• f o u r
Like CandyI head to the local gym later the evening, opening my members locker to stow away my tote bag and grab my gym gear from inside. Slipping into the changing rooms to swap my office wear for my workout clothes, I marvel how different my first day had been to what I was used to. Not the best… But not bad, either. It was something I could work with and that was what mattered. Stepping out onto the court I stretched slowly, easing the tension from each of my muscles.
“Sorry I’m late!” A familiar voice called.
I glanced to the left and see exactly who I expected to see, my lips tilting into a smile.
“You going to play like that?” I asked.
Kim TaeHyung tossed his navy suit jacket on a bench and loosened his light blue tie with a grin. “Why? Embarrassed to have your handed to you in a guy in a suit?”
Rolling my eyes I bent down to touch my palms against the ground, keeping my legs straight as I stretch my hamstrings. The pull is soothing and I close my eyes as my ponytail falls over my head and into my face.
“You wish.”
“Actually, my wish right now is to be made Senior Manager, but for now I’ll settle for kicking your .”
I grinned as I stood upright. “Bring it, you Corporate .”
He does win by three points, even wearing his damn suit and I sighed as we both sunk onto the benches to catch our breaths. Uncapping my water bottle I drink it messily, not bothering with decorum in front of him. He in turn practically splashed his all over himself, splattering me in the process. I nudge his shoulder in revenge.
"Man, I needed this." I announced happily.
Nothing beat a good work out. TaeHyung suddenly reached out and pulled me against his side in a one handed hug before planting a kiss on the top of my head.
“Ugh gross I’m sweaty.” I protested.
“Now hear new out… I had this great idea where you could maybe intern with my company.” He said conversationally.
“You mean you had this great idea that involved you bossing me around at your work?”
He chuckled. “You got me. It’s my big bad plan to harass you more often.”
“Of course it is.” I shoved him away from me.
“I’m serious though. I could probably pull you some strings, skip the whole interview thing…”
“Thanks, but I’m okay. I’ve actually got a new position.”
His eyebrows shot up. “They’ve made you permanent? Why didn’t you say something! Congratulations my former Intern friend! We should celebrate.”
“We will be doing no such thing… At least not until I get my first pay check.” I grinned.
“I’ll hold you to that.” He warned, standing up.
Even with his white shirt slicked with sweat and damp with water he looked good. I sighed, because I know without a doubt I look like hell, all red faced and sweaty. It really did having such an attractive best friend — it only made me look ten times worse when stood next to him, even when I put in effort.
“What’s your new position anyway?” He asked as we packed away our stuff.
“Oh, it’s on the media team.”
“I knew you’d get it! See, hard work does pay off!”
I felt a stab of guilt at the proud look on his face.
I’m not sure why I lied. TaeHyung didn’t know much about the Ghost, other than the odd drunken rant from me, but for some reason I didn’t want to tell him I was an assistant. More than anyone else in the world, TaeHyung actually believed in my hopes of gaining full employment and I’d confided in him about my desire to join the design team. He’d see the assistant role as below me, though a conversation with Jin-Woo would quickly clear that up, I thought with amusement.
“Yup. So no more talk about hooking me up at your place, ok?”
He pouted. “But we would’ve made awesome work buddies.”
I laughed and shoved him again. “No, we wouldn’t. We’d get on everyone’s nerves and then you’d be out of a job.”
He shrugged because he knew it was true. It’s why even before I got the internship I’d refused to apply for a job at his company, which was retail— well, technically it was a department store franchise specialising in luxury brands, but he oversaw the clients for those department stores. I’d seen some of the profit figures of the stores he looked after, since he worked in the main headquarters as their International Brand Junior-Manager, and it made my head spin. I was not qualified to handle such things, but regardless, we’d never be able to work seriously together, we never had, even back in high school.
“Your loss. You’d have serious bragging rights at my place if everyone knew you were my friend.”
I eyed him suspiciously. “You won the companies Best Face award again, didn’t you.”
“Did you ever doubt it?”
