Chapter 23

 

I woke up to the sound of knocking against something. The sounds were slow at first but as I rubbed my eyes with my palm, the sounds became clearer and clearer. I looked around in shock, trying to figure out why I was in a king-sized bed instead of the spring-popped mattress in the store room of my best friend's house.

 

The memory came back and I ran my fingers through my messy morning hair with a yawn.

 

"Ms. Oh." Before I could figure out more detail on what happened, Mr. Park's voice bombed from outside. He wasn't yelling but his tone was quite high, enough to make me flinch on my .

 

"I give you exactly 15 minutes to finish up your shower and there should be some clean clothes in the wardrobe, appropriate enough for you to go to work. We don't have much time so make it lightning speed."

 

With that I could hear his steps out of range and I got up from the comforting bed and practically dragged my feet to the shower.

 

In the shower, my mind flashed back what happened last night. Sighing heavily, I leaned over the glass wall of the shower, creating some foam against it. The warm water flowed against my skin making me slightly comfortable and I smiled a little at the pleasure. I wished I could stay like this all day without worrying although I'll end up with soggy body after 5 hours in shower. But since Mr. Park was waiting for me, I finished myself quickly, brushed my teeth with an extra toothbrush I found in the cupboard and cleaned my body at the same time before waling out the shower.

 

I wrapped myself with a new towel and tiptoed to the wardrobe, hoping there wouldn't be too much water dripping from my body to the floor.

 

I took a white skinny slack with a short sleeves t-shirt and started to dress myself. I tucked the t-shirt in and finished with a cream woman coat wrapping my body. Wait, why Mr. Park have woman's coat? No, it doesn't matter.

 

I straightened my hair with my finger to undo the knots. This what I hated the most. Knots. The were so annoying I wished I could just shaved my hair and became a bald Buddhist at Shaolin temple. But no. Of course I didn't do that.

 

I took my hairband and tied my hair to a simple bun. Not messy, simple. I'm going to work for God's sake.

 

I went down and saw Mr. Park at the dining table, taking a sip of coffee, tea, I don't know, from his cup while his eyes were fixed intently at the newspaper he was holding.

 

I rushed down, quite noisily so that he realized my presence. He glanced up at me with his hand still twined at the cup's holder. He looked at me with unreadable expression on his face before putting the cup down, neatly folded the newspaper and placed it beside his plate of half-eaten pancake. The smell of the sweet honey tempted me I might drool right at this moment in front of my boss.

 

He stood up, buttoning his navy blue coat and walked to the door with me still rooting at the same spot, drooling over the delicious pancake.

 

A loud cough snapped me out.

 

"Ms. Oh are you ready to go?" No! Is that even a question? I'm literally starving right now and you just forced me to go to work before I even had my breakfast? Hell no, man!

 

"Yes," I gulped down my saliva hard and turned around, tearing my eyes from the vision of the pancake. "Of course."

 

You are so dumb, Jin Hye.

 

*

 

Other than the indistinct sound of the moving car on the road and honking once in a while, there wasn't any thing that could cut the silence thickened in the air that seemed to be increasing every second. The awkwardness was so palpable the small kid in the backseat of the car that stopped beside us at the traffic lights could even noticed. It wasn't like I'm not used to be in a dead silence when Mr. Park was around since he didn't like to talk that much but after yesterday's incident, I felt like something was not right. Not like that not right but something seemed to be off. It was bothering me quite a while. With my stomach screaming with hunger, it didn't help either.

 

Obviously, Mr. Park was helping me and I owed him that much I need to say sorry. Probably more even but from the look of it, he didn't seem wanting to talk about any of it.

I'm not gonna be those typical starstruck character in drama where she kept on asking something stupid like; why is he helping me? We're not even that close so why is he? Am I meant something to him?

 

If I'm still in high school, I would most likely to be in that kind of thinking since I had the imagination of the possibilities of Dae Hyun actually liked me when he helped me who was clumsily fall at the cafeteria in front of other students once, but then, of course he didn't. Are you kidding me?

 

I'm in my 20s now and having that kind of vision wasn't my way of life anymore.

 

He's my boss at that!

 

Anyway, he did say that he was guilty for leaving me behind.

 

He drove to the side of the road and pulled the brake.

"Get off." He said, without looking at me. I looked around since I thought he was probably mistaken. I could see the side of the company from here but wasn't parking few meters away when you actually could ask the valet to park your car at the exclusive spot as the CEO a bit too...?

 

"What?" I asked.

 

"Get off." He repeated a little louder but still not looking at me.

 

"But sir-"

 

"Am I your driver now, Ms. Oh?" He snapped, but still keeping his tone on place. "Last night I was your savior and now driver? If you want to pull off some scene of having affair with your boss, do it with someone else because I'm completely not interested. You could get Suga for that."

 

He whispered the last part but I still could catch it.

 

Why was he bringing Suga now out of nowhere? He wasn't even here and what the point of taking it out on him? I mean, I'm sorry but what the hell?

 

I was taken aback slightly and it had me unable to say anything. My jaw slightly dropped for a couple of seconds before I finally opened the door.

 

"Um, okay." I said and got off fully on my both feet. Before I could say anything, the tire screeched against the slightly wet road and with that he drove off quite fast I could say.