When Your Pain Becomes Mine

After hearing Ari's slightly thrilling words, Sun started to speak with a bitter smile.

"... I don't think so."

"Have you ever talked about getting married to him?"

After a moment of pause, Sun nodded slowly.

Ari frowned and pouted her lips. "I don't like anything about him except the fact that he's handsome and has a lot of money, but that's all that matters anyway." Ari eventually smiled and said. "But what would you do if he really proposed to you? Will you accept it?"

"... Well."

"Well?" Ari looked at her in eager anticipation.

"I'll think about it when he proposed to me." Rising from her seat, Sun smiled.

"Are you leaving already?"

"Yes, there might be traffic."

"Right, go then." Ari shook her hand, pretending to be sad.

"But that's a good sign anyway because a cold guy has asked to see you first." Ari smiled.

"Yes, I'll get in touch." Sun waved her hand and hurriedly left the café.

"... Is this a good sign?" She asked herself while Ari's words repeated in her mind.

In an excited mood, Sun picked up her phone.

When she heard a few beeps, he answered the phone. "Gyeonhui?"

"Oh, Sun. It's Ojae Kwon."

She heard Ojae's voice, not Gyeonhui's, as she had expected to hear over the phone.

Her excited voice sank awkwardly.

"Hello Ojae, I'm supposed to see him tonight, so I'm calling him."

"Yes, he's still in a meeting. I'll tell him that you've called."

She hung up the phone after hearing his formal tone.

"... He must be busy."

Sun felt something ominous coming, but she tried to shake it off.

***

With his handsome face like a sculpted masterpiece, while wearing his suit, Gyeonhui glanced at the executives with cold eyes.

The dozens of them could not even breathe freely as if they were caught in his eyes.

"Everyone said that it's too late." A dense, deep voice echoed through the quiet conference room. "However, I did it. I've achieved the goal in three years. We are Number 1 in the domestic retail industry."

A small round of applause erupted among the executives.

"But it's just the beginning. Expanding our business online and offline, and expanding it beyond our domestic presence to Asia, the United States, and Europe will be our next goal."

The executives could not refute his accomplishments and reluctantly clapped.

Ojae Kwon, Gyeonhui's secretary, clapped harder than anyone else and encouraged people around him.

Then, Gyeonhui's cell phone, which Ojae was holding, rang.

"Hello Sun, it's Ojae Kwon."

After checking the caller, Ojae answered the phone and exited the meeting hall.

"Yes, he's still in a meeting. I'll tell him that you've called."

After Ojae hung up the phone as he turned around. He then saw that Gyeonhui was standing right in front of him now that the presentation was over.

"Oh, you scared me."

"Who was it?"

"It was Sun. You're going to see her later today, right?

"Today? Huh…"

Gyeonhui exhaled a shallow sigh and frowned like he just remembered the appointment.

"Didn't you say that you're going to go to the logistics center after stopping by the office?"

Ojae asked since Gyeonhui wouldn't make it to the appointment if he went to the logistics center in Ansan city.

The logistics center was under construction recently. It was a big project that reflected Consencio's ambition to enter the market in the United States.

"Right."

"What about her, then?"

"I have to postpone it."

"I got it. I'll contact the center."

Ojae quickly pulled out his phone and tried to call the center.

However, when Ojae began to dial the number, a strange feeling came over him. He saw that Gyeonhui staring at him as if he were disgusted.

Frozen after seeing his eyes, Ojae looked at him without even making the call.

"Why, what's wrong?"

"Don't you know that there will be a presentation about my performance next month? You can't postpone the appointment with the center."

"Then..."

"I have to postpone the appointment with her."

When Gyeonhui said this dismissively, he went out while furrowing his brow.

"Huh..."

Ojae followed Gyeonhui after breathing a sigh.

***

In front of the venue in Gwanghwamun Gate.

People were busy trying to head on their separate ways while adjusting their clothes in the bone-chilling cold.

The time for their appointment had passed for a long time, but she still could not see him. She began to grow a little anxious.

When she tried to take out her phone and get in touch with him, she paused for a moment.

"He hates it when somebody's calling him when he is busy..."

She knew that Gyeonhui was extremely reluctant to get in touch with someone when he was working, so she had to put her phone away.

"Ouch..."

Then, her stomach started to feel weird.

As she counted the dates, she nodded since she had found the reason for her pain.

"It's beginning soon."

The suffering that came every month if one was a woman was almost at hand.

However, she unwittingly sighed upon feeling the unusual pain.

"What happened to him…"

When she confirmed the clock and looked at both sides of the road, she still could not find him.

Then, a text arrived on her phone instead of him actually showing up.

'Something's come up. I'll see you there later today.'

Her anxious hunch was always right.

Sun sighed with disappointment without hiding her frustration.

In the distance, she saw him on a huge billboard.

'A new paradigm in the retail industry, expanding its business beyond East Asia to North America. Consencio stock prices are increasing.'

His glamorous appearance felt as far as the billboard that she was gazing at from a distance.

"... I miss him..."

With a bitter smile, Sun turned and stepped into the musical theater.

Cold winter rains began to fall on the road.

***

'I want to be with you tonight, no matter what.'

After checking Sun's text message, Gyeonhui shoved his phone in his pocket. After opening the office door, he put his jacket on that was hanging on a hook. When he checked the time, it was already past 10 o'clock.

"I'm sure the show is over, so you're going straight to the restaurant?" He nodded after hearing Ojae's question.

"Well, Mrs. Shin asked me to see you tomorrow..."

Ojae looked at Gyeonhui's eyes and spoke carefully. Not surprisingly, he furrowed his eyebrows.

It was his habit whenever he felt frustrated.

"Huah…"

As he sighed, he noticed a small coffee tree in a pot.

It was a tree that she planted when she first came here three years ago.

The tree in the small pot had grown to the top of his knee.

'I grew it with the seeds my dad left behind. The flowers are so beautiful, so I hope they will grow well here.'

However, the tree hadn't bloomed after three years. It was evident that the tree could not bear a fruit because it couldn't even bloom flowers.

"You'll have to replace the pot. It looks too small for the tree." Ojae followed him later while saying those words.

The unresponsive Gyeonhui started speaking as he watched the coffee tree.

"Tell me, between fruitless trees and unworthy people, which one of these is the least useful?"

Ojae thought that he was talking about himself and opened his eyes wide. He couldn't say anything.

"It's the tree..."

Gyeonhui shook his head slowly after hearing Ojae's answer.

"The answer is both."

His cold voice was clearly directed toward someone else. He clenched his molars and quickly turned around and exited the office.