AAE -- Wishes Of The Heart

Chapter 151

written by LoveCR2 -- 2005

edited by All-About-AAE -- 2018

 

"You and I keep going round in circles, like we're stuck on a merry-go-round that never stops." -- Jin Sun-Mi

 

 

SINSA, GANGNAM-GU...

 

The dimly-lit bar is half-empty, typical for an early weeknight as Min-Cho had told Sun-Mi to expect. Playing over the sound system, Step's 'Make It Easy On Me' is loud enough to obscure private conversations without being too intrusive...

 

Don't keep me dreaming if all the hope is gone ...

If it's all over don't keep me hanging on ...

 

Sun-Mi scans the room as if searching for a place to sit, checking to see if Min-Cho and Young-Mi have arrived yet. Not seeing them, she points out an empty booth in the far corner, from where she can watch the door, suggesting, "Let's sit over there."

 

I can't stay and dream my life away

In some kind of wonderland ...

 

Better to hurt me honestly than make a fool of me

My heart will understand ...

 

As they cross the room together, Sun-Mi reflects on the lyrics ... is she a fool, merely dreaming her life away, hanging on to an impossible dream? ...

 

Make it easy on me

Just walk away, set me free ...

 

Don't try to do it gently just to please me

Make it easy, easy on me ...

 

 

Shortly after they settle down in the booth, a server barely in her twenties saunters over from an adjacent table to take their order. Dressed in low-riding, skin-tight denim jeans and a neon-green, midriff-baring tube top, she moves subtly to the beat of the music.

 

Sizing up her handsome customer's expensive suit, she smiles and purrs, "Sir, is there 'anything' I can do for you?"

 

"Scotch. Single malt," Hyung-Chul's brusque answer conveys his disinterest in 'anything' else she may be offering.

 

"I'll have the same," Sun-Mi responds when the server looks her way, "and make it a double."

 

Hyung-Chul's brow wrinkles, communicating his disapproval, which she brushes off with a quick, flat smile.

 

"Got it," the server acknowledges their orders, giving her hips an extra wriggle for Hyung-Chul's benefit as she click-clacks off on platform heels.

 

 

"I need to wind down," Sun-Mi justifies herself. "Just being in the same room with President Kim, sometimes I just want to kill him..."

 

"He's always a thorn in the flesh," Hyung-Chul agrees. "I can understand how you feel."

 

"How can you BEGIN to know what I'm really feeling? You're a MAN!" she lashes out, her bitter tone uncharacteristic. Almost immediately, she atones for her misdirected anger, apologizing abashedly, "Sorry, that was too harsh, Senior. I didn't mean it."

 

"No matter," he reassures Sun-Mi her brief tirade is already forgotten, quickly moving on ... "You had something to tell me?"

 

 

"I thought that I'd never meet you again like this, and yet, here we are," Sun-Mi remarks.

 

"I'm grateful, too, to see your smile again," he recalls her parting words parting in London ... it will be too hard, until I can look back and smile ...

 

"Coming back was hard, harder than I imagined," she admits. "Everything had changed from how I left it."

 

"You've changed a lot, too, Manager Jin Sun-Mi," he uses her new title to emphasize his point.

 

She lifts an inquisitive eyebrow. "Should I take that as a compliment, or a critique, Director Yoon?"

 

Even softened by her beguiling smile, the question pricks. "I wasn't making judgments," Hyung-Chul asserts.

 

 

"Perhaps I'm my own harshest critic," Sun-Mi reflects. "I used to look at Yoo Joo-Hee and Young-Mi and wonder if I would ever reach their standard. And now, after working so hard to prove myself, I wonder who is this person people praise and call so amazing."

 

"What you've accomplished IS amazing, you've nothing to apologize to anyone for," he commends her.

 

"Tell that to Senior Joo-Hee," she replies, her chagrin obvious. "She suggested I take time off, to self-reflect on the person I am now."

 

The suggestion surprises Hyung-Chul. "Forget what Joo-Hee says."

 

"Actually, she may have a point," Sun-Mi admits. "Some time away might do me good."

 

"What are you thinking?"

 

"I have an offer for a year-long sailing cruise. Someone told me there's nothing like the wide-open sea and sky to broaden one's perspective."

 

"Was that Michael Atwater?" he tersely snaps out the name.

 

"Yes," she nods affirmatively. "A honeymoon cruise, on his new yacht."

 

"Any other ideas?" Hyung-Chul quickly asks, not wanting to dwell on this any longer.

 

 

"Well, there's the convent..."

 

"Become a nun?" he breaks in, incredulous.

 

"I feel I was granted a second chance at life for a reason," she expounds on the possibility. "Following Young-Mi's example, I've wondered if that meant devoting myself to serving others."

 

"You'd break off your engagement?"

 

"If that is where my heart leads, Min-Cho will approve," she confirms. "He's a true friend, who has always accepted what is right for me."

 

"What else?" Hyung-Chul prompts, intrigued to hear more.

 

"Sometimes I dream about finding a secluded hideaway -- a cozy little house and garden, with the proverbial white fence around it -- and disappearing for a while," Sun-Mi answers wistfully. "Lead a quiet, simple life while I figure things out ..."

 

"And then?"

 

"It's really all wishful thinking, isn't it?" she firmly closes further discussion. "I have more important things that must be done first. A new training program, for one ... Anyway, It only matters who we are today and tomorrow, not what might be some indefinite future, right?"

 

 

The server returns, delivering their drinks. Realizing she isn't making any inroads with Hyung-Chul, she deposits the glasses unceremoniously and heads off to troll for more lucrative customers.

 

Hyung-Chul picks up his glass and tips it toward Sun-Mi, "To today and tomorrow, then ... Cheers."

