Chapter 5

            Mustering up as much strength as I could, I swiftly yanked both wrists from the grasps of the two men. Both turned to look at me, confusion on Kiseop’s features, and anger on President Kim’s. “Thank you both very much,” I said, taking a slow step backwards, “But I’d rather walk home!” With that, I my heel and walked out as fast as my feet could carry me, not daring to look back.

            By the time I reached my house, I had no clue what to think. Of my “office,” of my boss, of my coworkers, of lunch, of what had happened in the lobby of the building. I simply could not make any sense out of it. With a sigh, I plopped down on the couch. How could one day seem like almost a lifetime? And how could I possibly survive a whole month of this?

            I shook my head, yanked from my thoughts by my phone ringing. “Hello?” I answered, hoping it was neither my boss nor Kiseop.

            “Hey, you didn’t come to the shop this morning!” came DongHo’s voice from the other end.

            “I wanted to get to work early,” I chuckled.

            “Well then you should come over now!” I could almost hear him pouting.

            “Alright, alright, I’m on my way!” I picked up my bag and jacket, then went over to the door to slip my feet into my shoes. “Is Hoon there, too?”

            “Yeah, he’s taken over the piano… again…” DongHo sighed.

            “Hey, play nice! You know what it’s like at home for him!” I scolded the younger boy.

            “Yeah, yeah, I know. Are you coming yet or what?”

            “I’m on my way, see you in a few!” I turned off the phone and set it back in its place, heading out the front door in the direction of the coffee shop.

            “WHAT?!” they both exclaimed simultaneously, eyes all but bulging from their sockets.

            “So then I just walked away,” I shrugged.

            “Wow, your boss is a jerk!” DongHo cried.

            “Stupid, don’t say that so loud!” Hoon slapped a hand over the boy’s mouth rather roughly.

            “OW!” DongHo cried, ripping the offending appendage from his face. “Geez, okay, I got it!”

            Hoon rolled his eyes and turned back to me. “You did the right thing, Kev.”

            “Thanks,” I sighed. I placed my elbows on the table and leaned my chin on my hands. “I don’t know how I’m going to survive…”

            “Hey, don’t worry about it. He’ll get some sense knocked into him somehow,” Hoon chuckled.

            “I sure hope so…”

            The next day I was in the office thirty minutes early, just to make sure Kim JaeSeop had no reason to talk to me aside from giving me my assignment. I quickly slunk into my office to avoid the fangirls and began researching different venues from the list I had been given. The time, luckily, passed quickly, and soon the monotonous voice of the secretary echoed throughout the halls, announcing that it was lunch time.

            I took my time getting my lunch together, and cautiously poked my head into the hallway to make sure everyone was gone. I wasn’t risking a repeat of the day before. Positive about the lack of employees, I quickly and quietly walked to the balcony I had found yesterday, with its pretty view and multitude of potted plants. I sat down and opened my lunch bag, removing an entire roll of kimbap, a container of banana milk, a tiny bowl of homemade kimchi, and a mildly interesting book.

            I was satisfied with that.

            I munched on the kimbap, opened the book, and lost myself in the story as best I could. It was nice, the yummy food, the warm sunshine, the scent of flowers, the lovely story. I was so wrapped up in it that I failed to notice my having been joined by someone else until they decided to tap me on the shoulder, startling me out of my own little world.

            “What?” I asked rather roughly, turning around to face the offending person. Just my luck.

            It was none other than Kim JaeSeop himself. I was filled with a sudden surge of anger and stood up, giving no thought to the book that slipped from my lap as I did so.

            “Sit down.” President Kim rolled his eyes. I sat down with a huff, arms crossed in aggravation. President Kim plopped down beside me, bending down and picking up my book in the process. “This is a really good book; one of my favorites, actually,” he chuckled.

            “Really? It’s one of the most boring books I’ve ever read,” I muttered. I felt his eyes trained on me and instead reached beside me for the remnants of my roll of kimbap. I froze when my fingers touched skin instead of aluminum foil and recoiled quickly. “What are you doing?” In reply, he simply took a piece of kimbap and popped it into his mouth, chewing with that aggravating half-smirk. “That’s mine!” I cried and grabbed the roll, clutching it to my chest protectively. President Kim shrugged.

