Thursday 18 January 2007

Chapter 6: Give Me

We were in the car park in the basement of my office’s building. Jeong Hoon’s hands were on my hips as his lips roamed across my neck and down to my collar. We’d had a quick breakfast at the nearby Delifrance had ended up here right after that.

“Why did you have to wear a blouse with such a high collar today?” Jeong Hoon grumbled as he continued to kiss me.

“Cos I knew you’d want to do this?” I giggled. My blouse’s collar ended with ruffles above my collarbone and there was no way to unbutton it, save for taking off the whole blouse.

I climbed over to sit on top of Jeong Hoon, my legs straddling him from either side and I returned his kisses as he lay there in the seat, slowly dragging his hands down my back, across my butt and down to my thighs. Thank got my skirt had high slits.

“I have to go,” I whispered as I nibbled his earlobe.

“Not yet,” he groaned and guided my head so that our lips met.

“I really need to go, or Karyn will have my ass,” I said.

“Tell her… your ass is mine,” he laughed softly as he gave me another hard kiss before he pulled away.

“I don’t think she cares,” I said as I climbed back to my seat and started straightening out my outfit.

“Bitch,” he laughed.

“Yes…” I agreed as I reapplied my lipstick. “I’ll see you at lunch,” I said as I turned to look at him.

“Okay,” he smiled. I reach over to rub of some of my lipstick which has ended at the corners of his mouth.

“Love you,” I whispered.

“Saranghae,” he replied and leaned over to kiss me gently and slowly. “You’d better go before I get started again,” as he nibbled my lips before he pulled away.

“Yep,” I laughed as I opened the door.

I walked into the lobby feeling giddy from all the passion earlier. So giddy, that I didn’t notice Lee sonbae until I walked right into him. I felt myself losing balance, falling to the ground and I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the impact of it. That’s when he caught me by the waist and pulled me up. We were face to face and glued to each other from waist down. I could feel his breath fanning softly against my cheek and I blushed as soon as I realized the compromising position we were in.

“Choesonghamnida,” I said and quickly pulled away.

“No harm done,” he smiled. “Just be careful next time. Someone else might not have such quick reflexes,” he winked.

“Nae,” I bowed a little and I started walking really quickly towards the elevator. It was a little silly of me to do that in the first place, since he was going up too, and we’d definitely have to share an elevator.

“Did I scare you back there?” he asked as he fell into step beside me.

“Erm… no. Why do you say that?” I replied.

“You were running away from me,” he laughed softly.

“I was? No I wasn’t.”

“Then it must be your great enthusiasm in getting to work,” he smiled.

“Hmm?” I looked at him.

“You must be dying to get to your desk and start working,” he said.

“Oh… yea,” I smiled. This was getting a little too awkward for me. Sure I wasn’t one of his fans, but somehow, today, he’d managed to make my heart go pitter-patter. ‘It’s just the shock from almost falling!’ I told myself as I took a deep breath.

The elevator finally arrived and we descended the floors in silence. I heaved a sigh of relief when I arrived at my floor.

“See you later,” he smiled as I walked out.

“Later?” I repeated after him.

“The meeting, remember?” he smiled as the elevator doors closed.

Damn! I forgot about the meeting. I’ll have to cancel my lunch plans with Jeong Hoon today, since the meeting was a lunch meeting. I dumped my bags onto my desk and whipped out my phone to call him.

“Hello?” he answered.

“Jeong Hoon, I can’t have lunch with you and your cousin today,” I said.

“Why?”

“I have a lunch meeting.”

“Oh… dinner then?”

“I’ll call you later,” I said.

“Okay. I’ll be fine. Call me once you’re able to get off work.”

“Right! Love you,” I said. I sure used it a lot today. Must be my brain recognizing the permanence of Jeong Hoon in my life.

“Saranghae,” he said, and I could picture him smiling his sexy smile as he said it.

“Saranghae…” I heard Skye mimic as soon as I flipped my phone shut.

“Shuddup!” I said as I started to unpack my laptop from my bag.

“You sure turned him into a blob of mush,” Skye laughed. “I’ve never known Jeong Hoon to be so mushy and romantic during our school days.”

“Then I guess I’m what he’s been missing in his life,” I smiled.

“And why would you think that? The last thing a guy needs is a girl to turn him into a useless blob of mush. I’d rather stay a man and be without a woman.”

