Chapter 7

                I walked into work that Monday already exhausted, dreading having to see President Kim. I trudged into his office, eyes already cast down so I would not have to look at him. “You’re early,” he said. I looked down at my watch. 7:58.

                “Only by two minutes,” I shrugged.

                “I thought you said he was always exactly on time?” another voice said. I looked up in surprise, having not realized that someone else was there.

                “He normally is,” President JaeSeop shrugged. I stared up at the stranger, wondering exactly what he had been told about me, and why I had been their topic of discussion. “This is my colleague, Shin SooHyun. He’s here to help with the event.” The stranger, SooHyun, held out his hand.

                “Nice to meet you!” He had a very friendly smile. I shook his hand timidly.

                “Nice to meet you, too…”

                “Okay, introductions are over.” President JaeSeop handed me a stack of folders. “These need to be read through and summarized by the end of the day. Remember, these are the summaries that will be posted on the website, so be careful! You may leave now.”

                I stumbled down the hall with the oversized stack and sort of fell into my office, papers sliding across my desk. Righting myself, I sat down, tidied the papers, and got to work. Hours flew by as I buried myself in the stories, enjoying myself for probably the first time since I began working. So consumed by words, I hardly heard the standard lunchtime announcement. I stood, stretched, grabbed my lunch, and headed toward my usual secluded balcony.

                Normally no one is there. Once, President Kim sat with me. Other than that one time, it had always been me, alone. But that day, I stepped onto the balcony and found Shin SooHyun, the President’s “colleague.” I hesitated, trying to decide whether I should leave or start a conversation, when SooHyun made that decision for me.

                “Don’t worry; this bench is big enough for  two people!” he chuckled. “I don’t bite. I promise.” He beckoned me over and I shyly slid into the seat beside him, not really sure what to say or do. “AJ has told me a lot about you,” SooHyun said.

                “A-AJ?” I stuttered.

                “President Kim!” he corrected quickly. “Oops.” He shrugged playfully.

                “O-oh… What did he say?” I wasn’t going to ask. My curiosity, however, won over, as it normally does.

                “Oh, the usual,” SooHyun shrugged nonchalantly.

                “There’s a ‘usual?’”

                “He told me about how he hired you,” he chuckled.

                “Oh… That story…”

                “I found it to be hilarious.” I didn’t say anything, instead opting for a bite of cold ddeokbokki. “You write?” he asked suddenly. I almost choked on a rice cake.

                “H-how did you know?” I spluttered.

                “I guessed,” he shrugged. “Why else would you have been here in the first place?”

                “Mm.” I nodded, went back to eating, tried to ignore the tangible awkwardness hanging in the air.

                “What’s it about? Your book.”

                “A princess…” I said, at a loss as to how to describe my novel.

                “Oh. Fairytale?”

                “Unconventionally, yes.” He grinned brightly.

                “You sound like fun!” He laughed, shook his head a bit, and began closely examining the flowers.

                “Excuse me?” I asked. I sound like fun? What was that supposed to mean?

                “I just mean it would be fun to have a friend like you, I think. A guy who can write a novel about princesses without caring about what other people think. Even if it’s an unconventional fairytale.”

                “Wow, you must not have any decent friends then,” I joked.

                “Yeah, I’m stuck with jerks like AJ instead,” he laughed. And with that joke, the conversation flowed easily between us. I learned that he was an architect, that he could sing really well, and that he was always good at being in charge of things. I told him about my week at Mister Kim, from being late the first day to having to allow President Kim to drive me home every day.

                He was a good listener. While I told my story, he nodded, asked questions, practically all but took notes. When I finished, he almost empathized with me, explained that he understood, said he probably knew President Kim’s personality better than anyone. The strangest thing was that he told me to not be aggravated by it.

                “He’s honestly better than you think,” SooHyun said. “He just doesn’t know how to get along with people.”

                By the end of lunch, I had found friendly refuge in Shin SooHyun. He offered to walk me to my office and we continued our conversation as we walked. Halfway down the hallway, we ran directly into Kiseop. I smiled at him, began to say hello, when SooHyun cried, rather loudly, “Seoppie!” and threw his arms around the editor.

                “SooHyun!” Kiseop laughed. “It’s been awhile!” They continued talking and laughing for a few minutes, giving the impression of close friendship. “But wait,” Kiseop said, “why are you here?”

                “AJ,” SooHyun rolled his eyes.

                “Oh, that makes sense. Free labor, huh?” Kiseop laughed. I looked between the two men, tried to decipher their actions, wondered how they had met. It all seemed very… strange.

