“Oh God!! Have they found my ring??”

Shin Hye wake up immediately when the phone vibrate and flashing a new text from Lotte Hotel.

“Oh God! Oh God!” She feel kind of relieved and yet almost to cry as her fingers are fumbling as she unlock the phone.

Dear Guests, Lunch treat half price. Please visit www.lottehotelseoul.com for details.

Kind regards. The Lotte Team

Disappointed, she slump back on the bed. “Yaaahhhh! What kind of message is this? Why they include me in this stupid promotion? Are they playing around with me?”

She throw the phone on the bed. Her eye shuts tightly. ‘It’s been eight hours have passed. Eight hours I’ve lost the ring!’

A nasty realization is turning round and round in her stomach.

‘What if - -‘  Shaking her head, she abruptly get out of bed and marching to the kitchen.

“I’ll make a cup of coffee and send some more messages to LMH.” She tells, kind of distracting herself from her own craze assumption.

The phone has started buzzing again with texts and emails when she turn on the kettle. She sit on the window seat and start scrolling through. Every message is just some friend asking if she has found the ring yet and making suggestion which is likely more as to make her feel better.

“He didn’t reply.” She mutter weakly when she found nothing from Soo Hyun. She sent him couple of texts last night, after she’s at home and feel slightly calm. She asking what else his parents had said about her and when he was planning to tell her and how’s he going to face them now. “And now he’s ignoring me?”

She exhales in frustration, with her hand keep scrolling.

“He was right. His PA definitely handle his whole life.” She nods when she found there are about fifty, just from overnight and this morning. She believed he clearly hasn’t had the email function transferred yet. “Everything and everyone in here.” His doctor, colleagues, request, invitations . . . it’s like a universe of LMH. She can see where he buys his shirts. She can see the name of his plumber. And so on . . .

“What I’m doing now?” She ask herself as she start to feel uncomfortable as she stop scrolling down. She never had so much access to someone else’s phone before. Not her friends, not even Soo Hyun. There are some things that she just don’t share. Even though Soo Hyun is her boyfriend . . . yet so called fiancé, but she would never, ever let him near her phone.

And now, with LMH messages are randomly mixed up with her, she feels weird too. She scroll down two messages for her, then about six for LMH, then another for her. All side by side. She never shared an in-box with anyone in her life.

“This is weird.” She let out her feeling, sighs deeply. “OK . . . Not a big deal. This is not for too long.”  She put off the phone, make her coffee and fill a bowl with cereals before she sit back and go through the phone again.

“I’m not going to spy him.” She say in between munching as she slowly pick through the messages, working out which ones for her and which ones for LMH before forwarding them.

“I just need to click the messages in order to forward it. It just by mistake when my fingers wrongly click it open.” She reason herself, feel slightly guilty when she catch a glimpse of the text when she by mistake press the ‘Open’.

“Why there are so many people who’s having hard time getting in touch with him?” She add as she scroll more.

Is this a good way to reach LMH?

Hi! Apologies for bothering you but I have left several messages for LMH  . . .

Hi Seol Hyun, could you nudge LMH about an email I sent last week? I’ll . . .

“This arrogant LMH must be a really, really bad at answering emails and texts.” She shakes her head as she keep scrolling.

She almost chokes the moment she reading his replies. “Yah!! What kind of replying is this?” She screams. “Chinca? This guy . . .”

Yes, fine. LMH

Done. LMH

OK. LMH

“Is he allergic of typing or something? Why everything have to be short? Aigoo . . . Would he die to at least add ‘Best wishes’ or smiley face. Not even thank you.” She click her tongue nastily.

“After all, why can’t he just reply to people?”

Shin Hye feels pity to Kim Hee Sun who trying to organize an office Fun Run and has asked him twice now if he could lead a team. “Why he don’t want to do that? It’s fun! Raise money for charity. I just love this!”

“Why he didn’t attend the conference?” She found he hasn’t reply regarding accommodation for the company conference in Busan, next week.

