Krystal's POV

"Stupid, Eunjin. Idiot, Eunjin."

I scrubbed the plates hard as I mumbled to myself. I was a little hurt when I overheard her asking as to why I was there at her grandparent's place. Am I not supposed to be here? Am I not allowed to come here on my own? I spent almost everyday with her grandparents during the time when she had went missing in LA.

All these thoughts appeared in my mind until I was not aware that someone was standing beside me.

"That plate is going to break into pieces if you continue to scrub it that hard."

I turned to my side and saw Aunt Nancy smiling at me. She took the plates from my hand and asked me softly about what had actually happened between me and Eunjin. So I told her about what I overheard when I sent out the drinks earlier. I told her that I was a little hurt with Eunjin's words.

"Just a little, right?" Aunt Nancy asked but I didn't understood her question. "You said that you were a little hurt, am I right? Which means you are not that angry with Eunjin, right?"

I finally understood and nodded my head slowly. When Aunt Nancy asked me as to why the hurt was only a little, it got me thinking.

"Is it because you knew, deep down inside your heart, that Eunjin didn't mean her words in a bad way?" Aunt Nancy tried to guess. "Or maybe you expected her to be thankful for your presence so it actually hurts when she didn't show it?"

"I guess so. Was I expecting too much from Eunjin?" I asked Aunt Nancy as she continued to smile.

"It's not too  much. But believe me when I say that Eunjin is actually thankful for your presence. It's just that she's a little slow in showing her appreciation for what others are doing for her."

"Really?" I asked, a little unsure about what Aunt Nancy had said.

"I'm certain because if she's not thankful, she won't be doing what she's doing right now." Aunt Nancy started chuckling as a frown appeared on my face. "Go and take a look for yourself."

I wiped my hands dry and walked out from the kitchen but there was no one at the dining area. So I walked out to the living room and saw that the door leading to the garage was opened. As I walked nearer, I heard Harabeoji's loud laughter while Halmeoni was heard nagging at him for allowing Eunjin to do whatever that she was doing right now.

Curiosity caused me to fasten my pace and I was surprised when I arrived near the door. Harabeoji was deliriously laughing while holding his stomach with Halmeoni nagging and slapping his shoulder lightly. As I looked further to where Harabeoji was looking, I started to frown when I saw Eunjin squating in front of one of my car's tyre. 

"Is there something wrong with my car? What is she doing with the tyre?"

When they started to notice my presence, everyone seemed to freeze on the spot except for Eunjin who seemed very focussed with what she was doing.

"She... she.. trying to .." Harabeoji was trying to explain but he kept laughing in between his speech that I found it difficult to understand him.

"What he means is that Eunjin is trying to stop you from going home tonight by letting out the air from all your tyres." Halmeoni explained calmly as my eyes widened when I looked closely and saw that all my tyres were now flat.

"YAH!! HAN EUNJIN!!!"

My voice must have been really loud since it startled Eunjin who ended up sitting on her . Rubbing her off and standing up, she looked at me and grinned dorkily.

"Mianhae. You have no choice but to stay the night or hitch a ride back with me." She said before running out of the garage from the main entrance.

"Aishhhh.... that dork." I huffed out my frustration before folding my arms.

"But you love that dork." Harabeoji commented before he patted my head. "Don't be angry at her. You should know her heart well by now."

************************

"I didn't expect Choo to behave that way to his subordinates. Actually, I rarely checked on my junior workers since I only listened to whatever the higher management would report to me. Do you think there's more than one such cases throughout the company?" Harabeoji asked as I shrugged my shoulders and leaned back into the chair.

Both of us were currently in the study room as I explained about everything that had happened between Yuri and Mr Choo. Harabeoji was shocked to find out about it since he had never been informed of any harassment or bullying among co-workers before.

"I would have reprimanded Mr Choo if it was only about the bullying and harassment but when he stepped over the line by taking other people's hard work while declaring that it's done by him, I don't think I can take it lightly anymore. The fact that he even showed no sign of guilt when I was talking about the project with him, it's bothering me a lot."

Harabeoji rubbed his chin as if he was in deep thoughts before he told me that he would come down to the office tomorrow morning. "I need to check with the HR and also go through his yearly appraisal of this Mr Choo. You said that Mr Song is already aware of what he had done right?"

I nodded my head as Harabeoji added on that he would meet Mr Song to get some reviews from him also.

"We'll decide again about the course of action to take after the review tomorrow. Anyway, it's already quite late now. Are you still planning to go home?" Harabeoji asked as I turned to look at the clock which showed that it was almost 11pm.

"I'll check with Krystal first. If she's already too sleepy, it's better to just rest here. I can drop her at her Unnie's place first for a change of clothings before sending her to work."

