The Rules

Chapter 47

Ami had kept in touch with Ji-Hoon after the whole Jae incident. He had ended up finding a new job and all but cut ties with Jae. After seeing what she had pulled, he was done with her and ready to move on. He turned out to be a pretty good friend, and she was happy to still connect with him.

One evening he texted to see if she wanted to go grab some dinner with him. It had been a long time since she had been out, and going out sounded good.

"Hey Joon, I think I'm going to meet up with Ji-Hoon this evening for a bit." He knew she had kept in touch with her friend, and he was happy she still had someone outside their group to hang out with. "He knows you have a desperately jealous boyfriend, right?" he sarcastically added... Even though he was jealous he couldn't take her out himself.

"Yes." she smiled at him, "He told me he thought Mr. Su was part of the mafia." He laughed, "what did you tell him?" She peeked around the corner, "Well, I didn't necessarily correct him. It is a little mafia-like sometimes." He laughed as she finished getting ready.

***

She entered the restaurant and quickly found Ji-Hoon. "Hey here!" he called out, "Did you find it OK?"

"I did, thanks for getting a hold of me, it's good to see you." She sat down and looked around the place. "This place is nice."

"I love their food here.  I've been craving it all day."  

The waitress came over and asked them what they wanted to drink, before Ami could say anything Ji-Hoon spoke up, "Just two glasses of water please." Then he just smiled at her. "Thanks," she said back to him.

"So, you have a new job, what are you doing now?" Ami said as the waitress walked away.

"Oh, my uncle got me a job at the company he works at. It's nothing big, but it's something new to do and I'm learning stuff, so that's good. I might get to travel in the future though with it."

"Oh, nice! Good for you, I'm happy for you, truly." Ji-Hoon was a nice guy, and she wished the best for him.

"What about you?" He asked, "What have you been up to these days?"

"Oh, well, I went back to visit my Aunt and Uncle in London recently. It was nice to see them." She shared.

"That's great, did you get to see any friends while you were there?" He asked while looking over the menu.

"No, I just saw family, maybe next time." She didn't want to go through it all again let alone there was no good way to explain the last day to anyone. "I was only there a week, so by the time I got over the time difference, it was time to come back. It's a haul for sure."

The waitress came back over to take their order and Ami ordered while he was still looking at the menu. "Um, it all looks so good, I don't know what to try, what do you recommend? Oh never mind, I'll just have the chicken." He smiled as he handed the menu to the waitress.

Ami paused and looked at him with her head cocked to one side for just a moment.

"What?" He smiled at her.

"Oh, nothing. The chicken does sound good." She said with a little smile.

"Hope so!" he said enthusiastically.

The rest of the dinner went pretty normal, general chit-chat conversation and such, but she wasn't convinced. Something was off and she couldn't pin it down. Ji-Hoon was acting pretty normal for himself, but something felt...insincere.

As they ate everything else was fine, maybe she was overthinking things.

They were about done and it was getting late when he looked up and said, "Uncle! What are you doing here? Ami, this is my uncle, the one who helped me get my job. Park Jin-young, this is my friend Ami, we have been friends since we were kids."