There are Many Flowers in Seoul

Chapter Sixteen

The open office spaces might have lent themselves to creative conversation and the sharing of ideas, but they were hardly helpful when trying to hide from an angry Korean idol. Like Bambi in the meadow, Rose found herself without cover, and flitted from desk to desk hoping to find someone to defend her from the bullish man who ran with purpose and determination after his prey. Only in the corridors did she find some relief, taking corners sharply, hoping that he couldn't anticipate her next move and would be delayed in his pursuit. She jabbed at elevator buttons whenever she encountered one but found that they were too slow to save her, and Rose soon resorted to the stairwells.

Her intention had been to head up, lead him on a merry chase, and then head back downstairs and out of the building. Luck, however, wasn't on her side. After brilliantly executing the first stage, she was ready to race back down to the ground floor, only to see Tae-won hurtle through a door on the floor below. Assuming he'd taken one of the elevators she'd missed to cut her off, Rose stumbled on the stairs, grazing her palms, and clambered back up to the roof.

The girl burst through the partially open door and onto the unfinished roof garden. Stacks of chairs had been placed carefully beside the door and empty ceramic pots waited to be filled with foliage to spruce up the barren space. From the cigarette butts which had been neatly gathered and discarded in a small dish, Rose understood that the roof was in use and trusted that she wouldn't necessarily find herself alone up there for long, and so hurried to hide behind the wall which enclosed the stairwell, concentrating on calming her racing heart and rapid breathing so she wouldn't give herself away.

It was a mere matter of seconds before Tae-won followed her through. The door clattered against the wall, flung open with such force that the hinges rattled. Something wooden was kicked away, making a light, hollow sound as it bounced across the concrete paved terrace and coming to rest a few feet from the door which slammed closed behind Tae-won.

'Aish,' he hissed the word in exasperation. The man stood with his hands on his hips and called out, 'Japan! Oi! I know you're up here!'

Rose slunk back and tried to make herself as small as possible, praying that he wouldn't notice her as she edged around the stairwell, intending to slip back through the door when he was distracted with searching for her. Everything was going smoothly until she peeked around the wall at the other side. She'd expected to find Tae-won looking out across the cityscape, lost in his frustration, yet the rooftop seemed empty.

Had he given up?

Had he gone back to the shoot?

Rose stepped out from her hiding place with renewed confidence and was halfway through mentally congratulating herself when a hand dropped onto her shoulder. Surprised, she shrieked and shot away from the man who'd come up behind her, her heart hammering against her ribs.

Tae-won winced against the grating noise and snapped, 'What's wrong with you?'

'Me?' Rose replied, equally as angry. 'You scared the shit out of me!'

'Who scared who?' he retorted. 'Why did you run?'

'Because you chased me!'

'Because you ran first!'

'You shouted!'

'You threw water on me!' he countered.

'You're a weird pervert!'

'And you're a crazy girl!'

Rose balled her hands into fists at her sides. Rage bubbled away inside of her, and she didn't trust that she could stay in the man's company without a repeat of their last encounter. The last thing she wanted was to put the shoot behind schedule. It would cause too much disruption to the staff involved, and it wouldn't paint Yuta in a good light if his relatives were running wild around the studios and showing him up. Everyone was relatively new to the company, and both Silver Heart and Silver Lilies had solid reputations as international employers. The staff would begin to wonder just how deserved that reputation was if this was how the managers ran things.