“Four times? What is the problem with him?” She can’t believe his dentist’s receptionist has emailed him about making an appointment for a check-up up to that number. She can’t control herself to check on the previous email where she found that Seol Hyun obviously given up trying. Each time she’s made an appointment for him, he’s emailed her to cancel.

“Does he want his teeth to rot?” commenting with scrunching nose before she put the phone on the table and get herself ready to go to work.

# # #

A whole new series of emails has arrived by the time Shin Hye leaving for work at 8.40.

“These crazy people all starts working at the crack of dawn?” She nagging while walking along the street. Her eye capture the email on top which sound quite intriguing. She open it.

Min Ho,

Ran into Dong Gun at the Octagun Club last night, looking worse for wear. All I’ll say is, don’t let him in the same room as Mr. Cheon Ho Jin any time soon, will you?

Shi Yoon

“What are they talking about? Who’s Dong Gun? Why was he the worse for wear at that club?” She want to know.

“Moon Chae Won.” She says as her eye drop on the second email and click it open before it widen in surprise.

Seol Hyun,

Let’s go straight about this. You’ve heard Min Ho and me fighting. There’s no point hiding anything from you. So, since Min Ho refuses to answer the email I sent half an hour ago, maybe you could be so kind to print this attachment out and PUT IT ON HIS DESK, SO HE READ IT.

Thank you so much.

Chae Won

She stare at the phone in shock, before let out her laugh. “Yah! What is this? What is wrong with this arrogant?” She add. “She must be the fiancée. And . . .  she working at MSeventh as well.” She confirm it through the email address –[email protected]

“But why she emailing him?” She count it as weird. “Well, maybe they work on different floors.”

She stares at the attachment include together in the email. She wonder what it was. ‘No. I shouldn’t read. It’s really wrong.’ She hesitate as she pause at the pedestrian crossing. ‘Very very wrong.’ She still feel bad for reading the email from her father.

“But . . . she wants it printed out. And put on Min Ho desk. Didn’t anyone could read if they walked by?” Her eye glued at the attachment again. “I won’t mention this to anyone.”

As like her finger have life of their own, she already clicking on the attachment without thinking more.

Min Ho,

You still haven’t answered me. Are you purposely doing so? Do you think this is NOT IMPORTANT???? It’s only the most important thing IN OUR LIFE, and how you can go about your day so calmly . . .

I don’t know. It makes me want to weep. We need to talk, so, so badly. I know some of this is my fault, but until we start untying the knots TOGETHER, how will we know who’s pulling which string? How? The thing is, sometimes I don’t even know if you have a string. It’s that bad. I DON’T KNOW IF YOU HAVE A STRING. If you were a human being with a shred of emotion, you’d be crying by now. I know I am.

And that’s another thing, I have a ten o’clock meeting which you have now ED UP as I left my ING MASCARA at home.

So, be proud of yourself.

Chae Won

Shin Hye eyes are like saucers. She never seen anything like it in her life. She read it over again.

And suddenly find herself giggling, which she know she shouldn’t. It’s not funny. She know the Chae Won obviously really upset. And she know she said some pretty screw things to Soo Hyun, when she been pissed and hormonal. The different is, she will never, ever put them in an email and get his assistant to print it out.

“Gosh!” Her head bends up in sudden realization. “There’s no Seol Hyun anymore. No one going to print it out and put it on Min Ho desk.”

She can imagine how Chae Won will get even more livid if Min Ho didn’t reply . . . because he actually don know about it at all.

“Is she always this intense or it just her bad day?” She can’t hold herself to know as she typing ‘Chae Won’ in the search and a whole series of emails pop up.

It’s yesterday, with the tittle:

Are you trying to me or WITH me, Min Ho? Or CAN’T YOU DECIDE???

She giggles as she read it. “Yah, what is this?” While her wild imagination picturing how they throw things at each other and yell, and then have mad passionate   - - -

The phone suddenly vibrates as the ringtone blast out, shocking her which nearly drop it as she see ‘LMH mobile’ appear on the screen.

“Is he a kind of psychic?” She mutter as her mad thought telling that he knows she’s been spying his love life. ‘No more, no more! No more snooping!’

“Hello, hi!” She try to sound relaxed and guiltless.

