Two weeks into her new life and surprisingly many team dinners after, Jess started feeling much more at ease with her new colleagues. It also helped that Mark Bloom, the head of marketing, who came back a week earlier from his business trip to the USA, turned out to be a funny and smart guy. He was her most important partner at work, therefore it was good to know that they shared their love for sarcasm and sushi’s as a long-hours-at-work snack as well as their distaste for Gustav and his faithful flock of scavengers. At almost two meters tall Mark was a broad shouldered brunette with mischievously curly hair and burning brown eyes, an epitome of American charm.

Jess thought that her arrival into the team and the industry overall in Korea was better than smooth. She had a great team who shared her passion for making online shopping an easy and simple but at the same time wholesome shopping experience and some of them showed considerable talent at business development, which she was looking forward to putting to a good use very soon. She also found a great recruiter who was scouting the South Korean employment market looking for ambitious, skillful and charismatic fashionistas to join her team. On top of that with Mark's help who seemed to know everyone in Seoul, Jess has met with a few C-level execs in fashion and entertainment industry and even met with press officer of Seoul city administration and his wife and got herself invited to a private preview of a highly anticipated exhibition of a new hip artist in September.

So, Jess definitely had reasons to be pleased with herself. She had been making good progress and she was doing it fast. Mark had planned to start an aggressive marketing campaign in the end of October, in time to meet pre-Christmas sales, but it required all the ground work to be done by end of September, so Jess was on a tight schedule. Even though Mark had his hands full himself, he was doing everything he could to help her as well. They had already been to three fashion events in the past two weeks and were scheduled to go on to one at least every second week.

Jess knew it would be a busy autumn, but she never realized just how busy it would be until she found herself right in the middle of Sunday morning, her second Sunday in Seoul, preparing for a brunch with expat wives at a nearby hotel and thinking of all the things she would have to do that day after she would come back to her apartment. She felt a tiny sting of guilt when she thought of her parents. The last time she spoke to them was previous Tuesday, she had not kept her promise of calling every second day (the slack Sarah agreed on only after Jess complained she could not call them every day). That moment thinking of London, she remembered the other promise she made when she left London.

She never called Jiyong! And that was so stupid of her. With all that effort they had been putting into getting access to sponsorship of Seoul fashion week that was planned in the middle of October, she never thought of her single most solid connection to Korea’s high-end fashion industry. They were way too late for this year’s event and the organizer just wasn’t willing to make any exceptions for an unfamiliar company from the West that wanted to be featured on the country’s major fashion event. This must be something that Jiyong would be able to influence.

Jess pulled her business card case that she received as a welcome gift from Dan on her first day in the company and started feverishly flipping through cards looking for the black card with red print on it. It was in the beginning of the stack which had grown enormously in the past several days, so it was not easy to find it. Jess dialed the number on the card quickly glancing at her kitchen wall clock. It was 9am on Sunday. Even celebrities must be up at this time. The phone rang six-seven times, but Jess was determined to wait as inappropriately long as it takes for him to pick up. She finally heard a clicking sound and unfamiliar sleepy voice answered in Korean, ‘Yeoboseyo.’

‘Uhm,’ not recognizing the voice, Jess lost her original trail of thought, but quickly recovered herself. ‘Hi, my name is Jessica Wiley. Am I speaking to … Kwon Jiyong?’ She thought that the formal name would sound better, in case the person she was speaking to was indeed not Jiyong. He cleared his throat and answered after a short pause obviously still dizzy from sleep:

‘Yes, it is him. Jessica Wiley? Could you remind me… Oh, Jess, the London girl?!’

Jess gave out a laugh inwardly thanking god that he remembered her. ‘Yes, the London girl! I am glad you remember me! You saved me from a hell of an awkward moment ‘cause my name was really all I got.’

‘Oh, I am sure a resourceful lady like you would have figured something out’

‘Well, you never know. I now know the full extent of your fame, so I might have been star-struck.’

‘Oh, now you are just being sarcastic! You should be careful, I have been taking lessons on British humour in the past two weeks I have been waiting for your call. So I can smell sarcasm from afar.’

‘You did, huh? Well, that’s a lesson learnt for me: should never make a man wait two weeks, they might just grow hell of a lot smarter in that time!’

