There are Many Flowers in Seoul

Chapter Seventy-Six

To say that the fallout from the argument was pandemonium would be an understatement.

While Rose and Hitomi hid upstairs in Rose's room away from all the noise and arguments, Yuta did everything in his power to manage the disaster.

To Rose's mind, all she'd done was break Tae-won's heart.

In reality, she'd not only delayed the rest of the project, but had derailed the entire thing, sent it hurtling over a cliff, and had watched as it had burst into flames in a ravine below.

Jin-hee posted Rose's picture all over the internet with a scandalous tale of a spoiled heiress lying about her identity to sneak her way into an advertising campaign with the sole purpose of seducing the nation's favourite idol, Ji Tae-won.

Eun-young had been forced to become a voice of reason to calm the furious staff who thought that Lily Porter-Abe had sent her daughter to spy on them all and report back about their work. This would have been a difficult task for anyone, not least a woman who'd discovered that a girl she considered a surrogate daughter and a man she had begun to fall in love with had been deceiving her since the moment they'd met.

Tae-won had left for the airport and caught the first flight back to Seoul, calling his manager along the way about any loopholes which might see him released from his contractual obligations early in truly exceptional circumstances.

Si-woo was examining his own contract, trying to establish if he would still earn his full fee if the project was cancelled and his work was rendered useless, all the while feeling like a fool for warning Rose to be cautious of Tae-won and his deceptive nature when she'd been playing the men like fiddles the entire time.

Jung-wook had immediately distanced himself from Hitomi, too intimidated to pursue a girl set to inherit her own fortune.

Hitomi had sobbed in her room and refused to open the door to Rose.

And Mariko had endured it all with silence and decorum, refusing to utter a word to anyone until she'd had the chance to hear what Lily had to say on the matter.

Rose jumped when a fist slammed against her bedroom door. 'Oi, it's me,' Yuta all but snarled from the other side after the chartered buses had left with the rest of the staff, transporting them away from the madness of the hotel which was abuzz with rumour and intrigue. 'Open the door.' Hesitantly, Rose unlocked the bedroom door and stepped aside as Yuta barged his way into the room. She closed the door gently behind him and he waited until the lock clicked securely back into place before he roared, 'What were you thinking?'

Rose ought to have been accustomed to Yuta's raised voice by now – he'd done nothing but scold and shout at her since they'd disembarked the plane – but she still jumped and pressed herself back against the door as he stared at her down the short, narrow hall connecting it and the bedroom area.

'I know I wanted you to break up with him,' Yuta added, adjusting his tone, his voice quivering with the effort it took to remain as calm as was possible in the circumstances, 'but why now? Why not at the airport before you jump on a plane and leave him behind?'

'Because that would've been cowardly!' Rose argued, surprising herself at the strength in her voice. 'Because I needed to do it before I fell more in love with him. If I'd left him alone at the airport he might have come after me and followed me all the way to Tokyo. If he had, I couldn't have let him go!'

Furious, Yuta turned and kicked the bedpost. He seethed and swore under his breath, his toes throbbing inside of his soft leather shoe. He rounded on Rose and pointed an accusatory finger, 'This is because you didn't listen to me in the first place! I told you not to get involved!'