Chapter 14: The Hardest Word
Outside the company building, Park Jungsu began to limp over towards Sora and Minho.
“Good afternoon President Park, what a pleasant surprise to see you here outside my company building,” Sora said without giving much expression.
“Actually, I was just passing by and thought I’d come here to say hello,” Park Jungsu said with a smile and turned his attention to Minho. “Hi there, I’m Park Jungsu, the President and CEO of JSE,” greeted Park Jungsu as he offered a handshake.
“Choi Minho, Senior Director at Choi Consulting Company,” replied Minho. His company was actually one of the most sought consulting companies in Korea, dealing a lot with big businesses that required consultation on their management systems.
The two men firmly shook hands, adding a great deal of strength into their grip and their eyes glared at each other like they were ready to battle anytime. However, the moment was brief when Sora said to Park Jungsu, “Well, you’ve said your hello already so then we’ll be off. Good day President Park.”
“Where are you off to?” Park Jungsu quickly asked as Sora was about to turn around.
“And may I ask why does it concern you where we are going?” she reverted back to him.
“Well, I just thought of something that I would like to add to the stage design and was hoping to discuss it with you,” he replied, coming up with an excuse when in fact he doesn’t really have much to add at all.
Sora respired, trying to keep calm and asked, “Don’t tell me you want to change the design now?”
“Not change it, just adding a bit of final touches to it,” he said with a smirk on his face – enjoying the frustrated look on Sora’s face. However, his smirk soon vanished when Minho stepped into the conversation.
“Are you both talking about the upcoming charity event?” Minho asked.
“Yes, in fact President Park here will be scheduling one of his idol groups to perform at the event,” Sora explained to Minho while giving Park Jungsu a few daring glances.
Although Minho may be interested and attracted to Sora, he certainly understands when to separate personal matters from business, so he looked at Park Jungsu and said, “Is that so? Then why don’t you join us both for lunch to discuss about it, President Park? I was actually asking Sora-ssi to update me on the progress of this upcoming event.”
“Update you? She reports to you?” Park Jungsu asked while throwing a few glances at Sora.
Sora saw Park Jungsu’s questioned look and said, “Minho-ssi’s company is the organizer for this charity event. In fact, he is the person in charge.”
“Well, if that’s the case – don’t mind if I do then,” Park Jungsu quickly agreed to the invitation.
Sora on the other hand, wasn’t too excited about the idea. The fact that she couldn’t sleep well yesterday was because of Park Jungsu who abruptly kissed her in his car and didn’t show one sign of remorse.
Park Jungsu then turned to Minho and asked, "Would you mind if Sora-ssi rides in my car? I have something I need to discuss with her privately."
"Privately?" Minho repeated, raising both his eyebrows and then looked at Sora.
Sora's eyes widened to Park Jungsu’s sudden request. “What is there to discuss? There’s nothing for us to discuss about in private!” she thought to herself and so she asked, "What is there to discuss that we can't discuss at the restaurant, President Park?"
"Well, if you don't mind discussing it openly then it's fine with me if we leave it till then," said Park Jungsu freely.
Sora wondered what he was talking about and gave him an oblivious look.
He gave her a cheeky look and explained, "Something about yesterday when we kis – "
But before he can utter his last word clearly, Sora quickly blushed and said, "Fine, we'll discuss that inside your car." She then turned her attention to Minho and said, "Minho-ssi, we'll meet you at the restaurant."
Sora quickly pushed Park Jungsu towards his car while waving at Minho, who was left all alone as he watches them head off.
"You really have the nerve to bring up what happened yesterday," Sora confronting Park Jungsu, while ushering him to his car.
He kept a cheeky smirk on his face as they both entered into his car.
"And what do you mean by when 'we' kissed when it was you who kissed me?" she asked while trying to fasten her seatbelt. "Oh come on you darn seatbelt!" she mumbled to herself frustratingly.
Park Jungsu saw Sora struggling and offered his help, "Let me –"
Sora held up her hand to stop him from getting close. "Stay where you are and don't move. I've got this!" she said stubbornly. Park Jungsu leaned back on his seat as he amusingly watches Sora struggling with the seatbelt. Somehow, it seems like Sora and the seatbelt in his car were not meant to be in good terms.
"You should release it and do it gently," said Park Jungsu with a smirk.
Sora still unwilling to take Park Jungsu's advice and continued to stubbornly pull the jammed seatbelt.
