*_*_*_*_*_*

Selina sat at her desk nibbling her thumbnail. Chun’s mother would be gone for the following weeks…leaving her and Chun alone together. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the idea or anything, but wouldn’t it be a little uncomfortable? Basically meaning she and Chun didn’t even know each other that well yet…even if they were getting closer, but they didn’t know anything personal about each other. A woman and a man alone…Selina quickly shook her head. She had to find ways to get away from it.

*_*_*_*_*_*

Jiro swung back and forth in his chair and finally got up grabbing his jacket. As soon as he stepped out of his room Ella came walking down the hall toward him.

“I was wondering if you’d accompany me to dinner,” Ella said.

*_*_*_*_*_*

Selina paused slightly biting her lower lip and rubbed her fist into her palm. Would it be alright to be staying around Jiro like this? Would Chun be furious if he found out? Selina dropped her head knowing the obvious answer…but Jiro was Chun’s friend. Selina finally figured that the whole situation itself was stupid. She walked toward Jiro’s door and pushed it open slowly expecting to see him inside, but to her disappointment the office was empty. Selina dropped her hands off the doorknob and looked around. With a disappointed sigh Selina closed the door and walked down the stairs. Glumly walking out of the front doors Selina paused recognizing two figures up ahead. She silently watched as Jiro opened the door for Ella and closed it rushing to the driver’s side. Ella was here…

Selina walked blank mindedly down the street. What was her problem? What was with her? Seeing Ella come to be with Jiro made a deep black hole in her heart. She’d never cared this much before. Why was she having this feeling toward Jiro when it never existed in her for Chun?

The ringing of her phone snapped her out of her trance. Selina went to sit by a bench nearby and sighed before answering her call.

“Yes?” Selina answered in a flat tone of voice.

“Selina, where are you?” it was Chun.

Selina tilted her head down and stared at her shoes, “I’m walking.”

“You’re walking home?” Chun repeated. “Tell me where you are and I’ll come pick you up.”

Selina was silent before answering.

*_*_*_*_*_*

“This is what’s frustrating. They want us to remodel the whole building; don’t you think that’s an excessive order?” Ella was saying and stopped when she realized that Jiro was not paying attention.

Jiro had his head turned away and seemed to be staring at a far off wall. Ella smiled and put her fork down.

“Jiro?” Ella said.

She got no response.

“Jiro,” Ella started again.

No response. Ella laughed and tossed a napkin at Jiro, but it didn’t go far.

“Dummy,” Ella scolded.

“What? Oh…yes,” Jiro said quickly turning back.

Ella laughed, “What is it? You were never like this before.”

“What are you talking about,” Jiro questioned.

“All your attention used to be on me,” Ella told, “but then since Selina came along I’ve been lacking that attention from you.”

Jiro stared at Ella. Did she like him now that he told her he had a girlfriend?

“Our soup’s getting cold. We should hurry up and eat it,” Jiro said turning away.

Ella glanced up at Jiro who seemed to be focused on devouring his soup. It wasn’t Jiro that bothered her thoughts, but rather Chun and Selina. If a guy had a girlfriend how in the world would he allow her to stay at his friend’s place…and for this long? Ella could feel something click at the back of her head. It was either Selina wasn’t Jiro’s girlfriend, but Chun’s or she had nothing to do with them at all. That expression on her face when Jiro had announced her as his girlfriend at the cottage never left Ella’s mind. Having had more time to think about it Ella figured that Chun wouldn’t have acted the way he did over nothing. If Chun had been so angry toward her and Jiro then there must have been something that Ella didn’t know about. Ella was sure that she was right. Selina wasn’t Jiro’s girlfriend, but Chun’s.

Jiro couldn’t help, but just continue to eat. What was Ella thinking about that she had been looking his way for such a long time? He wasn’t able to read her face anymore.

*_*_*_*_*_*

Selina had been sitting silently on the couch just staring off into space for the past 15 minutes. Why was she so against the idea of Jiro and Ella being together? She couldn’t be feeling jealousy…no she couldn’t.

“Selina? Are you ok?” Chun asked coming to sit by her.

As he did so he reached his hand up to feel her forehead, but Selina quickly flinched back.

“I’m feeling a little tired,” Selina said standing up, “I’m going to sleep first.”

Selina quickly rushed up the stairs and closed her bedroom door. Why were her thoughts of Jiro bothering her so much? Wasn’t it Chun she had confessed to at first?

*_*_*_*_*_*

Loneliness swept over Ella as she entered her empty apartment. Where had all the noise gone? Ella dropped her purse on the coffee table in front of her and sat down on the couch turning on the TV. She flipped from one channel to the next and stopped at a basketball game. Chun used to love watching the games with her. He used to…these three words made Ella’s heartache more. She should have moved on…she would have if neither Jiro nor Chun were around. But they were always around. Jiro was just always popping up and seeing him reminded her of Chun in every way.

*_*_*_*_*_*

After an early breakfast Chun and Selina had walked out of the house and into Chun’s car. As Chun got in he reached over Selina and as he did so Selina could feel the heat coming from him as he seat belted her. Selina smiled a little and turned away to look out of the window as Chun started the engine.

“Have a good day. When you’re done call me alright?” Chun said.

Selina nodded and waved as Chun drove off.

Selina turned around and glanced up at the building. She smiled and bit her lower lip hurrying inside. As she rushed over to her desk she could hear a loud voice coming from somewhere. The other staff members had also stopped what they were doing.

“Do you know how embarrassing this is?! This project has been returned to us two times already! Two times! If you don’t get things straight this time our client is going to back out! I won’t hesitate in kicking you out!” Selina watched as an old man stomped out of Jiro’s office with an aura of anger flying around him.

