Page 78 of When Worlds Collide
“Her… butter – what?”
I just laughed.
Chapter 24
“Bloody hell,” I murmured, craning my neck to look up at the shiny, glass-fronted building. ‘ENT’ was clearly and proudly mounted on letters ten feet tall, probably visible across all of Gangnam.
Behind me, Jihoon slid out of the backseat of the SUV that had picked us. It had been a relatively short drive from our apartment in Hannam, to ENT headquarters.
Jihoon didn’t make any moves towards me. He shoved his hands in his pockets, and subtly nodded his head towards the door. He was wearing an over-sized black hoodie, a cap pulled low over his face, and a matching black surgical mask. While this wasn’t unusual, today it was because going in through the front door of ENT invited anyone camped outside the building to take notice, and take pictures.
I, for the first time, was also wearing a black surgical mask, pulled high up on my nose. It covered more than half my face and the whole ride over here, I’d struggled to get used to the feeling of breathing through it. It was uncomfortable, but at leastthe warmth of my exhalations kept my face warm in the biting cold of the grey day. Overhead, the clouds were threatening to dump another few inches of snow down on us, like they’d done all week.
I followed Jihoon towards the building, noting that there were a few people milling about, but standing politely back behind a row of ornamental railings. Some of them wore lanyards, identifying them as being from certain publications, but most bore no such identification, except their tripod set ups. Currently, they weren’t paying any attention to the several people walking in and out of the building, and I wondered why they bothered to be there at all. They must be freezing.
I stayed several feet back from Jihoon, until we were safely inside the building, the noise of the street fading as the glass doors slid closed behind me, and I got my first, good look at the reception of ENT.
It seemed to get bigger the more I looked. The lobby was split into two levels; the ground floor we’d entered in on, and a mezzanine level above, looking down on the floor below, ringed by clear, glass barriers that shone in the early-morning light coming in through the glass front of the building. It kind of made me feel like I’d walked into a fairy-tale castle made entirely of glass.
There was a huge desk in the middle of the lobby, manned by three receptionists. We didn’t head to the desk though. We walked straight across the gleaming lobby to the bank of elevators on the far wall, set further back down a short corridor, and behind a row of security barriers, currently overlooked by a man in a very official-looking uniform. As we approached, Jihoon pulled down his mask, and the guard at the partitions stood up a little straighter, clearly recognising him. But, instead of heading straight on through, Jihoon paused at the guard, wholeaned in closer to hear his quiet conversation, only the odd, whispered word drifting over to where I stood politely a few feet away. The guard looked over at me briefly, before nodding. He turned away and pulled something out of a free-standing locker against the marble wall before turning back around. He motioned for me to come over.
“For today.” He said, his accent thick. “Return when you leave.” He passed me a dark blue lanyard, with a card clipped to the end, the word ‘Visitor’ stamped clearly on it.
I nodded as I dutifully hung it around my neck.
The guard held a card over the top of the scanner on one of the barriers, and the glass doors slid apart. Jihoon passed through first, before pausing on the other side to wait for me. The guard held out his hand, indicating I should pass through.
“Gamsahmnida,” I said shyly, walking though.
Jihoon grinned at me, his eyes crinkling at the sides.
“What?” I muttered, following him to the elevators.
He just shook his head. “So cute.”
We didn’t say anything else as we walked to the bank of elevators. There were too many people wandering around, but when the metal doors closed behind us, we were alone and Jihoon selected the floor. He pulled me towards him and exhaled. It felt somehow like we’d just pulled off a bank heist.
“ENT is fancy,” I remarked, and he huffed a small laugh.
“Because they manage only the very best.”
“Uh huh.” I grinned up at him, tightly gripping his jacket in my hands, pressing myself closer to him as I breathed him in. He was a balm to my frantically beating heart.
“You’ll be fine,” he soothed, understanding without me needing to say it.
I just nodded.
“It’s Christmas next week. Maybe she’ll feel enough Christmas spirit to gift me a job?”
Jihoon’s shoulders shook as he snorted.
“Does that make her Scrooge?”
I pulled back enough to look up at him. “Depends on how Scroogy she is now.”
He didn’t respond, which I supposed was answer enough.
We’d talked this morning over a brief breakfast of pop tarts – which Jihoon has a secret weakness for – and coffee. Kang Jihye was kind of known for being a bit of a hard ass. She was supposedly fair, but with a very sensitive bullshit-meter, so I wouldn’t be able to gaff my way through this.
