/Meet me at the Tunnel. Now./

Jiyeon felt a vibration in the handbag resting on her lap, and instinctively she knew who it was. She wanted to check his message, but when she remembered that she was at a ‘very important’ meeting with the President of Boyfriend Corp., his son by her side, she stopped herself. Unfortunately, Jiyeon could only mouth a few words to pull herself together, blinking rapidly as she remembered the promise she had made to her father.

“L.Joe…”

“What did you say?” Lee Jeongmin responded at the slightest demand of her voice, watching wondrously as Jiyeon went pale.

“Ah… nothing. I… said it’s cold,” she said, in a voice calmer than she thought she could pull. That wasn’t completely a lie, because every time the shutters on the air-con fell downwards, another series of chills were drilled down her spine.

There was suspicion in her tone, but Jeongmin let it go when Jiyeon’s gaze locked with his. His eyes softened at her features, simply because they were a part of her, and immediately he thought CLIO, for he recognised the style Jiyeon was wearing on her eyelashes. It was his mother’s favourite brand. But not only had Jeongmin always had this thing for girls with beautiful eyes, he was also someone who had much experience in the field of love, despite his quiet character. And when he realised how the gaze in the girl’s eyes kept fleeting around the room, he knew immediately they were in the same boat. Jiyeon was not interested in this marriage proposal, either.

Smiling at her warmly now, Jeongmin placed the jacket he had taken off earlier and slung behind his chair over the thin girl’s shoulders. She straightened her back at his actions and opened to speak, to say that it was okay and that he didn’t have to lend it to her, but she was stopped by his sincere words.

“–You’re welcome. You can return it to me later.”

Jiyeon loosened her shoulders and bowed her head to show her appreciation, not knowing that the boy sitting next to her had already saw through her, and sat there in another round of silence which wasn’t broken until the door to the room in the restaurant opened. A man who Jiyeon recognised immediately as Lee Ahjussi came in, with his wife and a trail of handymen, whom he gave orders to stay at the door, following closely behind.

“Abeoji, eomeoni,” Jeongmin greeted, standing up to his father and mother, who were older than they probably should be, to their reserved seats. Jiyeon followed suit and bowed, just so she didn’t seem rude.

“Mmm,” Lee ahjussi grumbled, removing one hand from the pocket of his huge black cloak to wave it up and down so as to signal everyone to sit.

Immediately, conversation broke out between the adults, and Jeongmin and Jiyeon just sat there watching, both sharing a mutual disgust at the fake salutations they were exchanging just so that the proposal would proceed smoothly. At the same time, Jiyeon fiddled with her fingers under the table nervously, wanting to excuse herself from the table so she could reply to the message she thought she had left unreplied for too long already, but then someone spoke.

“Now…”

“Wait!” Jiyeon’s face froze over when she realised what she was doing. Silence filled the room for a really long time, and everyone shot glances at her, but she didn’t seem to notice, with the exception of her father’s which was probably boring holes into her with disgrace and anger at the very moment. So Jeongmin nudged her, and whispered her name just loud enough for no one else but herself to hear. “Jiyeon-ssi…”

Jiyeon snapped back into reality. “Mian. But I wanted to…” she finally dared to steal a look at her father and gulped. “… excuse myself. I need to use the bathroom.”

//

Slipping just barely past the elders and Jeongmin’s suspicious glances, Jiyeon made her way down the corridor and past the security men who seemed to be guarding the entrance tightly. “,” Jiyeon thought. How was she going to get out of there without getting caught?

Acting on her best behaviour still, Jiyeon first slipped into the female’s bathroom. Then, she poured everything in her handbag out and took a few spare moments to reach for her hair ties, which she used to gather her free locks into a tight bun above her head. She cleared her forehead and stared intensely into the mirror, before removing the mobile phone from its place and tapping in her reply.

/What happened?/

L.Joe’s text message came immediately, and Jiyeon jolted at how worked up he was over whatever it was that was worrying him.

/I know everything./

Jiyeon just stared at her phone screen. She had a bad feeling about this. Another message made its way into her inbox.

/Come now. Or else we’re over./

Barely clinging onto breath, Jiyeon contemplated for several moments trying to steer clear of the situation. So L.Joe had found out. It hurt her to think even for a second how frustrated he would be right now; and with his personality, how much he was blaming himself, too. Her answer to his text message was pretty clear in her head, but Jiyeon remembered the conversation she had with her father, and how she promised to stay, for his sake… She had decided last night already to let L.Joe go, but why was it that now that the events were in front of her, they were so hard to ignore? Jiyeon cussed at her indecisiveness, and the scenario replaying itself like a broken record in her mind wasn’t helping.

“Father, I have something to discuss with you. It’s about the marriage proposal tomorrow–”

Jiyeon’s father held his hand up in defeat. “Say no more, Jiyeon… I’m tired of fighting back. But I hope you understand, that appa is only doing this for you. I promised your mother I would secure your future.”

“You also promised her you would give me happiness, and if that meant to you selling me to the wealthy son of your business partner, then I think you’re wrong!”

“PARK JI–” He was calmed down by the Mr. Yoo beside him, head of Park Manor’s many butlers, before he let his emotions take over. “… Listen to me. Jeongmin will be able to give you the happiness you seek. Can’t you see he takes interest in you?” Jiyeon sneered at the crap load of bull, but then remembered her goal for having this talk with her father tonight, and so refrained herself.  “He is also the heir of Boyfriend Corp. This is like killing two birds with one stone, Jiyeon-ah, don’t you know business?”

 “What does that matter if the person I love is not him…”

Her father sighed, seeing no point in continuing.

