Park Chaerin looked at her reflection on the mirror. The dark eye-bag under her eyes got worse than before. No wonder, all night long she can’t brought herself into a deep slumber. The conversation she had with her superior last night didn’t make her rested for a bit.

[Flashback]

”He is...”

”Victor Lee. Hmm, he got called Lee Seunghyun here, but...” Park Bom took another pause as she took the full gulp of her drink. ”Some of his friends called him as Seungri. Lee Seungri.”

            Chaerin didn’t blink her eyes as she saw the picture in Park Bom’s phone.

            ”It seems that... you have ‘met’ him.” Park Bom’s statement made Chaerin looked up at the owner of the phone, of course with ‘shocked’ expression on her face.

            ”Who? Me? Met... him? It’s... impossible.” Chaerin said the last part with low toned, whisper alike. She ducked down her head, she can’t show her burning face in front of her senior.

            Park Bom filled her empty glass, giggled once in a while. Even she was drunk, she has a pair of sharp eyes which didn’t let any single thing happened at her surroundings slipped away. Chaerin’s blushing face wasn’t an exception.

            ”Say, Chaerin. Did you know how we got you to join our team?” Park Bom gave another question to the younger one.

            Chaerin raised her head, looked at Park Bom whom enjoyed playing her glass filled with soju. ”It’s... Mr. Nathan’s collection fashion show, right?”

            Park Bom nodded as her answer. ”But, did you know? At first, I questioned about you and your work. I mean, he never recommended me a designer which ended with good end.” Park Bom explained, then took a gulp on her drink.

            Chaerin had a questioned look on her face. She got confused with the random things spoken by the older woman in front of her. ”He?”

            ”Ah... you must have met him before. He’s one of the models for your work, TOP.”

            Chaerin tried to remember that name. It was giving her about thirty seconds that she remembered the said model. TOP, the tallest one among the models which got sent by Seungri. So, that tall man was an acquaintance of Park Bom.

            ”Vic introduced you to him as his friend, then TOP recommended you when I was looking for a designer here.” Park Bom paused, then leaned forward to take a closer look on Chaerin. ”So, are you really befriend with Vic? How the two of you met? Tell me, Chaerin.”

            Chaerin didn’t know if the behind story of her got employed in INNERCICLE was like that. But then, she realized something after hearing the question given by Park Bom just now. That the man named Victory Lee was the same person as Lee Seungri. It was when she looked at Park Bom, and the latter had her excited expression over her flushed face. Chaerin knew what kind of look Park Bom had, a look which demanded an explanation. Should she tell Park Bom? She didn’t know. Chaerin already set her determination that she will focused on her work. Not for someone whom she wasn’t sure if that man had the same thing with her feeling.

            ”I... I never recall have a relationship like that to that man. We, only met once at my sister’s business. And then...” Chaerin didn’t continue as she realized that she barely ‘admitted’ that she have ‘met’ Seungri. She couldn’t continue that talk, as she didn’t want to dig her own grave deeper. It was when she raised her sight, she saw Park Bom had a disappointed look on her beautiful face. ”What?”

            ”You’re... really bad at lying, Chaerin. Nah, it doesn’t matter. I’m sure that I will get the answer out of you or him tomorrow.”

[Flashback End]

            ”Andwae!!!” Chaerin shouted out loud, as she covered her flushed face with her own hands.

Another thing which made her awake last night. The thought of meeting Lee Seungri, again, after almost one month since the photo shoot session. Approximately two weeks since their phone call. How she can counted it perfectly? Oh, when it related to a certain man named Lee Seungri, her brain worked faster than usual.

She slapped her own cheek, just to make her ‘woke up’. After that, she decided to go to the bathroom. A cold bath in the morning maybe the best way to let her anxious away. Fifteen minutes later, Chaerin was in the middle of dilemma. She didn’t know what kind of fashion she should show in front of ‘the important’ figure of INNERCICLE Seoul. She was mix-matched one piece to another, tried countless pairs and took a look of it in front of her mirror. And, she stopped at her twenty fifth choice.

***

Along his way to INNERCICLE’s HQ, Seunghyun kept his eyes closed as he leaned to the backseat. Since in the early morning, he kept meeting annoying things one after another. From his father’s long lecture, the countless documents which needed his approval, then business meeting to the company’s old partners. Secretary Kang chose to be silent as he saw his boss’s tired face through the rear-view mirror. It was when the traffic turned into red, their chauffer – Kim Jinwoo – initiated a conversation to the one whom sat at the front seat.

            ”Do we really need to take this road, Secretary Kang? In this hours, the traffic is really damn packed, you know?” Jinwoo started, as his fingers played on the steering wheel. Once in a while, he looked outside at the rear-view mirror as well as the traffic sign. ”We can reach the HQ faster if we took the highway...”

            ”Shuush... can’t you see how tired he is right now?” Daesung cut off Jinwoo’s suggestion with a whisper alike voice. Jinwoo whom got reprimanded took a brief look over his boss whom looked deep in his nap. ”At least, this is the only time he can take a rest, even it’s short.” Daesung added.

            ”Did you really take care of him, Secretary Kang?” Jinwoo gave another question as their car started running. ”He looked skinnier than the last time I saw him.”

            ”Jinjja, Jinwoo-ya. I always put him as my number one priority.” Daesung replied, still with low toned voice as he didn’t want to disturb Seunghyun. ”Then, how about me?”

            ”What?”

            ”I worked nonstop, maybe two folds harder than Director Lee. You didn’t see any change in me?”

            ”Who knows? Ah, you’ve gained more weight, right?”

            ”Ya! Jinwoo!”

***

Seunghyun just pretended to be asleep, as he didn’t want to make the merry atmosphere in that car got silenced once he opened his eyes and gave his complaint about how noisy the two in the front was. Seunghyun didn’t know what was getting into him lately. Usually, he will rejected any kind of meeting which got scheduled so suddenly. At first, he thought that rejected Park Bom’s demand only gave him another pain in the head at the future. As his brain remembered it well, Park Bom had her own way of making someone annoyed. But then, he found another reason why he accepted Park Bom’s last minutes request. The long ride from the heart of Seoul to her workplace was lessen his heavy burden, even it was a bit.

            ”I need you to come to our monthly meeting tomorrow morning. Also, I want to introduce several new faces to you.”

Oh, how many times he heard the same last part of Park Bom’s sentence already? That female fashion designer often said the same thing