            “Looks like rain,” he stated, pointing to the sky. I looked up. Yes, it did, sort of… I looked back to find President Kim in the middle of slurping a sip of my banana milk.

            “HEY!” I yelled, ripping the container from his hand. A little bit of the milk splashed out onto the ground. President Kim shrugged nonchalantly and sat looking up at the sky in silence.

            I couldn’t help but wonder why he was once again spending lunch time with me. There were dozens of perfectly willing female employees just on our floor. Why me? Or didn’t he have friends who would love to see him on his lunch break? Could Kim JaeSeop, president of Mister Kim, possibly be… lonely?

            I quickly brushed the thought away. No. There was no way. It wasn’t possible! He obviously had better things to do. So I turned to him bravely, cleared my throat to get his attention, and said, “Please stop bothering me at lunch time.”

            He looked shocked for a moment, and then he scoffed a bit. “You need a good lesson in respecting authority,” he stated, sending a sideways glance in my direction.

            “W-what?” Did I just hear what I thought I just heard?

            “I am your boss after all,” he continued. “So, from now on, I’ll be the one driving you home after work. Got it?”

            “No! Why should I--”

            “I’m not taking no for an answer,” he said calmly. “I’m driving you home every day after work. Period. No questions asked.”

            “B-but--”

            “You should get back to work,” he said, glancing at his watch. “You’ve got two minutes till the lunch break is over.” I stood angrily, gathered my stuff, and marched out. How could he? The nerve of that man!

            Halfway down the hall I came face-to-face with Kiseop. “Hey, Kev!” he said brightly.

            “Uhm… Hi…”

            “I was just looking for you!”

            “Really?” He nodded happily. “Look, I’m sorry about--”

            “Forget it, it’s fine,” he chuckled. “I’ve worked with him awhile now and I’ve learned not to question it.”

            “Oh, that’s good…”

            “I wanted to talk to you about your novel and I wanted to make sure we were still on for next week,” he winked.

            “Y-yeah, definitely,” I smiled.

            “Awesome! See you then!” To my complete surprise, he reached over and ruffled my hair a bit, before turning around and walking away, waving goodbye over his shoulder. I stood frozen in the hall long after he had disappeared. The scene replayed constantly in my head. It made no real sense, yet it had still happened… I supposed I had to be content with the fact that it happened rather than trying to figure out how exactly it had come about. With a shrug and a sigh, I went back to my little broom closet, back to work.

A/N: REUPLOADDDDDD! -___- Hooray for DDOS attacks. Although this is the same old chapter for most of my subscribers, a few newer subscribers from after the server repair will not recognize it. So, I hope you all liked it! It was originally uploaded for my one-month-iversary, if you remember, but now it's boring old August 7th and I'm in the middle of my first week of band camp. Because of camp going from 8 to 5 this week and 8 to 8 next week, you might not see an update for awhile. However, on the bright side, I've worked out a way to update regularly during National Novel Writing Month! :D So there is a good side!!!

@KevLene91: I'm glad that my sense of humor is enjoyable to others xD I SHALL NEVER ABANDON IT. I PROMISE! SO NO CAR FLIPS. AND LET'S AVOID THE TOY KNIFE. VIOLENCE DOESN'T SOLVE ANYTHING. I'M GLAD YOU LIKE IT. AND EVEN THOUGH THIS IS A REUPLOAD, YOU HAVEN'T READ IT BEFORE, SO ENJOY!!! :DDD

@kaachan: I'm glad! Thank you! ^^

@Female_Onew: It's okay, I'm a blonde too xP I LOVE JAEVINSEOP. SO MUCH. I'm glad you like it! Kevinnnnn..... isssssss...... difficult to write. More than you would think. He never does anything the way he's supposed to xD So, who knows what he'll do next???  :P

@iKissKevinWoo: Even though you only started now, I'm excited that you've enjoyed it thus far! I've read several stories where I started in the middle, so it's ok ;) VinSeop is fun. JaeVinSeop is fun-er xD Even though you haven't really read it before, I hope you enjoy it!!

Thanks everyone! Hopefully with a little bit of stagger-writing and some uber-caffeinated coffee, I'll get an update in soon! (even though I can barely feel my legs, they don't make us exercise our fingers at camp, so that's a plus... xP). Annyeong!!! ^_^