Loves Me Not

Pride, Prejudice and A Very Ugly Flower

All of the employees at Move Consulting gawked as the tall, lanky, pale young man dressed like a gangster stalked through their halls. They all peered from their cubicles, startled that someone like Han Seojun—with his various piercings, spike studded clothes and even spiker wrist straps—was in their office. Some of them would have called security, but Han Seojun had been accompanied by Kang Sujin and she scared the employees more than the man wearing a spike studded choker around his neck.

Han Seojun had his scariest scowl on. The employees that stood directly in his path scurried away like mice when they saw his mean looking eyes staring straight ahead. Kang Sujin led him into an office that was the same width and height as Lee Suho's but seemed more spacious because of the sparse decoration and lack of overstocked bookshelves. The furnishing was more contemporary and stylish with brown leather sofas and glass tables with chrome legs.

Sujin motioned for him to take a seat. "Wait here." She left Seojun on his own while she made her way to the legal department.

"Jaein!" She called to one of the lawyers they kept on retainer. "Give me a standard client agreement contract but make it for six months."

A mousy looking man in glasses looked up from behind a cubicle wall. Everyone else ignored Kang Sujin. "Standard contracts are for one year." Jaein said as if it should have been obvious.

"I know. I want one for six months."

"We don't do consultations for less than—"

"Just get me the damn contract!" Sujin snapped.

Jaein disappeared into his cubicle. The sound of furious typing was followed by the whirring of an old printer. He then emerged from his cubicle with a thick bundle of paper.

"Who is it—"

"Bore your CEO with these questions." She snapped again.

"I would never bother Lee Leader-nim with boring questions."

"But you're fine bothering me." Sujin said in a bored tone as she surveyed the paperwork. "This is fine. Thanks." She said to the lawyer.

"You know we have the one year period for a reason, right? If you're not able to do things in time—"

"This is me we're talking about. I'll have this project done in five months. I said six just to make it an even number." Sujin said haughtily but Jaein was unimpressed.

"That doesn't mean that the contract needs to be that short. What's the real reason? You don't want this client or something?"

"Or something. I have to go. Thanks, Jaein." Sujin left before the man could probe further. Sujin hated lawyers. They were shrewd, blunt and were never intimidated by her.

Sujin wouldn't have minded admitting that she had selfish motives for halving the duration of the contract. But then Jaein would blab to Suho and she didn't want him hearing about this. Suho was emotionally involved with this situation because of a certain someone and Sujin didn't want to earn more of his ire.

A small stab of guilt pierced through her tough heart. She was giving Han Seojun the brush off. But what could she do? She didn't have much of a choice.

This assignment was bullshit to Kang Sujin. Lee Suho simply wanted to impress Lim Jukyung. He wasn't thinking straight. Sujin couldn't spend an entire year working on some silly flower shop. Her time was far more valuable.

Six months was barely time to get through the first stage of their three step consultation process. But Kang Sujin was positive she could speed things up and get back to her actual work with her real clients.