“Here, is the chosen venue,” Hye Rim handed the brochure to So Min.

“Hmm… Pretty good,” So Min replied as she browsed through the pages. “Oh hey, I think the cake will be placed here. And then here will be the buffet table,” she continued pointing at the specific areas on the brochure.

“I think we should visit the place itself for us to get a better picture of how the event will occur.”

“Sure, sure,” So Min happily replied. “Should we go now?”

Hye Rim rolled her eyes at her friend’s enthusiasm. “Do you know what time it is?” she asked.

So Min glanced at her wrist watch. “It’s 12.. Uhm.. 12:37,” she replied after observing that the small hand was a bit parted from the number 12 and the long hand being two lines away from the number 7. She elevated her head, so that her sight could have a better look of her friend.

Hye Rim raised her brow. “And what does 12:37 mean?”

So Min smiled widely giving Hye Rim an are-you-a-fool expression.

“It means we should go to the venue to figure out our way in preparation for the main event,” she answered effortlessly as if her words were the most righteous ones.

Hye Rim stood up from her seat in front of So Min’s office table and gave her a huge smirk. “12:37 means we’re going overboard with our work. It’s past lunch time already.”

That’s the only time when So Min had known that her friend was right. She picked up her bag on her office table and stood up. “Let’s go,” she invited.

But Hye Rim looked at her, giving back the are-you-a-fool look. So Min then realized that her best friend is already committed to their co-worker named Lee Jong Hyun since last week. She wouldn’t be able to have lunch with her now.

‘It’s loner time!’ So Min thought. “Alright, you go to his table now,” she told Hye Rim.

“Sorry, friend,” Hye Rim sincerely said.

“It’s nothing. You know, it’s good that he spends time with you. I mean, the real him and not finding someone to replace him during the times when you need him.”

Then a male voice interrupted them, “I hope you’re not referring to me.”

Both girls turned their heads at their office entrance only to see someone whom So Min considers as the most awful person she has known.

“Why are you here?” So Min asked him.

Soo Bae slowly walked towards her table and smiled, “To invite you for lunch.”

Hye Rim was about to protest that she will have lunch with So Min instead. But Jong Hyun has already made his way to them.

“Ready?” Jong Hyun asked and held her hand.

Hye Rim looked at So Min, trying to tell her that she can go with them in order to escape from Soo Bae. But So Min didn’t want to intrude their lunch date. “It’s okay. You can go now. I can handle it,” she told her.

“Are you sure?” Hye Rim asked.

Jong Hyun, being the naïve one, didn’t know what the tension was all was all about. “Who is he?” he enquired, referring to the tall figure behind him and his girlfriend.

Hye Rim squeezed his hand that was holding hers, indicating him to stop opening the topic. “We’ll go now, So Min,” she cheerfully said and tried to smile to encourage her friend.

So Min also gave her a smile although it’s a fake one.

“Bye So Min! See you later after break hours!” Jong Hyun said, waving his hand. He started walking, pulling Hye Rim along.

“Bye,” So Min briefly replied. She was frozen on her position. Her officemates were leaving one by one to have their lunch, waving their hands to her as they passed by.

Soo Bae was just staring at her for the whole time. So Min looked at the wall clock across the room.

12:56

GREAT! 19 minutes have passed.

She tightened her hold on the handle of her bag. ‘I’ll just walk away from here as if he doesn’t exist!’ That’s her plan she had in mind.

When she hooked up her bag on her shoulder, the other creature in the room spoke, “Shall we go?”

So Min tensed by the sound of his voice. She remembered what happened the night she broke up with him, and knowing they were the only people inside the huge room with many office tables, she feared that the same thing will happen again; this time, no Hyun Joong would be there to save her.

‘So Min!! You must think of a way to get out now!!’ her brain shouted.

She was thinking of just running towards the exit.