“I’ll be sure to tell your next target what you’d just said.”

“Hey… keep that between me and you. The ladies have me pegged as a sensitive male and I don’t need you ruining my rep for me.”

“Player,” I said as I turned on my laptop. Hundreds of emails popped up in my Inbox as soon as I logged on. I groaned as I started to go through them. With the concert and Fashion Week coming, I had my hands full. Mails from sponsors, event coordinators, fashion houses, I was swamped. I let out a loud sigh.

“Sighing so early in the morning?” Shoei said as he appeared beside me.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to get on track with my work,” I whined.

“Why’s that?” he asked.

“I can’t even finish clearing my emails.”

“Clearing emails? There is a way to clear them all at once.”

“How? Show me.”

“Okay,” he said as he leaned between my and my laptop. He click on one of my emails in the list, hit CTRL+A to highlight all the mail, then hovered the mouse over the delete button. Before I could scream, he clicked it and the mails started to disappear.

“Shoei!!!” I screamed and he just laughed. “What did you do?” I exclaimed as I stared at the screen in shock.

“I cleared the mails away,” he laughed.

“I meant clear in the sense of reading them. Not deleting them!”

“Chill… They’re still saved in your recycling bin,” he laughed as he started clicking around my screen and the mails reappeared. “There you go.”

“Not funny,” I said as I hit his arm.

“You really need to relax. You’re so high-strung today.”

“Gah!!! Leave me alone!” I said.

“Okay, grumpy…” he laughed as he walked away.

I worked feverishly all morning until someone tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up and saw Skye peering down at me.

“What?”

“It’s time for the meeting,” he reminded me.

“Oh…” I said as I stood up quickly and started gathering my stuff.

“What’s with you today?” Skye asked me.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re so nervous and blur.”

“I’m just… not having a good day,” I said. It was a lame excuse. I had no explanation for why I felt like that today. It certainly wasn’t a bad day, but I wasn’t sure why I felt so unsettled.

“Not a good day?” Skye smirked. “I saw you and Jeong Hoon this morning. Not a good day?” he smiled knowingly.

“Where did you see us?” I asked him.

“In the parking lot,” he coughed and winked at me.

“Omigod!” I exclaimed. “You stalker!”

“Hey… who would missed his pimped out Mitsubishi. I’d recognized the license plate and walked over cos I saw that the engine was still on. As soon as I saw what you both were up to, I turned and walked away. I’m a gentleman. I don’t stare.”

“Fine… whatever… let’s go,” I said as we walked quickly towards the conference room.

Everyone was seated and waiting when we entered.

“Sierra-shi,” Karyn’s voice grated. “You had to be fashionably late hadn’t you?”

“She should be the Fashion Editor then,” Lee sonbae joked and everyone laughed. Despite Lee sonbae’s effort to lighten the mood, Karyn didn’t look amused.

“I’m sorry, I got carried away with my emails,” I explained.

“Don’t we all,” Karyn replied. “Let’s see your presentation.”

Shoei helped me hook up my laptop to the projector and I started my presentation. As soon as I finished, I looked at the senior editors, waiting for some input and comment. Finally, Karyn spoke.

“Redo it,” she said.

“I beg your pardon?” I said. I was in shock. Did she just ask me to redo weeks of research?

“Redo everything. This is utter rubbish!” she said as she looked at me challengingly.

What had I done in my past life to deserve a boss like her?

“Yes,” I sighed and just then, Lee sonbae cut in.

“I don’t think it needs to be redone,” he said.

“Why? Don’t you think it's all nonsense?” Karyn exclaimed, surprised that Lee sonbae defended me.

“It just needs improvement. Come see me after lunch, Sierra. I’ll help you fix it,” he said.

“Well…” Karyn huffed. “In that case, it’s your call. Meeting dismissed,” she said as she got up and left the room.

I packed up my stuff as everyone else filed out of the room. Lee sonbae just sat there and looked at me.

“Sierra,” he said.

“Yes?” I replied as I looked up.

“I think we should have lunch in my office. Come over with all your materials. I’ll get my secretary to order in some lunch,” he said.

“I don’t want to inconvenience you, Lee sonbae.”

“You won’t” he smiled as he got up. “Be in my office in 20 minutes,” he smiled as he walked out of the conference room.