CHAPTER NINETEEN |No Business Of Mine| CHOI HANUEL

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The sky was still ink blue and the birds hadn't come out of their nests to hunt for food to feed their offspring. My large bedroom now appeared like a rattrap, it was dark and I was left alone with that black file that laid dead next to a water jug. I hadn't opened the file to check the profile of the next candidate, not because I hadn't had enough time, it was just because I felt a little lazy to do it.

Awash by the spectrum of beaming light emanating from the laptop in my study, I blinked to keep my eyes open as I watched a couple of draggy episodes of criminal shows with the hope of any suitable idea illuminating my outdated brain.

I got a hunch that maybe somebody could help me, and I perpetrated near my bedside table to fetch my phone. I dialed Taehyung's number and he answered after two rings. "Hello, baby?" His thick voice bore a red flag, and I mildly succumbed to pitch any good ideas from him because he was lying in repose. Gosh, I can't disturb him in his sleep.

"Hey, are you sleeping?" I knew this was the most disingenuous thing to ask, but I couldn't think of anything.

"Well, I was just lying down after filling three buckets of water for bathing and cleaning utensils." He yawned and continued, "Today, after 12, they are cutting down water supply because of an outburst of some pipe in the locality. And then there were fluctuations in the electricity meter, which is why I had to use a hand fan to drift to sleep." He was just so comfortable in his poverty-hit crisis.

"Oh, I see that's quite a lot to deal with. Anyways, you called me last night but I was busy watching a movie. Uncle Mojo and Molan were around at that time." I dipped my head as I bit my nails. "And then, I went out to meet a friend that's why I couldn't reply to you."

"How was it?" his voice now was more open and sultry.

I gasped after hearing his voice shooting an octave high. "What? Meeting with the friend or the movie?" My expressions were hit hard at that. There was an expansive amount of resentment spilling over the matter of staying in touch with Jimin given Taehyung didn't know anything about us. I must tell him about my formidable decision of bro-zoning him.

"Hanuel . . . just say anything. I want to keep on hearing you. Baby?"

I opened my mouth in shock after realizing he was creeping into a different mood. "Ah, Tae, I would love to talk with you for 24 hours, or more. But──" I laughed slyly and coughed to announce the forthcoming serious topic. "I need a little help of yours."

"Okay. Give me twenty minutes──"

"No! No! Taehyung just give me some ideas over the phone." I latched on, despite knowing he wouldn't be the best person to offer a fabricated, sly, fraudulent plan as to oust the chances of meeting with the rest of the boys and settling on the latest target.

After a long session of scraping each other's minds, he finally spoke, "How about you invite him to our mansion?"

I felt airy and jotted down a line on my diary. His idea sent a satisfying blanket of goosebumps on my arms. "No damn external factor will interfere in my plan if everything happens under tight surveillance of Uncle Mojo and me," I murmured with a straight face. "YAAS! That sounds great! Baby, I love you to the moon and back! Can't wait to shower you with kisses, Tae bae . . . Muaahh!"

A soft knock on my door interrupted my verbal display of affection, rubbing my eyes I went ahead. "Coming."

As I opened the door, Uncle Mojo lifted his fairly buoyant face and the smoke of his signature cigar drifted into my nostrils before the ancient smell of his perfume knocked me down. Well-ironed gray pants, maroon jacket, a looped silk blue tie, and his ever-famous checkered beret hat. "Are you going to meet with him wearing a night suit?"

"No way. Give me a second, I'll change right away. I have a trunk load of clothes to show off. But Uncle Mojo wherever you are taking me, wouldn't this be a sleeping time for them?" I said tentatively and squinted at him. "No? Yes?"

His upper lip became stiff and before I could shut the door, he yelled, "Did you not go through the man's profile? His day starts two hours before birds start their day."

I hummed in response.

"And next time, please speak in a normal tone on the phone. If you don't want others to overhear it."

"Wait. What did you hear exactly? What was I so loud about?" I made a face as I stared at the wooden floor.

"You were talking to your boyfriend . . .Tae something right?"

Horror ran over my face and my hand stuck midway. "T-a-e, y-o-u heard it?" I shivered and my other hand just slipped from the door frame like a dead weight and I dared not to look into his eyes.

"It's okay when you are alone. But, shouldn't you have controlled your behavior when I was expected to be around? Where are your etiquettes Hanuel? What would I tell to your father? And who are you seeing? Is he a cheap product?"

Tears welled at the back of my eyes. I told him darkly, "He maybe be a cheap product. But his heart is very rich."

