Exotic Love (Novel)

72

Private life was private life and company is company. Regardless of how I live my day-to-day life, I rarely get distracted in my work. After all the long-lasting sleepless night, these days when I'm tired of idling away, I'd rather work.

Of course, the thoughts that constantly spring up in the meantime torment me.

When I could no longer sleep for an hour or two a day, after about ten days, I finally had a nosebleed. I was in the middle of a meeting, then all the executives and employees were looking at me with surprised faces, and Kim Tae-woon hurriedly covered my nose with a tissue and help me up. I staggered from the sudden rise, and then I heard a buzzing sound.

When I came to my senses, I was lying in the hospital. It wasn't that I completely fainted, I was conscious on the way from the company until I got to the hospital, but everyone went chaotic that I couldn't remember anything. I could only remember fragment and pieces of what happened. Kim Tae-woon, who was muttering, his face turns pale, the doctor's white gown, the nurse's voice swirling and passing by . At the same time, my arm feel like its stinging.

Soon, my body felt as if I was drooping like a cotton soaked in water. My eyelids were so heavy that I couldn't open my eyes. It felt like the darkness was hugging me softly. It was the darkness that I always pushed away because it makes me uncomfortable.

As soon as my vision became black and my consciousness was about to darken, a face came to my mind.

'For a prostitute to put up his pride. that's really unattractive.'

My tone was light, but his lips were firmly closed by my atrocious voice and sharp like a blade negative words. The gleam of light disappeared from his desperate eyes that were constantly trembling, showing agitation. The distorted expression on his face, was then erased and replaced with a cold facial expression. As if he could never smile again.

That face was the last look of Yoon Hee-gyeom that made me unable to sleep for less than an hour for the past ten days.

When I opened my eyes, the room was pitch black. How should I express this feeling? I had never died, but it felt like as if I had died and came back to life and opened my eyes in a coffin. It was refreshing as if both my body and mind had been completely reset.

"...Ha."

My mouth feels a little dry, but I wasn't thirsty. When I moved my arm, I felt a throbbing pain, looks like I was getting an IV.

"Director?"

It was Kim Tae-woon's voice. Water. When I made a brief sound, he turned on the light and came up to me. I had a little muscle pain, but I was in better condition overall. My body must've feel lighter because my mind felt clear.

"Drink slowly."

I grabbed the cup he handed and drank the water. It wasn't because I was thirsty, just so it was enough to wet my mouth.

"The meeting."

"Do you remember what the meeting was about?"

At the question, I had no choice but to keep my mouth shut. It was like a regular report, or maybe it was a strategy meeting. Or maybe it was a meeting about an exclusive contract with an overseas distributor. I couldn't sleep at all, so my head was completely stiff, and in the end it seems that my eyes finally gave up on staying open.

Kim Tae-woon couldn't hold his sigh and exhaled small breath and took the cup of water from my hand. I wanted to smoke, but I felt like I couldn't even take out the cigarette because of the mood. It's not like its been a day or two that I've been fussing over because I couldn't sleep. Of course, it had been a long time since I hadn't slept enough that I collapsed. Before that, I used to sleep with the power of alcohol or drugs, but... Ah, the reason I couldn't sleep all this time was because I didn't even take the drugs.

"You got a message from Yang Hyunji ssi."

Kim Tae-woon took my cell phone out of his pocket and handed it out to me. In this situation, Kim Tae-woon used to manage even my cell phone since I usually woke up even by a little trace of light or noise such as the cell phone vibration.

"What did she say?"

"She invited you to her birthday party in three days."

How are you going to have a birthday party when you're shooting for the movie? When I turned on the screen, there were text messages. Some of them were messages from Yang Hyun-ji, who sent the location and place of the birthday party, and there were texts asking, 'Did oppa faint because oppa couldn't sleep well?' She seemed to have made such an inference since there was no answer for a long time, and Kim Tae-woon even answered the phone call for me.

"After you eat, I will call the doctor. While you are in the hospital, take one more sleeping pill and go to sleep."

It was in the morning when I collapsed, so no matter how long I slept on a sleep inducer, I must have slept for about five or six hours.

When I nodded roughly while checking the texts, Kim Tae-woon rustled and prepared the meal. He take out a warm container that contain porridge with enough side dishes. The Jeok*(kind of soup)  that my housemaid make would probably be delicious as it smells good, but I don't have any appetite. I checked the accumulated text messages, but...I felt bitter. The first and last texts sent by Yoon Hee-gyeom were on the weekend ten days ago.

Please contact me when you wake up. There was a message from Ahn Hyun-jin.

"...Manager Kim."

But I didn't reply to the message. I just handed my cell phone to Kim Tae-woon, who sets the tray on the bed and raised the table. As Kim Tae-woon gave me the spoon, I grabbed and stir the porridge.

"Get ready for my divorce."

"........."

Kim Tae-woon looked at me surprised, but he didn't say anything else. After a while, I heard an answer from him saying "yes", and I was satisfied with it. Wasn't this the divorce everyone wanted anyway? Therefore, if Yoon Hee-gyeom feels reluctant, I could afford a divorce. Because it really wasn't a big deal.

I thought the divorce would prove to him how meaningless my marriage is.

***