Jennie
When it finally opens a tall, pale woman with a peak of fiery red hair steps out. She sees me and smiles, quickly excusing herself from the door.
Her face is familiar, but I can't place where I've seen her before.
"Hey...you're Jennie Kim, right?"
I turn in surprise, because I remember her voice. And suddenly, I remember her.
"Krystal Jung?"
I went to high school with Krystal Jung, but she used to dye her hair an awful blonde. With her pale eyes and translucent skin, the resulting look was washed out and unattractive. She was hardly noticed and seemed to prefer it that way, often hovering behind notebooks and art projects and always preferring to eat alone.
But things are different now. Now, she's gorgeous, a tall, slim figure with full lips and perfect skin. Her smile lights up her entire face, her pale eyes stunning as she gazes down at me with a pleasant expression.
I'm taken aback by how much she's changed.
"The one and only," is her easy reply.
"You look great," I say quickly, smiling. "How have you been?"
"I've been good. I've actually been working in the art gallery along Gangnam for a few years."
"That's wonderful. You've always had such an interest in art," I say. "I didn't realize you and Jisoo were still in touch."
"Well, it's kind of funny, but I actually just ran into her and her husband last week at a coffee shop downtown," she tells me, and I think of how funny it sounds hearing of Jisoo's husband. "She told me how she was getting married and invited me to the wedding...said we could catch up later after the honeymoon. She was always very nice to me."
This is true. Jisoo hasn't always been nice to every stranger, nor every classmate in high school, but she once defended Krystal when a guy called her the love child of Carrot Top and Rosie O'Donnell and made her cry. Jisoo said no one deserved to be called the love child of Rosie O'Donnell. No one.
"Well, it's really nice to see you," I say truthfully. "It's been a while. Maybe we can get lunch sometime."
"I'd like that."
I move to pass her, but her voice stops me again. "Jennie...I heard you dated Kai?"
I turn to look at her, suddenly wary and admittedly curious. "Yeah?"
Her accompanying smile is shy and a little sheepish. "I dated him for a little while, too," she tells me. "A few months ago. I ended up hearing about you from one of his friends."
"Okay," I say slowly, unsure where she's going with this. "Well, I hope he was better to you than he was to me." I don't count on this, but I really don't know what else to say.
"He wasn't, actually," she says with a chuckle, but there's no humour in her voice. "He was always trying to move our relationship really fast. I didn't want to, not really, but I..." She trails off and looks ashamed. I immediately feel sorry for her.
"God, Krystal. I'm sorry," I say sincerely. I can't even imagine what the ass did to her.
"It's fine," she says, waving off my concern. "I'm fine. We were actually good for a few weeks, but then things got kind of ugly and we broke it off. What I really wanted to tell you was that he's in prison now."
"Really?" I ask, unable to contain my pleasure. But I can't celebrate until I know what the creep was put away for. "What did he do?"
"Insider trading," she says, shaking her head in disbelief. "Can you believe it? I had no idea he was even into that kind of thing. Apparently he was doing it the entire time we were together."
Insider trading. Wow, that's...sophisticated, considering it was done by a guy like Kai.
Well, technically, he must not have been sophisticated enough to pull it off. He did get caught, after all. Sophisticated and Kai really don't belong in the same sentence. Ever.
"Do you know how long his sentence is for?" I ask hopefully. Even life without parole would be too soon, but I know I could never get so lucky.
"Four years. Maybe it'll do him some good."
Right. I've seen the movies. People in prison lift weights and get tattoos via ink pens, and then when they get out they hijack planes or murder their husbands. I'm no fool. Kai is to never be trusted.
"Well, I'm sorry you've had to go through everything with him," I say, my voice sincere. "We really should get together soon. Apparently we have a lot in common." I smile to let her know I mean this in the best possible way, and her expression mirrors my own.
"I saw you with your date," she says. "You seem really happy together."
I can't help but bite my lip and grin in return."Yeah," I reply. "We are."