"I think by the time we reach the restaurant, it'll be for dinner instead of lunch if you continue to be like this," he teased her.
Sora gave Park Jungsu a dangerous glare as she continues her battle with the seatbelt for another few minutes until he couldn’t stand it anymore and stepped in.
He sighed and asked, “Will you just sit still?” as he reached over to helped her with the seatbelt.
She looked at him when he leaned over to fasten her seatbelt. It didn’t occur to her before, but now that she can see him up close under broad daylight, she finally noticed how Park Jungsu was actually quite appealing to the eyes with his clear, smooth-looking white skin that glowed with energy. In fact, it looked so smooth that women would be envious of. The more she looked at it, the more she was tempted to touch his face and the more her heart pulsed simultaneously out of rhythm.
CLICK! The seatbelt fastened.
“There we go,” said Park Jungsu, who then suddenly took noticed that Sora was actually staring at him differently. Most of the time, she would look at him annoyingly, but this time he can see that she seemed to be admiring more than annoyed – somehow that made him feel delighted and wished that she can always look at him like that.
“Are you going to stare at me like that the whole day?” he asked, which was when Sora snapped back to reality.
“What are you talking about? I’m not staring at you, I was just thinking of something else!” she defended, even though her blushed face indicated otherwise.
“Were you thinking about the kiss we had yesterday?” he asked shamelessly.
“I swear, if you ever try to kiss me again, then I’ll…I’ll…” she tried warning Park Jungsu, but was having a hard time coming up with a good threat.
Park Jungsu puts on a naughty smirk and asked, “Then you’ll what? Kick me on the shin like you did yesterday?”
There he was, happily teasing Sora about the kissed from yesterday and was enjoying every second of it as he finds her attractively cute when she’s annoyed by his actions. However, Sora wasn’t going to let Park Jungsu tease her so freely without showing him a bit of her stance.
“No, next time, I’ll kick it where it really hurts,” she warned him.
His smirk gradually vanished when he understood which part she meant that would really hurt.
To break out of the awkward silence that occurred after the short bickering, Sora decided to converse with Park Jungsu and asked a few questions.
"Aren't you a little bit too free for being a president of your company?" she asked him.
He didn't answer her question right away, but gave her a short glance.
"Just for the time being since most of my idols’ schedule are fixed, so there's not much I need to worry about now. I mean just a few months ago, I was working non-stop in order to organize all my idols' schedule," he replied.
Sora looked over and asked, "But isn't that supposed to be the managers' responsibility? Like scheduling the idols' time and all."
"Yes, but sometimes it requires more than just scheduling. My company also needs to meet with different companies that would like our idols to endorse for their brand and such. That’s just a bit of it, there are also movies and drama projects our idols need to participate in. So it requires a great deal of planning so that the time schedules won’t clash with one and another. Furthermore, I also have to plan and finance for our company’s world tour concerts which requires me to meet up with potential sponsors to see if the tours can be organized and all," Park Jungsu explained.
"Wow, it seems like a lot of work. So when will you be busy again?" she asked.
"Mmm...maybe a few weeks after this charity event." he answered, then turned to her and asked, "Why?"
"Oh, nothing in particular. Just asking that's all," she replied. Although Sora made it sound like a normal question, but she was actually counting down the days till she doesn't have to deal with him, Mr. Arrogant.
***
When they arrived at the restaurant, Minho was already sitting at the table and talking on the phone with his other business associates. When he saw them entering into the restaurant, we waved his hand to signal them over. He was sitting at a rectangular table with two seats opposite of him and another next to him.
When they got to the table, Minho ended his phone call and got up to offer Sora the seat next to him. However at the same time, Park Jungsu pulled one of the chairs opposite of Minho and offered it to Sora as well. Both men looked at Sora, hoping she would take the seat they offered.
"Thank you, President Park," said Sora, as she sat on the chair Park Jung had pulled out. Park Jungsu's face quickly lit up with a smile, while Minho looked somewhat disappointed. Just when Park Jungsu was about to take the seat next to Sora, she placed her handbag in the seat – leaving Park Jungsu dumbfound. Minho saw the whole scene and chuckled while he pursed his lips trying to hold in his laughter.
Sora looked at Minho and asked, "Wae? What's so funny? Is there something wrong?" She looked at the both of them, oblivion to the situation.
"Oh it's nothing," Minho answered, while taking his seat – leaving Park Jungsu the only one standing.
