Chapter three

After work today I decided to get dinner with Min-Jun. He is a lot of things to me, a friend, my driver, and my bodyguard. We went to one of our usual restaurants, nothing fancy to get some grilled meat, and have some drink to decompress after a hard day at work. I was in the mood for it.

We were just leaving the restaurant when I ran into someone. The sensation was like being hit by a soft feather. I reacted on instinct and reached out to catch the person before they hit the ground.

"Are you alright?" I asked her when I realised that I was holding a woman. As if in slow motion her face rose to meet mine and the most shocking thing happened. She froze like she has a seen a ghost, and not the good kind. Her eyes rolled behind her head and the next thing I know I am holding a dead weight with no idea what happened.

Not sure what happened I slowly lowered the woman to the ground and turned to look at the woman beside her a confused look on my face. I was freaking out inside, but I am a cool dude so I tried to act calm and collected.

She quickly crunched down beside the fainted woman and started screaming her name and shaking her violently to get a reaction but nothing happened.

I bent over the woman to check her pulse while her friend continued to call out her name. I breathed a sigh of relief when I felt something, though a little slow.

Crowd was beginning to gather around us, yet no one did anything to help they all just gawked, some with their phones out to record.

"Boss, we need to take her to the hospital," Min-Jun whispered to me. He was about to call an ambulance when I stopped him. We will do it ourselves. He gave me a look but said nothing.

Without a second hesitation I scooped the slender woman into my arms. She weighed almost nothing, I couldn't help but wonder if she eats at all.

"Where are you taking her?" Her friend demanded, sounding worried and protective at the same time.

"To the hospital," I told her softly.

I could see the worry for her friend in her eyes. The woman was petrified. So was I, though outwardly I looked calm.

Together the three of us hurried to my car. Min-Jun hurried ahead to open the car for me and I put the woman inside and her friend went in allowing the woman's head to rest on her lap.

I ran to the passenger side of the car and Min-Jun went to driver's side. We took off at a neck breaking speed racing towards the hospital. While he drove towards the hospital I called one of the senior doctors, Dr Hyung, an emergency physician in the hospital and instructed him to meet us outside.

As soon as we drove in Dr Hyung along with other doctors and nurses were waiting for us outside. Once I came down I was immediately surrounded.

"Are you hurt, Ki-Jung? Dr Hyung asked looking over me to see where I could have gotten hurt.

Dr Hyung is a family friend and the hospital we came to is a subsidiary of our family company, Cheong group of companies.

I hurriedly waved off his concern. "I am not the one hurt," I pushed through the mass of people around me to the back of the car where I took the woman out, as gently as I could without rattling her around. Her friend came down also.

The woman was still passed out, but her chest is moving, which is a good thing. Two of the male nurses approached me to take the woman from my hand but I said no. I was feeling very protective of the woman without knowing why.

"Where to?" I yelled towards Dr Hyung.

"Follow me," he said hurriedly and we all went after him with the woman clutched tenderly in my arms.

Dr Hyung took me to the general room but I shook my head no, requesting the VIP room for the woman. I got so many looks from everyone around, including Min-Jun and Dr Hyung.

I ignored their looks and gave Dr Hyung one of my own to get him to move on.

When we got to one of the rooms usually reserved for our very special and wealthy patients, I laid the woman down, careful not to rattle her. I stepped back and let the doctors do their thing. I walked out with Min-Jun on my heels to wait.

While I waited to get a response about the well-being of the woman I played chess on my phone. I love to play chess and I am an international chess master, that sometimes compete online when work permits. It is one of the ways I relaxes, especially when the pressure from work, family gets too much.

Min-Jun stood off quietly in the corner and waited with me.

It didn't take long before the door of the room opened and Dr Hyung walked out. We both straightened away from the wall and approached the doctor.

"How is she?" I asked with a worried expression on my face. Min-Jun stood back like a dark shadow.

"She is fine, I believe the young woman had a fainting spell. May I ask what happened?" Dr Hyung intelligent brown eyes stared intently at me like I did something wrong.

"I didn't do anything, I defended myself, even though I didn't need to and then went ahead to narrate what happened. When I finished he looked perplexed.

"That is odd."

"I think so too." I mean women have done a lot of things in my arms to get my attention but passing out with such a terrified look on their face like the stranger was a new one.

"And you have never seen this woman before?"

I shook my head negative.

"Did you ask her friend? Maybe she has a medical condition we don't know about," I helpfully pointed out.

"She has no idea. Says she hasn't seen her friend in ten years, and doesn't know if she has anything has changed since that time."

"So what now?"

"I believe she is not in any danger. We will let her rest maybe when she wakes up, she might be able to throw more light on what happened."

"Alright, thanks, Dr Hyung," I thanked the old man and then walked back into the room.

The woman laid on her back, her chest moving rhythmically. She seemed asleep. Her friend sat beside her watching the woman's face with a worried expression.

She turned at my entrance, a questioning look on her face.

"The doctor said she will be alright," I looked at the woman again before focusing on her friend. She was a beautiful woman, average height and slender, just like her friend, except her friend is skinnier.

"Thank you so much," she said gratefully.

"It is alright. Here is my card, if anything happens let me know."

She took the card from me and gasped with a quick glance at me when she read the name on the car. My family is well known family in Korea, because we own one of the largest companies that employs more than ten thousand Koreans.

I gave her a polite bow and took my leave.

Min-Jun was waiting for me outside. Together we made our way to the lift that will take us to the ground floor.

As we transversed through the hospital lobby I felt stares on me, especially women, they will giggle if my eyes catches them. I won't smile back merely look away with a bored expression on my face. Women like these rarely pricks my attention. Actually right now I am so busy with work that I don't have time for women now.

We were driving home through the night when my phone started ringing. It was my father calling. I showed the screen to Min-Jun who made no expression or words to the image on the screen, and just went back to driving.

"Want to guess who called him?" I know my father has his spies everywhere reporting to him on a every move I make. I am a Cheong heir, so I am not allowed to step out of line or do anything that will bring shame to the family. Tonight's incident getting back to him wasn't exactly a surprise, I am just shocked at how quick he learned about it.

I pushed the green button and picked the call, internally bracing myself for this call.

"You want to tell me what is going on?!" Father yelled into the phone. "Who is this woman that you took to the presidential room?. Did you forget you have a fiancé?" he went on and on about my duty as the heir to the family name, and how I shouldn't shame my fiancé by cavorting with another woman.

All through his rant I listened quietly without defending myself. When he is like this, it is always better to let him finish.

"Are you there, Ki-Jung? He growled when he was done.

"Yes, father, and you shouldn't worry about the woman. She is just a stranger."

Wrong choice of words.

"A stranger and you gave her the presidential room!" The scolding started all over again. I pulled the phone out of ear and leaned my head out of the window to get some fresh air. I returned to the call when I heard father calling out my name on the phone.

"I have heard you father, it won't happen again," I apologise coldly. I have gotten used to saying sorry to my family that it has lost its meaning, but it is always better and gets the scolding to a minimum.

"I already called and asked them to move the woman out of that room and put her where she belongs."

My fist tightened on the phone, but I uttered no protest. My father is the Chairman, his words are law.

"Your mother wants you home for dinner."

"I already…"

"It wasn't a request son," he ended the call.