17

Jin Hun sat at his desk then threw his keys into the drawer. Just like every other Monday, he began his day by logging on to his computer and reviewing his calendar for the week. Except it wasn’t just any Monday. After all, he didn’t normally show up to work with bags under his eyes, or spend most of the earliest hours of the morning trying to figure out a way of fixing the mess his love life had become.

He looked at an entry in his calendar and buzzed his secretary.

“What’s this lunch appointment for tomorrow?” he asked.

“Ms. Park asked me to add it to your calendar last Thursday.”

Soon after he hung up, he called Eunsoo and she explained that there’d been a last minute lunch request made by some of their investors.


***
The waitress led Jin Hun to one of the tables next to the windows overlooking the street beneath. Eunsoo was sitting with her back to the entrance and when he arrived, she stood up and greeted him. After exchanging a few pleasantries, Jin Hun sat next to her, leaving the empty seats across them for their clients.

After a few minutes of small talk, Jin Hun looked at his watch and commented, “I guess they should be arriving in a few minutes.”

“Well”, she began, hitting the table and sitting up straight. “Actually, no one else is joining us.” She glanced at him.

Jin Hun blinked then looked at her from the corner of his eye. “Pardon?”

“I wanted to speak to you outside of your office and I didn’t know how else to do it. You’re always refusing or postponing our lunch dates so I guess I was forced to do it this way,” she said, grinning uncertainly.

Jin Hun leaned back in his chair. Knowing that this little meeting most likely hadn’t been arranged by his mother shed a different light on it. “Okay, what do you want to talk to me about?”

She tucked her hair behind her ear and took a deep breath. “How exactly do I put this…?” she began. “Well… I think that we should start dating.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Excuse me?”

She played with the napkin on the table then stopped and put her hands on her lap. She turned her entire body to him. “It makes sense, don’t you think? You’re not dating anyone, I’m not dating anyone.” She started talking with her hands. “I know you’re attracted to me – I’ve seen the way you look at me sometimes and you’re not exactly a bad-looking guy.”

“Ah-ha.” He noticed that she was attractive but outside of the office, outside of his mother's scheming, he never really thought about her.

“And it makes perfect sense; I already understand your business,” she said, counting it off on her fingers, “your mother likes me; I’ve built a relationship with all your partners and major clients; we probably want the same things and I think our personalities match. In a nutshell, I think we are compatible.”

“I see.”

“And in a few months… if things go well, we should get married.”

"Married?" Jin Hun chuckled. "We should get married,” he repeated, letting the words roll off his tongue. “You and I should get married?”

“Yes, it makes perfect sense. I’m sure you can already see all the changes I’ve made to the hotel – imagine how great it would be if we became a team.”

“What about your father’s business? I always thought you’d be going back there."

“Why would you think that?” she said dismissively. “My brothers are going to be running it.”

***
Sam Soon tried to keep a smile planted on her face as she sat across from Mr. Hwang and his two colleagues. She sipped her drink without actually tasting it.

We should get married.

The phrase had been playing in Sam Soon’s head ever since she walked into the restaurant. Even though she could only see his back, she’d immediately recognized Jin Hun the second she saw him. She’d been telling herself to clear her mind of him and everything she felt in preparation for what could be the most important lunch of her life when she heard him say those words. On any other day, she’d have walked up to Jin Hun and confronted him. How dare he propose to another woman shortly after proposing to her?

And to think that she’d been so close to asking Tae Young to go to New York alone. In fact, she’d pretty much decided to call him later that evening. She’d been so tired of battling with her feelings that she felt she needed a break from it all… a little time to be free of all the pressure that both he and she had been putting on her. On thing she’d learned after the confrontation the past Sunday was that she wasn’t close to forgetting Sam Shik. But sitting right there, she couldn’t pretend that she wasn’t heartbroken to see that he really hadn’t changed. Maybe she thought, or at least hoped, that this time, just this time, he’d fight for them but instead he was spending his lunch proposing to another woman. She still couldn't believe it though. How could he say he loved her and propose to someone else? Sam Shik? Her Sam Shik? That was definitely the last thing she'd expected. Had she misheard him?

She pinched herself under the table. God, she was a fool. On hell of a foolish idiot who’d veered off her course. Five years earlier, her one and only desire had been to get married and start a family but somewhere along the way, she’d allowed herself to be distracted by the stupid concept called love. What had love ever done for her other than bring unnecessary heartache?

Sam Soon felt an elbow nudging her. She turned in its direction to see her sister signaling for her to pay attention to the conversation that they were all sharing.

After a few more comments about the weather and that days news, Mr. Chu, the shorter of Mr. Hwang’s colleagues said, “So let’s get down to business, shall we? Ms. Kim, thank you so much for the samples you sent to us a few weeks ago. The office was full of smiles shortly after they arrived.”

“Thank you,” she said gracefully.

“But the thing is,” he said, glancing at the other men at his side of the table, “we’ve decided that we want to develop our own pastries and desserts.”

“Excuse me?”

“What you have at Samsuni is great, but we want something that is different from that – something that is unique, something that you can’t get anywhere else.”

“I don’t understand.” Sam Soon looked at her lawyer who remained expressionless. She looked back at Mr. Chu. “Are you saying that you don’t want to work with us?” And if so, why did they waste their time?

“No. What we would like you to do is come and work for us.”

“What?” Yi Young blurted out.

“What we want is someone who’d spend some time developing and fine tuning our products. We don’t want to just distribute another company’s line of pastries." He paused. "We want our own line -one that will bare our logo and ours alone.”

After a moment of silence, Sam Soon’s lawyer jumped in with questions.

Sam Soon sat back in her seat and glanced at Mr. Hwang. How could he just sit there and act like he and his company hadn’t previously misrepresented themselves? Or had she just made the wrong assumptions?

“Are you finished?” The waitress asked, reaching out for her plate. Sam Soon shook her head. It sure as hell was turning into such a shi.tty day that even the waitress didn’t want to allow her to finish her meal. As she picked up chopsticks, a ray of sunlight reflected on her diamond. She dropped the sticks and played with her ring. She sure did waste a lot of time dreaming of impossible things, didn’t she? Stupid things like a 35 year old woman marrying the perfect man and running a nationally renowned business. Sam Soon, time to refocus, she told herself.