Chapter 16


Dressed in white blouse, dark grey mini skirt above her knee and dark brown coat – a present from Soojung, became her attire choice that night. Nayeon was absolutely going in white coat over pink mini dress. Upon hearing about the invitation thingy in detail from Nayeon, Jungyeon didn’t hesitate one bit to tag along to protect the two girls. Thus the three of them were prepped to leave for the venue.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into your head!” Jungyeon voiced out while fixing her own outfit. Jihyo creased her brows. “Meaning?” Her innocent question made her best friend sighed.

“I can’t believe you agree over an invitation from a complete stranger. You don’t know whatever he’s probably up to,” Jungyeon said it.

Girl, either Jihyo was pretending to be slow than usual or she was just plainly foolish. “He knows Soojung, and that’s enough for me to trust him,” she dryly replied, although she was just unsure herself.

The tall, short haired friend shook her head disapprovingly while sitting down on the bed of the room. “My instinct told me you’re doing this because you don’t trust Soojung.”

“What?” Jihyo snapped. She had nothing else to say afterwards post Jungyeon’s wording of accusation. Jungyeon nonchalantly ignored her smaller friend’s exasperated expression and went on. “You obviously still have a doubt on your own girlfriend considering her secretive nature. But Jihyo, trust is a key in a relationship and if you’re skeptical about it, an issue might arise and harm the both of you!”

Seeing Jihyo was getting fed up of Jungyeon’s wording, Nayeon decided to step up and calm them down before they broke into an argument, the least thing they wanted then.

“Cut it down girls,” she said making both girls rolled their eyes and looked away from each other. “I don’t usually agree with Jungyeon, but this time I have to say she’s right. It seems like Jungie trusts your girlfriend more than you do,” Nayeon said to the youngest in a low voice.

Jihyo stood and stared at her own reflection in the mirror. Now that they said it, Jihyo pondered whether she’s doing the right thing. She started to regret agreeing to go to the event.

Silence filled the car as Jihyo quietly sitting and starring out the window from the backseat. Even the couple in the front seats had nothing to say during the car ride, something so unusual to the trio.

The exhibition hall was in the same building with ELLE’s headquarters. So the art exhibition thing wasn’t a made up at all, they thought. Jihyo hadn’t spotted Soojung in her sight, tiptoeing to see if there was a silhouette of her small girlfriend but gave up as she was hard to be found among the sea of people. Kim Sungjae? It’s not like Jihyo came for him anyway.

After moving a bit around, a familiar guy came up and tended to them. “Oh lovely ladies! What makes you here?”

Nayeon quickly plastered on a smile like a pro tended to give a respond to him. “Oh hi Journalist Kang, nice to see you again!” she said, “We are Kim Sungjae’s guests”.

Kang Siwoo talked a bit more with the trio as he informed them Sungjae was a bit busy running errands and tended to his other guests. They didn’t mind he kept them company except for certain someone who’s still anxiously looking around. Siwoo noticed her oddness and began to ask. “You’re okay, Jihyo-ssi? Are you looking for Sungjae? I can find him for you.”

Jihyo had no problem with the journalist excluded the part where he said to himself Soojung was a loser but his question kept her uneasy. “Sorry no. I’m fine by myself,” she said, a bit offending but it didn’t matter to her. Jungyeon elbowed to remind her manner. Jihyo just offered a smile apologetically to him, but Siwoo raised his hand and waved dismissively. “It’s okay,” he said with an awkward laugh.

He hung a bit more around them before parting, leaving the three to chat among themselves while looking around the displayed arts. A little while later, Sungjae eventually showed up in front of them and briefly exchanged introduction with Jungyeon whom he just met with over a handshake.

Setting his gaze on Jihyo, he began to compliment, “You look so wonderful tonight!” Sweetness arose from his kind words, making Jihyo started to feel different around him than the last time. His romantic deep voice swayed her heart a little, but she quickly shrugged the thought off.

Sungjae noticed the shade pink of blush crept on her face, his lips immediately twitched into a smirk. Lifting up his hand to feel her soft skin of her face on the back of his fingers, his heart got fluttery. “You wore the same perfume from the last time. I like it,” he said more that made Jihyo’s heart beat faster anxiously.

Obviously not pleasant with the way he acted Jungyeon grasped his wrist and shook it off of Jihyo’s face. “Aren’t you going a bit too far, gentleman?” she inquired with unpleasant tone. Apologizing for his slip up, he beamed apologetically at the younger girl. “I went a bit too far. Forgive me.”

