Losing To You Chapter 17

Eun Jo

It had been one week since I’d been released from the military and two days ago I had made up my mind to finally join my father’s company.

He’d been overjoyed. The last time I’d seen him so happy had been, when hyung and hyung-soo had announced their third pregnancy two years ago.

Well, since I was supposed to take over the company someday, I might as well start learning how to manage it right now.

Today was my first day at the office. Appa would introduce me and I’d start being an official employee.

At the breakfast table omma had thrown her car keys at me, telling me to pick up Min Seol and take her with me.

After her internship had ended last month, Min Seol had been taken over by appa’s company as a media designer.

So, I had walked over to her house to pick her up.

I had waited ten minutes in front of their entrance gate, before I had called and threatened her to break the door and get her myself.

She had shown up then, eyes blood-shot, with dark circles underlining them and her hair a complete mess.

I blinked once, twice: “What happened to you?”

She let out some kind of mix between a huff and a laugh: “Nothing happened to me. I just didn’t really sleep well. That’s all.”

I wasn’t so sure if missing out on sleep took such a toll on her or not, but if we didn’t get moving, we’d definitely be late.

The drive to the company was… silent.

Min Seol wasn’t talking.

Actually she hadn’t been very talkative since my return.

The atmosphere around the two of us was awkward and the tension so tangible you’d be able to cut through it with a knife.

I wasn’t stupid. I had noticed that she was trying to avoid me.

The only missing piece of that puzzle was the reason. I had no idea exactly why she was trying to avoid me.

The Min Seol I knew would have jumped at the first good chance of spending some time with just the two of us around. But one week had gone by and this drive was the first time we were able to spend more than twenty minutes together, without anyone barging in and/or disturbing us.

We’d been dating for six years, without telling our families about our relationship. It was a big thing, something similar to a time bomb. I didn’t know when the bomb would blast though, that it would blast at some point was inevitable.

Min Seol wasn’t probably thinking of breaking up with me, right?

She had told she loved me a countless times before, so the break-up option was out of question.

Then what was the reason for her weird behavior?

Well, this was not the time to think about these things.

Appa had told me that he remembered a few moments in his life when he had felt really proud. His youngest son joining his company was definitely one of those.

He had called on a meeting of the most important teams in his company and had introduced me to them. I would be joining the design management team, so he dismissed the rest of the people first and introduced me to that team once again, one member at a time.

It was a team of mostly young members, including only 3 members in their 40’s or late 30’s and the other seven, including me and Min Seol in their 20’s.

“And this is-“ appa was cut off by the woman he had been about to name.

She held out her hand to me: “Min Seo Kyung.” a smile, just as obviously fake as her hair, appeared on her face: “It’s nice to finally meet you Baek Eun Jo-sshi.

Was I supposed to say anything in return?

It doesn’t matter, since I didn’t say anything anyways. I only shook her hand and bowed my head slightly.

Appa noticed my discomfort and began talking again: “You can all proceed with your work now. There’s one more thing though. Please do not treat Eun Jo any different because he is my son. At this company he is a regular employee, just like the rest of you.”

That was the cue for everyone to leave the meeting room.

Almost everyone had exited, when that Min Seo Kyung woman bumped into Min Seol, purposely.

Min Seol, not having seen this beforehand fell to the ground, her files scattering all around her.

Min Seo Kyung bent down and for a second I thought that she might help her, but I was wrong.

She didn’t help, she spoke instead: “Oops. I’m so sorry Min Seol.” she didn’t sound apologetic at all though: “I didn’t see you standing there. It’s like you were invisible. Is that also why Sajang-nim didn’t bother to introduce you to his son?”

So she was that kind of a woman…

I had to do something before Min Seol lost control of her self-restraint and slapped that : “Actually, Min Seo Kyung-sshi.” I walked over to where Min Seol was still sitting on the floor and pulled her to her feet, before looking back at the : “My father didn’t bother to introduce us, because we already know each other.”

The satisfied smile on her face vanished: “Excuse me?”

Now I had to smile: “You see Min Seol and I went to the same high school and the same university. She’s my friend and we know each other well enough, so there wasn’t really any need to introduce us all over again.”

Her jaw set tight, she answered: “I see. Well I should get going now.”

Then she marched out of the room.

“You shouldn’t have done that Eun Jo.” I turned around to see Min Seol gathering her files: “Today’s your first day. You shouldn’t be getting into arguments with your colleagues on your first day.” picking up the last file, she faced me again: “I can take care of myself. You don’t have to come to my rescue every damn time.”

I scoffed at her: “Yeah I saw how you took care of yourself. Min Seol she was being rude to you. I don’t like to see people being rude to you.”

She rolled her eyes: “You’re rude to me all the time. What about that?”

She was pissing me off: “That’s different. You’re rude to me all the time too. So what? That’s our way of communicating with each other. That’s how we’ve always been.”

A sigh escaped her, as if all this was too much for her: “We should get going Eun Jo. There’s a lot of work, which needs to be done today.”

For the sake of her mental distress, I let it go this time and followed her out of the meeting room at last.

Again, I wasn’t able to comprehend her weird behavior.

The next few weeks were terrible.

Min Seol practically ignored me at work, talking to me only when necessary. Her visits to our house became lesser and lesser and if we, through some miracle, ended up taking care of the children together, she avoided even, as much as, looking in my direction. It wasn’t until today’s lunch break that I understood what was going on.

I had been on my way to get lunch, when I had heard Min Seol’s voice and had stopped in my tracks. She was sitting on the bench near the beverage machine on our floor, talking to Mee Yon, one of her best friends, who worked in our company’s sales department.

Min Seol looked down at the coffee in her hand, her eyes unfocused: “I don’t know what do anymore Mee Yon.”

“What do you mean?” Mee Yon wanted to know.

