Lee Byung Ho was sitting in a small cafe in the corner seat of the cafe. In front of him sat two small cups of latte with the evident steam evaporating out of the small cup into the thin air. It seemed as if he was waiting for someone there. With a black mask put on his face and a baseball cap, people inside the cafe could not recognize the man sitting inside with them. Suddenly the door to the cafe opened with the jingling sound of the bell on the door. Byung Ho did not look toward the door, instead, he just took an unhurried sip of his latte and sat there very relaxed.
Contrary to him. A very angry-looking woman, came storming towards the corner where Byung Ho was sitting. She sat down in front of him while glaring at him. One could find traces of tears in the beautiful eyes of this strange woman sitting in front of him. Byung Ho took a look at her and then looked down at the cup in front of him sitting on the table on the latter side of the table. He frowned a bit and then finally with a deep sigh placed the cup in his hands on the table. 'They had things to discuss and come clear about things. Hmmm...Let's do it, Byung Hoya'
"How are you?", Byung Ho asked in a soft caring voice. The girl sitting in front of him was his childhood friend. He cared a lot for this woman. But today the reason for her misery was he and he could do nothing about it. The young woman's eyes were red and swollen. One could easily say she had not slept the whole night and had been crying for some time now. He felt guilty. But he could not fulfill the wish she had come to ask for. In the end, she will be the one to get hurt no matter what. So, he decided to end it as early as he could and help her get over it.
"Do you even care?" The young woman scoffed. She felt betrayed by this person sitting in front of her. For god's sake, she loved him. Why did things have to turn this way? Why was she even sitting here and hurting this way? She wanted to just be with him. Why was that so hard for him to do? She couldn't understand it.
"Why would I not care? Look, Anna, It was always you who had those misleading ideas about us. I never promised you something that would make you think that I was interested in you or wanted to have any sort of romantic association with you." Byung Ho said with a small frown plastered on his face. She was his friend who he cared about a lot. But he didn't have any romantic feelings for her and he couldn't hurt her by being in a relationship where he could not be honest and loyal to her. She was like a little sister to him.
"But you knew that I had such feelings for you. Why did you not then react or clear it up and insulted me in front of so many people yesterday? They were all our friends and everyone knew that I was interested in you and the feelings were mutual." Hearing her words, he felt a pang of guilt on his insides. She was right, only if he had made things clear to her when he felt she had some other ideas about them, then things would have been easy. But he never knew things would turn out this way.
"I didn't know that you would suddenly propose to me in front of so many people out of nowhere. If I had even the slightest idea about what you were planning to do and you were serious about this. I would have cleared it with you. I just thought that you had a harmless crush on me and with time it would go if I didn't say anything." The girl sitting in front of him had tears in her eyes as his words hit her hard. Byung Ho just fisted his hands tight. he wanted to hit something so hard.
"You are one heartless being. What is the problem with me? Why can't you just date me? Am I not good enough for you? Even our families know each other, we know each other, we are a perfect match." She raised her voice, not caring about the place they were in. People stared at them. Byung Ho became conscious of the situation they were in. He couldn't let people recognize him or else it would turn out to be a very huge mess if this was brought out into the media.
"Says who? Who said you we are a perfect match? I don't think we are a perfect match. And there's nothing wrong with you. It's me. I don't have feelings for you and I have no plans for dating a girl, I have no feelings for. So I'm sorry Anna." Getting up from his seat, he stood up in front of her while hiding his face from the onlookers and gritted out those words. With this, he scurried out of the cafe without anyone's notice and got into his car, and drove off from there.
Anna sat there like a dumb person. She couldn't believe that he just said those words with a simple apology and went off leaving her alone once again. She could hear the onlookers whispering around her. It was obvious they had heard her words from earlier. Gritting her teeth, she too got up and stormed out of the cafe.
At the same time, in Senwa, Kwan was frowning and walking down the corridor. She had been summoned by the Chairman himself in his office. With her confident stance, she hurried her steps and stopped outside the huge office of the chairman. The door had bold gold letters written on it 'CHAIRMAN OFFICE'. Taking a glance at the golden bold letters, she raised her hand and knocked at the door. After knocking at the door she waited patiently outside the office.
After a few seconds, an old gruff voice could be heard which said, "Come in". Kwan heard that she was granted permission to enter the office. Pushing the door open, she stepped in and could see a man in his late sixties sitting on the chair behind the desk. He was wearing a rimmed glass on his eyes as he was reading some documents held in his hands. His old experienced eyes when looked at the person entering his cabin kept the documents on the table and guided her with his hands, and said, "come have a sit, Kwan."
Kwan nodded and sat at one of the visiting chairs placed in front of his desk. Chairman Ko, observed her with his old eyes. One could see the care and tenderness he held in his distant cold eyes when he looked at this young lady in front of him. "You again stayed back for an entire night in the office yesterday?" Chairman Ko asked Kwan, trying to sound stern but he did not succeed in doing so. He looked at her waiting for her answer. But the lady in question kept her mouth shut and didn't say anything. Instead, she just kept staring at the documents placed on the table in front of him. What could she say, she had nothing to say.
Chairman Ko too kept staring at the girl in front of him. She looked so distant and cold to him right now. He knew she had been working like a machine all these years and had tried stopping her but did she ever listen to anyone? Shaking his head in complete disappointment she sighed. No matter what he said she would just sit there and hear his scoldings but never change. He knew Park Kwan too well. She was one stubborn child.
Kwan upon seeing this old man being this disappointed in her actions explained herself and tried coaxing him with her usual 'I'm okay' talk. "Grandpa Ko, I'm alright. I was working yesterday because I had so much to work on." But chairman Ko didn't buy her words. Instead, he flared up at her words. "What do you think you have an entire team for? Just for a show, if you are the one to stay up late and complete all the work alone." Kwan closed her eyes. She internally wanted to curse the security team of the company to snitch on her. He was angry and her headache was hammering her head open. She just wanted a fucking break now.
At that exact moment, a soft knock could be heard on the door of the cabin. The person who entered the cabin was a middle age man in his late forties. As he entered he nodded at Kwan showing a sense of respect and then turned to the man sitting behind the desk. The man was non-other than the secretary of the chairman, the secretary Hyun. He was a very loyal and honest being and had been working alongside the chairman for years. As he saw his boss seemed in an awful mood and the helpless expression on Kwan's face somewhat made him understand the situation going on there. He was trying his best to hide the smile breaking out on his face.
"Chairman Ko, you have got a meeting scheduled right now. We need to leave in five minutes." Hearing the words of secretary Hyun, Kwan felt relieved and smiled internally. She looked at the secretary thankfully and then at the fuming old man. With a slight chuckle, she got up from her seat and bowed down to the old man in a sense of respect, and asked for her leave. "Chairman Ko, I'll visit you some other time. You seem busy right now." Saying this she turned to leave but the sly old man didn't let her leave in peace, "Don't think I'll let you be. After the meeting is over. I'll come back and deal with you in my way. Don't forget that."