Chapter 9: Maybe

It was the bracelet Jeong Hoon had given me last Christmas. My hand immediately went to my wrist and it was bare. I hadn’t even noticed that it had fallen off. Thank god Jeong Hoon hadn’t noticed, or he’d have gotten pretty upset. Min Woo had actually driven all the way here to return it. That was nice of him, almost too nice of him. I’ll need to thank him personally tomorrow.

I walked into my apartment and caught my sister and Dong Wook playing footsie in front of the TV again.

“You’re pretty late tonight,” my sister remarked.

“I had to meet up with Jeong Hoon and his cousin.”

“I didn’t know he had a cousin,” she said.

“What do you know about him?” I laughed.

“Cousin?” Dong Wook said. “Shin Hee’s in town?”

“Yea, you’ve met her?” I asked him.

“She’s been here a few times,” he said.

“But I’ve never met her.”

“Before you and Jeong Hoon started dating, she came down quite often during her holidays.”

“Are you saying that he’s told her not to visit him since we started dating?”

“Could be,” he shrugged. “Having her around can be pretty tiring. So Jeong Hoon probably preferred if she didn’t come, or he’d be so stressed dealing with the both of you.”

“Am I that hard to deal with?” I said, planting a hand on my hip.

“Of course not,” he smiled sweetly.

“Aisshiii,” I laughed and I turned to walk to my room.

The next morning, I paid Min Woo a visit as soon as I dropped my bags at my desk.

“Sonbae,” I said as I knocked on his door.

“Ah, Sierra,” he greeted me. “Why are you calling me sonbae again?” he pretended to sound offended.

“Mianhada,” I smiled. “Min Woo-ssi.”

“That’s better. What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to thank you for sending my bracelet back to me. All the way to my apartment,” I said. “By the way, how did you know where I lived?”

“Let’s just say I have my ways,” he winked. “It’s no trouble. I felt like driving, so…”

“Well, thank you. It was a gift from my boyfriend, and he would’ve gone berserk if he realized I’d lost it.”

“Then I’m glad I saved you from that possible scenario,” he smiled. “So have you handed in the presentation to Karyn?”

“Nope, but I will… in a moment.”

“Tell me when you do. I’ll go with you.”

“You don’t need to, Min Woo. I can hold my own against her.”

“But I want to. I know how she discriminates against you. I don’t need to be on the same floor to know how she treats you.”

“Why are you so nice to me?” I blurted out without thinking.

I was really curious. Why is he being so nice to me out of the blue? I’d been just another employee to him up till recently, and now he even wants to fight my battles for me.

“What do you mean?” he asked me.

As he looked as me intently, waiting for my reply, I decided to just lay it out. Can’t turn back now, can I?

“You’re willing to shield me from Karyn’s bullets, you help me with my work and you drove halfway across Singapore just to deliver a bracelet I’d dropped when you could easily get your secretary to hand it back to me. Why are you so nice to me?”

“Can’t an employer be nice to his employees? I’m here to offset bosses like Karyn. Where she is unable to perform, I come in to make up for it.”

“Are you sure it’s that simple?”

“Do you have reason to believe that it isn’t?”

“I just find it hard to believe that someone in your position would care about the welfare of someone like me.”

“What kind of a person are you?”

“I’m just the editor of the entertainment section, a junior editor at that.”

“And a contributor to making this magazine sell. You’re not just anyone in my book. Don’t sell yourself short, Sierra.”

I took a deep breath, and thought about what he said for a second.

“Aren’t you gonna sit down?” he asked me.

“No, thank you. I’ll need to get going if I want to avoid giving her another reason to rant at me.”

“Just so you know,” he added, “between us… Karyn’s not staying for long?”

“She’s getting a promoted?”

“She could be transferred to our headquarters in China.”

“That would be wonderful,” I laughed.

“Sure would. And someone would have to take her place eventually,” he added, and smiled meaningfully.

“And that someone is?” I asked him.

“Work hard… and you might stand a chance,” he said, and my mouth dropped open.

I was in shock at what he had suggested. I could be a Senior Editor? Was he crazy?

“I know it seem like a huge position to be filled, but trust me, it doesn’t take much. Karyn is a fine example, and we all know you will do much better than her.”

“We?”

“Me and the other senior editors. We’re rooting for your promotion.”

I left the room with my mouth still locked in the position it was in for the past few minutes. This is big news. I’d just been promoted to my current position, how is it possible that they would want to promote me to the next?

“Where were you?” Skye popped up as soon as I sat down.

“With Min Woo,” I said.

“Oooh… it’s Min Woo now, is it? What were you doing with him?” Skye said in a suggestive voice.

“Helloo… I’m dating your friend, Jeong Hoon, remember him; tall, brown-haired, sweet guy? How can you even suggest that I am doing anything with Min Woo sonbae?”

“Hey, hey… I didn’t even say anything. I was just asking you as a concerned colleague. I thought maybe you were being lectured by him or something.”

“Have you ever heard of Min Woo sonbae lecturing someone?”

“Sure he has. You’re just not around when those incidents happened.”

“He actually lectures people? Who?”

“Karyn?”

“He’s actually told her off before?”

“Sure he did,” Skye said. “Lee Min Woo is not someone you wanna mess with. When he gets mad, you wouldn’t wanna be at the end of the firing line.”

“I never imagined him to be such a person,” I laughed.

“Don’t be fooled. He’s no pushover,” Skye said as he went back to his emails.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said as I turned back to my desk.

I picked up my files and laptop and started walking towards Karyn’s office. Min Woo joined me as I approached her door.

“Sonbae,” I said, and I stopped walking. “Min Woo,” I corrected myself when he looked at me disapprovingly. “Chintcha… I can do this on my own.”

“I want to hear what you have to say to her,” he smiled, and he walked in ahead of me.

It was another hour before we finally emerged from Karyn’s office, with us being the victor. It was actually fun having Min Woo in there with me. Whatever ideas of mine Karyn shot down because of her obvious biased attitude towards me, Min Woo would stop her and defend the idea. By the end of the meeting, Karyn looked harried and subdued.

“Thanks, Min Woo,” I said as soon as the doors of Karyn’s office were closed.

“I didn’t think that I’d hear you say that,” he smiled.

“Say what?”

“‘Thanks, Min Woo’,” he said.

“Oh… well… it’s only polite to thank someone who has just saved your ass. Don’t you think?”

“Right,” he laughed. “I’ll see you around,” he said, and he walked off.

“How was the battle with the banshee?” Skye asked me as soon as I sat down.

“We triumphed,” I said, pumping my fists in exaggeration.

“We?”

“I was on my way in, and Min Woo joined me.”

“Min Woo? You mean Lee sonbae?”

“Yep,” I said as I started clicking happily on my computer screen.

“I guess you’re his new favorite then?” he said.

“Who was his old favorite?”

“Err… Karyn?” he said. “You never noticed?”

“I’ve never noticed anything about Lee Min Woo until the past 2 days.”

“Oh well… anyway… I heard that before she was promoted, she was sort of his favorite, and protégé.”

“Until he realized she was actually a banshee.”

“Yea… she changed into the banshee she is now, as soon as she got promoted,” Skye said. “I heard he was pretty upset about it too.”

If what Skye was saying is true, then I’ve just gotten myself into the middle of the fray. It seems like Min Woo is planning to make me the new protégé, and Karyn would have caught on by now. I guess I’m in for a bumpy ride until she gets posted to China.