Page 58 of You Had Me At Annyeong!
‘Oh, massda! You’ll be at the shoot—silly me. Rodrigo is our talent, how could I not remember? I guess I’ll just see you there! May the force be with you, Timira, or should I say Leia!’, she speaks in a voice that sounds like candied venom with a smile that looks more sinister than sweet.
The lies are now coming in fast and furious. She is not supposed to be at the shoot. She has no business there. But now she must attend it.
Appa won’t like it, sure. But I couldn’t care less. There’s no way I’m sitting this out! Geurae, to compete with Leia-ssi I’m even willing to turn into Liar-ssi.
Turning to Stephanie, she says sweetly, ‘Steph, what’s the weather going to be like in Jeju this weekend? Guess what, I’m coming! Things are going to heat up!’
* * *
Holding the package that has come in for Timira, Hanee observes the two figures at a little distance. The package looks and feels like it has shoes. While it doesn’t have a sender’s name, it has a note with a pig’s face drawn on it and a message written in a rather childish scrawl:Wear these coz I won’t always be there to catch you when you trip over your laces.Hanee swears under her breath and turns her gaze to Haneul, whose mesmerized eyes are dancing to the beat of Timira’s every expression. Her heart sinks a little but then she notices her sillySeonbae’s face light up like the sky on a moonlit night, and she sighs deeply. Clutching the box, she starts walking towards her workstation, having decided to not tell Timira about it.
She has almost caught up with Timira and Haneul on the way to her cabin when words start floating into her ears. Random fragments at first, they soon start to make sense as Hanee inches closer.
Timira is on a phone call, only a couple of steps away from Haneul. Hanee stops and soundlessly eavesdrops.
Timira is looking tense and turning the caller’s request down. She is doing it hurriedly and her face is starting to lose colour. She hangs up quickly and turns towards Haneul, who is now wearing a quizzical expression on his face.
‘That was your fian … I mean, that was Mina-ssi. She wishes to meet—’
Before she can finish the sentence, and before Haneul can react, Hanee has swooped in, having decided she cannot hold back any longer.
Seonbae doesn’t deserve this. Daepyonim doesn’t deserve her!
Like the rest of the SecondSkin office, she couldn’t deny that something was definitely happening between Haneul and Timira. Her initial instinct was to protect the object of her affection from a man who was taken, but perceptive as she is, it didn’t take her long to figure out that Timira reciprocates his feelings.Love is complicated; it isn’t all black and white, she had reasoned with herself. She had decided to not judge Haneul for sweeping Timira up in his feelings while still with Mina, but had promised herself that she would not let him treat her seonbae badly.If he doesn’t do right by her, I swear I’ll jinjja kill him, she had muttered under her breath the first time she saw Timira’s face light up at the very mention of his name. That was when she knew.
She has ripped off the packaging of the box for Timira has come in, and now holding the contents behind her back, she cuts in breathlessly.
‘Seonbae, you’re late for your lunch meeting!’
Timira has no idea what she’s talking about.
‘Don’t tell me that it’s slipped your mind—remember, you had to meet that editor and discuss the interview in Jeju?’
Timira is nonplussed.
That editor? Which editor? What is she talking about?
Hanee is not doing a good job of cooking up a ruse.
‘Yes, yes. That man, that foreign editor of that big magazine. You have forgotten again, Seonbaenim!’ Hanee is pleading.
Timira can tell from the earnestness in her voice that Hanee is serious. She wouldn’t just drag her away from a conversation with the CEO.
Maybe I have forgotten. Must be budhapa!
‘Ppalligapshida! Sigan eopseo[Let’s go quickly! We haven’t much time].’ Hanee is in a hurry. She doesn’t wish for Timira to get caught between Haneul and Mina.
‘Oh, okay, okay. Let me go change my shoes, at least.’
‘No time! Here, I got you a pair from the lost and found.’ Hanee holds up a pair of slip-on sneakers in bubblegum pink with laces in red drawn on them.
‘You found a pair ofnewsneakers in the lost and found?!’
‘New? What new? They don’t look new to me!’ Hanee is cursing herself for being so terrible at lying.
‘What is this?’ Timira holds the price tag up. ‘Is the lost and found some kind of Secret Santa?’ Timira jokes.
Hanee knows how preposterous she sounds but battles on.
