REMINISCE

It's been three days and Honey has not heard of Jiang Ru since the day her boyfriend received the letter. Whenever she calls him, the man would say he wants space to let out his anger. A retreat somewhere that the man doesn't bother to tell her. She decided to confront Zhang Wang Xiu and make the woman drop out of the apprenticeship by threatening "the snake" with legal action.

"Ms. Zhang Wang Xiu?" Honey asks the woman standing in front of a flower shop on the corner of the street and ordering fresh lilies.

"Ms. Tang Hiu Ying, am I right?" The woman inquires without answering the question that was meant for her to reply.

"Do you have time to talk?" Ms. Tang raises her brows, mimicking the woman's avoidance of answering questions yet she understands there was no need for them to tell each other's name. Without meeting personally, they are connected with one person. Bao Jiang Ru.

"If this is about your boyfriend not getting in Ms. Park's apprenticeship, don't turn your anger at me," The woman answers, shrugging her head before swiveling around to get the flowers from the clerk.

"Who else wants the position other than you???" Honey exclaims, her voice went high with her question.

"Where's your boyfriend right now?" Wang Xiu diverts the topic to calm the woman. She doesn't want to directly answer Jiang Ru's girlfriend with issues they have to solve on their own.

"What does that mean? Why are you asking me where he is?" Ms. Tang's forehead creases quickly looking around the street to check if her voice is beginning to gather attention to the people passing by the street.

"I bet he's somewhere that he doesn't want you to know." Wang Xiu reveals a part of what she knows. Jiang Ru will hate her for leaking information but she has warned the man to never let her girlfriend meet her.

Honey's eyes widen from the knowledge that Wang Xiu brought up. No one knew where Jiang Ru was and even his friends wouldn't say anything about it, "What do you mean?" 

"You're an intelligent, gorgeous, and sophisticated woman," Wang Xiu says with her hand tucking a few strands of hair on Honey's ear, "It makes me hate him more for what he's doing to you."

"What are you saying?" Honey asks with her voice beginning to weaken. 

"Ms. Park Min Ah didn't want to drop Jiang Ru from the apprenticeship, someone requested her to decline him." The woman confesses the truth. Her eyes are soft, almost saddened that she has to break down the woman's world.

"Who would do that?" Honey scoffs at the news.

"The person who is with Jiang Ru right now." Wang Xiu discloses and steps away from the woman standing with eyes large and tearful. She blames Jiang Ru for this. She warned him. She stopped him once. He didn't listen.

'Is she going to trust this woman's words?' Honey asks herself.

Honey waited for Jiang Ru to come back before she confronted him and found out the truth. Immediately she broke up with the man and Jiang Ru blamed Wang Xiu for it.

"He loves you," Wang Xiu says, watching Honey drink a shot of tequila with one sip and make a disgruntled face of agony as the liquor flows to the woman's throat scorching down to her chest, burning the pain away from her broken heart.

"Asshole!!!" Honey exclaims setting the glass down with a force that made a loud thud on the table.

"Let me get you home," Wang Xiu offers.

"H-Have you...y-you know… k-know about thissshh?" Ms. Tang asks with her hand pointing at her.

"I was her girlfriend in high school. Didn't he say that about me?" The woman reveals, sipping from her glass of Cuba de libre.

"Y-You w-where???" Honey tries to drink another shot but she loses her grip and it falls down the table. The content spills on her dress that Wang Xiu quickly wipes out with a napkin.

"He loves you. Remember all the good things. Never the bad." Wang Xiu says paying the bartender with cash and grabs the drunk woman on the shoulder.

"W-Why y-you being ssshhuu… k-kind to me, huh?" The lawyer stares at the woman guiding her out of the door of the bar with her narrow eyes. Her body wobbles when her feet begin to lose their balance from drunkenness.

"Because I'm in love," The woman replies, showing a quick smile on her lips, "Now let's get you home before you ask me to sleep with you."

"W-Will youu??? Y-You know...j-just….j-just to get BACK... to him? HISSHHH EXSHESS TOGETHERR!!!" Honey exclaims, lifting both her hands up in the air and wrapping her hands around Wang Xiu's body.

They both ended up laughing together talking about the man who became both parts of their lives. After that night, Wang Xiu became her best friend. They are both honest, determined, and playful. They would often joke around sleeping together but they never did.

"I wish we could do this more often," Honey suggests to the woman who almost became her sister-in-law. She misses being around Hwei Ru who she treated like a little sister.

"That would be nice," Hwei answers, showing a sincere smile on her face. 

"Anyway, I want to ask you about joining my firm, Tang and Woo associates," Ms. Tang proposes with her face stern to express the seriousness of her offer.

Honey assumes that after Ms. Bao chooses to recuse herself from the trial, the junior associate will have a hostile workplace. The partners at Yang's firm don't like disloyalty and that is what the woman demonstrated at the court recently.

"Really???" Ms. Bao's eyes sparkle with excitement. Though Mr. Yang assures her of the job at the law firm, her colleagues are not at ease working with her.

"Unlike Yang's firm, we have more serious cases, like international lawsuits, litigation, and criminal cases. My firm will help you grow as a lawyer." Honey promotes her firm which she's not only a senior associate but also a managing partner.

"Thank you for the offer, jiejie," Hwei Ru responds with a wide smile showing her teeth and bright eyes. It's been her dream to work with her mentor and older sister and she would greatly consider working with her "jiejie".

"I'll give you time to think about it. Okay?" Ms. Tang says and turns her head towards the direction of the entrance when the door of the restaurant opens and she sees the man she's been waiting for to appear.

"Okay." Ms. Bao nods her head. She could give her answer now to the woman but she would like to tell Mr. Yang about it first as a respect for her boss.

A tall man walks towards their table, wearing a white shirt and blue coat. His hair is brushed up and held together by gel. The high cheekbones are deep and his brown eyes have dark circles around them.

"Li Jun???" Hwei Ru calls the man's name barely hearable from the surprise of gazing at the man in front of her. 

"I'm going to leave the two of you alone." Honey stands from her chair and winks at the young lawyer. She notices the woman's face reddened from the sudden appearance of the man at the restaurant.

Honey turns at Li Jun who smiles gallantly at her, "Honey, thank you for doing this," The man says.

"Good luck!" Ms. Tang taps Li Jun's arm with her hand and struts through the entrance of the restaurant and leaves Li Jun and Hwei Ru behind.