I sighed. TaeHyung wasn’t just good looking — he was incredibly handsome, a fact he’d known since middle school when he began to hit puberty. Girls who had ignored him up to then suddenly began paying him attention and had even began trying to get close to me to get close to him. It had been the bane of my existence, that pretty boy face of his. None of his girlfriends ever liked me, always assuming we were something more than friends because of it. No one could figure out how I could just be friends with him, but somehow they always accepted he saw me as nothing more than a friend.
But they didn’t know him like I did. Sure, I could acknowledge he was good looking, but I’d always seen him as more of a brother figure, no matter how handsome he became or how successful he was now. We’d remained best friends through the years and I knew nothing would ever change that.
“You need to stop maturing like fine wine.” I warned him. “I can’t keep fending off your admirers.”
“Deal with it.”
I would, like I always had.
“I saw Seona.” I told him suddenly.
I wasn’t sure what made me say it — guilt over lying to him before, perhaps. He paused in his stride and turned to face me, all amusement wiped from his expression.
“How?”
“I had to go to the hospital to check in on one of our staff and I ran into her.”
“. What happened?”
“I didn’t scream at her this time if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“Baby steps.” He praised half jokingly. “So what? You had an actual conversation with her? No hair pulling, no mud wrestling wearing teenie tiny bikinis…?”
“You e.” I scolded with a laugh. “And not really. She tried to get me to stay in her office so we could talk, but I left.”
“Ah.”
I fiddled with the hem of my gym top, nodding. Ah just about summed it up. With a sigh he dragged me against him again, this time into a proper hug, arms going around my shoulders and in turn I hugged his waist, my face pressed against his wet shirt.
“You’ll have to face her one day.” He spoke into my sweaty hair.
“I’m not ready.”
“I know… But you can’t keep avoiding her forever.”
I knew that, but I wasn’t ready. The truth was — I wasn’t sure if I would ever be ready to face her. TaeHyung was the only one outside of my family who knew the truth of why I’d stopped speaking to them all, why I couldn’t stand to even look or think about my sister. I hugged him tighter before pulling away with a smile.
“I bet I can get changed faster than you.”
He scoffed. “We’ll see.”
This time I beat him three minutes.
“I can’t believe you still don’t have a car.” He frowned after I’d finished gloating about showering and changing faster than him.
“The bus gets me where I need to go just fine.”
He rolled his eyes as he pulled out his own set of car keys. “Want a ride?”
“And put my life in your hands? No thanks.”
“Hey, I’m a great driver!”
He was. I just liked to wind him up.
“Keep telling yourself that, Pretty Boy!” I called over my shoulder as I headed to the bus stop.
That next morning when I arrived in the office I was in a great mood. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the sun bouncing off the buildings left them with a brilliant sparkle. It’s going to be a good day, I think. That bubble pops the moment I step foot into the office and into what I can only describe as utter chaos.
“God dammit where the Hell is the—”
“Where are the cue cards? I swear I left them over here…”
“Has anyone heard from the makeup artist? She said she’s be here!”
I paused, watching the mayhem before I realised what it was all for. The postponed press conference was today. I spotted Seulgi at her desk, phone to her ear as she spoke rapidly into it and I felt a swell of longing. I should be there helping them — it should have been me they called this morning to come in early to help them all. But they hadn’t, because I was no longer part of their team.
Giving Seulgi a wave as she spotted me, she crossed her eyes and pretended to shoot herself. I shrugged in apology as I stepped up to my level and placed my tote and coffee down before knocking once on the Ghosts door and walking in. He blinked at me in silence as I placed the strawberry smoothie and iced latte down on his desk with a bright smile.
“Morning Boss. Lovely day outside.”
He toyed with the strawberry smoothie cup, turning it slowly while I glanced at the closed blinds wistfully. If he opened them this office would be as open and cheerful as COO Park's.
“Don’t you want to open them? Let in some of that sunshine?”
“No.”
I sighed again. “Why? It’s so sunny today…”
No answer. Gritting my teeth I walked out, deciding it wasn’t worth the battle to get an answer out of him, not when I hadn’t h
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