No More Lies

Chapter 2: New Beginning

"Hell-o"
Dalmi shrieked out in a surprised manner.
For some unknown reason Dosan could not take his eyes off her. Sure, she was beautiful, stunning even. But there was this strange urge to pull her close to him and erase all the sadness that he witnessed last night in her eyes.
"DOSANN-AHH!"

Someone screamed right into his ears. He saw both his friends, Nam-san and Chul-san racing towards him. While running this marathon, they forget that there is a beautiful and delicate obstacle between them and jump him, accidentally hitting her in the process.

Ji-pyeong runs to pick her up from the ground where his two foolish friends threw her. "Dalmi-ah, are you alright?"

His friends hurt her. The least he could do was ask her how she was.
Dalmi smiled. But not at him. Instead, she was bestowing her blessing of a smile to the big muscular man standing in an expensive suit in front of him. A bizarre feeling filled his heart. Like he could even push that man aside to witness that beautiful woman smiling.
At least he was taller than him.
Where did that come from?

"Dosan-ah, we did it!" His friends exclaimed with such enthusiasm that even he was cringing. Oh, come on, can't they see that he was in the middle of something here.

"Pretty sure it was a huge news that you even had to push Dalmi out of the way." Ji-pyeong says with a raised brow.

"No, that was our love for our brother." Chul-san gushes. "Sorry Ms. Dalmi, we were just excited."

"It's alright." Dalmi says. If his friends had not apologized to her, he would have forced them to apologize right there.

"Dosan-ah, did you check your mail?" "No, I haven't yet but why?" "CODA!"
"SANDBOX!"

Those terms were enough to turn Ji-pyeong's and Dalmi's attention towards them. "CODA. We came in first place!"

Dosan was in a state of shock. He could not believe what his friends, no, co-founders were letting him know.
"It's true. I saw Samsan Tech here. First place. We can enter Sandbox now!" Nam-san let out a shout of delight.
"Not just first place. But we won by a huge margin. Ouch-" Chul-san explained hitting his leg on the table at the same time.

"You guys applied for CODA?" Ji-pyeong asked with surprise laced in his voice.

Dosan snatches the phone from Chul-san's hands and shoves it in Ji-pyeong's face. "Does this count? Now you believe in us."

"This is great, but you still do not have a business strategy. A plan which can help launch your start-up." Ji-pyeong told them which even Dosan agreed with.

Dalmi did not know where to start from. She knew she had to talk to Ji-pyeong at some point. But she did not know how. She had a million thoughts running in her mind but none of those she was able to voice out. Not because she was nervous or anything. But after coming to Ji-pyeong's home she did not get a single chance to talk to him because of the scene that just unfolded in front of her.

"Do you guys believe it? We made it guys!"

Dosan happily hugged his friends on their accomplishment.

Dalmi knew how much such achievements mean to anyone. They did to her. She recently quit her job to start a company and show her sister that she was not beneath her. That she was more than capable of reaching the same height of success that her sister did.

Maybe not this early. But some months later. She had to take the first step somehow. She just needed a plan. And from the looks of the current situation, she just got one.

"That I can help with." Dalmi said, raising her hand.
Noticing everyone's eyes on her, Dalmi put her hand down realizing her old school habit.

"To tell you the truth, I thought I'd be no match for my sister. But now, I think I might have a chance."