Thorned Rose // chae hyungwon (#31)

Fifty-four

Hyungwon

"Sana is out looking for an apartment to live in right?" Kihyun asked me and I nodded my head, she decided after a long time of thinking that she wanted to move out.

She had recently regained back her freedom and she is free to do whatever she wants to, her father is not there to control her life anymore and she sold off her empire and she decided to stay here in Gwangju with us.

It has been 3 months ever since and now she is finally taking her first steps towards independence and I can't help but feel proud of her, she should have been given the chance to do things her way but she had an unloving father and his only way to grow his empire is to marry his only daughter off to strengthen his empire.

"What about you then?" Kihyun asked me.

"What about me?" I asked him, not knowing what he meant.

"Your future, Chae Hyungwon. Even our beloved Sana is doing something about her future and she is looking around for an apartment and she has plans to do something about that inheritance, what about you then?" He pointed to me. What are you going to do for your future? Are you going to stay in my restaurant as the head chef for the rest of your life?"

"It is our restaurant, I had some ownership in it and I am content with what I have right now," I said to him. "Are you planning to do something about your future as well? Are you going to sell off the restaurant or what?"

He shook his head. "Why would I do that? I am the boss and I have the final say and I am begging you to go back to school to get a diploma, if we are going to expand in the future, people would expect a university graduate to be the head chef and not some high school dropout who was too broke to even support his own life that he had to work 3 jobs to feed himself."

"What is wrong with being a high school dropout? You only graduated from a low-ranked university and you are the owner of the restaurant, so why can't I be just a high school dropout? Won't it be a success story for something? A high school dropout becomes head chef of a Michelin star restaurant, I could get famous in that way as well." I said to him. "I am contented with my life right now and I don't want to do anything to change it."

"What about your love life? Is that not going to change as well?" He asked me, it has been 3 months since we came back from Osaka and the only reason why I went there in the first place is to get her back and I had plans to make her stay with me here but somehow I didn't manage to do anything for the last 3 months because I have been occupied with work ever since.

And Yoo Kihyun is to be blamed for that, always making my work all the time and I barely get any rest at all, just like how it was before and we are just working day after day, doing the same routine and 3 months have already passed.

"Don't tell me that you don't have any plans to marry Sana. She came back here with you and you are not going to treat her like a friend, she doesn't live here and she only lived here in Gwangju because of her and she won't have a reason to stay here if you are not going to do anything about that." He crossed his arms at me. "I am so not going to be your friend if you are not going to treat her right."

Sana would have chosen to stay in Osaka if she wanted to because it is the place that she came from and she only decided to stay here because of me, it is not because of Yoo Kihyun, he is just a friend and a benefactor to her and I am the person who is more than a friend to her.

"Do you know where to get those engagement rings? I asked him. "She is coming back in a few hours right?" I shook my head. "No, she said that she will be dropping by the restaurant later."

"You don't have to propose to her right now, you have time to plan for it and come up with a brilliant idea." He stopped me. "Chae Hyungwon, please calm down we will finish our work without any issues today and you are not to mention anything about the proposal to her. She must never know until she gets proposed to." He placed his hands on my shoulders. "Got it, my friend?"

All thanks to my dear friend, I was able to calm down and nothing dangerous happened in the kitchen everyone got their food the way that it is and Sana indeed drops by the restaurant 20 minutes before it closes for the day.

"How did it go? Did you happen to find the apartment of your dreams?" Kihyun asked her.

"I found a penthouse suite, it is just a few minutes from your apartment and it has everything that I have wanted in a house." She told him. "But the thing is that I might not be able to get the place, I can afford it but someone else might be living there already."

"But you can convince him to give you that apartment right? I hope that you will get it so that you can live in the apartment of your dreams." I said to her. And I want to be a part of it...

"I hope so, the penthouse suite is really beautiful." She showed us those pictures and I am just wishing that I could be that capable of being able to purchase an apartment without having to wish for it. That would mean that I would have to quit this job to get the money to buy the apartment...