{ C h a p t e r . O n e }

“Yes, Lee Ji Eun speaking,” the young lady in a neatly tied up brown pony tail answered her phone between her ear and her shoulder at the main lobby as she fumbled through her bag for the house keys. “Tomorrow? 10am? Yes, that’s good with me. Sure. Thanks, Im Yoona Ssi. I’ll see you then.”

Ding.

The call ended just in time as the lift arrived up at the main level from the basement.

Ji Eun managed to fish out her keys and in exchange, dumped her phone back into the bag. She then stepped into the lift right after the doors opened. A guy, whose view was blocked by the huge boxes in his arms, did not go unnoticed in the corner of the lift. She jabbed the 14^th floor button on the lift panel and stared blankly at the level digits increasing above her head.

“Erm… Excuse me, Miss…”

She looked behind where she caught a glimpse of the guy’s half face from behind the boxes. His eyes were round and childlike.

“I’m so sorry for this request, but can you help me to pick up my access card?” He was very apologetic to trouble a stranger, let alone a lady. Seeing the boxes in his arms and also a guitar hanging on his shoulder, there was no other way he could possibly pick up the card on his own.

Ji Eun gave an understanding nod and did him the favour.

“Thank you so much!”

She could almost picture him beaming behind the boxes, except she had to exit the lift as it had arrived at her level.

Upon hearing the door unlocking, the little boy stood up on his feet and wobbled his way to welcome his aunt back home. Ji Eun broke into her biggest smile as she scooped the boy up and planted kisses all over his face. “Do you miss me already, Keane yah?” She whispered sweetly in his face.

“You’re back?” Carrying the dishes to the dining table, her eldest sister, Lee Jihyun, asked when she spotted Ji Eun at the door, “How was the interview?”

The dreadful question caused Ji Eun to go blank for a moment before putting her nephew down into his playpen.

“Mmm, it was okay.”

“You know… You should just join my law firm instead of working for others,” Jihyun lectured for the umpteenth times, “Just like Jiyoung. She doing so well with me despite only started her law practice for a year.”

This was one of the reason every time Ji Eun had to take a deep breath before entering her own house. The constant stress her family would always instil in her; practicing law was never once an option she would choose but she had to because that was expected in her family. Her parents were retired celebrity lawyers, her eldest sister runs a well-known law firm with her husband and her second elder sister graduated from the top university and now working alongside with the eldest.

They were everything she never wanted to be.

Her true ambition was to be an artist.

Cliché, but it was a fact she had to hide for all twenty-four years of her life.

“Aren’t you having dinner with us? Omma and Jiyoung will be back in awhile–”

And that was the last she heard from her sister before she shut her bedroom’s door behind her and slide down onto the wooden floor. Ji Eun ran her fingers through her hair to release her ponytail and rested her head against the door. She wandered her eyes wearily around her small room and eventually laid them on the painting beside her daybed.

It was a painting of a purple sky, filled with millions of stars, a silhouette of a couple sitting beside a huge willow tree.

It seemed so long since she last met him…

Her memories were so faint, she could hardly picture his facial features anymore.

Over the years, Ji Eun had tried all means to put herself to sleep, but she never had the chance to see him again. The guardian of her dreams – the boy who grew up together with her when she was in and out of a mysterious coma phase as a child. She would always meet him in this seemingly very different, yet very similar world…

Ding-dinggg

Just then, her message ring tone disrupted her train of thoughts. Ji Eun took out her phone and checked the incoming message.

‘This message serves as a reminder that your interview with our Managing Director at 10am tomorrow. Thank you.’

Sighing in resign to fate, Ji Eun placed the phone facing down on the bedside table and climbed underneath her comforter to put her perplexed mind to sleep.

Perhaps, tonight, they will meet again in her dreams...

//

Pushing her way through the office crowd, Ji Eun barely made it to her destination in time. She tried to pace her breathing when she was finally in the lift, on her way up to the office for her interview for the legal secretary position.

Meeting him in her dreams? Why would she even thought of that? Was it because she had subconsciously wanting to wait for him to appear till she actually overslept?

Ji Eun cursed inwardly as she winced at her own thoughts. She was still hanging her head low in dismay when she bumped right into the chest of a guy on her way out of the lift. “–I’m so sorry!” Ji Eun blurted out and looked up at the victim.

“No worries, it’s alright. It’s not like I’m not made of glass!” He joked. As though realizing something, the guy widened his eyes and leaned up close to Ji Eun’s face, who in return, took a step back awkwardly. “Hey… Aren’t you the nice lady in the lift yesterday?”

Ji Eun knitted her eyebrows, trying to figure out his words. “Have we met?”

“Oh, Kim Ji Eun Ssi?” a sweet voice interrupted them. It was the HR manager, Yoona, who called her down for the interview, “Please follow me. Our Managing Director is waiting for you.” Ji Eun gave a polite and apologetic bow to the guy before taking her leave with Yoona. “Do you know Park Chanyeol Sshi?” Yoona asked her when they were making a turn at the corner of the office, leading to the long hallway of meeting rooms.

Park Chanyeol?

“You mean, that guy just now?” Ji Eun returned her question.

Arriving infront of a door with the title Managing Director, Park Geun-hyung, imprinted across, Yoona nodded with a small smile. “We shall chat again later, go on in for your interveiw first.” With that said, she knocked on a door and prompted Ji Eun to go inside the office.

The old man behind the desk looked up and a warm smile immediately spread across his wrinkled and stern face.

“You must be Lee Ji Eun Ssi. Come, take a seat.”

Ji Eun gave a respectful bow before settling down on the chair in front of him.

Geun-hyung then continued, leaning slightly forward with his arms rested on the desk, “As you know, for the legal secretary position, you’ve got to work closely with me. So why not we start off with a short introduction about yourself, Ji Eun Ssi? Oh – but I’m not interested in the boring standard ones you youngsters like to say from the internet okay,” he half-jokingly warned, “I want honest introduction.”

That definitely caught Ji Eun off guard as she was prepared to tell him what she had been telling the other interviewers; she had always looked up admirably to her family of lawyers ever since young and her passion for being a lawyer in the near future – but now he wants to hear honest introduction?

Ji Eun swallowed the lump of nervousness down , hoping that this old man really meant what he said, “Well… I never wanted to be in this industry. But somehow I graduated with a law degree and pursuing the dream my whole family had laid for me despite my true passion for painting. Painting brings me to another world, it keeps my mind clear and much breathable.”

Breaking into laughter amusedly, Geun-hyung extended his hand across the desk and announced, “Welcome onboard, Lee Ji Eun Sshi.” Needless to say, it came off as an even more unexpected answer than the honest introduction he wanted to Ji Eun.

“Y- Yea?” Ji Eun strutted as she tried to reach out to take his handshake.

“I already like your attitude,” Geun-hyung replied, grasping her hand into a handshake even warmer than his smile. “See you next week for your commencement, young lady.”