[M] SIXTEEN (1/1)

___________________________________________________________25 CONTROVERSIAL QUOTES  FROM THE STYLE EMPRESSOn being at the top:The moment you think you’re at the top, you start tumbling down.There’s no top, just a stairs going up or an elevator,if you want to get ahead in style.Sandara Park__________________________________________________      I DON’T LIKE THE WAY SHE’S LOOKING AT ME.  She’s frozen in her seat like she’s seeing a ghost.  I want her to stand up and run to me, jump me with hugs and passionate kisses in front of all these people.  I’m surprised with myself. Me who has been shying away from the general public all these years wants to make a spectacle of myself now.  Dara remains immobile in her seat.  My smile falters, but I’m seconds away from jumping her.  Damn, I’ve missed her so much. Every part of me is longing to hold her right now. “Hello, baby.”  She suddenly stands up, toppling her chair. It creates a loud crash, eliciting gasps from the women in the vast room.  Then she’s running away.  I go after her and catch her before she reaches the door.  “Dara”  I embrace her. She stiffens in my arms. I hug her tighter, willing her to respond to me. But she doesn’t.  “Let me go, Jaejoong,” I hear her low but angry voice.  I slowly let her go but I almost stagger back at the arctic coldness in her eyes.  “Don’t touch me again,” she says warningly, her eyes hostile on me now, like I’m a thug who tried to mug her.  “Dara---”  “Sandara” she corrects me. “Nobody calls me Dara.”  I clench my jaw, hurt at her blatant dismissal. “Well, I do.”  “You’re in Korea. Here, I’m Sandara Park. Why are you here?”  I blink at her, blindsided by her total indifference. Am I looking at the same person I met in Louÿs Island? At the same person I made love to everyday? Her scent and taste are still all over me like I just touched her yesterday and she’s acting like a total stranger.   “I came to see you.”  “Why?”  I’m suddenly at a loss. I expected surprise from her but her current disposition totally throws me off balance.  “Didn’t you receive my message?” she asks.   “I have.”  “Then that’s it. That’s all there is to it. Please, leave.”  I stare at her in disbelief. What the fuck…?  I can’t believe she’s telling me to leave.  “We have no more business with each other.”  Business…  Business?!  She turns around and gets out of the door.  I’m left standing there, unable to process what just transpired.  This is not what I’ve been envisioning to happen in our next meeting. I stare at the closed door, dazed. My usual calm is rapidly deserting me. Only she can do this and I welcome the feeling. I need it to deal with her. This side of her that I didn’t know about.  She can’t do this to us. The hell if I’ll let her.  Someone clears his throat behind me.  I turn around and find the man sitting at the table beside Dara a while back.  “I’m Heechul,  Sandara’s chief senior designer.”  I nod. “Jaejoong.”  I see Yong Ae peeking behind the man. She smiles all too sweetly. “Would you like to have coffee with us?”  I’m surprised at their offer but coffee is the last thing on my mind right now. I didn’t fly all the way from Louys with still a fucking jet lag to drink fucking coffee with anybody.  “We’d like to help you with Sandara,” Yong Ae adds.  That makes me say yes.  ————//————   What the hell is he doing here?!  I’ve been trying to exorcise him from my system. I have to move on from him. I really must.  He shouldn’t be here. Not now. Not ever!  He doesn’t belong in my fast-paced, currency-driven world, I don’t belong in his idyllic paradise where everything is slow and easy. We were good together in fantasy land, but in Korea, we’re a walking scandal waiting to explode.  And don’t they love scandals here? It took mine years to die down. Before, I only got a portion on Dispatch. Now they have an entire magazine for high society gossip!  I shudder at the very thought of being in the rags again, of being the piece of morsel they gang up on to tear apart every single day. I would never live it down the second time.  No. He shouldn’t be here! He couldn’t be here!  But he touched me and he was real.  He’s in Korea! Right here in my building!  I try to calm my hyperventilating body.  Don’t forget your rampaging hormones. Not to mention your very excited ovaries. They’re still hoping, you know?  Oh shut up, shut up, shut up!  I’m shaking from head to toe. After my initial shock wore off, adrenaline rushed back to my system.  The feel of his warm, hard body pressed to mine still lingers on my skin.  The scent of him, all too familiar, all too missed, clings to my nostril and wouldn’t let go.  What brought him here?  I thought he got my message. I thought he understood the bigger meaning behind it. I thought he would leave it at that.  We had two weeks of fun and baby-making, but it wasn’t meant to be. To continue our association would be a colossal lack of common sense, especially on my part.  We’re too different. Our life perspectives are not on the same page. Add our age gap and it’s a match made in a silly rom-com. Not gonna happen in real life.  Oh? What about Demi and Ashton? 16 years age-gap. It worked.  They’re divorced now. See what I mean?  What about Hugh and Deborra? 12 years. They’re still happily married with kids to boot.  Uhm...  See? It’s possible.  Theirs is a rare thing. Besides, I don’t need a man, you hear?  I repeat. I. DON’T. NEED. A. MAN. Get that?  Keep trying to convince yourself when your heart is about to explode from your chest in excitement. Shall I mention your muff getting all hot and bothered—  I make a frustrated sound to suppress the inner voice in my head luring me to give in to my weaknesses.  You didn’t even give him a little goodbye hug. That was so low of you. He looked like you hit him with a Rocky Marciano special.  Okay, I took the cowardly exit. That was so uncool of me to just tell him to leave. I was shocked to see him!  But I should have talked to him in a more civil manner, at least, explain to him why we can’t be together anymore. Alright, I behaved atrociously.  Scaredy cat. You. Well, what else is new?  My nerves are calming down and I’m able to think more clearly.  Oh Jsejoong, What am I going to do with you?  I know this must be hard for him, to come to Korea, the turf of Princess Tae Hee, whose husband Rain is one of the biggest financiers here in Korea. He didn’t need to tell me this but I knew, Korea was one of the places he didn’t want to visit. The Prince and his sisters are very visible in the Korea social scene. The Kim sisters and Princess Tae Hee are my valued clients!  Oh lowd, the world of the Kim is shrinking on me. I don’t want to be caught and crushed in the middle of such royal shit, no pun. Bad for business. Very bad!  But he smells so good. Don’t you miss his scent?  We do! We do! scream my ovaries.  “Arrrgh!!!” I shout my stress at the expanse of my penthouse apartment.  I go to the kitchen to get some ice-cold water.  I can’t affo