There are Many Flowers in Seoul

Chapter Sixty-Seven

'Rose, how long are you going to make me wait out here?' Hitomi asked for the umpteenth time. She rested her forehead against the closed door as she stood in the corridor, still rapping her knuckles against the wood. They were due down for dinner and if they didn't hurry the others would start without them. She stamped her feet with childish impatience. 'Come on! I'm starving!'

Rose had only moved to carry herself from the doorway to the bed since she'd arrived. Hours had passed, and she'd remained on the bed, lying face down with the lights out and thinking back on her behaviour. Not just from when she'd arrived in Jeju – although she'd carefully considered all the reasons Tae-won might hate her for hanging off Si-woo – but from the moment she'd stepped off the plane when it touched down in Korea. Since then, she'd been like a hurricane of destruction tearing through Seoul and the lives of the people who lived there, and she'd swept Hitomi and Yuta along for the ride. Now, she'd dug herself so deep into this pit of lies that she couldn't see a way out of the darkness. Tae-won knew who she really was but wanted to keep everything about their love affair and their history a secret, while Si-woo knew about the love affair but had no idea of her true identity. Then there were the innocent people who'd cut all ties with them once they knew they'd been played like fools – Eun-young who'd thought she was giving some inexperienced nobody a shot at fame and fortune, and Jung-wook who considered his relationship with Hitomi to be no more strange or interesting than any other normal summer fling – and Jin-hee, who'd find a way to use all this information against them if given the chance.

The banging persisted, and Rose groaned loudly. She didn't want to go down to dinner, not with all these problems weighing down on her. She had no appetite for anything except self-pity. All she really wanted was to curl up under the covers and to only emerge from her room when she was needed for shoots.

'Don't think I won't start screaming about you being dead in there to make the managers open the door. I'll do it! You've got until three and then I start. Ready? One! Two!'

'Okay, okay!' Rose barked towards the door. She rolled off the bed and stomped all the way through the room before unlocking the door and pulling it open. The two girls locked eyes for a moment before Hitomi barged her way in, earning an annoyed, 'Hey!' from Rose as she was knocked backwards against the wall.

'Don't you hey me when you haven't even picked out something to wear to dinner.'

'What's wrong with this?' Rose asked, closing the door with one hand and gesturing to the comfortable clothes she'd travelled in with the others. 'It's not like it's formal.'

'When you're trying to get Tae-won's attention back from Jin-hee, it's formal,' Hitomi replied. 'Take a shower. You stink.'

'I thought you said we were about to be late?'

'So, make it a quick shower.'

The shower was more than quick; it was taken at lightning speed. Rose only spent two minutes wrapped in a towel before Hitomi thrust a clean dress and underwear at her, ordered her to change, and then set about drying and tying up her hair. Not many people could get away with treating Rose like a doll – not unless they were paid stylists – but she sat obediently for Hitomi as she preened and pampered her, turning her from a run-down and emotionally drained bundle of misery and turning her into someone vaguely human.

When the pair descended in the elevator and arrived in the lobby, Rose's hair was tied up in an elegant bun with curls artfully placed to frame her pale face. Hitomi understood her friend's disdain for heavy make-up and that Rose had been caked in it since the photoshoots had begun, and so only bothered with a swipe of mascara to make her eyes pop.

'I hate these shoes,' Rose complained as she struggled along in the heels beside Hitomi who had no trouble manouvering in her own ridiculous pair. 'What's wrong with flats?'

'If you wear flats, Jin-hee will be taller than you and look down her nose at you. I mean, even more than she already does. In heels, you'll be the same height.'

'You're putting too much thought into this.'

'I don't think I'm putting enough thought into it,' Hitomi countered. 'You heard her! She needs to be reminded that she's not the hot new model around here. You are.'

'I'm not hot, new, or a model. It's nothing I haven't done before.'

'Last time you were a kid. This time, there's a man on the line.'

'You don't even like him,' Rose reminded her friend. 'You should be happy that Jin-hee is ready to take him off my hands.'

'I don't like him,' Hitomi agreed. 'But if Jin-hee is happy, then I won't be happy. If she's miserable, then everything will be right with the world. Balance will be restored. The sun will rise in the morning and banish the darkness!'

'People are staring,' Rose hissed, glancing around furtively as other guests watched them pass by. 'Can you tone it down?'

'Sorry,' Hitomi said with a smile. 'I might have stolen some alcohol out of your mini bar.'

'My mini bar? Yah! Why not your own?'

'Because I'd get charged for it, duh.'

Rose bit back the urge to argue with her. They were outside of the dining hall and were about to endure yet another dinner with the staff and their friends. The last time, Rose had made Tae-won so envious that he'd stormed out of karaoke just because Si-woo had fed her a little meat and praised her singing. She dreaded to think what he might say or do if she dared cause trouble this time, and she was afraid that if she and Hitomi did try to take swipes at Jin-hee then Yuta would call her parents and have them both sent back to Japan.

'What's wrong?' Hitomi asked. 'You look pale.'

'I'm not really hungry.'

'Oh, no. No way. I spent forever making you look nice! We're going in and showing off!'

'You go,' Rose urged. 'I'll have dinner tomorrow night.'

The door opened before she could escape, and the girls found themselves looking up into Si-woo's confused but handsome face. They forced smiles onto their faces, trying desperately to hide the fact that anything was amiss. Sadly, Si-woo wasn't a fool and could tell that he'd interrupted something.

'Can I escort you inside?' he offered gallantly, hoping to dispel the awkward atmosphere. 'Ah, we have a guest. You should meet her.'

'Guest?' Rose asked. Her stomach clenched. The hotel had recently been purchased and there was a risk it was someone she'd know from The Belvedere Hotel. Immediately she imagined her uncle standing in the dining hall, ready to call out to her and reveal her identity to everyone present. But, that was impossible. Si-woo had said it was a woman, and unless it was one of their parents it was unlikely to be someone they knew already. 'I suppose – I mean – I'm not hungry and I was just going to –'

'You look beautiful, by the way,' Si-woo interrupted. 'Hitomi is very talented.'

'I am, aren't I?' Hitomi agreed, slipping her arm through his. 'Let's go meet this new friend of yours. Coming, Rose?'

'Do I have a choice?'

'No.'

Rose held onto Si-woo's other arm when he offered it, and he led them into the room like Princesses. The swell of pride in their chests didn't last long. They were the most important, impressive and beautiful girls for all of three seconds before the young woman who'd been talking to Yuta, laughing and pressing her hand against his bicep, turned to smile at them.

Rose's skin turned to ice and a weight dropped to the pit of her stomach.

Mariko.