At first, Hojoon thought that he came to the wrong place because her staff were preparing food. Besides, there was a romantic rose flower on the small table.
“Sorry,” said Hojoon, turning back.
“No, the chief of the strategic planning team will arrive here shortly.”
“Is this the meeting room?”
“Yes, that’s right. We have prepared this setting because she said she wanted to show you the home appliances of Sola Electronics.”
It was a white lie. Hojoon was bewildered at the thought that he was taken in again.
He heard her steps approaching the meeting room. When he turned around, Soran was standing there.
“Welcome, President Hojoon!”
She was smiling at him.
After she ordered her staff out of the meeting room, Soran asked him to sit face to face with her at the table. But he didn’t sit.
“What are you doing?”
“Didn’t you hear the explanation from them? I want to show you our company’s home appliances. You know I haven’t treated you to any meal so far.”
“Oh my… I know that this isn’t something that you have done for yourself, right?”
“Right. But you’re the only man that deserves this kind of treatment from me.”
“Who is the chief moderator of today’s meeting?”
“He went on a business trip.”
“Are you crazy?”
“What did I do wrong? This is the way I work. I didn’t ask you to play with me. Just sit down.”
“I can’t have this meeting without the responsible manager.”
“It’s me, the responsible manager!”
“Are you making fun of me?”
“Do you think whatever I’m doing looks like a joke to you?”
Hojoon had nothing further to say. He felt that he should leave the room when he could still control his anger.
Soran said harshly, “You remember I asked you to help me get divorced the other day. That’s no joke!”
“I didn’t hear you!” he shouted and then left.
***
When he was walking through the first floor lobby, somebody spoke to him, “Wait a minute.”
When he turned around, there was a lady whose face was familiar to him.
“Do you remember me? I saw at you the police station. I’m Arum’s friend.”
She was Jina.
“Oh, I see.”
Hojoon remembered her now. She came running to the police station to take care of Arum early in the morning on that day.
“Are you an employee under this company?” asked Hojoon.
“Yes, I am. What business has brought you here?”
“Well, I had a meeting… kind of.”
“I see. Would you have a cup of coffee with me? The coffee here tastes very good.”
She escorted him to the coffee shop downstairs.
As if they were longtime friends, Hojoon and Jina hit it off. Their encounter at the police station probably helped them form a sense of a bond.
“I can’t believe that we would meet like this! By the way, I’m sorry about what happened at that time. I should have checked it out thoroughly.”
While drinking her coffee, Jina told him about the recent case of Arum’s trespassing into his house.
“It’s alright. At first, I was surprised because I thought the intruder was a thief.”
“You bet. I just don’t know why this crazy lady went to your place that night.”
Hojoon smiled at her.
Though Jina was foul-mouthed, she had genuine concern for her friend.
“By the way, you taught her about the prediction through geomancy that she would meet her ex-boyfriend again, right?”
“Right.”
“Do you think it will really take effect? I hope that it won’t.”
“Pardon?”
Hojoon got curious about her unexpected response.
He asked, “Isn’t it what Arum wants?”
“Yeah, she probably wants it. But do you think that broken glass can be glued back? I know something about Konsu, Arum’s ex-boyfriend. He is not generous enough to heal her wounded heart. I just have no idea why she loves him so much.”
“You bet,” Hojoon chimed with her unconsciously. “Oh, what I mean is once you break up with somebody, you should know how to forget. It’s very difficult for you to bring about a happy ending even if you meet again.”
“I think so. Everybody knows that, except for those two. Is there any way you can stop both of them from meeting again? Arum is going crazy about Konsu these days. She went to church for dawn prayer, and waved a wind chime.”
Drinking at that moment, he almost spat out his coffee.
“Did she really do as I instructed her?”
“Yes. Once she gets hooked onto something, she would pursue it to the end.”
While talking about Arum, Jina examined him, and saw how he was faintly smiling all along.
‘This can’t be right.’
But she became convinced while she was talking with him.
“Why didn’t you delete her video from your smartphone?” asked Jina.
At her sudden question, Hojoon was at a loss for words.
Jina continued, “Be honest. You didn’t delete it because of Soran Cho, right?”
It was a sharp question.
“Why do you think so?” asked Hojoon.
Jina began to talk freely about what she felt curious about him.
“I think you were very close to Soran if she came to your house in the wee hours. But you sent Soran, who is quite prideful, back home, and then went to the police station because of Arum. It seemed to me that you have a compensation mentality.”
Her mention of compensation mentality offended his pride.
“I didn’t do it for the money,” he said.
“Oh, not money. I think that was the wrong expression. It seemed to me you argued for innocence. Of course, you could go to the police station, but I felt that you concealed something. Did anything happen in your house that day?”
Hojoon felt a prick in his heart.
‘Good heavens! She’s bugging me.’
Jina continued, “I’ll keep it to myself. I hear you told Arum that she was your girlfriend, didn’t you?”
“Well, that was because…”
Hojoon couldn’t tell her about it in a sober state.
In the end, he had a drink with Jina.
“I was really curious about you. Why did a guy like you take care of this naughty woman Arum? To be honest with you, she is not pretty.”
Jina was a straightforward woman. These women’s friendship was so strong.
“Let’s assume you’re right,” he said.
“Then, why are sniffing around her? I hope you’re not lying by saying it’s because of your work.”
Hojoon briefed her about what had happened up to now, starting from Arum’s painful memories of his lecture on geomancy, objectively and logically.
But Jina kept focusing on one question.
“So, my question is, do you like her? If you don’t, why are you sniffing around her?”
Reading his mind, Jina offered a cup to him.
Hojoon gave up, after all.
“I don’t know, either. I don’t like her, but this is what happened that night…”
Hojoon told her about the episode that Arum mistook him for her ex-boyfriend under the influence of alcohol.
“Wow, you have a very strong sense of responsibility,” said Jina.
Listening to that episode, Jina ordered one more bottle of soju.
“Does Arum know about this?”
“Nope. She doesn’t even remember what she did.”
“You don’t have to feel any sense of responsibility. I misunderstood you because I felt that you might like her,” said Jina, grinning at him.
She continued, “She is eccentric sometimes. But she is not a bad girl.”
“Oh, you’re mistaken. I don’t think she is a bad woman. She promised to stop drinking while she’s working on the project,” he said.
“Well, I understand Arum’s position, too. Sometimes, I pass by my ex-boyfriend’s house, though he didn’t know this. Of course, I didn’t tear open his door.”
“Nobody would do that. In the past, I sometimes wanted to go to that woman’s house when I got drunk.”
“Oh, these guys are dangerous! That amounts to a crime.”
“Crime… Yeah, I agree.”
Hojoon smiled bitterly.
Today of all days, soju really tasted sweet.
Jina continued, “Do you know why people can’t clean up, regardless of their miscellaneous things, memories or gifts from somebody else? They can’t, because of lingering attachment. When it comes to separation, for example, they have a lingering hope that their former spouses could come back or they could mend their broken relationship. But throw them away! Whether it is a thing or your lover, you just make good use of them and say goodbye when the time for separation comes. Only in that way can you buy new things and find a new lover. But Arum can’t do it for the life of her. There is nothing that we should keep forever.” While speaking her mind eloquently, Jina had another drink. “Why? Because we can’t live forever.”
Hojoon was startled to hear what Jina had just said.
“Where did you learn this, Jina?” he asked.
“Well, that’s what my mother’s sister told me.”
“If your mother’s sister is interested in geomancy, please let her call me. It looks like her life itself is geomancy.”
With a merry laugh, both clinked their cups.