#just sunny casually having a visit from 2 heavenly bodies | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hyttesanger · 7 years

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Contrary to popular opinion, being general manager in major hospitality company sucks. In two years, Lee Soojung had got her sleeping schedule turned upside down thanks to endless business trips overseas which more often than not resulting in terrible jet lag, and her social life is so close to non-existent because she never had actual days off to spend with her close friends - or by the time she did, she'd be too depleted to drag her ass out of bedroom.

The money is good, however. Also the privileges, housing and car she can use all she please. So all in all, Soojung sticks with her position without complaints.

"What's next?"

She knows they have another meeting at 2 o'clock. Knows it would be as boring and all about things she doesn't give a damn as the one from earlier this morning, but Soojung asks anyway.

Her secretary is a typical office lady not much different in terms of age as Soojung herself, has a slit-narrow eyes and hair always tied up into tight bun. "You have meeting with board managers regarding our Jeju branch development plan in three hours, Ma'am." She answers politely, long-fingered hand adjusting the thin rimmed glasses perched on her nose.

"Do you want to have early lunch now? I can order something."

Soojung takes a quick glance at her watch. It's a little over 11 AM now, it wouldn't hurt for her to go for lunch outside and enjoy her super rare three hours of freedom in open air instead of her room that's been starting to feel suffocating nowadays.

"I think I'll have lunch alone in the nearby restaurant." Soojung declined the offer. She packs just her wallet and phone into an LV satchel, and strides towards the door."Unless it's anything very important, please don't call me."

"Understood, Ma'am."

Though she had said 'nearby restaurant', Soojung honestly didn't have any particular idea in mind. Her office building is part of mixed-use complex right at the middle of Seoul's most prestigious business district, an over 500ft tall futuristic skyscraper with multi faceted glass structure that reflects the light beautifully. It serves as both office and premium hotel, as well as shopping mall. Along with world class boutiques, high-end dinings offering their patrons the finest in food are also within walk distance from her workplace, but today, Soojung doesn't feel like having hundred thousand won full course lunch. Today, she wants to be human.

So Soojung starts off with a bit of wander away from the complex, turning left and right, until her feet bring her somewhere in the more nondescript neighborhood and big public park comes to her vision. It's a perfect sunny day, with cloudless blue sky and hint of autumn in the wind that's breezing through her short hair. Lunch at a park sounds good for a day like this.

The place is slightly too rowdy for Soojung's liking on account of groups of kids, ranging from kindergarten to high school students enjoying probably few last remaining days of their summer holiday, but overall it's nice. Savoury smell of grilled meat leads her to a burger stall packed with people. Soojung waits patiently in line, casually reading tacky advertising and job vacancy posters sticked on wooden standing board until her turn to order comes up. She catches few people's eyes are darting towards her, perhaps because someone with Armani business suit queuing for 5,000 won burger isn't a regular display. She probably looks like random rich woman doing recreational visit to see commoners life up-close and Soojung somehow feels terrible upon the thought.

The next moment, she roams around for awhile because most benches found are already occupied with other visitors. That's why when Soojung, set of burger plus fries and bottled mineral water in hand, finally sees a bench in a little secluded part of the park that seems yet to be taken, her hidden childish side nearly yells in joy.

Except, that bench actually isn't empty. Soojung heads off down the paved path towards it, happily tossing all her stuffs over the back rest and onto the seat, only for her to gasp loudly then as she meets a body lying flat on its surface. Dark denim jacket sprawled over their torso and head.

"God— I'm sorry!" Soojung stammers, half panic and half relieved when the person she just flung heavy bags at scrambles awake. At least it's not dead body. The jacket which previously covering the stranger's head thrown off to the ground, revealing a young woman with mussy, light blonde hair, looking apparently in equal shock as Soojung herself.

"I'm really sorry! I didn't see you— I mean, I was coming from behind and this seat appeared to be empty. I swear I do not normally throw things at people for entertainment!" Soojung stops, aware that she's basically rambling and the other woman seems like she hasn't been alive enough to understand half of her sentence. "Are you alright?"

