Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters other than the original character that I'm responsible for, neither do I take credit for the pictures I have put and will put in the other chapters. The credits go to the owners of those photos.

Note: single quotes ' .....' are thoughts and "....." doubles are spoken words.

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Your POV

All throughout lunch I raked my brains but couldn’t find a single idea on how I’ll do this food mart project. Sure I can sketch a design of a building but will it be suitable for a business? I keep imagining and drawing my dream home but a public place owned by Korea’s biggest business group will not be satisfied by fanciful drawings right? So what do I do?

Passing by the other departments in the hallway I ran into someone. No not literally, I’m not clumsy. I was thinking about the project when I heard someone calling me.

“_______________-ah! Yah! Over here!”

I stopped in my tracks and looked from left to right and finally spotted the owner of the voice waving at me.

“Shin ge!” I waved back at him and jogged over to where he stood.

Shin ge is Chinese and yes since I called him “Shin ge” he is older than me, two years to be exact. Shin ge is a fun person to be around with. I think I was the first person to befriend him when he came to Korea last year to study interior designing. Back then he hardly knew any Hangeul and had a hard time with basic communication. When I was doing my part time job at the cafe, he had come over to eat there. But without proper knowledge of local language he was having a hard time talking to anybody. Sign language can get you only so far as to order food and stuff. But seeing that the waiter and manager both failed to understand him, I went over to his table and asked what he would order. His broken Hangeul was mixed with some mandarin so I guessed he was Chinese. So I repeated the question again but this time in fluent mandarin. He was both surprised and happy to finally speak with ease and ordered a latte which I designed and served to him. He was wowed again and thanked for the help. Since that day he would come to the cafe pretty often and I would chat with him from time to time. One day he came over to ask if I could give him Hangeul lessons so that he can talk to his teachers and fellow students properly. He even offered to pay for the lessons. Since he had become such a good friend I agreed but didn’t take any pay. In return for the lessons I would ask for him to help improve my dream house design. He would make suggestions after seeing my sketches. We became close friends after I joined Busan National University & found we were sunbae and hoobae though in different departments.

“Shin ge! How are you?”

“I’m good. You seem to be lost in thought. I waved at you and called you so many times before you heard me. Are you avoiding your sunbae?” He pouted jokingly.

I shook my head. “No sunbae! I just have a lot on my plate now so I didn’t hear you at first. I’m sorry!”

He smiled and said, “That’s ok then. It’s normal to have enough workload in college. Plus you have your part time jobs as well. Don’t over work yourself, ok?”

“I’ll keep that in mind gege.”

“So what are you doing here in the Interior Design department, other than to see me??” he wiggled his eyebrows at me with a teasing smile on his lips.

“Ha ha........ I only came here for some books for reference.”

“Reference for what? .....Ooohhh!!!!! You’re still working on your dream home design huh????”

I couldn’t tell him the truth so I played along.

“Yeah. There’s always room for improvement. By the time I have the money for the house I should have an awesome design in my hands!”

“Ok. But sometimes it is better to actually visit a real house and get the feel of the place to get inspired. It helps me at least!”

I was speechless for a moment while my brain analysed this new found insight.

“Thanks gege for the idea! I’ll definitely try it out!!!!”

I was ecstatic at the ray of hope I had now. I need to visit food marts and shopping malls to get a basic idea of how I can build the design for this project. I thanked gege and left for the cafe for my shift and making a mental note to visit a food mart or mall on the way back home.

TUESDAY MORNING

After visiting the nearby food marts and mall I was finishing up my research online by looking through innovative and unique building designs. I have several rough draft sketches that are taking shape. But after pulling an all-nighter I’m tired beyond words so I decide to ditch class for today and just rest and work on the design. If I have it finalised then I can just give finishing touches before Thursday.

‘By the way, how am I supposed to present this design in front of the judges when it finalises????’ I sighed and sat up again to look online for information on business meetings and presentations. Great. My sleep has to be held off for now. After I figure out the presentation and what I need to do I make notes, shut down the laptop and go back to bed. I check the time on my phone. Its 4:30 am. God! I’m really going to develop dark circles now!!

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The rest of Tuesday was spent in more research in breaks and after classes. As I dragged my feet back home only to go back to the cafe for my shift, I was tired.

‘Maybe I should have just left after class and got some sleep before my shift. Oh well, what’s done is done. I just hope I can finish my shift and go home and sleep.’

 At the cafe there was the usual crowd and I tried to give my best and not get shouted at. As the shift was ending I was itching to get out and go home. I left the moment the manager gave his nod. I was barely out of the shop when someone called my name from behind.

‘Oh God! I don’t want to be held back for extra hours!’

When I turned around I didn’t see any employee from the cafe. The owner of the voice who called was someone else. He was hooded so I couldn’t see his face. He gestured me to follow him.

