Chapter 63.1

Chapter 63.1

P.S. If there’s no reply to this letter either, then I’ll give up on André too. I’ll completely forget you like someone who never existed in my life from the beginning. I really mean it. Just you wait and see!

Come to think of it, tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I hope Santa brings Andre’s reply as a gift. Merry Christmas.]

Miran folded the tear-stained letter and put it in an envelope. She didn’t enclose a recently taken photo or beautifully dried flower petals, as she usually did.

The post office was crowded with people sending cards and New Year’s cards, perhaps because it was the end of the year. The thought that this might be the last letter she sent to André brought tears to her eyes.

A familiar counter clerk, who glanced at Miran with her shoulders slumped as she secretly wiped away tears, kindly informed her that it might take longer than usual to arrive in New York due to the holiday season.

Miran returned home and went straight to bed, sick.

It was lovesickness with no cure.

Her chest throbbed, she felt a bit feverish, and her eyes, swollen from crying, wouldn’t open properly.

Juran, who came home and saw her under the covers groaning, was startled and tried to drag her to the hospital, but she insisted that she wanted to stay home.

When Juran looked at her with concern and placed a cool hand on her forehead, she felt a little better.  Juran accepted her uncharacteristic childish behavior and took care of her meticulously, cooking her a warm bowl of white porridge.

Her confinement didn’t last long though. She was too young and healthy.

Even while she was under the covers, sobbing and thinking of André, if Juran baked a sweet potato and slid it to her, she would wipe away her tears, get up, and neatly place well-fermented kimchi on top of the golden-brown sweet potato, devouring a couple in an instant.

While watching a sad scene from a romance comic on the warm electric blanket and sniffling, if she felt bored, she would peel tangerines piled high in a basket until the palms of her hands turned yellow.

When her mouth grew bored from sobbing while watching a movie breakup scene as she lay down on the warm electric blanket, she would reach for the tangerines in the basket until her  palms were singing.

After spending two days like that, she became bored and restless from lying in bed with nothing to do. With a swollen face, she lingered in the living room and then quickly left the house after receiving a call from Jieun. She met up with her university friends for a year-end party, had a drink, and chatted, which cheered her up.

It was ironic that she regained the strength to love again.

She realized that there was still a lot of love in her heart for André, and that she could only love him until she burned it all out, until it was consumed and flew away in ashes.

When that day came, she felt she could finally fold her heart and turn away cleanly. Because after loving with all her heart, there would be no regrets or lingering feelings left.

—

Lafayette-Lowell Group Headquarters, located on Broadway.

Ryan Buchanan, the Marketing Director, was on the elevator heading to the Vice Chairman’s office. He pretended to look at his files while eavesdropping on the employees’ conversations. These days, when two or more employees gathered, they mostly talked about the newly appointed Vice Chairman, André de Lafayette.

They changed the name to initials, perhaps so he wouldn’t notice, but it was obvious who they were talking about.

[I heard he’s a terrible workaholic. My secretary told me he barely sleeps. Apparently, he spends the night at the office quite often.]

[But even if he works that hard, isn’t he destined to be swept away as a set if C gets the axe at the shareholders’ meeting?]

[That’s true. But if A is as capable as the rumors say, it shouldn’t be as easy as it sounds. If you were a major shareholder on the board, which would you bet on, LF or LW?]

[Hmm… That’s a tough one. I’d go with… LF!]

[Really? Why? I thought you’d choose LW. You were always worried that C would ruin the company and it would go bankrupt after G died.]

[That’s true, but it seems like A will be in charge of the actual work anyway, right? I heard that A is more like G than C. Even an upgraded version, they say. Besides…]

[Besides?]

[Even though the atmosphere is a bit scary, isn’t he handsome? That expression and those lips, it doesn’t make sense. So fx1ck!in’ hot.]

[Ditto.]

They giggled and got off at the 36th floor. When the elevator stopped on the 39th floor, Ryan straightened his clothes and headed to the Vice Chairman’s office at the end of the hallway.