There are Many Flowers in Seoul

Chapter Eighteen

'Why do you care?' she argued. 'You need a model, and I know how to model! This is a good thing for you!'

'It's a good thing until they find out that I lied about who you are,' he countered. 'What do you think will happen if they pull up your old files and headshots and find out who your mother is? They'll think you're a plant, or that we don't trust the operation to run smoothly without an informant on location all the time, or that we're dishonest.'

'You're the one who said we were your cousins,' Hitomi reminded him. 'And she's only standing in, right? Until you find someone else?'

'Yeah, that's what I thought.'

Yuta groaned. 'There isn't anyone else. Not with your... measurements.'

'Oh my God, never say that again,' Rose said. 'It just sounds creepy.'

'There's no other polite way to say it. You're the best match we have on hand, and most of the models have filled the schedules weeks or months in advance. Unless we manage to poach one from another designer, you're going to be the face of Silver Lilies in Seoul.'

The face of Silver Lilies.

What an awful idea.

As she sat in the steaming bath tub that night, Rose couldn't help but wonder why she'd agreed to Tae-won so easily. Adrenalin, she supposed. Heat of the moment and all that sort of thing. Honestly, she was so distressed she'd have said yes to anything at that moment. If he'd not just saved her life she'd have told him where to shove his modelling job and told him that she hoped the company got a decent pay-out when they sued him for his behaviour, but now everyone had heard her say that she'd consented to be the new model. The idea of turning around to Si-woo and telling him that she had no intention of letting him take her photograph made her stomach hurt, and the waves of guilt crashing over her when she pictured the way Eun-young might look at her if she let them all down were so powerful she thought they might crush her.

Gently, she blew a stream of air onto her palms in the way Tae-won had on the rooftop. The tender act had caught her off guard; here was a man who hadn't stopped shouting at her since they'd met on the plane, couldn't remember her name, and who took advantage of her vulnerabilities to get himself out of financial trouble, and yet he was capable of showing concern and tending to her emotional and physical injuries after such a frightening event. It didn't make sense. Surely, this display had been an act to endear her to him, so he could propose her modelling and get her to agree without a fuss.

Well, it had worked.

The worst part was that she couldn't do a bad job of it. Yuta knew that Rose had the necessary skills – rusty skills, but skills all the same – and if she did try to sabotage herself then it was tantamount to sabotaging the entire company that her mother and grandmother had worked so hard to build. As much as she wanted to find a way to remove herself from the burden of filling in for a wayward model, she wasn't so selfish as to destroy a legacy that would one day belong to her.

Hitomi walked into the bathroom without any care for Rose's modesty. It was appropriate for them to play at being sisters when they'd practically been raised as such; having baths together as infants, scraping their knees together when they played, enduring the awkward early stages of puberty together and then feigning ignorance of the mechanics of sex to their fathers so they could watch Robert and Takashi struggle through the talk with a pair of teenagers. Rose and Hitomi had no secrets from each other, and that meant there were few boundaries between the girls. Sharing a bathroom while one of them happened to be having a bath or a shower was nothing new. Rose didn't even flinch when Hitomi moved to the foot of the bath and sat on the edge of the tub.

'You scared me,' she told her friend.

'Which part?' Rose asked.

'All of it.'

Rose lifted her foot above the water and nudged Hitomi with her damp toes. 'I'm sorry. You know I didn't want to scare you. Any of you.'

'It doesn't change the fact that you did. I know people don't know who we are here, but it doesn't mean we can be crazy.'

Rose groaned. 'Don't call me that. He called me that. A lot.'

'Tae-won?'

'I appreciate that he saved me, but I still hate that guy,' Rose seethed.

'Well, he's right. You are crazy. But if we're too crazy then Yuta will send us home and we've been here for one day. We have another eighty-nine. You think we can make it through to the end without any more rooftops?'

'I'll try.'

'Hey,' Hitomi smiled wickedly, 'don't you think Tae-won was cool when he saved you?'

'No,' Rose lied, her cheeks burning.

'He was so cool,' she insisted. 'He looked all – you know – rugged.'

'Sweaty, you mean.'

'I wish he'd save me from something.'

'I thought you just said we couldn't be crazy?' Rose asked. 'What do you want him to save you from?'

'Anything. Something small.'

'Running out of chocolate?'

'We're never going to run out of chocolate,' Hitomi laughed. 'Have you seen how much we have left?'

'Yeah. I think it's been breeding.'

'I just think he's cute,' Hitomi sighed dreamily.

'You think everyone's cute.'

'Like Si-woo?' she asked mischievously. 'Or Yuta? Would you have preferred if one of them had saved you?'

'I think I'd have preferred if I hadn't been hanging off the roof in the first place,' Rose said.

'Pick one,' Hitomi challenged.

'Yuta,' Rose said automatically. When she thought upon the lecture, she changed her mind and said, 'Actually... Si-woo. He's nicer to me.'

'And, Tae-won?'

'I hope he chokes on his kimchi.'

'Rose!' Hitomi splashed the bathwater at her. 'That's evil!'

Rose splashed her back, laughing, 'So's he! Besides, I'm marrying you, so it doesn't matter.'

'Yeah, but if you can bring one of them home with you then we can keep him as a pet.'

'Take him for walks?' Rose asked.

'Give him belly rubs.'

'Creepy.'

'You're a creep,' Hitomi laughed. Affectionately, she said, 'I love you, so don't die, okay?'

'Never. Love you, too,' Rose said sincerely, and was glad at last that Hitomi had raced to make the plane so she wouldn't have to suffer the horrors of high-fashion alone.