A/N: Not a totally new chapter yet... sorry for those who received an email update! Just shifting some chapters around as I edit parts of the story so that things will flow better. Will be posting a new chapter up soon!

ChapterTen

The lock clicked, and with a sigh of relief, Soo-Kyung let herself into the dark apartment. She didn’t pause to fumble for the light switch; instead she closed the door and leaned back against it, working at the buckle on her shoes as she fought to take them off.                                                                                                                           

When her feet touched the cold floor, she nearly jumped in surprise. This will teach her, she thought, wondering for the umpteenth time why she didn’t just buy herself a rug. Grinning to herself, she acknowledged her own stubbornness. She hadn’t bought a rug because rugs reminded her of stuffy houses where everything had to be in their proper place. It reminded her of a house she wanted to forget. And rugs required a lot of effort to clean, and if she was honest to herself, she was too lazy to want to spend time doing more housework.

Placing a hand to her head, she massaged her temples, suddenly aware of the headache that had crept on her. She had felt the beginnings of it during the party, but had pushed it away. She thought the pain had gone away, but apparently not, since it was now returning with a vengeance.

It had been a long day, first at work, then at the party. After Park Chang-Euk had successfully left the hospital, Soo-Kyung had been called to deal with a teenager who needed to amputate his legs. He had been throwing a fit, devastated that an accident was going to ruin his dream of becoming a professional soccer player, and he had been giving the nurses and doctors a hard time.

When she’d been called in, the patient had taken to throwing books and anything he could get his hands on at the hospital staff. One of her friends, a nurse, was already sporting a nasty bruise where a magazine had hit her.

Soo-Kyung sighed again. While there were happy days, it seemed lately that all she had were terrible ones. First Jae-Woon, now this. She wondered why children weren’t just given a free pass to have happiness in life. Let their problems begin in adulthood, she mused ruefully. Don’t ruin their innocence and happiness at such a young age.

Her thoughts led her down memory lane, and her pieces of her past came floating back at her. Shaking her head, she tried to push them out of her mind. She didn’t want to dwell on the past, or think about it at all. After all, she did survive it, didn’t she?

And there was the party.

She didn’t know what to make of it. She had known clearly, that In-Young’s suggestion was in reality a thinly-veiled command, but she had also known that she could have ignored the summons and no one would really take offense. So why had she waited for Kang Dae and then gone to the party, when she could have just gone home?

She closed her eyes, knowing exactly why she went to that party.

Choi Siwon.

His name leapt out at her, just as an image of his face appeared in her mind. With her mind’s eye, she saw him smiling at her, and felt her heart strangely warmed by the memory. It amazed her that a simple gesture like that could make her feel better.

Or maybe it was just the man. She remembered how Siwon held her hand in his as he led her towards the bar. She could still feel his bigger hand wrapped around hers, his fingers gripping hers tightly as if she would let go at any moment and he didn’t want her to. She hadn’t wanted to let go; if it hadn’t been highly inappropriate, she would have clung onto his hand for the entire night just to relish the strength of his hand around hers.

Pabo! She berated herself. What the hell was she thinking? This was Choi Siwon, chaebol heir. No doubt he had grabbed her hand because she was stupidly staring at him and he needed to pull her along. She shouldn’t read anything more into the situation, because it probably wasn’t as it seemed. There was no way Siwon would be interested in her.

But then she remembered that night in the stairwell, where Siwon had gathered her in his arms and hugged her as she sobbed. She allowed herself a small smile at that memory. Choi Siwon may be totally out of her dating league, but it didn’t mean that she couldn’t allow herself to remember the almost perfect way they fit together. It had been a long time since she had been comforted by a man’s presence, and in Siwon’s embrace, she felt like she could depend on him instead of having to face the world on her own.

But Oh Jin Ah’s face suddenly flittered into her mind, breaking her train of warm memories. Their conversation replayed itself and Soo-Kyung sighed loudly again. Jin Ah was the perfect reminder that she wasn’t part of Siwon’s world. The other woman had literally looked down her nose at Soo-Kyung, dismissing her immediately as someone of inferior status.

Why didn’t I feel offended? Soo-Kyung mused. Any other person in her position would have been angry, but she had merely been amused with Jin Ah’s antics. She might find Siwon attractive, but she knew that his world was not one in which she wished to inhabit. She enjoyed her simple life, and her work, too much to allow it to be complicated by a relationship with a chaebol.

Shaking her head, and wishing not for the first time that the action would metaphorically shake the cobwebs from her mind, Soo-Kyung picked up her shoes, and then made her way slowly to the bedroom, determined not to think any more about the party.

There was nothing a long, hot bath wouldn’t cure, and she was definitely looking forward to that.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

It was nearly two in the morning when Siwon let himself into his apartment. He stood for a moment at the door, observing how the lights of Apgujeong flickered beyond his floor-length windows, before reaching out for the switch that would bathe the penthouse in soft light.

When he first bought the apartment, he was young and had wanted the biggest, and the best, as a testament to his success. Now at 30, the vast space served as nothing more than a cruel reminder that he had nothing besides his career to fill his life.

He’d always imagined that he would have found a nice girl and settled down with her by this age, but fate obviously had other ideas. Sure, he’d brought women home to spend the night with in the past, but they usually didn’t stay for more than a week. He was getting older, and one night stands no longer held the same appeal as they once did when he was in his early twenties. What he wanted now was a woman who would stay, a woman he could build a life together with.

Park Soo-Kyung.

Her name flittered so quickly through his mind, and he was once again surprised that he was thinking about her. Or maybe he never stopped thinking about her since the party. He couldn’t deny his attraction to her, but he couldn’t explain why he was attracted in the first place. Soo-Kyung was a beautiful woman, but he didn’t know anything about her beyond the fact that she was competent at her job, was full of compassion for her patients, and had a sarcastic wit.

She was so different from the other women he knew.

Maybe that was it. Maybe he was drawn to Soo-Kyung because she wasn’t like any of the other women he knew. She wasn’t impressed with wealth, wasn’t overly concerned about her appearances or how people perceived her, and didn’t particularly care to conform to a mold others wanted her to fit into.

Soo-Kyung was a mystery. According to his uncle, the other hospital staff had mentioned that Soo-Kyung hardly talked about herself or her family; no one really knew much about her. They didn’t even know if she was an only child or if she was dating anyone. They didn’t know anything beyond the fact that she always had a ready smile for her patients and colleagues and was very good at her job.

Pouring himself a drink, he thought about the conversation between Jin Ah and Soo-Kyung. Jin Ah’s attitude was a reminder that newcomers to their sphere didn’t always receive a warm welcome, but he had been so proud of the way Soo-Kyung handled herself. He was strangely comforted at the thought that Soo-Kyung would be able to hold her own in his world, especially when his acquaintances turned nasty.

But was Soo-Kyung the woman he wanted to stay in his life? He barely knew her. He didn’t know what she liked, or hated; he didn’t even know what she held dear to her.

Standing up and shedding his coat, Siwon resolved to find out. And there was only one way to do that.

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