Office Diaries

"That was quite a show." 

Jae sat on a bench at the terrace of the hotel function room. After Seunghun Han's arrest, the turnover went smoothly with Kirishima Group's CEO in attendance. With everything settled, Tachibana who was actually Yunho's ȧssistant and secretary invited everyone for luncheon at this hotel. 

"It was," Yunho agreed as he walked towards her and handed her a glass of rosé which she accepted gladly. 

In her mind though, she finally had answers as to why this man who was supposed to be a mere secretary had such strong presence. It turned out he was the CEO of the company her dad decided to sell his company to. But since they had something troublesome, they concealed the agreement first and used her as bait to flush Seunghun Han out.

  "Did you have fun?" 

Jae snorted. Of course, she did. The face of the old man who she treated like family but tried to kill her as welcome was so priceless she secretly took a video while he was hauled out of the room by the police and sent it to her parents. 

"You already know the answer," she said. 

"Oh yeah? But I realize to really make things clear I need to hear the actual words from you. If you're happy, say it. If you're not satisfied, say it. It's so I won't misunderstand and be left in the lurch like a fool," Yunho suddenly said as he sat next to her. 

Jae was dumbfounded. They were just talking about the events in the company. How come it felt as if he was talking about something else entirely? Or was she just overthinking. 

"Do you think about Midori?" he asked softly, startling Jae. 

"Why are you asking me this question?" 

"You said you forgot about things before so I want to clarify something with you. So, tell me about him," he answered, and Jae was confused why he was interested in asking about her first love? 

Jae sighed. She did not know the purpose why they had to talk about this, but since she was curious as well, she decided to come clean. 

"Midori was my first love and heartbreak. He's the only one I remembered when I had the accident." She reached for the necklace under her collar to show Yunho that she followed his suggestion not to get rid of it. 

"Heartbreak?" Yunho sounded confused and Jae nodded. 

"I got rejected," she said and she talked about how she sent a letter, and how silly she was to send her own buŧŧon to him even though only boys did that, only for it to be returned to her. "He also said he didn't want to be friends with me."

A bitter smile played on her lips, and the light on Yunho's eyes faded. His whole expression was dumb. 

"What happened to you?" she asked. 

"You—" he started but bit his lips as he looked like he was calming himself down. 

"I'm what?" she asked. "Why are you interested in Midori anyway? It's no longer related to us." 

"Of course, it's related to us," he countered, shocking Jae. "I'm Midori, the running back of the team." 

EH? 

Jae was speechless as she stared at him. 

"You asked all the members of the team to take a color personality test," he reminded her, and Jae nodded, somewhat remembering doing that. "Since that time, you never called us by our names. You call us by colors except for Tachibana since we all called him captain." 

With this, Jae's eyes widened. That did happen. The guys in the team where she served as the manager was nicknamed by her with colors according to the result they got from the color personality test. Red was aka, blue was ao, orange was orenji, violet was murasaki, black was kuro, and Yunho who got green was…

"Midori…" she called out in wonder.  Midori was green in Japanese. 

"You finally remembered, woman?" Yunho asked, looking displeased. "Also, what heartbreak are you talking about? It was you who dumped me!" 

EEEEEEEEH? 

"How is that possible? You clearly told me you don't want to be friends!" 

"Of course I don't want to be a friend. I want to be your boyfriend! But in your letter you said you want to be my closest friend. I'll be retarded if I said yes." 

Jae tried so hard to remember what she wrote, and then realized that yes, she did write something like that. She wanted to say she wanted to be the closest person to her but she might have written closest friend instead. It's a bit tricky since the Japanese didn't really say things directly, and she she's not Japanese, she might have done something stupid due to her lack of vocabulary. She did not grow up in Japan anyway. She had transferred schools there when her mom had to stay there for work. Language was not her strongest point. 

Still… 

"But you returned my buŧŧon to me!" 

"That's my buŧŧon, stupid woman," Yunho countered as he touched the side of his head as if he's having a headache. "We wear the uniform of the same school using the same buŧŧons." 

Oh…

"You wrote me a letter saying you want to be my closest friend, and I told you I cannot be just your friend, but you translated it as something else in your brain. I gave you my buŧŧon and I thought you understood what I meant. I thought we were finally dating and I felt shy so I left you so I can attend one last practice with the new members of the football club. I waited for you, but you were gone. I just heard you and your family transferred abroad and that was it. It's why I searched like crazy for you— the runaway girlfriend over the years. When I found you and you didn't recognize me, I was upset." 

Jae was stupefied. She realized she was incredibly… stupid. 

"Runaway girlfriend?" she squeaked and she shut up when Yunho raised a brow at her. 

"Are you not? It's a good thing you have a valid excuse to have jumbled memories or else…" he said in a low, warning voice, but his eyes danced with amusement and she could not help but laugh at their funny and long-term misunderstanding. 

Yunho took her hand while he used the other to fish the chain under his collar.

"Ah!" Jae was shocked to see an old buŧŧon similar to hers on his necklace. "That's…" 

"Your buŧŧon? Yes. I told you you're wearing mine. I've had your buŧŧon in my possession ever since you gave it to me. Seeing you have mine as well at least made up for the years you're not there."

Jae's heart twitched upon hearing the sadness in Yunho's voice. 

"I'm sorry," she whispered as she tightened the hand holding his, and he finally relaxed with a smile. 

"You're not going to run away again and leave, are you?" he asked and Jae laughed and shook her head. 

"Of course, I won't," she simply answered. "I'm not lost in translation anymore. I will be your girlfriend this time," she continued but Yunho didn't look happy. "What? You don't want to?" 

"How about upgrading to my wife?" he asked with a hopeful expression that she finally remembered he always had when he was nervous. 

Her Midori. The "green" who was always in her heart was finally in her possession. 

"Sure, why not?"