Chapter 95

Chapter 95: Chapter 95

Thanks so much for your hospitality up to now. Anyway, my interview is done, and I won’t have any occasion to see you in the future. As the Sola House open event is part of my official duty, let’s bring it to a successful conclusion. Let’s wrap up our relationship with the termination of our working relationship. Thanks for your help up to now.”

She left with a heavy heart. She barely came back home, dragging her feet.

Arum confided to Jina about Hojoon’s offer for a one-month cohabitation.

After the call, Arum felt lonely.

How can he offer to live with me for a month?

She felt he was such a queer guy.

As the day was breaking, however, she felt his thinking was not necessarily wrong.

Marrying somebody was to live with them. Obviously, they would be faced with an unpredictable and unimaginable situation.

But wasn’t marriage for them to try to live together? Was it marriage because they just live together?

When she became an adult, she felt there were too many questions with no correct answer.

I wish he proposed that we live together all our lives.

But obviously, it was wrong that he would disappear after living with her for one month.

Am I an intern? How can I decide in a month?

The day broke finally. He didn’t call her until the next morning. When she arrived to the office there was someone waiting to meet her urgently. The person was none other than the editor.

“How come you messed up the project?”

“What?”

“Didn’t you make yourself familiar with Soran Cho? I hear she is the chief of this whole project. Is that right?”

“Yes, she is.”

“Then, why did she grant an exclusive interview to <Miracle Woman>?”

In the end, Soran began to get even with me.

She could not forget Soran’s chilly gaze when she left. Soran stared at her ferociously and betrayed her like this.

“I’m sorry.”

“How can you say you’re sorry now? I’m pissed off.”

“Sorry.”

“Go and get her interview right away! You’ve got to steal their thunder. You interview her first and put it on our website. Got it?”

“No, I can’t.”

“What?”

“I can’t. She did an interview with Miracle Woman. Do you think she will grant an interview with us when she knows that magazine is our rival?”

“Don’t ask me. I hear Sola House has an open ceremony today. She is going to come there, right? Go and get her interview right away.”

“Sorry, editor.”

Arum rubbed her the wrong way at that moment.

“What did you say to me a moment ago?”

“I can’t do it.”

“You are a reporter who gets paid for your work, aren’t you? Are you a freelancer who wants to write whenever you feel up to it? If you want to have your way, just get out!”

“Sure, let me resign.”

“Oh my… Arum Yang!”

As she expected Arum’s sincere apologies and self-reproach, the editor sprang to her feet, but Arum was going to her desk quietly as she already decided to resign.

She had been considering it for a while. She realized that it was today that she had to go.

Back to her desk, she turned on the computer, opened a Korean document file and wrote her resignation letter.

She would not have submitted the letter if the editor’s walking over her had happened just once like this. She could not work with the nonsensical editor anymore.

Manager Kyong, who just returned from interviewing someone outside, stopped Arum from putting her stuff into a box.

“What are you doing, Arum?”

“Manager Kyong, I’ve been thinking of quitting for a very long time.”

“No, no, this is not the way you are supposed to quit. The editor sent me a text message, asking me to stop you from quitting.”

“I’m not quitting just because I was upset today. As a reporter, I didn’t want to chase after somebody’s scandal.”

“Arum…”

“And I hate deadlines so much.”

“Just put down the box and take several days off for a rest.”

“Manager Kyong, I’m not resigning emotionally. I’ve been thinking of resigning for over a year. Please congratulate me as I’ve achieved my goal now.”

“How are you going to make a living? You’ve told me that a reporter’s job is your calling, haven’t you?”

“Well…I would like to write something like a travel essay.”

“You’re talking high and mighty now.”

“Yes, I think so. I’ve inherited 200 million won.”

Manager Kyong’s jaw dropped at that.

Though she didn’t have any intention to use that money, she wanted to play the peacock to those around her, so that they could feel jealous of her instead of feeling sympathy for her.

“I see… I understand then.”

Manager Kyong helped her with packing the stuff.

“What about your coverage in the afternoon?”

“Can you do it for me? You can just note down the atmosphere of that event. Nothing particular. And let me send you my notes on the event this weekend.”

“Got it.”

Carrying the box with Manager Kyong, she walked down to the first floor.

She felt really good, thinking she wouldn’t have to come to this place anymore. She recalled the days when she was always snowed under with work to meet the deadlines. Little did she know she would leave the company so suddenly and fortuitously.

She wanted to quit in a cooler and more fantastic manner.

It can’t be helped anyway.

She smiled at Manager Kyong and said, “I’ll contact you later. Just go back to work.”

“Are you heading home now?”

“Yes. My mother went to Japan. She has actually immigrated there. I’m going to go there to check if she is well.”

“Good for you. Are you going to be our Tokyo correspondent?”

“As long as there is no deadline.”

“Where can you find a life without a deadline?”

Manager Kyong was right.

There was a deadline with everything in one’s life. Public utilities bills, dating, school, jobs and even TV channel hours had their own deadline. She wanted to avoid it even though she knew it.

She saw a taxi driving toward her.

“Goodbye for now. Thanks!”

Manager Kyong hesitated to say something when Arum was about to get in the taxi.

“Why?”

Arum already smelled a rat.

“Nothing particular…”

“What’s that? You must hide something you want to tell me about.”

“Soran Cho’s husband. Do you know who he had an affair with?

“No idea.”

“Don’t you really know anything about it? That adulterous woman?”

“I heard a rumor that she was a girl group member.”

“Oh, he flirted with her very briefly.”

“In fact, I am not interested in Soran Cho. Sorry.”

“Try to pay attention from now on. That adulterous woman is our editor.”

Arum’s eyes opened wide with surprise.

“Our editor? When did you know?”

“The editor is not aware that I know of her affair with Soran’s husband.”

“What the heck? How did you know that?”

“My father’s sister stopped by a wine bar. The husband of my father’s sister is a chef of Japanese sushi at a hotel. I heard that Soran’s husband and our editor reserved a room there.”

“That’s really shocking.”

“You bet. So, don’t hate our editor too much. I guess our impatient editor wanted to sound out Sora’s feelings first. I think our editor can still accept you even if you take one week off.”

“Why?”

“I’m going to make a deal with the editor. Let me challenge her with this fact. If you change your mind, let me know.”

“Manager Kyong. Suddenly, I want to write an article about it. Let me go upstairs again,” Arum said jokingly.

“Goodby, Arum.”

“Got it. I’m really leaving now.”

She put her box in the trunk and left.

There was no traffic in the afternoon on weekdays. As the company employees and students were out in the morning, Arum’s neighborhood was almost empty.

Groaning under the load of the box she took from the company, she walked up to her villa.

“Whew!”

She burst into laughter before she knew.

“I think I must be crazy. Indeed.”

She kept delaying her resignation, though she vowed to quit after meeting the deadline every issue. Looking back, she didn’t have the courage to carry it out.

How did she pluck up courage this time?

“Dang it! How come I’ve ended up resigning like this?”

Given the choice, she wanted to quit in a leisurely manner. After submitting her last article, she wanted to tell her colleagues about her resignation.

“I’m going to travel from now on. I’ve been offered a proposal on a book on my travel essays.”

In fact, she planned to send a publication proposal before she resigned, and buy a plane ticket with the advance.

“It can’t be helped now. Wow! I’m free!”

She felt she could go out travel now.

She ended her ambitious relationship with Hojoon, and quit from her company that had been trying to pursue yellow journalism more and more.

She was thinking of traveling to Tokyo as her first destination.

Her smartphone buzzed.

It was a call from Jina.

“Are you coming now?”