Caged Princess| KTH

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟱

Y/n

Two Months Later

I grabbed the pole in front of me, feeling my stomach roll as the subway car careened around the bend, heading toward its destination. I had woken up this morning feeling sick, wondering if maybe June and I shouldn't have tried the new Thai place around the corner from her apartment. The place had looked sketchy to begin with.

My hands shook as I grabbed the bottle of ginger ale that I had picked up from the corner store before boarding the subway. I usually wasn't the type of person to get sick often, but when I did, it was bad.

This was going to be bad.

I managed to hold myself together until I stepped out of the train car, hurrying to the open trash can before I lost the food we had eaten last night. I didn't care that people were hurrying past me, and when I was finished, I pulled out a tissue from my bag and wiped my mouth, adding it to the mess.

What if I was coming down with something? I had to go to work today. My stomach protested, but somehow, I walked the two blocks to the shiny building, glinting in the morning sun, opening the door and managing a small wave to the security guard seated at the front desk. "Mornin', Y/n," he said, giving me a megawatt smile. Young-ho had asked me out last week, and I had politely told him I would think about it. He was nice, and good looking, someone that I would think about dating.

Maybe I should. "Hey, Young-ho," I replied as I walked to the elevator.

"Lunch?" he called out.

I pretended not to hear him, rushing into the open elevator just as the doors were getting ready to close. I didn't know why I was avoiding the inevitable. It had been two months since I had moved out of Jamie's apartment and in with June, two months since I had that one-evening stand with the handsome older club owner that had been completely not like me.

It had been fun, and I thought about him often, wondering if he had christened the couch with other women since me.

Definitely. I would almost bet my new job on it.

Oh yeah, my new job. Ye-jun wasn't the only thing that had changed in my life. A month after my life-changing experience, I had decided to do something else and quit my crap paralegal job for another in a high-ranking law firm. They were highly touted lawyers in Soul, specializing in high-end real estate. I couldn't believe it when I saw that they had a paralegal job open to begin with, but I was even more surprised when they picked me out of over one hundred applicants.

Now I was one of the three paralegals that worked directly with Park Haneul, who had taught me more over the past month than I had learned in all the years I had worked for the other firm.

The elevator zoomed up to the tenth floor of the high rise, and I swallowed hard, fighting the bile that rose in my throat. I was not going to throw up in this elevator.

That would just be horrible.

The doors mercifully opened, and I stepped out, forcing a calming breath. The offices were expansive, filling up the entire floor and affording a beautiful view of the Han River. I actually had an office, which was super nice, attached to Haneul's office so that I could be close to him whenever he needed me. The work was hard, I wasn't going to lie, but the money was really good.

At this rate, I could afford my own nice apartment in another few months and not have to live with June for the rest of my life.

Dumping my bag on the desk, I fell into my leather chair and opened the bottle of ale, taking a careful sip. My stomach protested, but somehow, I kept it down.