"Hanuel, this guy isn't Molan's chauffeur, right? That Taehyung? If he's the one, I'll break his neck and give it to our dogs."

I noticed he had culminated with bated breath to hear my response in no. I literally couldn't imagine Taehyung lying on the hospital bed just as yet. So I lied and smiled. "No, he's not."

Then he glanced at his watch and motioned me to go inside and gear up for another challenge of the day.

***

The sun began to rise little by little, and the scene before my eyes lit up as it became seven in the morning.

The car drove us past the extant tall architectural monuments and wonderful blades of green fields that produced a burning sensation in my eyes. I couldn't state how complacent I felt with my decision of coming back to Korea, I had no idea about how beautiful our homeland was.

I picked up the black file secretly as Uncle Mojo snored, head tilting sidewards, just to find a reason as to why Uncle Mojo asked me to change into a tuxedo. Is he a magistrate? A government worker? Or a UN  candidate to be nominated at the assembly?

"Why are we going about so formal? I hate to wear this coat. And full pants? C'mon, it's summertime!"

He blinked with closed eyes and fixed his posture, and never attended to me. Instead, he produced a toffee from his shirt pocket and started to unwrap it.

A lopsided smile tugged on my lips and I whispered in his ear, "You are expecting your niece to find a needle from a haystack on an empty stomach, isn't that too much?"

He gulped and held it aloft. I snatched it, discarding the wrapper carelessly in the car and acknowledging the fact that it didn't make any major difference. Still, I was very much starving.

The driver stopped at the checkpoint of the security booth and after a moment the iron rod was raised for our arrival. After pulling the car at the entry gate, we both got off, dazed by the gigantic size of the building.

By the time I whirled my head to look at Uncle Mojo, he was already smoking. And there was no way he was going to throw it on the ground.

We clicked into gear ahead. There was a dome-shaped ceiling with a larger-than-life chandelier and brown blackish, regularly-cleaned floor; the air rebounded every time someone entered into the hall. I felt excited as I found my bottle green, velvet tuxedo doing the wonders, many workers couldn't take their eyes off me.

Suddenly, a woman who looked around thirtyish, the receptionist probably, tapped on my back and assisted Uncle Mojo to a smoking room after bowing low. He entrusted me with the file and told me to form relations with the man until he came. "Like what? Uncle─ can't you stop puffing at least at this moment."

Anyway, there was no use in reading him a lecture since the same woman approached me in no time and waved a hand toward her peer behind the receptionist desk. I tried to discern her lips movements and those spurted, I'm taking her. But where? was my question.

"Ma'am, please hurry up. The vice president will be there in any minute. You know he is no fan of waiting. Unless it was of people waiting for him." She killed me with her robotic tone. Every moment was of hers was calculated and I cursed my mistake of coming to a place where each second of every employee was counted toward the additional rise in the company's revenue.

"Okay, but it's only seven forty-seven─" I showed her the time on my phone.

"Yes. You are fifteen minutes late." Her face was pale in contrast to mine that leaked every impossible shade of horror that I was about to confront.

"Ah, I'm new. So can you take me there?" I asked with fearful eyes. "Please".

She cupped my elbow and bit her lip hard as she guided my way to the lift, more like forced me to be on my toes. With the way, she shoved me into the lift appeared that I was some sort of prisoner shifted from one jail to another.

I stared at her suspiciously. "Did he know I was coming? I mean my Uncle─"

"Ma'am, I'm not supposed to entertain any of your questions." We were locked up in a glitzy lift with an urbane liftman. I still wanted to clear my mind with questions and doubts. The merciless woman pushed me out and I tripped on as the lift doors opened. "Ma'am, the boardroom is straight. All the best!" she yelled and the doors clicked close.

"Hey, hey . . ." Something signaled to me that my life was in danger. But there was also a slim hope that he wouldn't dare to get physical with a girl in his office room. He had his pricey status to his big-name after all, he was the vice president of Monics Electronics Private Company, spearheading much other business. "Taehyung, please remember that I had always loved you." I crossed my heart and pointed to God.

The sound from my pointed heels echoed in the abnormally silent lobby.
The door opened on its own and I caught an apparition of a man behind it. So, it should be him. I clutched the file tightly against my chest.

It turned out to be a technician who installed the projector and left from there. I looked everywhere and found tiny water bottles and sunflower pot placed before every chair around a big round table. "Why would he call me in here?" I asked myself. "Is he taking extra precautions to avoid bringing a girl in his boardroom? Where are you Uncle Mojo?"

