AAE -- Wishes Of The Heart

Chapter 72

written by LoveCR2 -- 2005

edited by All-About-AAE -- 2017

 

"It seems that despite my best intentions, trouble keeps following me from Seoul anyway." -- Jin Sun-Mi

 

 

FITZROVIA, LONDON ...

 

Sun-Mi stares at the photograph on Page 3 of the Seoul Daily Times, International edition entertainment section. Bathed in the warm glow of the setting sun, she and Hyung-Chul are lip-locked on the Pont des Arts. Then she reads the article's headline...

 

ROMANCE IN PARIS ?!

Reporter Jin Sun-Mi Reignites Rumors of MBS Love Triangle

 

Putting down the newspaper, she gazes out the window of the café a few blocks from MBS, where she is met Jang Hon-Yong for breakfast, staring numbly into the steady drizzle on the dismal, leaden-gray morning.

 

Hon-Yong takes a sip of coffee, puts down his cup to pick up the newspaper from the table, and begins reading...

 

"MBS Correspondent Jin Sun-Mi closed out her Paris Fashion Week coverage with a romantic rendezvous on the City of Love's famous Pont Des Arts over the Seine River. Her secretive tête-à-tête with MBS Director Yoon Hyung-Chul resurrected latent rumors of a steamy love triangle involving the formerly engaged couple with MBS drama star Park So-Won..."

 

"... After a reported split from Yoon last year over his presumed dalliances with Park, Jin moved on to a post in London. Subsequently Yoon led the production of MBSTV's blockbuster melodrama 'Catwalk', starring Park in the dual roles of leading actress and rumored new fiancée..."

 

"...'Catwalk', a thinly-disguised account of Park's rise to fame as one of South Korea's top models, gained notoriety and audience share by pushing at limits imposed by TV's Governing Board of Censors. Now Jin Sun-Mi's bold public gamble is hinting that the action surrounding 'Catwalk' is as hot off the screen as on it..."

 

"Please," Sun-Mi waves him to stop, "no more..."

 

Hon-Yong folds the paper and puts it down on the table again.

 

"I thought you'd want a heads-up before stepping into the snake pit this morning," he warns of the situation she will soon face in the MBS Bureau office.

 

"But... but it's not what it looks like. It's not true," she protests wearily.

 

"Unfortunately, it's not truth, but image that matters," he gives it to her straight. "And right now, that image makes you persona non grata."

 

His assertion bewilders Sun-Mi. "I don't understand. Why is my personal life always such a big deal for everyone? It's not like it has any impact on their lives."

 

"Then you haven't heard about the changes coming to the Bureau office?"

 

The expression on Sun-Mi's face shows that she hadn't, so he continues with the new she'd missed during her absence...

 

"Seoul decided to downgrade the London Bureau to a stringer office and transfer most operations into a new joint venture with BBC along with a few select staff. Everyone is on edge, wondering who will get the axe first, and when."

 

Sun-Mi immediately grasps his point. "So it looks like I was working angles in Paris to keep my job? But honestly... it was just a parting kiss... I really didn't know about this... "

 

"I believe you, Sun-Mi, but it doesn't take much imagination, for anyone who wants to think the worst of you, to conclude differently..."

 

Sun-Mi turns her gaze out the window again, dismayed that her situation is looking as gloomy as the weather...

 

 

 

MBS LONDON BUREAU, LATER THAT MORNING ...

 

"Come in, Correspondent Jin, and close the door," Chief Kim Bo Nam responds to Sun-Mi's appearance at his office.

 

"You wanted to see me immediately, Chief?"

 

"Please," Bo-Nam motions to the chair beside his desk, unlike her first day when he'd kept her standing and in the spotlight.

 

Sun-Mi dips her head politely and sits uneasily in the indicated chair, expecting a dressing down...

 

"I have something to discuss with you..." he begins.

 

"Chief... it was only a kiss... really, that's all it was," she peremptorily blurts out, interrupting. "I wasn't trying to influence Director Yoon for a job... I'm not that type of woman, to go to such extremes... Please... you must believe me, and not those rumors... "

 

Bo-Nam is at a complete loss. "What are you babbling about?"

 

Sun-Mi instantly realizes that she had unnecessarily said way too much...

