Dea wiped her lips with a tissue, then scowled at him with anger, an unusual feeling was sticking in her throat. "Lee Myung-dae!"
Myung-dae wanted to shrink into the chair. He didn't know his suggestion was totally that unexpected to her. He looked at her with pleading eyes, thinking how to explain this to her.
A few months ago, he had come to hear some rumors about a new Mafia boss in Busan city. One night, he was being followed by some unknown strangers, while walking on the streets alone, he thought they were the spies of their competing companies. His phone was dead and he didn't have any gun with him for his protection. When those five guys attacked him from behind like some cowards, a man saved his life from them, just like a hero. Myung-dae had been in contact with that mysterious man a few times, but he didn't tell Choi Dea anything about that. He didn't even know about his true identity until a week ago by coincidence.
The Mafia boss was Jeong Sung-ho.
"What's going on in your that little head?" Dea observed his face carefully, it was obvious that he was thinking something deeply. She recalled what he just said. Could it be that he had some connection with a Mafia boss and never told her about that?
Myung-dae kept creating threads of theories in his head, didn't hear her.
"Lee Myung-dae!" she slapped her palm on the desk loudly.
"Yes, Boss!" he jumped from the chair spontaneously, bowing his head down.
'She is truly going to fry me today.'
Choi Dea was feeling a bit curious about the Mafia he mentioned. Her company was in the top ten in all of companies in the country, she had pretty good reputation in makeup industry. Although she was very secretive about her private life, she was famous because of her father Choi Man-young, the ex CEO and founder of 'Dream Shade'.
"Boss," Myung-dae looked at her with innocent eyes. "A-re y-you going to fry me t-today?"
Dea rolled her eyes. "What do you think?"
Myung-dae joined his hands together and whined, "No, no, Choi Dea! Please don't do this," he held up his fingers in the air. "I swear I won't make these kind of stupid suggestions again! Forget the Mafia, forget thinking about any help. We....we have enough of our strengths, we can overcome this situation! I swear I will work hard. Every company has their ups and downs, don't they? Please Choi Dea, for the sake of our nine years friendship, don't eat my job!"
A deep chuckle came behind from him.
Choi Dea suppressed a giggle.
CFO Seo Jae-hwa was standing behind him, a smug smile covering his lips. As soon as Myung-dae noticed him, his expression turned into angry. God knew how long he had been standing there, listening to his whining.
'You jerk. What are smiling about, eh? Only Jesus know how long I can hold my rage or otherwise I smash your that girlish face against the wall to let it all out. Hmph!'
Jae-hwa nodded slightly at Dea and casted a glance at him. "Nice speech, Mr. Lee."
Myung-dae made a pouty face at her, then turned to the door after mumbling something under his breath, didn't bother take a look at Jae-hwa.
"Myung-dae, wait," she called out.
He fixed his glasses glumly. "What?"
"One o'clock. We're going."
"Going where?"
"To see the person who just suggested," she tilted her head to Jae-hwa. "Take a seat, Mr. Seo," Dea said. "We have a lot to talk about."
Myung-dae blinked rapidly with confusion. Did she just agree to meet the Mafia boss?
'Yayyy!' he mutely shrieked with happiness.
~✓~✓~✓~✓~✓~✓~
Three hours later.
Choi Dea unbuckled the seatbelt and straightened her coat, inhaling sharply. She pulled out a small hand mirror from the dashboard, as she usually didn't carry purse with her. She checked her lipstick in the mirror and pressed her red lips together, brushing the hair locks from her forehead.
'Should I just untie my hair? I kinda look weird in a ponytail.' After thinking some, she untied her reddish brown hair and let them fall on her slim shoulder.
Myung-dae observed her with horror from the driver's seat. He couldn't help but blurt out, "Dear Dea, are you going to seduce the Mafia boss? I don't think it's going to work on him if you're going to go in like this."
Dea glared at him. "Shut up. Do you want me to fire you that much?"
"No, no, no! I was just kidding," he shook his head vigorously. "You look beautiful as always, don't you?"
"Hm," she turned her attention back to her reflection. "Anyway, what did you say the this Mafia's name is?"