When both of us left the study room, we went around the house to look for Halmeoni and Krystal. We finally found them at the movie room, watching a Horror movie so both me and Harabeoji decided to tease them. Creeping up quietly behind them, we startled them before breaking out into laughter. Obviously, both me and Harabeoji ended up having our ears pulled by our respective partners

"Do you want to go back now or just spend the night here? Are you already sleepy?" I asked Krystal who was side-glaring at me. "Still angry at me for flattening your tyres?"

I heard chuckles from Harabeoji and Halmeoni before they quickly excused themselves out from the room. The movie had already stopped playing so it was all silent.

"I'm really sorry for my words earlier. I didn't mean it in a bad way though. It just came out bluntly." I admitted my mistake as I took a seat beside Krystal.

"It's okay. I wasn't really that angry with you. Furthermore, you weren't expecting me to be here anyway. I was just concerned about you since you have a lot of things going on at work." Krystal replied as she snuggled up closer to me. "But you shouldn't have flatten my tyres though. How am I suppose to go to work tomorrow?"

"I'll send you to work tomorrow and get Uncle Park to settle the car. Since you looked like you're already sleepy, let's just spend the night here."

"But I don't have extra clothings with me. I can't be going to work with the same clothes, right?" Krystal straightened up her back and looked at me. "I don't think you have any suitable clothings for me either, right?"

"I'm not sure about that but you can try to look for something that you might like. Or I can drop you off first at your Unnie's place for a change of clothings before sending you to work."

Krystal nodded her head before she asked me about the discussion with Harabeoji earlier. When I was reminded about it, I let out a deep sigh.

"Harabeoji said that we need to handle the matter delicately. This is because, almost every staff knew that Yuri was employed by me and also about our friendship. We need to ensure that other workers didn't see it as a bias decision if we are really going to take actions against Mr Choo. Which is why Harabeoji will be coming to the office to look at the matters in detail. He needs direct feedbacks from people whom had worked or in contact with Mr Choo on a work basis. Harabeoji need to ascertain the characteristic of Mr Choo before finalising our next course of action." I explained in detail as Krystal listened attentively. "Harabeoji did praised me for what I had done so far which was to ascertain that Mr Choo had indeed submitted someone's else work as his. That's a very unprofessional work etiquette."

"Are you going to be alright then? No matter what the final decision is?" Krystal asked as her concerned expression appeared once again.

"If it's something that I had to do as the Acting Director of Hanjin Corporation, then I will have to do it. But I will always ensure that my decision is fair and neutral."

I saw a proud smile on Krystal's face as she leaned in and gave me a peek on my cheeks.

"And I will always be supportive of whatever you do. So please carry me to the room. I'm tired." She pouted and raised her hands to me as my eyes widened.

Since the movie room was at the attic and we had to go down the staircase, I decided to piggyback Krystal down the stairs. Once we reached the last step, I put her down before swiftly carrying her in my arms.

"It's okay, Eunjin. You can put me down since you had already carried me from the movie room." Krystal said as she insisted on getting down.

"Anni. That's a piggyback ride. You wanted me to carry you so now, I'm going to do so just like bridal style. This is like a practice for me before our marriage."

I chuckled as we made our way to my parent's room while Krystal started to turn into a tomato, blushing hard.

************************

"And so with this, the meeting will be adjourned until the next one. Mr Song and Mr Choo, please stay behind for a while."

I said to everyone in the room before giving a short nod towards the two mentioned person and closed the notebook in front of me. Everyone started to clear their belongings from the table, looking as if they were in a hurry to leave the room. I noticed that Harabeoji was still discussing something with the Head of Secretary, Ms Jeon as Mr Song walked up to me with Mr Choo beside me.

"Have a seat first. We'll wait until everyone clears the room." I informed them as they sat down.

It didn't take long for the room to be emptied except for the presence of Harabeoji, Ms Jeon, Mr Song, Mr Choo and me. The Bi-weekly meeting had begun 3hrs earlier with most of the attendees surprised to see Harabeoji in the conference room, seated beside me. I began the meeting with reading out the main topics that we would be addressing for that day. I did informed that we would also be discussing about a proposal by Mr Choo if time permitted.

Throughout the meeting, I could observe that Mr Choo was fidgeting in his seat. As the Head of Departments took turns to read up their report, Mr Choo's eyes kept staring at the file in his hand. He was seated at one ot the corner situated at the back of the conference room which I had a direct view off. Discussions soon begun with priority given to topics that needed urgent attention to settle. The meeting finally ended when I noticed that it was almost coming to 1pm. Stealing a glance towards Mr Choo, I could see that he had a sense of relief look on his face.