 

She raises hers in agreement. "Cheers."

 

They sip the 90 proof whisky, keeping their thoughts to themselves, as they listen to the song lyrics ...

 

Don't make me stay and wish my time away.

In some fool's paradise ...

 

Don't give any hope to me

Spin any lines for me

Make the truth plain to see ...

 

Make it easy on me

Just walk away, set me free ...

 

Watching Sun-Mi, Hyung-Chul ponders the portent of her words ... 'It only matters who we are today and tomorrow, not what might be some indefinite future, right?' ...

 

Don't try to do it gently

Just to please me ...

 

Make it easy, easy on me ...

 

 

Sun-Mi waits until the song has ended, and they'd drained their drinks, before she asks, "What is it you wanted to tell me, Senior?"

 

He lowers his eyes remorsefully, looking into his half-empty glass. "I want to apologize."

 

"For what?"

 

"The night you came back ... I was too harsh. I overreacted."

 

"You did what you thought was right," she makes it clear she holds no grudges. "I overreacted, too. Like you said, I was in shock ..."

 

Sun-Mi pauses for a breath, focusing on Min-Cho's advice -- 'all you need to do is open the door' -- to buttress her resolve. Now that the door is ajar, she has to step through it ...

 

"That's because the real reason I came back ... was to see if there was another chance for us to be together ..."

 

 

If Hyung-Chul is surprised to hear this, he doesn't show it.

 

"I know, with my being engaged to Min-Cho, that this doesn't make sense, but hear me out," she requests.

 

Sun-Mi takes out a small black velvet jewelry bag from her purse, loosens the ties and removes the anklet he'd gifted her for her 25th birthday. She lays it out on the table between them, prompting a shared memory ...

 

... 'Your pearl is from the bottom of the ocean and my lucky stone is from outer space. But they’re together now' ...

 

"It was damaged on 9/11, when the ER staff cut it off," she explains the broken band. "I haven't had the chance to get it fixed."

 

Hyung-Chul picks up the anklet and rolls the two black Peridot beads and white pearl between his fingers, mentally replaying the scene where he'd boldly gone down on one knee -- deliberately invoking the image of a surprise marriage proposal -- to secure the band around Sun-Mi's ankle.

 

"I thought you'd stopped wearing it because we were through," he tells her, happy to find out he was wrong.

 

"Actually, I'd considered, many times, that we were through," she admits, "but a voice in my head would remind me ... 'this means we'll meet again in our next lives' ... and I'd keep my hope alive."

 

He reaches across the table, returning the anklet ...

 

"It was just something in a movie I saw," he plays down any significance to his declaration. "Those were just sentimental words."

 

"Only words?" she replies doubtfully. "What happened in the car, just now, and at the Gala, proves there is still a bond between us that can't be broken, no matter how hard we try. Can't you feel it?"

 

"What does it matter, if I did?" he all but admits she is right. "Feelings can't change reality."

 

"The reality is, you and I keep going round in circles, like we're stuck on a merry-go-round that never stops," Sun-Mi contends as she returns the jewelry bag to her purse. "Letting things go on as they are, when soon we're to be related as brother and sister-in-law, isn't that playing a dangerous game, too?"

 

"So it wasn't a hypothetical question after all," he refers to their conversation in the car.

 

"This is something we can't avoid or put off any longer," she avers, going right to the point, "Senior, I want to know -- plainly -- how do you truly feel?"

 

 

Hyung-Chul ponders the question, finishing off his drink first, before he answers ...

 

"Actually, I've thought about this since the night you came back, and asked that same question," he admits. "I wasn't sure what to think at first, but the Gala confirmed it for me ..."

 

Hearing this, Sun-Mi's hopes soar ... everything is going just as Min-Cho predicted ...

 

"It's like you said, you and I have a connection that we ..."

 

 

The buzz of her mobile interrupts, and he stops there for her to pick up.

 

Sun-Mi flips her phone open to read the message ... Emergency! Call me now! ...

 

"It's Jo Cho-Jeh, again," she tells him. "She says it's an emergency."

 

"Take it then," Hyung-Chul allows with a smile, waving her off.

 

"But you were about to say ..."

 

"It can wait, while you help your friend."

 

Grabbing her purse, Sun-Mi gets up from the booth and heads for the Ladies' washroom to talk in private.

 

 

Cho-Jeh picks up the call back immediately ...

 

"Sun-Mi... Where are you? I've been trying to get hold of you!" she complains.

 

"Calm down," Sun-Mi speaks soothingly, knowing her friend's penchant for hyperbole. "What's the emergency, this time?"

 

"Last night, at the Gala, we -- Choi Jin-Soo and me -- we heard Young-Mi with Min-Cho! Did you know he's two-timing you!" Cho-Jeh reveals her shocking news.

 

"Relax... Min-Cho and I swapped partners with Senior and Young-Mi for a dance, and then they went off to talk. That's all it was," Sun-Mi brushes off any concern.

 

"But ... it's wasn't just talk!" Cho-Jeh stands by her interpretation. "They were seriously making out."

 

"Oh?" Sun-Mi is puzzled, as Min-Cho had said nothing about that development to her. But she still extends the benefit of a doubt to him, until she learns more. "You're sure about this?"

 

"Jin-Soo and I were in the hotel gallery, watching the stars, " Cho-Jeh explains the circumstances. "We overheard everything clearly."

 

"What stars can you see in the center of Seoul?" Sun-Mi chuckles. "What were you two actually doing there?"

 

 

"That's not important," Cho-Jeh steers back to the point ... then drops her bomb ...

 

"It's what else Min-Cho said ... He's using you as a pawn in his plan -- to get revenge on Director Yoon, and destroy him!"