Chapter 31

“It has been three months, five weeks & one day since Jaejoong Oppa left Korea.” Tiffany said to herself. Jaejoong had taken a legal case of a singapore marine multinational company. They needed him to be at their singapore office for a month. He flew there instantly by the time the contract was signed but now, it had been more than three months & Jaejoong hadn’t come back yet. She recognized the familiar sting of frustrated tears. The rigid emotional control she had practiced since early childhood had failed every time she was thinking about him. Like a robot, she went to her flower shop every day. Once in her shop, she methodically set about the task of arranging the flowers. She had lost the happy days in her life.

Tiffany was standing in front of her bathroom mirror, looking pale & drawn. She stood there, giving a distasteful glare at the mirror before turning away from it. When she caught a glimpse of herself in the full-length mirror that was fixed to one of the walls on her bedroom, she froze.

She looked as if she wasn’t eating for a whole month. A painful personal view of herself, she realized with a small shudder, “How much weight have I actually lost?” She asked herself, as she stood there, feeling the shock. Three months ago, she had had a nice figure, a beautiful look, as Jaejoong always praised her. Slender & sleek, not thin & bony & her hair looked lifeless.

What had she been doing to herself? Where had she gone? She used to be happy, bright, always smiling with skin & hair that glowed with health. Jaejoong loved her hair. She smiled to herself. How foolish he was, she added, fighting with her tears.

‘What did he look like now? Had he been thinking of me, too?’ She wondered.

Glancing at the clock on the wall, she shrieked. She was late. She had an appointment with Yoochun at eight & now she was doing nothing in her bathroom at eight-thirty. Yoochun had called her last night, insisting to meet her. He said he had something important to tell her. When she refused him with many reasons, he said that it involved with Jaejoong.

Jaejoong.

Only his name had made her heart beat faster than usual. She missed him. She admitted to herself. She really missed him. Badly. Since she moved to the Kim big house, he seemed to avoid her. Even though his room & hers were only separated by the wall, she barely met him in the house. He skipped breakfast & dinner. He went to his office early in the morning & came home almost at midnight. She was worried every night as she didn’t hear his footsteps opening his bedroom door & she would sigh in relief & tried to sleep as she knew he had come home safely.

She should have left the house the day she had known about their blood relationship. She should have left the misery. She was afraid her heart couldn’t take it anymore if she lived together with him in the same house. However, the pleading look of Mr. Kim had melted her heart. She was in tears when he showed her her father’s photograph & belongings.

The traffic lights were turned red. Tiffany sighed in frustrated. That always happened when she was running late for an appointment as the traffic lights were always red, “Damn!” She swore, under her breath. She glanced at her michael kors chronograph parker stainless steel bracelet watched & blew out her breath. It was eight-fifty already. She had just turned her car to the parking space as an arrogant man stole it! Tiffany glared angrily at the man in a blue Ferrari.

He turned & their eyes met behind their sunglasses & in that brief instant, Tiffany felt numb with shock. It was Jaejoong, wasn’t he? She tried to reassure herself, “But he was working in Singapore now. Had he come back from Singapore? But he doesn’t drive a Ferrari.” She said to herself.

She glanced in her rear-mirror & saw the man climbing out of the car. He had dark hair liked Jaejoong but it was hard to say if it was Jaejoong or not as she saw him at a distance now. Moreover, their eye contact was no more than eight seconds behind the dark shade of sunglasses.

Forgetting the fact that she was rushing for an important appointment with Yoochun, Tiffany swung her car once more around the block & went back for another look but there were no signed of that man. He had disappeared by the time she got back.

“Calm down, Tiffany.” She said to herself, “There are more than millions of good-looking guys in Korea & that man wasn’t Jaejoong Oppa.” She told herself. Her eyes suddenly turned hot. Part of her heart desperately want to see him again, & the other part told her to forget him. Living in separate places made her life even more miserable. She couldn’t see him. She wouldn’t know if he had taken good care of himself. Even though he seemed to avoid her when they lived in the same house, at least she knew that he was alright.

With a shaking feeling of relief, she said to herself, “Oppa is okay, otherwise his mother would panic & get worried.”

This wasn’t the first time she thought she had caught a glimpse of Jaejoong. During the last three months, she had imagined she had seen him on quite a few occasions even she knew fully well that it couldn’t be him because Jaejoong was thousands of miles away from her. Last week, she had imagined one of her customer as him as he ordered a bouquet of pink roses for his girlfriend. Her heart thundered painfully as she heard him on the phone. He asked her to wrap the flowers in a pink ribbon & attached the card saying, ‘Together forever’ liked her & Jaejoong’s ring.

Tiffany ran her fingers through her hair as she glanced at herself in the mirror on the lift wall. She haven’t cut her hair or change her hair color, “Pain is always behind every beautiful love & it is true.” She said to herself. Taking in a deep breath, she walked to the restaurant on level three.

“Tiffany.”

She turned her head & saw Yoochun across the crowds, waving.

She smiled at him. She raised her right hand, signaling him she caught his glimpse.

“Sorry, I’m late. It’s the traffic as usual.” She gave him an apologetic grin.

“It’s okay. I was late, too.” Yoochun smiled back at her.

“What do you want to tell me about Jaejoong?” She started to ask by the time she sat down in the chair, “Wow, easy Tiffany. Let’s eat first. What do you want to order?”

She glanced at the menu list, “Kimchi omelet. Thanks.”

“Make it two please.” Yoochun said, to the waiter & gave the menu lists back to her.

“Now, tell me.”

Park Yoochun stared at her & then let out a deep sigh, “You still care about him, don’t you?”

She sat in silent, refusing to answer him.

“Look, I know it’s none of my business. I saw both of you intimately during the France conference but a week ago, you told me you are alone. I know he’s gone to Singapore after getting a big contract with a well-known company there. Did Jaejoong leave you?”

She shook her head, “We are over. Jaejoong & I are over.”

Yoochun smiled secretly as he stared at her paled-beautiful face, “I wasn’t expecting to hear that from you.” He said, unable to take his eyes away from her. A peculiar feeling that was half excitement, half relief sparkled sweetly through him & he tried desperately to suppress it. He was terrified of his reaction to her would show because something in her nearly black gaze hinted at absolute awareness. If he knew Tiffany & Jaejoong’s love relationship was over then he would pursue her earlier.

Tiffany’s nerves were jumping painfully high now that the moment had come to speak about her relationship with Jaejoong was over, “Stop talking about me. Now, what do you want to tell me about Jaejoong?”

“I know you won’t believe me if I tell you this.”

“Try me.”

“Kim Jaejoong has ripped you off.”

Tiffany’s head jerked up as she looked across at Yoochun. She widened her eyes in disbelief, “What do you mean?” Her voice turned shaky even though she tried hard to keep it calm.

“I said he lied to you & made you fall into his dirty trapped. Look at this.” He gave her a file of papers, “What is this?” Sh