Chapter Two
Meanwhile, back in New York…
JiHoon seemed to be in deep thought when Carl threw a french fries on him…
"Earth to JiHoon!!! Yah!!!" looking at him intently, wondering what was he thinking…
"What the hell!!!" JiHoon angrily looks at Carl and took off the french fries he threw at him… he stands up and started walking towards the door… "I’m going out for coffee, do you want anything?" asking Carl
"Nope…thanks. I’m meeting Lauren later" without looking at Jihoon, Carl continued watching TV.
(Lauren is Carl’s girlfriend for 3 years now, they met in a fashion show where JiHoon modeled for Dolce and Gabbana)
"Okay…lock the doors when you leave" JiHoon told Carl as he left his apartment.
JiHoon was supposed to go to Dean and Delluca for a cup of coffee when he saw a familiar face in the window of Starbucks… he turned around and knocked over the window and smiled at the person…
As he steps inside Starbucks, he playfully shouted at his friend…
"Yah! Jeong JiHoon, what are you doing here?" smiling at him and giving him a brotherly hug
"Hey, Joo JiHoon, I thought you’re in Korea? Didn’t I just saw you there?"
But before he could ask another question, Jihoon spoke… " I should ask you the same question, is Hye Kyo in New York?" giving Rain a devilish smile…
"Shut up!!!" Rain smiling back at JiHoon while drinking his tall mochafrapuccino…
"Seriously man, I am stunned to see you here. I thought you were in Vietnam" taking a bite of Rain’s doughnut… "Hmm…this is good…hold that thought, I’ll just get something to eat" JiHoon stood up and went over the counter to order doughnut and a venti caramel macchiato.
When he get back to their table, he asked the same question, while Rain was pretending to be busy looking at his O2 phone.
"I’m here to meet my new boss…" he told JiHoon while still reading emails on his phone. "And Hye Kyo is not here, she’s in Seoul"
"Oh okay, you mean, you are starting a new contract?" Jihoon asked before taking another bite of his doughnut…
"Yeah, something like that. Hey man, since you’ve been in the modeling business longer than I did…have you heard of LK Centre?" looking over at JiHoon while he’s busy munching his food and reading the newspaper…
"Duh! Who in the fashion business does not know about that store…" he said, while reading the sports section of the NY Times.
"They are opening a new store in Seoul, and they arranged a meeting for me and Hye Kyo. We were supposed to meet in Vietnam, but Charlotte said she can’t fly there so she sent me a ticket to NY and had me fly here instead…so I’m here now, having coffee with you" trying to distract JiHoon from his reading by throwing one of the table napkins…
"Aish!!! Stop it…" throwing the napkin back at him… "Cool, that’s cool… I wish I can be a LK Ambassador, I hear they give out really good lucrative deals" Jihoon said while looking over the rest of the newspaper splattered all over the table…
"Well, why don’t you tell her that?" Rain asked JiHoon…
"Tell what? Tell who what?" looking confused…
"Charlotte Fraser, I’m meeting her here." Rain told Jihoon…
"In Starbucks? You’re meeting one of the world’s richest in Starbucks? (laughing) Are you serious?" he asked Rain while he continued looking over the newspaper
"Yeah… I met her and her sister Katherine during the after party for Time Magazine at the Plaza Hotel, and they told me about their plans. I don’t see anything wrong meeting in Starbucks man, you and Eun Hye meet in Starbucks in Seoul all the time…" giving Jihoon a smile… "shut up man, she’s coming" pointing JiHoon at the lady about to enter the store…
Entering Starbucks is Charlotte Fraser, also known as the 12th richest person in the world, the CEO of FBC Software Group and co-owner of the LK Centre Worldwide, a business she shares with her sister Katherine. Although a certified businesswomen themselves, the Fraser sisters are also heiresses… their father is the 16th Duke of Wellington, who happens to own 48% of the land in Scotland…
"Oh my goodness, traffic is such a dull!!!" smiling both at the two JiHoon’s while settling on a sofa chair next to them… "I’m sorry to have kept you waiting" she told Jihoon while fixing her hair and getting comfortable…
"No worries, I saw an old friend of mine back in Korea, he has been keeping me company." Rain said to Charlotte and he started introducing JiHoon to her…
And to their surprise, Charlotte slightly screamed when she heard of his name!!!
