Chapter 11

“Tim, could you call all the kids to come here?” Mrs. Jung asked, from behind her desk, “It’s almost lunch time.”

Tiffany nodded & flew towards the garden where the kids were playing, “Time to eat!” She shouted. All those little heads immediately turned to look at her & then little feet started to scramble towards the dining room. Laughing, she picked up a boy who was trying to keep up with the other kids, “Let’s outrun them.” She whispered to the boy conspiringly.

The boy looked at her with utter adoration & nodded in full agreement, “Hurry, Miyoung Unnie. Hurry.” Noticing Tiffany’s lifted eyebrow, he grinned sheepishly, showing her the gap where his teeth were supposed to be, “I mean Minjun Hyung. Hurry, hurry.”

Chuckling, Tiffany ran towards the dining room while the boy in her arms squealed with delight.

From her office, Mrs. Jung smiled indulgently as she watched the scene outside. After their fateful talk three weeks ago, after Tiffany told her the reason she had run away from home, she had asked Yunho to let Tim help her with the charity work & he had agreed & ever since she had stepped in here, Tiffany had been indispensable to the orphanage that she was running. The staff loved her generous & affectionate spirit & the kids had been totally drawn to her. Her eye-smile & cheerful disposition had made this dreary place became a better place for the unfortunate little ones.

She almost went back to her desk when she suddenly saw her son running after Tiffany.

“Well, well.” She muttered to herself, “Someone has an agenda here.” She wasn’t blind. She knew something was going on with them & had been for the last couple of weeks. With renewed interests, she watched as her son grabbed onto Tiffany’s hand & turned her around, “Ouch.” She said, & chuckled with amusement when she saw Tiffany’s smiling face turned blank & she brushed him off like a fly, “I see you have found your match, my dearest son. I wish you luck.” She mused, out loud as she walked back to her seat, giving them the privacy they deserved.

“Tim.” Yunho called her, clutching her arm like a lifeline while trying to infuse some cheerfulness in his somber voice, “Let’s go get some lunch. I know a place nearby that serve great food.”

“I’m not hungry yet but thank you for asking, Mr. Jung.” Tim said stonily, trying to shrug his hand off of her. Wincing at her tone, Yunho looked at the person in front of him exasperatedly. Ever since their kiss half a month ago, Tim had been invariably polite to him & he was starting to hate that polite tone as much as he hated his pitiful self-control. It was undeniably the biggest mistake in his life. He didn’t know what had prodded him into signing his death warrant & kissing her when he had pretended not to know her gender from the start. Maybe it was because her eyes had seemed so vulnerable & compelling at that time. Maybe it was the faint jasmine scent that was uniquely hers had muddled his mind. Or maybe because seeing her so unhappy had triggered a need in him to protect her & cheer her up, to keep her mind off the things that had bothered her. Whatever it was, it had obviously made some dormant suicidal instinct inside of him come to life & he had impulsively tasted the forbidden fruit. The taste was beyond words but the price he had to pay was dear, too. For weeks now, he had tried to talk to her without any success. Frankly, he was starting to regret his decision to let her work for his mother since it gave her excuses to be out of his reach. She often spent her nights in the orphanage nowadays, especially when she knew that he would be home, waiting for her. He suspected that someone in his house, meaning Yoona, turned traitor & told her his whereabouts because it was also Yoona who told him that she only get home early when he was out of town or too swamped with work to go home & whenever he got lucky & managed to catch her at home, she would be so very civil to him that he felt itchy hearing the way she called him Mr. Jung. Invariably, afterwards, she would go into her room & wouldn’t come out for the rest of the night, not even when he knocked on her door & invited her to dinner himself & he couldn’t force her to bend to his will this time, not unless he wanted all of her visibly reined temper poured on his head but his patience was running thinner & thinner as time went by. He missed her so badly & the lack of seeing her, a glimpse wasn’t even close to enough. He had become so irritable this past few weeks & started to snap left & right like some frustrated & deprived animal that all his employee seemed to twitch & start making cross signs whenever they saw him but today, he had enough of his cowardice.

Come hell or high water, he would have to get this stubborn girl to listen to him. He had rather face her fire straight on & let it burn his hair rather than hearing another polite syllable from her.

He tightened his hold on her & yanked her a little, bringing her closer, “Screw the small talk! You don’t want food then fine! It’s up to you if you want the boy to hear our conversation or not, because frankly, I don’t give a damn anymore! It’s fine with me if you want audiences because one way or the other, we are having our talk right here, right now!”

The gleam in his eyes must have convinced her about his level of determination & he couldn’t be happier when she resorted back to her old impolite self & hissed back, “Fine! Then you just have to wait here! I will take Minjae inside & be back for you!” With that as a parting shot, she marched towards the dining room with the boy in her arm, waving goodbye to him cheerfully. He could feel the beginning of a wide grin starting to crack his face as he anticipated the shortly coming battle, ‘Boy, it sure felt good to finally feel the heat of her temper again, after three long freezing weeks.’ He thought giddily.

