Accidentally Assisting

Chapter 43 - I Loved Them

If you have been paying attention, you would know that this final part of the story occurs in 2020. However, since Corona already pesters us enough in real life, I've decided to completely. disregard the pandemic for plot purposes. In other words, there is no Miss Rona in this story. 

8 MONTHS LATER 

"Anyway, and that's when Jason finally fucked me," Susan finishes off her tenth failed relationship story of today's lunch break. Don't ask what happened before this sentence because I've got absolutely no clue. I rarely retain this kind of information,.

"That's... um... that's nice, Susan," I force out a smile. Fake smiles come as easy as breathing to me now. That might make me sound like a dramatic middle schooler, but I don't really care. Just nodding along to what people say and then offering them some superficial comments has allowed to me stay hidden away in the safety of my own head.

Except that Susan, with her matching red glasses and lips (no joke, she wears red lipstick every single day precisely for that reason) is actually a good friend. Just like Gary, her gay, sarcastic side-kick.

Susan's one of my work colleagues, and Gary I met at a little get-together at her place which she had probably only invited me to because she wanted to investigate why I always alone in the corner, brooding. For real though, if the two hadn't been there and basically forced me to become their friend, I'm not quite sure where I would be right now. In a city full of bright lights, they are the only ones who actually shine on my life.

"Girl," Gary's slurping on his iced coffee, dragging the "I" as he rolls his eyes at me. "Good thing you didn't become an actor. Even an idiot could notice you're not listening."

Ah, yes. Me disappearing into Rose-world, as Jungkook used to call it. Except that's all I do these days. Reality has become too painful and my mind is my only shield.

"Unlike you, I never intended to become one," I retort, raising an eyebrow. "How many failed Broadway auditions did you attend again?" I'm joking and we're both aware of it. Gary works in Finance. However, after graduating college, he decided to audition for Broadway shows for fun to finally "become the main character".

Gary fake-gasps at me, making me laugh. "How dare you go there?"

Susan just rolls her eyes at us. "You're both annoying, you know that, right?"

Gary winks at her. "Just hanging out with our own."

"Yeah, whatever," Susan then looks at me expectantly. "Rose, we're still on for tonight?"

I just shrug. "Yeah, sure."

Gary pouts at that. "You made plans without me? And are discussing them right in front of me? That's hurtful, you know?"

Susan scoffs at him, but I know she secretly loves how dramatic he always acts. "Relax. We're just studying Korean at her place."

Gary snickers. "Oh, since you finally realized that maybe lying to your boss about the fact that you do not speak a word of Korean was not such a good idea?"

"How was I supposed to know I would ever need to use it?", Susan hisses.

"You work at a Korean hotel, darling!"

"Whatever," Susan huffs. "I'm white, Mr. Kim shouldn't have expected that."

"Rose's white and she speaks perfect Korean."

"Rose grew up in Korea, Gary. You fucking know that. Besides, I never would have expected that language to be so hard to learn. The grammar rules were made by the devil, dude."