CHARADES (Namjin.)

CHAPTER THREE.

"No."

"No?"

"No." She affirms once more as she squints her eyes at the paper, boredly flipping over the pages. I expected this to happen, but still somehow I managed to get disappointment, a little hurt at how she scrunches her nose in distaste. It's almost like they are the most ugly, common designs she has ever seen.

"Sorry, this can't make the runway this summer. Try harder next time." She dismisses me with nothing further like always. There isn't a word of advice, or a sense of direction to take to ultimately improve like she tells one to. Your simply sent away, with nothing helpful. Well, if you don't count the lowered self esteem and the depreciating motivation to work.

I don't have the courage to question her about it, not a lot of people here do. Otherwise you would be ungrateful, disrespectful, and troublesome when it comes to taking orders or respecting authority. My boss glares at me as I stare dumbly at her, secretly I was hoping she would take another look at it, or say something else a bit pleasing. I should have known better. "What are you waiting for, take your stuff and get back to work." She says loudly.

I have a feeling she might still be mad at me from last evening when Namjoon turned down her bold dinner offer. Although I can't find it in me to be sorry about that. It wasn't my fault Namjoon lied or rejected her, I was simply caught in the middle. And just to be clear I hate both of them. Her more than Namjoon though.

I sigh as I take the book and walk away from her office. Hoseok and Solar are conversing by the open office when I walk in. I see them studying my face before they make sad faces and open their arms to envelope me in a hug. I rush to them accepting a hug. I need it.

"We are sorry Jinnie, we both know you deserved a spot. She is just mean." Solar mummers on my chest. Hoseok agrees in a hum petting my hair. Our other colleagues don't pay much attention to us, used to this kind of affection from the three of us.

I work in a fashion house. A rundown branch to a fashion house in the middle of lower Seoul, with very little to go by and Cruella as my boss. I have no other choice but to work here for now, to earn a living. It happens, when all your capabilities, talents, and skills, are narrowed down to your academic excellence, which doesn't exist in my case.

Nobody wants to hire a college drop out, with nothing but a set of skills to offer, it's simply not right. Not when there is a graduate from the prestigious Seoul university or the top notch Daegu school of arts with a degree in Fashion and design looking for the same opportunity. In other words the market is competitive, and it gets even tougher with the heavy arm of Miss. Soojin, Or rather my mother who has prohibited my employment from any known fashion house lest they want to end on her bad side.

She knows well I wouldn't be able to hold another job for long before I am drawn to the fashion world. I seek it like a moth to fire, and sooner or later I am bound to crawl back to this beautiful world of art, where I belong. That is where she gets me, leaving me out with no options than these rundown places, expecting me to crawl back home to her, and do as she wants for me.

But I made a decision eight months ago, when she cut me off my education and any other allowances because I changed my course from financial engineering - that she wanted for me - to fashion and design that I intended to do from the begin.

I had no business being around her anymore after the things she said and did to me. So to her surprise, I packed up and left her mansion. I didn't expect it to be easy out here, especially with her influential, manipulating self having me on watch, but I used all my savings and mere survival skills to rent an apartment and get a job. I just need enough to live for now. School and other secondary, and luxurious needs can wait.