Sora looked at Park Jungsu and asked, "Aren't you going to take a seat?"
Park Jungsu cleared his throat, not looking a bit happy from the slight embarrassment. As his natural arrogance and pride has taken over his body, he grabbed Sora’s handbag off the seat and took the seat right next to her.
“Hey! What are you doing? There’s a seat right next to Minho-ssi,” said Sora, who was surprised by his action.
“I find it more comfortable in this seat, thank you very much,” he retorted as he looked at Minho, giving him a defiant smile.
“Aish…hand me my handbag then,” she ordered Park Jungsu, who still has Sora’s handbag in his hands.
“It’s okay, I’ll hold it for you,” said Park Jungsu as he looked at Sora with compassion.
“Why is he looking at me like that? One minute he was all arrogant, and then the next minute he’s acting all compassionate.” Sora thought to herself from the sight of his kind gesture. “It’s really okay, I can take it back,” she said, refusing his offer.
“Wae? I told you I’ll hold it for you,” Park Jungsu argued.
Not before long, both of them have already begun a short game of tug-of-war with her handbag while Minho watches from the side until…
SPLIT!
They both stopped to the sound of snapping threads from Sora’s handbag. Sora’s eyes widened with her jaw dropped. She looked at Park Jungsu with a fierce glare and exclaimed, “Yah! My handbag!” Her loud remark caught most attention in the restaurant.
Park Jungsu looked around and then said, “It was an accident! Besides, it’s just a bag – you can easily get another one.”
“Yes, you’re right President Park. It’s just a handbag and I can easily get another,” Sora repeated his words sarcastically, as she took a few seconds to look at Park Jungsu with discontent. She then sighed and said, “Let’s just start our lunch meeting,” as she took her damaged handbag and placed it behind her in her seat. Then they began to discuss about the progress of the event while eating.
Although through their discussion, it seemed as though nothing has happened, but Park Jungsu could tell Sora was still upset even though she didn’t show it on her face. She didn’t even give him a single glance throughout the meeting as if his existence was never there in the first place. At that point, he really wanted to apologize as he knew he was at fault, but “sorry” seemed to be the hardest word for him to utter out in public as he couldn’t overcome his own pride – leaving the current situation unsettled without a single apology.
“Good afternoon President Park, what a pleasant surprise to see you here outside my company building,” Sora said without giving much expression.
“Actually, I was just passing by and thought I’d come here to say hello,” Park Jungsu said with a smile and turned his attention to Minho. “Hi there, I’m Park Jungsu, the President and CEO of JSE,” greeted Park Jungsu as he offered a handshake.
“Choi Minho, Senior Director at Choi Consulting Company,” replied Minho. His company was actually one of the most sought consulting companies in Korea, dealing a lot with big businesses that required consultation on their management systems.
The two men firmly shook hands, adding a great deal of strength into their grip and their eyes glared at each other like they were ready to battle anytime. However, the moment was brief when Sora said to Park Jungsu, “Well, you’ve said your hello already so then we’ll be off. Good day President Park.”
“Where are you off to?” Park Jungsu quickly asked as Sora was about to turn around.
“And may I ask why does it concern you where we are going?” she reverted back to him.
“Well, I just thought of something that I would like to add to the stage design and was hoping to discuss it with you,” he replied, coming up with an excuse when in fact he doesn’t really have much to add at all.
Sora respired, trying to keep calm and asked, “Don’t tell me you want to change the design now?”
“Not change it, just adding a bit of final touches to it,” he said with a smirk on his face – enjoying the frustrated look on Sora’s face. However, his smirk soon vanished when Minho stepped into the conversation.
“Are you both talking about the upcoming charity event?” Minho asked.
“Yes, in fact President Park here will be scheduling one of his idol groups to perform at the event,” Sora explained to Minho while giving Park Jungsu a few daring glances.
Although Minho may be interested and attracted to Sora, he certainly understands when to separate personal matters from business, so he looked at Park Jungsu and said, “Is that so? Then why don’t you join us both for lunch to discuss about it, President Park? I was actually asking Sora-ssi to update me on the progress of this upcoming event.”
“Update you? She reports to you?” Park Jungsu asked while throwing a few glances at Sora.
Sora saw Park Jungsu’s questioned look and said, “Minho-ssi’s company is the organizer for this charity event. In fact, he is the person in charge.”
