"Do I really need to go?"
Chaeyoung asked dejectedly, her tone sounded like she didn't want to go– well because she didn't really want to go.
"You know you're one of my trusted employees and if Heejin isn't on her leave, she will be the one I'll assign to this event." Jihyo held her hand, desperate to make her agree.
Jihyo received a phone call last week about the proposal of her beverages on wheels as a new product that she will endorse in her cafe soon. The founder of the company will hold their 30th Anniversary and a charity event on the same day. And Jihyo immediately asked Chaeyoung a favor to be the one who will attend instead of her because she has another appointment on that day.
"I'll raise your salary this month." Chaeyoung thinks for a while. Not that she doesn't have savings for the past years she works at the cafe, in fact she's saving more for a trip she's planning for herself.
When Mina came into the picture again, things for her had been harder. Because in the first place, why would she just walk into her life after what happened to them as if it was nothing for her and that she didn't hurt her. Seeing her again had reopened the wound she'd thought healed already.
There she concluded that Mina could easily hurt her in any ways. Possibly. Just hearing her name do such things to her that she doesn't want to accept, just yet.
She needed time to be away for a while and to breathe because it's slowly suffocating her.
"Fine," Jihyo pulled her into a big hug out of gratitude for accepting her offer.
"Thank you, Chaeyoung. I promise to raise your salary this month. I'll let you go, you should take good care of your little visitor." Jihyo patted her cheeks and Chaeyoung chuckled hearing her 'little visitor'.
Speaking of, Chaemin had become their regular customer– at least that's what she called it. Three times a week he would visit the cafe, parents leaving him in her care which she gladly accepted. Chaemin has always pleaded with his parents to bring him to her, of course with the use of his famous could-not-resist-look.
Chaemin would just be there, sitting three tables away from the cashier counter, beside the window– the same table he seated when he first went in the cafe. Chaeyoung bought a new draw pad for him to use whenever he visits and Mina would inform her each time.
If you ask her how she feels whenever they talk, Chaeyoung doesn't know. At some point she feels happy to talk to Mina again after years of cutting their connection. But sometimes, she would ask herself if this is right. Reconnecting with your ex-wife? No, it's not right at all, but still feels right in some way.
Remembering the last moment she saw the glimpse of her was outside the courtroom, both of them holding a folder containing a paper of their signed divorce papers. She still can recall how emotionless Mina's eyes were while hers was silently and unspokenly telling her not to leave her because after all she left her no choice, signing the divorce paper Mina prepared that day.