Shrugging his apology, Jihyo looked up from staring down on the ground and from afar, she finally found the person she meant to search for. Lee Soojung.

At the other corner, her girlfriend had her arm linked around a man and dressed formally, something Jihyo hadn’t seen anywhere else. Soojung had always preferred casualness. Seeing the older woman dressed in suits was very uncanny, unique and…

…charming.

A second later, their eyes met. It was hard for Jihyo to read her expression but she appeared nonchalant with her presence while she was really anxious herself.

“Isn’t that Soojung?” Nayeon whispered in her ear to which she nodded to. “Who’s that man?” the elder asked further.

“That’s her Choi Won sunbae,” she replied, familiar with the lad that kept her girlfriend company. And oh well, Soojung wasn’t alone. She came with Jisoo and Jiae too.

“Your coat looks really nice,” Sungjae’s voice came out, breaking her from her nonsense train of thought. The coat was obviously familiar, Sungjae thought to himself. “Oh yeah,” Jihyo finally spoke up.

“I got it as a present from Soojung,” Jihyo said, “From France,” and added.

Bingo, he thought. He had seen the mentioned woman shopped in France and purchased that specific coat, which had captivated Sungjae too but Soojung beat him to it. So it was for Jihyo. Apparently, Sungjae had been eyeing Soojung in her movements and he kept the shopping scene in his memory vividly for some reason. “I see,” he finally said something.

Not minding about it further, he started to offer Jihyo to show the venue around more personally and introduced her to his peers. His idea was questioned by Jungyeon and of course Jihyo as well, which he replied calmly by saying Jihyo was his partner for the night.

“What?” Jihyo snapped in surprise. Sungjae flashed a sheepish smile. “I’m sure I mentioned that you’ll be my company for tonight, didn’t I?”

His words got Jungyeon glared at her shorter best friend. “What have you done, dummy?” she hissed, tickling Jihyo with her breath on her face. The latter massaged her temple for a while and thought carefully. She missed that part that Sungjae had mentioned but sure, he must have said it in his text and Jihyo didn’t take note of it. She’s really regretting her decision to come and the thought that she walked around with another man would surely enrage her girlfriend.

“Sure,” she found herself couldn’t resist his offer. Oh that smile of his had her melting in the inside. If Soojung was going to get mad, Jihyo should just confront about it sooner or later and for that time, she just wanted to be around him for a little more.

Jihyo didn’t know why she’s acting this way. It wasn’t like her and this was supposedly wrong. It was wrong of her to have a weird feeling arose inside her around that man. Sungjae could have had bad means to stick with her, but she took the risk somehow…

She was curious of him.

*
*

Frustrating. Soojung didn’t want to attend the event held at her former workplace. In fact, she wanted to avoid meeting the people in her past the most, knowing that one of them had ill intention upon her.

However she just couldn’t resist Choi Won sunbae. That lad had assisted her so much in her current stable career, hence she came in favor of him. Besides, the senior told this was her chance to widen her connection with big names and make her own business well known among the upper-class people. Jisoo and Jiae came as her company while she’ll be around as Choi Won’s partner.

Unexpectedly, her girlfriend happened to show up in the same event. Soojung’s heart dropped a little upon noticing Jihyo’s presence (thankfully not alone but with her best friends). She wanted to keep her girlfriend away from this matter, since she was well aware that Sungjae was one of the main hosts.

Horrible. The thing she feared of came true. Sungjae happened to appear before Jihyo, like he knew them not just for a while. The moment his (dirty) hand touched Jihyo’s face, her fist clenched tightly and heart boiled in anger. How dare of him…

Her jaw dropped and became tensed. She was numb and knew nothing how to make a move to stop him from harassing her girl. Sensing tension on the small girl beside him, Choi Won asked if she was okay. “Are you alright?” She answered his concern question with a nod of head and shrugged it off quickly.

Jiae noticed her cousin’s odd behavior, looking at the way Soojung had looked at before and saw Jihyo with Sungjae. Gasping in surprise, she informed Jisoo about the matter. The pair was concern and worried for Soojung and of course Jihyo’s safety. “Do you want us to look out for them?” Jisoo asked. But Soojung shook her head. “Let it be for a while. We’ll go to see Jihyo later,” she gave her reply before resuming talking with another guest about her business. In the inside, however she couldn’t