Jiho was packing up his bag and looking over at the window that peered into his boss’ office. The blinds were pulled at the moment. There was enough light peeking in through the windows, causing shadows to come through the blinds smallest slit. There were shadows moving back and forth. More than likely, no one else to could tell what was going on, but Jiho could. His boss was fight with his wife again. He could see pacing. He assumed it was his boss’ wife, Mrs. Jeon. She always paced back and forth a lot  when very upset with the Mister. She would always show up at least once a week to fight about something. Something that she could not have the decency to wait until he got home to yell at him about it in private. They could be fighting about how much time he spends at the office. They could also be fighting about how many frivolous things she purchases. Their son could be skipping school again. Their daughter could be failing or could be becoming a harlot. Who knew what it was? It was always something different. Fortunately, no one could hear anything. The walls of his office were insulated and padded enough to keep all sounds in there. It came in handy for the big shot boss of Jiho.

Jiho was not as lucky. He always had to run errands for him. They could be work assignments. That would be the normal thing. However, more often than not it was just personal things Mr. Jeon Chul-Soo needed him to do. Jiho put up with it though. He was just trying to go about and do his job. If he had to do side jobs, it didn’t matter as long as it didn’t affect his long term goal. He worked for a entertainment company. He had gone through the audition process many a times. He always got declined. Apparently he was just too hard for anything and not appropriate for the public. So he decided to get in on the corporate side and make his way to where he wanted to be. It’s a process, but he was going to stick with it, no matter what he had to put up coming from Mr. Jeon.

Jiho approached the office door. He knocked lightly. He had to inform Mr. Jeon he would be leaving for lunch before actually going - no matter what Mr. Jeon was doing. Jiho was the fortunate person who the Jeon’s didn’t mind being dysfunctional in front of. Jiho was pretty much a family member. He sighed as he waited for the door to open. He looked at his watch making sure we wouldn’t be late for his lunch meeting.

“What do you want?” The door flung open with Mrs. Jeon standing there with her hand on her hip. She was letting Jiho know she did not have time for whatever he needed.

“Annyeong. I’m just letting Mr. Jeon know I’m heading out to lunch now. I’m going to make sure his appointments are taken care of,”  He nodded in Mr. Jeon’s direction. His cheek was red. She must have slapped him. It was the only time you saw any sort of change in his face. Color or emotion. Mr. Joen was about more than twice Jiho’s age. He actually appeared to be a lot younger than he was. He could have passed for being in his late 20’s. Mrs. Jeon looked younger than she was as well. Jiho just always figured with the job Chul-Soo had, they could afford to look as young as they wanted for as long as they wanted. Jiho had always been told that Mr. Jeon’s looks were all natural and he just lucked out genetically. However, Mrs. Jeon had more surgeries than his source could keep up with! Then again, his source was very bias.

Mr. Jeon nodded in response to Jiho. Mrs. Jeon slammed the door shut. Jiho grabbed his bag and headed towards the elevator. He put in his head phones. He wanted to avoid listening to the elevator music. It was always playing the companies idols new releases. He was typically less than impressed with what ever was playing. Any free time he had, he would work on his own compositions and own lyrics. He would typically rap out loud no matter where he was. When he stepped on the elevator, there was one other person on there. The person looked run and ragged. He assumed it was just an intern. That’s how they always looked. They were the do-boys in the company. He hummed and mumbled to himself on the way down the elevator. He felt his phone vibrate. He already knew who it was. He pulled it out and it displayed a name and the image that let him know there was new text message. It was from MyungHee.

‘What’s going on?’ he laughed to himself. She was impatient. No one was late yet and she was already checking up.

‘I’ll tell you when I get there. I’m on my way to meet you for lunch now. ‘ He typed out his reply. He didn’t expect a response. When he said that, she usually already knew what was up. That was all the explanation need.

‘With that, do you really need to explain anything?’ He smiled to himself. She was showing her attitude. MyungHee for the most part was shy quiet kind of girl. However, when you got to know her, she had some sort of attitude. It was a nice balance. Jiho didn’t completely understand her all the time though. She would confuse him. She would also amaze him. A lot of times, she did both at the same time. Mostly with some dumb life decisions she made before he ever even met her. They had known each other for about a year and half by now. They didn’t see each other everyday - at least once a week though. No matter what, they would always have lunch together at least one day a week. That day his lunch break would typically extended.