“I can’t believe it’s been rejected again,” one of the staff members moaned.

“What is it?” Selina asked.

“We spent half a year on that project redoing it over 40 times and they still don’t like it?” someone else said not exactly answering Selina’s question.

“But I don’t get why the boss has to yell at our director,” another person said. “The boss is always yelling at him.”

“Just get back to work,” one of the older staff members advised.

“Selina when you have time bring a cup of coffee to the director,” one of them ordered.

“Me?” Selina questioned.

“You’re in better relation to him than us,” the man said.

“Yea how did you manage to get so close?” the girl sitting next to Selina asked.

Selina just smiled in return. There was no way she was going to talk about Chun and Jiro. She wasn’t even sure how she was brought into their relationship. They were just friends weren’t they? As Selina sat down and began to touch her computer memories ran through her head. It was because of that stupid lie she’d made. It was too embarrassing and coincidental to have run into Chun again. Things just got stranger and stranger when Ella arrived in the picture and when Jiro lied that she was his girlfriend. Selina guessed to herself that’s where it started off. The cottage incident.

“I’ll see you tomorrow Selina, bye bye,” one of the staff member called out as she walked out.

Selina looked around to find that she was the only one left. Without hesitating Selina turned around to look at Jiro’s office door. It still remained shut. Biting her lip she got up from her chair.

*_*_*_*_*_*

Jiro looked up as if he could see the person knocking on his door.

“What is it?” Jiro called out.

Without answering the door opened and Selina poked her head in with a smile. She walked toward him and set the cup of coffee down on his desk.

“Delicious coffee with sugar for our young sir,” Selina said.

“Young sir,” Jiro repeated as he grabbed the cup and took a sip. “You don’t lie it is good.”

Selina smiled and went to sit over by the small couch in his office.

“You haven’t left yet?” Jiro questioned.

“Does it seem like it?” Selina asked making herself comfortable on the couch laying her head down on the arm rest.

“Wouldn’t Chun worry?” Jiro asked.

“He’s staying behind for a meeting. It’ll be a long time before he goes back and I don’t want to be waiting for him alone,” Selina lied.

“You’re not just going to sleep there are you?” Jiro continued.

“Stop asking me so much questions,” Selina said covering her ears like a little child.

Jiro laughed at her and turned away grabbing the stack of papers in front of him.

“Did you get in trouble?” Selina asked.

“Why would I?” Jiro replied.

Selina shrugged, “Everyone heard it and they told me you weren’t doing your job.”

“You believe them?” Jiro asked.

Selina stared at Jiro with a serious face then smiled, “No, but I heard a project got returned.”

“Yea…I don’t know what’s going through this head of his.” Jiro said.

“They say third’s the charm,” Selina told.

“You talk a lot,” Jiro told.

“Since when?” Selina asked.

“Since 5 minutes have passed I haven’t even read a single sentence on this paper,” Jiro told.

“Then you should have ignored me, if you did I would have just continued to talk to myself, and talking to myself would make me look like an idiot, but who’s not already an idiot?” Selina went on.

“What’s wrong with you?” Jiro asked.

Selina burst into a laugh, “I don’t know. I guess I just feel slightly happy.”

“Happy?” Jiro asked feeling his heart skip a beat. Because of him?

“I just keep going on and on talking about nonsense. Ignore me will you?” Selina said.

Jiro glanced at her and smiled. Alone with Selina again. He turned away to start reading, but his mind wondered off.

-Flashback-

“Are you two actually dating?” Jiro questioned.

Chun glanced up at Jiro, “I don’t know.”

Jiro laughed, “What kind of an answer is that?”

“I don’t know really…” Chun admitted, “she is really cute.”

“So you do like her,” Jiro told.

“I’ve only seen her three times,” Chun pointed out, “but if she is my girlfriend you better not touch her.”

-Flashback-

Why did it feel as if he was being a really bad friend to Chun? Why did it always have to turn out that way? That Jiro always got close to whomever Chun fancied?

-Flashback-

“You seem to be doing well,” Mrs. Wu said.

Jiro nodded in response.

“I wanted to let you know that I’ll be going out of Taiwan for the next few weeks, if there’s any problem between Chun and Selina I’d like to trouble you to help them,” Mrs. Wu said. “I know you and Chun are pretty close so I’d like you to help take care of him. You two are pretty much like brothers after all.” Mrs. Wu paused then continued, “You two seem like good friends to Selina too, but Selina and Chun have already started their relationship. I hope you know your limits to being a friend. I don’t want to sound rude, but I don’t want you to go near Selina.”

-End of Flashback-

Was that how things were supposed to be? Had Mrs. Wu told this to Chun too? Did he want to obey Mrs. Wu’s words and stop hanging out with Selina? Did he want to stop being so friendly to her? However he thought of it Jiro just wanted to be close to her. He felt this kind of secure feeling whenever she was around and it made him feel happy. Still he didn’t want Selina to turn into another Ella. He felt that if he did have feelings for Selina, then it’d be the end of his and Chun’s friendship as well. But did he really have to choose one over the other? Did he really have to make a choice?

The ringing of Selina’s phone woke Jiro out of his thoughts. When it didn’t stop Jiro finally turned to see that Selina had fallen asleep. He slowly got up and found her phone inside her purse. He bit his lower lip when he saw Chun’s name on the caller id. Jiro let the phone continue to ring and placed it back in her purse. Chun would misunderstand if he answered the phone. Jiro retreated back to his seat and just about started to read his papers when his phone began to ring.