There are Many Flowers in Seoul

Chapter Thirty-One

The cab driver who'd so gallantly brought the three women and their heavy bags back to the studios ought to have been commended. Not many men would have left their comfortable driver's seat to assist them in retrieving their shopping from the trunk of the car. Either he was eager to see the back of them and thought that helping them in this task would see them leave faster, or he was so taken by the three lovely women in his cab that he couldn't help but be a gentleman.

That, or it was part of his job.

Rose wanted to believe it was the second, but that was the least likely of the three. Sharing the load between them, the three women staggered into the entrance of the studio and dumped most of the bags behind the reception desk where they trusted they would be safe. From this pile, they extracted the dozens of cupcakes they'd bought to help the staff through their troubling hangovers and set about methodically visiting each floor of the building, handing out the treats as they went and enjoying the coos and gasps of the staff members as they admired the individually packaged treats and their adorable decorations. The women received them the most warmly, but the men were happily surprised by the offering of food and descended upon the trio as eagerly as their co-workers. When they arrived at the boardroom, Eun-young opened a bag she'd kept sealed during the rest of the tour, having saved some of the limited-edition flavours for Yuta, Tae-won, and Jin-hee. Hitomi excused herself and skipped away with a pink cupcake covered in love hearts so that she could deliver it personally to Jung-wook, humming cheerily to herself as she departed the stuffy room. Rose had a feeling she'd hear all about their meeting later whether she wanted to or not.

'Yah,' Jin-hee said when Rose placed a cardboard box in her hands, 'I can't eat this. Are you trying to make me fat?'

'It's one cupcake,' Rose said. 'Can't you treat yourself just once?'

'How can you be a model and still eat this crap?' the woman asked furiously. 'Don't you know that there's always going to be someone thinner than you out there?'

'They might be thinner, but that doesn't mean they're healthier,' Rose shot back angrily. She wasn't angry for herself – Rose didn't care a jot if Jin-hee wanted the stupid cake or not – but Eun-young had wanted to do something nice for the staff after their difficult start to the project and this felt like Jin-hee was throwing it back in her face. The polite thing would have been for her to take the cake and then given it to her manager later when she was back at her agency if she was so annoyed by it rather than making a scene.

Jin-hee pushed the box back into Rose's hands and declared, 'You eat it and get fat. Eat all of them, and then I won't ever have to see you in this industry again.'

Yuta opened his mouth, ready to come to Rose's defence when Tae-won reached over and plucked the box out of her hands. He already had one cupcake – with black frosting to match his heart – but happily took Jin-hee's vanilla crème treat from Rose. 'This still doesn't make up for the banana milk,' he told her.

'Oppa,' Jin-hee whined, 'don't be nice to her! Throw it in the trash, it's cheap!'

Tae-won took the cupcake from the packaging and, without warning, took an enormous bite out of it. With frosting on his lips and the tip of his nose, he said with a mouth full of crumbs which flew from his lips and landed on Jin-hee's cheek, 'It doesn't taste cheap.'

'Aish! That's so dirty!' she complained.

'No dirtier than your mouth,' Tae-won retorted. 'Aish, you bring me cake and no water?' he asked. Muttering to himself and pushing more of the cake into his mouth, the man left the room and strode down the hall towards the cafeteria.

Momentarily confused by the manner of the rescue and his exit, Rose took a moment to look back and Eun-young and Yuta, both of whom were similarly confused. It wasn't like Tae-won to be the hero of the situation. In fact, Rose had half expected him to be in Jin-hee's place, complaining that she wasn't taking the life of a model seriously and that they ought to have brought back healthier snacks for the staff to enjoy, especially after he'd already had a hefty dose of sugar in the banana milk. When her brain rebooted itself and she began to make sense of the situation – namely that Tae-won had saved her for the second time in less than twenty-four hours – Rose was quick to run after him to find out why, if only for the sake of her own sanity.