When Jiho finally made his way downstairs, he didn’t have much longer to get to the restaurant he was meeting her. Walking distance. She was there everyday regardless of if she was meeting him or anyone else. She said it was close enough to everything, but it still kept her out of sight. She was a private person. As stated, she was shy kind of girl. She didn’t have a lot of friends. She was okay with that. She was an introvert. Most people thought she was weird or judged her too harshly. She liked the solitude. She often said Jiho was the only friends that she needed anyway. Jiho understood her. But at the same time, he didn’t understand her. There were things that he would give his opinion on, knowing it wouldn’t change what she was doing. He never told her to change, he just gave his two cents. He had no right to tell her to change. It wasn’t his place to.

Jiho stepped into the restaurant. He had to wait for his eyes to adjust to the different light levels. He thought to himself, ‘I should have worn my sunglasses’. The restaurant had very dim lighting - it was to set the atmosphere, MyungHee explained repeatedly. He was looking and squinting. His phone rang. It was MyungHee.

“Yeobsaeyo” I answered.

“Hey! I’m the back.” Her voice came through cheerfully into his ear. He saw a shadow of what he assumed was an arm waving to catch his attention. He headed in the direction of the figure. She stood up and put her arms out. He stepped into her arms. She wrapped herself around his neck and pulled him close into the hug. She’d always hug him as though it had been an eternity since she last saw him or as though it was going to be the last time. She always wanted to know that she cared about him.

“I’m so glad you could schedule a lunch with me today.” She sat back down at the table. “I ordered this drink, but I guess you can have it.” She gestured to a second drink that looked as though it hadn’t been touched. Jiho pulled it over to him and put a straw in it. “So what happened today?”

“Well, Mrs. Jeon” She cut him off and referred to her as her given name. She never liked to address Mrs. Jeon formally. Jiho nodded to confirm he understood they were talking about the same person. There really wasn’t anyone else he could be referring to as Mr. Jeon’s wife. “She decided to stop by and surprise Chul-Soo.”

“What was she ing about today? Did she accuse him of cheating again?” She forced out a laugh. He just rolled his eyes at her.

“You do know that’s not nearly as funny as you think it is, right?” She knew it annoyed him when she said things like that. It was one of the things he didn’t agree with. Jiho picked up the menu and looked over it as though he didn’t already know what he wanted. They had lunch there together so often, even the waitress knew what he would order.  It was just a motion he went through now that was unnecessary.

“I have to make light of the situation or else I will start to feel bad.” She was already eating on something. Probably an appetizer to hold off her hunger until he arrived.

“If you feel bad, then why do you keep doing it?” He looked over the top of his menu to look at her.

“Jiho. I’ve been over this time and time again.” Jiho nodded and waved his hand at her to cease her from further explanation. MyungHee wasn’t Jiho’s girlfriend, despite what people often thought when they were out together. No. MyungHee was dating Jeon Chul-Soo. She had been dating him for four years. Jiho often helped Chul-Soo cover things up. As far as Mrs. Jeon was concerned, Jiho and MyungHee were dating. Jiho never completely understood why she was dating him. She tried to explain once it started out as revenge, because Mrs. Jeon had done something to her. She wanted to get back at her. Mrs. Jeon and Chul-Soo were separated when MyungHee first started dating him when she was 18. The miserable couple ended up getting back together. However, Chul-Soo and MyungHee didn’t break up. She’d just been tagging along as the other woman ever since. Jiho always told her he thought she could easily find someone who’s not a married man. She always shrugged him off. She was waiting for Chul-Soo. Every time Mrs. Jeon would leave, she got excited thinking she’d finally be able to have a known relationship with Chul-Soo. Mrs. Jeon would always come back.

“Well... You get to have lunch with me today. You get him tomorrow. Is that a problem?” Jiho stuck his tongue out at MyungHee. She shook her head and smiled.

“It’s nice to have someone other than him.”