                Soon enough, Kiseop had to leave. SooHyun hugged him once more, and then Kiseop turned to me and grinned. “Don’t worry! With SooHyun around, everything is more fun!” he laughed, gave me a friendly pat on the shoulder, and walked away.

                “You know Kiseop?” I asked SooHyun, still trying to piece the puzzle together.

                “It’s a long story,” he shrugged.

                “I have time.” Really, I was just curious. How was it that he knew both of them? Especially Kiseop. And why hadn’t he mentioned it earlier?

                “We met at boarding school,” he began, walking me down the hallway. “We were all assigned to the same room for the year. All of us were fifteen, and somehow we got along instantly. That school year we grew inseparable. We even started a band,” he laughed, almost bitterly. “Then, around the last week of school, Seoppie’s dad died. At first he was just really weepy, and that was okay because we knew how to comfort him. But when he came back from the funeral… It was like meeting a different person. He never talked to us, wouldn’t play games or ride bikes. He just sat there miserably until school ended. Then we all parted ways. AJ and I were always close, and Kiseop visited me over the summer a few times to rebuild our relationship, but somehow he and AJ never became friends again. Seoppie got better though,” he grinned.

                I didn’t know what to make of this, what to say, how to think. So instead I thanked SooHyun for telling me the story, promised to see him at lunch the next day, and retreated to my office and the solace of fictional worlds. For some reason, I could not drown myself in the words for the second half of the day. My mind continued to wander back to SooHyun’s story. It revolved around the realization that Kiseop had no father, pondered curiously the fact that President Kim and Kiseop failed to repair their friendship.  By the time the day was over, the curiosity was nearly eating me alive.

                I  met President Kim at the front of the building as usual and climbed silently into his sleek black car. Noiselessly, the engine started, and without a word we were off. Unable to resist the curiosity any longer, I turned to President JaeSeop. “What went wrong with you two? You and Kiseop?” I asked.

                He sat there silently.

                “SooHyun told me about how the three of you were so close, and everything that happened that year. But why didn’t you two make up or anything?” I looked at him, searched his features for any hint of a reason. He sat there, unmoving, still silent. “Aren’t you going to tell me?” When he still did not respond, I huffed a bit, crossed my arms, and looked out the window instead. A few minutes later, the car pulled up to my house. I looked at him one more time, rolled my eyes, and climbed out of the car.

                As I walked to my door, I heard a car door close behind me. Turning, I found President JaeSeop striding over to me lazily. “Aren’t you leaving?” I said, aggravated.

                “I thought we were going inside.”

                “Yeah, I am. But you’re leaving!” I waited for him to walk away, but he just stood there. “Uhm, earth to President Kim? Bye! Go! Leave!” I tried to push him away, but he didn’t budge.

                “I thought you wanted me to answer your questions,” he stated bluntly.

                I froze, looked up at him, and asked, “you’re really going to give me answers?”

                “Yes.” His head bobbed in a slight nod. “But only if you let me inside first.”

                My head told me to make him leave, to tell him I didn’t want any answers. But the truth was, I was practically dying of curiosity, so instead I sighed, opened the door, and motioned for him to follow me inside.

A/N: SO IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS SINCE MY LAST UPDATE. I feel kind of successful! xD This chapter was so much easier to write than the previous one, I can tell you that much! It's still a little on the short side, but hey. New character. :P I hope everyone enjoys it! And next chapter we get to see JaeSeop inside Kevin's house... MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! >:D 

@Sheepishly: THEY'RE JUST MY FAVORITE. MY BABIES. I'm very glad you're enjoying it! LOL foreshadowing is NOT my forte... :P I'm excited but I'm dreading it. I just have a lot of difficult classes and one and a half summer reading books left to finish. Bleh. XP

@Yuukey: TA-DA~~~! Totally, Uber professional at work xD Since you said that, I will forever see my DongHo as the ultimate er now... XP 

@kagaki: It's times like those when I simply channel my inner fangirl into Kevin.

@inspirit_kissme: Hoon is a troll. That's why he's so awesome.

@I-love-kevin-woo: WOOHOO! This is probably the fastest update I will ever do! I hope you like it! <3. The story behind the Batman thing is that sodium, on the periodic table, is Na, and the batman theme song is, literally, nananananananana nananananananana BATMAAAAAN! I'm glad you don't regret it as well! Part of me feels as though the title needs to be changed, but most of me wants to keep it that way and just sort of hope for the best... xD