Suddenly a petite man with unruly white hair entered and smiled at me, I returned the gesture. He was dressed in a formal coat and pants. Little by little, the hall started invigorating with a multitude of men and women, some bright and some dull faces showing the graphs of their business. I got up from the conference chair as their counterpart politely asked me to. I realized I was sitting in the wrong room.

I paced out of the hall with the speed of an embarrassed bride. It was when someone took my hand firmly in his melanin one, and his special-edition watch flashed, I looked up to meet his eyes. Bruh, he was looking at the large mass. He asked only one question, "Are you well prepared?"

What?

Then after a moment of settlement, I was made to stand on the dais, gulping down for the millionth time. I pierced at him who, I swear, was murmuring something harsh under his breath. Then he whispered in my ear after getting up from his chair, "Explain to them our product design? It's there on the screen. What are you doing?"

At this point, the mighty indignation subsided my amateur innocence.

"Hang on! I don't know anything about the design? What the hell is happening out here? I want out!" I yelled with irritation and heard people fulminating at me as I stormed out.

I stopped at the door frame and called Uncle Mojo. Surprisingly, the man swooped down on my phone and didn't say anything. I didn't even hear him coming. He took me to the stairs and I went blank. After ascending four flights of stairs, his piercing eyes instructed me to follow him.

He set my body on rage as he choose not to speak. I took in the chief color of bronze in his room; the chairs, the pastel brow wallpapers, and even the wood used in the making of designer tables were of the same texture and color. I sauntered and made myself at home ─ comfortable on the chair across his desk.

"Excellent! Why don't you just go and sit on my seat?"

Suddenly, I smiled sarcastically. "Why should I sit on your seat when mine is pretty comfortable than that seemingly stiff leather one?" His bedroom, brown eyes, and dimples did send me off on a holiday, but his temper sent me ever far away to the alien's planet.

"What? Did you just back answer to me? Do you know who I am?" He leaned forward, too close to pushing me to battle for air subtracting his masculine deodorant; his hands trapped me in the chair.

"Why? Are you a short-term memory loss case? Does everyone here remind you of your status all the time?" I retorted and retouched the sleeves of my already folded white shirt, to parry any of his rash moves.

"You know what? There's a phone design I've to approve; two meetings are slated in three hours. Then, there is Vista Power Plant Project in action. Who do you think is going to handle that?" He straightened his back and stood on top of my head. "Who is answerable to those people sitting in the boardroom, backlashing about my incompetency behind my back?"

"It's your company, hire a personal assistant for that matter." I shrugged my shoulders and stood up. Gosh, with a height of the Burj Khalifa, my eyes leveled at his nipples.

"Exactly. So, should I remind you of your job?"

"My job?" I pointed at myself, disbelief hinging from my words.

"That's the product file? Give it to me. Take me through your qualifications once again, your age looks interestingly young." He sat on the chair across me, and I gasped as he impounded the file from my hand.

I breathed.

"What? Who puts damn photographs in a business file?! Just how unprofessional one could get. And would you care to explain the reason for not picking up my phone last night? I'm going to inform everything to your Dad. Cha Eun Sung, just wait-"

Tempers frayed as we started to take on the verbal battle. "Excuse me? What did you just call me? Who's this Cha Eun Sung? My name is Choi Haneul. And those pictures are of my sister!"

"Whatever, go there and mail Mr. Jackson that we have received the sample and we would share our response tentatively." He rubbed his temples. Next, his delicate golden, square-framed specs perched at the tip of his nose as he picked up a laptop and situated it near, crossing his one leg on top of the other.

My mind, heart, and body squeezed in tension, and blood pooled around my cheeks.

He stuck his nose up in the air. "What are you waiting for? Next time make a list of things that I have to teach about work so that it avoids wastage of my time and my energy." He snorted. "I wonder if there would be any next time."

"Enough is enough." I sighed and slammed my hands on his desk, as I neared to him, I laid my knee next to his butt, unabashed. Bending forward, I seized his collars and sneered at him, "I'm Choi Hanuel." I breathed in his face and his figure shrunk into the chair. "I'm Choi Hanuel. Repeat my name, Kim Nam Joon!"

My jaw ticked as I sensed someone's presence at the threshold of the room.
"S-sir . . . I'm here, Cha Eun Sang."

A/n

Gawd! I loved writing this chapter. This one is the longest ever chapter of TBHAH :') Stay tuned for more.

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