"Oh my goodness!!! You are a splitting image of Prince Shin Goon from Princess Hours!" she smiled and apologize for the lost of sanity awhile back
JiHoon couldn’t believe that someone who’s rich and powerful like her actually knows who he is…so he smiled back and said "Actually, that’s because I am Prince Shin Goon"
Charlotte looked at Rain to confirm what JiHoon had just said, and as Rain smiled at her… she then turned back to JiHoon…
"Goody, I am glad to meet you JiHoon, it saves me the trouble of tracking you and Chaegyung in Korea." she smiled while taking her IPAQ in her Hermes handbag.
Both Rain and Jihoon couldn’t believe what they have just heard… and Rain asked Charlotte what she meant by it…
"Actually, I’m a fanatic of Princess Hours and FullHouse, that’s why I told my sister if ever we are opening a store in Seoul, I only want those characters to be the store ambassadors." she said while looking intently at her mobile phone…
"Wow…that’s cool…thanks for liking Princess Hours" JiHoon said…
Charlotte looked up at Jihoon and smiled, and she placed her hands on his shoulders and gave it a pat… "Like??? (laughing) I’m hopelessly hooked on those two shows… I was telling Rain over the phone how excited I was to see them together again, promoting a show that has been over for 2 years now… I really don’t see the need for them to do that… I mean, if he wanted to tell the world that they are a couple, they should just said it out loud right…" she said while giving a wink to Rain…
JiHoon laughed at her statement, that made Rain absolutely uncomfortable…
"Hey…shut up!!!" throwing another a piece of the NY times on him…
"Arasso…" Jihoon said with a smile…
"Anyway, so JiHoon, do you want to hear what I am offering to Rain and Hye Kyo so you can call Chaegyung and tell her about it…" she told him while she took some papers out of her bag…
"Eun Hye!…her name is Eun Hye…" he told her and gave her a faint smile, and Rain sensed that theres a note of sadness when he said her name…so he spoke to Charlotte immediately…
"Sure, I can’t wait to hear it…" Rain told Charlotte while flashing his pearly white teeth…
"Oh okay…" browsing through the folder, she reads it then told both guys what they should be expecting from them…
"As an LK Store Ambassadors, you are going to be on the same level with Mischa Barton, Ben McKenzie, Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock, Sarah Jessica Parker, Josh Hartnett and Ashley and Mary Kate Olsen…coz they are the few stellar list of LK Centre…" she looked at both JiHoon and Rain who was already listening intently to what she was saying… "okay, moving on… we give the same salary to everyone, so you guys are no exeption… $5 million per year, renewable contract, with commission if you prove your face can sell, and we will give you another $100k for a bling car of your choice, you will have access together with our VIP clients to the store’s company plane, company yacht and company resort in Maldives…" smiling to herself while watching both JiHoon’s jaws literally drops…
"Plus…as a token of our appreciation, we would also give you a shopping allowance of $300k per year, after you reached the limit, I’m afraid you have to be paying for your purchases." as she finished, she asked for water and caught her breath…
JiHoon and Rain could only look at each other…
"Okay, I’ve said what I needed to say… I’ll give you time to think about it" taking some papers and handling them to Jihoon and Rain… "I need to fly to Boston in 30 minutes, so if you have any further questions, call I disagreeistant Jenny and give her your number…I will be calling you, not the other way around.l" smiling at them…
As she stood up, she shook hands with both JiHoon and Rain… she was about to leave Starbucks when she forgot to asked something from JiHoon…
"Oh yeah, JiHoon, could you be a sweetheart and call Eun Hye…see I got her name right this time…(smiling) and tell her that I need to speak to her about a possible contract…the Seoul store would be opening within 4 months, and I want to have a presscon before that… Or you can just give me her number… okay, gotta go…" then she was gone… hailing a yellow cab outside the store…
When Charlotte left, both JiHoon’s were still somewhat dumbfounded with what they just heard…
"Did you hear what she just offered to us?" JiHoon asked Rain who was seemed busy looking over the details of the LK contract.
