Pay With Your Heart

Despite Hei-Ran's happiness today, she couldn't shake off the myriad of thoughts circulating in her mind about A-Yeong sudden visit to her place this morning. 

If anyone knew that evil cousin of hers well, it was her. She had observed and seen how she could be. The girl was evil, cunny and manipulative. She had even experienced her cruelty first hand, so she could tell A-Yeong wasn't one to be unsettled or desperate for anything. If she wanted something, she'd device a way to snatch it, with no care of who gets hurt or not. But she could swear she had seen fear in her eyes this morning. That was weird.

A-Yeong was many things, but she wasn't one to show fear. She had to agree that she had secretly admired her fearlessness and attitude of getting whatever she wanted. Still, it was so sad she always went about it the wrong way—hurting and destroying people with her manipulative ways.

She knew how power could be addictive, and A-Yeong must love her position so much, as well as the power and respect it accoladed her. But she could tell there was something more.

But what could it be?

She sighed when the car suddenly came to a stop in front of her apartment. She snapped her head towards the man by her side who was giving her a suspicious look.

"Are you okay?" He asked with concern causing her to smile and nod. She couldn't believe he was now her boyfriend. She hadn't even planned for this when she set out this morning. How funny. 

"I'm fine." She replied while Jin-Hai stayed his intent gaze at her. A dismissive sigh escaped his lips before taking her hand in his. He placed a kiss on the back of her hand and glanced at her beautiful face, with a bit more attention to her glistening eyes.

"I'm so happy, Hei-Ran. I can't believe..." He paused and chuckled. Hei-Ran couldn't help but smile too when she saw the joy gleaming in his eyes. "I can't believe I have you now. Thank you." He said, making her blush helplessly. He has been doing that all day-making her blush- so much she feared her cheek would ache.

"You're welcome." She smiled while he kissed her hand again.

"I want to move your office upstairs, right next to mine." He suddenly said, making Hei-Ran stare at him in shock. 

"What?" 

"You don't want it?" He asked, but he continued without waiting for her answer. "I want you right next to me every time and every day now. I finally have you after so long, so I want you by my side all day." He confessed, causing Hei-Ran to blink at him confusedly.

His craziness was still somewhere in his head because only he would think of something as crazy as that.

"Jin-Hai, that's not necessary. We see each other every day." She told him.

"But that's not enough." He refuted, a cute pout framed his lips, making her giggle. She couldn't believe this was the same Song Jin-Hai she had known for years. So he could be this cute?

She pinched his cheek as she leaned in and placed a kiss on his lips before saying, "Thanks for the beautiful lunch and dinner. It was nice."

"But not as nice as you being my girlfriend." He smiled while her cheeks flushed at his words.

"I...I'll see you on Mon... tomorrow." She refrained from saying the word Monday before he acted up again.

She watched as Jin-Hai reluctantly nodded his head before kissing her goodnight. 

She hummed her way to the house with immense joy, which suddenly disappeared as she screamed when she opened the door and saw a small ball-like figure lying on the floor.

"Eun-Sun!" She yelled as she patted her heavily beating heart. How could she scare her like that? She frowned when Eun-sun didn't move a muscle. She dropped her bag and walked closer to her, ready to scold her, but she paused when she felt something was off.

"Hey, are you okay? Why didn't you tell me you were coming home today? You scared me." She lowered her voice as she closed in on her, but Eun-sun remained unmoved, making her frown deepen. 

She crouched down, removing the hair which covered her face, and that was when she realized she was crying.

"Hey, Eun-sun." She panicked as she touched her face. "What happened? Why are you crying?" She has never seen her cry. She has always known her to be someone who cried behind closed doors, and whatever was making her cry now must be pretty serious. She could only think of one thing, rather one person who could make her friend this way, 'Dan-Han.' She was going to kill him if he hurt her in any way.

"D...Dan-Han, I...hurt him." She suddenly broke out in tears startling Hei-Ran, who immediately sat down on the floor and forcefully pulled her up to sit.

"He...hates me." 

"Shh... don't say that. President Lee can never hate you. He adores you. Everyone knows that." She tried to comfort her, but Eun-sun shook her head.

"I shouldn't have kept it a secret from him. I...I broke his trust." Hei-Ran was very confused about what she was talking about but other than asking her questions; she decided to console her first. Hei-Ran's heart ached when she saw her friend crying like that. 

It took a while for Eun-sun to calm down. Hei-Ran gave her a cup of water to help her stay calm before she asked, "What happened?"

Hei-Ran didn't know what to say when Eun-sun finished narrating what had happened. She could understand Dan-Han's pain and anger towards everybody. The idea of being left out from something as crucial as this could be seen as a betrayal.

She didn't know even how else to console Eun-sun because this was indeed serious. Dan-Han's anger was justified. 

But could Dan-Han really hate her?