Accept Me

Chapter Six

HYUK JAE

Early in the week I'm already exhausted and frustrated with everyone at the office almost to a person. I'm supposed to pick up Kimi and take her out to eat but I'm finding I'm so fucking aggravated I'm not good company and I really can't afford to make another bad impression

I text her and cancel, telling her I'm just not up to it tonight, and she's cool about it, I think. It's hard to tell on text.

Won Sik meets me out and I breathe for the first time today as I listen to him tell me about the fucked up shit his younger brothers have been getting up to and how he's yanked them out of one kind of trouble and another the past forty-eight hours. My week compared to his doesn't look so bad, frankly, or as personal anyway. Won Sik keeps his attitude positive almost always, he's a difficult man to upset, I attribute this to his extradorinaiy ability to cope and think quickly on his feet.

Song Ah joins us after the first few drinks and starts bitching about the latest date her parents set her up on with some asshole heir to a high end retail chain. She asks me pointed questions about my future bride, yet again making it obvious to Won Sik and I what she think about me marrying Kimi. She's been pretty relentless where Kimi and the Ahn Family's connections to the Johnson Green family are concerned. She doesn't get why in the twenty-first century we're still going about business this way.

I agree with her to a degree but I also don't. Mainly, though, it just doesn't really matter anymore whether Kimi is a Johnson Green or a nobody, she's the woman I like. The only woman I've ever been at all interested in to this degree.

Relaxed now, I'm thinking I shouldn't have canceled. I should've suggested a drink before we go out and then given myself a second to calm down and loosen up. I love Won Sik and Song Ah but I could've been with Kimi and I'd have liked that better.

Won Sik orders another round and some food along with it, though I doubt we'll end up eating much of it, we almost never do. I don't feel like talking though, so I end up eating and letting the conversation flow around me.

Two of Song Ahs's girlfriends and one of their boyfriend's join us eventually. Apparently her friends have opinions about Kimi as well, shitty ones, really loud shitty ones. I can't understand it, none of them, including Song Ah, have actually met Kimi in person so how could they know if she's immature and a bitch? One of them suggests she's loose morally and I roll my eyes because, as I understand it, all they've seen is pictures of Kimi on the internet. They're just bitchy girls running their mouths, I'm pretty disappointed in Song Ah but not super surprised.

Being here and having to hear this shit makes me want to drink more.

"Hey," Won Sik bumps my arm with his as I reach for the bottle of booze and he nods over Song Ah's shoulder.

I look and find Arthur Johnson Green staring at me from across the club. His face is serious and contemplative. He doesn't look away from me, and he doesn't look angry exactly, he just seems to be examining our table. His eyes wander to where my arm is draped behind Song Ah across the back of her chair. It takes me a moment to understand what he thinks he might be seeing and I hastily move my arm away from Song Ah.

He says a few words to the group of people he's with who appear to make noises of protest and, as they do, they gesture towards the entrance. When I look to where they're pointing I see the retreating backs of a tall blonde and a petite brunette walking through the door.

I don't move. I want to get up and chase after Kimi but what would I say exactly? I look back at Arthur and notice now that Kang Min Ri is at the table too, looking grim. I wonder are some of these Kimi's work colleagues?