“But…” Jiyeon knew she had to say it, despite knowing the consequences. “I will listen to you, father.”

Her father, who had looked like he had been sleeping all day, could no longer sit still in his armed high chair. He gave her the elevator eyes sceptically. “You’re… not going to fight back anymore?”

 When Jiyeon sensed his uncertainty, she cleared to rephrase her sentence, hoping her father would not find anything peculiar about her decision. “Father, I’ve decided. For you, and for L.Joe, I will stop seeing him and go to the proposal tomorrow… And you would leave L.Joe alone. That is all.”

Bowing before her father could makes any comments, Jiyeon left the room, trailing into the distant hallway as she listened to the faint sounds of her father heartily laughing from his study room.

And to think, now she couldn't do it.

Jiyeon returned to herself, judging the person who stood in front of the mirror as she no longer recognised the girl in the reflection. She didn’t know if she could lie to herself any longer like this, but she knew one thing for certain: that she loved L.Joe too much right now to give him up. What was she even thinking, making all those void promises to her father? And so, before another thought could change her mind, she took only her mobile phone, exited the bathroom with her heels in her hand, and before anyone had noticed her, she made a run for it. There was no time to waste.

//

Jiyeon lost patience as she jabbed rapidly the elevator button. They were nine floors into the air, so this had got to be the quickest way down. With her eyes continuously sweeping around the much too silent hallway, she almost hadn’t noticed when the elevator doors began to open.

“Yes!” But if she knew that men were already on the loose, in search for her, she would have known better than to have spoken so soon.

“There she is!” A man called, pointing from the end of the hall.

“Argh crap,” Jiyeon scowled, abandoning the elevator plan and making a run for the flight of steps. However, before she could make the last turn and reach the door to the steps, a handyman of Lee Ahjussi’s popped out of no where and stood in her path.

“Jiyeon-ssi, what do you think you’re doing!? Everyone is waiting for you back at the room!”

She didn’t know her temper was blowing, and she probably sounded more aggressive than she needed to, but she gritted her teeth, biting down on every word. “Get out of my way!”

“Sorry, but it’s either you conform, or I use force.” He cracked his knuckles, as though to frighten her, but Jiyeon wasn’t scared at all. If she was startled by this little act, then how would anyone expect her to hang out with the scariest gang in town, let alone date one of the members?

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” and with that, Jiyeon threw a punch at the guy’s face.

//

Jeongmin ate in silence, holding the knife poised above the steak, when a report was sent back into the room and everyone placed down their utensils to listen.

“Men! Ugh! On the f-floor!”

“Get to the point,” Jeongmin said.

“The m- mistress… she left.”

Knowing he was going to hear something along those lines, Jeongmin smiled, but made sure it was brief so no one could see it.

“WHAT!?” The adults yelled in unison.

Lee ahjussi stood, growling as he slammed his hand down onto the dining table. “Mr. Park, we’re all busy businessmen, and I’m pretty sure you know we don’t have much time to be toying around…” He glanced at Jeongmin, who remained still at his side, like the news was no surprise at all. “… especially when we’re dealing with matters concerning my Jeongmin. Now, if you would excuse us.” With eyes drowned in silent amusement, Jeongmin followed his father’s footsteps out the room, making sure to close the doors behind him before he left. Mrs. Lee followed tightly after.

By then, Jiyeon’s father was fuming, his face as red as the carpet in the room. “WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK YOU'RE DOING? WHERE IS JIYEON?”

“S-Sir, the young mistress left her phone in the hallway–” The poor waiter was shaking so much that the bottom of the glass cups in his care were practically clattering against the tray he was holding.

“FIND. HER. NOW. OTHERWISE, YOU’RE ALL FIRED.”

//

“Sir, can you step on it, please? I’m in a hurry.”

Jiyeon realised she had dropped her phone back at the restaurant hotel and chewed on her lip, eyes crawling constantly over the time, heart fluttering every time the number changed on the digital counter. At this rate, the taxi wasn’t going to take her anywhere. She pictured again L.Joe, waiting for her, and died inside who knew how many times already when the taxi came to a stop again.

Jiyeon wound down the windows, and stuck her head out of it as the taxi trudged to a halt behind a long line of other vehicles, all moving awfully slowly along the overly congested street. All the money she had right now was the handful of notes she had taken from her handbag, and when she couldn’t take waiting anymore, she threw the whole bundle down onto the seat and left the taxi, running with her bare feet until she reached the far side.

When she got far enough and could see the edge of the city, she knew she was almost there. The Tunnel was her and L.Joe's favourite place, the highest point, verging on the border of the city. Weaving through the cars still, Jiyeon made no hesitation to jump the fence running along the perimeter of the side road which led to the Tunnel itself–a short cut L.Joe taught her to never take, because it was slightly more dangerous. But for the first time, she ignored  his advice... During Jiyeon's escape, closer to her boyfriend she did seem, but little did she know that a car was speeding down the next lane, into the strip where she had just jumped onto. Too late to retreat, Jiyeon stood there, legs rooted to the road in fear when she saw the flashing headlights, and in no more than a millisecond...

*!!!*

... she was off the side road, over the railing and into the jungle of trees that stretched out below. Her world turned black, and the last things she remembered hearing were the sounds of the plants rustling against her body as she rolled deeper into the other side of the city, the thudding of her head against the hard rocks and soil amidst her plight, and a young gentleman hopping off his bicycle on the other side when she had reached, yelling constantly in her ears, pleading for her to hang in there…

♕ ♕ ♕

a/n: CLIFF HANGEERRRR! LOL. So lame, I know, but pleaseuu don't hate me!

hyukxin ©