He missed her.
He faced it as he sat in his apartment and stared down at the keys of his piano. He was exhausted. He had spent all week running himself ragged for the junior executive.
But for some reason, he couldn’t sleep tonight.
It was Nari. Ever since he’d run into her outside the restroom, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his head.
She’d looked so hurt. She’d said something about all men hating her. Did she lump him into that group?
Why did it hurt him to think so?
He wanted Nari to like him. But…right now, he had to prove who he was. He couldn’t afford to get distracted. By a beautiful, forlorn girl.
But he couldn’t sleep. So he was going to play the piano.
—
He’d practiced for an hour when he couldn’t take it any longer. He texted her.
Forget his plan! If he had to forsake her along the way, something was wrong with his plan.
—
She was lying in bed. Staring at the ceiling. In the dark. She couldn’t sleep.
She hated her life. She knew she should be grateful for a job at her appa’s company. She knew plenty of fine men and women were janitors. She just also knew that she was born for more. And it seemed the harder she worked, the more she was demoted.
She’d moved from the mailroom to janitor service. But she’d started out emptying trash cans and wiping down tables. Cleaning windows. That sort of thing. But within a few days, she’d been assigned to the bathrooms. She had never realized how many restrooms there were in that building. And when she’d finally finished cleaning them all, she was supposed to start at the top and work her way down again. So she spent all day long scrubbing toilets. She could not think of a more disgusting job.
How long was her appa going to punish her? Until school started? She was praying for those days to come. She wouldn’t have much time to scrub toilets then.
One more month. Just one month until classes started. But could she survive that long? Scrubbing other people’s messes off the inside of toilets. For four more weeks. Ugh. Such a gross job.
Meanwhile, Yoongi was living it up as a personal assistant. Dressed in fine clothes. Running errands for executives. Visiting sweet-smelling coffeehouses to order cappuccinos, dropping off dry cleaning orders, scheduling lunches, and running copies. It sounded like a dream job after a week of scrubbing toilets. But the question was: would it ever be her job?
Her phone buzzed. She picked it up.
“I’m playing the piano. Wanna come listen?”
Yoongi.
Her jaw dropped.
He had texted her.
She glanced at the time. One-oh-one.
She shook her head. She shouldn’t. It was already early morning. She’d have to take a car. She should say no. Even if today was Sunday.
But Yoongi had offered to play the piano for her.
Would he really? Or was this just a ruse to get her alone? To make her vulnerable?
What was his angle? Was he going to use her and then toss her away when she was no longer useful? Was she a complete moron to consider visiting him in his apartment in the wee hours of the night?
She didn’t answer his text. She lay in bed for five minutes. Trying to go to sleep.
But she was wide awake now.
Finally, she climbed from bed and dressed. Grabbed the car keys. And her purse. And tiptoed downstairs.
As she drove to his apartment, she considered her life. Should she have kept waitressing? Would it have been better to get slapped on her bottom and denigrated by customers? Or was it better to work all day alone in a bathroom, cleaning toilets? Cleaning the same bathroom on several different floors. Only the executive bathroom looked different inside. She had the privilege of cleaning it twice a day. So her appa had a pristine restroom to use.
She sighed. She supposed cleaning bathrooms was better than enduring insults. And at least now, she came home to a delicious dinner every evening. And her lovely eomma’s company. And her appa. Sometimes.
She wasn’t alone anymore. Except all day long at work. Unless she was kicking someone out of a restroom.
She wouldn’t be alone tonight.
Her heart leapt at the thought. Then it took off running. She was going to visit a man in his apartment at two o’clock in the morning. This was madness. She was asking for trouble.
But the thing was…she missed Yoongi.
And she couldn’t figure out what he was getting out of a relationship with her. Every other guy in her life had been looking to use her. They’d either wanted her appa’s favor, her appa’s wealth, or her body. But Yoongi didn’t seem the type to want to propel himself forward at someone else’s expense. And he hadn’t ever laid one finger on her that violated her boundaries.
So what, exactly, was he after?