Now why the hell would I do that?? Follow a stranger who might rob me, hurt me or kidnap me? I was staring at him and slowly tried to move away from the guy hoping to make a run for it if he tries to follow.

Suddenly he moved towards me, grabbed my wrist and was dragging me to a corner before I could react and protest. By the time my body registered what was going on; I was dragged to a corner of an alley behind the cafe. He had a firm grip on my wrist and seeing as I had no luck with that I removed the guy’s hood to see who the hell he was.  (Hey, if I have to identify the molester or thief or whatever he’ll do then I need to see his face.)  I stopped fighting his grip.

“Kyu!!!!!!???” I was shocked and quite angry as well. All these days that have gone by when he ignored and denied knowing me came to the surface. “What the HELL do you think you are doing???”

“Shhhhh!!! Calm down and let me speak.”

I pushed him away. “Why?? You didn’t SPEAK to me when you saw me at the interview! You didn’t speak to me on the day of the 2^nd round! You didn’t come to the cafe since then!! Why do you need to speak to me now???!!” I was breathing heavily and with each word my voice grew louder and louder.

Kyu was staring at me silently. After I was finished shouting he said, “Mianhe. I didn’t want to be so rude to you ___________-ah. I just didn’t want to get you into trouble.”

I cut in, I was still so angry. “Trouble?? What trouble can come during an interview? Is it troublesome for you that I went for the same interview you did??? Is that it???”

“Let me explain. I’ll tell you everything. I was at the club singing when I was approached by a man who passed me a card and asked me to be there for an interview. I thought I was being scouted by some entertainment company.” He paused and watched my reaction to this information. I took in this information and gestured him to continue.

“I found that I was being called by a business group called KN Group. I was confused at first so I researched the company’s history. These guys run these interviews much like talent hunt competitions. They scout for talents in various fields and give them interview rounds and the one’s that pass through all or at least most of the rounds are hired by them in their various industries or get referred to other companies or industries which they don’t directly deal with. But these interviews are totally different from your regular corporate job ones. When you put down your contact details and previous job experiences they do research into it like who you interact with and stuff. If you happen to know one or more of the other participants in the interview then you’re most likely to be made to compete against each other. Getting through and into the KN Group is such a huge deal, it opens doors for you, so competition is cut throat. I have read many chat groups that discuss how difficult it is to survive these rounds. I didn’t want to bring trouble for you so I remained silent.”

He took another pause and waited for me to speak. I was processing all the information and I had two questions in my mind. First, ‘Was he saying this to apologise for his behaviour over the past few days?’ Secondly; as the suspicious part of my brain feels, ‘Is he saying this to scare me out of the competition?’ but when I opened my mouth to speak, I didn’t ask either of these.

“So...... you say that we should remain as pure strangers while we are a part of these interviews?” I was surprised at how calm and logical I sounded after being so angry at him for most part of this week.

Kyu nodded. “Only until either of us gets pulled out. It hurts me too when I have to talk rudely or coldly to you.” He added.

I breathed deeply. ‘Well it’s not like I’m vying for the job or impressing the bosses, so it doesn’t matter if I get in or not. I’ll try and do the best I can and if it involves cold-shouldering my ‘chingu’ for both of our sakes for a few more days then so be it.’

I sighed. “Fine. Whatever. Let’s be rival strangers for a while longer. Thanks for letting me know all this. I’ll see you on Thursday.” I replied dryly and turned to leave. “Oh, I’m sorry that because of me you had to leave the cafe job.”

“Don’t be.” Kyu replied shaking his head. “I was gonna leave it anyway if I made it to the 2^nd round. Gives me more time to think on this presentation.”

I was going to ask what he got but I stopped remembering what Ms. Song had said about non-disclosure. I nodded to him in understanding and left after waving goodbye.

*******

On the way back home I decided to drop in at the sushi bar just to say Hi and perhaps be inspired for the presentation. At the door I was met by some of the regular customers on their way out but they looked disappointed and shaking their heads and murmuring amongst themselves. I frowned and went inside to find a never-seen-before situation in the entire duration of my employment. The restaurant was quiet with just a few customers finishing their meal.  At this time even on a weekday, this place would be packed, orders shouted by the sensei and the other apprentices with knives working precisely at the counter. But right now, there was no sign of that busy feeling.

I noticed the sensei/chef standing at the head table looking lost in his thoughts which is a first as well. I bowed to the sensei and greeted him as usual. He looked up & from his expression I get the feeling like something big has happened. I wondered what was wrong. ‘Did someone die from poisoned puffer fish??? Why is it so quiet??’ I ended up asking him the exact questions in my thoughts.

He shook his head. “No _________-san. No one died. We’re closing the business down.”

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New chappie is up!!! Ya I know it's been ages since I updated...... no excuses to tell. I just didn't feel like typing. :p Hope you like it!!!!