"Oh man!!! I am glad I saw you… I owe you big time!" JiHoon said while patting Rain’s shoulders…
"Yah…. why didn’t you said you’ll give Eun Hye a call? the last time I saw her, she said you guys haven’t talked since Goong ended… what’s up with you…" Rain said while he continued reading the contract…
"Well…she’s been busy, she had another drama…" JiHoon avoided Rain’s face, and pretended to look around the store…
"Whatever man, you should grow up and throw that d**n pride of yours out of your system… or you’re really never going to have a chance with her…" he told him while finishing off his drink "Alright, I need to go, Hye Kyo might be calling the hotel any moment now, and if I don’t answer, she might think I’m fooling around and she would start to ask everyone she knows in NY to spy on me…" smiling and patting JiHoon on the shoulders before taking off…
"Arasso…. just text me when you’re going back to Korea…" he shouted at Rain…
As JiHoon headed back to his apartment, he looked at his mobile phone and started dialing Eun Hye’s number…
(Mobile phone ringing)
"Hello?" an unfamiliar female voice answered the phone
"How are you?" JiHoon asked still thinking of words to say
"I’m sorry but may I know who this is please" said the girl on the other line…
(What!!! thinking to himself! She forgotten all about me…) "I’m sorry, is this Eun Hye?" he finally asked…
"Oh no, this is her cousin Jane, Eun Hye’s asleep now…." said Jane… "Do you want me to wake her up!"
"No, its alright… I will just call her later"… said JiHoon
"Okay, but may I know who this is please, you’re number is not registered on her phone." she said and upon hearing this, his heart sank….
"I’m sorry, this is Joo JiHoon…. thank you Jane…"
"Okay will tell her…thanks…bye"
Line went dead….
As Jane turned off the phone, Eun Hye was standing up from the bed and gave her cousin a puzzled look…
"Who was that?" asked Eun Hye as she rubbed off her eyes….
"Some random guy name JiHoon…know him?" looking at him while she handed her phone over….
"What??? JiHoon called me" already getting excited with the thought that JiHoon called her, she rushed to her cousin…
"Whoa!" (surprised at the reaction of Eun Hye) Yah!!! Are you okay? I asked him if I should wake you up, he said he’ll call again."
"He said that? He said he’ll call? Did he say what time?" getting all excited…
"Okay Ms. 40 questions…no, he didn’t say what time nor when he will be calling again. May I know why the sudden reaction…"asked Jane…
"He’s the guy I am telling you about! He’s my Goong co star, the one who asked me for a date. But I turned him down, he thought it was because KJK… " said Eun Hye
"Oh…the hunk… I get it now…" said Jane and giving Eun Hye a smile…
"We haven’t talked to each other for the longest time now…" gushed Eun Hye while fixing her hair….
"But didn’t you say that you guys kissed and slept together in Macau. " said Jane…
"Yah!!! (Putting her hands on her ears!) Shut up… you make it sound like we did it." while she continued to brush her hair, she gave Jane a warning look…
"Honey, that’s almost the same…except that…" Eun Hye didn’t let Jane finished….
"Hey!!! I told you to shut up right…."
"Okay…i’m stopping now… whatever you say cousin dearest…" then Jane slowly walks out of Eun Hye’s bedroom…
Eun Hye took her mobile phone with her and headed back to her room… Once inside, she took a small box from her cabinet, and she took out the picture of her and JiHoon while filming Goong, and during their trip to Jeju Island.
"JiHoon, why did you call? Are you finally talking to me now? I really miss you. Please call me again. Please…" as Eun Hye silently plead on her mobile phone to ring again…
But she waited for almost 2 days, still no phone call.
Back in New York, JiHoon still couldn’t believe himself that he actually called her. It was a good thing that it was not Eun Hye who answered the phone.
"Aish!!! That was close. I wouldn’t be able to actually talk to her…I’d be tongue tied… What were you thinking… but… it really would have been nice to hear her voice again, I really do miss her." JiHoon muttering to himself as he closed the door to his apartment.
(Looking over Eun Hye’s photo that adorned his bedside table…) "I really miss you." he told himself….
End of Chapter Two
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