He was my ever first love, I guess it was me acting all innocent, not knowing how to love, showing purity over what I really wanted from him. Sometimes I told myself, it was a huge mistake, that I trusted too much, and I loved too much. I guess, hoping for a happy ending can only happen in daily dramas. In real life, you just ended up hurt, cheated and…

/a screeching sound of car braking/

I was awaken by the sound and jumped few steps back; flustered with the thought that I did not see the red light in front of me; I hit my head for not being careful. How unlucky my fate was. To make it even more stressful to me, the black Passat stopped right in front of me; splashing some water from the pot hole on my dress. I sighed, heavily, “Aish!”, and patted the lower part of the dress.

The window is rolled down; the driver is a young man; looking at me with a smirk on his face. I unknowingly bowed down, “I’m sorry”, I uttered formally. He looked at me, and warned me in an informal manner, “You should walk with your brain! Wake up and have some sense!”, he scoffed and continued, “Stupid citizen who cares nothing about the public who paid taxes!”. I smiled awkwardly, bowed again for the umpteenth time, apologized to him saying I will be more careful next time. He drove away and I looked at my watch and just realized I only had 10 minutes before my lunch break over.

------

I ran inside the office building, fixing my wet hair and my dress, and so many thoughts came into my mind while I was in the elevator. I need to dry my hair and my dress, get my research proposal ready and ….

“Tia!”, someone woke me up from my thoughts. Jongdae came in through the elevator and stood next to me. I looked at him, worried. “What’s wrong with your face?”, I asked. He is my best friend. His face was pale; he was sweating in this fall weather. He mouthed “Later”, and his signaled with his index finger showing up; meaning he’d explained when we arrived at our office later.

Once we got off the 11^th floor, we both walked back silently to our office and I went to his seat.

“What happened, dude? You look terrible.” I questioned in a serious tone.

He sat down and drank his bottled water he had in his hand and replied, “I saw him. My classmate when I was doing my MBA in the US. I saw him!”. 

“Heol!!! That punk? What’s with him?” I questioned more. Knowing Jongdae, he shared a whole lot of weird stuff he had for the past years and one of it was this. The heir of a known Korean trading company in the US, impolite but a genius; but overall, rubbish as a human.

“I saw him parked in front of the entrance. Don’t tell me he’s here for some business meetings? What kind of trading agreement does an academic institution like us need to have?!” Jongdae yelled at my face.

I was taken aback and squinted my eyes at him, poking his forehead and said, “Stupid, no wonder you had to repeat papers back then. We need fund for research. His company can contribute fund for our research!”. Yes, we work as researchers but we’re also giving lectures to companies about research and development, spreading awareness of the importance of research. In other way, we are… nerds with no lives.

We do a lot of research; tell us what fields, from language to science, to business and fashion, music and arts, everything.

I went back to my seat and my phone rang. I picked it up.

“Tia, you’re needed now at 7^th floor now. Bring along your research report on JESi investment in the US. And… /pause/ fix your hair and wear some perfume! /laughter at the end of the phone/”

I laughed along, knowing my best friend; Sunhee knows almost everything about me. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll ask Yeonhee for her 3-minute beauty tips.”

After I finished preparing the documents and /cough/ myself; I twirled twice in front of Jongdae asking for his opinion, “How do I look?” and he replied monotonously, “Disgrace to the women population”. I whacked his head once before taking off to the 7^th floor, courageously.

​------

I walked into the meeting room, after tying my chest-long straight hair, looking anxious more than usual. I heard from Sunhee, the young businessman is quite rude but has a figure of an actor. Lee Jonghyun, my team leader, seated next to the man whom I just recently found out he is Kim Jonghyun; and I spoke to myself; “He’s not even a tiny bit like an actor. Is Sunhee blind or what?!!!!!”

I went to the center of the room and connected my laptop; handed out my leaflets to both of them and started my presentation of my research.

After a while, I was asked to sit down next to my team leader.

The young businessman spoke, “We most probably might need you in our company to supervise and handle our investment in UK, based on your research. Since, you’re very much well versed with Korean companies’ investments in the US, we are trying to use the same technique to trade with UK. Well, I’ve talked to Mr. Lee, and he said, it’s hard to let go off you, /he smiled slyly/ so he decided we can have you on loan basis.”

I widened my eyes after listening to his offer. I was confused. Totally confused. What should I do? What are they planning? What is this all about?

“So, basically I have to work at your company now?” I asked for confirmation.

Both of them nodded. Team leader Lee opened his mouth, “Starting next week, you’ll be working as an RnD leader at our client’s company.”

Being the materialistic and very much critical me, I have so many questions to ask, but I started off with a smile; “So, how about my payment? Raised? Extra allowances? What should I prepare?” I smiled and let out a soft chuckle.

Kim laughed; “No wonder he said you’re a genius. We’ll send you the offer letter right away, Miss Cuevas. Don’t worry! We’ll give you a great deal,” and he winked as he finished his sentence.