That was until I told him and Mr Song to stay behind. So at the moment, the elderly man had the same worried look on his face, just like when he had first entered the conference room.

"I heard from my granddaughter that you had a proposal drawn up which could help the company to save a few billions from our ship repairs. It's too bad that we were not able to present it to the table earlier due to time constraint but I'm really interested to listen to your proposal. Especially when it involves money." Harabeoji broke the silence as I pretended to be busy with some paper works.

"I.. ehemm. I'm glad that Mr Han thinks highly of my proposal.  A few days back, I had already presented my idea to Ms Han." Mr Choo had to clear his throat a few times to hide his nervousness.

Sensing that he was trying to avoid explaining about the proposal, I decided to ask him about the amendments that I requested for him to do since that day. It didn't came as a surprise to me when he admitted that he was not able to do as I had requested.

"And I believe you have a good reason for not doing so." I countered his remarks as he suddenly avoided my gaze and looked at Harabeoji instead.

"Mr Han, I've contributed my skills and time to the company for the past 30yrs. I had been very supportive to all the policies that you had implemented for the company. Your leadership qualities was one of the reasons that I had stayed on for this long in the company. But why is it when I'm trying my best to give back to the company, Ms Han is trying her best to stop me from doing so?"

At that moment, a deep frown appeared on my face as my temper started to rise. Mr Choo continued by saying that I was purposely making things difficult for him by asking me to re-do his proposal when he didn't find any problems with it. He cited that he was more experience in dealing with matters of the ship repairs than me therefore I shouldn't even be questioning him about it.

I was already on the verge of losing my temper when I felt a soft tap on my thighs. Harabeoji must have realised the change in my expression as I turned to face him. He smiled at me before he turned to face Mr Choo.

"I acknowledged your contributions to the company, Mr Choo and I'm really thankful that you had put your faith in my leadership." Harabeoji started talking as I saw the smirk on Mr Choo's face. "But I'm no longer managing the company as for now. Even though Ms Han is only the Acting Director at the moment, most of the decisions are made by her. And she has the utmost support from me."

I saw the smirk disappeared from Mr Choo's face as I continued to keep a straight face. Harabeoji continued talking by saying that I must have had my reasons for asking Mr Choo to re-do his proposal. "Even though Ms Han is not as experience as you in terms of her knowledge of ships but I believe she would have taken the effort to go through your proposal to find any flaws from it. By the way, Mr Song. I need your opinion on this. You were there when Ms Han went through the proposal with Mr Choo, right? From your point of view, was Ms Han's request to re-do the proposal, something that is unnecessary?"

Mr Song, who had been listening quietly throughout the whole conversation, was surprised when the attention was now diverted to him. Adjusting his sitting posture, the young man then expressed his thoughts by saying that I seemed to understand the proposal better than Mr Choo himself. His remarks caught Mr Choo offguarded.

"Ms Han was well-prepared when she asked those questions to Mr Choo. Furthermore, her questions are those that are necessary to ensure that the project goes well such as back-up plans, available resources and so on. During the whole process, I felt that Mr Choo didn't seem to understand the whole system that was being proposed. It made me feel like it was not his own work."

At this point, Mr Choo was starting to blink his eyes rapidly as I noticed him swallowing his saliva a few times. After Mr Song ended his sentence, the whole conference room fell into a deep silence which only added on to the intensity of the situation.

"Is there anything that you might want to say against Mr Song's words, Mr Choo?" Harabeoji asked as the old man looked up once at Harabeoji before hanging his head low.

"I... I... I'm sorry."

************************

"Hi, beautiful."

I chuckled when I saw Krystal's startled reaction as she turned around to face me. Glaring a little at me, her expression changed again when I brought out the single stalk of rose from behind my back.

"What's with the flower?" She asked.

"It's not just a flower. It's called a sweetheart rose." I grinned dorkily as Krystal took the rose from me before clinging her hand around my arm. "Did you wait long?"

Krystal smile and shook her head, telling me that it's only been 10mins since she arrived. I had ended work early and told Krystal to wait for me at her office lobby. Since she had left her car at Harabeoji's place last night, I had sent her to Jessica's place for a change of clothings. Initially, I wanted to send her to work too but she said that she would be hitching a ride with her sister and promised me that I could fetch her from work instead.

As we walked out of the building towards my bike that was parked at the side of the road, I noticed Krystal bowing her head and waving her hand to some of her colleagues who were walking past. I'm not sure if it was just my imagination but Krystal seemed to be clutching my arms very tightly in a possessive manner as we walked. By the time we reached my bike, I was trying my best to stop myself from chuckling.

"Why are grinning like a dork?" Krystal asked when she caught me smirking as I put on the helmet for her.

"Because of you. Why are you holding on to me so tightly as if I'm about to run away?" I threw back a question at her.

