
'I'm not lying to you, Lee Sunbae, if that's what you're asking.'
They both sighed and drank their coffee.
'So how did you get to know him in the first place?' Reporter Lee asked her. 'Don't worry, this is just me asking. Off the record, you know.'
She smiled at him. 'We were friends, a long time ago,' she said. 'Nothing mysterious really. No, I'm not his girlfriend, nor am I his fan girl. You've known me long enough, Lee Sunbae.'
'That's true,' he scrunched his face at her. 'Well that's disappointing too.'
She laughed at him.
'But what else is said on the street, Lee Sunbae?' she asked curiously. Yi Jeong never mentioned anything to her. Did he have a secret he's not telling?
'So far that's all I got,' Reporter Lee sighed. 'I don't know why, or who, and the police don't know anything either. Everything involving those chaebol lives are always seems so shrouded in mysteries. I wonder why that is.'
'Yeah,' she sipped her coffee.
'Do you think you can find things for me?'
'What? Becoming your informant?' she laughed heartily. 'You're joking, right, Lee Sunbae?'
'Of course I'm joking,' he said sheepishly. 'Oh well, no harm in asking.'
She said good bye half an hour later after finishing her BLT sandwich and walked outside.
It was a beautiful summer day, she felt refreshed for the first time in a week, even after a bad hangover earlier in the morning. She put on big sunglasses which covered almost half of her face to ward off the glare and wandered off for a bit of window shopping. Her summer dress felt cool and light in the warm sun and light breeze. She could almost forget about the awful scene she witnessed days ago when her surrounding was as bright as this.
If only, she thought sadly, and walked to the rows of shops ahead.
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Jae Kyung was busy decorating the dining table when the door phone rang.
'Uh, it's me,' Ga Eul's voice was a little scratchy on the video intercom.
'Oh, hello. I didn't know you're coming early. Come in.' she buzzed open the lobby door. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door.
'Hi,' she kissed the other girl's cheek warmly. 'I thought Yi Jeong said he was going to pick you up.'
'He was but I skipped the office today. Here,' she handed Jae Kyung a big white box with a bakery name printed on top.
'Lovely! But you said you didn't go to the office?'
'Yeah, I had to do some stealth tactic to get in and out of the bakery in about two minutes before anyone from the office spotted me there.' Ga Eul laughed at her foolishness. 'Anyway, all the cupcakes you want. You need any help?'
'Nope. Everything's ready. Come here,' she lead them to the big living room and plopped herself down on the comfortable looking white couch.
'Gosh, ' Ga Eul looked around the posh new apartment. 'This is amazing.'
The apartment was located right in the heart of the city, on the top level of the thirty floors building. It's the prime location, of course. From where she was seated, Ga Eul could see the uninterrupted view of the beautiful river flowing.
'Yeah, it's nice. Plus at night the city lights are amazing. Do you want any wine? Some cocktail?'
Ga Eul paled at her suggestion instantly.
'Water please.'
'Huh? What's up? Are you not feeling well? Please don't tell me you're pregnant already.'
She glared at the older girl, who shrugged her shoulders and looked far too innocently at her.
'It's just a really bad hangover from last night.'
'Ooooh, did you and Yi Jeong, you know, hmmmm….?'
Jae Kyung winked at her.
'Oh God, no!' she protested. 'Of course not!' She paused. 'Well….. I don't know. I don't remember… But really I don't think so… I, ummm, I woke up fully clothed…' she trailed sheepishly.
'You what?' Jae Kyung laughed at her loudly. 'No wonder you ran away early. Oh Ga Eul darling, you are so funny.'
'I am so glad you find me amusing…'
Still laughing Jae Kyung walked to the kitchen and brought her a glass of fresh orange juice.
'Here you go. Tell me everything about it.'
Ga Eul groaned and covered her face.
'Let me die for a while,' she said weakly. 'I need some rest.'
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A few hours later they were all sitting at the beautifully decorated dining table. Ga Eul was still in her summer dress, whereas Yi Jeong had obviously come from home and changed his office attire. He chastised Ga Eul for not keeping the driver and instead wandered around the city by herself.
'You should have at least called me to pick you up,' he said to her, to which she exaggeratedly rolled her eyes.
Ga Eul's eye rolling though, changed into a quick once over as she took in his appearance. He was wearing a pair of dark chinos with light blue shirt. His impressive shoulders shown clearly as he hugged Jae Kyung and kissed her cheek. He rolled up his sleeves to show a glimpse of his muscled arms and Ga Eul found herself wishing if only she could see the rest of him. A glance at Jae Kyung's smirk though, brought her back from the cloud.
Dinner was almost a non affair if Woo Bin had not asked Yi Jeong whether he had told Ga Eul about 'that' story or not.
'What story?' she asked.
Yi Jeong frowned at his friend.
'Dude!' Woo Bin exclaimed, 'you said you were going to tell her! It's about her safety, man.'
Jae Kyung raised her eyebrows at Ga Eul, her mouth formed a word 'what?'
She shrugged her shoulders.
'Is this something to do with someone being out for Yi Jeong Sunbae?' she asked lightly, her hand was in the middle of cutting the medium well prime rib in front of her. 'That's not it, right?' she caught the glances between Woo Bin and Yi Jeong and frowned. 'Are you guys serious?'
'Who did you hear it from, Ga Eul?' asked Woo Bin carefully.
'A Sunbae in my office,' she stopped cutting the meat and looked at him. 'He's the one reporting the case for our paper. I thought it was just a baseless rumor.'
Woo Bin looked at Yi Jeong and signaled with his hand for Yi Jeong to speak up.
He sighed and started to tell the story he told Woo Bin a few days before.
Ga Eul felt her jaw dropped a few centimeters. Her mouth all of the sudden felt dry. She grabbed her glass of sparkling mineral water and finished it in one gulp.
'You see now why I am reluctant to leave you alone, Ga Eul,' Yi Jeong traced his wine glass with his fingers. 'I don't know whether this was just a hunch or whether it's the real thing. But I feel guilty to drag you into this mess.'
Ga Eul felt a stab in her heart.
This attention she had been getting from him, was it only out of his sense of guilt and responsibility? This affection she thought she had felt from him, was it another false alarm like she had so many years ago?
She was right when she said to Jan Di that Yi Jeong never really 'liked' her. As always, she's merely someone he's unwittingly saddled with.
'Are you OK, Ga Eul?' Jae Kyung mistook her expression for distress.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts and forced a smile.
'I'm fine. Really, I am.'
She chewed another piece of meat.
Tasted like charcoal and bitterness, it almost choked her.
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