"Mhm. Fine." The stranger croaks, rubbing still bleary eyes and crouching to retrieve her jacket.

Soojung peers down tentatively, this woman wears sleeveless black t-shirt and torn, faded jeans, several bruises varied from fresh red to dark purplish are present in some parts of her limbs and face. She is pretty thin for her tall, very much taller than Soojung's height, but toned muscle visible along her arm and her broad shoulders are giving off sense of strength. Is she homeless? Criminal? Might as well found dead body instead of perpetrator of bank robbing or serial killer.

"What time is it?" Sudden question startles Soojung out of reverie.

"Almost twelve."

"Ah.. No wonder I feel so hungry." There's audible sound of stomach growling follows soon in agreement, then they fall into awkward silence.

"Do you want?" Soojung brandishes greasy paper bag. "I can get a something else later."

For a few seconds, her glance goes upside down from the meal to the short woman’s face, as though weighing her options - be hungry or shameless.

She chooses the latter and takes Soojung's burger with sheepish smile. "Thanks."

They sit down properly and eat. Soojung slowly picks few pieces of fries and stuffs it into her mouth, watching with clearly entertained expression while the blonde greedily chomps down her food, like it's the first time she's ever seen ‘grilled beef sandwiched between buns, with handful of lettuce and cheese and condiments’, a.k.a burger.

"What's with all those wounds.." Soojung asks carefully. "Um. If you don't mind me asking?"

"Just little punching and falling." She replies between chewing, her voice muffled. "You better not know anything about it, trust me."

In less than five minutes, the burger has completely disappeared, and the stranger takes out something from her jacket's pocket. "Hey, miss. Do you have lighter?"

"What?" Soojung deadpans.

At first, the other woman slants an expectant look at her, cigarette dangling from her lips. But then she waves her hand dismissively. "Nevermind, someone as cute as you would never smoke."

"Yeah I don't." Soojung snorts, nose scrunched in mild disgust, both at the sight of the slim white stick containing nothing but toxic and the word cute. "But I do have lighter."

Small hand fishes a zippo out of her bag and passes it to the stranger, who only blinks in surprise. She squints attentively at the design embossed on the smooth brass surface after lit her first cigarette. Some antique compass, definitely a limited edition one, and something someone like her would never be able to buy.

"So, you're from there?" She asks, beckoning towards the skyscraper where Soojung's workplace is located. Seen from faraway, the shiny building is indeed intimidating, like something that belong to another dimension.

"Yes."

"How did you end up here eating cheap burger? You aren't actually lost, are you?" Pair of blonde eyebrows furrow.

"No, thanks for your concern. I just honestly love fast food." Soojung chuckles, faking a sad scowl as she taking the last piece of her fries. "No way in hell I'd be able to find heavenly-tasted, unhealthy things like this anywhere near my workplace."

"Sometimes the best thing in life isn't healthy." The stranger's eyes are fixated to her cigarette, flicking it before taking another long drag.

Soojung solemnly nods in agreement. "True."

White cloud of smoke puffs out into the air. They continue with unremarkable small talks. Soojung isn't much of a conversationalist, even at work where her role demands her to analyze situation thoroughly and smooth over rough waters. But somehow, she feels comfortable enough to shrug off the self-restraint mask she had crafted and just talk freely now. Maybe because this stranger comes off with a friendly yet indifferent nature. Maybe because this stranger doesn't possess such scrutinizing eyes hunting for her flaw. Maybe because this stranger is, a stranger - the single serving friend one meets by coincidence, sharing enjoyable time together, then would never see again.

"I'm afraid I have to go back to work now. It was nice chatting with you." The time is ticking so fast. Soojung gets up, smoothing the light blue fabric of her suit blazer before starting to head away.

"Wait! You forget your lighter, uh..."

"It's Soojung." Soojung turns to the stranger one last time, smiling faintly. "Just keep it for yourself. I don't need it anyway."

"Soojung." She repeats, letting the single name roll from her lips, then grinning. "You have a nice name."

Much to Soojung's surprise, the stranger inches forward, seizing her hand to place a kiss on it.

