The blood-red roses on her desk look so nauseatingly vulgar that Hyejin involuntarily lets out a loud, undignified laugh that makes her even feel a little ashamed. But the embarrassment quickly wears off as her chuckle finally gets Press Secretary Wang to shut his mouth and cut off his tasteless stream of flattery.

"How… nice," Wheein comments dryly. As Hyejin's assistant, she knows perfectly well that only one person could've sent her this terror of a bouquet. And on the day of signing one of the most important partnership contracts since Hyejin became a CEO of all days. "Kim Yongsun..."

She mumbles the name almost silently, but Hyejin hears it. And she can hardly contain her laughter.

"Looks like I have a rival," jokes Press Secretary Wang, who has been actively trying to invite Hyejin to dinner for the last half hour between attempts to negotiate a partnership between their companies.

Hyejin just smiles politely, casually grabbing a huge bouquet like it's an old broom from grandma's pantry and tosses it on the couch near the window. Wheein secretly chuckles at her fist at Press Secretary Wang's words.

"Yeah, dream big, I guess," she mutters again under her breath.

Hyejin can only feel sorry for Press Secretary's either terrible sense of humor or his ridiculous self-confidence that is backed up by absolutely nothing.

Kim Yongsun is unlikely to have rivals in anything, not to mention at getting Ahn Hyejin's attention. At all.

"If you're finished listing all the decent restaurants in Seoul," Hyejin drawls, sitting down behind the desk and pointing with a narrow palm to the empty chair across from her. "Maybe we can finally get down to business, Mr. Wang?"

"I demand that you bring your in here and personally clean up that flower horror you sent me this morning."

Hyejin paces the office, reeking of mawkish scent of roses, and fanning herself with the paper containing partnership contract already signed by press secretary Wang.

A little hoarse this early in the morning, Yongsun's voice on the speakerphone drawls resentfully:

"Did you not like it?"

Anyone else, hearing her tone, would be afraid that she was genuinely hurt by Hyejin's words. But Hyejin has known Yongsun a little too long to fall for her tricks. She might once have believed her innocent girl-next-door act, but they are no longer children pulling each other's pigtails and exchanging silly barbs.

"Come and clean up after yourself," Hyejin hisses.

"I thought you liked flowers."

"That's not the point!"

"Are you already miss me that much?" Yongsun coos, and Hyejin hears Yongkeey's pipy bark in the periphery. "It's been only a week. Besides, how do you imagine it? I'm on the other side of the world."

"So what? Did they run out of planes in New York?"

"Oh, come on, it's just a token of congratulations!" Yongsun laughs. "Just a little gift."

It would be a gift if you personally handed them to me, Hyejin thinks frowningly, but says nothing. Yongsun these days has a mountain of things to handle without her whining. But the thought alone gives her strength to continue this incredibly long, difficult and very, very important day for her.

"I know," she says instead. "Thanks, unnie."

She can't see but knows that Yongsun is smiling. Just knows, and that's all.

"My pleasure." Her voice is warm and sleepy. Hyejin hears the gurgling of coffee being poured into a cup, and almost physically smells the bitter smell of the terrible black coffee without sugar and milk that Yongsun loves to sip in the mornings. "It's a very big partnership. You did great. Do you feel like the master of the world?"

"What makes you think that I did not feel like this before?" Hyejin snorts, grabbing the bouquet from the couch and looking around for the vase her secretary brought a few minutes ago.

"Oh, apologies, my Queen," Yongsun laughs, taking a long sip of her coffee. "And when will Her Highness have a celebration of the signing of such a beneficial partnership?"

"For all the company employees the party will be held tonight," Hyejin sighs, already imagining how her face will cramp from constant smiles. "And tomorrow night, we'll just get together with a couple of close friends. This partnership is the result of Wheein, Byulyi-unnie and their team no less – and even more – than mine."

"Don't belittle your hard work, Hyejin-ah," Yongsun says in that serious, 'I'm-older-and-more-experienced-than-you-in-all-these-businesswoman-things' tone. "It won't lead you to success."

"Yes, yes," Hyejin sighs, having heard it a hundred times before.

"I have today and tomorrow scheduled by the minute," Yongsun says. "I'll try to contact you if I have a spare moment, but don't worry if I don't answer. Most likely, all these two days I will try to charm American moneybags to give me their money to open a branch of my company in New York and to buy you gifts."

Hyejin laughs and shakes her head.

"You're insufferable, unnie."

"Thanks for the compliment!"

Hyejin doesn't like showing off his family's money, because she knows full well that all the benefits that they bring her belong to her only because she was simply lucky to be born in this family. But, nevertheless, this doesn't mean she's opposed to enjoying aforementioned benefits. Not at all. If she's so lucky, then it's better to use it to the maximum, while not forgetting to help those who were happened to be less fortunate than her.

All in all, Hyejin is immensely grateful for the money and high position of her family. But perhaps most of all, she is grateful for the opportunity to be acquainted (to be friends, to be lovers) with Kim Yongsun.

They hated each other's guts in childhood. When they first met, Hyejin was 6 years old, and Yongsun, who had just turned 10, was a good two heads taller than her, with a scattering of freckles on her snub nose, two tight pigtails tucked behind bulging ears, adorable round cheeks and a huge, exorbitant resentment that she,