"I'm protecting you from the other girls." Krystal pouted as I realised that she was being jealous. "Did you see how they looked at you earlier? They were totally in awe."

"In awe?" I widened my eyes in surprised as I put on my own helmet. "Why would they look at me that way?"

"Because you're good-looking. Especially when you're dressed up like this." Krystal pointed to my dressing as I broke out into a laughter. "Why are so smart-looking today, anyway?"

(Imagine this is what Eunjin was wearing.)

"I had a meeting today, remember? So I need to be a little more presentable." I continued chuckling as Krystal rolled her eyes at me.

We were about to climb onto the bike when we heard a horn from behind. Turning around, I saw two dorky heads sticking out from a grey Porsche Boxter which was too familiar for me not to recognise. Yuri and Taeyeon exited from the car with dorky grins on their faces.

"Going on a date?" Taeyeon asked teasingly.

"Looking smoking hot, Eunjin." Yuri added on, along with a thumbs up. "Minus the bike though."

Instantly, Yuri and Taeyeon shook their head to show their disapproval of my bike before breaking out into a laughter.

"Very funny, guys. By the way, how did you manage to reach here by 5.20pm when you finish work at 5pm? It took me at least 30mins by bike to reach here." I asked while arching my eyebrow. "Did both of you leave early from the office? Didn't I say not to...."

"Relax, boss. We left at 5pm on the dot." Taeyeon intercepted my words as she started asking me about the route that I took to come to Krystal's workplace.

To my surprise, there was actually a shorter route to arrive at the building which only took 15mins. Yuri and Taeyeon started laughing at me while I pouted.

"We won't go off early from work. But maybe during lunch." Taeyeon said as she quickly apologised. "We heard about the gossip and rumours too. Don't stress yourself out. We'll behave."

"What rumours? Gossips?" Krystal asked as she looked at me before turning to face Yuri and Taeyeon again. "Is something going on at work?"

"It's not really a bad thing. Just some people talking about our friendship with Eunjin and spreading rumours about how she's giving special treatment to us. It's been going on since me, Taeyeon and Sunny joined the company. It's just a baseless accusation but we won't want to give others the opportunity to find fault with us and indirectly, involved Eunjin in it." Yuri explained as I nodded my head.

"Really?" Krystal was doubtful before turning to face me. "Are you sure everything is under control?"

"Don't worry too much about it. It's something that I expected when I decided to ask them to work for me. All these rumors will go away on it's own. It's just a matter of time."

Another horn distracted our conversation as we all turned around to see a white BMW, pulling behind Taeyeon's car. Jessica and Tiffany exited from the car to join us by the side of the road. Both of them also commented about my outfit as I explained to them about the meeting.

"Talking about that, how was it? Mr Choo?" Krystal asked as I explained that he had admitted to submitting someone else's work to Mr Song.

"He mentioned that it was Yuri's work and apologised for what he did. I didn't inform him that I knew about the bullying and harassment. I just told him that I would be transferring Yuri to another fleet manager, who will be more supportive of her work and at the same time, I will put Yuri in-charge of that proposal. Mr Choo will be issued with a written warning about his abuse of authority and his unprofessional work etiquette. After this incident, HR will be doing an overall review of his performance throughout the years which will affect his grading performance." I explained in details as the rest of the girls just listened with jaws dropped.

"You're not firing him?" Jessica asked as I shook my head.

"That man has only about two years to his retirement. Furthermore, he did contributed and worked for the company for a long time. Firing him it's not going to change the fact that he did a mistake. Giving him a chance to reflect would be a better option." I said as Jessica looked at me as if she had just seen something unusual. "Wae? Why do you look at me like that?"

"Was that decision made by you?" She asked as I nodded my head. "Wow... I'm actually impress. It's very rare to find a superior who will actually think beyond the box. If it was me, I might have just fire the person."

"Eunjin is actually quite popular among the workers in the company. 75% of them actually like her style and approach in work." Yuri commented.

"That's right. And out of the 75%, half of them are girls. They are like fangirling over her." Taeyeon said teasingly as I could feel a dark presence beside me.

"What did you say? Fangirling?" Krystal's firm voice caused the smirk on Taeyeon's face to disappear as I swallowed my saliva. "Han Eunjin! We're going home straight right now. N.O.W!"

"She sounded like you." I heard Yuri said to Jessica before she was nudged at the stomach by her girlfriend.

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Author's Note:

Hi everyone. Since it's a special day today, double updates for my readers. Thank you for the support so far. Hope that all of you will continue your support, not only for this story but for my other stories too. Take care everyone. Stay healthy and happy.

p.s: I miss Tiffany so much. I hope she's doing fine.