"Thank you. I'll take a good care of this." She winks, waving the metal item on her hand as she walking away to another opposite direction, and Soojung stays rooted to her spot. Generally, she would want to slap any person who, without any good reason, lays a finger on her. Much less an unknown one. But it doesn't happen with this woman, instead of giving any harsh reaction, Soojung is more like... Dazed? And internally, she just knows it, that a special connection between them is afoot.

"My name is Mijoo. See you later, if we ever destined to meet again."

———————

The useless meeting which had dragged until very late sucks. The unpredicted change in weather from warm to downpour sucks. Her Benz that has stopped working all of a sudden when she's just half way to home sucks.

After waited for one goddamn hour, mechanics are finally here, picking up Soojung's broken car and leaving her with a fucking umbrella and request to wait another fifteen minutes before she can get a replacement car. This is a rip-off. Soojung didn't pay sum of money for this kind of ridiculous service.

"We are terrible sorry, Ma'am, but your car is special model and we can't get an equal substitute from dealers nearby so fast." The mechanic who are speaking to her is very much taller then Soojung, yet he pales instantly at the woman's glare. "But don't worry, the new car is on the way and I guarantee it will be here in fifteen minutes from now, at the very least."

Soojung takes the umbrella handed to her. Deciding not in the mood to be a menace tonight, she just nods, getting out of the driver seat and gesturing them to leave with her useless car.

After checking her surrounding, Soojung chooses to take shelter in the porch of a closed flower shop. She'd never explored around but passed the same street almost everyday while commuting back and to work, so she knows the vicinity serves as small commercial district at noon and quiets down past dinner time. The rain slowly dissolves into drizzle, dim lights from lampposts lining along the street create pretty reflection on the shop's dark windows. Just when Soojung is bending down to admire rows of flowers behind that glass, she catches mirror image of a group passing by - two of them women, the others are men. Spark of recognition flashes on Soojung's dark eyes, and she immediately turns around.

That blonde hair.

It is the woman from last week.

The one she's been so desperately wishing to meet again.

Soojung would never admit how her stupid crush towards a damn stranger she talked with for roughly two hours has been growing unnaturally fast. It's terrifying even to herself that she can get drawn into someone she doesn't even know at all like this. But in fact, for days, she'd been contemplating whether to return to that park or not, even taken detour many times on her way home from work, driving aimlessly around the area in hope she would be able to get some glimpses at this ‘Mijoo’ again.

It didn't happen though, to her great disappointment. And for awhile, Soojung had been so close to give up, resigned that her intuition was totally wrong.

But now, this is happening.

Mijoo is just few steps away from her, though the women certainly doesn't realize her presence at all.

Another gut feeling strikes Soojung. That this is her now or never chance. That if not following her now, she probably would never see Mijoo anymore for the rest of her life. She would probably— No, she would surely regret it.

So off she goes, dumping the wet umbrella to nearest trash box, short legs walking fast tailing after them but still maintaining some distance. Her stalking leads Soojung to rather sketchy part of the town, dark alley that's usually avoided by passerby during night time, then ends in front abandoned building used as automotive manufacturing factory in the past. The tall woman and her comrades pass through an adult-size opening in the middle of welded wire fence, eventually disappear into the closed building, and Soojung follows suit unthinkingly.

Inside the building is almost pitch black, save for a dim light coming from a hole in the floor with stairs leading down towards the basement thirteen feet beneath the ground. After Soojung climbed down those stairs, another closed door is there, and acting as bouncers, are two men as big as tree in all black attires. One of them approaches her, big calloused hand ruffling Soojung's short hair as though she's lost kitten. Hell, she definitely looks like one now.

"You know that this is not a place for kid, right? Go home to your momma."

But he clamps his mouth shut, eyes flashing with greed as Soojung hands stack of green bills.

"I'm so much over legal age, but I'll take what you said as compliment that I look young. Thank you, uh.." She squints to read small name tag placed on the guy's suit. "Wonbin?" The woman lets out derisive scoff.

