TIME SLIPS | 9

After who knows how minutes have passed of Joohyun squirming and complaining around, she finally gave up as soon as two buckets of ice cream was in a brown bag in her lovely hands. “Yah, do you think Chorongie will be alright with him there?”

“More than okay, don’t you think? They’re like wolves.” The girl beside her smirked while holding the glass door of the apartment for her. Joohyun waited for her then they walked towards the elevator and waited some more. “Uh… doesn’t that make them more aggressive? And fight?”

“Wolves are stealthy. They take their time.” Seulgi laughed, feeling extremely excited. “The two are probably mating as we speak.”

She made a disgusted face. “Why would you –”

The elevator doors suddenly opened.

With her peripheral vision, she saw the wolf: Minseok, panting and his face flushed with perplexity.

Seulgi was about to talk to him, ask him why he was there in the elevator looking like he’s in deep , but he already ran away. He avoided them. He didn’t want to deal with her friends now, most especially her best friend. Kim Minseok really is in deep when Joohyun discovers about what happened to Chorong and him.

“Can you tell me what just happened?” Seulgi asked.

“He ran.” Joohyun said quite quickly, but her mind was somewhere else. She was thinking hard. “Something definitely happened. We have to go.” Now determined, she entered the elevator with Seulgi following behind her and pressed the number eight on the pad.

After dropping off his fake girlfriend, Chorong, by her apartment, Kim Junmyeon raced his car as fast as he could because his father called for him. A summon, as if he was a monster in a cage, waiting for an order from the master. It angers him that his own blood – a family would treat him like a pet. And it angers him more that he’s just obediently accepting Mr. Kim’s requests, as he would say. It’s… humiliating. But what can he do? He’s only a kid to him – hungry for money… but that’s not true. Not at all.

He turned off the engine of his car and gazed around at the parking lot. No time to think of what he called him for this time. Junmyeon went inside the building and in the elevator. He tapped the company’s card for access and pressed the highest number on the pad – which is fifteen. Only important people could go on that floor. Well, he laughed to himself, at least with this card I’m considered valuable.

As soon as he stepped out of the elevator and jogged towards the front desk, the secretary looked up at him with a nervous smile. “Mr. Kim is waiting for you in his office.” He nodded.

Junmyeon walked through the hallway and at the end of it is one huge wooden door, filled with luxurious embossed detail. He gulped, trying to catch his breath even though he didn’t run. Nervously, he arranged his necktie and ironed out his clothes with his hands. And before he could even hesitate, he knocked. Three consecutive times.

“Come in.” He heard his strict voice say.

And in he goes.

“Father, what made you call for me?” He asked, trying his best not to fail with the eye contact.

Mr. Kim’s face was expressionless, as expected by Junmyeon. He motioned his hand for the seat in front of him. “Sit first, then talk.” His son nodded and wordlessly sat on the cushioned chair.

“Have you decided yet?” Mr. Kim questioned.

Junmyeon answered swiftly, knowing what he was talking about, “No.”

His father sighed. Deep, like the whole world is on his shoulders. His eyes bore straight into his son as if it was a knife cutting deep into something, “When will you, Junmyeon?” He sighed once again. “Then, I’ll help you. If you think she’s not up to –”

“She is.” That shocked him. It was the first time he cut off his father while he was speaking. So, he quickly averted his unfathomed gaze and said, “Just… not right now.”

“Is that true?”

Finally.

He swallowed, “Yes, Father.”

"I’d like to meet her then. This weekend, there will be a congratulatory party for the success of my friend’s new business. You know Mr. Oh, right? As well as his son?” Junmyeon nodded, yet he also cursed in his head. Oh Sehun was in his list of people-not-to-mess-with just because he’s somehow related to his father and the business, even though he’s years older than that persistent brat. “I’m expecting to see her there, yes?”

There was no other choice to answer that question.

It’s all yes or yes.

And for the first time in his life, he wondered if he could disobey his father and run away instead. He didn’t know if this plan would work… but he’s hoping. Park Chorong is somewhat special. She has the courage, though it may not seem like it.

Here’s hoping Chorong would become his hero.

“Yes. She’ll be there.”

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