21

Kris glanced at Sohyun who was outside at her desk, and he sighed. He couldn't help but think of BT's words. Even though they were nonsense and all their opinions, did he really felt that?

"But they were just blabbering nonsense," Kris mumbled to himself, looking down at his files piled up on his desk.

He was in his own world, until Sohyun's voice woke him up, and also making him jump in his seat as he yelped.

"Kris.. You alright?" Sohyun asked worriedly tilting her head to one side and raising her eyebrows.

"I'm fine. Ah yes Sohyun, for the business trip.. I think I can ask my assistant to go, I don't think you would need to go. Are you upset?" Kris asked, while Sohyun shook her head and smiled. "It's alright. I can at least catch up on my work. If there's nothing else, I'll go home." She walked out and closed the door, only then could Kris sigh and groan in his seat.
 

"Aish! Why did you ask your assistant to Hong Kong with you instead of Sohyun accompanying you!" Tao shouted and pinned him on the exact chair where BT pinned him the other day.

Sohyun was downstairs busy washing the dishes (again) while the rest were upstairs, scolding Kris.

"But.. Cherry's my assistant, and she knows Cantonese and English, she can communicate well with the clients. After all it's Hong Kong and maybe not all my clients would know English,” he mumbled, trying to clarify all of the doubts while all of them just glared at him.

"Well you need not only bring your assistant, you can also bring Sohyun along!" BT pointed a finger at him and scoffed while Kris stood up trying to explain but was pinned down onto the chair again.

"So what if our Sohyun doesn't know their dialect? It's alright as long as you can communicate with them, right?" Sohyun's sister jabbed a finger in his chest and scoffed.

"And regarding the clients, are they illiterate? How can they not know English? It is such an important language! And if they have no idea how to speak or write English, just don't do their business. Anyway we won't starve without them. Use your brains please." Tao whacked his head and scoffed.

Kris looked at all three of them, scoffing at him while he just sighed. "Firstly, the company only booked two tickets. So it's either Sohyun and Cherry go without me or I go with Cherry. Secondly, Sohyun is in charge of handling the documents while I just represent then as their acting lawyers and giving them legal advice so Sohyun needs to know their dialect when they don't understand English," Kris explained and shot a look at Tao.

 "Lastly, having the clients to learn English is not a problem, we can not do their business. So does that mean we can also fire you and require you to take English lessons since you only know Korean and Chinese before applying to our firm?" Kris asked Tao, while Tao nodded. “It makes sense,” he mumbled but BT quickly nudged him and Tao scoffed at Kris. “Making sense, doesn’t mean you’re right,” he replied and BT did a thumbs up.

"Number one, why can't you go with Sohyun and instead of Cherry?" BT asked.
"Number two, why can't you handle those clients and let Sohyun handle the ones that can communicate with her in English?"
"Number three." Tao pointed his three fingers out and narrowed his eyes at Kris, leaning forward. "I can take English lessons and I can also get fired. But that depends on YongShik and not you."

Kris groaned. He can never ever beat those three matchmakers.

"I don't understand. Why can't you just send Sohyun with you? And besides it was YongShik's idea to have Sohyun to follow you to gather more experience am I right?" Tao asked as he grabbed a chair and sat beside him. "Just like how you trained her to socialize. Even though she made mistakes but still a mentor is a mentor and you need to guide her."

"I am guiding her. And when there's time after work I won't be so strict to her, I'll just treat her nicely. But when it comes to work, you know I always set things impartial and I'll just be strict and demanding like always,” he explained. "And, based on my understanding on her, and as a professional mentor, I trust my judgement and know that she needs to be indepenent without me. I see her being so weak in front of the clients and I always have to save her. So in this period of time when I'm not here, I hope she will understand she will need to stand up for herself and-"

"Shut your crap!" Tao snapped and huffed while Kris blinked in surprise. Tao turned his back on him and whispered with the two other mathmakers while Kris mumbled to himself. “Plus, I didn’t want Sohyun to follow along, in case I’ll see her almost everyday and I’ll really fall for her-“ he immediately shut his mouth and slowly looked up at them, but those three were just busy discussing among themselves.

