Her Voice / han sanghyuk (#14)

Episode 53

HakYeon

I smiled at myself as I am looking through the menu, the food really looked delicious but that is not the reason why I am happy. It is because of Choi Jooeun and we are going to have lunch together and she didn't leave the restaurant and she stayed behind, her older brother who is also the deputy CEO of my company invited me over to have lunch with the two of them and I couldn't be happier.

The dinner that I had with her family was the first time that I was invited and I was touched by their kindness towards me and now I am having lunch with JooEun and she is looking really beautiful. I noticed that her personal butler SeungMin is not here with her, he usually tags along with her to every single place that she goes but he is not here today, maybe she gave him some time off to do his own things.

"Feel free to order anything you want, it is on me." Choi Joohwan said and my eyes focused on the cheaper good items even though he told me to order anything that I wanted to have for lunch, it is impolite to take advantage of the situation even though I am allowed to do that. He is testing me to see if I am humble and is thoughtful towards him if I did order the pricer ones, I would make a bad impression of him and he might not want to invite me over for lunch anymore so I will do the opposite of what he is telling me to do.

"I will have the chicken Alfredo and a cup of coffee, that is all that I will be having." I glanced over at Choi Joohwan and he was nodding his head, I must have done the right thing after all.

"What about you, Jooeun?" He asked his younger sister who is still looking through the menu. "Everything here is delicious and I am sure that you will come here often from now on." And Choi Jooeun pointed something on the menu and Choi Joohwan calls for the waiter and he started ordering but I realised one important detail when he is telling all the orders to the waiter, he didn't order anything for himself, not even a drink or an appetiser.

He handed over the menu to the waiter and then stood up, looking at the two of us with a mysterious smile. "You two enjoy your lunch, I have a meeting to attend to and I need to go now."

"Mr Choi, then what about your lunch?" I asked him, still confused over his actions.

"I will settle it myself and I will see you guys at the meeting later, have fun..." And he walked out of the restaurant.

And then I realized his true intention in bringing me and Choi Jooeun to this restaurant and then leaving to somewhere, he was trying to make the two of us spend more time together. He must have realised that I might have feelings for his younger sister and he wanted to have a chance with his sister and so he created this opportunity for us to be together in one location and for us to reconnect with each other.

I looked at Choi Jooeun, she clearly wasn't impressed with what her older brother just did and she stood up. 'I am leaving, enjoy your lunch alone with yourself.'

I stood up and grabbed her wrist, stopping me from leaving. She turns around and yanks my hand off, furious that I have just touched her without her permission. "I am so sorry but we really have to stay for lunch, if not we are going to waste the food that the chefs are preparing right now," I told her. "You might hate me for what happened back then and I am so sorry about that, I shouldn't have done that to you and made you suffer for the past few years. Everything was my fault."

'Everything was your fault!' She signed before stomping out of the restaurant, I have really said the wrong thing to her again. Whatever I am doing is not helping the two of us to reconcile but is making our friendship from bad to worse, I bet that she doesn't even want to see my face later at the meeting and she might not even appear at the meeting.

What have I ever done to deserve this kind of treatment from Jooeun? I have been nothing but a good friend to Jooeun, from the moment that I realised that she had a hearing disability, I have been treating her like a good friend and not discriminating her in any way. I helped her with everything that she needed me to, I was there when she got assaulted that year and I even persuaded her to go back to schooling, it is because of me that she continued to go to school and made some more new friends.

I am her first friend, not Han Sanghyuk. Han Sanghyuk didn't do anything that I have done, he was a bully to Jooeun and he made her fear going to school and made Jooeun care about him so much to the point that she would blame me for not allowing her to see Han Sanghyuk for the last time. I had to do to protect Jooeun from Han Sanghyuk, he is not the wrong person for Jooeun and he will never be.

I hope that he doesn't return back to Seoul and that would break Jooeun's heart one more time but at least she is not going to wait for him anymore. I have been trying my best to track down Han Sanghyuk's whereabouts for the past few years and Mr Choi doesn't tell me anything but I know that he is being stuck in one country and he is not allowed to leave the country for as long as possible, the only exception is that he escapes or he will be killed by someone so that Jooeun will not be able to find him ever again.