The bouncers let Soojung enter after taking the cash, doing quick count with shameless grin and divide it for two. She steps in carefully, and welcomed by sea of people - spectators, more accurately, now that Soojung finally manages to weave through them into the front and get a good look of what they've been watching and cheering for so eagerly. It's a mixed martial arts' ring; octagonal caged enclosure with worn out vinyl chain link fences and two exit gates opposite each other. Raising four feet from the ground, multicoloured spotlights shine down heavily on it.

Why would Mijoo come to a place like this, Soojung has no idea. Maybe she's into gambling?

"Evening, miss. Fancy placing some bets?" Deep baritone voice suddenly whispers at her ear, and Soojung bounces in shock, whipping around and nearly collides with another audiences on her side.

"You seem new. Let me give you suggestion, out of all the stars tonight, this Lee Mijoo is currently on a fantastic four-fight win streak. She's pretty solid fighter with records..."

"Who?" Soojung repeats, bewildered.

"Lee Mijoo. You’ve made up your mind already?" The guy, obviously a bookmaker, grins in menacing way. The set of yellow-ish, sharp teeth only gives even more ominous effect on him.

"Uh. No, I guess. I don't do gambling." She refuses once again. "Mijoo is a fighter? I thought only men do the fight?"

"Nah. You can't underestimate someone based on their gender, I've seen lots of female took guys twice their size down with my own eyes numerous time in my entire life. The stage is for everyone."

The stage. The name sounds like a bad humour to Soojung. With all those lights and audience, indeed the whole set resembles a glamourous stage where celebrities would perform. Yet here people put their lives on line presenting some entertainment for the rich.

"You sure don't want to try your luck tonight?" The bookmaker tries one last time.

"Still no."

"Okay. Too bad." He drags himself away, upset frown on his face. "Find me if you change your mind."

Not long after he disappeared, the entire area goes dark, only one single white spotlight falls onto the center of the stage, where a man with neat referee costume is standing, mic in his hand. The crowd immediately turns wild as he introduces tonight's first game; judging from their reaction when Mijoo's name is announced, that bookie from earlier definitely didn't lie when saying the woman is quite popular amongst all the contenders here.

Soojung catches a sight of Mijoo at last, perched on plastic stool in a small closed space beside one of the gate's doors. Her blonde hair tied up into ponytail, three people who were seen with her on the street before are there too. She's taken off her shirt, leaving only cropped tank top and tight shorts on, her expression hardens as clear blue liquid being injected through her skin with a syringe, it's most likely performance-enhancing drugs. From the distance, she seems to be restless, limbs never still, until her name is called out to enter the stage.

The other fighter is guy with average body size, his bangs all pulled back with headband. They're exchanging handshake as greetings, two pairs of sharp eyes challenging each other, colourful spotlights are back blaring over them.

Piercing crunch resounds through the air almost at same time the referee lets out shrill whistle. So does a gasp comes out of Soojung's lips, as she watches unblinkingly Mijoo's gloved knuckle connected squarely to her opponent's jaw in an uppercut blow, his spittle visibly splattered to the stage's matted floor. The audience breaks into roaring cheers, chanting Lee Mijoo, shaking the whole place as though a train is going trough the floor above them.

The game goes on quickly and Mijoo is evidently more on the roll. She is an exceptionally fast striker and relies on good footwork, fluidly unleashing combination of punches and thudding kicks in just a span of two minutes. Her opponent tries to uphold some distance and lands some blows, yet Mijoo is not easily deterred. She continues pressing forward in fast pace, baiting the guy to one corner of the cage.

From there, it is almost certain that Mijoo will win. He's fell off-balance while attempting to parry a right cross, one last takedown and headlock will end the match. Except, Mijoo suddenly doesn't charge any further. Everyone start muttering confusion about her petrified state, red eyes fixed at one single person amongst the audience.

Mijoo is sure that she's not seeing thing. Right in front of her, separated by just a couple strides distance and worn out fence, stands Lee Soojung. The woman is very much out of place between bunch of hooligans, still wearing crisp button-up shirt and linen pants, shit-scared expression all over her small face as she points at something next to Mijoo.

"Look out!"

———————

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