“Well, if that’s the case – don’t mind if I do then,” Park Jungsu quickly agreed to the invitation.
Sora on the other hand, wasn’t too excited about the idea. The fact that she couldn’t sleep well yesterday was because of Park Jungsu who abruptly kissed her in his car and didn’t show one sign of remorse.
Park Jungsu then turned to Minho and asked, "Would you mind if Sora-ssi rides in my car? I have something I need to discuss with her privately."
"Privately?" Minho repeated, raising both his eyebrows and then looked at Sora.
Sora's eyes widened to Park Jungsu’s sudden request. “What is there to discuss? There’s nothing for us to discuss about in private!” she thought to herself and so she asked, "What is there to discuss that we can't discuss at the restaurant, President Park?"
"Well, if you don't mind discussing it openly then it's fine with me if we leave it till then," said Park Jungsu freely.
Sora wondered what he was talking about and gave him an oblivious look.
He gave her a cheeky look and explained, "Something about yesterday when we kis – "
But before he can utter his last word clearly, Sora quickly blushed and said, "Fine, we'll discuss that inside your car." She then turned her attention to Minho and said, "Minho-ssi, we'll meet you at the restaurant."
Sora quickly pushed Park Jungsu towards his car while waving at Minho, who was left all alone as he watches them head off.
"You really have the nerve to bring up what happened yesterday," Sora confronting Park Jungsu, while ushering him to his car.
He kept a cheeky smirk on his face as they both entered into his car.
"And what do you mean by when 'we' kissed when it was you who kissed me?" she asked while trying to fasten her seatbelt. "Oh come on you darn seatbelt!" she mumbled to herself frustratingly.
Park Jungsu saw Sora struggling and offered his help, "Let me –"
Sora held up her hand to stop him from getting close. "Stay where you are and don't move. I've got this!" she said stubbornly. Park Jungsu leaned back on his seat as he amusingly watches Sora struggling with the seatbelt. Somehow, it seems like Sora and the seatbelt in his car were not meant to be in good terms.
"You should release it and do it gently," said Park Jungsu with a smirk.
Sora still unwilling to take Park Jungsu's advice and continued to stubbornly pull the jammed seatbelt.
"I think by the time we reach the restaurant, it'll be for dinner instead of lunch if you continue to be like this," he teased her.
Sora gave Park Jungsu a dangerous glare as she continues her battle with the seatbelt for another few minutes until he couldn’t stand it anymore and stepped in.
He sighed and asked, “Will you just sit still?” as he reached over to helped her with the seatbelt.
She looked at him when he leaned over to fasten her seatbelt. It didn’t occur to her before, but now that she can see him up close under broad daylight, she finally noticed how Park Jungsu was actually quite appealing to the eyes with his clear, smooth-looking white skin that glowed with energy. In fact, it looked so smooth that women would be envious of. The more she looked at it, the more she was tempted to touch his face and the more her heart pulsed simultaneously out of rhythm.
CLICK! The seatbelt fastened.
“There we go,” said Park Jungsu, who then suddenly took noticed that Sora was actually staring at him differently. Most of the time, she would look at him annoyingly, but this time he can see that she seemed to be admiring more than annoyed – somehow that made him feel delighted and wished that she can always look at him like that.
“Are you going to stare at me like that the whole day?” he asked, which was when Sora snapped back to reality.
“What are you talking about? I’m not staring at you, I was just thinking of something else!” she defended, even though her blushed face indicated otherwise.
“Were you thinking about the kiss we had yesterday?” he asked shamelessly.
“I swear, if you ever try to kiss me again, then I’ll…I’ll…” she tried warning Park Jungsu, but was having a hard time coming up with a good threat.
Park Jungsu puts on a naughty smirk and asked, “Then you’ll what? Kick me on the shin like you did yesterday?”
There he was, happily teasing Sora about the kissed from yesterday and was enjoying every second of it as he finds her attractively cute when she’s annoyed by his actions. However, Sora wasn’t going to let Park Jungsu tease her so freely without showing him a bit of her stance.
“No, next time, I’ll kick it where it really hurts,” she warned him.
His smirk gradually vanished when he understood which part she meant that would really hurt.
To break out of the awkward silence that occurred after the short bickering, Sora decided to converse with Park Jungsu and asked a few questions.
"Aren't you a little bit too free for being a president of your company?" she asked him.
He didn't answer her question right away, but gave her a short glance.
