Chapter 7. Fate

“WWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!” Her voice was like an alarm clock. Why does he feel that the yelling would go on most of the time and he should start getting used to it? He opened one eye and cursed when he realized how late it was. It was not a very good morning. More so that it was going to be a very bad day expecting that someone inside his office.

“Appa!!!” The wailing Euna met him outside his bedroom door, “Did you go inside my room?”

“Yeah, last night…” he scratched his head and let out a lazy yawn, “What is it now?”

“Did you clean my room?” She continued to stare at him with an accusing tone.

“No… maybe halmeoni did…” he walked passed her and padded through the kitchen.

“I just put it there before I slept and halmeoni isn’t home yet,” she watched her dad grab one cookie, shoved it in his mouth and poured a glass of milk from Euna's milk carton and dropped it on the table.

“What is it exactly?” He was glad that she has calmed down.

“The lollipop wrapper.”

Yonghwa took one more cookie, stared at it for a moment until it dawned on him. He sighed and stared at his daughter and the pout she was wearing. The image of that woman flashed in his mind. He groaned and turned away pretending that he was just aiming for his morning dose of caffeine. He murmured trying so hard to remove the thought of that woman off his mind, “You were screaming early in the morning just because of some candy wrapper? Eunayah, you know better than that…”

“I was not screaming and it’s not just and some candy wrapper!”

“Then tell me what it’s all about…” he sipped took a sip of his coffee after pouring it on the mug.

Euna gave him an exaggerated sigh, “You won’t understand because you are a boy!”

Yonghwa bit his lip to stop himself from laughing but the little lady glared at him more when she noticed, “Okay, I’m sorry… I think I threw it in the bin… it still in there…”

“WHAT!!” Her eyes widened then stomped to her room after declaring, “How could you?!?”

~~~

The moment she stepped out of the elevator, she knew something was amiss and she confirmed the feeling when she found his office empty and Ms. Kim was not also on her usual spot. Joohyun went the Department’s receptionist and the woman told her that the two just left for a meeting. She was fuming mad since he just told her yesterday that he didn’t have any scheduled meeting.

Her head started to ache— the game is on once again. She hated that feeling of like being tossed aside. That annoying prick has been treating her with the coldest and harshest ways since she could remember, not to mention now that he seemed to have started a cold war after their word war before that. Joohyun could not really pinpoint that moment his annoyance of her started but she was ready to take this game a notch higher. She smiled graciously at the receptionist who just gave her the address of the meeting but deep inside that friendly smile was her evil grin, ‘He wants hell; I’ll send him straight to hell…’

She knocked twice before pushing the door open. As expected, all eyes were on her but she easily found her target. Armoring herself with the smile that meant business, she introduced herself as the daughter of the Chairman of the Seo Group of Companies. The other men stood but she zeroed her attention to the man on the left corner and smiled, “Gentlemen, I’m so sorry for being late. I had a prior engagement. I hope I didn’t miss anything important.”

“Oh, Ms. Kim can fill you in,” one of their company lawyers said.

Joohyun thanked him but she made her way to Hyoyeon who was looking definitely perplexed, “Ms. Kim, I’ll take it from here. My driver is just outside, I told him to drive you back to the office…”

Hyoyeon hesitated for a moment when she could feel her boss’ stare but she knows it would be better so she stood. Joohyun whispered with a playful wink, “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of him.” With that, she sat beside the man who was obviously looking like he was about to breathe fire. She claimed that expression her victory.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Yonghwa leaned over to her and pretended to smile as he gritted his teeth.

“I think I’m just doing my job,” Joohyun imitated his tone and expression. She did it to spite him not to appear nice and sweet in front of the investors.

“Well, I think it’s better for you to go back to the office where you belong…”

“Oh, really? As a matter of fact, I think,” she her lips and flicked the strands of hair that were resting on her shoulder. Then, she looked up at him through her lashes breathing the words softly, “I belong just right here… here beside you…”

Their unsolicited audience, who seemed to be oblivious of the heated argument going on, thought that the two must be sharing something intimate.

The whole meeting happened with Yonghwa keeping his blood pressure in check and his other body parts calm and controlled. After the pleasantries, he waited for everybody to leave before caging her in one corner, “That was the most uncalled for act you ever pulled, Seo Joohyun-ssi! You made me look so stupid in front of them!”

“Then what do you call the stunt you just pulled of not telling me that you have this meeting well in fact it was scheduled five days ago!”

Yonghwa sneered then retorted, “What gives yo