"I didn't," Myung-dae stated.
"So tell me now."
"His name is..... Jeong Sung-ho," he slowly replied, tapping fingers on the steering wheel. He was thinking if he did the right thing to bring her here. She was that cold and grumpy, who knows if she could hold her temper in front of the Mafia boss.
"Myung-dae," she suddenly moved from her seat and leaned to him, hastily looking straight into his eyes. "It turned out that you have some things you haven't told me yet. I'm not going to ask you now how you and this Mafia met. But later," she flicked his forehead. "I will pull out every single secret you have been keeping away from me, one by one."
Myung-dae stiffened, blinking at her hostile gesture. It seems to him that she actually wanted to pull out his every organ of his poor body, one by one.
"Okay, Boss," he breathed out, rubbing his forehead.
"Let's go inside."
Choi Dea glanced around the whole house, feeling lightly envious that it was a lot more beautiful than hers. It was evident that this vast five storey building was made by a world famous architect, it had unique design. Even the windows were so clear, dazzling in the sunlight, like there were nothing. She glanced back at the front gate which had already been closed, her incisive eyes didn't miss the cameras hiding amongst the leaves of the trees. The beautiful blossoming garden they were passing, her eyes followed a measured way beside it, no wonder they had digital burglar alarm system too.
Myung-dae opened his mouth, eyeing the place like a hawk. "Wow! This is place so beautiful and huge!"
"Shut up," Dea narrowed her eyes. She needed to alert her bodyguards if something went wrong between this Mafia boss and her.
'Ih, it's really unbelievable,' Myung-dae thought. "Even Boss looks nervous about meeting the Mafia. Aha, the female coldhearted CEO and the super handsome Mafia boss! What a great pair they can be!"
They climbed to the doorsteps after walking through the wet grasses, there wasn't a door, another huge gate. Before Choi Dea could do anything, the gate automatically opened.
"He is watching us," Myung-dae whispered to her, glancing around the place, it was well decorated with flowers in tobes. There was a door at the end of the way, it looked like behind it there was a hall room. Choi Dea stepped front to the door and just like the gate, the door opened itself.
As soon as Myung-dae got a chance to look behind the door, he gasped audibly.
There was a big hall with uncommon setup, had similarity to an auditorium, the difference was there were only a few chairs in the room. The golden gleaming chandeliers above their heads made Myung-dae's eyes widening. Unlike the brighter outside of the building, the inside was completely different, it was darker. Choi Dea focused her eyes on the man sitting in the middle of the hall, surrounded by four men and three women, wearing black sunglasses, coat-suited.
He was wearing a simple tight white shirt, the sleeves were folded neatly. The top two buttons were unbuttoned, his shoulder muscles were evident. His messy hair was falling on his forehead, near his perfectly shaped forehead.
He was surprisingly young.
Looking into his unreadable blue eyes, Choi Dea felt nervous for the first time in her life. She never felt anything like that in front of any man before. Could it be that she had never met anyone like him previously?
Myung-dae stopped a feet away from him, grinning sheepishly. He already had called in phone to let him know that they were coming. Since he guessed that a Mafia like him wouldn't like a handshake with him. So instead of that he asked, "Brother Jeong, how have you been?"
The Mafia boss was staring at her unblinking, as if he was trying to see through her. Hearing the cheerful question, Sung-ho replied blankly, "I'm good. How are you, Myung-dae?"
Choi Dea cleared her throat, breaking the mutual stare with him. His voice was husky and pleasant, it sent another motion of tingle through her body.
'Why am I feeling like this?'
Myung-dae followed his gaze to her, then grinned again. He waved his hand to introduce her to him, "This is Miss Rachel Choi, the CEO of Dream Shade...."
Before he could say anything more, Sung-ho stood up from his chair, never taking his eyes off her. He wanted to see her from more closer, as close as possible, he thought.
"You are....." Sung-ho softly spoke.
"Like Myung-dae said, my name is Rachel Choi," Dea swallowed down, staring at him back, truly challenging herself to keep doing that. Her breath suddenly quickened when he stepped more closer to her and locked his blue eyes with her brown eyes.
"Ridiculously beautiful," he finished the sentence.