Min Seol sighed: “Eun Jo…”

Me? Me what?

Mee Yon looked confused: “What about him? Is everything okay between you two?”

“No.” Min Seol shook her head: “Nothing’s okay between the two of us.” she paused: “You know how we’ve been dating for six years, right?”

Mee Yon nodded silently.

Min Seol continued: “The secret isn’t out yet. Our families still don’t have a clue about our relationship. I think unnie and oppa might be suspecting something, but officially we haven’t told our families yet.”

Mee Yon pursed her lips: “Is that a problem for you?”

“Kind of is.” Min Seol nodded this time: “It wouldn’t be such a big problem, if he’d told me he loved, at least once.”

Love her? She didn’t know whether I loved her or not?

“Whoa! Wait up!” Mee Yon held her hands up: “He still hasn’t told you he loves you?” she waited for Min Seol’s negative response before continuing: “Well, he always seemed like the type of guy who’d have problems with saying those three words… But you know he loves you, right? I mean we all know. Our whole friend circle from college has witnessed it first-hand.”

Min Seol smiled: “That’s not what I mean. I know he loves me. It’s just,” she hesitated: “The commitment. I want to spend the rest of my life with that person. He might love me, but he hasn’t told me yet and neither do our families know about us… Omma asked me last month, if I was okay with it, if she arranged a few marriage meetings for me. Can you believe that? My parents are talking about my marriage, even though I have boyfriend. But I can’t blame them for doing so because they don’t know about said boyfriend.”

Marriage meetings?! Was she being serious?!

They couldn’t possibly marry her off while she was dating me!

No, I had to do something and I had to do it as soon as possible.

Later, about an hour after lunch break was over our Team Leader Jung gave me a list of files, which I had to search for in the old Data Room.

This was it. I had to use this chance: “Team Jang-nim, I’m not familiar with the old Data Room. Would it be okay if I take Min Seol with me for help?”

Our Team Leader, being the nice guy that he was, responded as I had hoped: “Sure. These files are important. Min Seol.”

Min Seol looked up from her desk: “Yes Team Jang-nim?”

“Go to the old Data Room with Eun Jo and help him find the files we need.” he ordered.

She tried to argue, saying something about important work but he didn’t listen: “These files are more important than your current project. Please do as I say.”

She sighed in defeat and stood up to leave: “Yes Team Jang-nim.”

The second we stepped into the old Data Room Min Seol turned around to face me: “What?”

“What do you mean by ‘What’?”  I retorted.

She huffed in annoyance: “You know exactly what I mean Eun Jo. I know you did this on purpose. We both know that you are perfectly capable of finding these files on your own. So why am I here?”

I smirked at her: “Those are some rather smart words for such a stupid girl.”

She huffed, still annoyed: “Right. Now that we have that cleared, can I get back to my work?”

She started walking towards the door, but I grabbed her wrist and stopped her: “Wait. There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

She turned back to look at me and what I saw made me want to punch myself, as hard as possible. Exhaustion. Her face emitted pure exhaustion: “What is it?”

For a moment I debated whether or not I should actually hit myself, but that wouldn’t have been of any help, so plan b had to be put into motion.

Her face was close enough for me to reach out, before she could start arguing and then I kissed her.

How many months ago had it been, since I had kissed her the last time? Four? No, it had been five months. I felt her struggle to get out of my grasp at first, though that didn’t last long. She was responding within a few seconds, parting her lips for my tongue to sneak in. Her taste had remained the same, sweet and minty, because she loved to eat mints all the time.

I didn’t know how long we stood there, our lips locked, but what I did know was that we only broke apart when the need for oxygen became too strong. We were both out of breath and she looked confused as hell.

Now was the right time: “I love you.”

Min Seol stopped breathing altogether: “What?”

I repeated my words: “I love you and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier.”

Again she asked: “What?”

“Listen.” I said: “I overheard your conversation with Mee Yon. I shouldn’t have listened but I couldn’t help myself. You were being so weird in the last few weeks and I just couldn’t understand what was going on.” I paused: “But you have to know that I love you, I really do.”

I my right hand into my pants’ pocket and fished something out, holding it out in front her: “I’ve been carrying this ring around with me for five months Min Seol, because I want to spend the rest of my life with you as well. I was waiting for the right moment to give it you. That didn’t really work…”

She gaped, open, first at the ring, then at me, the ring again and again me. closed and opened three times, like a dry fish, before she said something: “Did you seriously just propose to me in a storage room?”

Storage room? I looked around us and remembered that we were in the old Data Room of my father’s company and not at some romantic place, where girls expected to be proposed to: “I’m… sorry… I can give it you somewhere else, if you want.”

Her laughter caught my attention immediately and I watched as she laughed and laughed and bent over laughing and then, without a warning she threw her arms around me: “This place is perfect Eun Jo. Believe me.”

She let go of me and held her left hand out: “Put it on.”

I did as she asked and the ring fit perfectly. It wasn’t anything big or flashy, just a small gold band with three tiny emeralds ornamenting it.

She seemed to like it, seeing as she kissed me this time…

End of Chapter

Hello!

See guys? He already told her that he loves her and he even proposed to her, even if it was in a storage room... =P

Don't think it's finished yet though... There's this one last plot twist I promised you, remember?

Yeah, well that one is coming up in the next chapter. So be prepared.

And now. How do you feel about this chapter? Hate it? Like it? Love it?

Please tell me in you comments and PMs, they are all really appreciated. Any questions you have about the plot or the characters? Send them to me.

Thanks to everyone who commented on the last chapter and to all my subscribers.

To all my new subscribers: Welcome and happy reading =)

Kamsahamnida for your support!

By the way, sorry for any spelling and/or grammar mistakes =D

p.s. I Love You All <3