Serendipity: The Amazing Journey Of A Soulmate

4. The lucky one

I greet everyone as I enter the office and head straight to the kitchen to make some tea. The smell of coffee invades my nostrils and I savor it, inhaling it deeply. I love the smell of coffee and basically anything with coffee flavor, but I rarely drink it. Weirdly, it has no effect on me so I'd rather get my energy from other sources. That's why I prefer tea in the morning, especially on winter days.

"Good morning, Inna," someone says behind me. I turn around and I see my senior, Lee Ki-Jung, standing in the doorway, hands in this pockets, leaning on the door frame. 

"Oh, Ki-Jung sunbaenim! Annyeonghaseyo!" I say quickly and bow.  "I'm making tea. Would you like some?" I add pointing at the steaming mug on the counter. He wrinkles his nose and moves from the doorway to the coffee maker. 

"You know I can't survive this lawyer life just with tea. I need coffee. Strong, black coffee." I shrug and watch him choose a mug and a coffee capsule. "We have a new client coming here today. Complex case. We'll work together on this," he announces, pressing the button of the coffee machine. 

"What are the charges?" I ask cradling the warm mug between my palms. 

"Embezzlement," my senior says, adding a teaspoon of sugar in his coffee.

"A white collar?" I say surprised. Ki-Jung nods once and takes a sip from his mug. 

"Chung Min-Seo, the president of the MonAmi jewelry store chains. We'll meet her this afternoon, around 2 pm," he says and walks to the door. I nod in understanding and follow my senior out of the kitchen, heading to my desk. There is a thick file on it with the name MonAmi scribbled on the front cover. 

"This is the new case sunbaenim* was talking about," I say to myself. Cases like this one are troublesome because the defendants are influential people and the scandal has the tendency to reach the media. Besides dealing with the journalists, we have to keep our clients in a leash so they won't be provoked to deliver any statements that might  threaten our defence in the trial. Next to the file, there are 2 papers with a sticky note saying "The financial expertise for case 15887/2020 is complete." This was left here by one of our paralegals. I'll have to submit this to the court later. Placing my mug on the desk, I sit in my chair and open my laptop to check my emails before I start reading the details of the new case.

******

At lunch, I decide to make it up to Mirae for ditching her the other day and meet her to a restaurant for jajangmyeon. I'm the last to arrive and she waves at me when I enter the place. She chose a table by the window.  I greet her and she rises to hug me.

"Girl, I thought you're going to ditch me again," she says dramatically, sitting back in her chair. 

"I'm sorry, Park, it won't happen again," I apologize to her. She giggles and starts telling me about her day, how she's been running from the headquarters to the police station and back all week to get exclusive interviews. We both work so much and we barely have time to see each other during the week. So we made this rule, to have lunch together two or three times a week.

"Did you take your car to the mechanic?" Mirae asks with her mouth full of noodles. 

"Oh, I gave Jiwoo the keys this morning and he took it to some guy he knows. He said it might take a week or so to fix it," 

"One week without your car? Man, that's tough! Are you going to turn into a bus girl?"

"A what?"

"You know, like one of those girls in dramas, taking the bus for the first time and it stops suddenly so you lose balance, but there is an oppa to catch you in his strong arms," she says bursting out with laughter, sprinkling black beans paste all over the place.