☀︎︎𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 TWENTY-FIVE☀︎︎
"I'm sorry."
2012
———————————————

Ji-Hye arrived at her apartment. Since she graduated from SNU a few years ago, it really wasn't necessary for her to live close. She had recently moved a few blocks away from her old apartment and also because it was breaking down a bit. Once she opened the doors, a lot of letters came falling down. She picked them up and saw that it was letters from Sang-Woo's clients. Ji-Hye furrowed her brows in confusion, they must've written down the wrong address.

She took off her blazer, hanging it up on a hook and took off her heels, placing them on the shoe rack that was beside her door. She walked over to the kitchen counter and began to look at the letters. Ji-Hye had remembered that Sang-Woo did tell her that he was having trouble with his business but didn't talk much detail about it. But, the intelligent woman. Ji-Hye put all the missing clues together, she figured out that Sang-Woo didn't have the money to continue his business so he began to use the money his clients gave him. But Ji-Hye acted clueless about it. She opened one of the letters and read it. It sounded like his clients wanted their money back. Ji-Hye was still confused on why all of sudden, his clients began to demand Ji-Hye for their money. She opened her bag and took her phone out. She began to dial Sang-Woo, after a few dials, he finally answered.

"Hello?" Sang-Woo sounded nervous

"We need to have a conversation, right now." Ji-Hye said sternly, "You have a lot to explain." She hung up and sighed. This was going to be a conversation that wouldn't end well.

-

Sang-Woo took a deep breath before knocking on the door. For some reason he was nervous and scared to even knock on Ji-Hye's door. She did sound serious on the phone so that did make Sang-Woo worry. Ji-Hye opened the door. He looked at her and saw that she was either worried or a little disappointed, maybe even both. Sang-Woo walked in, taking his shoes off and sat down on a stool, close to the kitchen counter.

"How was work?" Sang-Woo asked Ji-Hye

"It was good. Just a lot of rude customers that have really bad attitudes." Ji-Hye shook her head. "Like, I'm literally explaining something that a five year old can understand. What about you?"

"You know, the old same things."

"Hm. How's your business?"

"It's doing well. It's finally getting back into shape."

"Interesting. That's not what these letters say." Ji-Hye grabbed the letters from the counter and showed them to Sang-Woo. "Your clients seem to be frustrated with you."

Sang-Woo gulped, he grabbed the letters and began to look at them. He sighed in frustration. "How did you get these letters?"

"I don't know, they were just in between my doors. I should be asking you the same question. What type of bullshit did you do that dragged me into your mess?"

"I never meant to drag you into this. It's just- it's complicated."

"Sang-Woo, you're committing fraud! You know how much trouble you get into when you're committing fraud?"

"It's my business, I can fix it."

"Where are you going to get all the money that you owe? Do you still have it with you?"

"No, I don't have it. I lost it all while trying to fix all the mistakes I made. It got lost in the stock market." Sang-Woo looked down disappointed, Ji-Hye had no words to say. She tried to say something but couldn't. "Ji-Hye, please say something."

"I-" Ji-Hye bit the inside of her cheek. "Sang-Woo, I don't know what you want me to say. There's no words to describe this other than criminal."

"I'm trying my best to work this out. I just need a way to find money." Sang-Woo paused for a bit. Then an idea popped into his mind. He quickly looked up at Ji-Hye. "I know this might sound, I don't know. Can you lend me some money?" Ji-Hye looked at him as if he was crazy.

"Oh, sure! I would love to give you money so you can pay your debts!" Ji-Hye snorted. Sang-Woo looked at her. "Sang-Woo, this isn't my mess to clean up. I won't take part in this."

"Please Ji-Hye. It's important!"

"I don't want to be dragged into all of this bullshit. What if your clients start attacking me too? I mean, they're demanding my money because you lost theirs. How in the hell did they know that we're together?"

"I don't know! But it was never my intention to bring you into this." Sang-Woo sighed, Ji-Hye scoffed, and shook her head. She ran her fingers through her hair and began to walk back and forth. "Ji-Hye?"

"I didn't know it'd end this bad."

"What?" Sang-Woo looked at her confused, "What do you mean?" Sang-Woo's face dimmed a bit when he realized "You knew this whole time..."

"Of course I did, you weren't going to tell me anything so I helped myself since I was getting worried."

"You knew and never thought to help me? I thought we promised we would help each other out when it was important!"

"Not if it's a criminal fraud. That's where the line crosses."

"Either way, you're never good at making promises." Ji-Hye stopped her steps, Sang-Woo shook his head. "I help you through your damn business and I didn't have time for mine. But when it comes to me you aren't doing anything to help."

Ji-Hye had absolutely nothing to say at all. She was feeling mixed emotions about everything and the only way she reacted to things was lashing out. She knew that Sang-Woo was right about what he said. Ji-Hye is bad at keeping her promise and every time she broke them, she always lost someone. She cleared her throat and looked over to Sang-Woo.

"Yeah, I am bad at keeping promises. What is a relationship if one can't help out the other ,but the other can help the other one." Ji-Hye bit her lip, she carefully took off the promise bracelet Sang-Woo gave to her. His eyes widened.

"Ji-Hye, we both know I didn't mean that."

"Yeah I know. It's just that I care about my future, our future. What point will it have if we can't help each other out." Ji-Hye gave him the bracelet back.

"Ji-Hye... please."

"I'm sorry." Ji-Hye sniffed a bit. "Maybe in another time we'll meet again."

AUTHOR- Welp, everything went downhill after this.
Anyways, hey everyone! How are you today?
Alsoooo, I may not be active for the rest of the week! I'm going on vacation with my family and I'll be going to four different states and it'll be a heck of a trip😭 I'll try to publish chapters, like tiny flashbacks. Depending if I have time.
Thank you for 3k reads on this book, love you guys sm!!!!!♥️