from which a garden grows / purinz

Chapter 6/04

The drive home is mostly quiet, save for Shiro's snoring.

Every once in a while, Yunjin will take a hand off the steering wheel and search instinctively for Chaewon's. Chaewon will nag her to put both hands on the wheel for safety reasons and Yunjin will oblige, but only for a few minutes. They pull in to a parking space near Yunjin's apartment, each in one piece, and only having bickered about this same topic a total of seventeen times. (Sakura and Kazuha would probably say they've officially made it as a couple.)

"Home sweet home." Yunjin puts the truck in park. "Heads up, I have an early morning Zoom business call so we can't stay up too late tonight."

"Call with whom?" Chaewon stirs Shiro awake.

"That hard apple cider company that keeps flooding my DMs. They want Shiro to be the face of the product. I thought it was kinda strange seeing as he has no relevance to what they're selling, but oh well. They probably think if people see a cute dog on something-no matter what that thing is-they'll be more inclined to buy it. That's my theory at least. I dunno. You're way more business savvy than I am. Hey, why don't you hop on the call?! Although, they say not to mix business with pleasure..."

It may not be a job offer, but it's a new project for Chaewon and that's always exciting. Chaewon can tell Yunjin is equally ecstatic with the way she's bouncing on her driver's seat.

"I wouldn't mind helping out," Chaewon smiles. "Any chance the name of the CEO is Sooyoung Ha?"

Yunjin's eyes widen in amazement; she must think Chaewon has psychic powers.

"Yes, that's her! How did you know?"

Chaewon shrugs. "Lucky guess."

"This is awesome! I'm feeling a lot better about this meeting already. I was worried at first, going into it alone. Then again, I don't know why I should be intimidated. This Sooyoung seems pretty laid back for a CEO. When I talked to her over the phone to schedule this meeting, it sounded like she had just woken up. There was also a girl in the background who she claimed was her main shareholder but she sounded a lot more like Sooyoung's girlfriend."

Chaewon is astonished just how quickly and effortlessly Yunjin has managed to weave her way into Chaewon's life, even having met some of her friends without being aware of it.

It just goes to show that Yunjin is meant to stay.

"Jiwoo Kim?"

"Ok, you've seriously got powers, woman."

Chaewon shrugs unassumingly; she'll drop the ignorant act later. She's having too much fun right now.

"I just know this'll be great!" Yunjin declares, fingers drumming on the steering wheel. "Sooyoung's got the recipe, I've got the social media skills, and you've got the business brain. This is how we grow the Garden!"

Chaewon's smug face drops.

"What?"

"The company is named 'Eden's Garden' so it's their quirky way of saying 'expand the business,'" Yunjin explains to a dumbfounded Chaewon.

"The company is literally called 'Eden's Garden' and you want us to grow it together???"

Now this is just freaky.

Chaewon looks up at the sky, pleading with the universe to knock it off with the signs. She gets it. It's Yunjin. No need to tell her again. Whoever's in charge of matchmaking her with Yunjin is being a sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek, little shit.

"Uh yeah," Yunjin responds, slightly confused (Chaewon never seemed to have problems with comprehension until now). "So can you help? I have no clue what I'm doing here. This could be a pyramid scheme for all I know."

"Of course," Chaewon laughs, "I'm your girl."

"Damn straight." Yunjin nods in strong agreement. "Can't wait to see how this pans out."

Chaewon smiles and rests her hand over Yunjin's.

"Guess we'll find that out together."