deceit • Han Seojun x Kang Soojin

66. heat waves

You look so broken when you cry
One more and then I say goodbye...

- heat waves (glass animals)

66. heat waves 

Soojin was worried about Yoon Jaehun, her roommate who had been missing since the last couple of days. She thought he was studying at the local library and spending the nights there to finish with his exams but he had stopped replying to her messages and possibly blocked her contact too.

She wondered if the bullying scandal had affected him and he did not want to stay with her anymore. That would be fine, Soojin was okay with being alone again, but she definitely needed him to confront her. She would rather speak with him and clear the air than let him go.

She had already lost one brother, she could not lose another.

"Ya, Soojin-ah, are you still mad at us?" Jin-ah and Hana, Soojin's favourite colleagues who were avoiding her during the scandal week, peeped in her cubicle. "We are sorry; we just did not know what to say."

"And we did not believe it at all!" Hana said, hands over her heart. "We just did not want to lose our jobs, you know."

Soojin did know and she understood them. Yet, it stung to see them isolate her when she needed them the most.

She smiled at the girls, "I am not mad. I just have a lot of work to finish."

She knew she was being standoffish and drawing boundaries again, but could she be blamed?

The one person she willingly gave her heart and soul had stomped it without a care and she did not have the energy to face another rejection.

On the plus side, she did have a lot of work to finish.

Soojin tried calling Jaehun that evening, texting him to call her back and asking him if everything was okay but she got no answer from him. She cursed herself for not having any of his friends' contact and worried over the boy.

If only he spoke to her then maybe things would have been a lot different.

"Miss Kang, we have to meet with Move tonight." Mr. Choi reminded the woman who was dreading the meeting already. "The handover and the breach of contract settlement needs to be looked over."

Soojin nodded, "what time do we need to be there?"

"By 8." Mr. Choi glanced at the nervous girl trying her best to hide her fears. "Do you want to maybe skip it? I can handle it on my own."

"Why should you when I am the one to be blamed?" Soojin did not care about her personal feelings this time, especially when Mr. Choi had done so much for her. "All we have to do is attend the meeting right? I can do that."

On her dismissal, Soojin rushed out of the cabin and headed straight to her cubicle trying her best to not cry aloud. She had kept herself so busy in work over the last couple of days post the scandal that she did not get a single moment to cry, or search the internet for her scandal, or think about Han Seojun.

It was just a meeting, Soojin reminded herself. And Han Seojun would not be there anyways, owing to the KMF that was to be held soon.

Just a piece of cake.

Except that it wasn't.

It was not a piece of cake. It was a goddamn travesty.

_

The meeting was held at the same fancy hotel where Starlight was residing. They were soon to leave Busan and head over to Seoul where the music festival was to be held. Starlight's manager, few of the associates from Move, Lee Suho and Han Seojun were seated at one side of the huge conference table while Mr. Choi, Soojin and the new team on the other.