Chapter 205: Back to School (8)
Chapter 205: Back to School (8)
They parked in front of the school's entrance where a giant archway was placed. Some of the guests were entering the premises with their families, looking excited. Minho glanced at Gayoon who was seeing the people in front of her for the first time in years. There was a hint of nostalgia in her eyes as she recalled some good moments she spent at school. Those were few and far between but nonetheless, still an integral part of her.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she assured him. "Just remembering some good people. I wonder if they're coming."
"Let's go in and find out," Minho said. He opened the door for her and held out his hand. She smiled and took it. They walked inside, arm in arm. Gayoon frowned a little, which was noticed by Minho.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Nothing much, but" she trailed off. Something was off. She had not been in that place for years but she was sure that there should be some of the old ghosts nearby.
There was a large field right next to the entrance gate and Gayoon recalled that it was haunted by the spirit of a girl who would sometimes resort to hurt the players. She did not do it often but only at times when she felt like it. Gayoon was sure that she would sense her malevolence but to her slight surprise, she felt nothing.
It was just a regular field. Did she leave?
"I can't sense any ghost here," she frowned. "There used to be one here on this field but she's not here!"
"Maybe she moved elsewhere," Minho shrugged. "I don't know much about ghosts but surely they can move to other places, right?"
"I suppose so," Gayoon replied. Maybe she did move, she added in her thoughts.
"Let's just enjoy the party," Minho suggested. "After all, we're here to teach some people a lesson."
Gayoon sighed and shook her head. It seemed that Minho was strangely determined to put her old bullies in their place but she was not so keen on it. What if they had changed and mended their ways?
He led her into the party which was being held in the school's indoor assembly hall. As soon as they entered, the current principal of the school, Han Changmin, came to greet Minho.
"Mr. Hwang!" he greeted with a bow. "You made it! And who might this lovely lady be?"
He turned his attention to Gayoon. "This is Jeon Gayoon," Minho said. "She's an ex-student of this school."
"Oh! An alumni!" Han realized. "And also a special guest of Mr. Hwang!"
She must be from a filthy rich family, Han thought. The gown she wore was probably worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and knowing Hwang Minho's reputation as a person who values money above everything else, the man would surely choose a woman from a rich family.
"Detective Jeon Gayoon, sir," Gayoon politely said. She saw Han's smile falter a little when he heard the word 'detective'. He looked surprised for a second but quickly masked his disappointment with a stiff smile.
"Enjoy the party," he said. His slight disdain was not missed by Minho and he frowned at the portal old man who was obviously not pleased by Gayoon's profession. He did not say anything but kept the incident in mind.
"Let's go and say hi to your friends," he said. Gayoon nodded and they walked towards the crowd who were enjoying themselves. She recognized some of her old teachers who were chatting in a corner.
"That's teacher Kang!" she exclaimed. "I'll go and say hi to him."
"I'll get us some drinks," Minho said. Gayoon nodded and went off to meet her old teacher. He headed for the open bar where the bartender greeted him.
"One vodka on the rocks and a customizer," he ordered. The bartender nodded and began to prepare the drinks. Minho took out his phone to text Kanji about the package he had left at home when he heard Gayoon's name.
"Isn't that Jeon Gayoon?" a man asked his friends. They were sitting a few seats away from Minho. He inched closer to them, trying to listen to their conversation while his eyes were still on the phone.
"The cursed girl," another guy snickered. "Pretty face but she's a nutcase! Always talked about ghosts and what not. Right Eun?"
"I remember she once told one of my exes that she was going to get into an accident if she used the swing at the park," the man called Eun recalled. "And she did! My ex was using the swing while waiting for me and suddenly, the damn thing snapped when she was swinging really high! She fell on the ground and broke her jaw."
"I have a feeling she used to curse people," his friend said. "All her talks about ghosts were rubbish. She was into voodoo and caused these accidents. And even killed that poor bloke Seungjo."
"Wait, wasn't that Yoo who killed him?" Eun frowned.
"Yoo and his friends were on the roof whereas Seungjo apparently fell through an open window on the fifth floor!"
"That was just a rumor though, Shin," Eun pointed out. "No one knew where he really fell from since everyone was at the festival."