“Did I have an email from Mr. Choi Won Young this morning?” He launches in without waiting. 

“No. I’ve sent all your emails over. Good morning to you too.” She answer brightly. “I’m really well, how about you?”

“I thought you might have missed one.” He completely ignores her. “It’s extremely important.”

“Well, I’m extremely thorough.” She retort pointedly. “Believe me, everything that’s coming into this phone, you’re getting. And there wasn’t anything from Mr. Choi Won Young. Someone called Chae Won just emailed, by the way.” She add casually. “I’ll forward it on. There’s an attachment, which sounded quite important. But obviously I didn’t look at it at all. Or read it, or anything.”

“Hmm.” He gives a kind on non-committal growl. “So, have you found your ring?”

“Not yet.” She admit reluctantly. “But I’m sure it’ll turn up.”

“You should inform your insurers anyway, you know. They sometimes have a time limit for claiming. Colleagues of mine got caught out that way.”

‘Insurers? Time limits?’ She suddenly feel clammy with guilt. She never have that thought at all. She haven’t checked up on her insurance or the Kim’s insurance or anything. Instead, she been standing at a pedestrian crossing, missing her chance to walk, reading other people’s emails and laughing at them. ‘What are you doing Shin Hye! Wake up! Priorities . . . Focus!’

“Right.” She manage at last. “Yes, I knew that. I’m on to it.”

She ring off and stand motionless for a moment, the traffic speeding in front of her. ‘I have to come clean. It’s Kim’s ring. They should know it’s lost. I’ll have to tell them.’

“How should I tell them?”

Hi there! It’s me, the girl you dot want to marry your son. Guess what, I’ve lost your priceless family ring!

‘No.’ she shakes her head mindlessly. ‘I just need twelve more hours. And then I tell them.’  

# # #

Shin Hye always thought she might be a dentist. Several of her family are dentists, and it always seemed she like a pretty decent career. But then, when she was fifteen, her school sent her on a week-long work-experience placement at the physio unit at her their local hospital. All the therapists were so enthusiastic about what they did, that focusing only on teeth suddenly felt a bit narrow for her. And she’d never regretted her decision for a moment. It just suits her, being a physio.

First Fit Physio Studio is exactly eighteen minute walk away from her apartment in Itaewon. It’s not the grandest practise in the world – she’d probably earn more if she went to some smart sports centre or big hospital. But she been working there since she qualified, and can’t imagine working anywhere else. Plus, she work with friends, which almost people wouldn’t give that up in a hurry.

She arrives at nine o’clock expecting to have the usual staff meeting. They have one every Thursday morning where they discuss patients and targets, new therapies, the latest research and anything related. There are one particular patient she want to talk about actually: Mrs. Nam Jeong Hee , sweet 65-years old with the ligament problem. She’s pretty much recovered – but las week she came in twice, and this week she’s booked three appointments. She has told her she just needs to exercise at home with her Dyna-bands, but she insists she needs her help. She think she’s become totally dependent on them – which might be good for the cash register but is not good for her.

She quite looking forward to the meeting. But to her surprise, the meeting room is set up differently from usual. The table has been pulled to one end of the room with two chairs behind it – and there’s a sole chair facing it in the middle of the room. It looks like an interview set-up.

The reception door pings to signal that someone’s entered, and she turn to See Krystal coming in with a coffee tray.

“Hi Krystal! What’s up?”

“You’d better talk to So Ra.” She gives her a sidelong look without smiling.

“What?”

“I don’t think I should say.” She takes a sip of coffee, eyeing secretively over the top.

Krystal’s quite prickly, in fact, she’s a bit of child. She goes all quiet and sulky, and then it comes out that yesterday someone asked her for that patient file too impatiently and hurt her feelings.

So Ra. She’s the opposite. She is packed so full of common sense that practically wafting out of her ears. The minute you’re in her company you feel saner, calmer, jollier and stronger. No wonder this physio practise has been a success. In Shin Hye opinion, she and Krystal are OK at what they do, but So Ra is the star turn. Everyone loves her. Men, women, grannies and ki