 

"Er..." she gulps, thinking quickly to change the subject. "I'm surprised to hear you're retiring?"

 

"It was a surprise for me, too," he confides with a slight grin. "But with the Bureau closing, I thought it's about time."

 

"I remember the first day I came in this office. I was so nervous, and trying to hide it behind a false bravado that you saw right through," Sun-Mi recalls her initial experience. "I can still hear your criticisms, as the whole time I was shaking in my shoes, scared you'd send me back to Seoul as a failure..."

 

He chuckles at the memory. "I suppose I did come down a bit hard, but I was trying to draw your real personality out from behind that facade, and it worked, right?"

 

"Chief Kim, you've been like a father to me since I came here," Sun-Mi reflects on their brief but warm relationship. "Giving me confidence when things were tough... advice and wisdom when I didn't know which way to turn... I don't know how to thank you enough."

 

"You've been like a daughter to me, too," he confirms his mutual affections, "and seeing how things have turned out, my decision to give you a chance proved to be the right one. But there's something I've always wanted to ask. You left a very promising career behind in Seoul, essentially to start over here at the bottom. Why?"

 

"There were some things happening in Seoul that I wanted to avoid. The London Special Correspondent position was my ticket out of what was becoming a difficult situation for me," she explains, trying to reveal as little as possible.

 

Then she adds wryly, "but it seems that despite my best intentions, trouble keeps following me here anyway..."

 

"Trouble? Is that what you were talking about earlier, when you mentioned Director Yoon?"

 

"That's only a part of it," she sidesteps the question.

 

"Then what else?" he probes. "Don't be afraid to tell me. Whatever you say in this office, stays here."

 

Sun-Mi ponders what to say for a few moments before she makes up her mind...

 

"It seems like this is the time for revealing secrets," she says with a slight smile. "It's something I've never told anyone before..."

 

"Go on," he urges.

 

"My programming manager in Seoul had insisted that we meet privately -- just the two of us -- ostensibly to collaborate on the program content. But I soon found out he had other intentions, too..."

 

She averts her eyes, remembering, and then continues in a quiet voice. "He said such... lewd things, things I won't repeat. And he kept insisting that if I wanted to advance my career, I had to do certain... 'favors' for him..."

 

Bo-Nam reads between the lines. "But that's sexual harassment! Why did you put up with that?"

 

"At the time I felt I had no choice," Sun-Mi explains. "I had several reprimands on my record, my career was in serious jeopardy, and I didn't want to make any more trouble. Besides, he'd specifically given me a good opportunity, and I wasn't going to throw that away just because of some crudity and being hit on..."

 

Her voice tightens. "I'd heard rumors of casting couches since I'd started working, so I just considered it as a part of the job..."

 

She looks at Chief Kim resolutely. "Women aren't just the delicate flowers that men make us out to be," she points out. "We can be tough, when we have to persevere."

 

"Still, why not file a report against him?" Bo-Nam encourages her to step forward.

 

"What good would that do?" Sun-Mi responds with a resigned shrug. "He'd claim I'd propositioned him for a promotion and then took revenge when I didn't get the slot. It's a case of 'he said she said'; and I had no proof... so I let it go...."

 

"Isn't this how society is? Haven't women always been treated like this?" Sun-Mi expresses her frustration. "I'm just one person, what I can do to change the world? ... Anyway, I'll never have to deal with him again," she reasons. "I've put the past behind me to forget it, and moved on. I don't want to go back there again."

 

"As you wish," Bo-Nam concedes to let the matter rest.

 

 

"So why did you ask me in, Chief?" Sun-Mi returns to her reason for coming to his office.

 

"Right... I have some good news," he replies. "Your request for transfer came through, with notice you're on the list of candidates being considered for the new joint venture."

 

"How is that possible?" she exclaims, astonished. "Why me, when everyone else has so much more experience?"

 

"That's a good question. You might ask Director Kim Eun-Ki, since he authorized it personally," Bo Nam informs her.

 

Sun-Mi inhales sharply. "Director Kim?"

 

"Yes." Bo-Nam confirms. "He's coming here in a few days, and asked specifically about you. I'll send the schedule for your interview time with him."

 

At the thought of having to be in a room once more with Director Kim... alone... cold shivers run down Sun-Mi's spine as a sickening queasiness churns in her gut...