Chapter XXXVI:

Lunch!

Atty. Sandara Park found herself standing in front of a building; her eyes panned along the gigantic signage plastered high above from where she stood. It’s sleek, scripted letters glistened as the warm light of the midday sun struck against its metallic surface, and she cringed.

 “SM entertainment” she read in her mind over and over again, hardly believing that she was actually at the foot of Donghae’s very own workplace.

“God, what am I even doing here?” she muttered with distaste.

Under the haze of hesitation, Dara started pacing back and forth, internally debating whether to proceed towards the establishment, or to just go back to her office where the towering piles of paper works were left undone, unread and unsigned. The latter seemed much tempting, though. She would rather spend her the rest of her lunchtime within the confines of her office than to handle another encounter of sudden shenanigans from her so-called ‘boyfriend’. Who knows what that man might be planning under his sleeves now?

With a frown, she turned her head away, looked at a car parked nearby—specifically at the grinning person inside of it— and was reminded why she was there at the first place.

‘I’ll drive you there; just to make sure you’re really eating with him.’

Heaving a long, frustrated sigh, Dara sluggishly glanced back at the building.

“What better option do I have?” she muttered with furrowed eyebrows, walking inside the building reluctantly while she recalled the raw memory of her pathetic excuse which led Dara to this stressful travesty.

FLASHBACK:

 “Seriously, your office needs a major renovation.”

Bom’s displeased tone brought Dara’s eyes to look up from the stack of documents she was currently reading; her focus disrupted every time her cousin threw a comment about almost everything inside her office.

She sighed on her seat while she watched the black headed woman sneer disapprovingly at every fixture present around her as if those poor harmless pieces of wood wronged her in some kind of way she would never understand.

“Look at this,” Bom pointed a finger at the grandfather clock. “I only see this kind of awful thing in horror movies.” she said, cringing as she scrutinized the wooden surface of the tall clock like there was some kind of ancient code etched on it. “Aren’t you crept out every time this—”

But her words were cut when the involved clockwork chimed another hour angrily, and Bom shrieked, jumping on her spot with eyes wide as she clutched her chest.

Dara laughed upon Bom’s flustered face. It was as though that sudden explosion of bell like sound served as the fixtures’ revenge after receiving such harsh criticisms from her cousin.

“That’s what you get for hurting their feelings, Bom.” she said in between her laughter.

“Yah! This certainly needs to be thrown out of here. Now!” the latter grunted, turning away from the poor life sized clock to give Dara a scowl.

“Oh, come on. Leave my furniture alone, couz. I like them anyway.”

Bom shook her head, clicking her tongue thrice and said, “You’ve been stuck here for so long that your taste for exquisite architectural design has gone bad, couz.”

“So you’re an interior designer now?” Dara sarcastically asked.

 “Oh, come on. It wouldn’t need one to be an interior designer to be able to realize how outdated your office is.” she said. “If I didn’t know better, I might have thought this office belonged to a grumpy seventy–year–old man with wrinkled skin and balding head, talking like he’s suffering from a perpetual sinusitis.”

“That would be my grandfather, thank you.” Dara replied idly from her desk.

Rolling her eyes, Bom walked towards Dara’s table only to slump her back lazily on the chair situated in front of it. “Geez, couz, this whole retro vibe suits your grandfather when he owned this decades ago. Now that it’s yours, try kinking it up since you spend almost all of your 24 hours in here.” she said, roaming her gaze once more around the room and muttered, “God, I won’t even last a minute here.”

“Did you come here just to tell me how awful my office is?” the latter asked, raising a brow towards the rants of her cousin.

“No, of course not.” Bom said, snapping her head back to face her cousin. “I’m here to spend some precious time with you. We have been apart for almost 4 years and I want to make up with those lonely days without you, my lovely dear cousin.” she smiled, blinking her eyes innocently.

Dara simply stared; her expression spelled incredulity as she anticipated for Bom to tell what she truly wanted.

“I saw a coffee shop around this area. People said that they serve the best corn cake there. Let’s check it out, couz.” Her cousin added, a sheepish grin blooming on her doll-like face.

“I knew it,” Dara sighed. “It’s with corn you wanted to spend some precious time with and not with me. I am seriously hurt, couz.” she said with an offended look.

“Well, I am hitting two birds with one stone here.”  Bom tried to reason out. “I get to spend my time with you while I eat the most amazing thing God has created in this world.” she crooned, clasping both of her hands over her chest; her eyes unfocused as she stared ahead.

Dara snorted upon witnessing the latter’s drooling state. Bom stayed in a daze for a couple of seconds, seemingly indulging herself in a daydream with her beloved corn. It was like she could actually taste the sweetness of it on the tip of her tongue, but that trance was interrupted by a sudden voice.

 “Sorry, she’s spending her time with me.”

A blonde woman clad in expensive designer labels strutted inside of Dara’s office.

“Chaerin?”

“Hey, love.” The blonde woman winked at the baffled Dara and took the other chair situated just in front of Bom, who at the moment had her brows quirked upon the latter.

Noticing the presence of the other girl, CL turned her head towards her and flashed a smile.  

“Hello. I’m Lee Chaerin.” she said with an outstretched hand.

Bom took her hand in a friendly handshake, a smile gracing on her face. “Park Bom, Dara’s cousin.” 

Sandara watched as the two beautiful lasses exchanged their warm greetings in front of her. In a span of seconds they managed to converse easily with each other, gushing about Paris and fashion that it almost seemed they have been friends for a very long time.

It was fun to watch them getting along, Dara thought with a small smile as she diverted her attention back to the files laid beneath her. But not long after, a scowl came crashing on the panes of her face when that friendship she thought was blooming into something potentially great, withered almost instantaneously.

 To her surprise, the girls were now in a heated argument.  Dara haven’t even realized their topic came back towards what she would like to eat for lunch until she heard CL saying that corn was a pathetic and tasteless food, which clearly violated Park Bom’s Holy Sacrament of ‘Thou shall not regard corn as a pathetic tasteless food.’

 “What did you just say?” Her corn addicted cousin gasped in a high, screeching tone, wearing a scandalized look on her face.

“Corn is not pathetic!”

“It is, darling.” CL crossed her arms over her chest, slightly amused at how the latter took her remark seriously. “Dara would love to eat real food such as steak not some weird flavored cake.”

“The corn cake will be delicious. I just know it.” Bom said, fuming. “We will eat that corn cake.”

“No. She will eat steak.”

“Corn cake!” the black haired insisted firmly.