Landing in Your Inbox

60 - cold wave

January 4, 2021 5:37 PM 
A Twosome Place, KMEX Mall, Seoul

Seri brought her managers to the next site inspection at KMEX, pointing out areas that she wanted them to take close attention to so they could take over. She was going to limit her appearance in the malls until the store would be ready to open by the next month but she needed her managers to be as obsessed with the details as she was. 

Just as they were about to leave, Seri chanced upon Ko Myeong-eun who happened to be taking a stroll in her mall's newest wing, flanked by an assistant and a bodyguard. Seri had a feeling the mall chairwoman had been waiting for her to come out.  At least Seo Dan was nowhere to be found...

There were two ways their next confrontation could go, one of hostility should Seo Dan have told on her mother about Seri and Jeong-hyeok or one of blissful ignorance.

It was the latter, and something more.

"Seri, I'm very concerned about Dani." Myeong-eun confided with a worn and heavy tone inside the coffee shop. "She's been troubled this late. Have you been talking this late?"

"No, I can't say we have..." Seri sat straight and still like she was in an interview.

"On New Year's Eve, she came home intoxicated on Alberto's back who I thought was missing in action this whole time." Myeong-eun was able to say this with composure but she was livid at the discovery, "It seems they have been meeting and I'm not quite sure why. Has she told you anything about this rendezvous?"

Seri shook her head. 

"Could you talk to her please, Seri?" Myeong-eun beseeched, reaching for her hand across the table. "You know you two are like sisters."

Sisters. In the span of their graduate studies, they seemed inseparable like so. After two good-for-nothing older brothers who loathed her existence, Seri liked the idea of a sister who she could take care of and look after. Seo Dan was younger than her by a year and had difficulty settling in. They met at a corner store where Seri spoke to her in Korean but Seo Dan was too suspicious of people. They met again in class, Seo Dan was trying to explain a marketing case study but was distracted by some classmates giggling at her accent, Seri came to her rescue. There were proper introductions then and they stuck to each other since. But after completing their studies,they separated. They used to chat over SNS but it was reduced to Happy New Year, Happy Birthday...

"I don't know." Seri said truthfully, Myeong-eun was stricken by this because she expected no other answer.

Seri was walking a tightrope and she didn't like it. Myeong-eun loved her daughter with a fierceness and a devotion that Seri would never know. The moment she finds out that Seri was seeing her daughter's ex-boyfriend—someone who could be seen as a sworn enemy—it could spell doom upon their partnership. Seri needed time, maybe a few more months when the dust settled. 

"I don't know that she would confide in me." Seri clarified, "I can't promise."

"But still...Please try to talk to her." Myeong-eun looked at her with hope, "I will be grateful."

January 5, 2021 11:49 AM
Incheon Airport, Korean Airways Headquarters 

Almost a month after the plane accident, Jeong-hyeok was on his way back to Incheon to prepare for his return. Like old times, Kwang-beom was driving the jeep. From the stories his friend had been telling him, colleagues were constantly checking on him and looking forward to his return. News of his heroic landing had spread across in varying exaggerations, so his deeds were becoming even larger than life.

"I was actually told to keep this a secret. But there's a welcome back party waiting for you at the office."

Jeong-hyeok made a weary sigh.