Tiffany lingered as long as she could in the dining room, playing & joking around with the kids while her mind started to go overload with apprehension. Oh, she knew just what he wanted to talk about ever since she saw the determined light in his eyes when he had asked her for lunch but it was still too soon for her. Two months was far from enough to numb her heart, let alone three weeks. It was still throbbing painfully whenever the kiss scene flashed into her mind which was almost every blasted moment.

“Miyoung Noona, the guy is watching you again.” Minjae whispered into her ear, as he waved his chubby hand at the doorway. Her head snapped to that direction & surely enough, Yunho was leaning his body there, looking at her appreciatively. Trying to suppress the bile that was rising in when she felt his eyes sweeping over her, she shrugged her shoulder & continued mingling with the kids until Yunho finally ran out of his limited supply of patience. Before she knew it, she was swept off her feet & being carried out like a sack of potato, amidst the clapping of the children who were clearly reading too much of some twisted fairy tales.

“Let me go!” She shrieked, trying to wiggle free of his hold. Instead, his hand tightened on her legs & buttocks, horrifying her enough to give her struggle up. Silently, she kept her body still to minimize contact with his as he walked oh so slowly towards the deserted playroom just next to the dining room.

“Why are you avoiding me?!” He demanded, the moment they were out of sight & hearing. He let her go with what seemed like the utmost reluctance.

“Who’s avoiding you?!” She retorted sulkily, rubbing the goosebumps off of her arms while shooting daggers at him with her eyes.

Yunho took her hand & casually linked their hands. His eyes were so piercing like he was trying to read her mind, “Tim, answer me. Why are you avoiding me?” He asked more gently.

“When did I avoid you? I’m here with you now, aren’t I?” She answered huffily, & snatched her hands away from his grasps. It still tingled & sizzled as if it was branded by his touch. His touch for Tim. Swallowing profusely, she fervently prayed that the distress that was eating at her inside wouldn’t show on her face. Instead, her distress quickly became a full-blown anguish when Yunho stepped closer to her & started to trail his finger on her cheeks, “Tell me why, Tim.” He whispered, misery clearly etched on his face, “Are you angry because of the kiss? Because…”

Before he could finish his sentence & before she could break down, she cut his words off, “I don’t want to talk about it. It was clearly a mistake & better be forgotten.” She could feel her voice starting to quiver so she shut up before she would weep & humiliate herself. She started to walk away when his hand clamped on hers once again, & tugged her closer.

“Tim, listen to me.” His voice started to get some urgent & impatient edge on it, “I agree that the kiss was a mistake but I wouldn’t forget it. I wouldn’t want to begin to forget it. You have got to listen to me first.”

He was too close for comfort that Tiffany could feel like she was breathing too fast & started to feel faint. She took deep gulps of air until she could speak more calmly, “Yunho, I will tell you this once again. I’m not what you think I am. I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression but I’m one hundred percent straight.”

Yunho almost choked. He goggled at her as if he couldn’t believe she could be so blunt & then a brilliant smile tugged his lips up, “Ah, I'm glad you brought that up. I’m not like what you think I’m either, Tim.” He said gently. His eyes had some strange light inside of them as if trying to tell her something but before she could ask what he meant by that, she felt a little hand tugging at her black pima v-neck tee. Minjae was sobbing, looking up at her pitifully & talking about meanie Gyongsi stealing his oreo silk pie. She could see the frustration taking over Yunho’s face but his tone was as gentle as ever when he addressed Minjae, “I will buy you two pieces of pie tomorrow okay? Now, don’t cry. You wouldn’t want Minjun Hyung to cry too, do you?” Then to her, he pleaded at her with both words & eyes, making it almost impossible for her to say no, “Come home this evening & we will talk again, please? I promise you I would make everything clear, please?” Intrigued & curious by what he had said before they were interrupted, she gave him a nod before taking Minjae inside for his afternoon nap.

At the same time, the room owner was having a talk with the master of the house, Yoona was steadily ransacking Tiffany’s room for evidence. She had waited for this day to come for weeks. Every year, they would give the house a total scrub from top to bottom & during this day, the staff would have access to every room of the house except for Mrs. Jung’s & master Yunho’s. Theirs were the only ones being cleaned by a professional company. Tim, new as she was to this house, wouldn’t know about this annual ritual & therefore, she wouldn’t have any chance to hide whatever she didn’t want anybody to see, Yoona predicted, almost giddy with glee.

The maids would be grouped into a five-people team & as always, she would be in charge on half of the lower level area. She fished out the key & unlocked Tim’s room with a flourish. She looked at it with anticipation. The room was just as she remembered. Not a thing was out of place & no personal stuff was left scattered. It was as neat & clean as before which would make her job to pretend to clean it more believable if the four maids got back before her hour was over. She strode purposefully towards the desk, wanting to see if the ring was still there & cursed when she saw that it was empty. She rummaged through all the drawers but the ring was no longer there. Neither did she find anything she could use for her revenge plan. Growling in anger, feeling as if she was cheated of something that was rightfully hers, she marched towards the closet & started to go through it, inch by inch.

It was eighty-three minutes later did she finally find what she was looking for. Eyes glittering with satisfaction & triumph, she pulled something from the depth of the closet. A malicious smile twisted her light pink lips as she looked triumphantly at what she was holding in her hand.