"Just for the time being since most of my idols’ schedule are fixed, so there's not much I need to worry about now. I mean just a few months ago, I was working non-stop in order to organize all my idols' schedule," he replied.
Sora looked over and asked, "But isn't that supposed to be the managers' responsibility? Like scheduling the idols' time and all."
"Yes, but sometimes it requires more than just scheduling. My company also needs to meet with different companies that would like our idols to endorse for their brand and such. That’s just a bit of it, there are also movies and drama projects our idols need to participate in. So it requires a great deal of planning so that the time schedules won’t clash with one and another. Furthermore, I also have to plan and finance for our company’s world tour concerts which requires me to meet up with potential sponsors to see if the tours can be organized and all," Park Jungsu explained.
"Wow, it seems like a lot of work. So when will you be busy again?" she asked.
"Mmm...maybe a few weeks after this charity event." he answered, then turned to her and asked, "Why?"
"Oh, nothing in particular. Just asking that's all," she replied. Although Sora made it sound like a normal question, but she was actually counting down the days till she doesn't have to deal with him, Mr. Arrogant.
***
When they arrived at the restaurant, Minho was already sitting at the table and talking on the phone with his other business associates. When he saw them entering into the restaurant, we waved his hand to signal them over. He was sitting at a rectangular table with two seats opposite of him and another next to him.
When they got to the table, Minho ended his phone call and got up to offer Sora the seat next to him. However at the same time, Park Jungsu pulled one of the chairs opposite of Minho and offered it to Sora as well. Both men looked at Sora, hoping she would take the seat they offered.
"Thank you, President Park," said Sora, as she sat on the chair Park Jung had pulled out. Park Jungsu's face quickly lit up with a smile, while Minho looked somewhat disappointed. Just when Park Jungsu was about to take the seat next to Sora, she placed her handbag in the seat – leaving Park Jungsu dumbfound. Minho saw the whole scene and chuckled while he pursed his lips trying to hold in his laughter.
Sora looked at Minho and asked, "Wae? What's so funny? Is there something wrong?" She looked at the both of them, oblivion to the situation.
"Oh it's nothing," Minho answered, while taking his seat – leaving Park Jungsu the only one standing.
Sora looked at Park Jungsu and asked, "Aren't you going to take a seat?"
Park Jungsu cleared his throat, not looking a bit happy from the slight embarrassment. As his natural arrogance and pride has taken over his body, he grabbed Sora’s handbag off the seat and took the seat right next to her.
“Hey! What are you doing? There’s a seat right next to Minho-ssi,” said Sora, who was surprised by his action.
“I find it more comfortable in this seat, thank you very much,” he retorted as he looked at Minho, giving him a defiant smile.
“Aish…hand me my handbag then,” she ordered Park Jungsu, who still has Sora’s handbag in his hands.
“It’s okay, I’ll hold it for you,” said Park Jungsu as he looked at Sora with compassion.
“Why is he looking at me like that? One minute he was all arrogant, and then the next minute he’s acting all compassionate.” Sora thought to herself from the sight of his kind gesture. “It’s really okay, I can take it back,” she said, refusing his offer.
“Wae? I told you I’ll hold it for you,” Park Jungsu argued.
Not before long, both of them have already begun a short game of tug-of-war with her handbag while Minho watches from the side until…
SPLIT!
They both stopped to the sound of snapping threads from Sora’s handbag. Sora’s eyes widened with her jaw dropped. She looked at Park Jungsu with a fierce glare and exclaimed, “Yah! My handbag!” Her loud remark caught most attention in the restaurant.
Park Jungsu looked around and then said, “It was an accident! Besides, it’s just a bag – you can easily get another one.”
“Yes, you’re right President Park. It’s just a handbag and I can easily get another,” Sora repeated his words sarcastically, as she took a few seconds to look at Park Jungsu with discontent. She then sighed and said, “Let’s just start our lunch meeting,” as she took her damaged handbag and placed it behind her in her seat. Then they began to discuss about the progress of the event while eating.
Although through their discussion, it seemed as though nothing has happened, but Park Jungsu could tell Sora was still upset even though she didn’t show it on her face. She didn’t even give him a single glance throughout the meeting as if his existence was never there in the first place. At that point, he really wanted to apologize as he knew he was at fault, but “sorry” seemed to be the hardest word for him to utter out in public as he couldn’t overcome his own pride – leaving the current situation unsettled without a single apology.