"Yes, but Jeon Gayoon was seen running out of the building from where Seungjo fell and everyone knew how he was annoying her. And also, Minjung disappeared after that incident. No one knows where she went and even her parents left town. Isn't it obvious? Jeon Gayoon was hurting the people who were irritating her in high school! And now, she turned out to be a detective. How ironic!"
Both of them laughed hard as if it was a funny joke. Minho was listening carefully at their words, trying not to snap at them with his poisonous tongue.
"I've heard you got hired at Hwang Constructions!" Shin said. "Which department?"
"Marketing," Eun said. "They've got a really strong team! And the CEO is brilliant. The job pays a lot and I can pay off the mortgage I took within a year!"
Minho's fingers were typing fast while his mind was devising some very sadistic plans.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the city, Jongin was at a restaurant, sitting opposite Caroline. He was set up on the blind date by one of his university batchmates and given that he had excellent English, he was able to communicate well with Caroline. She was a foreigner with bright blonde hair and blue eyes, something which he found exquisite. His friend also told him that she was quite promiscuous and Jongin was glad to hear that. If he was lucky, they would be on that date for a long time that night.
"Tell me about the places you want to visit," he was saying. "I can show you around."
"I would love to visit the-" she began but was the rest of her words were interrupted by Jongin's phone. He froze upon hearing his phone ringing, dreading to pick it up.
"Aren't you going to answer that?" she frowned.
"No!" Jongin said at once. "It's probably a spam."
"But it says, 'Boss' on your phone," she said, pointing at the screen. Curse him! Curse him and his money! I hope he goes bald!
Jongin was cursing his boss in his head. The man had an uncanny ability of ruining Jongin's love life even without being physically present. How did he do it?
"I'll pick it up," he gritted. With shaky hands, he picked up the phone.
"Yes, boss," he answered with a sigh.
"I 've sent you a mail," Minho's cool voice came from the other end. "Check it and make sure that it's executed by tonight."
With that, the Vesudas hung up. Jongin could only sigh in dismay as he opened his mail. In it was a long list of tasks he had to coordinate with the HR department about some new employee called Eun.
"Let's see"
He read the list which included at least 101 tasks for the new recruits which were nearly impossible to do!
"Will oversee the cleaning of all the washrooms of Hwang Constructions' head office," he read. "Will visit construction sites to help labor carry bricks. Will go to the hawkers' market and sell all the leftover products from the mall at double the price"
His eyes only widened in shock with every sentence. Was this guy really hired for marketing or as an errand boy? This was going to take all night for him to execute!
Holding back his surge to throw the list on the money lover's face, he started his work. He called the HR head, who gave him an earful for being a wuss and then they went through the hiring agreement, looking into every loophole to ensure that they would not face any legal repercussions for changing the job description.
By the time they were done, Jongin's date had already left with another man.
"I'm gonna die a virgin," Jongin moaned.
....................
MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR
Dear Readers,
With a heavy heart, I'm sad to say that I have been kicked out of the Win Win event by Webnovel. Apparently, a reader complained because I put up fake chapter in my second privilege tier.
Now, I'll be frank here. Writers are humans too. We have a life too. Webnovel's contract forces us to publish more than 1500 words everyday otherwise our books won't get the due features and payment. It takes 3 minutes to read a chapter but it takes us at least 3 hours of our daily lives to write that very chapter. Imagine writing two or more chapters of that same length that too everyday.
I was sick for the past two days and I couldn't write so I uploaded two fake chapters (both which have been edited and replaced so that no one loses out on the story). I needed rest and peace for my own sake.
So when I found out that readers complained about it and I have been kicked out of the win win event, I was terribly sad. All my hard work went down in the drain. I'm sorry if I sound harsh but it's true.
With this said, I've decided not to give out anymore mass releases for any of my books. I'll update everyday 1 or 2 chapters but no more mass releases from now on. You can drop the book, complain about slow updates but this is my final decision.
I'm sorry for being so harsh but please try to realize that we're humans and we need occasional breaks too.
I hope you guys can support the book further but Idk how long I can keep up with the updates if I keep getting demotivated like this.
Love,
A sad author.