Just then, his cell phone buzzed and he answered the call. "Cherry? What's the matter?" he asked, and once he mentioned her name, everyone went forward, listening to their conversation, having their ears to be as close as they could to the cell phone.

"You're sick?" Kris asked, and all three of their eyes' widened in surprise as they covered their mouths and listened carefully. "You took a week's leave from YongShik?" he asked again and all three of them immediately jumped on the bed, smiling widely.

"Oh, alright then. Rest well, I'll ask Sohyun to follow me then."

Cherry nodded her head then frowned as she coughed. "But Kris, I don't understand why you wanted me to follow with you when YongShik specifically told you to bring Sohyun along." Kris looked back at the three of them, all in their own word celebrating and he turned his attention to the phone. "I just felt that maybe I should just let Sohyun be independent, not always listening to my advice, but try to take things into her own hands when I'm not there for a week," he clarified.

He hung up and looked up at the ceiling. Even before BT and Sohyun's sister interrogated him, he had already told Cherry to follow him instead of Sohyun, so actually their ideas didn't really matter to him.

"Hey. So you got to bring Sohyun along, right?" Tao wiggled his eyebrows at Kris, and he sighed, rolling his eyes then nodded his head. "I am. Are you happy now? Are you satisfied now?" Kris faked a laugh and walked down.

"Sohyun. You're going Hong Kong with me this Friday. So pack whatever stuff there are alright? We'll go there after work, so we would reach there around midnight," Kris said and Sohyun nodded her head and walked out of the kitchen.

"Ah yes. Tell BT and the two of them that I'm going first. Bye." Kris put on his shoes and walked out of the house, entering his car and drove off.

*Is this really fate?* As he drove, his lips curved upwards, smiling. "Maybe having Sohyun to follow me, may not be a bad idea."




Sohyun looked out of the window and smiled. The plane took off, and heading towards Hong Kong.

Kris chuckled silently, glancing at her. "Hey." She looked back at Kris and tilted her head to one side. "Take this." He threw the blanket at Sohyun and she caught it then casted her gaze down on the blanket. "Wrap yourself it in if you're cold, like how you wrap yourself on the charity event," he said and reclined his seat, closing his eyes and fall asleep, while Sohyun blinked in confusion.

Then it dawned upon her. Oh right, she used the blanket as a shawl.

Sohyun couldn't help but smile and wanted to slap his arm, but after all, a mentor's a mentor. She couldn't show disrespect, but she just her eyes and looked pressed her forehead on window, looking out.

Once he opened his eyes, they had already reached Hong Kong. Her lungs took the first breath in Hong Kong and she smiled widely while Kris looked at her and cracked a smile. "Let's go."

They walked into the hotel and Sohyun's smile immediately widened.

"My dream room," Sohyun murmured and looked around the hotel room. She placed her luggage down and quickly ran into the bathroom. "One big bathtub.. All for myself!" Sohyun squealed in delight and quickly ran back. "Queen size bed, just for me alone!" she jumped excitedly in the spot, then spun herself and landed on her bed. She blinked, looking up at the ceiling and smiled, then quickly getting off the bed and pressed her palms on the window. "View outside of the window, DAEBAK!"

Since it was already night, everyone was back in the hotel, and she couldn't see really see anything with just street lights.
Just then, she noticed that there was a second door, that was connected to the other room. She opened the door and saw that there was another door, but there was no handle. That door opened and Sohyun jumped, as she saw Kris looking at her in confusion.

"So these two rooms are connected?" Sohyun asked and entered his room, then looked back at the door. There were actually two doors. Each side of the door has a handle, but only for that own room, while the other room can't enter the other room when the door's closed. Not a bad idea.

"Ah yes. When we go out, just open the connecting doors, don't leave it close. When we're back in the hotel then we'll close it," Kris ordered as he sat down on the bed, tuning the channels.

"Oh alright then. I'll type out the documents first then." Sohyun walked back into her room, closing the connecting door and she jumped onto the bed, lying on it.
She rolled over to the side and opened her luggage, taking out the laptop and turned it on while she put on her glasses and typed.

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