Without waiting for Jeremy's explanation, Maggie stood up burning with with anger and jealousy, "We are not done! Hear me? This isn't over.", she grabbed her bag and carried herself out the door. Jin Ae let out a loud laughter that snapped Jeremy out of his daze, "Good ridden. Way to think on your feet nephew, I thought she would never leave. I wonder where you met such a rude girl."
Only then did John's face relax, and Jeremy chuckled awkwardly, "Seems it worked, ha ha ha", he drank his water anxiously still shaking, he couldn't even make eye contact with John out of guilt and fear. He felt as if it was written on his face that he was bluffing. Seeing how distraught he looked, Jin Ae kicked his foot underneath the table startling him and he instantly knew what it meant, he had to get himself together.
He sighed heavily, "So, Uncle John-"
"Just to be sure, you are not in love with my niece, it was just an act to get rid of that obnoxious girl?", John interrupted,
Jeremy let out a soft laugh, "Of course, Mr. King. Not even a little bit. I would never jeopardize our plans like that." 'Especially Linda's safety', he thought as he took another sip.
Jin Ae smiled at his nephew, but the terror she saw in his eyes confirmed her longest fears, Jeremy was trapped with these greedy old geezers, and Linda was the only one who could help him and she had to do everything in her power to help Linda, so she instantly formulated a text to her.
"Linda dear, let's meet tomorrow. Say 12:00 am sharp, I will come to your office.", and within seconds of sending her text, Linda replied confirming the meetup and a grin quickly found her face alarming John, 'What is she scheming now? What a nuisance of a woman?'
They were both snapped out of their thoughts by a waitress asking to get them something and thus began the most awkward meeting of Jeremy's life. The two adults were acting like siblings who hated each other, taking jabs at each other accompanied by backhanded compliments, he instantly regretted his decision. He felt like he was caught in a war zone and he tried his best to stay out of it, yet, he could not help but wonder why they hated each other in such a manner,
"Did you two perhaps date? Were you lovers?", for the first time, silence befell the table and their faces tensed up in shock,
Jeremy's jaws dropped, he asked jokingly because of their squabbling, he didn't expect it to be right, "You did! Didn't you? Something happened between the two of you."
While John tried to deny it, Jin Ae admitted, "We were young. I didn't know better."
Jeremy could not help but be curious, "How!",
"It doesn't matter. it's all in the past.", Jin Ae spoke first while John remained quiet, "And we didn't date. How could we? When-", just then, John spoke for the first time, "Like you said. PAST. Excuse me, I need the loo."
The moment he left, Jeremy gave his aunt a curious look and she just chuckled it away, "Past nephew. Past. What matters right now, is my hate for him. I loathe that man." she said with a wide smile but her eyes were murderous, and Jeremy just let it go, but he couldn't wait to tell Linda. It was too good of gossip to keep to himself.
John could not help but feel flustered by Jeremy's questions, he could not believe that it was so obvious, after all this time, he was still so affected by her. He splashed water into his face trying to wash away the sudden flashbacks of him with Jin Ae in their younger days, fooling around the sheets happy and free, before his obsession with Global Tech. With the second splash, he got another flashback where Jin Ae was painting him while he posed nakedly like a Greek god. As she traced her eyes around his features affectionately, he felt his eyes being drawn to her gaze with every brush stroke. He sighed and took out his phone
"I thought you took care of Jin Ae."
At the same time, Linda was in her office typing away when she received pictures of the scene that was at Jeremy's restaurant, if she had not received the text from Jin Ae or if Jeremy had not confessed, she probably would have concluded that they were scheming behind her. She chose to give Jeremy the benefit of the doubt, especially since the meetings between him and her uncle had gone down, she hoped he was having a change of heart. By the time she left the office, it was already 10:00 pm, and she was tired to the bone, the last thing she ate was that lunch with her aunt. She could not wait for the King's gala to come and go because it was eating up all her time. She always planned it with her grandmother but because of her health, she was forced to handle it alone, she sighed just thinking about the amount of work she still had to do, 'catering, media, IT and sound, banners.'
As she was heading home, she received a text from Jackie:
"I got something about the plane but I have to see you in person."
Linda instantly knew it was something big because that was the only reason Jackie would insist on a face-to-face meeting. She was paranoid about sharing certain information over emails or phones, maybe it's because she was an expert on how the internet and the whole cyberspace worked but Linda sometimes feared she was being too dramatic.
"Okay, come to the gala next week Friday. I will send you a plane ticket and a car to pick you up at the airport."
Her heart was in a knot, she wondered what Jackie found out, she knew she wouldn't be at ease until she met up with her, she waited too long for this, it was time she unraveled the mystery behind the crushed plane. That is the only way her heart could find rest.