Jiyong gave out a satisfied giggle on the other end of the line and Jess thought to herself that it was rare for her to meet someone she was so comfortable around, not only in Korea but even back home. And she wanted to believe that Jiyong felt same way with her. Putting all that stardom aside, Jess thought he would have made a great boyfriend material. Jiyong was busy promoting their band’s new album in China and Japan next two weeks, so they agreed to meet right after he is back in Korea. Jess thought of bringing up the fashion week thing during the call, but then thought that it would be seen inconsiderate even in Britain, let alone in Korea, to ask for a favor from someone without treating them to a meal or a drink prior to that. Besides, though she did not like to admit it, she really wanted to see him.

After talking to Jiyong she created a reminder on her phone to call her parents later that day. This Sunday was going to be full of guilt, shaming and warmth of people who cared for her, it was going to be lovely.

The following day Dan, Mark and Jess were presenting their joint presentation with the campaign roll out plan and update on results so far to the headquarter. Jess was nervous, it was her first update since she came to Seoul, so she wanted to impress everyone on the other end of video conference. Gustav was going to be in the meeting, so this would also be a great chance to rub his nose into the fact that yet again he had been wrong about her. Savoring that fantasy throughout the day, she stayed at the brunch as long as she needed to acquaint herself with the better half of expat community and to have a few pleasant chats with quirky young ladies who were looking to reinforce their girls’-night-out troops. One glass of sparkling and an invitation to what was promising to be a fun night out later she came back to her apartment and spent rest of Sunday buried in papers and on the phone with her team who was also clocking in a weekend shift to help her with some of the slides.

The meeting was an absolute success. Despite the fact that it was early Monday morning in London (and Gustav was known as not a morning and not a Monday person), Gustav was on his best behavior. He even went as far as to complement Jess on her remarkable work with getting Ups!, one of Korea’s biggest mainstream street wear brands, on board. The team was triumphant after the meeting, so Dan suggested that they cut their day a little shorter and go out for a dinner together. It was a welcome idea as everyone had been working very long hours lately and there had not been time for the usual team after-work fun for nearly a week.

‘Are you going to join us?’ Mark popped his head back into the conference room.

‘Yea, sure. I think I ran out of my quota of excuses for bailing on these parties.’

‘That is probably a good idea. I just overheard Dan talking to his guys that if you are not coming voluntarily, they would have to carry you there.’

‘That would actually be nice for a change, ‘cause at the end of the night I am usually the one carrying you, guys.’

‘You know yourself, that is easy to fix. You just need to start drinking.’

‘And you know that is absolutely out of question. I don’t drink. I had put my foot down about it once and I am keeping it there.’

‘All right, all right,’ Mark said defeated. ‘Hey, everyone is heading downstairs. I will go get my stuff. See you at the elevator in a bit!’

It was fresh after rain outside when their group of twenty-something people poured out of the entrance of their office building. After some debate over which place to go, the majority vote decided to have Korean BBQ at a nearby restaurant. It was too expensive for their usual after-work exploits into the city, but seemed very appropriate for the moment's occasion.

Ten or fifteen bottles of soju later Lily, her face blushed and eyes slightly glassy, turned around looking for someone. She was sitting at the far end of the table from Jess and Mark. Having finally placed them at the table, she happily exclaimed: ‘Oh, you two look so cute together. You should totally get together! Your babies would be so cute!’

Everyone laughed. ‘Me and Mark? That's a horrible idea. We'd kill each other in a week. Besides, I don’t think company supports that kind of stuff,’ said Jess to which Dan immediately replied: ‘I don’t think we have any rules on that in our Code of Conduct.’ Jess gave another uncertain laugh and decided to leave it at that switching her attention to Mark and Lee Taehoon who were vigorously talking about their favorite rugby teams.

After the merry go around was over and they have successfully loaded everyone else on their taxis, Jess and Mark were still waiting for theirs.

‘Well, you certainly did not like the idea of us being a couple! I got to say, Jess, you kind of hurt my feelings a little bit today,’ said Mark pretending to be pouting. Tired from all the food, walking, talking and the little sleep she had been getting, Jess did not right away understand what he was talking about.

‘So you heard it? I did not realize you were even listening.’

‘I did. Intently,’ Mark replied smiling.

‘I’m sorry. Maybe I did overreact, I just found that idea so ridiculous. That doesn’t have to do with you or with me. I mean, we spend most of the time together, for us to sleep in the same bed would be just too much of one person in 24h. Don’t you think?’

‘I don’t know. As you said, we already spend most of our time together. That is not far from being a couple, apart from a few important aspects of it which I am sure we would be great at.’ Mark was now looking her right in the eyes, still smiling, so Jess wasn't sure if he was joking. He turned to wave at a taxi that just stopped nearby: ‘I think that’s your taxi. Something to think of on your way home,’ and closed the car door after her.